Author's Notes: Oh my, I didn't update this for a long while, did I? Well, I have more time to write now, so hopefully updates won't be so far apart.

At the end of the day, Nezumi never slept well. It could easily be assumed that it was because he was homeless, and it would be a lie to say that this didn't play some sort of part in his restlessness. You never knew who or what was coming, and that let to waking up looking for assaults from all sides, but that wasn't really why, not at the core of it. The truth was, when he slept memories crept in. Not the ones of Nezumi, but the ones that lingered from before. So many things from before. Like an old cassette tape, they replayed themselves in his mind, as though he needed to be reminded. He could never forget. Why did sleep feel the need to remind him why he was here?

It had only gotten worse as the years had crept by. At first, just the purposeful ones, outlining his cause, his mission, but now memories that had nothing to do with much of anything had started. Sometimes, it was even just words. The ones the Son sometimes had called him in jest, knowing he could not remember being what he called him. "Ancestor of Noah." That had been a different life, so very long ago, before he'd known who he really was, and certainly before he'd become Nezumi. How could he sleep deeply with such things running through his head? The reminders that he was now lesser? The reminders of what he'd left behind?

Oddly, he slept easier next to Shion. It didn't seem right. Shion ought to have intensified what he felt or saw. The boy now had at least half of his remaining power, and he would think his memories would resonate with that, but...no. He fell asleep laying next to Shion, and he stayed asleep longer. He woke more well rested, he woke not remembering what he'd dreamed. How could one boy make such a difference? It was baffling, but here he lay, his arms wrapped around the other boy, his eyes blinking the sleep out of them as he woke up after being asleep for...how long? Three? Four hours? He never normally slept that long.

For a few long moments, Nezumi thought he had woken up on his own, just a lapse between the phases of night, but then he listened. He could hear Shion's soft breathing, the even softer wheezing of his friends as they too slept somewhere in the folds of his or Shion's clothes. He could hear the snoring of Rikiga and countless others who slept within the park...but there was something else.

Instinctively, Nezumi's arms pulled Shion closer to him, pressed the other boy more tightly against him. Demons. He was sure of it. They were within Miyashita Park, he could hear their rumbling, soft bickering as they chose their nightly meal. They were not close, still choosing to linger on the outer edges of the park, but he could hear them. They were there.

It was time to move on. They could not sleep here again the next night.

When the sunlight finally started to illuminate the Tokyo skyline, the missing people were noticed almost immediately. There were screams, and Nezumi was sure that he was listening to the beginnings of panic, true panic. The guards and military personnel that had been both protecting them and passing out the emergency rations were gone. People were beginning to feel exposed, weak, alone, and with these bloodied spots where people had been sleeping the fear was probably threatening to overtake them. Perhaps today was the day they'd realize what kind of danger they were in. Perhaps today was the day they'd start to realize that the demons were real.

Nezumi sat up before Shion woke, and he found Inukashi already awake as well, staring off in the direction the sounds of panic were coming from. "Do you know what happened?"

"Demons." The child nodded at this answer, seeming satisfied, despite its simplicity. "I think panic will set in soon."

"Why?" Inukashi looked back at him. The child's face didn't disagree with him, no. He and Inukashi were cut of the same street cloth. They knew that feeling, almost a smell in the air. Panic. Disgust. Fear. They knew what it tasted like. "Why soon?"

"The generators are going to cut off today. Hospitals will be down." It wasn't as though getting to a hospital wasn't hard enough, but with life support and their other tech down, it was like cutting off hope. "Clean water will start being harder to find too, and," Nezumi nodded off toward the screams that were slowly raising others up from their slumber. "Demons. They've been pretty scarce up until now, eating all that see them, or being killed by those like us. This is proof that the takeover is really starting. People will survive seeing them, they won't know what to think. People are afraid of what they don't know, and they'll panic. They all will, today, tomorrow, the next day. It's only a matter of time. It starts today."

Inukashi looked away from him, but even in profile, Nezumi could see the smile slowly starting to grow on his face. "Yeah. It's going to be fun."

Nezumi smiled a bit too. Small moments like these reminded him that he had a lot in common with Inukashi, however, there was one fundamental difference though. Nezumi hated humans, but Inukashi only hated society. Inukashi hated the symptom, but Nezumi hated the disease.

