Together, Ryan and Jade walked out of the building, approaching the bike parked out front.

  "Oh, this is your bike? I saw it at your place the other day, but I didn't realise it was yours!" Jade said with an excited smile.

  "Do you like bikes?"

  "Hm? Oh, yeah, a little I guess. They're cool, right?" she replied happily, and Ryan laughed.

  "They're pretty damn cool. This one belonged to... I don't actually know how to describe her, she's technically my uncle's 'aide', but they're really just friends? I don't know, it's complicated. She's a really high levelled Awakened and her driving is insane, you'd think she awakened as a 'Driver'."

  Jade knelt down next to the bike. "Oh yeah, this is the kind of bike a real lover would have."

  Ryan smiled and gave her the helmet that he was holding in his right hand. His left was carrying something else right now.

  "Use this."

  "Do you have a second one?"

  "Nope."

  "Huh? But..."

  "Awakened above level 10 don't have to use helmets. We should, definitely, but I'll be fine."

  Jade was a bit unsure, but she also really wanted to get going and bring the cure to her grandmother. Plus, with the look on Ryan's face, it was clear that he was serious about it, and didn't see it as a big deal.

  "... Fine. But what about Belle? Won't she need something?"

  "She's got her harness on, right?"

  "Yeah, but won't she be bothered by the wind?"

  Ryan raised a brow. "She's a gryphon. She can fly."

  "... Right. That's a good point."

  "She'll be fine. You're the one that said you didn't want to leave her home alone."

  "Well, yeah, but..." Jade nervously looked at the small animal that was laying on top of Ryan's arm as if it were a branch.

  He looked down at the gryphon. "She's well-behaved, too."

  "... Belle normally never behaves this well. My roommate's actually been complaining about her basically constantly since she got her," Jade pointed out. "I don't know why she's so calm with you."

  "Must be my sociability stat. And in general, I'm good with animals, as I said." Ryan winked happily. Knowing that a usually rowdy animal was so calm with him was obviously an amazing feeling. He gave Belle over to Jade, who quickly grabbed her and held onto the harness.

  Ryan and Jade got onto the bike, and quickly drove off. Jade had sent him the address already. It was a bit out of the way, but not terribly so.

  While her current apartment was in Lakeview, her family apparently lived in the Rapids. It was a bit surprising that Jade would always travel so far to her school, though. Her and Silvia went to school together in Upstream, and he doubted that was the only secondary school in all of New Riverside.

  But he figured Jade had her reasons for going to school so far away she would have to commute at least an hour each way, and Ryan knew he shouldn't pry about that. It really wasn't any of his business, anyway.

  Usually it should take a while to get to the Rapids, but Ryan had picked up a few driving tricks. He didn't drive recklessly of course, not with Jade clinging to him from behind, but he knew some good shortcuts now that Yamada had shown him a while ago. Plus, driving a bit over speed-limit wasn't a big deal either. Ryan's instincts kicked in pretty strongly whenever he was driving, so he was pretty damn confident.

  It took a while for them to pass the bridge to the Rapids. Ryan had only been here a couple of times, but never at this time of day. Back then, it was looking rough and crowded by improvised structures. The roads were broken apart, and almost everything that was originally put here by the city had been repaired with whatever people had on hand.

  Bus stops, bike racks, playground equipment... The Rapids were a poorer part of New Riverside, but people made do. It was just a bit frustrating to see the last time Ryan was here. But now that it was night, Ryan was completely stunned.

  This part of the city was built between the mountain range to the west of New Riverside, and the left part of the river encasing the original areas of the city. Because of this, the Rapids were not only built on a steep incline, but it was also fairly isolated, in a different way to the Channel. This place developed naturally as the city grew too large to contain everyone, and especially the poorer folk and immigrants were forced to settle here. But they made the most of it, clearly.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Now that it was night, this part of town was lit up in a way he hadn't ever seen in the rest of the city. Fairylights drawn across the streets, giant glowing nuts replacing the street lamps. Luminescent graffiti on the walls, and almost every house had some kind of lantern hanging on its side. It wasn't the sort of brightness created by LED lamps or screens in the rest of the city. This felt more... real. Created by the people that lived here, rather than for the people that lived here by some massive corporation trying to advertise to them. There was that here and there, but most of the signs were covered up by posters or graffiti.

  It was awesome. This was the kind of thing that Ryan imagined before he moved to New Riverside in the first place, rather than that well-curated feeling that other parts of the city could have.

  Ryan pulled into a side-street and stopped in front of a tall, fairly run-down building. He quickly got off and took Belle from Jade, holding her while she took a few deep breaths.

  "That was... intense..." she let out a long sigh, and Ryan couldn't help himself but laugh a bit.

  "I guess so. But are you alright? Need a moment?"

  Ryan knew that vampires had a weaker constitution than most other people. While their immune system was actually a lot stronger than others', so that they could fight off any disease they might get from feeding on others' blood, it was highly sensitive and sprung into high action at the smallest sign of danger. That translated into a lot of other situations, too. Their bodies reacted to the slightest stress, though vampires were actually pretty damn hardy.

