Something was beginning to rouse him from the darkness, a sound, like a lone drum beating. Each thrum reverberating along the inside of his skull with increasing intensity.

"Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump..."

he groaned, trying to turn away from the noise, ear ringing will a dull pain as cloth rustled and someone shifted loudly on their feet. He could smell something too,... something so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time it jarred him. 'Dirt, and salt... No. Sweat and...'

"...they are not weakened by the sun or holy water." He flinched suddenly as Yuuko's unusually loud voice scattered his thoughts and punctured the remains of his unconsciousness. "That is only a legend." She continued heedless of the fact that she was shouting. "They are not eternally young nor are they immortal nor are they eternally young but since these two..." She paused. "...are of pure breed they possess extraordinary healing powers. Those who become..."

"Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump..."

He stopped listening suddenly as he realized what else he could smell, his stomach twisting strangely with the realization. 'Blood... so much blood. Is it...' He didn't need to finish the question though as some strange new knowledge passed through him. He knew this wasn't his blood. True, his blood was sticking to his face beneath a mix of cold sweat and dry tears and matted in his clothing in disgusting shades of black, brown, and red, but this wasn't what he smelled. No, he smelled someone else's blood. Someone...

"...and unlike before the blood of a prey is needed to live." She finished causing him to cringe internally. There was something seriously wrong with this situation, something seriously wrong with him. He could smell his blood.

"Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump..."

"You agreed to become his prey without even being aware of this?" One of the twins asked, his voice also so much louder than before but Fai could no longer listen. That smell... it made his jaw ache in a whole new way. He struggled to turn away, to bury his face in the bedding only to hear fabric ripping beneath his finger nails, his grip held a little too tightly. The rip alone made him want to scream. Why was everything so loud?

'What the hell is wrong with me?'

"Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-"

'Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!' He wanted to scream and rip his hair out. That smell, those sounds, the dull ache in his jaw that was soon out matching the one in his ears. It was all becoming too much, the strings pulling at his senses being drawn apart so tightly he feared it would be he who ripped apart next.

"There was no time for questions. If I had hesitated even a bit this guy would have died." The ninja's voice made him pause. It was like a soothing balm over a fresh burn as the only gentle voice in the room continued. It was so strange that he was the only quiet one while all the others yelled. It seemed so backwards, so alarming. "Besides,... he trusted the witch in his time of greatest need and since I trust him I have no choice but to do the same."

'Kurogane... how, why...' He wanted to cry suddenly, to let tears of rage pour from his single eye in an onslaught that could very well restore the rains of this so-called acidic Tokyo. But no tears would come as another, more desperate, sensation overrode all else, leaving him blank but for a single desire. Even though he wanted to hear the rest of the conversation, to figure out what they had done to him, to learn the price that foolish ninja had paid- he couldn't focus on anything aside from the sudden-

"Thu-thump..."

-hunger that assailed him.