Finally ( Nezumi had started to wonder if he had gone deaf overnight ) Shion stirred beside him and sat up, his eyes wide. There was no grogginess in his presence, and he seemed to be on high alert, despite having been asleep moments before. "What's going on?"

"Demons." Nezumi nodded his head in the proper direction, as though the screams weren't giving away the precise direction all by itself.

"Shouldn't we go help?"

"No." Lightly, Nezumi patted the ground next to him, and his friends came, sniffing and then climbing up his arm and into the folds of the superfibre, or, at least, two of them did. The brown one went to Shion, squeaking at him in what anyone, even one who could not understand the many languages of Earth, could tell was a demand for attention. To his credit, Shion picked the nezumi up and began to pat his little head, despite how focused his eyes were on the now dying screams. "There's nothing you can do, Shion."

"Why isn't there?"

Nezumi sighed. Always with the questions. Of course. He'd had to pick an inquisitive boy. He couldn't have picked someone like Inukashi...no. Of course not. With a small shake of his head he reminded himself why he'd picked Shion. Shion was kind. So, so kind. He'd noticed him when no one else had, bleeding, dying, in an alleyway. He had been dying, not from the blood, but from the shock. He could deal with wounds, but he couldn't have dealt with the mental pain alone, he would have fallen asleep and simply chosen never to wake up. He would have given up on his mission. Returned home a failure, unable to even start. No one else had noticed him huddled up in his pain, but Shion had.

So Shion would get to choose. Shion got to ask questions.

"The demons are gone already. They came hours ago, took their meal, left. They aren't strong enough to linger in large groups like this yet." It was probably such a conundrum for the vile demons. So much food in one place, yet too dangerous to go in and take it. Night was the only solution, when people were fast asleep, not suspecting to be nabbed. This is why people should never sleep too deeply; you never knew what was lurking in the darkness.

Nezumi waited for the boy to argue, but instead Shion nodded, his expression that of mild defeat. Well, that had been easy.

They waited for Rikiga to wake up. It took a while, or, Nezumi thought, only ten more minutes, but it was a while, considering that he had slept perfectly fine through screaming. After the first few minutes of waiting, Nezumi had snorted. He had thought Shion was the pampered little prince that needed constant protection, but Shion had been awakened by the noise, if a bit belatedly. If he were to place bets on who'd die first, he'd now bet it would be Rikiga. What kind of survival instincts did you have to have to not wake up at the sound of screamsing? What if the thing that caused the person to scream was coming for you? It was ridiculous...perhaps the booze had softened the man's senses, or perhaps it was Rikiga trying to forget that he hadn't had a drink in over twenty-four hours.

In the end, the man awoke, and he, he alone, demanded something to eat this morning. To Nezumi, this only further proved if any of them died, Rikiga would go first. Not even Shion asked for food. Shion was going to become a better survivor than Nezumi had hoped. He was being smart, taking in what he saw and applying it to his lifestyle. Good. It was a step in the right direction.

After Rikiga had finished a granola bar, and after Inukashi had finished rolling his eyes at the sight of it, they rolled their meager blankets up and stood up. It was a task entirely too difficult for Rikiga, who seemed to blunder about and bemoan his aching back. This time, Nezumi rolled his eyes. Of course their backs hurt, they'd been sleeping on the ground. It wasn't as though they were sleeping on feathers.

When everything was put away, Nezumi began to open his mouth to begin talking about what the basic plan for the day would be, but Shion spoke first, nearly cutting him off. "Nezumi?"

"Yes?"

"I have an idea. Can I share it?"

For a few seconds, Nezumi regarded Shion with a raised eyebrow. It was a little early for him to have an opinion on plans, wasn't it? It was only the third day. Well, perhaps not. He had already noticed that Shion was becoming a better survivor than he'd hoped, faster than he'd hoped. Perhaps the will and ability to chose were setting in faster too, and so, having decided, Nezumi shrugged. Why not? It was too early to make a decision that couldn't be reversed later on, and in the end, he was only the guide, there to ensure Shion survived until the seventh day. Then he could step back and watch the show, if that was what he ended up wanting.

"Go ahead."

