LIBERI FATALIS: The Therianthrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. A Japanese scientist during the onset of World War II in Europe devises a groundbreaking theory of evolution whose effects will resonate not only on Earth but also throughout the universe for centuries to come. Rated M for language and mature situations.

11. TOKYO

ACT XI: TOKYO

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Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!

Albert Einstein

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March 10th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker, Tokyo, Japan, 12:50 AM

A deafening sound was heard throughout the bunker, which seemed as if a huge hammer was crushing the ground with unprecedented fury. The soldiers who inhabited that place under the ground of Japan's capital, Tokyo, ran in terror as they heard those infernal sounds, which seemed to come from everywhere.

In spite of the intensity of the sound and the fact that it sometimes caused the earth to shake, it was very difficult for the bunker to be affected by that situation, as it had been built in a geologically stable area and the materials with which it had been built allowed it to withstand even earthquakes that could normally destroy a city. And it was not for nothing, because that laboratory was too important to the Japanese government to be lost in an Allied attack.

The reason why all this is mentioned was the fact at that time of night, the city of Tokyo was being mercilessly bombed by the United States Army Air Forces.

The USAAF, under the command of General Curtis LeMay, led Operation Meetinghouse, which aimed to destroy any targets of military value to Japan, especially factories, industries and military installations that might be inside the capital, through the use of Napalm, a newly created incendiary weapon that had been used successfully on the European front during the war. In an attempt to cause as much destruction to the city as possible, that weapon caused unquantifiable damage to the city, not only to the designated targets, but also to the civilian victims who were in the crossfire of the Tokyo bombing.

But none of that seemed to have much effect on the bunker, which was in an area that only a few members of the Japanese imperial army knew its exact location and it was unlikely that the Americans knew of its existence, even through the extensive use of espionage within the region. This was partly due to the fact that the very nature of the projects that were being carried out in that fortified underground place made it very difficult for any spy to have any interest in trying to know its location, much less to be able to investigate the place in greater depth.

Those projects that were being carried out were of a rather... esoteric nature, so to speak. In fact, these projects were rather designed as a last resort the Japanese government could use in the case Japan's very existence was at stake. All the members who worked there knew what they were doing and that their ideas, concepts and anything that might serve the cause of the empire, no matter how ridiculous, absurd, crazy or even dangerous it might be in the short or long term could be used if all the known and yet-to-be known methods had already been exhausted for the country of Japan. It was basically a military version of the Russian roulette, where any mistake they could ever make could be their last.

And one of the members who lived in that bunker during those critical hours was none other than Yoshinori Komatsu, who had been sent from Hiroshima to Tokyo to work in that cramped place, in an attempt by the Japanese government to create a weapon that would change the fortunes of his country with respect to the Allies.

But at the time, Komatsu didn't feel like working or anything about it. The only thing he was doing was being in his room inside the bunker, and trying to survive the hell the capital was turning into at that moment at the hands of the Allies. The only thing he heard coming from outside his room was the sound of soldiers running like headless chickens, and the sound of bombs hitting the city, while the resulting explosions shook the ground like an earthquake.

-"Oh, god, when is this nightmare going to end?"-

The scientist asked himself these questions, while he put his head under a pillow so as not to hear the explosions and screams of the soldiers trying to protect the bunker at any cost. Not to mention that he also did it to protect his head in the event that an explosion could damage the shelter and a heavy object would fall on him.

But despite the intensity of the explosions, the bunker perfectly resisted the American onslaught against Tokyo, and there was no serious damage inside the shelter to be regretted, nor was there any loss of life there either.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the city itself, which resisted the bombing until dawn that day, and it was not until the American aircraft left Japanese territory that it was possible to know the magnitude of the destruction caused by the attack.

---

March 10th, AD 1945, Asakusa Ward, Tokyo, Japan, 02:00 PM

While in many parts of the city the scenes were the same, the Asakusa ward was one of the many regions of the city that suffered the most damage from the American bombing. The buildings were either in ruins or burning from their foundations, there were bodies everywhere, some completely charred by the effects of the napalm on their bodies, there were thousands of people who had lost everything, including their loved ones and who were now wandering the streets seeking help or shelter, while the firefighters could not cope with the large number of fires in the area, much less in the rest of the city.

It was a heartbreaking scene, which had caused many people who were lucky enough to survive the attack to cry when they saw that the city had been so cruelly shelled, and that ordinary citizens, who had nothing to do with the horrors of war or what their nation was doing in one way or another against the world, were paying the price.

Some came to curse the gods for what happened, and some more reckless, at least in secret, began to criticize the reaction of the city authorities and their government to what happened, and the complete inability of the armed forces, which the government boasted their power again and again in the propaganda produced by the state that many had to tolerate every day, to defend the city.

But there were some who were still very upset about what happened, and they had every reason to be, considering that what happened in Tokyo showed that what they had done so far was a failure of biblical proportions, and now they had to explain what happened to their superiors.

And one of those people was Colonel Hiroshi Matsuoka, who walked through Asakusa like a lion with a wasp's nest on his tail.

And he wasn't the only one who seemed to be concerned about the current situation in Tokyo, something that person quickly made known.

-"I hate to say this, but I think we're going to have a lot to explain about our efforts, don't you, Colonel?"-

The man did not say a word about that.

-"Something's wrong, sir?"-

-"Nothing."- Matsuoka finally answered, albeit with a very dry voice. -"I'm just thinking."-

-"You know very well that none of this would have happened if we had shown any kind of results since last year, but so far nothing important has come out of the Special Research Laboratory since it was established four years ago."- The man's aide replied as well, while looking around Asakusa and the destruction that ward suffered. -"And if you'll excuse my impertinence, Colonel, I don't think we're going to get anything out of it at this rate, and we should be concentrating our efforts on other fields, rather than trying to experiment with projects of dubious execution."-

The colonel didn't seem to care much for the audacity of his subordinate to draw his attention on regard of the failures from the laboratory, which Matsuoka was in charge of as chief. He knew very well that man was right to complain about the lack of concrete results, if we consider the absence of these was partly the reason why Tokyo had been attacked, and the superiors of both would demand their heads for what happened.

-"I already know that, Nakamura."- Matsuoka replied, while he and his junior were still walking around the ward, watching some destroyed buildings as they were talking about the issue. -"Although if I must judge by your tone, I imagine you must be speaking about the Enhanced Natural Evolution Project that Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu has been working on since last year."-

-"That's exactly what I was referring to, sir."- Nakamura spoke his objections in a very angry reply. -"Since that idiot Komatsu arrived here in Tokyo, we haven't seen any results from him. I have always opposed him coming to work here, considering his background in Germany and Manchukuo, and we do not have good references to him in the latter case, as reported by Major Shiro Ishii two years ago regarding the incident in which Dr. Masao Kazama committed suicide, and in which Dr. Komatsu may have had some relation to his death."-

-"I already know about the matter, and believe me, like you, I am also very upset with him."- Matsuoka explained about Komatsu and his poor opinion on him, an opinion also shared by his junior.

-"Indeed."- Nakamura replied. -"And worst of all, his lab and bunker looks more like a zoo than a military facility, since almost every day he is working with some kind of new animal to experiment with. Although the bunker is large enough to store so many animals, our resources to maintain them are limited, and it is now more of a priority to allocate those to our men than to keep animals in place. Not to mention the many unpleasant smells I've had to endure every time I walk into Komatsu's lab, to say nothing of the excrement of those beasts on the floor..."-

-"You don't need to be so explicit about it, Nakamura."- The colonel reacted with a disgusted face at the reminder of that point. -"I'll try to talk to Komatsu as soon as we get back to the lab. And I think that man is going to hear some words from me on the subject."-

-"I hope so, sir."-

The junior said when he and his boss were approaching one of the most famous landmarks of the ward, and also from Tokyo: The Kaminarimon Gate, which was more or less intact after the bombing, albeit the same cannot be said about its surroundings. Once in front of the Kaminarimon, Nakamura and Matsuoka can't help but see that historical monument of equanimous beauty and see how that place more or less survived the American attack, while they both pondered what to do next, especially regarding Komatsu.

And they both knew that something had to be done now, if they didn't want the tragedy affecting Tokyo right now to happen again.

---

March 10th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker, Tokyo, Japan, 05:00 PM

-"Dr. Komatsu, Colonel Matsuoka asked me to come to his office right now, as he wishes to speak with you."-

Upon hearing this from a young soldier who had been sent by the aforementioned person to his room in the bunker, Yoshinori Komatsu knew full well that the reasons why Matsuoka required him in his office were not good, but he had no choice but to obey. The general mood within the Imperial Japanese Army was somber after the American bombing on Tokyo and it was obvious that many heads were going to roll due of what happened, probably beginning with his.

-"Tell the colonel I'll be right there."-

Komatsu responded as stoically as he could, knowing that he would probably have to give many explanations for the lack of results in his work. But for no amount of money that the IJA could bring to the project it could solve one of the biggest problems in trying to apply his revolutionary evolution theory to practice in real life, and it was something that Komatsu at least wanted Matsuoka to understand, even if the effort could be futile.

Leaving his room, which was a more or less small cubicle where he kept his belongings, including books, essays and important papers for his research, the Hiroshima-born scientist went to Colonel Matsuoka's office, which was at the other end of the bunker, while he was escorted by the soldier who gave him the message to report to the colonel's office. In front of the offices, both Komatsu and the soldier fully identified themselves to the escort guard at the entrance to Matsuoka's office, and once the soldiers saw that their IDs were in order, they were allowed to enter.

Inside the office, there was the aforementioned Col. Hiroshi Matsuoka, a medium sized man, black hair, with a somewhat ridiculous looking moustache, and glasses, along with his assistant, Lt. Hideki Nakamura, a man with low, almost bald hair, more or less small eyes, also of medium height and an unfriendly look towards Komatsu, whom he mistrusted.

-"Please have a seat, Dr. Komatsu."-

Komatsu sat in the chair in front of the desk where Matsuoka was placing his elbows, while he looked at the doctor with a cold, calculated look at his counterpart.

-"Yamada, please leave us alone, I need to talk with him about confidential matters."-

-"Yes, sir!"-

The young soldier who escorted the scientist quickly left the office, leaving Komatsu alone before Matsuoka and Nakamura, who kept looking at him without a word to him. It was obvious they were unhappy and they had the right not to be, considering that Tokyo was almost in ruins and they had failed to protect the imperial capital by having nothing to protect it with. Without Komatsu delivering any tangible results, it was obvious why the Special Research Laboratory was the laughing stock of the IJA, and that was something they wanted to talk to him about.

-"Dr. Komatsu, we'd like to know what progress you've made on your project."- Matsuoka began the chat with him first, with a very dry tone.

-"Progress, you said, sir?"-

-"Yes."-

-"Well, to be honest, sir, we have obtained some important results on animal behavior by extrapolating certain data from the behaviors of certain domestic species, such as cats, dogs, horses, hamsters, among other similar species, to those of humans. It may not be much, but at least we're already making some progress."-

-"And what use would that be to us, Doctor?"-

The colonel's question became even colder and more inemotional, as it was evident that he was not liking what he was hearing about the results obtained by the doctor and his men. Komatsu tried to ignore the colonel and his aide's glances and continued with his explanations, though it was clear to him that they were not satisfied with his words.

-"By extrapolating that information to human behaviors, we would save a lot of time and effort in trying to replicate human behaviors in animals by simply replicating those behaviors that are already human in our opinion and only changing unwanted behaviors, so that we would not have to repeat the same pattern each time we had to repeat the process with each individual or species."-

-"And that's what you've been doing since you came here to Tokyo and started working here?"-

-"Well...to be fair,, that's what we've got so far."- Komatsu explained his results to Matsuoka. -"There are many obstacles for the project to be successful, and that coupled with the fact that much of the technology we may need to achieve tangible results is not yet available or out of our reach, and I do not believe that any amount of money given to this project will change that situation. Also keep in mind that we are working in unknown fields that no scientist in the entire history of mankind has been, and in order to get some kind of results, we would need many years to get anything that we can actually observe."-

-"And how many years do you think it will take to see results, if any?"-

-"About ten or twenty years,"- Komatsu replied with a very depressed tone. -"the most optimistic estimate would be about fifty, based on existing technology."-

That reply, which was the last thing Matsuoka wanted to hear, was the last straw for him. The fact that he and the entire country would have to wait several decades to see results from Komatsu's project was something he definitely did not intend to do, especially when his own job was in danger, and the country was at risk of being destroyed by the Allies. Something he made known to Komatsu... in his own way.

-"Did you say approximately... fifty years?"-

-"Sadly, yes, sir."- Komatsu responded, knowing full well what might happen next, something that was evident when he began to sweat in fear.

The colonel removed his glasses slowly, while his hand shook from the rage he felt at the time. Matsuoka was a man who was not accustomed to taking no for an answer, but the fact that he had to wait an unusually long time for the Komatsu's project to bear fruit was something he no longer intended to tolerate, especially if it came from someone whose reputation was less than stellar within the Japanese army and who was even blamed for a death in Manchukuo.

-"Dr. Komatsu, are you fooling me?"-

That question puzzled the doctor a little, who was trying to figure out what the colonel's answer would be.

-"Excuse me, sir?"-

But before Komatsu could continue the conversation, the last thing he saw before he fell back on his back to the ground was a punch in his face from the colonel, who already had enough of listening him and his excuses that now had serious consequences for everyone. The blow was so brutal that even his glasses broke due of the violent impact, although fortunately the glass didn't hurt his eyes.

-"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?"-

-"Since you came to this bunker, I've only heard excuses after excuses from you for not delivering useful results, to such an extent that I'm beginning to doubt whether or not that theory of yours can really be proven."- Matsuoka replied with a angry voice, albeit without losing entirely his cool. -"And if that wasn't enough, you turned this bunker into a damn zoo! Every time I walk into your lab, I see dogs, cats, foxes, hamsters, bulls, lions and god knows what beasts you'll have there. And the stench emanating from those animals has sometimes become unbearable!"-

Komatsu, who was still on the ground trying to recover from the blow received by his superior, could not say anything about it, partly because of the terror he felt at the time and also not to give the colonel any more excuses that could be used against him.

-"I guess I'm right, aren't I?"-

The assaulted doctor couldn't do anything else but pick up the remains of his glasses with his hands and put them inside a handkerchief he had inside one of the pockets of his shirt. Once this was done, and without further protest, considering the person in front of him, Yoshinori Komatsu sat back down in his chair in order to hear the colonel and his ranting again.

-"Colonel Matsuoka, I fully understand your discomfort regarding the lack of results, but you must understand that none of this is simple, and as I mentioned earlier, my team is stepping on unknown grounds for science."- Komatsu apologized to the colonel, as he wiped off the blood on his face with another handkerchief he had on his hand, even though he knew what he was going to say would probably not be enough to reassure him. -"And as if this were not enough, apart from the fact that much of the technology needed for this project does not yet exist, many other elements that could be useful to us only exist in western countries, so we have to make up for it with whatever we can."-

-"And what about the animals, Doctor? Do we have to tolerate them while you continue your work?"- Matsuoka responded annoyedly to what seemed to him to be another excuse."You know very well that our warehousing resources are limited, and if you continue to bring animals into the bunker, you will start to cause problems for everyone in here, including sanitation issues with animal waste, care and medication."-

-"I also understand that perfectly, Colonel, and I will do my best to prevent the specimens from causing any further problems inside the bunker, but please ask you to be a little more patient, and once it is no longer necessary to use animal specimens, we can let them go or donate them to any zoo if possible."-

The colonel whipped his pen against his desk in anger, as he was already beginning to lose his temper with Komatsu and he decided to face the doctor to make it clear what he wanted to see from the man.

-"Look, doctor, I understand that this is not easy, but I plan to give you one more chance to see some kind of useful result for our country, and you better make the most of this opportunity that I am giving you:"- The soldier suddenly withdrew a gun from its holder and quickly put it on his desk, leaving a very ominous message for Komatsu if he did not comply with his demands. -"You have until August to show me, even if it is a prototype of your project, to me. I don't care a damn if all you can do is get some of your animals to start talking, but what I want to know is that if this theory of yours is really possible to put into practice and is not just some kind of fucked-up idea taken from your childish imagination, Dr. Komatsu..."-

And as quickly as he could, Matsuoka took his gun, which was loaded, and he pointed it directly at the doctor's head...

-"And if I don't see results by then, I suggest you start writing your will at once, because I'll see to it that you get back to Hiroshima with a couple of extra holes inside your goddamn head. Do I make myself clear, Doctor?"-

Silence. The only thing the scientist could do was swallow saliva in the face of this threat.

-"Yes, sir!"-

-"Well, if you'll excuse me, I have other very important things to do. Now get out of here and I don't want to see you again until I tell you to!"-

-"Understood, sir!"-

And without wasting any more time, though almost tripping over the chair where he was sitting, Dr. Komatsu left Matsuoka's office and headed for his room again. Meanwhile, the colonel took a cigarette out of his pocket and quickly lit it, in order to calm his nerves. That gray, foul-smelling smoke was a balm to him after a day as difficult as it was hellish for the colonel, not to mention having to tolerate someone as undesirable as Yoshinori Komatsu, in his own opinion and that of his aide, Nakamura.

-"Ahhh! Now I understand why nobody wants that son of a bitch around."- The colonel spoke to Nakamura as he exhaled the cigarette smoke from his mouth. -"If I have to give any opinion on what he's doing, I think that asshole is crazier than a goat."-

-"I agree with you, sir."- Nakamura, meanwhile, lit his cigarette with a match. -"But there's one thing I'd like to know, and if you excuse me my insolence, what did you mean by making an animal talk? As far as I know, the original goal of the project is to create animals with human intelligence, but I had never heard that it also included the goal of giving an animal the ability to speak."-

-"Did I ever explain to you what Komatsu's project was all about?"-

-"I don't remember you telling me about it before, sir."

Matsuoka put his cigarette in the ashtray and quickly made himself comfortable in his chair to explain to Nakamura about Komatsu's work.

