His fingers touched something hard. The moment he noticed it, he felt himself being pulled up. When he fell face-forward, out of breath, he felt the same sensation of something hard on his cheek. It was also cold to the touch.
Is it... rock?
Cheep-cheep-cheep!
The lighthearted chirruping of little mice. He felt the small animals scurrying over his back. Cravat and the rest would often scurry across his back like this, in their bold demands for food or play.
My elder brother is a cannibal!
I'm brother to a cannibal.
Even though I'm to be the victim of cannibalism, I'm brother to a cannibal all the same!
-Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman[1]
Shi-o-n. She tried calling his name. Since being brought here, how many times had she called it? No matter how many times she did, her voice never reached him.
Someone was coming. The dogs lying down outside were now raising their voices in apprehension. But there was nothing to be agitated about. The barking of the dogs, both large and small, was not overly wrung in alarm or threat.
It was not an enemy. No stranger had wandered in; no thief had snuck in either. It was someone unwelcome, but of low risk.
Inukashi raised his face and quivered his nose. He caught the smell of alcohol. At the same time, a puppy with a torn right ear burst into the room. It yapped insistently, reporting who the visitor was. Inukashi gave a light wave of his hand to shut it up. See, dogs were great. You told them to shut up, and they did.
Then shall I speak of the two primal Spirits of existence, of whom the Very Holy thus spoke to the Evil One: neither our choices nor words nor acts, not our inner selves nor our souls agree. [1]
Geez, enough of you already.
Inukashi clicked his tongue, and put the coins he was counting back into the bag. It was his profit for the day, and it was a hefty sum.
A night had passed since the Hunt, and the West Block was still in the throes of confusion and anguish. Nobody knew how many had been killed, kidnapped, or had escaped, and no one had the energy or the means of finding out.