Amamiya Ren restrained himself to a brisk walking pace to keep Makoto's limp body relatively still in his arms. Ren wanted to run. To sprint Makoto to Dr. Takemi's and hope the woman could do something in this situation. Morgana was doing what he could, but the location of the wound…

He was keeping one hand curled around Makoto's body to press on the hole in her chest, providing Morgana constant contact. And Morgana was working. Ren could feel the symbiote taking his own energy and funneling it down through his arm and into Makoto. It was a sapping drain that just went on and on. And it wasn't the first serious healing of the day: Sakamoto Ann, just steps behind in the arms of her brother, was the first- and that one Morgana had managed to complete relatively quickly.

Ren was becoming tired. He was becoming hungry.

One of Ren's feet didn't quite lift up from the ground enough and it skidded along the stony walk path of the Madarame garden. He stumbled slightly, but he cushioned Makoto from the motion. The energy drain continued and Morgana remained silent. If the talkative creature was busy, it was a good sign: Makoto wasn't dead yet!

Though, with such a wound, there wasn't much-

No! Makoto would live! She had to! She must live! It was a necessity! Absolutely essential! Sakamoto Ann, too! These were his! And he would not lose them! If they could just get to Dr. Takemi... She'd helped put Shiho back together with Morgana's secret help. Makoto would be the same- bad for a while, then good as new! Ann, too.

Ren increased his pace, the yawning main gate of the Madarame estate before him. One small women stood just outside, whom Ren recognized as the disguised form of Ohya. She peered at Ren's approach for a moment, then turned to the side and waved with urgency. Ren continued towards the gate, and he could hear Ryuji's breathing becoming somewhat ragged behind him. He'd been carrying his sister for a long while and a long ways, and the young man didn't have Ren's biological advantages.

A clopping of hooves on sandy clay heralded the arrival of several horses. The Niijima carriage skidded into view, the teamster pulling urgently back on the reins. It was a grim-faced Yoshida on the driver's bench, and his skin took on a ghostly pale when his eyes set on Makoto.

"Makoto! Amamiya! What's happened?"

Ren's eyes were now focused on the carriage door. "Open the doors! We need to get her to the physician!"

While Yoshida awkwardly tried to descend from the driver's bench (a bit too dexterous of a task for the older man), Ohya sprang forward and opened the carriage door ahead of Ren. He carefully guided Makoto through the narrow opening and laid her out on the forward seat. She was short enough to stretch out on it, and Ren tried to ignore how white and small she looked.

Ryuji struggled with the same maneuver with Ann; it requiring the manipulation of his sister's body outside of his center of gravity and with minimal leverage- Ryuji teetered briefly on the carriage steps. Ren was forced to remove his hand from Makoto's heart for a moment to snatch Ann from Ryuji's arms and settle her on the opposite bench. Ann looked less pale than Makoto, but only just. Ryuji fell back out of the carriage, his face red and streaming with sweat. Yoshida caught him before he tumbled all the way back to the ground.

With both wounded women at rest on cushioned benches, the blossoming panic of the men paused briefly. Ryuji and Yoshida stared into the carriage with wide eyes and gaping mouths. Ren tried to calm himself with a long breath…

Air thick with the smell of blood surged along the roof of Ren's mouth. He coughed and gasped, his mouth closing instinctively and the inhale continuing uncontrollably through his nose. Ren's nasal cavity exploded to life like a disturbed flock of birds. The scent of Ann and Makoto, their blood, their sweat, their breath, their virginity; his own injuries and exhaustion; all of that confined in the small box of a carriage-

Ren's vision whited-out briefly, slowly returning as an opaque blanket of sparkles receded back into the corners of his eyesight. His mouth was suddenly filled with saliva. His fangs had elongated and were digging into the opposite gum. And his pants were suddenly far too tight around the groin. There were two young women in here and he could have them in every way and no one could stop him. He could-

No! Ren's instincts were rubbing at his cognitive mind with steel wool. It took every ounce of his self-control to keep his hand on Makoto's heart and the rest of himself still. But the masochistic self-denial training he practiced paid off: Of Ren's instinctive rebellion, all Yoshida and Ryuji saw was a sigh and Ren's free hand being placed tiredly over Ren's grimacing expression. They saw only a tired and concerned man, not a beast teetering upon the precipice of frenzy.

Ren won the battle with himself, managing to partition the instinctual signals of his mind from his active consciousness. He lowered the hand from his face, and he saw it was shaking only slightly. That- had been unpleasant.

"God," said Yoshida, eyes going from Makoto to Ann. His breath nearly as ragged as Ryuji's. "We must get them both to Dr. Takemi."