-"Dr. Komatsu has been working on a very interesting theory since he graduated from university and has been working on it in one way or another for years. According to his profile that military intelligence gave me last year, Komatsu is working on a concept that would allow any warm-blooded animal to speak and have intelligence similar to that of a human being."- The colonel explained to his aide in a very sarcastic way. -"Obviously, the first time I heard that kind of work from them the first thing that came to mind was that it seemed like a really bad joke, but they seemed to be very interested in seeing if it was possible to put that theory into practice if Komatsu had more support and money."-

-"But I understand that Komatsu was involved in several other incidents elsewhere where he has been with respect to that project of his. He was basically expelled from Germany despite being on a scholarship, and he was involved in an incident inside Unit 731 in Manchukuo where a member of it committed suicide because of him."- Nakamura made his own concerns about Komatsu known to his boss. -"Basically, we don't have any good references from him anywhere, other than that he graduated with honors from university thanks that theory that he embodied in his graduation thesis. And to be frank sir, and considering what you told me about the real purpose of the project, I really can't believe that someone like him would be interested in working into something straight out of a science fiction novel."-

-"I think so too, and if it was up to me, I wouldn't have let Komatsu work here and I would have sent him back to Hiroshima, but a person with government contacts asked us to let in here, and he even paid extra money for that purpose."- Matsuoka scratched his head at this last part, since he didn't knew the whole reasons why Komatsu was sent to Tokyo. "-I never understood why that person was so interested in seeing Komatsu out here, but I think he had a very deep grudge against that guy, and maybe it had something to do with what happened in Manchukuo."-

-"You mean Dr. Kazama's suicide?"-

-"Yes, in fact he worked in this bunker when it opened several years ago, but for some stupid reason he was transferred to Unit 731."- The man explained his relation with the late Dr. Kazama. -"I think the senior staff thought that someone with experience in general surgery like him would be an excellent addition to the staff there in Manchukuo, but I think the environment there affected him more than enough, and that contributed to his death. According to the autopsy and the comments of several people who last saw him, including Komatsu, he was drunk and in the last few months he had been drinking heavily. It was said it wasn't unusual to see him working while he reeked on cheap sake."-

-"Considering what is said about all that is going on in China, I have no doubt this could have caused him to take his own life."-

-"But there are rumors that Komatsu may have had something to do with his death, and those rumors could never be proven in a court, but that was one of the reasons Major Ishii wanted Komatsu out of his sight as far from him and also China."-

-"Well to be honest, sir, Major Ishii has always had a reputation for being a very sinister person."-

-"I was thinking the same thing. I wouldn't be surprised if one day that creep rots in hell for what they say he's doing out there in Manchukuo."-

The colonel could not help but be fierce in his criticism about the head of Unit 731 and the experiments he and his men carried out on human beings at the time, although to the members of the IJA, these were only rumors, since the unit was supposed to be secret, and not everyone knew about its existence, much less what it was doing against the civilian population of China.

-"But with regard to the accusations about Komatsu regarding the death of Dr. Kazama and his involvement in it,"- Matsuoka returned on the topic regarding Komatsu. -"I very much doubt that someone like him would do something like incite anyone to suicide, as he's too nice to do such a crazy thing, at least in my opinion. If it was said that Dr. Kazama drank a lot, chances are it was his alcoholism that led him to his death."-

-"Yes, you might be right, sir, but I can't help but think there's something I find... off... for putting it nicely, about that Komatsu guy anyway."-

-"What do you mean, Nakamura?"-

-"If you allow me to be very frank about my opinion of him, I think there is not much difference between him and Major Ishii, even if the comparison might be very vulgar."-

Lt. Nakamura's words about the comparison between Komatsu and Ishii surprised Col. Matsuoka, since he never had such a thing in mind, even if there was a world of difference between the two men, including their philosophies and work methods.

-"In the times I've had to watch him work in his lab I've always noticed that Komatsu seems to have a kind of fixation, if not obsession, with dealing with animals. He always seems to treat them in the best possible way, with the best food he can give them, and sometimes to the detriment of our own food supplies for the soldiers, as if he were forgetting that we are in a war and that we urgently need that food."- Nakamura explained his distaste for Komatsu and his reasons, always with a annoyed expression in his voice. -"In fact, I've had several disagreements with him because of his insistence on giving his animals the best possible food, rather than giving them leftovers or something cheaper."-

-"I am aware of that, and in fact I have here on hand a compilation of the expenses that Komatsu has made to our account for the maintenance of his animals. These expenses, according to what I have been told by experts, are very similar to those of a medium-sized zoo."- Matsuoka pointed his finger at a piece of paper, where the expenses Komatsu had incurred to date were written. -"And judging by the number of specimens Komatsu has in his possession, I have no doubt he's going to require more funding for their upkeep. But still, I still find it incredible that you compare Komatsu to that freak. Compared to Ishii, Komatsu is a saint, while I would not like to have a nutjob like Ishii near me."-

-"But as far as I understand, based on the reports received from Manchukuo and the German government's criticism of him, which reached us years ago, but for some reason no one has bothered to read them, Komatsu seems to have done something similar to what is currently happening here in those two places. Normally, that would be grounds enough for not accepting him here and sending him back home where he belongs."-

Matsuoka takes another cigarette out of his pocket, and his aide, not wasting any more time, lights it for him...

-"Ahh, that's better..."- The military man responded, while enjoying the cigarrette in his mouth. -"The only thing I can do right now regarding that guy is to speak to central command and request further explanation for why Komatsu was sent here to Tokyo, as well as to know the identity of the person who requested that he be sent here at our expense... and our own well-being. If I find that guy, I'll hold him responsible for whatever bullshit the doctor does here."-

-"Well said, sir."-

---

March 15th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Komatsu's Laboratory), Tokyo, Japan, 10:00 AM

Five days have passed since the bombing of Tokyo and life continues inside the bunker, even if in the outside world the city was still in a state of chaos due to the effects of the attack on the citizens of the imperial capital. But despite this, the people who lived in the underground facility did their best to try to ignore what was going on up there. Some did it by choice, others because they had no option in the matter.

One of those people who were part of this last group was Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu, who was preparing to go to work that day in his laboratory. Due to his position as a major researcher and project leader, he was not allowed to go to the surface, and any information about the outside world was given to him in a brief summary that was given every 15 days. Neither could he receive or send letters, nor make phone calls, so he had no idea what the situation was like in his hometown Hiroshima, much less how his parents were.

But for the time being, that wasn't of much concern to him, as he had other more important things to deal with, such as trying to continue working on the Enhanced Natural Evolution Project based on his theory that he had been working with it for years, and was now trying to put it into practice, even though he knew that the technology to achieve some visible results was still beyond his reach.

-"Dr. Komatsu!"-

A cheerful voice was heard inside the laboratory as the scientist entered the place. Komatsu could quickly deduce that it was a person he knew.

-"Good morning, Suzuki."-

The voice came from Isamu Suzuki, one of his assistants who started working with him from the first day Komatsu arrived in Tokyo. Suzuki was a recent university graduate who, like many young Japanese men of that time, enlisted in the army to serve his country, but due to his lack of physical condition, instead of going to war, the IJA thought it was more convenient for him to work on something related to his career, in this case he had graduated as a biologist.

And on closer inspection, Komatsu quickly realized why Suzuki was not accepted into the army as a foot soldier: He was the classic definition of a nerd in the most classic sense of the word. Suzuki was thin, short, wearing glasses, his hair was equally short, among other details. But for Komatsu, that was the least of it, for he appreciated a person's intellectual abilities more than his physique. Apart from that, he couldn't afford to discriminate against anyone for such nonsense and Suzuki was too valuable to him to ignore him due to such ridiculous trivialities as his nerdy face.

-"By the way, what happened to your face, doctor? Did you have an accident?"-

Suzuki was referring to his face, which was still scarred by the brutal punch he received on his face from Col. Matsuoka, but for obvious reasons Komatsu tried to find a way to avoid the subject with some pious lie.

-"I fell out of bed with my glasses and everything, and I fell face-down to the ground, breaking my glasses on impact."-

-"Oh, I see."-

-"Don't worry, it was nothing serious."- Komatsu then pointed his finger on his face, especially on his scars. -"Fortunately I have other spare glasses on hand for a case like this. At least I should be glad I didn't get any shards in my eyes."-

-"Indeed, sir."- Suzuki suddenly changes the topic. -"By the way, do you remember Eiko, the cat that was sent to Germany from here in Japan?"-

-"Yes, of course."- The doctor quickly remembered the cat he started working with from the beginning of his research. -"How could I forget about her, if she was one of the first specimens I started working with eight years ago?"-

-"I think you remember she was pregnant, don't you?"-

Komatsu quickly recalled that Eiko was several months pregnant, although because he had been working with other animals at the time, he did not have time to care for her properly. Considering the way his assistant was telling him about her, he was already imagining the worst about her.

-"Don't tell me something bad happened with Eiko, Suzuki?"-

-"Of course not, doctor!"- The young assistant responded with a big smile on his face. -"On the contrary, she's aaaall right. In fact, she just gave birth last night."-

-"Really?"- Suzuki's boss responded quite happily.

-"Yes."- The young man pointed his finger towards Eiko's cage, which was at the end fo the laboratory. -"In fact, I was the one in charge of helping her in her delivery, and I am proud to say that everything went perfectly and without any complications to speak of."-

Komatsu sighed as he heard this, knowing that after the terrible days that followed the Tokyo bombing and the beating from Matsuoka, the last thing he wanted to hear was that something bad had happened to Eiko or any of his favorite specimens.

-"And how many kittens did she have?"-

-"Six."- Suzuki responded at that question. - "Three males and three females."-

The scientist found it curious that Eiko had given birth to an equal number of kittens of different sexes, something he decided to take note of, at least mentally for the time being.

-"I took the trouble to name the kittens, since I didn't know if you were going to do it. I hope you don't mind me overstepping your authority on that, doctor."-

-"Don't worry about that, Suzuki."- Komatsu replied at that concern from his junior. -"You actually saved me the trouble of doing it myself, since we're going to be very busy right now and I can't waste my time with something as trivial as that."-

-"I'm glad to hear that, sir."-

-"Then, could you show me the newborn kittens?"-

-"Of course, let's go see them."-

Both researchers went to the cage where Eiko was while she was nursing her litter. Komatsu and his assistant Suzuki watched carefully as the cat was quietly tongue-wiping her kittens, while Suzuki, on the other hand, pulled out of his pocket a piece of paper with some interesting facts on the subject.

-"Would you like to know the names of the kittens I gave them, sir?"-

-"if you would, please."-

-"Well, the three females are named Eri, Emi and Etsuko,"- The young aide said. -"and the three males are named Eisuke, Eiji and Eita."-

Yoshinori Komatsu suddenly looked at his assistant with a strange look on his face after noticing all the names of the kittens in Eiko's litter began with the letter "E", just like their mother, something he let Suzuki know immediately.

-"Was there any need for their names to begin with the letter "E", Suzuki?"-

The young biologist noticed how his boss began to look at him in a rather strange way when he heard the names of the kittens he gave them, so he had no choice but to explain his reasons for choosing them.

-"Eh, well, sir... To be honest with you, I thought their names would start with the same letter, since their mother's name is Eiko, and I think her name is one that suits her very well, don't you think so, sir?"-

Eiko (えいこ/栄子): A name that in Japanese means glorious child. And for a Japanese scientist like him, it had perhaps a meaning that might even sound foreboding in some ways, even though he couldn't know in what ways it might be, apart from its etymological meaning.

But the fact that all of that cat's litter shared the same initial letter from her mother was too much of a stretch for Komatsu to ignore, considering that he never liked that name when he received Eiko during his stay in Germany.

-"Well, I must admit that the name has a special meaning, but I've always thought that "Eiko" is a too... human name for an animal, much less a cat."- Komatsu also pointed out to Suzuki another flaw in using that letter to Eiko's entire litter. -"In addition, your choice of names has a very big flaw due to a fact that you seem to have overlooked."-

Isamu Suzuki seemed very perplexed by the words of his mentor at his complaints.

-"Which "fact" do you mean, sir"-

Komatsu pointed his finger at the kittens, in a way that required Suzuki to look at them again.

-"How the hell do you expect to know who's who?"-

In fact, Eiko's entire litter had the same physical characteristics as their mother: green eyes, brown fur, no tails except for one very small one. That was even more strange, considering that Komatsu had bred Eiko with a male Japanese bobtail cat, even though genetically Eiko was very different from both bobtails and their more similar relatives, the Manx cats. The result of this union resulted in a litter that did not have any physical characteristics with their father, not even in the slightest, considering that cat was a white fur one with golden patches.

-"Well, I've already managed to figure out who's who, doctor. For example, this kitten on the left is Eri, the other is Eita..."-

-"Okay, okay, I get it, just trying to think how you did it makes my head spin."-

-"Oh, sorry, sir."-

-"Don't worry about it."- Dr. Komatsu decided to change the subject-matter entirely. -"Leaving cats aside, what else can you tell me about the other specimens we have?"-

-"Hmmm"- Suzuki began to remember other topics to discuss with his mentor. -"Now that I remember, and maybe it's a little bit related to Eiko's issue, but, do you remember Tidj, the little mouse you brought back from Europe too?"-

-"Yes, of course I remember her perfectly,"- The chief scientist remembered her, although he found it strange that his student mentioned her. -"but she's been dead for years, hasn't she?"-

-"Yes, but since she came here to Japan, we managed to get her to reproduce and have several litters before she died. We now have many of her descendants at hand, who, like Eiko, share many of her characteristics, including her exaggerated fertility and her... as you told me over the phone when you were in Hiroshima, taste for species other than rodents."-

-"And how many litters did she have, if I may know?"-

-"About one hundred, just in the first year."- The young aide explained, with some restrain in his voice, as even he didn't believe in those numbers himself at first. -"Considering that Tidj died in late 1943, every litter from her had its own and so on, so we have about 10,000 mice, if not more, on hand. In fact, and to be honest, sir, I've already lost count of all the mice we have in the lab."

Komatsu took off his glasses as he was surprised to hear the number of mice descending from Tidj only in the two years that Komatsu had not seen her since he returned to Japan. Even by the standards of her species, Tidj had been too fertile for a mouse, perhaps more than normal, and if it were not for the fact that her whole life was spent in a laboratory, she and her descendants would have infested the Japanese archipelago with more mice than a country could tolerate at any given time.

-"Suzuki, tell me you're joking with that."- Komatsu asked his aide an explanation on those numbers. -"There is no way in hell a mouse can have so many offspring in such a short time, especially when rodents have a short life span."-

-"Sir, I wish this could be some kind of tasteless joke, but I swear it's true."- Suzuki explained with a worried tone in his voice. -"As a result of this issue, all of Tidj's offspring mice are isolated in a separate room and separated by sex to avoid further reproduction or else Col. Matsuoka and the rest of the IJA might want our heads."-

For that scientist, the mere fact that a single mouse was so fertile in less than a few months before it died was something that went beyond all the boundaries known to science. And the fact that in less than two years all of Tidj's known offspring had bred more than 10,000 rodents was something that even for him was absurd and unthinkable.

-"Is there any way to see those mice?"-

-"Yes, of course. They're in the second isolation room at the end of here."-

And without further ado, Komatsu and Suzuki go to the room where all of Tidj's descendants were stored. Once inside the room, the doctor realized that what his assistant said about how fertile that mouse was and all its litters were not unfounded hyperbole: Upon entering the place, there were hundreds of cages, all with mice separated by sex to prevent them from reproducing each other without control.

And even with all those precautions, Komatsu noticed that many of the mice tried to have sex at any cost, even if they were with other individuals of the same sex, and the same applied to both males and females. It was something that was outside of all imaginable reasoning and defied everything he knew about the fertility of mice.

-"Now do you believe me on this, Dr. Komatsu?"-

Komatsu continued to look at all those rodents in amazement and how they still tried to have sex at any cost and with whoever was in their way.

-"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by this, Suzuki."-

-"As I told you a few moments ago, Doctor, all these mice are going to cause us a very serious problem with the higher-ups if any of these cages get damaged and the rodents escape from here."- The tone of Isamu Suzuki's voice became even more somber due to the implications such an eventuality would have between them and the IJA and especially with the whole country if the mice left the bunker. -"Don't you think it would be more suitable for us to destroy the mice we have left over, sir?"

-"No!"- Suzuki's boss replied in a very harsh way to the young biologist. -"I think I've already told you what the rules are regarding the handling of any animal specimen in this lab. Or have you forgotten those, Suzuki?"-

-"Well... no... let's see:"- The young doctor tried to remember the rules that Komatsu imposed on his collaborators and anyone else who worked in his laboratory. -"Do not sacrifice any animal unless it is very sick and cannot be cured or unless it is a danger to others. Do not cause unnecessary suffering to any animal specimen, etc, etc."-

-"If so, why would you even suggest such a dumb idea in the first place?"-

Suzuki was between nervous and somewhat upset by his boss' words, since what he was suggesting made no sense and could prove suicidal for him and even deadly for the young researcher if a problem with these rodents were to arise, and they would have to face the consequences with the Japanese military authorities.

But to Suzuki, he had no choice but to obey him without question, even if Komatsu's ideas and philosophies were things that to the young biologist were beyond his own capacity to comprehend.

-"I thought it would be the most logical approach regarding the excess of mice, sir."-

-"You know very well that the life of an animal is as sacred as that of a human being, and that we cannot even conceive that an animal can be sacrificed in the name of science. Even if we have an excess of mice, each and every one of them can be useful to us at any given time, and sooner or later they will die of hunger, old age or disease, so we must let nature take its proper course with respect to them."-

-"..."-

-"Judging by your face, I don't think you're very happy with my decision, are you?"-

And indeed, for the young Isamu Suzuki, hearing such a thing was about to strain his patience that he already had with his own mentor, because he couldn't even contemplate that someone like him would equate an insignificant mouse in the same level with a human being.

-"I'd be lying if I said I agreed with you, if I must be very blunt with you, Doctor."-

But Komatsu didn't seem to care much about his assistant's opinion about whether it was right to keep mice alive or not. For him, the lives of those tiny beings were more valuable than sacrificing them for the common good of the rest of the inhabitants of the bunker (or the entire country).

-"Well, I don't expect you to be okay with my work either."- Komatsu retorted with a plain voice on his aide. -"Although I fully understand your concerns on the subject."-

Suzuki winced audibly at the rebuke of his boss. He could not believe that the man seemed to care more about mice than the welfare of human beings, even if he did not mean it with ill intentions, but because Komatsu believed that animal life is as valuable as human one.

But the only thing Suzuki wanted to do at the time was to change the subject about the mice and go to another subject that, to his disgrace, was just as unpleasant for him to deal with his boss.

-"Now that you've seen the mice, there's another thing you must also see, Dr. Komatsu."-

-"What do you mean, Suzuki?"-

Due to the unpleasantness of the subject, the young biologist hesitated a little when saying this.

-"Remember that Bengal tiger that was brought here two months ago?"