Shion smiled, clearly pleased to not have to argue to be heard, and nodded. "When we tried to get into Nerima yesterday we were blockaded."

"So?" Nezumi shot a look back at Inukashi, who only shrugged at him. Nezumi shook his head. So impatient.

Shion continued. "Those blockades, they were made by demons." At this, Nezumi smiled. So he'd noticed that, had he? It was only a small boon, but Shion was proving to be full of small boons that would quickly start to add up. "I don't think those barriers were meant to keep other people out."

"No?" Rikiga raised his eyebrows, but Shion shook his head, his translucent locks swaying lightly back and forth. Nezumi lost himself in those strands for a moment, as he often had. It had stupidly happened when he'd first seen Shion in the destroyed subway. He had always wondered how Power would mark Shion. There was the scar, the one that Shion had previously hidden, but more obvious was the hair. It was beautiful, and it looked so soft. There was always the temptation to reach out and touch it, feel it slide between his fingers, but...

"I think the demons made those blockades to keep us inside."

Shion would speak, or move, and Nezumi would come back to his senses. The desire to touch. What a silly, human thing. He knew better.

"Say the barriers are demon-made," he said it like he didn't know it was true, but Nezumi also knew that he couldn't precisely knew that Shion was correct. Too many confirmed right answers and not only would Shion start to get full of himself, but questions would be asked that Nezumi did not want to answer. "And let's assume that they are also meant to keep us inside," which, for the record, was also a correct idea. Shion was getting good at this game. "What are we going to do about it? Without cars or most electricity, there's no way to climb over those monstrosities." It was a fair question. One could try to climb over them but there was rebar spiking out every which way. Inukashi might manage to slink between the points, and maybe even Nezumi could, if he were extra careful, but Shion would be hopeless at such a task, and Rikiga as good as dead. It was also true that they had demons themselves, but not the kind that were meant to destroy in such a manner...

At least not yet.

Nezumi watched as Shion pondered over his question, said pondering took up almost no time at all before those lips parted again and said, "I had been thinking about it last night, and all I keep thinking is; those barriers can't be everywhere."

Behind him, Inukashi snorted, "Wanna make a bet?"

"I'm serious. There has to be a way out of Tokyo somewhere."

"So that's the plan? Get out of Tokyo?" Shion nodded and Nezumi shook his head. "Has it ever occurred to you that it might be like this everywhere? That everywhere else is just as bad?"

"How do we know if we don't try?" Shion huffed in a childish way, his eyes looking down at the ground, but his stance still full of strong will. "And if everywhere else were just as bad, why would the demons want to keep us here?"

"Why do they want to keep us here in the first place?"

"If everywhere else isn't as bad, why haven't they broken through with tanks or something?"

"Exactly! We don't know! How are we ever going to improve our situation if we continue to wait for the solution to come to us?" To that, neither Inukashi or Rikiga had an answer, and Nezumi himself smiled. It was something of a convincing argument. Simple, flawed, but convincing.

"Are we agreed then? Are we looking to escape Tokyo?" Nezumi let his eyes pass over both Inukashi and Rikiga in turn. Neither one of them could meet his eyes, both looking down at the ground, up at the sky, anywhere but at him. He bit back a laugh. What? Did they think he'd be angry? Probably. Good. Let them think that way. "All right then. I'll let you two start that daunting task. We know Nerima's off limits, so why don't you start looking in the other direction? Setagaya? Good? Good. We'll leave you to that then. Let's meet back up at The 109 in five hours."

It was amusing how before they couldn't meet his eyes, but now the child and the old man were both staring at him like they'd never quite seen a creature like him before. He waved them off with both hands, exaggerating his motions to get his point across. "Well?! Why are you still here? Get going! Five hours isn't forever, especially not on someone's ancient legs." Rikiga opened his large mouth to argue, as Nezumi would expect, but Inukashi's mouth was both smaller, and faster.

"For real? You're going along with this?"

"Yeah," Nezumi chuckled under his breath, "Why not? You've got nothing better to do with your time, right?"

Inukashi's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What about you and airhead over there? Are you going to be looking for an escape route?"

"No-"

"We're not?"

Nezumi held his breath for a moment. Don't sigh, don't let the Devil in. He breathed out slowly, "No," he repeated. "We do have something better to do."