Ryuji was breathing heavily and staring into the carriage, his eyes also traveling from Ann to Makoto and back again. He focused on Ren's hand, urgently pressed upon Makoto's chest. His attention shifted back to Ann and he reached to climb into the carriage, likely to press his own hand to Ann's torn side, the bandages there growing dark with new blood.

"Mr. Sakamoto," Yoshida grasped Ryuji by the shoulder. "I'll see to your sister. You're better with a team than I. Can you take us to the physician's?"

Ryuji blinked once, halting his forward progress. "Uh-" Then his eyes lost their dazed look. "Yes. I can do that."

Ren recalled Takemi's tiny cupboard of an office. She had only one exam table, and they had two patients. Makoto may be the priority, but leaving Ann to bleed in the carriage while Makoto was carried inside? No, it couldn't be done. Makoto wouldn't have it, had she any say. And Ryuji?

"No, Ryuji," said Ren, appreciative at how quickly Ryuji reacted to his voice of command. "Take us to the estate. I'll go fetch the physician when we get close and bring her."

"Yes! Leave it to me," said Ryuji, looking better with something tangible to do. He immediately hoisted himself up the side of the carriage. The whole construction rocked from him leaping into the driver's bench. The angsty horses were already snorting in the effort to get the carriage moving before Yoshida could pull himself into the passenger compartment. The rotund man crowded with Ren in the small gap, but both seats were occupied by dying women.

"I'll see what I can learn around here!" said another female voice.

Ren looked up from Makoto to see Ohya craning her neck to look in at them. He'd forgotten about her in an instant. He was so focused on Makoto and Ann- and himself.

But Ren was sure he was forgetting something else, too… The boy! The enthralled boy wasn't with them. Hadn't been with them since they'd encountered Akechi and the Council Guard. He might know things. Things Mother would want to know. It would be better than just returning with the documents in Madarame's desk.

"There was a boy with us!" shouted Ren, watching as Ohya's eyes vanished from view as the carriage made its turn back towards Azabu. "Tall! Thin!… Odd! Find him! Bring him to the house!"

"What!?" came Ohya's shout, but Ren had no more attention to spare her or the forgotten Yusuke. Morgana was clamoring inside Ren's mind. There was a problem.

**Ren! She's- she's going! It's not enough! I'm losing her!**

Take more then! Take as much as you need! I'll survive it.

**It's not the juice, it's the damage, Ren! It's deep. It's really deep. I can't-**

You can't? You can't what?

**I don't- I don't think I know how to do this!**

Learn! Figure it out! I don't-

**Oh! Oh! Ren! Yes! Get that vial out! The symbiote! Put it in her wound!**

Why?! You're a- why don't I put YOU in her?

…

**No. That won't work. Pour that vial in her wound!**

Why wouldn-

**JUST PUT THE VIAL IN, MORON!**

Ren mentally winced, but he immediately reached into his belt pouches. What could a dead old symbiote do? He had no idea, but if anyone knew anything or could do anything at this point- it was obviously Morgana. So, truly only a moron would argue with him about it.

With embarrassed haste, Ren took out the strange vial, ripped off the cap with his teeth, and carefully maneuvered the unstoppered vial towards Makoto's wound. Yoshida was faithfully pressing on Ann's wound, but his eyes followed Ren's motion. They had snapped to the vial in Ren's hand like a drowning man's to a boat.

"What is that? Medicine?"

Ren doubted a dead symbiote could be called that, exactly. But he said: "Yes. It may buy more time."

Ren hesitated to lift his own hand from the bleeding hole in Makoto's chest. His hand was stained an alarming dark red, and the minimal cloth underneath was utterly drenched. And it was the connection between Makoto and Morgana, and so far as Ren knew, Morgana was the only thing keeping Makoto alive.

**Do it!**

Ren gently removed the cloth, allowing a new river of blood to run from Makoto's chest.

**Make sure it doesn't get washed back out, Ren. Push it in deep. With a finger. As deep as you can.**

I don't want to hurt her more!

**She's dead either way! Do it!**

Figuratively swallowing further mental objections, Ren carefully poured the vial's strangely thick liquid into his palm- collecting the weird, marble-sized fetus towards the tips of his fingers. Yoshida watched with dazed fascination.

Ren deftly centered the symbiote to the tip of his index finger, anchored it with his thumb against the outward current of Makoto's blood, then pressed it downward into Makoto's wound. The opposing pressure of her blood loss was alarmingly tangible on his skin, but the girth of his finger met resistance and he stopped, for fear of injuring Makoto with his strength.