-"Oh, I see!"- Komatsu happily responded at this. -"You mean that tiger named Raghu, right?"-

-"Uhh... yes."-

-"Is there a problem with him?"-

-"No."- The young man replied at his boss. -"We just obtained some intriguing findings that I think you should see, Doctor."-

-"So, let's go see that tiger, and see what you mean."-

Both the scientist and his assistant left the room where the mice lived and went to another place in the laboratory where the cages of the largest animals were, in this case, those of the big cats such as lions, tigers, panthers, and so on. Once there, Komatsu set his sights on the tiger Suzuki is referring to a few moments ago, a huge Bengal tiger called Raghu, which was brought to the laboratory a couple of months ago, even though the above-mentioned feline had been living in Japan for years beforehand. Judging by its appearance, Raghu was more than evident that it was a very ferocious animal, and as Suzuki approached the cage, the animal began to roar to the young biologist violently, implying that the tiger would attack him if it had the opportunity to do so.

-"What can you tell me about Raghu, Suzuki?"-

The young assistant, somewhat nervous due to the presence of the tiger, read from his notebook some data on the personal history behind the animal.

-"According to what I have recorded in his personal profile, Raghu is a Bengal tiger from a reserve in Agra, India, which was brought here to Tokyo in 1937. From the reports that were sent to us from that country, Raghu was sent to Japan because he killed five of his caretakers, some of them in very brutal ways to mention them here in this report. Originally it was planned to be euthanized in his country of origin, but he was most likely sent here to get rid of the animal in some way, likely for... stereotypical reasons, if I say so..."-

-"I get it."- Komatsu heard the whole report with a very notable interest, while keeping his eyes on the tiger. -"Go on."-

-"Once Raghu arrived to Japan, and before arriving at the bunker, he lived for a while at the Ueno Zoo, but he was never put on display, because during his stay in Ueno, that tiger killed two other caretakers, and another one had his arm torn off."-

-"So that tiger is truly a wild and uncontrollable beast, if I must say so."-

-"For once I agree with you, sir."- Suzuki snarked a bit regarding this. -"Continuing with the Raghu issue, due to those incidents, the government planned to return the animal to India, but due to the war it was no longer possible, so it was originally planned to kill Raghu and use him as food for other carnivorous animals, but thanks to Col. Matsuoka it was sent here instead, thinking that Raghu would be more useful as a laboratory animal rather than cheap food for other beasts."-

-"Well, I don't blame him for trying to get rid of the tiger like that, although for once it's good to know that he didn't try to do a dumb thing by killing him."- Dr. Komatsu replied, while ignoring Suzuki's snarkiness, as always. -"But let's go to the most important issue: What did you want to show me about Raghu?"-

-"Leaving aside that Raghu is a very dangerous animal, I have noticed in the last few months that the tiger seems to be acting in a somewhat unusual way, although we have not been able to deduce the reason for its strange behavior without risking being attacked by it."-

Komatsu, meanwhile, did not stop looking at the tiger, which in turn did not stop looking at him either, as if the animal was trying to say something to the scientist by just using its eyes.

-"Why do I feel like Raghu is trying to say something to my head? Is it just me or is it my imagination playing tricks on me?"-

These words crossed the head of that man, who was very interested in knowing more about the secrets that Hindu feline also hid inside his head, but there was only one way to find out for sure.

And to find out those secrets, he knew that very extreme measures had to be taken to achieve it.

-"Suzuki, I know this may sound very sudden, but I'm going to need you to open the cage where Raghu is and let him free for a few moments."-

Obviously, that order, as strange as it was dangerous, alarmed the assistant as never before in his life.

-"WHA-WHAAAAAAT?!"-

-"I will not repeat this order twice: I want you to let Raghu go free for a few minutes. I need to see him up close and I can't do a thing with him if that tiger is in his cage."-

-"With all due respect, Dr. Komatsu, but HAVE YOU GONE OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"- The young aide yelled at his boss at hearing that daring order from him. -"Didn't you hear what I said about that tiger killing seven people to date and maiming another here in Tokyo? You want that monster to kill us all here in the lab?"-

-"I'm fully aware of that, Suzuki!"- Komatsu yelled back at his assistant, who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when he heard such an order to release the tiger inside the laboratory, knowing what that wild cat could do to everyone inside the bunker. -"but I think I know the reason why Raghu is acting that way, and I need to release him from his cage to know for sure!"-

-"Dr. Komatsu,"- Another staff member came out to defend Suzuki's position regarding not letting Raghu free within the lab. -"I agree with Dr. Suzuki regarding that animal. I have had the opportunity to see what that Raghu is capable of doing to anyone who approaches him, and believe me it was something very nasty to see or even tell, even in a very simply way, sir, so I'm also asking you not to let that animal go free, for everyone's sake."-

Komatsu looked at both men with a furious look, seeing that he felt that their conduct was too cowardly, even treacherous, for his own personal judgment.

-"I see."- The chief scientist said with a rageful look at both men. -"If none of you cowards want to follow my orders, then I will."-

And without waiting for an answer from Suzuki and the other worker, whose name was lost in history, Komatsu went to the cage and proceeded to open it without even a second thought. Meanwhile, Suzuki, out of panic, ordered another laboratory employee to call in some soldiers to come to the laboratory, so that they could kill Raghu in case the tiger started attacking everyone in the place.

-"GET SOME SOLDIERS HERE ASAP, BEFORE THIS ANIMAL CAN SLAUGHTER EVERYONE HERE!"-

With the cage open, Raghu came out of it quickly, approaching to Yoshinori Komatsu in a somewhat dangerous manner. But to that man, that seemed to be a relatively simple and simple thing to do, and he did not seem to consider at any time that that huge feline could kill him at any time.

-"OK, Raghu, come here, little kitty..."-

Raghu, upon smelling Komatsu, carefully approached closer to the human, while keeping a prudent distance from that man and thus making sure if the doctor was a danger for that feline...

Meanwhile, Suzuki and the rest of the staff were behind Komatsu behind some tables, while they watched carefully and with fear what that tiger could do to Komatsu or to everyone else. Fortunately for them, three soldiers arrived at the laboratory armed with high-powered rifles, so they could kill the animal in case things went wrong.

-"Don't be afraid, little kitty, nobody's going to hurt you..."-

The tiger drew closer to Komatsu, as he approached his hand in sign that he had no intention of doing anything to him and that he only wanted to pet him, as if he were a cat.

-"Dr. Komatsu, you can still escape while you can."- Suzuki tried to warn him, as Raghu was a few steps from his boss.

-"There's no point shouting at him, he's in another world right now trying to get the tiger to play with him. Let's see if Raghu doesn't try to eat his hand first."-

And with respect to the feline, Raghu was already in front of Komatsu, but oddly enough, the tiger did not seem to be acting defensively or roaring at the man, or any dangerous behavior that might endanger the doctor. Raghu seemed very curious to meet that man instead, as it was evident that Komatsu only wanted to play with him.

-"See? I just want to talk with you, Raghu..."-

And in a surprising scene, and as if that wild animal with a long and bloody history of violence against humans from years ago understood perfectly what Yoshinori Komatsu wanted to say, Raghu began to lick the scientist's hand as if Raghu was a cat playing with its owner, and then that ferocious tiger lay on his back, and began to romp on the floor like a playful kitten.

Meanwhile, the other staff members, along with the soldiers who had come to the lab to defend them in case the tiger tried to do something, were surprised to see how easily that feline had been tamed with a few kind words from the mouth of that man who had many years of experience dealing with wild animals since childhood.

But even so, to his depths, Komatsu was also surprised that Raghu had understood his words at the first opportunity. Did that tiger really want to say something to him, or was it just a coincidence?

-"Hey, doctor, if we weren't watching this, we wouldn't believe it!"- Suzuki shouted, still behind a table at a safe distance, just in case. -"You're the first person I've ever known who could get Raghu under control without getting hurt beforehand..."-

-"Heh, heh."- Komatsu laughed slightly at these compliments from his assistant, since he felt that what he was doing was not a big deal. -"It's just a matter of being nice and not trying to be aggressive with an animal, and not being afraid of it, that's all, and it's not a big secret or anything out of the ordinary either. You just have to learn to respect this tiger in the same way that a person would respect another person in the same circumstances. And I believe that Raghu's violent behavior has some origin due to the way he was handled when he was in India and also here in Japan."-

Komatsu explained his "secret" to his assistants, while the Hindu feline licked his hand like a little kitten, something that never ceased to surprise them, considering the violent story behind that animal. After having Raghu at his command, Komatsu now needed to know more about that animal, but for that he needed his help... and also Suzuki's.

-"Suzuki... what did you say about this tiger before, apart from being a violent animal?"-

-"Eh,"- The young man read his notes from his notebook to find additional information about Raghu. -"As I had previously told you, Raghu began to act in an unusual way, but other than that, I cannot elucidate any further without you seeing him first. And considering that you brought that tiger under control easily, it is beyond doubt that you are the right person for the job."-

The chief scientist then looked at Raghu and decided to try some way to communicate with him, but oddly enough, Dr. Komatsu began with this:

-"All right, Raghu, tell me. Is there something you want to tell me that you really wanted to do in person?"-

-"Doctor, excuse me for meddling in this, but I doubt very much that Raghu will understand your words, since he is a..."-

But before Suzuki could finish his objection on the subject, the tiger began to make strange movements with its forelegs, as if that feline was trying to say something to its human interlocutors, which surprised everyone in the laboratory, including Komatsu.

But Komatsu was even more surprised than anyone else, because he knew that those movements that the tiger made with its legs were not simply random motions, but it was something that he knew to perfection, because he learned it at university through his dealings with people with similar traits:

Raghu was trying to communicate with Komatsu and the other humans with the Japanese Sign Language, something that, at least at that time, was unusual for an animal to learn, much less a tiger, which had no relationship with primates like humans. There was also the question that hung in the scientist's head about how it was possible for that animal to learn such a language without the help of any human. And that was something he wanted to know before anything else.

-"Raghu, how can you possibly know that language?"-

The tiger gestured with his paws to explain his answer.

-"I see,"- Komatsu translated the tiger's dialogue to the rest of the staff. -"from what you tell me, you learned it from a female deaf-mute caretaker who took care of you when you were in Ueno."-

-"Did she teach you that language?"- Suzuki asked Raghu about the way he learned sign language from that woman.

The tiger made a gesture of denial with his head and made other motions to better explain his response.

-"No?"- Komatsu asked the feline. "Then how was it possible for you to learn that language?"-

Raghu made more gestures in response.

-"I get it, you learned it by watching the woman do it when she took care of you in your cage when you were in the zoo."-

Suddenly, the tiger made other gestures to give more context to what was said about his caregiver.

-"According to what you tell me, she was your caretaker at the time because, according to what she told you, she was put into that job as she was deaf-mute and apparently her bosses were looking for a way to get rid of her, waiting for you to eat her."-

-"What a bunch of sick bastards."-

Suzuki could not help but comment on the cruelty of putting a deaf-mute woman as a caretaker of a wild animal with the explicit goal of her dying at the hands of that tiger known to have killed several people in the past. Komatsu, on the other hand, continued the chat with Raghu.

-"Do you remember what her name was?"-

The tiger was left without making any movement for a few moments, trying to remember the name of his keeper.

-"Judging by your attitude, you don't seem to remember it, do you?"-

Suddenly and without wasting any more time, Raghu made more gestures to communicate with the surprised doctor, who still could not believe that a tiger could communicate with humans with sign language. Komatsu quickly grasped his reply.

-"Let me see if I understand you:"- Dr. Komatsu tried to understand the nuances of the tiger's way of communicating, as it was clear that Raghu struggled to make his message understood by humans.-"The name of that woman was Yuka. Am I wrong?"-

Raghu made a denial with his head, indicating that Yuka was indeed the name of the woman who cared for him in Ueno.

-"Dr. Komatsu, if you will allow me and considering what Raghu told us,"- Suzuki asked to his boss. -"could you allow me to make a phone call to the Ueno Zoo to find out about that woman?"-

-"I don't see why not, maybe we know more about Raghu from that woman."- The doctor cleared him in an attempt to find more useful information about that feline. -"You have my permission to make the call, but I believe you will need clearance from Col. Matsuoka to make any calls to civilians."-

-"Understood, I'll talk to the colonel and I'll see what I can get from the zoo."-

-"I will therefore continue to talk with the tiger and see what else I can get out from this feline."- Komatsu had a very obvious excited expression on his face due to the implications of meeting a tiger who knew human sign language and who could communicate with the animal by that method. -"This is more interesting than I imagined and on many levels."-

While Isamu Suzuki was on his way to Col. Matsuoka's office, Yoshinori Komatsu continued his talk with Raghu, trying to know a little more about that enigmatic animal and how Raghu could have learned sign language.

-"All right Raghu, sorry for the pause, but I needed to talk to my assistant."- The doctor apologized to his feline interlocutor. -"Now let's get back to the conversation. What can you tell me about that Yuka woman?"-

Raghu gestured more in return to Komatsu, while he tried to translate the tiger's response into something he could understand.

-"All right, let me see:"- The doctor took some notes while talking with the tiger. -"She was a short woman, deaf-mute, long hair and brown eyes as well as her hair. You also say she was thin, right?"-

Raghu quickly validated his answers.

-"And what was her personality like?"-

The tiger made several gestures to explain his caregiver's personality, which took several minutes, because sometimes Raghu misused the signs and he had to correct his answers so that Komatsu understood what he was trying to tell the doctor.

-"If I understood what you're saying, she was a very kind and sweet woman, but she had a very sad and lonely life because her family rejected her for being deaf and she could not get a job elsewhere. And according to what you tell me, her bosses also hated her and they were looking for a way for her to be tiger food."-

The tiger made a nod with his head.

-"And how did she teach you sign language?"- Komatsu asked the feline. -"I have to assume that it must have been very hard for you to learn that language, didn't it?"-

Raghu gave a somewhat eloquent answer in the best way he could, although in some parts of the animal's conversation, Komatsu had to figure out its meaning, since the tiger seemed not to understand the context of some words or used a somewhat more painstaking way to explain more complex elements. Judging by Raghu's vocabulary, the feline had the ability to communicate close to that of a 10-year-old boy, although that did not mean that animal was stupid or something like that, but rather the opposite: Raghu was very astute and sometimes seemed to explain with very explicite details about certain points about the life of that woman named Yuka, of whom Komatsu wanted to know more about her.

-"If I understood correctly, Yuka taught you sign language because you saw her doing it and you quickly understood that it was the only way for you to communicate with her."-

Raghu nodded again.

-"OK, maybe this is something very personal for you, and I don't try to judge you for this, but I would like to know two things:"- Komatsu asked a very delicate question to Raghu, knowing that he could face a very deadly backlash from the tiger if the animal felt that human questioned his ways on dealing with people. -"The first question is, why did you kill all those people before you met Yuka, and the last and most important question is, why didn't you kill her?"-

To his surprise, Raghu didn't seem offended by the question that such observant human as Komatsu asked about the people the tiger killed before meeting the deaf-mute woman, and the animal's response was just as surprising to him.

-"Let's see: Because all those humans treated me badly and did horrible things to me, including hitting me in my private parts, to which I ate the bastard who kicked me there before coming to this country. As for that woman, I didn't kill her because she was always very nice to me and because I felt sorry for her. And I felt that the only reason she was my caregiver was that they expected me to kill her."-

Upon hearing this, the scientist was at least able to empathize with the tiger and the reasons why Raghu killed all those people, considering that poor animal was kicked in his own private parts, most likely out of a sense of both sadism and self-defense, and it is no wonder that feline responded violently against his aggressors.

But there were some questions that Raghu had not made clear: Who was really that woman named Yuka and what had happened to her?

-"And could you tell me what happened to that woman?"-

At this last question, Raghu seemed to hesitate a little, and suddenly, the Bengal tiger began to shed tears, as if the subject of that woman's eventual fate was too bleak for him to mention, which means something terrible happened to that woman named Yuka.

-"Something's wrong, Raghu?"- Komatsu asked the tiger. - "I suppose that's something you don't want to talk about..."-

Raghu, trying at least to thank the doctor for his kindness in treating him as a person and not as a bloodthirsty wild beast, all he could do was answer that question, even if it hurt him deeply in his soul to have to mention what might have happened to Yuka...

-"Let me translate well what you just said..."-

The doctor, with a concerned face, tried to interpret Raghu's sign language and translate it into a human language. Judging from the response from that Hindu feline, Komatsu could now understand the reasons why Raghu did not want to talk about the final fate of that Japanese woman.

-"The last time I saw Yuka, she was feeding me in my cage and she was playing with me. Suddenly, some sinister looking men appeared and ordered her to go to another cage to do some other work. A few hours later, I heard another human saying that Yuka was sent to a cage where another animal was, of which I know nothing, except they said that animal was called bear..."-

Komatsu emphasized this last part about a bear, as it was evident that he could deduce what Yuka's ultimate fate was, and judging by Raghu's sad face and tone, it was clear that it was nothing nice.

And on the subject of Yuka, Isamu Suzuki, his main assistant, quickly returned to the lab, almost running and visibly tired, with several notes under his arm. It was obvious that he had many things to say to his boss.

-"Dr. Komatsu!"- The young biologist, panting in a loud way, went straight to Komatsu's place, who was still with Raghu, albeit the tiger didn't seem to mind him anyway. -"I managed to get the colonel to authorize me to make a phone call to the Ueno Zoo and ask about Raghu and that woman named Yuka that the tiger was referring to half an hour ago."-

-"And that's what they told you in Ueno, if you don't mind to tell me, Suzuki?"-

The young assistant took a breath of air, as he knew that what he was going to say was something quite detailed about what had happened to Raghu and the woman whom both Suzuki and her boss wished to know her whereabouts.

