Makoto and Ren waited in tense silence as Akechi and his troops retreated from the estate grounds. Makoto half-expected that Sae would immediately charge up to the bedroom and spew accusations- something along the lines of 'Makoto destroying Father's name' perhaps… But after half an hour, they heard no angry steps coming down the hallway in their direction. It was a bit unlike Sae, honestly, to pass up the opportunity…

Perhaps Makoto had told Sae off well-and-good the last time she'd barged into the room? Or… Sae simply thought Makoto irrelevant and not worth the time to mock. The latter seemed the more likely. And that thought settled a glum, dull anger into Makoto's gut. If there had ever been any hope of winning Sae over to her point of view, the appearance of Council troops squashed it.

Life in Niijima Manor was going to become… difficult. Yoshida would defer to Sae's decisions on most everything because that was the way it had been when Father was alive. Sae was Eldest. And while Yoshida wouldn't act against Makoto directly, even if Sae told him to- neither would he go behind Sae's back for Makoto. Which meant Makoto would no longer have any favors, any power over staff. Nor any direct access to Niijima finances outside a pittance of an allowance. And even that certainly to be curtailed by Sae.

Worst of all: she would lack the means to pay Ren's rather expensive retainer. Though that wasn't actually concern since apparently he was returning to his homeland for… debriefing? Makoto thought that was probably the right word for it. Which left Makoto and the Sakamoto twins. She could afford to pay Ann and Ryuji on her allowance, though it would be tight. Makoto thought she could take them hunting for ghouls in the near wilds.

But if they met a noble vampire by happenstance… without Ren? They would probably all die. Even with their persona powers, they were fragile. Ren was the only one who could really take a hit.

Makoto had returned to the edge of her mattress, brooding, and holding her torn nightgown closed over her breasts. Ren remained near the far window, uneasily standing in the shade between the frames, furtively trying to look at Makoto without seeming to stare at her. He was clearly flustered by the unexpected ignition of a sexual relationship, and more so by the equally abrupt halt of the rapidly escalating encounter.

That admittedly exciting and alluring development was still raw and confusing in Makoto's mind, too- but she didn't have time to think about it right now. Her world was changed and her life's dreams seemed unobtainable in the new circumstances of the world she woke into this morning: her elder sister suddenly controlled her house and all the money; that same elder sister would curtail Makoto's freedom by locking down the stables and the gates; and her essential partner was outlawed and about to flee the city.

So, Makoto's world was distressingly different from her universe just the day before. It was almost like the bullet to her heart had actually killed her, and she had woken in some minor circle of hell: a mildly insidious place which mimicked the real world, but made all her desires impossible to attain… and honestly, that seemed nearly as plausible as having been narrowly saved from death by some kind of invasive parasitic entity and a magical cat.

But while she had certainly inventoried the sudden changes to her life today, that wasn't particularly helpful. What she needed to do was-

"Are you okay?" said Ren, "Do you-"

"I'm thinking," said Makoto, absently.

What she needed to do was re-evaluate her goals. Were those the same as they had been before?

She wanted to hunt vampires like her Father had before her. That was still true. She wanted to be useful. And if Makoto was fair to herself: that one was accomplished. She may have never been useless in the first place- only… unaware of her own agency in her life.

So what did she really have for goals? Hunt vampires? Sure. Great. But that immediately begged the question: Why should she hunt vampires? Was the fledgling Niijima legacy really the only reason she had?

In the end, Makoto hunted the creature known as Kamoshida because schoolgirls were being killed. Her family name was what got her started, but in the end, she'd wanted to save lives. And then she'd hunted Madarame for the essentially the same reason. So was she really hunting vampires just for tradition's sake? To carry on her Father's career path? To prove herself in the eyes of her elder sister? Well, yes- in part, but it would be inaccurate to say those reasons had been anything other than her impetus.

What she really wanted was to protect people. That was a goal. To prevent them from being devoured. To never again watch a young woman walk off the roof of a building in a desperate bid to escape a living nightmare. And to deliver justice for those unsaved.

That was a real goal! That was her real goal!

Ren watched Makoto nod to herself from across the room. Her breath was steady and her eyes were flickering in the movement of deep internal thought. He decided to remain silent. Was she reconsidering her relationship with him? Would she ever forgive him? Damn, he was an overeager fool! A child! A moron!

Meanwhile, Makoto continued her train of thought, oblivious to Ren's inner turmoil.

To advance her goals of protection and justice, Makoto needed to make Tock-Yo safe from all noble vampires. But the two beasts she was aware of were both dead and there were no leads to any other targets…

Wait. That wasn't true. In Madarame's desk, Ren had found documents, an old symbiote, and the empty case of a (presumably stolen) war persona. He seemed to think those items would be of interest to his mother, who (by Makoto's logical assumption) was apparently an active political entity in Ren's homeland. She- uh- she…

"Ren. Your mother's name?"'

"…Kurusu. Lady Kurusu."

Interesting. Ren's 'real' name was Akira Kurusu, or so he'd claimed in Madarame's bloodsport arena- and he'd been recognized. Or perhaps his Mother's name had been recognized. That was another item supporting Makoto's theory that Ren's mother, Lady Kurusu, was a political force.

Another point: Lady Kurusu equipped and sent her youngest son on covert missions into foreign territory. She lived in a castle. She had rivals. And she was old, which Ren claimed was the primary factor in relative power amongst noble vampires.

