Ren's gray eyes searched Makoto's face for a few moments, his mouth a thin, grim line. But finally, he nodded his assent. She'd won! He'd agreed to take her with him! A thrill of excitement ran through Makoto. Now this was an adventure! She would see things no one in Tock-Yo would ever see- except perhaps Father.

Makoto's excitement suddenly cooled at the thought of Father. She suddenly remembered Yoshida's confession over tea: her Father had set out to go to the Shikoku, the infamously vampiric island. He had never come back.

Was he still there? Could he, after all these years? Possibly- be alive? As a captive or some sort? No. That would surely be impossible. Wouldn't it? Makoto's logical mind thought so, but a small, hopeful, childish part of her brain began constructing a fantasy: he might be there! He might be alive! She could look for him!

Ren, however, seemed to deflate. His shoulders sunk. His eyelids drooped. Fatigue suddenly lined his face. He took a deep breath and leaned back against the bedroom wall, closing his eyes.

Makoto had never seen him like this before, nor seen anyone go from sprightly and alert to looking exhausted right before her eyes. It was practically a transformation. She took a concerned step toward.

"Don't," said Ren, his voice terse, eyes closed. "Get away from me."

Makoto froze, surprised at the transformation and confused at the rejection. This was a sudden role reversal- Ren tell her to get away from him.

"Ren, what is-?"

Ren took in a slow breath through his mouth, his eyes still closed. "I'm suddenly quite… hungry. Do you remember what I told you before? That one day? In front of your family portrait?"

Makoto certainly remembered. That had been the first time Ren had really talked about himself. His family. The first time they began to really introduce themselves- outside of work. And he'd made a rather startling and scary kind of joke about biting her neck. It had slightly scared her then, but then thought he was exaggerating: My instincts are… harder to resist when I get hungry.

Just moments ago, she'd been trapped helplessly under Ren on her own bed, his teeth grazing the skin of her throat. Had that action been a subconscious influence of Ren's hunger? One didn't just get hungry instantly- it was a progressive process that one suddenly became aware of at some point. Though it was possible vampires were different from humans in that respect, but practically, it would mean the same thing: the conscious awareness of hunger could strike seemingly instantly, but the subconscious aspects could influence behavior before that eureka moment- like how Yoshida would be cranky if he skipped his late morning tea cakes…

Could Ren's earlier… intensity- have been something similar? An unrealized hunger of long activity? Based on Ren's telling, he had yet to rest since yesterday before they ventured to Madarame's seaside estate, oblivious to the events about to unfold. It was very plausible Ren had been hungry since he arrived in her bedroom- maybe even before.

And that was a chilling thought? Ren didn't seem able to explain exactly why he had chose to come to her house to hide out. Could his decision making have been influenced by his hunger, unbeknown even to him- consciously, anyway?

Well, there was no way to really know, so Makoto buried that alarming thought and refocused on the practical situation in front of her: She had a hungry vampire in her bedroom. Makoto realized she trusted Ren, who had saved her life multiple times and never once taken a single opportunity to hurt her- but she also had to trust Ren's own warnings about- well- himself! If he didn't trust himself like this, she would be a fool to do so, too.

"Do you have any- um…" said Makoto, "…rations? With you?"

Ren grimaced slightly, which alarmed Makoto (he didn't?!), but then he said: "Yes. Under the bed. I brought. My pouch."

He still had not re-opened his eyes, nor made any move to cross the room toward Makoto, who was between him and her bed. Ren's fingers were splayed out, too- as if he was clutching the wall in the effort to hold himself there. Makoto realized she would need to be the one to get the item, so she walked quickly to her bed and carefully lowered herself to her knees, lifting the edge of her comforter to see under the bedframe. It was a dark but clean space of carpet, the house staff so thorough as to clean the very carpet forever under her bed. A small dark blob of something was under there. Makoto reached for it and found soft leather.

She pulled it out into the relatively bright light of the curtained bedroom. She glanced at Ren. He was still clutching the wall, grimacing, and keeping his eyes firmly shut. Perhaps seeing her would- what? Send him further toward.. Some realm of temptation? Would just looking at her really motivate him into some sort of attack upon her?