-"OK,"- Suzuki began the reading of the report from the Ueno Zoo. -"According to what I was told by the director of the zoo, the name of the woman Raghu was referring to was Yuka Nagahama. Ms. Nagahama, as described by Raghu, was deaf-mute and had him under her care before Raghu was transferred to the IJA. According to her profile provided by the zoo, Yuka Nagahama was 21 years old, born in Sapporo from a very humble family and went to work in Tokyo to support her family. There is not much detailed data about her and her personality, except that she had been working at the zoo for two years before Raghu was sent here, and according to some reports added to her personal file by some of her former employers and workmates, there were some reports that before she worked at the zoo, she had previously engaged in prostitution, mainly with soldiers and IJA officers."-

-"Given the current circumstances, we can't blame her for doing that, especially if she came from a poor family."- Dr. Komatsu pointed out in the case someone wanted to diminish her because of that previous job. -"Go on, Suzuki."-

-"Well, as far as I was told by the zoo, Yuka Nagahama never had any serious problems inside the zoo, nor did she have any disciplinary report for any incident involving her, any other animal or any local employee. In fact, many people were surprised by her ability to control Raghu, taking into account the animal's bloody past. Thanks to her, Raghu did not cause any extra incidents, other than those previously mentioned to you, which occurred before Ms. Nagahama worked in Ueno."-

-"Wait a minute, Suzuki."- Komatsu stopped his aide after noticing a important nuance in Suzuki's report. -"I just noticed something important that you have not yet told me."-

-"What kind of thing, sir?"-

-"I realize you're referring to Yuka Nagahama in past tense."- The doctor noticed that nuance in the report that was given to Suzuki about that woman, implying that something might have happened to her. -"That means something happened to her, doesn't it?"-

The young assistant made a brief pause, and the following was remarked upon from his own voice, though somewhat faltering, because of the following:

-"As for her, you're completely right: Yuka Nagahama died in December 1944, apparently the victim of a Canadian brown bear, which was said to have contracted rabies from a bat that had the virus and entered its cage months ago. Nobody knows if the zoo or Yuka Nagahama knew about the state of health of that animal, but what is known is that the moment she entered the bear's cage, the animal savagely attacked the woman... and according to the forensic report, she was torn apart by the animal. The bear was then euthanized, cut to pieces, and finally incinerated as a precautionary measure, and its cage remains empty to this day until it is completely sterilized."- Suzuki cannot avoid shed some tears after hearing about the terrible final fate of Yuka Nagahama, who died doing what she liked to do. -"Regarding the woman, she was buried in her native land and the zoo paid compensation to her family, although it is not said how much it was."-

Hearing about the tragic and horrific ultimate fate of that meek woman, Komatsu began to feel bad at hearing the news and could not help but shed a few tears. That woman was the first person to whom Raghu, besides the doctor, had trust and she was the one who taught the tiger sign language, which was not a feat that any human could boast to anyone and the loss of that maiden was something that science could probably regret for many years.

But if the news of Yuka Nagahama's death was terrible for Yoshinori Komatsu, who never met her in the first place, it was even more so for Raghu, who considered that woman as something very special for him, and the tiger, in an act that stunned everyone, including the doctor, put his front legs on his head and began to emit some rather loud groans of pain for a tiger. Those cries were not of physical pain that the animal suffered, but the pain of knowing that person Raghu loved no longer existed in this world, and the tiger did not stop shedding tears, something that shocked everyone to see that beast was able to understand the meaning of the death of a beloved and even cry for its loss.

-"I'm... really sorry... for her, Raghu."- The bereaved scientist tried to comfort the tiger, who wouldn't stop crying for her. -"I know you loved her very much, and believe me I would have enjoyed knowing that she was still alive."-

Despite his pain, Raghu made some gestures to try to communicate something to Komatsu, and his response was very blunt:

-"Leave me alone."-

Komatsu understood very well what Raghu was going through in those painful moments and he also considered it wise to leave the tiger alone with his grief, and then talk to him when he was in a better mood to chat.

-"All right, I respect your decision."- Komatsu ordered his staff to bring the cage so that Raghu could enter it again. -"Bring that cage, guys, so Raghu can get into it, and leave him alone until further notice."-

-"Understood, sir!"-

-"I'll talk to him when I feel like it, so for now don't bother him and put him in a place away from the other animals, so that he has some peace for himself."-

Raghu, without any kind of resistance, entered the cage with nothing more to say and already inside it, the rest of the laboratory employees took the cage to a place isolated from the rest of the animals, so that Raghu could be alone to mourn the loss of Yuka. Even an animal deserved some privacy for something as personal as that, at least Komatsu felt that on seeing such moving events.

-"To be fair, I would not like to be in Raghu's situation right now..."- Komatsu mused for himself aloud as he saw how Raghu was sent to a lonely place, trying to imagine himself in the same situation as that grieving feline. -"If something like this were to happen to someone close to me..."-

-"Ehem...!"- Suzuki, Komatsu's aide, interrupted his boss. -"Sorry to cut you short, doctor, but I think you should also know this about Ms. Nagahama, if you're still interested."-

-"Eh?"- The doctor retorted loudly. -"What else do you want to say about her that I need to know, Suzuki?"-

-"After she died, she apparently left a kind of letter without a specific sender, which seems to have been written for someone who had to take care of Raghu in case she was no longer there to do so."-

-"Really?"- The man asked in a puzzled way. -"And how did you get that letter?"-

-"Well, to be honest, it was rather lectured to me by the director of the zoo on the phone, thinking that letter would be useful to us who have Raghu in our control. In fact, I have here the letter transcript in my possession, if you want to know its contents."-

Suzuki takes a sheet of paper out of his pocket and hands it to his boss, who decides to take a look at it to find out what it said, although because the letter was somewhat long, Dr. Komatsu decided to read it later.

-"Well, I don't really feel like reading it now, so I'll read it later when I'm in my room."- Komatsu then addressed to his aide as quickly as he could. -"Is there anything else you want to show me?".

-"At the moment I have nothing more to report, Doctor."- The young biologist checked his notebook once again for details. -"We have a report on some lions that were brought to us from Kenya last week. I don't know if you would be interested in knowing anything about those specimens, sir."-

-"What can you tell me about those lions, Suzuki?"-

The young man hesitated a bit for a few seconds...

-"Well... you see... that's not something I'd like to have to say aloud in front of you, although considering that we're at war you would understand why this had to be done."- Suzuki explained somewhat hesitantly about the way those lions came to Japan. -"These lions had to be obtained through the use of poachers, who had originally captured them to be sold to a very important customer in Europe. But, due to the war as I mentioned before, this was not possible for fear that the animals would be seized by the Allies or by the British colonial authorities that control that country, so, through some Japanese government contacts in Africa, and many dangers, including having to take the lions to Africa, the Middle East, part of Asia and China, we were able to bring them here to Tokyo. Needless to say, it cost the government quite a fortune to bring those animals to Japan due to the illegality of the entire affair, so it would be wise to thank Col. Matsuoka for the inconvenience of bringing some lions for scientific research and not to exhibit them in a zoo."-

-"I will when I have the opportunity to do so, my dear friend."- Komatsu driedly replied at Suzuki, especially when he heard the involvement of Matsuoka on the whole deal with the felines. The last thing Komatsu wanted to do was to thank someone like Col. Hiroshi Matsuoka, especially after the beating he received from that man, as his scars on his face showed in a very noticeable way. -"Is there anything else you can tell me about the lions, other than the way they were smuggled into the country?"-

-"Not at the moment, sir."-

-"In that case I'm going to go rest a while in my room and read Ms. Nagahama's letter there. Besides, I'm really, really tired after talking with Raghu for so many hours. If there is anything else you need to report to me, don't hesitate to call me at my room. So I'm leaving for the moment. See you later!"-

-"OK, see you later, sir."-

---

March 15th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Komatsu's Room), Tokyo, Japan, 02:15 PM

Yoshinori Komatsu, after that tough day in his lab dealing with hyperfertile mice and tigers using the sign language, returned to his bunker room while removing his lab coat and shoes.

-"Gee! Haven't had a day like this in a long time!"-

And he had many reasons why he had to think about it, since he had witnessed several revelations that could be useful for his project, although he still didn't know exactly how they could be useful, but Komatsu knew that if he wanted to show any results that were of interest to his superiors, especially Col. Matsuoka, it was very important not to ignore anything that could help accomplish his stated goals.

And one of those things that he could not afford to ignore was the letter that Yuka Nagahama had written before she died and that she apparently had written for someone to read in case something happened to her. But before he could read the letter, the scientist first wanted to get comfortable first in order to read it in a quieter fashion...

-"First, let's put on some classical music to cheer things up."-

In that, Komatsu went to the shelf where he had several albums of classical music that he listened to when he was depressed or needed some inspiration, and so, he took out a vinyl disc containing a famous piece of music: The Polovtsian Dances, the best-known fragment of Aleksandr Borodin's opera Prince Igor.

-"That's better... Now, let's read this letter."-

Then Komatsu went to bed and there he took out of his pocket the letter transcribed by his assistant, Isamu Suzuki, from the director of the Ueno Zoo. Upon reading the letter, Komatsu found that the letter had some grammatical errors, although he could not know if they were errors from the original transcript, errors made by Suzuki or from Yuka Nagahama herself from the original letter, the letter was legible and could be read without many issues, but in spite of that, the letter was legible and could be read without many issues:

To whom it may concern: If you wish to know everything, please go to the place where the rosy flowers bloom and look for the place where it grows from its foundations to the heavens.

That short letter was written in prose, as if that woman considered that her letter could be in the hands of someone she didn't want to know what she was really trying to say, in this case, her bosses, who might have something to do with her death, so he would have to try to construe the letter and its context, for it was obvious that she hadn't written poetry just for someone to read it post-mortem.

But first it was necessary trying first to interpret the words written in that letter in order to know where to start looking. What did she mean by the place where rosy flowers bloom? She could be referring to roses or cherry blossoms, which would be too obvious in this last point, considering what is most widespread in Japan is precisely that.

Now, the last part of the poem was the most difficult to understand, because it had many meanings: look for the place where it grows from its foundations to the heavens. It was obvious she was referring to a specific place, but she could well be talking about that place, the plant, or both.

As far as he knew about Tokyo, there were many parks where cherry trees bloom, but the same could be said about his native Hiroshima, or almost any large city in Japan, so her last words had a nuance that was impenetrable enough for him and that only she could have known in life what he was referring to with it.

In addition to that, Komatsu knew that she had worked at the Ueno Zoo before she died, and he also knew that it was not going to be easy to get information about her, if his suspicions about the responsibility of the zoo management in the death of that poor woman were correct...

Ueno Zoo...

Ueno.

Was she talking about Ueno Park in her poem?

That was a very big possibility, for many reasons: Ueno Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo and one of the most famous for its cherry trees that bloom in spring. So there was a possibility that she had left some kind of message hidden in that place in one of the trees that were in the park.

But there were also two problems in trying to find the message in the first place: The first was that he had to request permission from Col. Matsuoka to go to Ueno, which would be very difficult to get from him, after what happened five days ago...

...And the second and most important issue was that, even if he could go to the park, In which tree was that message? That would be like looking for a needle in a haystack among so many cherry trees in Ueno and most likely not even that tree could be in the park and could be in the vicinity of the spot.

There was only one way to find out, and Komatsu knew very well that he would have to swallow his pride for a short time if he wanted to solve that puzzle as quickly as possible:

-"Hello, is Colonel Hiroshi Matsuoka there?"-

Komatsu took the phone that was in his room and spoke directly to the colonel's office to request clearance to leave the bunker and go to Ueno to look for clues to Yuka Nagahama's message before she died.

-"Who's talking?"-

A male voice answered the phone. It was obvious that he was not the person the doctor was looking for at the time.

-"I'm Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu. I need to speak to the colonel to apply for a clearance to leave the bunker for a small job related to my research."-

-"Oh! It's you, Komatsu."- The male voice responded in a patronizing tone, since not only did he already know Komatsu, but he didn't like him at all to begin with. -"I'm Lt. Hideki Nakamura, his aide. You said you need a permit to leave the bunker, right?"-

-"Yes, but I think I'm going to need the colonel's permission, don't I?"-

-"In theory yes, but you say you're going to do some work related to your research out there, right?"-

-"Indeed."-

-"Where are you going, doctor?"- Nakamura asked. -"I can give you that permission, as long as it's not out of town."-

-"To Ueno Park"-

-"Ueno, you said?"- The military man responded with a annoyed voice to the doctor. -"And why do you want to go to a public park? Do you want to see the cherry blossoms or what?"-

-"Of course not."- Komatsu retorted to Nakamura. -"I need to... go see some species of birds that thrive on the park, and only I can get the information I need. I promise that I will return to the bunker soon after my work is done."-

The soldier only snarled at the reasons Komatsu wished to go to Ueno, but he also felt there was no problem letting him go there, as long as he followed the rules.

-"OK, I will give you the permission, but you must return to the bunker before 11:00 PM, otherwise I'm not responsible for what happens next with the colonel. He is a busy man, and he is not in the bunker now, but considering that you don't usually ask many favors other than those related to your job, I see no problem on my part in granting you that permit."-

-"Thanks a lot, Lieutenant!"-

-"You're welcome, doc. But you're gonna have to pay me back for with some favor I need to ask you right now, okay?"-

-"Understood."-

---

March 16th, AD 1945, Ueno Park, Taito Ward, Tokyo, Japan, 11:30 AM

Having already overcome the difficulty of obtaining permission to temporarily leave the bunker, thanks to the unexpected kindness of Lt. Nakamura, Yoshinori Komatsu was able to go the next day to Ueno Park, although due to permission restrictions he had to do so completely without the company of anyone. But, considering Komatsu's personality, it was preferable for him to go to Ueno on his own so that he could work more comfortably and not having to answer uncomfortable questions from his own assistants should the need arise.

Due to the bombing of Tokyo, the park was closed to the public and the only people inside the place were policemen, soldiers, cleaners. This was because some bombs hit some parts of the park and the authorities wanted to make sure everything was safe before they could open the place again. Even so, Komatsu was able to enter the site due to his accreditation as a member of the Imperial Japanese Army without any significant inconvenience.

But in perspective, it was more convenient that the fewer people there were in the park, the better it was for him, so that he could work calmly and avoid annoying or inquisitive questions about what he intended to do there in Ueno.

With all that in mind, Komatsu had to solve the post-mortem riddle that Yuka Nagahama left somewhere in the park and that must be there, assuming, of course, that she was referring to the park to begin with.

What did she mean by look for the place where it grows from its foundations to the heavens?

That left two possibilities: Either she was referring to some very tall tree that was in the spot or she was talking about some other kind of structure inside the park.

Something in Komatsu's intuition told him that the first thing he should look for in Ueno were the trees, since that was what was most abundant in that place. Also, why would someone like her be willing to hide a message in a structure, where it would be too easy for someone to find it?

Except there was one small thing if Komatsu wanted to start looking in the trees: Looking for a message in the sea of trees that was Ueno Park was like trying to look for a golden carp in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

-"Damn, looking for that message in this park is going to be harder than I thought."-

That was the first thing that came to Komatsu's mind when he realized how complicated it would be to look for such an important clue to solve the mystery that late girl left behind for anyone who wanted to know her last words.

-"Excuse me, good man, would you happen to know which is the biggest tree in this park?"-

The young scientist asked a man, who was one of the park's sweepers, an old man who was busy cleaning the park's walkway, and who, taking advantage that there were not many people in the place, could now clean much faster than normal.

-"The biggest tree, you said?"- The old man looked somewhat puzzled by that question. -"Well, I've seen a lot of very big trees around here, but I don't remember which tree could be the biggest for sure. I have seen very big ones in that direction, if you wanna know, although at this time I would not recommend going there if you want to rest in that place."-

-"Don't worry, I'm not interested in going there to rest, but to do a little work."-

-"What do you do for a living, if you don't mind telling me?"-

Komatsu knew he had to lie to that old man about who he worked for, as the project was considered a state secret.

-"I work for..."- Komatsu hesitated a bit. -"the University of Tokyo."

-"Oh, you work for those guys at Todai, right?"- The old man responded. -"I used to work there before I was better off working here in Ueno."-

-"I see."- The young scientist then asked some extra questions. -"Although by the tone as you are telling me about your experience at Todai I get the very strong impression that it didn't go very well for you there, right?"-

-"Thaaaaaaaat's right!"- The old man retorted with a somewhat angry expression on his face. -"When I was working there I saw a craplot of nasty things, since I worked as a janitor in the university's biology laboratory, and you have to believe me that on many occasions I had to pick up the remains of many animals that they sacrificed for their scientific experiments and..."

Seeing that the old man seemed to begin to openly criticize his alma mater in a way he did not want to hear at the time, Komatsu decided to end the conversation.

-"OK, OK, I get it! Thanks for your answer anyway."-

-"You're welcome, young man. Just be careful out there."-

Komatsu went to the place in the park where the old man had told him there were bigger trees, and after half an hour's walk, he reached the right place.

Indeed, that man was right on the part there were very large trees in that place: Most of the trees in that sector of the park were much larger than those in other parts of the same place. And those trees were also the most beautiful cherry trees he had ever seen in his life.

Komatsu also recalled another more sinister legend about cherry trees: that of an elderly samurai, who was the only surviving member of his family and friends. The only thing left for that old man was a cherry tree that was planted by his ancestors. Unfortunately, the tree also withered and died, and that old samurai interpreted the death of that tree as a sign that his own death was also coming close to him.

Then the old warrior went to the withered tree and made one last wish: He wanted the tree to blossom again and if his wish was fulfilled, he would also die. And indeed, even though it was winter, the tree blossomed again, and the old man, fulfilling his promise, committed seppuku in front of the tree, and his blood shed on the roots of the cherry tree caused the tree to blossom again with more intensity, hence the reason for the color of the cherry leaves, at least that is what he remembered from the legend.

Suddenly, Komatsu began to consider the following: Why at that time did that scientist, who had absolutely no concern for ancient legends, religions and superstitions, immediately recall such a thing? Would it have any kind of meaning to him?

-"Nah, maybe my imagination is playing some kind of joke with my head."-

With these words, the man tried to dismiss that possibility and he began to focus on his work, which was enough to begin with.

There was the possibility that the last words of Yuka Nagahama's poem referred to some kind of very large tree, so the first thing Komatsu had to start looking for was the largest tree he could find in that place. But he quickly realized that task was not going to be any easier, since what was most there were very large trees, and knowing which tree she was referring to would be something that could take many hours.

-"Damn it! If only that woman had left a easier clue to know which tree she was referring to!"-

And so it was, as Komatsu spent several hours in that section of the park trying to look for that tree that she possibly referred to, but without any result. Not finding anything, the young scientist began to suspect that possibly she was referring to another type of high structure, or possibly the clue he was looking for was not in Ueno, but elsewhere in Tokyo.

After several hours of walking without finding that tree, Komatsu sat on one of the park benches, trying to rest. Having walked for several hours, coupled with the weather of the time had caused him to start getting tired and only wanted him to drink a little water, which he had at hand in a metal canteen for cases like that.

-"Geez! This is going to be harder than I thought."-

Once on the bench and after having hydrated himself, Komatsu took out of his pocket the message written by Yuka Nagahama and transcribed by his subordinate:

To whom it may concern: If you wish to know everything, please go to the place where the rosy flowers bloom and look for the place where it grows from its foundations to the heavens.

By re-reading that poem over and over again, the man of science tried to analyze that content which, though it seemed simple, was more cryptic than he ever dreamed of. In writing that poem, Yuka Nagahama made sure that no one else could understand the exact meaning of her words and tried to find what she really wanted to convey, most likely related to her own death at the paws of that bear.