*It needs to go way, way inside, Ren! Her heart is bleeding! It needs to be there!**

Ren switched to his pinky finger, confirmed the feel of the symbiote (which was something like a pebble in a rushing stream) and pushed it down into Makoto's body until he felt resistance- just past his finger's first joint.

*More, Ren! Twice more than that!**

So he pushed, worried that he was going to shove his finger right through Makoto's heart.

*There! Okay. I'm gonna jolt it. You're definitely gonna feel it…**

Ren gasped as surge of heat traveled from his chest, down his arm, through his hand, and down his finger. He briefly feared that his finger was literally melting off his body like a candle over a fire. Then, just as suddenly, the heat turned to tingling numbness which spread up to his hand and back up his arm, the entire limb suddenly cold and sleeping. The sensation spread into Ren's chest and up his neck.

The floor of the carriage rushed up to meet his face.

The darkness was perfect in the servant's walk, as the servants of Castle Kurusu needed no light to see. Nor did Ren, for that matter. This hallway was also bare, having no decoration, adornment or furniture. It existed only to facilitate the seemingly magical appearance and disappearance of servants with their tea trays and snack plates and laundry and whatever. Every suite in the castle was webbed with similar corridors, and Ren had learned them all. He could recognize where he was in the castle without needing to peek into the real rooms to make sure.

That was how he knew he was very near the fireplace of Mother's most private sitting room- the one adjacent to her bedroom. It was a place Ren had rarely entered. Where few people entered. His Father was one of the few exceptions, and it was his muffled voice he was straining to hear:

"I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. The girl was screaming, but Akira just ripped off her skirt…"

"Kota," said Mother, "You need to-"

"…while he was grabbing himself. His eyes all wide like- like yours get sometimes! He was going to- to take her! And he's ten! The girl was nearly twice his age! Twice his size!"

"Kota, you need to understand what Akira is. He-"

"How can I understand this? I don't want to understand this! Your son! Assaulting a young woman right in the road! I never- I never saw any signs that was who he was."

Mother's voice became sharper. She was getting angry. "This has nothing to do with who our son is! It's everything to do with what he is, Kota! Listen to me! There's half of him that was designed to do such as this!"

There was a long pause.

"Your half of him, you mean," said Father. "It's disgusting."

"Mr. Amamiya?!"

Ren opened his eyes, his vision filled with the texture of rough woodgrain. The wood bounced into his face, hurting his nose. He reflexively jerked his head back and up, realizing as he did so that he was face down on the floor of the carriage- his arse arced into the air in a less-than-graceful fashion.

Ren pushed himself up, finding his own body heavy. Yoshida still faithfully held a hand to Ann's side, as he'd promised Ryuji. But his other hand held Makoto's hand, though she was still unconscious.

"How long was I out?" said Ren.

"A few seconds, only," said Yoshida, his voice strange. "But whatever you did- it's Lady Niijima… the bleeding stopped. She's regained some color."

That was more than Ren could have hoped for. Ren pushed himself up and leaned over to examine Makoto's bullet wound. Indeed, there was no discernible flow of blood out of the hole, but it by no means looked healed. It was a ragged wound still, and the oldest blood was clotting into Makoto's torn armor. Ren reached for her neck, wanting to check the rhythm of her heart.

"It's steady," said Yoshida, and Ren realized the butler's hand wasn't on Makoto's palm, but on her wrist. He was already checking her pulse. So, the old man knew something of the blood system- either through self-observation or maybe proximity to Dr. Takemi's work with Shiho.

So. Maybe things were stabilizing. And what else was there to be done at this moment? Ren sat back down on the floor and sighed. He was tired. Really tired. But there was something he still needed to do, wasn't there? Ren sifted through a mind fog.

Oh. Dr. Takemi. He needed to fetch the physician to the Niijima estate. He needed his horse, and he really had no idea where it was relative to this carriage's current path. But the mechanical horse could solve that problem itself. It was a simple matter of reaching into his belt and triggering the homing beacon. He did so, and he knew that the horse, wherever it was out there, was now active and orienting on his position.

With horse on the way and neither wounded woman in danger of imminent death, Ren could take a breather. He felt tired. More tired than he'd ever felt. He didn't even feel hungry anymore, though he was sure his body needed to eat. He should be slavering for the blood of these young women. He should probably even be drooling at the idea of biting into Yoshida, who was about as opposite from a virgin girl as humanity could offer. But Ren felt no desire at all. No hunger. Nothing. Morgana must have really drained him good.

Speaking of: Ren cast his mind inward.

Morgana?

There was no response.

Morgana? Did it work? It looks like it worked.