And why was she almost tempted to find out what he would do? Wasn't that insane?

Suppressing the odd thoughts, Makoto opened the pouch and found a sheathed knife; a another smaller leather pouch of what was assuredly coins; a small box of those fire-starters; some sticks of incense which Makoto recognized from their stake-out of Shujin Girl's Academy; and a small wooden box. None of the other objects appearing to be food, Makoto reached for the box. Inside were three vials of reddish-black something, each stoppered with a crude cork stopper.

"I found the vials, Ren," said Makoto. "What should I do with them?"

"Pour two into the teapot."

The teapot? Oh, right. From her breakfast tray. Makoto stood, opened the top of the teapot, pulled the corks, and poured the surprisingly viscous substances into the steaming tea. A strange smell immediately filled the room- a little like boiling pork.

Ren made a gasping noise. "Push the cart this way."

Push the cart over? Was Ren so close to whatever edge that he didn't even want her to get close? Well, there was no real reason not to do as he asked: Makoto gently aligned the teacart in Ren's direction and pushed. Ren remained against the wall as the cart made it about halfway the distance between them before coming to a sluggish stop. Oops. Well, tea carts were not really made for that sort of thing- you generally wanted them to stay still.

Ren opened his eyes to see where the cart was, and his normally gray eyes had a silver sheen to them. They settled on the teacart briefly, but then snapped to lock onto Makoto. She was struck suddenly by how handsome Ren was- the bones of his jawline seemed as precise and straight as an artist's creation. She loved to look at his face, to be honest. And she liked to be near him. In fact, why was she so far away from his right now? He needed her, didn't he? She should support him from close up and-

Ren shut his eyes again. "Makoto. Stop."

Makoto stopped in her tracks, realizing she'd already taken three steps towards Ren. She was practically at the tea cart. How had that happened? She hadn't meant to walk towards him. She'd wanted to respect Ren's request and warnings to stay away.

"Don't look right at me," said Ren, his voice a little hoarse. "Not when I'm like this."

"Should I turn? Around?" Makoto was confused. Was there something else happening here?

"No, just half-way away. Actually- you have a bathroom don't you? Go there. Shut the door."

Makoto did have a bathroom, in fact. A luxuriously large one with tile and tub. But she'd never been told to go into it, by a man, from inside her own bedroom. But well, this was certainly an exceptional circumstance.

"Okay," said Makoto, watching Ren grit his teeth and gingerly search the air with his hands- likely looking for the teapot which was still several steps away from him. If going into the bathroom would make him feel comfortable about opening his eyes, then perhaps that was for the best- otherwise this was going to take a while. She turned and walked to the bathroom and shut the door.

She heard a sigh of relief, a loud clink of porcelain striking porcelain (the tell-tale sound of hastily moved tea-ware), and then a soft slurping sound. A sound which continued for several moments before a contented sort of sigh. The tea kettle reconnected with the tea tray with a metallic clunk.

Makoto opened the bathroom door. Ren was looking at her, dark bags under his eyes, but he was also smiling softly. He nodded an affirmative to an unanswered question.

"I should be fine, now." He staggered a step, jostling the teacart with a porcelain rattle. "But I need to rest. Sleep. Like sleep, anyway."

"Okay, um-" said Makoto, her eyes roving her own room, though she knew for a fact there was only one bed in here. Should they share it? It was big enough- but after what happened before? And what happened just now?

Whatever… attraction that had brought them together on her bed before seemed totally absent now. She was unnerved and Ren was obviously exhausted. But where else could he sleep? The bathroom?

"We could- um… share my bed?" said Makoto, feeling a strange mixture of doubt, guilt, and excitement at the idea.

"Okay" said Ren, a little dreamily. "You take the top. It's too bright."

"Wha-? The top?"

But without hesitation, Ren walked to her bed and then crawled underneath it, vanishing behind the hanging quilts and sheets. Makoto stood in the doorway of her bathroom, unsure of what to do. Ren said she could have the top… meaning the mattress. So she could sleep there, with a vampire under her bed.

