When Tsume opened his eyes again, everything was just as blurry as when he had shut them. The only difference was a bright light shining down on him. The sun? No, it was never that bright. Perhaps he had died... As he took a smell of the area, he realized he hadn't. Though he'd never been there, he didn't think heaven stunk like a human.

He was lying on his stomach. Hadn't he hurt his stomach earlier though? He pushed himself up cautiously. There was a sensation of warmth as his chest left the table. It was cold and metallic. As he looked down, he saw the image of himself reflecting back at him. His eyes trailed further down the table until his head was nearly under the rest of his body. A giant "X" was pressed into his chest. Other than the large scab, there was no sign of blood anywhere. He couldn't even smell it.

He released a sigh as he plotted himself down on the end of the table. Where was he? His curious eyes scurried around the room. There was a shelf in the right corner of the room, containing sharp knives and scapels of different sizes. The light from above created a glimmering affect with them. The walls were yellow, almost making the tools shine more. On the floor near the small cabinet was some monstrous machine, big enough for him to fit into. Perhaps it was another one of these tables, save larger. It looked much too destructive for that though...

Now that he looked around the room more, there were lots of strange looking machines like the first one. They all had a similar glitter and reflected his image at him. It must have been some kind of torture house... A growl eminated from him as he returned back to all fours. He shook his head from side to side in search of any men hiding there. He could smell them... But then he picked up on another scent.

"...Dogs?"

A door, the same color as the walls opened. Tsume turned around as quick as he could manuver himself on the slick table. He was facing a human, one with gigantic round glasses and crazy white hair. Tsume said nothing as he studied his features. His nose was a little too big for his face, and shadowed his dry yet small lips. His neck was pale and thinly, connecting his head to his body in a way that he was sure would cause it to snap off. It was hard to see his eyes beneath the glasses he wore. They were blue, that was all Tsume could identify with. He moved from his face to his lower body. He stopped when he saw what he held in his hands - A newborn puppy.

Giving the man no time to explain himself, Tsume began barking uncontrolably. The old man nearly dropped the puppy. "Whoa there boy, calm down!" It was surprising how loud he could yell. Tsume stopped for the moment, eyes still cross. Now that he was quiet, he could hear the newborn whimpering.

The wolf was tempted to bark again. He wasn't sure how, but he knew this man was hurting the pup. Before he could start again though, the man shifted the puppy to one arm and held out a hand to Tsume. "There's nothing to fuss about now. I heard voices in this room as I was walking by and I wanted ta make sure there weren't nobody but you here. Now you rest while I give this pup back ta his mum."

The man was rewarded by silence. Taking that as a good sign, he sighed and closed the door, leaving the room and the wolf. Tsume snarled as the door shut and didn't return to his sitting position. He listened for a moment and suddenly noticed the sound of more whimpering puppies. There was no doubt in his mind that he was in some kind of torture chamber, until he heard the stange man speak again. "Doncha worry, marm... All of the puppies... They're with they're mother now... All fine... Except... This one needs to have a shot taken..."

His ears twitched as he tried to catch more bits of the conversation, but the man had said all he needed to. There was no response to his statement from whoever he was talking to.

Still, the gray wolf didn't trust this place. Dangerous looking machinery layed about everywhere... No way he was going to relax when his life was at stake. First off, he needed to figure out he got there. Actually... Now that he tried to think on it, he wasn't really sure where he'd come from, nevermind why he was here now. Who was he? Tsume, a wolf. That much he knew. But that didn't help him figure out why he was here, in this moment.

The door opened as he tried to remember. He snarled once more at the same person as before. The man was now puppyless. "Whoa, simmer down now! Ya've got nothing to worry about, pal. Those puppies are safe with their mum and another doctor. Anyway, how's yer chest doin'? Nothing split open, right? Here, I'll just do a quick check up on you to make sure everything's fine and then we'll get you out of here and see what we can do about finding you a home."

Tsume wasn't going to let anyone take him anywhere. It was bad enough to be here, but now they wanted more with him. They weren't just going to let him go back to... Wherever he came from. He didn't like that. With a definining bark, he leapt into the air and landed on top of the doctor, a crack sounding from his body as Tsume jumped off and began running down the hallway. The man didn't say anything from his position on the floor. His eyes were wide open and he did not move whatsoever. He was dead.

The gray wolf tore down the halls, nose sniffing wildly for the easiest way out. He did not go unnoticed. Several of the animal doctors heard his heavy paws fall upon the floor, and those who were not busy made an attempt to stop him. Tsume soon found himself being stalked by five vets. He could only hope that the way he was heading was the right way out. If not, he wasn't all against simply tearing out their throats.

His head rammed against a door. It opened without hesitation to reveal a room filled with... humans. There were also a large ammount of cats and dogs, two birds, and a rat. Tsume assessed this situation as quickly as he could, not stopping to let his followers catch up to him. He rushed across the room towards a glass door. He wasn't about to stop now... It was this or nothing. Tsume reared up as he reached the door and jumped straight at it.

Thud!

The glass was obviously not so flexible... He fell to the floor temporarily, and when he sat himself back up he was staring face to face with his pursuers. He backed away as far as he could, baring his teeth. One of the doctors, this one seemingly female, backed away. She was apparently the only smart one. The others stood their stupidly, circling him as he let drool drip from his fangs. However, before any action could take place, a man, wearing a brown leather jacket and an after shave as dark as midnight suddenly came running over from one of the chairs that lined the waiting room. He pushed away the doctors, his strength incredible. "Sparky! Are you ok boy?"

The entire staff stopped, puzzled. Tsume too was a bit at a loss for words. Sparky? He had the wrong wolf... Still the man pressed closer to him, even kneeling at his side. Tsume had the right mind to bite him then and there, but controlled his rage for a second. The curiousity welling up inside him was almost as much as that now surpressed anger. "Oh Sparky, I was afraid you wouldn't make it through that operation... I can see your fine now though. Did those mean doctors treat you bad? Did they? They did, huh?"

The oddity of a man began ruffling Tsume's fur. As if he had pulled a trigger, his mouth opened to rip apart his flesh. However, his jaw snapped shut again when the man whispered into his ear, soft and soothingly, "You want to get out of this alive, don't you?"

Tsume sat perfectly still, allowing the odd man to scratch at his head, as much as he disproved of it. However, he had no one to trust but him... The man went on, now talking to the vets. "I'm terribly sorry. Here, I'll just let him out and go about paying the bill. Would that be alright?"

"There is a leash law here, sir." Replied a stern doctor. "We'll also need to possibly condemn him to a-"

The door was whipped open before he could finish his sentence. Without even thanking his savior, Tsume made a run out the door. It slammed behind him as he whizzed down what the door revealed- a case of stairs. He could see the day light at the bottom. There was nothing stopping him now from the freedom which he sought after.

No idea of where to go from here, he rushed forward into the onslaught of the big city.

Alright, that's all for this chapter. They're short, I know, but I think you guys would prefer reading a story with a lot of chapters that are short than a story with few but long chapters. I'd also like to thank my first four reviewers for some awesome commentary. You guys rock. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as you did the last one. -

Note: The chapter is named after yet another Yoko Kanno song. I hope for them all to be that way... Muahahaha, fear my unoriginality.