Ren waited. The internal cavern of his mind remained silent. Whatever Morgana had done, it must have taken a lot out of the symbiote, too. Ren was fairly confident Morgana was simply recovering, but there was no direct way to ascertain the symbiote's status- except that Ren himself was fine. Tired but fine; so Morgana was surely fine, as well. The host did not tend to survive the death of a symbiote.

His mind wandered. He found himself staring at Makoto's hand, as it was being held in Yoshida's hand, both of them bobbing and bouncing with the passage of the wheels over cobblestones. One of Ann's blond pigtails was drooped off the carriage seat and it swayed in steady rhythm. Yoshida's hand on Ann's wound lifted, allowing both men a look at the cloth underneath- bloody, but not drenched. Morgana's earlier effort at sealing Ann's wound seemed to be holding up, but Ren had no idea if either woman was stable, or out-of-the-woods, or simply drifting down to death very slowly.

But they did smell really good. Ren felt the drool starting along his fangs. There it was. The hunger was back. He needed to take care of this, and thanks to Dr. Takemi's efforts, he actually had supply enough to carry emergency rations on him at all times. Ren hadn't the room in his belt pouches, so he kept these rations in his armor: in the unbending triangular space below his naval and just above his groin.

Ren reached into his pants. Yoshida arced an eyebrow and said nothing.

Ren pulled out a small leather case, hissing inward a frustrated breath. The case was wet with reddish black goo. Damn! It must have taken a hit in one of his fights. If all the contents were destroyed, he would have to go back to Leblanc, and that was a delay he hoped to avoid. Ren opened the case.

One of the stoppered vials was cracked and empty, its sludgy contents smeared in the case and probably on the underside of his armor. It was concentrated blood and could sustain him in a pinch, but as hungry as he was, Ren resisted the urge to lick the goo. Yoshida was watching him. Thankfully, the second vial was unbroken.

"Is that more medicine?" asked Yoshida.

"Dhampir medicine," said Ren, instinctively resorting to a palatable half-truth.

These vials were not as convenient as the dry pills, nor was the resultant mixture as nourishing, but it was vastly superior to corpse blood- or biting humans. Ren unscrewed the cap of his water canteen, dropped the open blood vial into it, covered the opening with his hand, and shook. Gently. He didn't want the small vial to break and put glass shards in his meal, but he needed the water to clean out the sludgy blood goo and mix together.

A few moments of growing anticipation, and then it was done. Ren tipped the flask back. A liquid with a salty tang flowed into his mouth, radiating a warm, cozy fuzziness up into his brain. A swallow sent that same feeling down Ren's throat and into his core, where it nestled and then expanded into every corner of his body. Vitality returned to his muscles, he could feel it; feel the normal lightness of his own flesh; feel a blanket of burden lift off every inch of his skin.

Ren grunted in satisfaction. His mind was light and carefree. It was as if nothing was wrong at all and he could just-

"Hey! Mr. Amamiya," came Ryuji's voice from outside the carriage. "Your horse just pulled up alongside!"

Ren sighed. The homing protocol had worked as it was supposed to. Perhaps too well. A few more minutes of rest...

But no. Every moment was precious. The efficacy of Morgana's efforts on both Ann and Makoto could not be verified by anyone but Morgana, and he apparently wasn't available. Dr. Takemi was the only other resource. Ren had to fetch her as soon as possible.

Ren sucked in a fortifying gasp of hair, then groaned his way to his feet. He staggered as the carriage made a sharp turn, sliding slightly on cobblestone. They were back in the city proper now, and indeed, outside the starboard coach door, was Ren's mechanical horse, trotting smartly alongside the rumbling carriage.

Ren opened the door, then turned back to Yoshida:

"I'll fetch the physician to the house. I'll meet you there."

Yoshida nodded, his eyes slightly wide in surprise.

Ren made the easy leap to his trotting horse, snatched up the reins, and took a quick glance around the horizon. Buildings surrounded him, but there were enough gaps between to get the lay of the land. They were passing through the southern residential areas of Tock-Yo. The hills of Meiji Shrine and Azabu were to the northeast, which would put the Yongen district and Takemi's clinic almost directly east. Ren tugged back on the reins, slowing his horse and allowing the carriage to speed ahead.

"Where are-?!" yelled Ryuji.

"Getting the physician!" yelled Ren as he turned his horse's head towards a side-street on the right. "I'll meet you at the estate!"

"How's Ann?!"

"The same!" Ren kicked his horse into a gallop, willing strength back into his own legs.

"For real?!"

Ren didn't yell a final response. The carriage was speeding away, and Ren wasn't entirely sure what Ryuji was asking, anyway.