"Yeah?" Those large, round eyes became even more suspicious, but that was nothing new. Inukashi had always been a suspicious child, that was why he was still alive in this - pun intended - dog-eat-dog world. "And what's that?" Rikiga with his shrewd face nodded agreement about his question, looking haughty, as though he were big, brave, and important. The facade was almost, no, absolutely, pathetic. Both Inukashi and Shion had more guts than he did.

He jerked his head off in the direction that still not too long ago, screaming had come from. "Need I remind you that the demons were active last night? The park isn't safe any longer. We need someone else to lay our heads tonight."

"Oh," Shion's wide, innocent face became understanding, and he nodded. "I hadn't even thought of that."

"Of course not," Nezumi chuckled, "That why I'm here."

Today, Shion's entire body ached. With cars being in such limited use, walking practically everywhere was required. Sleeping on the ground, having to move his body in ways that he normally did not to move around the carnage that had become Tokyo after the disaster. It wasn't pretty, or pleasant, but Shion wouldn't complain. He was alive. There were a great many people that could not even claim that silver lining.

However, being alive did not make it any easier to keep up with Nezumi's quick, light footsteps, and Shion's legs throbbed and complained as he tried to prevent himself from falling any further behind. He knew he was a burden, the biggest burden of their entire group. That was why he'd had to speak up, about escaping. He'd always been considered smart, but he wasn't street smart like, Nezumi or Inukashi.

He and Nezumi, hoping to make their new base of operations outside of Shibuya, had made their way into Shinjuku some time ago, and the going wasn't easy. Shibuya had been hit hard, cars abandoned on the streets, giant cracks, proper electricity and other utilities out of order, walking was rough, and driving even more bumpy and hard, but...it wasn't like this.

The biggest indicator was simple the state of the buildings around them. Shinjuku was full of sky scrapers, or, rather, it had been. Many of those buildings that had seemed to be grasping at the sky had collapsed, or even just completely snapped in half. Shion couldn't help but wonder how that had happened so close to where they'd been. Yes, the train in Shibuya had crashed, yes, there were tall barriers that prevented them from getting into Nerima, but this was a whole other level. So close, yet so separate.

Shion had never before found himself quite so happy to be wearing shoes. There was glass everywhere, and the crack-crinkle of it was ever present as he walked. Nezumi's feet were silent, his graceful feet somehow avoiding the pressure points that would cause the usual sounds of walking on glass. Every so often the other boy would look back at him, silent judgement written all over his face. He didn't say anything, but Shion felt like he could hear the taller boy's thoughts in his head. 'Why are you being so loud? Stop that, you're going to draw out the demons.' Shion knew the thoughts in his head were correct, not only from Nezumi's standpoint, but his own as well. Why couldn't he be more quiet? This place was obviously dangerous, aside from the glass underneath his feet, there was no noise, and that was such an eerie thing. This was Shinjuku. It was never quiet. It was wrong. It felt like a cemetery.

Still, they continued on, walking on glass, climbing over gaps and cracks in the road, sometimes the road even rose up with the rebar plain as day as though asking you to try and clamber on up. Shion suspected that Nezumi could have done it with only a scant amount of trouble, but the other boy always opted to go around, even when it would take longer. Shion didn't need to be a mind reader to know that he was doing it because of him. Burden. Nezumi probably could have already found them a place to stay, if he hadn't been there, slowing him down.

About ten paces in front of him, Nezumi stopped short. This was a fairly normal occurrence. Nezumi would stop, turn around, and those hypnotizing gray eyes would stare at him in his silent judgement until Shion caught up. Except...there was no staring, no judgement. Something was wrong. Shion's heart jumped up to his throat as he realized that one small fact, and he picked up his pace, ignoring the steady, irritating grinding of glass beneath his feet. "Nezumi-"

"Quiet." One leather covered hand reached out behind him, stopping Shion in his tracks. There was none of that usual anger in Nezumi's voice, nor any disdain, suspicion, sarcasm, or apathy. In place of all those things was something Shion had never heard from the other boy, curiosity. "Can you hear it, Shion?"