And Ren's mission, to spy and report, seemed to indicate Ren's mother was covertly hostile to her rivals. And while it was entirely unlikely that Ren's mother was acting out of some impulse to protect humans from vampiric designs… it did seem entirely likely that she would be interested in disrupting any activity that her rivals were engaged in- so as to weaken them and improve her own political positioin. And if those disrupted activities just so happened to involve Tock-Yo and predations upon the humans living there, well, that was probably an irrelevant detail to Lady Kurusu.

But it wouldn't be irrelevant to Makoto, would it? Nor would it be irrelevant to the people of Tock-Yo. If Lady Kurusu wanted to disrupt her rival's designs in Tock-Yo, or even other human cities like Yoko-Ham or Sen-Dye, then those goals aligned exactly with Makoto's: fewer dead humans, more dead vampires.

If Ren was her ally… could not she cooperate with his mother, too?

Or was she actually insane?

Across the room, Ren watched Makoto suddenly grip the sides of her own head, grimace, and shake her head slowly. Trapped in his own indecision over what he should do regarding Makoto's mixed signals, Ren shifted his weight and remained paralyzed with indecision.

Makoto had a half-vampire in her bedroom right now. And she had kissed it, embraced it. Passionately! And she'd almost let it-… violate her! And instead of grabbing her gun and shooting the creature, she was now contemplating an alliance with the things mother? Could Sae be right?! Could Akechi Goro be right, of all people? Was she bewitched?! Enthralled?! Or maybe just goddamn stupid?!

No! Not this doubt again! She'd already killed this inner demon! Ren was not an it. He was a person. An ally. A friend. A savior. And- and- probably soon to be something more than even that, if Makoto was honest with herself. His actions were now and real and they certainly trumped a loose, cultural tradition that viewed any trace of vampirism as a unforgivable corruption. Ren had done more for her and for Ann and for Shiho Suzui than all of humanity. He was not vile. She was not his thrall. And that was simple fact!

And if that was fact, then Makoto's previous logical train survived her own inner rebuttal. It was the dominating theory: Makoto could not accomplish her goals here because she lacked allies and information, therefore she needed to go somewhere where she could gain allies and information.

Simple. Obvious, really.

"Ren?" said Makoto, her voice slightly shaky.

Ren raised his chin slightly in response, unsure of how to respond to the non-question. Makoto was looking intently at him, her crimson eyes smoldering in the dim light of a shaded room at midday. He couldn't read her expression. Was it anger? Or determination? Or… what?

"You're leaving the city? Tonight? To return to your homeland?"

"Yes," said Ren. Was that what she had been worried about? He had to go. There was no avoiding it.

"Good," said Makoto, her voice suddenly firm. "I'm going with you."

"….What?!" said Ren, the concept so alien to his vision of the world that it washed over his mind like a brief rain. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm going with you. To your homeland. I need to know what those documents mean. I need to know things your mother knows."

Ren blinked a few times as Makoto's blunt statement sank it home. His mind conjured memories of brutalized humans he'd seen. He saw flash fantasies of Makoto suffering some of the everyday attentions of Imperial citizens. Ren physically recoiled from the images.

"That's absurd! No!"

Makoto stood up from the mattress, glaring. She forgot her torn nightgown and held clenched fists at her waist. He would not deny her this. He could not deny her this.

"Why?" said Makoto, her voice slightly venomous.

Ren forced himself to ignore the edges of Makoto's breasts, half-bared due to torn fabric. "Why?! Makoto! You're a human!"

"I'm aware. There are humans in your homeland, I'm sure. Vampires need to eat, right?"

"Y- yes! That's exactly right! And exactly why you can't go!"

"You can protect me. You have before. And I'm not helpless."

Ren let out an unintentional guffaw. Protect her? On Shikoku?

"You overestimate me. You don't know what you are asking. You have no idea."

Makoto took another step forward, her expression gaining a desperate tinge. She needed him to understand. She needed to condense her recent internal revelation and render it in a way that Ren would understand. She had no plan. No organization to her thoughts. But she could feel her need. Her desire. All Makoto had to do was give it voice:

"I know! I know I have no idea! That's the problem, isn't it!? My whole life, I've lived behind these walls- and no one really knows why! But there is a world out there, and its coming here, and its killing us! Eating us! You know more than you say, Ren! Your mother certainly knows even more that you! Maybe everything! Or maybe, at least, she knows more about what is coming here! To my home! To kill young women like Shiho and Ann and- and- God knows how many others! Ren! I need to go! Please! Take me with you to her!"

Ren found himself powerless in the face of Makoto's emotional appeal. He could understand her frustration. He could see how this… insane idea tied into Makoto's pattern of behavior: set a goal and pursue it with reckless fervor.

But to bring her into the remnants of the Empire?

To introduce her to Mother?!

"Makoto, you really don't-" Ren began, but he lost himself in Makoto's eyes. They enchanted him, as they had many times before. It was hopeless, wasn't it? To try and dissuade this passionate, naive, and reckless young women? Had he ever succeeded? No. And wasn't that why some stupid, foolish part of himself was actually excited about this development?

"You're going to see a lot of things you are not going to like," said Ren, and he sought the words that could make her understand, but they simply didn't exist. But Makoto was watching him intently, and if even half of the worry and anxiety he felt about this idea was visible…

"I understand," said Makoto.

"No," said Ren, forcefully. "You don't. If you come and it goes wrong, Makoto, and you let yourself be taken…"

"Ren." Makoto made the symbol of a gun with her finger and thumb, then pointed into the underside of her own chin.

She twitched her thumb.

"I understand."