Shigure trails off when he notices that Hatori is no longer listening to him, notices that his cousin's head is turned away, turned towards the new photo frame on his desk. His smile fades when he recognises the face in the photo and sees the wetness on the mutilated skin around Hatori's injured eye. He looks back at the cigarette in his hand; it's almost burnt out so he squashes the embers into his cup.
As he reaches into the folds of his clothes for his cigarette packet, he reflects that he has never left this limbo.
He puts the packet down on the table and searches for his lighter. When he looks back, he observes the open packet in Hatori's hands, a slender cylinder perched between his long fingers.
'You'll regret it,' Shigure says, watching him raise it to his lips.
Hatori looks at him, his visible eye oval and flat. He silently gestures for the lighter.
As Shigure flicks the lighter's switch and leans over to hold the flame to the end of the cigarette, watches the flames flicker and cast strange shadows over Hatori's injured face, he supposes that this makes two of them.
THE END