No scathing nickname. No belittling him by calling him prince or pampered. Nezumi was being serious, but Shion hasn't been hearing anything, aside from his own seemingly thunderous walking. Shion frowned, and then listened. At first there was nothing, but then, slowly, sounds started reaching his ears. Shion's eyes grew wide. "Are those-"

"People." Nezumi nodded, confirming Shion's thought without him even having to complete his sentence.

"What are people doing out here?" It didn't sound like just one or two people, or like a group of people trying to sneak through Shinjuku. This sounded like almost a crowd that didn't care who heard them. "I don't like it."

"I don't either." With that small agreement in place, Nezumi began to move again, and to Shion's surprise, he was moving toward the sound, and not away from it. Shion followed after him, trying even harder than ever to keep quiet, though the glass under his feet continued to thwart his efforts. Even over the sound of glass crunching under his feet, the sound of people began to get louder. They were headed in the right direction then, though whether this was a good or a bad thing remained to be seen.

By the time they got close enough to see anything the sound of glass beneath Shion's feet had been completely drowned out by a din. The moment movement had become visible, Nezumi had placed them behind the remains of a building that Shion was sure had once stood tall. They moved carefully closer, building to building, until even Shion thought that they were dangerously close the action, yet proximity did nothing to unveil what exactly was going on.

Shion could see that there were people, ten to fifteen of them, moving constantly about like ants between the remaining bottom floor of a building, and a vehicle that looked like a cross between a truck and a tank. "What are they doing?" he hissed out to Nezumi, unsure of whether or not he could even be heard above the sound. Was it a drill? Demons? Or just...people?

Next to him, Nezumi slowly shook his head. Subtle movement, followed by strange words. "Stealing. Computers, it looks like."

"Computers?" Nezumi nodded, his face barely peeking out from behind their hiding spot, and Shion gave up trying to get a good look for himself and leaned against a not broken part of the building they hid behind. "That makes no sense. The power is out." Why would they need computer if there was no power to run them? Did they have a generator? That also made no sense. It seemed like they were stealing a lot more than just one or two computers. No generator would keep that going for long. Even the hospitals were going to shut down today, according to Nezumi. How were they going to use them?

Shion opened his mouth to ask another question, but then, Nezumi leaned back and Shion stopped short. It only took a couple of quick jerks of his head for the taller youth to indicate that they were going to get moving again. It was probably smart. Nezumi had figured out that it was computers, and regardless, Shion doubted that anyone who came to this now wasteland was someone you wanted to run into.

Getting away took even more time, and once they had gotten far enough away from the people and noise, Nezumi said that they would have more luck back in Shibuya than they would in Shinjuku, populated though it was. Shion agreed. The place had seemed empty and dangerous to even walk in. Empty or not, the demons could be anywhere, even in human form. Yesterday had shown him that.

They continued on their way, at a somewhat slower pace, and Shion kept looking toward the ground thinking. The only things in the entire area other than them had been those people, stealing computers, and- "What is it?"

Shion looked up to see that Nezumi had stopped once again and was staring at him with those cold eyes. "You're looking down at the ground again. What is it?"

"Oh, I was thinking about those people."

"Well stop."

"But," there was a temptation to stop there, because he knew that if he paused, Nezumi would say something, and he hated to not hear Nezumi's imput, but he pushed forward, he didn't want to cut off, not before his thought was out there. "They were making a lot of noise." So much noise that they could hear it from almost a quarter mile away. "Won't the noise draw demons?"

"It will."

"Then why would they do that? They'll be attacked. Over computers, that they can't use."

Nezumi sighed dramatically, shrugging his shoulders in what Shion knew was a "you're hopeless" kind of way. "They don't have to worry about that, Shion. It's Fennec Corp. They feel don't have to worry about anything." With that explanation, Nezumi turned away from him again and began to walk away, and Shion didn't press the issue. He'd never heard Nezumi say anything with quite so much contempt, not even his thoughts on humanity. Fennec Corp.

"And you're sure no one is already living here?" Inukashi's incredulous voice asked as he and Rikiga saw the basement for the first time.

"Considering we had to fight demons and break two haywire phones, I'm sure whoever was using it isn't anymore." Nezumi smirked and Inukashi harrumphed, but Shion could see the child's point. Compared with being out in the open, this place was a five star hotel. It had couches and a bed, there was canned food in one corner, and there was enough room for all of them, including Inukashi's dogs. It was dusty, dirty, and hadn't been properly used in a while, but there was food, and a roof over their heads. It was perfect.