  But while they were standing there together, chatting a bit, Ryan noticed a small group approaching, walking over the road to get to them.

  "Jade?" one of them asked, with just the slightest Gardian accent. She snapped her head around and looked at him surprised.

  "Marco! Oh, wow, I didn't expect to see you here!" she said, quickly moving over to give him a hug.

  "That's what I want to say, I still live here!" Marco laughed, though during the hug, he spotted Ryan standing there by the bike. A frown immediately appeared on his face. "And who's that?"

  Jade quickly showed a broad, if slightly nervous, smile, and turned around. "Ryan, this is Marco, we both grew up here. And Marco, this is Ryan, my..." she stopped herself, not sure what to say when her cheeks flushed red. "... my, uhm..."

  Ryan awkwardly stepped forward, shaking Marco's hand. "As you can see, we're still figuring it out. But for now, I'm just... Ryan."

  "Well, nice to meet you, 'Just Ryan'." There was an undertone in Marco's voice that really couldn't be missed. He was either extremely protective over Jade, or he had a thing for her. Or both.

  "So, what are you doing here?" Marco asked, continuing to stare at Ryan for a few moments before turning to Jade.

  "Oh, Ryan has, uhm... some kind of medicine for my grandma."

  "What, you a doctor, pretty boy?" Marco scoffed, but Ryan just laughed and shook his head.

  "Nope, I'm just your run of the mill uni student with some contacts," Ryan explained, scratching the underside of Belle's beak to keep her calm and happy.

  "Contacts? Jade, are you serious? Are you giving your grandmother some random ass meds?" Marco flared at Ryan angrily. "She's hit by a curse, not some random illness. Whatever this guy told you he can do, he can't."

  Ryan kept smiling. "I know what she's suffering from, and I promise you, it'll be okay."

  "Her grandmother has a special constitution, Jade tell you that?"

  "Yep, know all about that."

  "Well, I'm sure she's kept a few things hidden, eh?"

  Ryan raised a brow. He glanced around for a moment, first at Jade to gauge her expression, and then focused on the two guys standing behind Marco briefly just to make sure.

  In order, he pointed at Marco's friends and then the man himself. "Fox, Bear, and Wolf."

  The eyes of the three of them widened confused. Ryan loved moments like this.

  "How do you... Jade, did you tell this guy about us?"

  Similarly confused, Jade shook her head. "No, I didn't! I promise! This is the same thing that happened when I met him, he just... knew that I'm a vampire."

  Ryan chuckled and nodded. "Yeah sorry, I've got pretty good intuition. I realised you were therianthropes the moment I saw you. Just what each of you were took me a little bit longer to figure out."

  Marco frowned. "... Who are you? Wait, no, let me ask, what are you? I guess you've got the face to be a vampire, but you're way too bulky. An incubus? No, they're just as weak, plus..." He sniffed for a moment. "You don't smell like that shitty perfume they've been trying out. Since you don't smell like you're rotting, you're not a ghoul, either... You a therianthrope, too?"

  "Nope, I'm human, as far as I'm aware," Ryan slightly tilted his head the side as his smile got a bit bigger. "I'll reintroduce myself properly, I guess. My name is Ryan Aglecard."

  "Huh?" Marco let out, startled. "Did you say... Aglecard? Like... a real one?"

  "Of course, does it look like I'm fake? Listen, we're working on a proper cure for corruption, and I've got a dose with me right now," Ryan explained. "And I promise it works."

  Marco rolled his eyes. "And how are you so sure it works?"

  "Because I'm the one that found it, and used it to cure multiple cases of corruption already. If you know about anyone else that's suffering from corruption, please let me know," Ryan pushed a hand into his bag and tried to find a piece of paper. "Urgh, sorry, hold on. Morgana, could you?"

  While Jade stood there, clearly a bit smug and proud, Marco and his friends just kept getting confused. "Who is-"

  Before he could finish the question, the spirit appeared right next to Ryan. She clicked her fingers and a magic circle appeared before her, as a pen and some paper came floating out of the bag. Ryan couldn't even grab it himself, since Morgana telekinetically manipulated the pen and paper to write down Ryan's phone number for him, giving the note to Marco once she was done. And then, she briefly waved at Jade before disappearing back into her domain.

  Seeing the trio's expression, Ryan kept scratching Belle's beak. "Call me if you need help with anything."

  Marco nodded with a stunned expression, looking down at the note in his hand. Ryan was more than just happy about this. He wasn't aware that there were so many magical folk around here. This was the perfect place to talk to people and figure out what their actual problems were, and how the Aglecards could do better. Plus, if he could actually find a few people that he could trust, having them join the new faction would be great.

  These guys didn't seem bad, therianthropes just tended to be a bit territorial from what Ryan knew. Depending on their emotions, they shifted more and more toward their animalistic side. Except that the animal and the person didn't directly share the same consciousness. Two different identities coexisted within the same body, fighting for control, mixing and merging just to split up again at a moment's notice. Sometimes, fragments of one identity got stuck in the other, so therianthropes tended to have their natural instincts turned up to 11.

  Ryan turned around, and him and Jade walked to the front door. It was time to cure an old lady.