Suddenly, as Komatsu was reading the poem again, he saw something that began to grab his interest.

-"A... rabbit?"-

Indeed, everything seemed to indicate that it was a rabbit, and it would be something he would normally ignore in normal circumstances if it were not for two things that caught his attention: The first one was that rabbit did not have a defined physical figure, and the second and most important one was that rabbit was larger than normal, and that besides that, it had a humanoid look.

-"Nah, I think I've read too much of Alice in Wonderland lately."-

But seeing that that rabbit, which had the appearance, judging by its size, of a six-year-old human child, and that without ignoring the fact that animal did not seem to stop looking at Komatsu, as if that bunny was trying to tell him something, the scientist resolved that he could not disregard that, because it was evident that what he was seeing was not something very normal.

Komatsu could not ignore the possibility that heat, tiredness and other factors were playing tricks on his head, and what he was observing was an illusion, but there was something within him that told him that what he was seeing was more than just an illusion.

Then Komatsu began to remember that bizarre dream he had before when he was in Hiroshima, where he had dreamt something similar where a small rabbit with a humanoid shape showed up in his dreams.

Was that bunny that appeared in Ueno and the other that he dreamed of in Hiroshima the same person?

While he was pondering that, the little humanoid bunny ran into the park, specifically to the area where the large cherry trees were located and that Komatsu had already been there looking for the tree he needed to find, without success.

Would that fact be related to his goal?

There was only one way to find out, and for that, he had to follow the trail of that strange animal within Ueno Park.

Once he returned to the cherry-tree area, the scientist found the rabbit again, which apparently fled to see Komatsu and headed for what appeared to be the middle of that place.

-"Where the hell did that bunny boy go again?"-

Komatsu cursed himself by trying to know the animal's whereabouts, and when all seemed lost, he saw that human-looking animal again..

-"At last, I found you!"-

And when he saw the rabbit, he realized something very strange about it. The boy seemed not to notice his presence, and besides that, apart from the fact that he was a rabbit of human appearance, since he walked on two legs and ran like a human child, besides the fact of having rabbit ears and head, it was that no matter how much Komatsu tried to look at the little creature, he could not distinguish any physical characteristics.

He could not see his coat, his color, in fact, he could not see absolutely nothing. That child was just a purple silhouette without any physical trait that could give him an idea of exactly what that strange being was like in front of him.

And when Komatsu intended to attempt to speak with him to see if he could get his attention, he realized that the child made a defensive gesture, as if something in front of him meant to do him harm, which in this case would have been Komatsu, but it did not seem so, since the child looked in another direction.

And suddenly, without any warning, the child disappeared from that place as if he had been a figure of sand that the wind had destroyed from a single gale.

Faced with this sudden turn of events, Komatsu was completely shocked, as he tried to find some kind of meaning to what he had seen, and if that weird event he saw in Ueno had anything to do with what he had previously dreamed of when he lived in Hiroshima.

But no matter how much he tried to find some kind of meaning on that event, he only came to the same disappointing conclusion: None.

Either that or his head was already beginning to play very bad tricks with his mind, product of months of strenuous work in the laboratory, and knowing that probably his life was at stake if he could not get some result that pleased Colonel Matsuoka.

And the worst part of the whole issue was that, without the technology or the means to work in the right conditions, it would take him years to see results, at best, or nothing, at worst.

But before Komatsu could continue to curse the whole critical situation he lived in, he noticed something very important about the place where the rabbit stood in front of him before he disappeared. That place was a very large cherry tree, even larger than the trees Komatsu had seen before both in the park and in the same area.

A smile crossed the face of the young scientist who came from Hiroshima when he saw that place...

-"At last, I've found what I've been looking for!"-

It was evident that cherry tree was the tree that Yuka Nagahama referred to in her poem.

The description of the tree matched what the poem said about it: It was a huge tree whose branches seemed to point to the sky, as if the tree wanted to reach paradise, and its appearance and size were really intimidating, as if that tree had not been planted by human beings, but by something from another world.

Now that Komatsu had found the tree, there was only one thing left to do: Find Yuka Nagahama's last message that lay there.

It was obvious that she couldn't have left the message at the base of the tree, so surely the message was in the branches or the high parts of the tree, so the only way to find it was to climb it. Fortunately for him, there was no one around, so he could climb the tree without anyone noticing and being caught.

Quickly, Komatsu climbed the tree very carefully to avoid falling, although luckily the tree had many places where he could hold his hands and feet and climb it without too many problems.

-"Well, let's see:"- Komatsu speaked to himself. -"Considering that the tree is very big and that she should have climbed the tree the same way I did, the most likely thing is that she should have climbed to the lower part of the tree so she could be able to get down quickly once she finished placing the message there, and not getting caught at the same time."-

Once on top of the tree, precisely on the first branches of the cherry tree, he realized that the tree had several large cracks, most likely nests of some animal that lived there before, and most likely Yuka Nagahama had introduced her message in one of those gaps.

And after looking carefully at the cracks, Komatsu realized that there was something shiny emanating from one of the holes. As he looked at it, he realized that inside the crack was what appeared to be a small metal cylinder the size of a test tube. It was obvious that it wasn't something that some animal had put in there to feed its family.

With great care on not touching anything else that could be dangerous, such as a spider, an aggressive animal or even excrement, and without any big problems, Komatsu managed to get the tube out of that place.

With the tube in his possession, he opened it to know its contents. And with a huge smile on his face, Komatsu managed to confirm what was inside: It was the paper with the last message of that ill-fated woman who worked at the Ueno Zoo and that she left before she died.

-"Guess I was right all along that this message was here in Ueno."-

Now that he had managed to get what he was looking for, Komatsu stepped down from the tree, albeit slowly to avoid falling. Once on land, Komatsu had nothing more to do in Ueno Park and he headed for the bunker, as it was about to get dark and his permit would soon expire.

But before returning to the secret underground shelter, he remembered that he had to do one last thing, which was a favor he had to do Lt. Hideki Nakamura before returning home and which was one of the conditions the soldier imposed on Komatsu to let him leave the place to begin with.

And for Komatsu, that was a kind of favor he did not really want to do under normal circumstances...

---

March 16th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (entrance corridor), Tokyo, Japan, 07:25 PM

-"Oh, Dr. Komatsu, did you finished the job you had to do in Ueno?"-

With these effusive, yet at the same time, unsavory words, Yoshinori Komatsu was greeted by Lieutenant Hideki Nakamura, Colonel Hiroshi Matsuoka's aide, who happened to be walking down the corridor from the entrance to the bunker, apparently doing nothing more than being there in that place just to annoy him to no end.

-"Yes."-

Komatsu responded as coldly as possible without sounding insulting to the soldier, who seemed to be there for some good reason.

-"Judging by the box you're holding in your hands, I guess you brought what I asked for, didn't you?"-

-"That's right, sir."-

Apart from bringing with him the tube with Yuka Nagahama's secret message that he found in Ueno, Komatsu also brought with him a wooden box containing something that was heavy enough for him, and that he could barely hold with both arms.

-"Here's what you asked me to bring from Kabuki-cho, sir."- Komatsu then laid the box on the floor. -"I hope this is what you wanted."-

Without wasting any more time, Nakamura opened the box and checked the contents, and on seeing what was inside, the soldier was more than happy that Komatsu had bought everything he had asked to the scientist to bring from the infamous red light district of Tokyo.

Inside the box, there were several bottles of sake, soju and even several expensive western liquors for the time, including brandy, whiskey and even exotic spirits in those days such as Martini and even Mexican Tequila.

-"Excellent! I didn't expect you to get all these liquors off in Kabuki-cho, considering how bad things are over there with the whole bombing thing."-

-"I suppose you know the person I bought all those wines from, is that right?"-

-"That's right, he's an old acquaintance of mine. And if it wasn't for the fact that I'm very busy right now, I'd also go there to have some fun, if you know what I'm referring to, heh, heh, heh, heh!"-

Komatsu grunted at the lieutenant's taste for prostitutes, though that was something to be expected of a man like him, considering that Komatsu had to go to Kabuki-cho to pick up all those spirits.

-"I suppose you have credit with him, don't you, sir?"- Komatsu asked the soldier about the spirits he bought for him. -"Those wines are more expensive than almost anything sold here in Japan, especially that Tequila thing."-

-"Of course I have credit with him! Do you think I'm such an idiot to ask you to bring me booze without paying, especially these costly drinks?"-

-"No."-

-"Then stop talking shit, and do what I tell you, if you want the next time to let you out of here without the colonel knowing!"- Nakamura berated the science man. -"If he finds out about this, he would send me to a pot with boiling oil and be cooked alive!"-

-"That would be very nasty to see, sir."-

-"Indeed."- The soldier grabbed the wooden box and proceeded to take it to his room, but not without saying something else. -"As a thank you, I'm going to share some of my treasure with you. Would you like a particular drink from here, Doctor?"-

-"No, thank you, sir."- Komatsu refused the lieutenant's gift. -"I reckon you already know I don't like to drink alcohol."-

-"Oh, I forgot that!"- Nakamura replied cheerfully, yet wickedly, since he now knew that all those drinks would be for him alone. -"I also forgot how boring you are."-

-"I don't need alcohol to have fun, sir. I need to have a very clear head, due of my job, and alcohol is not going to help me at all. Besides, I don't like its taste."-

-"Well, as you wish. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room to have some fun."- Nakamura then walked out from Komatsu's sight. -"Have fun, as you can, doctor!"-

Hideki Nakamura retired to his room to drink the liquors Komatsu brought him into the bunker. It was no secret to him that he was a hardcore alcoholic, and in the last few months, he had seen that man drink too much when Colonel Matsuoka was not giving orders to him.

Although in a way, Komatsu also felt some pity for that man, since the war was affecting him as much as almost all the members of the IJA, and drinking was perhaps the only way to forget how terrible life must have been for him.

---

March 16th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Komatsu's Room), Tokyo, Japan, 08:30 PM

After his meeting with the lieutenant and after fulfilling both his objective of recovering the message as well as carrying out the order to collect the wine bottles directly from a notorious bar in Kabuki-cho, Yoshinori Komatsu could now have a moment of peace in order to read the content of the message that was in that metal tube he found in Ueno Park.

-"Let's see what she wrote in this message to make it worthwhile to hide it in such a secret place..."-

And in that, the scientist opened the tube where it contained the message and took out the piece of paper where the last words of Yuka Nagahama were written. Reading the letter in a hurry, Komatsu realized two things: The first one was that the paper where the message was written was somewhat damp after several months of being there in that tree, and the second one and most important was the calligraphy and spelling of the text written by that woman left much to be desired, to the extent that it made it very difficult for him to try to read the letter properly. It was very evident that she did not have an adequate education and that she must have struggled just to write that letter before she passed away.

Seeing the difficulty in reading the text normally, he decided to read it on a table he normally used to write, and with the help of a magnifying glass and a dictionary, Komatsu gradually deciphered the contents of Yuka Nagahama's last letter for anyone who wished to know the truth about her:

To whom it may concern My name is Yuka Nagahama. My age is not very important, although I can tell that I am originally from the north, from Sapporo. That's all I'm going to say about my physical traits, other than the fact that I'm deaf-mute. What I can say right now is, if anyone is reading this letter, it is most likely that by then I will be dead. Which doesn't surprise me considering the treatment I received when I worked at the zoo, where my seniors treated me like trash and they didn't hesitate to give me the most dangerous and degrading jobs, like feeding wild animals like tigers, bears, lions and the like. But despite all that, I had the opportunity to meet an animal that caught my attention, even though at first he hated me. His name was Raghu, a Bengal tiger from India who was said to have killed several people both in his home country and here in Japan. In fact, Raghu had killed two caretakers before I came to work at the zoo. Maybe my bosses were expecting Raghu to turn me into his next lunch as soon as he saw me, but there was something about that poor feline that drew my attention and, maybe when he realized that I had no intention of harming him, Raghu only approached me, maybe smelling my body essence to know if I was a threat to him. When Raghu realized my intentions, that wild, man-killing tiger began to behave in front of me as if he was a little kitten, as if for some reason he felt sorry for me when he saw that I was deaf-mute and could not communicate with him in a conventional way. Maybe he and I had a lot in common and that's why Raghu decided to be nice with me. As the months passed since I started working with Raghu, I realized something I never imagined would happen with an animal like him and that made me see that he was smarter than I expected. This was because, after having a heated discussion with one of my seniors, I noticed that Raghu started making very strange gestures with his front legs. Seeing all those gestures, I realized that they were not so strange after all and I was surprised by what I saw when I learned what that tiger was able to do. Raghu had learned human sign language just by seeing me doing it. When I saw Raghu doing that, I asked him, also with sign language, how he had learned that, to which he replied that he had seen me doing it for as long as he knew me and it was not difficult for him to replicate my gestures in order to talk to me. Once I knew Raghu's ability to communicate with sign language, I taught in my spare time the other parts, besides the basics, to him so that we could communicate easily. Obviously, I had to do all this in secret, since I didn't want, besides having more conflicts with my bosses, that they tried to do some harm to Raghu. When our conversation became very fluid, I learned several of the secrets that Raghu had within himself. I never imagined that an animal like him could comprehend the concept of "having a hidden secret that he did not want to tell anyone", but for some reason he wanted to tell it to me, since I was the only person who could understand it and the only person to whom he could entrust that terrible truth. When I asked Raghu why he had killed all those people, at first I thought he had done it because he was hungry or because someone had invaded his territory or something like that. The truth was something more horrible than I expected, and when he told me all that, there were some moments that I felt between puking and crying for what they had done to that poor tiger before I met him. Raghu told me, that when he was a cub, most likely in India, some bad men (in his own words) had captured him when he lived in the jungle and not satisfied with it, before taking him to some place, one of them did terrible things to him in his intimate parts. From the description he gave me of that event from his point of view and from the conclusions I could draw, it is evident that Raghu was sexually abused by someone there in India. That's why it's not surprising that, when Raghu had the opportunity, he killed the aggressor who raped him in the most gruesome way possible and also every human trying to harm him, something that caused that tiger to begin to have an almost unhealthy hatred towards humans, but considering what Raghu suffered at the hands of those depraved people, I don't think I can blame him for acting that way and trying to defend himself. And that pattern of violence against humans continued when he was sent to Japan, killing those two people who tried to get close to him in order to take care of him in Ueno. According to what I heard from my bosses regarding him, Raghu was sent here because his owners in India thought it would be better to send him to Japan to do what he wanted in this country. You don't need to be a genius to deduce that the real reasons were really to get rid of Raghu, since they didn't care if that tiger ate some stupid East Asians, and sending an animal as dangerous as he was the best way to do it. The fact that the war made it impossible to send him back to India only reinforced that fact. After Raghu told me that terrible story about his life before he met me, I burst into tears like never before in my life. I could not even fathom that there was someone so cruel to do such harm to an animal just to indulge his lower instincts. When Raghu saw me crying for him, that troubled feline licked my face like a little kitten. It was his way of telling me that he was glad that I could understand him and not simply treat him like a wild beast that only ate people for fun. As time went by, Raghu and me began to have a very friendly relationship. He knew that I was the only human he could trust and I also knew that Raghu held me in high esteem. We played a lot whenever possible, and when I had free time, I taught him sign language to improve his communication with me. It was incredible how quickly Raghu learned something as complicated as sign language, since even the most capable humans have difficulty learning it in a reasonable amount of time. It was something wonderful and worthy of admiration from an animal that until recently was considered a danger to humans. But at the same time I realized something that started to worry me a little: Every time Raghu saw me with someone else, especially with another man or when I had to go to work with another animal, I noticed that he seemed to be acting somewhat strangely, as if he was acting defensively towards me. Despite my attempts to ask him what happened to him, Raghu always avoided the subject. Was Raghu getting jealous? The truth is, I could never know that answer. What I can really say is that Raghu has a very special talent that turned him very different from other animals I have met in my life, and even other animals altogether. It is a pity that I have to keep his secret about his intelligence from the eyes of everyone to keep Raghu from getting hurt. In fact, I could say that I am the only reason why Raghu has not been put down for the crimes he has committed in the past by preventing him from hurting more people. But alas, things can't last forever, especially for people like me in this country. I received a few days ago a notice from my boss that I was going to be transferred to take care of another animal, and that Raghu would be in charge of someone else from now on. One could say that my superiors were surprised by my ability to control Raghu, but in reality they could not tolerate the fact that a deaf-mute woman like me could do something like that, and seeing that the tiger didn't kill me as they expected, they decided to raise the ante by sending me to care for a bear from Canada, of which only the boss told me that the bear was sick for several days. If that bear is what I think it is, I would not hesitate to say that that animal is not merely sick, but that it has something even worse, since I saw that bear with foam in its muzzle. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I doubt very much that I'll get out of treating that animal alive. In case something should happen to me, I put all the blame for my death on my immediate superior, Mr. Hidekazu Shibamoto, who is the Staff Chief of the Ueno Zoo. He was the one who ordered me to treat that bear, despite my objections and the obvious danger that the animal represented, if my suspicions are correct to believe that animal carried rabies. I only hope that justice will be served and that my death will not be in vain. In case the person reading this message knows or knows anything about Raghu, I only ask you wholeheartedly to take care of him as much as I did the same for him. And if you also have a way of communicating with Raghu through sign language, please tell him the following: "I love you, Raghu, I would have liked to have been with you a little longer". Yuka Nagahama

After reading the letter, Yoshinori Komatsu cannot help but shed tears, both over Yuka's tragic fate and for Raghu and his painful past that caused him to become a murderous beast.

-"Oh, my... god..."- Komatsu's voice stuttered due to a mix of sadness and unmitigated rage. -"What kind of goddamned monster would do something like that to a tiger? Besides, why did they want to kill Yuka? Just because she was a deaf-mute woman?"-

The rage that the young man felt was of such maginitude that the magnifying glass he had in his hand, which he had used to read the letter, was broken in his own hand . And he was so angered that even he didn't care that his hand was bleeding due to the glass shards that were stuck in his hand, or the pain caused by the wounds.

In a fit of rage, Komatsu left his room, to a place where he knew he could know more of the truth about those tragic events.

---

March 16th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Komatsu's Laboratory), Tokyo, Japan, 11:20 PM

-"Good evening, Doctor Komatsu. What are you doing at this hour? Did you find the message you were looking for from Yuka Nagahama in the park?"-

That cheerful voice came from Isamu Suzuki, Yoshinori Komatsu's personal assistant, who, like the rest of the scientists working in the laboratory, was working late at night on the project, while his boss was resting or doing other things, particularly with reference to going to Ueno Park that day.