And it had practically fallen into their lap.

Shion shuddered a little. When had he crossed the line between thinking that having to fight for something was easy? He remembered the fight that Nezumi had mentioned. The way the aloof young man had kicked open the door, only to almost instantly be met by starving, half shapeless beasts. He remembered how quickly Nezumi ducked, how his favorite knife had seemingly materialized out of nothing. He hadn't needed Nezumi to tell him to summon that time. He'd summoned a Power, an angel. There were a lot of those within Nezumi's phone, different kinds and units, all of them powerful, but each one more powerful than the next.

That time, he hadn't felt like he was having a heart attack. Was he becoming jaded?

Somewhere between arguing about the vacancy of the basement, setting their things down for the first time all day, and deciding what was going to be made from the old cans for dinner, Shion had started to notice that his eyes had started to wander over to Inukashi repeatedly, he knew the child had noticed it too, for he had received a glare from him at one point. When the talk about dinner had escalated to a new high and Nezumi had left the basement with Rikiga in toe practically yelling, Inukashi had spoken. "What?"

"I-"

"And don't make off like there isn't something. You want something. I can practically smell it."

Shion sighed. There was no hiding it, huh? Nezumi could tell, and now it seemed Inukashi could too. They were similar, in some ways, but Nezumi was somehow more refined, more extreme even. Perhaps it was their age, just the different stages of life they were in that made them different.

The child continued to stare intensely at him, and Shion smiled sheepishly in return. Inukashi was waiting for his question. He supposed he'd better answer it before he got angry. "I was wondering about Nezumi, actually."

"What about him?" Inukashi scoffed, long dirty hair flying about as he twisted his head to look at the ceiling. The lighting in the basement was plenty insufficient, but even Shion could see little dots that might be mold collecting along the cracks. Nezumi had assured them all that the building was still stable, despite said cracks, but...it was hard not to be nervous.

Shion tore his eyes away from the possible mold dotting, trying to think of exactly how to explain it, and then, "I'm starting to realize how little I know about Nezumi." He hadn't known until yesterday about his love of books, but now it seemed like such an integral part of him, and then there was earlier...Fennec Corp. When Nezumi had said that name, there had been such a spitting hate there. Nezumi didn't show himself to like much of anything, and said he hated humans, but when he'd named Fennec Corp it had been a whole different level. Maybe Nezumi thought he hadn't noticed, but he had. He wanted to know more.

"Then why don't you ask him yourself?"

Shion shrugged, pulled from his deeper thoughts with a frown. "He won't tell me, even if I do ask." Inukashi scoffed, but didn't disagree with him. "And since you two are friends-"

"I am not friends with that rodent!" The child's screech woke the dogs up around them, causing them to lift their heads in concern, but Inukashi calmed them by absently reaching out and patting one of their heads. Mollified, the others lowered their muzzles to the ground again as Inukashi continued. "The only friends that asshole has are the ones he feeds crackers to. Never forget that."

Shion didn't agree. Nezumi seemed to talk more freely with Inukashi, he shared more information, was more truthful. That all seemed like things one would do with someone they trusted, a friend, but he wouldn't push it. He wasn't here to argue, he was here to learn more. "You still know things about him, right?"

"As much as anyone would know. He's very secretive." Inukashi's eyes rolled toward the ceiling and Shion smiled, unable to stop himself from thinking that the child was being a bit dramatic. "I know he just showed up four years ago, and that no one but him knows where he came from. There are theories, of course, but nothing substantial. I also know, just like everyone else, that he whores his voice out three days a week on a street corner. Which street corner changes every so often."

"Wait, he sings?" Shion sat forward, eyes wide. Singing. It had never been something Shion himself had been very good at. He was good at science, not art, which was what singing was. First books, now singing. Nezumi just didn't read like a homeless child. Every day he felt more educated.