Well, half-vampire anyway. Though that didn't really make it any less weird.

But while maybe it was normal for a dhampir to be exhausted at noon, it was not so for Makoto. And it was probably also normal that people miraculously recovering from being shot in the heart to need lots of rest rest, it was not so for Makoto at the moment. She'd been sleeping long enough. There were things to do. Gear to prepare. She was going to Shukoku! Ren was going to take her to the homeland of monsters. God.

Was this a terrible idea?

No. No time for doubt. Ren couldn't stay in her room forever, and he needed to get outside the city. They both did. Actually- they both needed to get outside the estate. That was probably going to be the bigger challenge: there was staff, there was Yoshida, and there was Sae. And there was the gate guards, but Makoto didn't think they would try to stop her. Not yet. Report her passage to Sae- maybe. But stop her? No. Sae probably wasn't at that stage of thinking yet. She probably thought she could cow Makoto into obedience. Well- Sae was going to realize she was very wrong about that, but ideally, not until Ren and Makoto were several dozen kilometers away from Tock-Yo.

And it wasn't just the two of them they would need to get out: gear, provisions, ammunition- cargo! Though the obvious solution to all of that was the armored carriage. It was big, spacious- armored and heavy. Also entirely conspicuous, but that last wasn't a huge problem so far as getting out of the estate was concerned- anything would be conspicuous, so may as well take the armored carriage. It was vampire design, so Sae wouldn't want it here anyway. Plus, it was fair spoils of the hunt! That hunk of metal and the four clockwork horses were Makoto's by right!

Oh! Speaking of clockwork horses- she could get quite a bit for those if she sold them. Makoto didn't exactly know how much, but Iwai down at the stable gate would know. He would probably buy them himself and give her a fair price. And having a fat purse of money would mean she could buy supplies, rather than draw Yoshida's attention by raiding the kitchens. And kitchen stores were probably not the most useful items for long trips, come to think of it. The estate contained full pantries of all sorts of raw ingredients, but Makoto couldn't exactly pack an armored carriage full of raw flour and eggs and pots and all the rest.

No. It would be food like Sae packed with her on hunting trips: dense biscuit, dried goods, and pickles. Things that were dense with sustenance and didn't rot. Most of that sort of stuff was sold near Iwai's, too, since it was so near the city gate. Supply for the caravan teamsters stocking for their routes south to Yoko-Ham and north to Sen-Dai- and places farther away than those, probably. So she could shop there and expect to find most anything that travelers might require. And that was a welcome simplification to her plan: she just needed to get her gear, get herself, and get Ren; out the estate and down to the gate via the armored carriage. Then, they sell a clockwork horse or two; buy enough food for- uh, however long it would take to get to Shukoku… she needed to ask Ren that…

But first thing's first: clothing. She was still mostly naked except the yukata she'd basically made of her bedsheet, and a bandage above her left breast. Makoto retreated back into the bathroom to take a closer look at the bandage. It was loose- both Dr. Takemi and Ren had pulled it up to look at her wound, but Makoto had not had the chance to inspect it herself yet. She gingerly eased the bandage up, and found a greyish circular scar, somewhat serrated in appearance around the rim. It was a bit larger than she expected, about two of her thumbnails in diameter. She probed it with her finger. It was surprisingly smooth, and her fingertips felt rough upon it.

And somewhere under the wound and deep in Makoto's chest, some strange vampire creature was doing god-knew what. The symbiote. The thing like Morgana, but not, according to him, anyway. A really old one. Probably coiled around her heart like a vine. So it seemed unlikely that anything could ever be done about it. But other than a few strange dreams, the thing seemed discrete enough.

But would that always be the case? Makoto had no way of knowing.

After a few moments of rubbing the scar tissue with her fingers, Makoto decided to forget the symbiote as an unknown she couldn't control. She felt the need to see the overall impact of the wound on her physique. Makoto removed the bandage entirely, let the bedsheet fall to the floor, and stood before her bathroom mirror fully naked. The circular scar certainly stood out- a lone and large flaw in her otherwise unblemished skin. But under her skin, her lean musculature provided a subtle topography to her body- and the scar somehow looked… appropriate.