But in those moments, Komatsu was not in the mood to listen to him, much less to talk further with him anyway.

-"Where's Raghu?"-

-"You mean the tiger, sir?"- Suzuki responded somewhat puzzled by his senior's question. -"He is most likely in his cage, which is in a separate section of the laboratory for dangerous animals."-

-"I need to talk to him, RIGHT. NOW."-

-"But sir, Raghu is probably asleep right now. I don't think it's wise to wake him up just to talk with..."-

-"I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR STUPID OPINION, SUZUKI! JUST TELL ME WHERE THE HELL IS RAGHU NOW!"-

The young assistant was surprised to see how his boss began to yell at him and demand orders from him, when Komatsu was usually a quiet person who rarely raised his voice and preferred to handle anything as diplomatically as possible. But he also perceived that something terrible had happened with his boss and he could not stand in his way right now, so he had no choice but to obey.

-"O...OK OK, sir! Raghu is in room number 10, at the bottom right."-

With Raghu's location at hand, and with a furious and sorrowful countenance that was very evident on his face, Yoshinori Komatsu went to room number 10, where Raghu was along with other very dangerous animals. On the other hand, Suzuki was perplexed to see his boss heading to that place, believing that he did not know what he was facing in dealing with that tiger in his current disposition.

-"My, what happened to the doctor up in the park?"-

After walking some corridors of the laboratory section that was under Komatsu's command, that man went to room number 10, where Raghu slept at that time along with the rest of the other animals. But even in those critical moments Komatsu was not so stupid enough to wake that tiger like a domestic cat, so he tried to talk to him first.

-"Hey Raghu, If you can hear me, I need to talk to you right now."-

Komatsu spoke these words in a firm tone, but without raising his voice loudly so that the tiger could hear them without waking up too abruptly.

Luckily for him, Raghu woke up when he heard Komatsu's voice. Normally for him, being awakened in this way would have made him very angry and he wouldn't have thought twice about trying to attack the person in question, but seeing both the scientist, whom Raghu held in great esteem, and his face, which seemed to have something troubling him, along with his personal scent, the tiger could deduce that there was something very serious that the human wanted to discuss with him.

But before discussing anything, Raghu gestured with his front legs pointing at the cage's door to indicate that he needed to get out of it if he wanted to talk to the human first.

-"Do you need to get out of the cage?"- Komatsu asked him. -"OK, I'll let you out, just don't do anything stupid, right?"-

Seeing that Raghu agreed to his master's terms, Komatsu quickly opened the cage where the tiger was sleeping in confinement at the time. Once outside, Raghu sat down to hear what Komatsu had to say to him.

-"All right, now that I'm out, you seem to have something to tell me that you're very concerned and that only I can answer, right?"- Raghu asked with sign language at the man. -"Otherwise, you wouldn't have taken the trouble to wake me up at this hour."-

-"That's right."- Komatsu replied at the tiger. While Raghu could understand human language without problems, Komatsu also used sign language in case there was something that the tiger did not understand from his words. Due to the nature of the Japanese language, this was more than necessary to avoid any ambiguity that could lead to misunderstandings. -"I managed to find the message that your friend Yuka Nagahama hid to tell the world the truth about your situation and the reasons why she died."

-"Really?"-

-"Yes."- The man responded, without losing his grim expression on his face. -"But there are several things that really disturb me from Yuka's words and I need you to confirm what she said in her letter. I perfectly understand that there are several things that could be very painful to discuss with me, and I don't blame you if you don't want to talk about those events, so the decision to tell me all the details is up to you."-

The tiger, seeing that Komatsu knew about some things from his past, hesitated for a few moments to say a word, something that the human interpreted as a refusal to elaborate on the issue.

-"I'm afraid you don't want to talk about it, do you?"-

Raghu finally responded, albeit with a body language that indicated a great uneasiness in talking about his past.

-"You are the only person, other than Yuka, who has no intention of judging me for my past actions, so I am going to be fully honest with you."-

Komatsu was pleased to see that the tiger was going to tell the truth about his past.

-"All right, now tell me everything you want to tell me."- Komatsu then put some conditions on Raghu for the conversation. -"Don't hesitate to stop either if you believe there is something you don't want to discuss with me or it's too painful or embarrassing to bring up."-

-"OK."-

The tiger began to talk, in great detail, about his past, something that until then he had only discussed with his friend Yuka at the Ueno Zoo when she was alive:

-"I was born in a place which you humans call "India", in a humid place with many trees. I was the youngest of several cubs, and my mother loved us all very much. Before you ask, we never had names: That concept is unknown to us, and when our mother or we wanted to identify ourselves, we called each other with terms like "first big brother", "second big brother" and so on."-

-"I see."-

Komatsu responded quite amused.

-"Everything was normal in our lives, when suddenly, some men appeared, and without saying anything else, they killed our mother when she tried to defend us from those people..."-

-"Oh... my..."-

The man responded with certain disgust after hearing about that part.

-"And then, those humans captured me and my brothers, and they separated each of us, and since then I know nothing about them. And I have no doubt that they are probably elsewhere or maybe dead..."-

-"And what happened next?"-

Upon hearing this, Raghu began to hesitate considerably. It was beyond all doubt that the following was something he wished to never relive again in his life, something that Komatsu could quickly infer from observing the animal's behavior.

-"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I see that what you are remembering is not something you want to bring back in your life."-

But despite these considerations, Raghu decided to speak all about his past, including those painful events that he would normally never want to bring up again, but it was the only way his human interlocutor could understand the causes why he distrusts others like him.

-"Once I was captured, I was "adopted", as you would normally say, by a guy with very light skin who lived in a place he called a "reserve". Once there, he gave me a name I currently use, Raghu. According to that human, I was named in honor of a famous emperor of the country where I come from..."-

Hearing the origin of Raghu's name, Komatsu quickly remembered where it came from: Raghu was the name of a character in Hindu mythology whose Sanskrit name meant "the fast one", due to his ability to drive chariots, although it was more evident that the man, who was a British or another European person, judging by the description that the tiger gave him, gave that name to the feline because it was a very fast animal, just as its mythological counterpart.

-"And then, I was locked in a cage, where a human named "Ajit", who worked for the light-skinned man, beat me when I didn't do what he wanted. He did it with sticks, whips and whatever he had in his hand, to the extent that I ended up crying at the end of the day..."-

-"Oh, boy, that must have been awful for you for sure..."-

-"But then I noticed that the man was not a normal human. When his boss or his other master didn't see him, something that happened very often, he took the opportunity to be alone with me. At that time I was just a cub, so I had no way to defend myself from that man, but when Ajit was with me, he took off his clothes and... and..."-

Raghu stopped at this last part, with a look of sadness and rage that was more than evident in an animal like him. Although Komatsu already knew it thanks to Yuka Nagahama's letter, he was able to confirm that Raghu had been sexually abused by that fellow named Ajit in his native India. If that Japanese scientist was furious to learn that an animal was brutally abused by a zoophile, after hearing all the truth Komatsu could not help but be even more enraged like never before in his life, to the extent that at that time he would have wished to have found a way to kill the person responsible for having committed such a crime on that animal.

-"Are you all right, doctor?"-

-"I'm OK, my dear Raghu, but..."- The Japanese man did a brief pause, since his wrath did not cede in the least. -"I swear by anything sacred for you, if one day I get my hands on that filthy, sick bastard, I'm going to make him regret the day he was born!"-

But at the same time, he knew that his words were completely futile, since due to the war, there was no way to find the culprit and make him pay for what he did, so the only thing that that distressed scientist could do was wait for the situation to turn around before unleashing his wrath against that animal rapist.

-"Doctor, I know very well that at the moment you are very upset, but I would like to ask you something."- Raghu interrupted Komatsu in his ranting, as there was something else he wished to know. -"In the letter Yuka wrote, did she say anything about me?"-

Upon hearing that question, that man, who was cursing the person who had committed the assault on Raghu, stopped for a moment, since he knew that the tiger wanted to know the last words that Yuka Nagahama had dedicated to that animal she regarded as her best friend.

But he also knew that to mention the content of the letter to him could be risky, considering that Raghu loved that woman very much, to the extent that upon knowing that she had died, that feline entered a depressive period and no longer wanted to speak the last time that man spoke with the beast.

-"Are you sure you want to know that, Raghu?"- Komatsu asked the tiger, once he stopped his ranting. -"It may be a very depressing thing for you."-

-"I don't care, I just want to know what she said about me."-

-"Well, if you say so..."-

Komatsu picked Yuka's letter from his pocket, and without a second thought, and seeing that Raghu wished to know what was written about him, he read the words that such an unfortunate woman had left to her friend, perhaps the only one she could have had in her life.

-"It says,"- Komatsu slowly read the last part that she had dedicated to her friend Raghu, with a certain tone of sadness in the voice of that man, who also shared with that tiger the pain of knowing that that woman died in a rather unfair and abhorrent way. -"I love you, Raghu, I would have liked to have been with you a little longer. That was her last words."-

Seeing that in spite of being a human being, the last words of that woman were to demonstrate her love for that tiger, which for many was considered a killer beast, but in reality he was a being full of resentment and anger towards the human race because he had been brutally abused, even sexually. To know that his friend Yuka had dedicated her last words to him was something that, even an animal accustomed to being mistreated by humans, touched his hard heart.

And without further ado, Raghu put his front legs on his head and the animal began to utter laments that sounded between a cry and a sorrowful meowing, caused by knowing that human woman always loved him until the last moment of her life.

The cries of that animal were so intense, that even the other members of the scientific staff of the laboratory, who were busy working, began to hear them, and caused Isamu Suzuki, Komatsu's assistant, to panic, thinking that something terrible had happened to his boss. Faced with this, the young man decided to request help by phone to bring some soldiers and kill Raghu if necessary. To his disgrace, Lieutenant Hideki Nakamura, who was in the office of his immediate superior drinking heavily like a Cossack, replied the call, as he was the only person with the authority to send those soldiers to the lab.

-"Well, well, well. Ya must be dat dumb little asswipe named Suzuki, rite? HIC!"- Nakamura answered the phone, apparently in an advanced alcoholic state. -"What da fuck do you need at these late hours to ask me for soldiers to come to the lab? Don't tell me that some animal got loose from you scientist shitheads over there? HIC!"-

-"I am very sorry to bother you, Lieutenant, but I believe Dr. Komatsu was attacked by Raghu, the Bengal tiger, and we will need some soldiers to kill him if necessary."- Suzuki tried to apologize with the soldier, while ignoring his intoxicated state and also his rudeness. -"I know you are not very fond of my boss, but we don't want things to get any uglier if that tiger leaves the lab and kills more people."-

-"If it were up to me, I would let dat zoophile fuckhead to become the food for that tiger, but my bosses would be pissed if anythin' happened to him, so I will send some soldiers there. HIC!"- The soldier furiously responded to Suzuki, while trying to no ignore the likely danger of letting Raghu loose on the base. -"I will also go to personally see what the fuck is goin' on there."-

-"Thank you very much, sir!"-

Then the soldier rudely hung up the phone as he prepared to take his soldiers to the laboratory to face the worst.

Fifteen minutes later, Lt. Nakamura, still drunk, but armed, along with five of his soldiers, quickly burst into Komatsu's laboratory with the purpose of killing Raghu in case that feline had attacked the aforementioned scientist. That situation did not make him happy, but he knew that the safety of the whole bunker was at stake if nothing was done about it.

-"All right, where's that damn animal?"-

-"Raghu and Dr. Komatsu are in the room number 10, at the bottom right, sir."-

Without further ado, Nakamura and the soldiers went to the place where Komatsu and Raghu were, something that was not very difficult, since the cries of the tiger were heard throughout the laboratory. Suzuki stayed behind, in case he had to escape from there if things got any worse.

-"Aren't you gonna go with us?"-

-"No sir, I'd rather stay here in case it should be needed."-

Then, Nakamura gave Suzuki a gun, a Nanbu Pistol Model 14, in case he had to defend himself from the wild animal.

-"Here, in case you need it to kill that beast."-

-"But sir, I've never used a gun before in my life."-

-"Then run for your life if something goes wrong."- The man rudely replied. -"We'll take care of that cat if we have to."-

After that brief pause, the soldier and his men hurried to the place, and upon arriving at the entrance to the room, and without thinking twice, the soldiers violently stepped into the room, believing that they would have to face the fierce tiger in that place and pretending that Komatsu was already dead.

To the surprise of all people, none of that was happening at the time. Instead, Raghu was on the ground, weeping over the death of Yuka Nagahama, who had dedicated a few last words to him before she died at the hands of that rabid bear at the Ueno Zoo, while Komatsu was on the ground with him, caressing him and trying to comfort him, while that human was also crying with the tiger over the death of that woman. The tiger uttered such intense and sorrowful cries that they even moved the soldiers who had gone to that place in the first place to kill him.

With the sole exception of Lt. Hideki Nakamura, of course.

-"Could you tell me what the fuck is going on here?"-

Hearing Nakamura's question, Dr. Komatsu stood up from the ground to explain what had happened, while the man seemed unaware of the severity of the situation that warranted both soldiers and the lieutenant appearing at the scene with guns in hand, waiting to face a furious tiger.

-"This poor animal lost her best friend a few months ago and for that reason he cries for her."-

-"Best... friend?"-

Nakamura responded with a certain tone of disbelief when he heard the fact that an animal cried in that way for the death of another living being, and even more so for Raghu, who he knew that tiger had killed several people in the past and that soldier could never picture an animal having feelings.

But there was something else that intrigued him even more: How was it possible for that man to know firsthand what that tiger was thinking or trying to say? That was something he wanted to know and he wanted those answers now.

-"I don't know what the hell is going on here,"- Nakamura responded in a very blunt way, with his service pistol at hand and in a threatening attitude towards the scientist, for the fact that he had been interrupted while drinking, and now he wanted an answer to that unreal situation right in front of him. -"but you'd better explain all this to me, or else there's going to be a lot of trouble for you."-

Komatsu was now in a serious dilemma of which he could not find a way out: Originally he planned not to discuss Raghu's intelligence with his superiors until he had more information about it, in order to prevent that tiger from being used in a way that he did not agree with or from being hurt even more, but considering Lt. Nakamura's belligerent attitude and the fact that he wasted his time, he had no other option other than to tell him the truth.

-"I guess I owe you an explanation, Lieutenant..."

---

March 17th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Colonel Matsuoka's Office), Tokyo, Japan, 01:30 AM

-"OK, let me see if I understand what you just told me about Raghu: That tiger can use sign language to communicate with you, and the reason he was crying was because the woman who took care of him at the Ueno Zoo died. Right?"-

Dr. Komatsu had summarized in a few words the current situation with Raghu before Lieutenant Nakamura, and how that tiger could communicate with him. It was obvious that this soldier would be incredulous to know that an animal like Raghu was intelligent enough to use such complex means of communication as sign language in order to interact with humans.

-"That's right."-

-"And where did that animal learn sign language? I don't think he learned it on his own just by watching other people do it."-

-"She taught him the language when she looked after him in the zoo, because she was deaf-mute."-

-"And according to you, she knew more or less the person responsible for her death."- Nakamura did further question about that particular issue. -"How did you get that information?"-

-"She left a message before she died, which she hid in the Ueno Park, since she knew that the people behind her death would do everything possible to try to hide the truth, so, through a coded message that she wrote, in such a way that the zoo management did not know exactly what she was referring to, I was able to find the whereabouts of the message and know the truth."-

-"So that's why you wanted to go to Ueno so urgently,"- The soldier did a brief pause for a few seconds. -"and lying to me in the process about your true intentions."-

The young scientist knew he was now in trouble for lying to him about what he intended to do in that park, but considering the current security measures since the Tokyo bombing, he knew he had no choice but to lie in order to leave the bunker and search for the message.

-"Heh, heh."- Komatsu laughed a bit, albeit nervously. -"I admit that I had to lie to you, sir, but I do not believe that you would have allowed me to leave the bunker facility considering the current situation in the city, and if there is a problem with that, I am willing to accept any punishment you might give me."-

-"Nah, don't worry about that, doctor."- Nakamura responded in a cheerful way. -"At least your trip to Ueno wasn't completely in vain for me, since you brought me some booze on the way."-

-"I already aware of that, sir."-

-"But there's something that completely perplexes me and, if I wasn't seeing it, I wouldn't believe it. The fact that an animal can use sign language is something worth seeing, and even more so to see an animal crying for its owner, especially a wild killer beast like Raghu."-

-"There's something else you should know about him, Lieutenant, if you want to know it from me."-

-"What is it, doctor?"-

-"Ehem..."- Komatsu hesitated about what he was going to say to Nakamura regarding Raghu's painful past. -"Perhaps it is something that not many people want to hear, especially me, but this tiger was sexually abused by its caretaker in India when he was just a cub."-

Upon hearing this, Nakamura was both shocked and outraged to learn that an animal has been raped by another human being in a cowardly and unpunished manner in his native country. Even if we consider that he was a soldier, who had seen many kinds of atrocities in the war, to know that a defenseless animal was raped was something very difficult to assimilate for him.

-"What.. kind... of... sick... fuck... would dare do something so horrible to a tiger, let alone a cub?"-

The soldier's sudden attitude surprised Komatsu considerably: As far as he knew about that man, Hideki Nakamura was known to be a man who obeyed his boss, Colonel Hiroshi Matsuoka, without a second thought, as well as his vice for alcohol and women. On top of that, the man had a reputation for being equally vindictive to those he disliked, starting with Komatsu and his team. But to see that man worry about an animal which he previously hated because of past incidents with Raghu was something surprising. Even a tough man like him could not stand to see an animal being abused by a human being in such a grotesque way, and even more so if sex was involved.

-"Believe me sir, I too was enraged when I found out about the matter from Raghu's mouth, and if it were up to me, I would have done something to arrest the person responsible for abusing him and sending that monster to the gallows."-

-"For once I agree with you, Doctor,"- The man agreed with the doctor regarding Raghu. -"but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it, considering that we are at war with the United Kingdom too, and I very much doubt that they will listen to us to let them know that a poor tiger was raped as a cub by some freak."-

-"Indeed..."-

-"But at least there is something we could do for Raghu, and it's regarding those responsible for his friend's death."- Nakamura pointed out that last part of his words. -"I have enough influence to have those responsible arrested and have them sent to jail if needed."-

-"Do you think you can do it?"-

-"Of course."- The soldier responded proudly. -"I just need to talk to the colonel, and with the proper evidence, the people responsible for that woman's death will be behind bars. What's more, I don't think it would be worth presenting evidence, if I have to say so. Heh, heh!"-

Komatsu was not amused that Lt. Nakamura intended to abuse his authority to send to jail those responsible for Yuka Nagahama's death, but considering the current situation, it was not something that was in the priorities of the lieutenant or the Imperial Japanese Army as a whole, but basically he was doing it as a favor for both Komatsu and Raghu, for the simple fact that he could not tolerate knowing that a tiger was sexually abused, but in the absence of being able to punish those responsible in India, at least they had the power to punish the culprits of Raghu's friend's death in Japan instead.