"You didn't know that?" Shion shook his head and Inukashi laughed at him. "You really don't know shit about him if you don't know that! Where did he find you? On the top shelf in a department store?!" Shion's cheeks began to flush at the insult, but before he could say anything, Inukashi went on, "Yeah, he sings. It's what he does. Even big wigs sometimes come by to hear him sing-"

"What does it sound like?" Shion asked suddenly, and Inukashi fell short, blinking blankly at him.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, his voice. What does it sound like?"

The arrogance fell away from the child as Inukashi tried to think of an answer to that. "If I had to..." he mumbled after a minute or so, "The wind." That small head lifted slightly, eyes flitting toward the door. "Definitely the wind."

"Yeah?"

Inukashi nodded. "When he sings, it's like all your troubles go away, like the wind comes and carries you away to a better place. It's only temporary, but it feels real. When he stops, you want to ask him to keep going, to take you there again, even though you know it's only an illusion."

Shion smiled. That sounded beautiful. He wanted to hear Nezumi sing, but something in him knew better than to ask. He could just hear Nezumi's scoff, he could hear him saying that the world was ending, and he wanted him to sing. How pathetic. Shion sighed at the thought. He knew what Nezumi would mean, why his mind would go off in that direction, but at the same time...didn't they need things like singing exactly because the world was in such horrible shape around them? If he could inspire such hope of a better place, why wouldn't he?

"What else?" Shion brought his eyes back up to Inukashi, who had begun to regard him with an idle boredness. "What else do you want to know?"

Shion shrugged, and then said exactly what had been on his mind earlier. "Fennec Corp."

Just as there had been a vein of hate in Nezumi at the company, the mere mention of it made Inukashi tick with surprise. "He told you about that?"

"No," Shion shook his head. "We ran into people today, and Nezumi said they were from Fennec Corp. He was..." The boy bit his lip trying to think of how to describe it. "Upset."

"I would be too, if I were him."

"Why?"

Inukashi smirked, the bored expression gone, replaced with one of taunting pleasure. "Tell me, Shion, what does Fennec Corp. mean to you?"

Shion shrugged, "It's a household name. They make everything. Phones, cleaning supplies, games, apps, clothes..." If you could think of it, Fennec Corp. had a division of it somewhere in Japan, or in their other bases in large countries like the United States. Everyone he knew had a phone that came from Fennec Corp., including him and his mother. Even Rikiga and Inukashi's models were from Fennec, though, now that he thought about it, Nezumi's phone, a mod, was not. Somehow that explained a lot.

"Yeah," Inukashi laughed ruefully. "To you, it's just a company that has it's fingers in a lot of pies, but to us? It's an unknown death."

Shion frowned. "How so?"

"Underneath that white exterior you people are so dependent on, is the black interior, the interior that kidnaps people."

"What?" Shion's eyes widened in disbelief. "People would know if that were true!"

"So naive," Inukashi said, grinning at him. "Fennec Corp. comes down in the dead of night and takes homeless people. No one cares about a few missing homeless people. To your people, it's less filth on the streets, and to us, it's more resources, even if we are afraid that we'll be next."

"What happens when they're taken? How do you know it's Fennec Corp.?"

"We know. We're not stupid. They disappear into that building, that's all anyone really knows. We don't know what happens, we don't know why they take them, they just do, and once you're taken, you're never seen again. Only Nezumi ever came back, and he's not talking about it."

"Only Nez-"

The dogs lifted their heads, and Shion fell silent as Nezumi himself entered the basement, a look of disgust plastered on his face. "Mother says it's time for dinner." The voice that reached their ears was somehow distinctly female, despite coming from Nezumi. Shion wondered how he did that, change his voice. "You children go wash your hands before you come up," Nezumi smirked at them, and then promptly turned and left the room again.

Inukashi swore to himself and then got up off the floor, "Asshole," he muttered as he went on up the stairs after Nezumi, shortly followed by the dogs.

Shion lingered behind for a moment, thinking. Inukashi had just implied that Nezumi had been taken by Fennec Corp. He'd escaped somehow. Suddenly, he realized that Inukashi hadn't told him when that had happened. Four years ago. That was when Nezumi had showed up. That fit up perfectly with when Shion had found Nezumi in the alleyway, hurt. Had that been it? Had Fennec Corp. been the ones to hurt Nezumi like that?

The explanation fit, and as Shion stood to his feet, he found that he had never hated anything quite so much.