This was her body now- lean, lithe, and adult. The girlish softness of her schooldays was long gone- now she had the body of a vampire hunter. And it was certainly not the last scar that would etch its surface. And a grim, somewhat gaunt, version of Makoto looked at herself through the mirror- her crimson eyes half-lidded in introspection. The trauma of her wound was evidenced in the greater prominence of her cheekbones. She'd always been thin, keeping strict exercise for combat training- but this was a bit much. Her body must have used a lot of resources in the last day or so- Dr. Takemi wanted her to eat two meatpies, Makoto began to think two dozen was probably closer to the mark.

But a scar and some excessive lean-ness were certainly a cheap price to pay for a brush with death. Other than some moderate pain when she moved the wrong way, Makoto felt capable. Should she dress and go out of her room and- and what? Run into Sae? That wasn't desirable. See Yoshida? More desirable, but that might draw his attention to her needs- a conscious young Lady Niijima had more needs than a sleeping one, and needs in the butler's mind meant more staff sent her way, and that was more people moving in and out of her room.

Ann Sakamoto was somewhere in the house, also recovering. Makoto wanted to see how she was, but the chance of meeting Sae or Yoshida was assured if she tried. Meanwhile, staff could enter Makoto's room while she was gone and discover Ren accidentaly while they went about their habitual duties. That was easily the most dangerous possibility. So Ann, sorry, would have to be without Makoto- but she had Dr. Takemi and Morgana, so it was not like she was abandoned. Makoto was sure the girl would understand.

But with Makoto's new plan to purchase food stores from near the city gate, what did Makoto really need from the rest of the estate, anyway? Her gear was in her room; her weapons, her ammunition, and her armor. Meanwhile, Ren's was likely stashed somewhere outside the grounds- probably wherever his horse was- Makoto made a mental note to ask him.

The carriage and the mechanical horses were near the stables, which was in the east yard. Unfortunately, that was the side of the house she could not view from her bedroom windows. But this was her childhood home- she could picture it all in her head: The gravel driveway which connected the stable-yard to the main driveway passed near the east side of the house, along which a hedgerow created a tidy organic barrier between the gravel and the narrow east lawns. The stables themselves were in open terrain, being surrounded by horse pens and pasture- so it would not be easy for Ren to get there without being seen. Maybe if they tried tonight after it was dark?

Gear up; sneak out; sneak to the stables; get into the carriage. Easy enough. And Since the horses were mechanical, they would already be attached (never having needed to be unattached). She could climb up on the carriage seat, grab the reins, and off she would go, down the driveway and out the gate. She would tell the guards something about needing to go- oh, somewhere or other. Anyway, they wouldn't stop her, nor would they check inside the carriage- where Ren would be hiding. And off they would drive to the gate district, purchase provisions, and out the gate they would go when it opened in the morning.

It was a plan. It felt a bit underhanded- to sneak out of her own home. But she couldn't tell Yoshida, which would hurt him, but Makoto couldn't risk it for fear of him attempting to stop her. He would not condone her travel plans. And Makoto surely couldn't tell Sae for the same reasons. It would be better for everyone if Makoto and Ren simply… vanished into the night.

And perhaps left a letter. Makoto decided she should at least do that. But writing a explanatory letter would not take her all day, so there seemed little else to do but reapply her bandage, grab some meatpies from the tray, and get a few more hours of sleep. There was no telling how long Ren needed to rest, so Makoto could only hope the amount of his need didn't delay their departure.

Makoto returned to her bed and resolved to make herself seem as invalid as possible should anyone come in. And she could only hope the vampire under her bed was sated and silent. She trusted Ren- but perhaps when he was hungry, Ren wasn't exactly Ren.

Makoto thought about that for a few moments. Then rolled over to her nightstand, took out the small pistol she kept there and rolled back onto her back. She checked the cylinder and the safety, then slid it under her pillow.