-"Regarding Raghu, do you have any proof that he was sexually abused by a human being?"-

-"Of course I do, although I need to take some pictures to prove my words and Raghu's regarding the abuse, but I am absolutely certain that Raghu was raped by a human and not by another animal. I also need to write medical evidence to confirm the abuse and send it to you and the colonel for any legal matter in court."-

-"Thanks a lot for that, doc."- The soldier replied with a devious smile in his face. -"Although I'm going to see how I can convince the colonel to take legal action against the Ueno Zoo. You know very well that you don't like him very much."-

-"I already know that, sir."-

-"But you'll probably have to explain to the colonel about Raghu and his unusual intelligence. Maybe even that will help you earn his sympathy after he threatened you a few days ago concerning giving him any results of your work."-

-"Yes,"- The scientist agreed with his officer in that point regarding the colonel. -"that's going to be a big problem, now that you say it."-

-"Indeed."- Nakamura then looked at his clock. -"For the moment the best thing would be to go to sleep and leave the whole tiger issue for tomorrow morning, since the colonel notified me by phone that he would return to the base as early as possible. I think I'm going to rest too for a while and leave the booze for another time."-

-"That would be wise, sir. Your liver would appreciate it."-

Obviously, Lt. Nakamura didn't like that lecture about his health at all...

-"Who the hell gave you permission to butt into my health and my private affairs, eh?!"-

-"Well, when you and your men entered the room where I and Raghu were, you were drunk, and besides, you asked me to bring from Kabuki-cho a considerable quantity of spirits, not to mention that..."-

-"SHUT THE FUCK UP, DOC!"- Nakamura then pointed his finger on Komatsu's nose. -"THAT'S NOT OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS! And you and your little bunch of crazy-ass science men better not say a word about how you saw me when I entered the lab, either to the colonel or some high command of the army, or else I'll start to regret being Mr. Nice Guy with you, and the next time I see you and your gang of fucked-up loonies, it'll be on the gallows begging for your lives. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, DOCTOR FRANKENSTEIN?"-

Komatsu certainly did not appreciate being compared with the infamous Dr. Frankenstein, from the novel of the same name, much less being threatened in that way, but he did not intend to say anything about it for the same reason, but the best thing he could do was not to make things worse than they could already be. He had already once had a bad experience for not keeping his mouth shut and now he could not risk saying anything that would enrage that soldier, who had power over his life and that of his work colleagues.

-"Yes, sir."-

-"Very well. Now be a good doctor, go to your bed and leave me alone, tomorrow we'll have a lot to talk about."-

And after bowing properly, Komatsu left the office and went to his room to sleep. He also needed to sleep after that hard day that he had and possibly was going to have an even harder day of work. Having to deal with soldiers was something that wore him out emotionally and physically and more when it came to alcoholics like Nakamura, and now he would have to deal with Colonel Matsuoka regarding Raghu for the next morning.

---

?

-"Yoshinori..."-

-"Yoshinori..."-

A mysterious voice is heard somewhere, whispering the name of Yoshinori Komatsu with a certain shade of despair...

-"Yoshinori... Please heed my words..."-

Meanwhile, the aforementioned character was on the ground, in a mysterious and dark place as in his previous dreams, trying to figure out where he was this time.

It had been a long time since he was in Tokyo that he had not another one of those strange dreams, which he had been having for many years when he was working in Germany, and since then those dreams did not stop showing up in his head from time to time.

While those dreams had always been quite strange and disturbing from the beginning, Komatsu always thought that those hallucinations were a product of his extensive research with respect to his theory that he had been designing over the years since he graduated with honors from the University of Tokyo, and that from that day on he had not stopped adding anything that could enrich his work. Now he was working in the way to put his theory into practice, even knowing that he did not have the resources or the technology at his disposal to implement his very revolutionary ideas for his time.

He knew very well that above his head hung the sword of Damocles which was Colonel Hiroshi Matsuoka, on whom his life depended if he showed him any kind of result about his theory. But if he failed, Komatsu would probably be returned to Hiroshima in a coffin.

But none of that mattered now, because now he had to figure out what his dream was going to be about this time.

-"Another stupid dream."- Komatsu said for himself.

Once the young scientist was on his feet, he looked at something that was in front of his eyes, and that was well known to him, having seen it on two previous times.

-"Wait a minute!"- The man yelled loudly. -"Aren't you that...?"-

Indeed, that thing Komatsu had in front of him was the little humanoid rabbit he had seen in his dreams in Hiroshima and when he was searching for Yuka Nagahama's message in Ueno Park. He never thought that he would see that strange creature again, although considering his previous dreams, perhaps it should not surprise him anymore.

But before Komatsu could say anything to the rabbit, the humanoid animal, as in previous visions of other beings apart from him, had no physical characteristics other than being a dark shadow in the shape of a child with the ears and tail of a rabbit. And then, the kid began to run quickly away from the human, something that began to irritate him considerably, because those kind of dreams never took him anywhere, apart from frightening him more than he was regarding his probable fate if he did not comply with Matsuoka's whims.

Since he began dreaming those bizarre images seven years ago, Komatsu always tried to know the meaning of those bizarre dreams he had been having ever since, without any success. Even reading books on the subject and after many consultations with different people who might know something, no one could assure him for sure what his dreams were trying to tell him. He even considered talking to an onmyoji about it once, but he quickly refused to stoop to visit a fortune teller, since he was the enemy of any kind of superstitions and always thought the root of his problems were in deeply rooted psychological issues he had not yet settled, not to mention post traumatic stress disorder.

But for now, all he had left to do was follow the boy and try to know where he was going.

And promptly enough, Komatsu remembered how similar his situation was now with the dream he had last year, where he was seen chasing the same rabbit into what appeared to be a hole.

Except there was one very important difference: Instead of trying to enter a hole, the child walked into what looked like a wooden door, which was in the middle of nowhere.

And as Komatsu approached the door, he heard again that mysterious, ominous voice he had heard at first...

-"Yoshinori... please enter that door..."-

Obviously, that man was not going to step into a door that he didn't know exactly where it was going to lead him, even if it was about chasing a mysterious humanoid creature. He wanted to know first what were the intentions that voice had about him.

-"I'm not going into an unfamiliar door that's in the middle of nowhere just because you say so!"- Komatsu yelled at the mysterious voice. -"I want to know first what you're trying to do and, above all, who the hell that bunny is!"

-"You will know soon enough, Yoshinori."- The voice replied to the man with the same ominous tone he had since he heard it at the beginning of his dream. -"In the meantime, go to that door and you will get the answers you are looking for. But I warn you beforehand: What you are about to see may be very unpleasant for you."-

-"I DON'T CARE! Besides, I'm sick of having all those strange dreams for years and which I can't fully understand! What are you, or you people, trying to do by showing me all those bizarre things right in my head? Are you guys trying to do me any harm?"-

-"I will say it again: Go to the door and all your questions will be answered."-

Seeing that the mysterious voice was not going to stop saying the same thing, Komatsu had no choice but to fulfill his orders and step into the door.

-"All right... I will do what you ask."-

And without further discussion, the Japanese scientist entered the door, albeit with his eyes closed, trying not to see what he might witness next. Surprisingly, the ground still felt solid, although he felt it as if he was stepping on loose ground, and he heard a very strong wind passing through his head, like that of a hurricane, but for some reason, he did not feel any kind of pressure or sensation all over his body, only the sound of the wind.

After walking a few steps, Komatsu no longer heard the sound of the wind, and instead, he heard the sound of what appeared to be voices speaking in a language he did not know. Yet he kept his eyes closed, unwilling to see what he was about to witness.

-"Yoshinori... open your eyes now..."-

And as he opened his eyes, Komatsu saw a scenario that was completely familiar for him, so to speak, but at the same time completely bizarre and alien to that man from the 20th century: He was in what appeared to be a city of Western origin, or at least that was what it appeared to be, but there were many particulars that at the same time were completely foreign to him.

But one thing was certain: Komatsu was in what appeared to be a city similar to the one he had dreamt of when he was in Germany. The same destroyed city he once wandered inside his dreams seven years ago.

-"No... It can't be..."-

Those words were the first thing that man could say when he saw that nightmarish event before his eyes. He could not believe that he was in the same ruined city that he had dreamed of years ago, and perhaps in the worst possible scenario for him.

But he quickly noticed there was something different this time. The first thing the man noticed was the city he was in that moment looked very different from the city he had dreamed of when he lived in Germany. And the second and most important thing of all was the fact that city seemed to have suffered an even more serious damage compared to the city from his first nightmares he had in Frankfurt.

There was something else that Komatsu noticed regarding the level of destruction of the city, and that was that the city did not seem to have been destroyed in an ordinary manner. To begin with, considering the damage to the buildings and streets, it did not seem that the place had suffered from the attack of an invading army, compared to the city he dreamed of years ago, and it seemed as if that city had been bombed.

But there was something else that didn't fit very well with the description of a city attacked by bombs: If Komatsu drew a comparison between that foreign city and Tokyo, which had also suffered from a similar bombing seven days ago, that strange-looking city was completely in ruins, with no buildings standing, and even some of them seemed to have been reduced to dust, while Tokyo at least came out from the same dilemma a little better from its respective attack.

Seeing all that, Komatsu tried to draw some conclusions,but they all came up against the same basic point:: What kind of weapon could be capable of causing such destruction to an entire city at that scale?

Even if he compared that foreign city with Tokyo, or if he contrasted that tragedy with what he had seen or read about other bombings in other countries during the war, the damage that unfortunate city had suffered was so terrible that there was nothing that Komatsu could even match up to that moment with any similar event in his own world.

There was only one event that came to mind for the young Japanese scientist that could be compared to the level of destruction he was facing before him. And that event was Tunguska.

The Tunguska Event was a cataclysmic event that occurred in Russia in 1908, where a meteorite apparently crashed into the most desolate part of Siberia and with the power of between 10 to 15 megatons of TNT, which destroyed a large portion of the region's forests, leaving them scorched. Due to the remoteness of the site of the incident, there were no investigations until a decade later, when Leonid Kulik did an expedition to the region to retrieve clues about that event. However, all the details of what exactly fell in Siberia, and whether it was really a meteorite or possibly a comet, are still not known.

Even considering Tunguska as a point of comparison, there was something within Komatsu that told him that what he witnessed was not caused by a natural phenomenon, but by something of artificial origin and it was thrown there with the sole intention of wiping out the entire population of that city.

What kind of wicked madman would do something so terrible, something that there were no words to describe the heart-wrenching tragedy he was witnessing before his own eyes?

That was the first thing that came to Komatsu's mind as he walked through that strange city, while he kept looking at the magnitude of the destruction suffered in that place.

But there was something else that made him even more disturbed, and it was the fact of seeing all the corpses that he saw scattered everywhere in the streets and the ruins of those buildings, some seemed that there was very little of them left to bury, but there was something else that affected him even more...

As in his previous dreams, Komatsu could not see the physical characteristics of the people around him, apart from himself, he could only hear their voices, and just like his previous dreams, those people had the appearance of humanoid-looking animals, just like the little bunny boy he saw in Ueno and a few minutes ago.

Although, from a more amiable perspective, and considering the level of destruction he was witnessing, it was better not to see all the specifics of those corpses, some of them in a mutilated state, but to Komatsu's eyes, those bodies looked like black and blue shadows without any physical description, beyond having animal features, and he could not see a single drop of blood either, which was something to be thankful for, as he wasn't in a mood to see blood and gore in those moments.

And now that he thought about that bunny, Komatsu wondered where that mysterious creature was in that desolate place. Normally, no one in his right mind would walk in such a place at that critical time, but he knew what he was dreaming was not something rational or even normal from any angle he might want to think of.

And after walking for several minutes through those completely devastated areas, and while listening to the cries of the survivors, something that was beginning to unsettle him, considering that Komatsu could not grasp a single word of what they were saying, the young scientist saw something that was remotely familiar to him.

-"Is he...?"-

Komatsu rushed quickly to what appeared to be one of those humanoid silhouettes, which was on the ground, seemingly completely inert, since he quickly recognized who it might be.

And to his dismay, his fears turned out to be true: That figure was that of that little rabbit, which seemed to be dead.

-"Oh, no! No no no no no!"-

Even if it was a dream, an illusion or anything out of the ordinary, Yoshinori Komatsu could not help but weep for that little creature, who seemed to have died a victim of whatever had happened in that city so strange to him, a city that seemed not to belong to his world or anything he had seen until then in 1945.

But, unbeknownst to him, Komatsu quickly saw that there was another person two steps behind him who was also mourning the death of that humanoid rabbit and, like the other inhabitants of that city, could not understand what that character was saying. The only things he could notice about that person were that he seemed to be a very young man and much younger than him, judging by the tone of his voice and that by the shape of his head, he was apparently a cat, or at least that was what he could perceive by his silhouette, since he had no tail or anything that could quickly identify him as one.

Komatsu also began to feel sorry for the young man, and, if he had the opportunity to do so, he would have tried to say a few words of encouragement for that humanoid cat. But at the same time he knew that it was useless, since Komatsu was merely an unseen spectre in that catastrophe in which he could do nothing in return.

But while he and the young man behind him were crying, the same mysterious voice he began to hear at first sounded as if it seemed to be in front of him.

-"It really hurts, doesn't it?"-

-"What?"-

And when Komatsu lifted his head to know where the voice came from, he realized that there was something very familiar to him in front of his own eyes. And unlike the other humanoid silhouettes, this one was definitely not one of them.

-"Ra-RAGHU?"-

Yes, it was him. The Bengal tiger stood in front of the puzzled young scientist, watching the tragic scene that Komatsu and the other young humanoid were witnessing at the time. The presence of that feline was as bizarre as it was out of place in comparison to what he had seen in previous dreams, since Komatsu could see Raghu completely and with all his physical details, in relation to the rest of the people apart from him, which were dark silhouettes with no physical features apart from the fact that they were animals with human form. Raghu, on the other hand, was a common tiger on all fours in that city ravaged by some tragedy produced either artificially or by some event that was beyond his own understanding.

But there was something else that was even more bizarre than all of the above, at least about what he knew about Raghu. And it was the fact Raghu could talk without using sign language.

-"How the hell can you talk like a human?"-

The tiger, without saying anything else, walk up to Komatsu, and sits on the ground on his hind legs, as if he wanted to try to speak with his human counterpart in a more concrete way.

-"This is the only way I can talk to you in a more eloquent way than just trying to do it with sign language."- Raghu replied in a very relaxed way, ignoring all the tragedy around him, to Komatsu, something that disturbed him a bit. -"Also, this too is a little secret of mine that only Yuka knew about me and I guess she couldn't or didn't want to say it in her last letter."-

Komatsu could not believe what he was witnessing at the time. Not only was Raghu intelligent enough to use Japanese sign language, but that creature seemed to be able to use some kind of astral projection as well.

But Komatsu quickly came to his head something that could contradict his previous point: Astral projection was something non-existent, and it challenged anything he knew about dreams or the human mind irself. But at the same time he knew that what was going on in those very moments was outside of any parameter that could be called "normal" and that Raghu was not even a human being to begin with.

-"No, no, no, no, no!"- The man tried to fiercely deny what he was seeing before his eyes. -"This must be some kind of really sick nightmare... There's no way a tiger can talk, just like none of this is real, as well."-

-"In theory nothing you're currently seeing is real... yet."-

Raghu's harsh words began to disturb the young Japanese scientist even more by mentioning that last part. What did that tiger mean by that?

But the first thing that came into Komatsu's head was trying to deny everything he was facing, in the belief that it was part of some horrible nightmare that he was having as a result of many psychological traumas that he might be having at the time.

-"You and all that's going on here are just nightmares, nothing more and nothing less."-

-"I know you're trying to deny all this, but what I'm telling you is true."- Raghu replied after hearing Komatsu's denying of the current events. -"This is one of my special abilities: Being able to enter other people's dreams and talk to them in the right way. What you are witnessing right now is not a nightmare, nor am I part of it."-

-"So, if this is not a nightmare,"- The man replied, enraged for Raghu's almost cryptic explanations. -"What the hell is all this then? Are you the one who's been behind all these nightmares I've had these last few years?"-

The tiger did a brief pause, so he could explain himself better.

-"I will answer your questions as best I can, partly because you deserve an explanation, and partly because you are the only human apart from Yuka who has been able to understand me and not treat me like a wild animal, or a sex toy."-

-"OK, I'm all ears."- Komatsu retorted. -"Albeit I don't want to know more about what happened to you back in India, please."-

Raghu first tried to organize his words so that Komatsu could understand the context of what he was going to say, since it was going to be a rather complicated issue to explain.

-"All this that you have been witnessing up to now is technically a premonition, something that has not yet happened, but there is the possibility that it may be in the future, whether near or far."-

-"A premonition?"-

-"Yes."-

-"But why am I dreaming all this?"- Komatsu furiously retorted at the feline. -"If I have to deduce a thing from what I'm seeing, maybe it has something to do with my project that I'm working on and that is based on my theory that I've been working on since I was in the university. But what does all this mean, especially the destroyed cities, the dead bunny, and above all, the people who live in those cities?"-

-"What you are seeing right now is the product of your ideas."- Raghu grimly put an emphasis on that point on Komatsu, as he already knew everything about what he was planning to do with his theory. -"Even if your intentions are noble, what you are going to do will bring pain, misery and death, not only for your creations, but also for you humans."-

-"Wh..WHAT?!"-

Komatsu was speechless at the warning Raghu was giving him regarding his ideas. Even considering what Raghu might have been doing with his mind, he was, first and foremost, a rational person, and he could not believe that what he was witnessing could be a premonition of any kind, but rather that it was probably a very bad nightmare.

But, first of all, there were other things he wanted to ask the tiger, and he wanted a satisfactory answer as soon as possible.

-"I guess you mean I'm basically being forced by the government of my country to do this."- Komatsu explained himself about his ideas. -"To be honest, I would have liked to have taken this at my own pace, but I don't have a choice in this, and I'm fully aware that my knowledge could be used for warlike purposes, but I think it's better than having human beings die, at least that's what I think."-

Raghu began to shake his head in disapproval at the words of the scientist.

-"I guess you didn't like my explanation, huh?"-

-"You don't seem to understand a damn thing of what you are witnessing before your eyes."- The animal angrily replied at the man. -"I think you are either too naive or too stupid to realize that what you are doing is wrong."-

-"And what do you want me to do, Raghu? Do you want me to be executed?-" Komatsu yelled at Raghu with tears on his eyes. -"Also, if anything happens to me, you and the other animals will most likely be put to death by Col. Matsuoka's orders and that is something I cannot allow him to do."-

-"I don't think you understand the root of the situation, my dear friend."-

-"What do to mean with that?"-

Again, Raghu did a brief pause, in order to give a better explation...

-"You better give me a damn explanation of what's going on, Raghu, or I'm going to walk out of here and ignore you. This is a tasteless nightmare and I just want to get out of it."-

Komatsu was starting to lose his patience at all the events he was witnessing, not to say what he was seeing regarding Raghu and his mysterious words that seemed to try to warn him of something that was not to the liking of the scientist, knowing that he could not turn back what he was doing, under penalty of execution.

-"Well, I'll explain myself better."- The feline resumed with his words. -"What you are seeing is not the product of what you are doing for the government of your country, but of something you will do in a probable future, perhaps in fifty, hundred or even more years. Maybe by then I'll be dead, but I'll probably play an important role in your ideas."-

-"Are you telling me this is all going to be my creation?"-

-"Yes and not, in a way."-

The tiger's words were becoming more and more cryptic, and Komatsu was not in the mood to hear what appeared to be some sort of riddle that Raghu seemed to be asking him to solve on his own.

-"You're not helping me at all with your words."-

-"What I'm trying to tell to you is that you're not going to be the only person who will be working on your theory, but you'll have someone else by your side helping you, so this isn't all going to be completely your doing."-

-"But who else could help me?"- Komatsu asked in a puzzled way. -" Only a few people know about this, including my parents, and none of them are interested in helping me with my ideas."-

The tiger began to look at his human counterpart in a straightforward way, as an attempt to think what his next answer would be.

-"You will know that answer you're looking for someday..."-

Upon hearing that cryptic response, Komatsu began to lose his patience with Raghu. That was not the answer he was looking for, and every time that tiger opened his mouth, it was just to say something even more confusing that only caused the young scientist to begin to doubt whether what he was seeing was really a premonition or a very bad nightmare.

-"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WITH "SOMEDAY", EH?"- Komatsu yelled at Raghu, enraged after what it look like an attempt from the animal for screwing with his mind from the human's point of view. -"Who assures me that all this is not your work, and your true intentions have been to play with my head for a long time ago for no reason? Do you hate humans so much that you are trying to use me as a guinea pig for some even more sinister goal?"-

-"Wait a minute, Yoshinori!"- Raghu tried to explain himself in the face of such an accusation. -"This is the first time I've tried to do this with your head, and the truth is that I didn't even know you'd been dreaming about this for years!"-

-"So what are your real intentions?"-

-"To be honest, what I'm telling you is based on what I can read from your mind and interpret what I'm seeing regarding current and even future events."- The feline keep explaining about the nature of his powers. -"And I don't have the power to alter someone else's dreams, nor can I alter anything that might happen before, now or even afterwards."

-"Huh?"-

-"In other words, I'm basically what you humans call a dream seer,"- Raghu then did some gestures with his front paws in an attempt to visually explain his words. -"with the extra benefit that I can get into people's heads so I can communicate with them, rather than using sign language."-

Obviously, Komatsu had trouble even assimilating such a statement from Raghu. Reading people's minds is impossible, much less coming from a supposedly inferior being like a tiger, and now that he was witnessing his powers, the unbelieving scholar no longer knew whether what he was seeing was true or the product of some dream feeding on his sanity.

-"I'm still having trouble admitting all this is true."-

-"Then if you don't believe me, I'm going to tell you something that you should be aware of as soon as possible, since it will affect not only you, but also your family."-

Komatsu, despite his skepticism at what he was experiencing, could not help but pay attention to this last part, since it was the first time his family had been involved in his dreams, and it was evident that it was no good at all.

-"My... family, you say?"-

-"That's right."-

-"And what the hell does my family have to do with all this? Is something bad going to happen to them?"-

Raghu did a brief, dramatic pause...

-"What you and I are seeing is not only going to happen in a distant future, but it could also happen here in this world, in this country, and above all, it could happen in the city where you are originally from."-

Komatsu knew exactly which city Raghu was referring to...

-"HIROSHIMA?"-

Raghu did another, even more dramatic pause...

-"I'm afraid so."-

Komatsu suddenly sat on the ground head down in the face of such a scenario that his hometown could be destroyed in the same manner as that strange city he was seeing in his dreams. But there were several things that made such an event somewhat difficult to happen in their own reality, since it was clear that the city where both Komatsu and Raghu stood was not destroyed with napalm like Tokyo, but with something even more powerful than that.

-"NO! I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE THIS!"- Komatsu yelled in pain at hearing such possibility on regard of his own hometown being destroyed by a powerful weapon. -"This must be some kind of very sick joke!"-

The tiger lowered his head in sadness as he saw his human friend's reaction to this possibility.

-"Please, Raghu, tell me what you're saying is a joke or a lie."- The man replied at the feline. -"There's no way to know what's going to happen in the future, can you?"-

The animal approached Komatsu in order to speak more personally with him and try to give his opinion on the matter, considering that he was visibly disturbed to see that there was the possibility that Hiroshima could be destroyed in the same way as that city.

-"Yoshinori, I wish this was also some kind of joke, but unfortunately it is not."-

But there was also the possibility, at least according to Komatsu, that everything he was seeing could be Raghu's doing, something he decided to let him know in his own way.

-"And how can you assure me that all this was not your idea to manipulate my head for some strange purpose of yours?"-

-"Yoshinori, believe me, I'm not behind all this thing."- The animal explained to Komatsu. -"In fact, I did not even know of your existence before I met you in the laboratory. All I'm doing is trying to interpret your dreams based on my own personal experiences, but even I could be wrong."-

And then Raghu followed with this diatribe on the human, this time with a more stern face...

-"But when I read your mind, I can tell that there is something I don't especially like about you, even if on the surface you appear to be a decent person, but on the inside I can see that deep down of your own mind you are an extremely disturbed man."-

For reasons that need no explanation, Yoshinori Komatsu does not like in the least being called a madman in his own face, much less by an animal that until a few minutes ago he thought might be behind his mysterious nightmares. He already had enough to see all those terrifying scenes so out of place for his own time, only for a tiger with the ability to use sign language and enter his dreams would insult him.

-"Look, Raghu, you better tell me what you're trying to do with all this, or else I'm going to euthanize you and your body cremated after I wake up from this insane nightmare!"- Komatsu then threatened the animal in front of him as he saw that he was already reaching the limit of what he could endure. Before the eyes of that man, Raghu seemed to be a danger to him, especially to his own mental health. -"I have had enough of being insulted and treated like a slave by anybody else just for an animal to tell me that I am some kind of psycho in my own head, and after you were playing with my dreams after several years!"-

Strangely enough, and in the face of these threats, Raghu remained immobile, without saying a word. And suddenly, the feline turns his back on Komatsu and goes in another direction, ignoring him completely.

-"What, you don't have anything else to say to me?"- The young man yelled at the tiger. -"Or do you know very well that I'm right?"-

Raghu, without turning to see Komatsu, decided to answer his question.

-"Your attitude tells me I'm right about you."-

-"WHAT?!"- Komatsu already began to lose patience with the animal at his cryptic answers. -"What the hell do you mean with that?"-

-"You are not able to accept the possibility that what you are doing could be wrong and it could bring terrible consequences, not only for your species, but for the entire universe,"- The tiger went on with his explaining, with the same deadpan, but somewhat aggressive tone he had from the beginning of the conversation between him and his human friend. -"and in that I include myself as part of your plans."-

The young Japanese scientist began to look at Raghu with extreme disbelief at what the feline had said. The fact that he was accusing him, as many people had done in the past, for what he was doing with his theory, would normally have been reason enough, considering the tragedy he was witnessing around him, to really rethink and ponder his own ideas, but someone as skeptical as he was not going to be intimidated by what seemed to be a horrible hallucination.

-"I've had enough of your words, Raghu!"- Komatsu yelled, as he went away from the feline. -"As far as I'm concerned, you're just a horrible mental image coming out of my head as a result of post-traumatic stress I've suffered for years due to so many problems I've had and after being sent from one corner of the world to another! So, if you'll excuse me, you go find another idiot you can freak out with. I'm out of here!"-

And when it seemed that he had left Raghu behind, the Hindu feline showed up again in front of him in the middle of the road, without looking upset in the least. Obviously, this had already begun to infuriate Komatsu, who did not understand what that animal intended to do with him.

-"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME? AREN'T YOU GOING TO GIVE ME A BREAK?"-

Raghu, saying nothing more, hurls himself violently onto Komatsu, knocking him to the ground, and without ceasing to look him into his eyes. This causes the young man to become seriously frightened, thinking that the tiger intended to eat him right there...

-"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME, DO YOU WANT TO EAT ME OR WHAT?"-

-"Yoshinori Komatsu, heed my words!"- The animal speak to the man with his muzzle a few inches from the Japanese man's head. -"I have no intention of doing you any harm!"-

-"Then what are you trying to do with all this?"-

-"I only intend to warn you of the great danger that you or your family will suffer if you don't do something about it!"- Raghu yelled furiously at the human. -"And if you don't stop your project, anything that happens to your loved ones in your hometown could spell the end of the entire universe!"-

-"And how can you be so sure that Hiroshima could be destroyed like this city?"- The man retorted at such warning. -"Besides, even if I wanted to, I can't stop the project just like that, otherwise they would execute me or even my family!"-

-"Then you must find a way to save your family and get out of this country as soon as possible!"-

Komatsu saw that the tiger didn't seem to have any idea how difficult it would be to do something like that, especially considering that Japan is an archipelago, leaving the country for a civilian was very difficult, and even more so if he and his family were wanted by the Japanese military authorities, something he let Raghu know immediately.

-"If you can read my head, you should know that doing something like this is almost impossible for me."-

-"Even so, you must try, or the fate of your species, my own and all living beings in the universe will be at stake!"-

-"WAIT A SECOND, RAGHU!"- The man did a screeching halt on their conversation. -"I perfectly understand that my project could have long-term consequences, but what do you mean with the whole "the universe would be in danger" thing? And on top of that, you haven't fully explained to me how my personality could be a danger to everyone. If you ask me for my opinion, I think you might be insane!"-

-"You should know that answer better than anyone else, because you know inside of you that I'm right."- Raghu continued with his warnings at the puzzled and angry human he had below his paws. -"And I haven't been the only person to tell you that. Other people have warned you over the years, and you have decided to ignore them, and even one person committed suicide knowing the exact nature of your plans."-

That last statement chilled Dr. Komatsu's blood by mentioning the word suicide. Upon entering his mind, Raghu also knew about Dr. Masao Kazama's suicide in Manchukuo back in 1943. That terrible event was still too present in his head to be forgotten so easily, and it was too easy for someone like Raghu to find out. But in the same way, the tiger did not seem to understand the exact context of that event and the reasons why that man took his own life.

-"That man was a drunkard, and he committed suicide due to depression, since we were working in a military prison where they were experimenting with humans, and that affected his mental health."-

-"Yes, but he wasn't the only one who warned you about your work. Several people have talked about the negative impact of your theory, including your father and..."-

-"My father doesn't understand ANYTHING about my work!, damn it!"- Komatsu yelled with rage at the beast. -"And if you mean Mengele, that guy was a damn NAZI, plain and simple, but I don't think you understand what that means, do you?"-

-"I may not know exactly what you're saying, but I do understand men like him and you."- Raghu retorted without a break at the man. -"I have seen first hand and I have felt in my own skin the effects caused by people like you: You only seek absolute power and for all your fellow men to kneel at your feet. The only difference is that man you are talking about only wants his superiors to conquer the world, while you have a more sinister goal than just that."

Obviously, disbelief took hold of Yoshinori Komatsu's body...

-"A more sinister goal than just that?"- His face became more and more pruned at hearing each of Raghu's mysterious words. -"What the hell do you mean by that? Do you mean I'm going to conquer the universe or something as crazy as that?"-

-"More than that."- Raghu said with a angry expression in his feline face. -"Your real goal is the complete extermination of the human race from the face of the universe."-

That warning, which might have impressed someone else willing to hear such ominous admonitions, was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back for that man, who was already too frightened by what he was seeing, only for him to be ultimately warned by an animal that he was going to be some kind of Anti-Christ willing to bring the fated Apocalypse from the Bible. Everything he was seeing was already defying the known scientific limits regarding dreams, the mind and even his religious beliefs or the lack thereof, and he was no longer going to hear any more nonsense from that animal, or whatever was in his head.

-"THAT'S IT! I'M TIRED TO HEAR ALL THIS COMPLETE NONSENSE FROM YOU!"-

Quickly and violently, Komatsu grabs the tiger from his forelegs and throws him back to the ground, as he rises and runs in an unknown direction, in order to avoid listening to Raghu and his cryptic warnings anymore.

*HEAR WELL, YOSHINORI KOMATSU! YOU MAY RUN FROM ME, AND I MAY NOT CARE, BUT IF YOU DO NOT HEED MY WARNING, YOUR FAMILY AND THE HUMAN RACE WILL PAY A VERY HIGH PRICE FOR YOUR DISBELIEF AND YOUR ARROGANCE! *

*YOU WILL BE THE PERSON WHO WILL DESTROY HUMANITY FROM THEIR FOUNDATIONS AND THUS BECOME A GOD! *

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE BECAUSE OF YOU, INCLUDING YOUR CREATIONS!

WHEN YOU CAN STILL DO IT, GO AND RETURN WITH YOUR FAMILY AND SAVE THEM, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

-"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU FILTHY MONSTER! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU ANYMORE!"-

And as he ran towards what appeared to be a desolate place, the destroyed city where Komatsu was suddenly began to disappear, and the sky, which until then was gray, turned white, and everything around the man changed its color to white as well, slowly but steadily.

And then, both the city and Komatsu vanished...

---

March 17th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Komatsu's Room), Tokyo, Japan, 10:00 AM

That terrible nightmare was over, and when Yoshinori Komatsu finally managed to open his eyes, the only thing he could do was cry out with all his strength in pain, thinking that he was still dreaming, until, after looking around, he realized that he had already awakened and that everything he had lived through was a product of his own mind.

-"DAMN IT!"- The man cursed while trying to figure out what happened to him in his dreams. -"What the hell did I dream up this time?"-

But that scream did not go unnoticed by the other residents within the bunker, especially the guards who roamed around the underground facility, who heard Komatsu's screams and one of them knocked on the door to know what had happened.

-"Are you all right, Dr. Komatsu?"- The guard said with certain worried voice. -"We heard a scream from your room and we just wanted to know what had happened."-

-"I'm OK. You don't need to worry about me."- Komatsu replied, somewhat unhappy after having that painful nightmare that left him with a terrible headache from which he was trying to find a way to mitigate it. -"I just had a really bad nightmare, that's all."-

-"All right, if there's nothing else you need from us, please let us know."-

And without further ado, the guards withdrew from the door of their room as Komatsu tried to get out of bed and headed for the bathroom for a shower.

As he undressed, Komatsu noticed something extremely disturbing: His chest had traces of dry saliva, which could have come out of his mouth because of how vivid his nightmare had been. This meant that what he dreamed was not just any bad nightmare and was starting to have real-life effects on him.

And, as he showered, Komatsu wondered what it was that he had dreamed of. Had Raghu really entered his head and was trying to warn him? What kind of meaning that destroyed city he had seen in his dreams had, as did that dead humanoid rabbit? And above all, was Raghu indeed foreseeing that Hiroshima would be destroyed in the same way as that city full of human-like animals?

Even leaving aside the relationship of the humanoids with his project, Komatsu could not understand the meaning of the rest of the nightmare, in addition to the others he had over the years. If Raghu, as he said in his dreams, had no relation to previous nightmares, then what was the meaning of his other prior years' dreams?

The more he tried to dig into the meaning of those nightmares, including his recent one, the more pain it began to cause to his own head, since it was like he was getting into some kind of mental dead end from which he couldn't get out.

After leaving the shower, the young and troubled scientist decided to make a telephone call to the laboratory, by means of a telephone extension designed specifically for that purpose, while he dressed in those moments.

-"Good morning, I need to speak to Isamu Suzuki, please."-

Fortunately for him, that person was the one answering the phone, since he had started working early, along with the rest of the lab employees, before his boss came first.

-"Good morning, Dr. Komatsu!, did you had a nice dream?"-

-"Oh! How are you doing, Suzuki?"- The man congratulated his junior. -"I didn't expect you to start work so early."-

-"Well, you know we had to start working as soon as possible, since we had to begin analyzing some samples that we received from Okinawa last week and we couldn't leave that job for another day."-

-"Oh, yes, those samples from there..."-

-"By the way, and sorry for my question but, why are you talking to me, sir?"- Suzuki asked his boss about the reason for his call, as it would normally be something both of them would discuss personally within the laboratory. -"Is there anything you'd like to discuss about the samples?"-

-"It's not about the samples, Suzuki."- The Japanese chief scientist replied with a painful-sounding voice to his junior apprentice. -"The only reason I call you by phone is because I'm not coming to work and I need you to take care of everything in my place for today. I know this is not usual for you at least, but I think I can trust you the lab for this day."-

Suzuki was surprised to hear that his boss was not going to work that day, because he knew that Komatsu was known for working almost every day without rest, something that the other laboratory workers, from the researchers to even the cleaning employees, followed his example without fail. But that man who he considered his boss was also a human being, and it was natural that one of those days he would need to take a break now and then, so he quickly understood the situation his superior was in.

-"Don't worry about it, Doctor."- The young man reassured Dr. Komatsu with a cheerful tone. -"The lab will be in good hands with me, so take a good rest in the meantime. And I hope I'm not nosing around, but it's obvious that you possibly need some time off."-

Komatsu began to laugh at such a comment in a somewhat forced manner because he was going to need more than a holiday to shake himself off from that delicate situation he found himself in.

-"Heh heh, thanks for worrying about me, Suzuki."- The man replied. -"because I'm going to need something more than that."-

-"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, then."-

-"OK, bye!"-

-"Good-bye, sir. Have a nice day"-

Komatsu hung up the phone and he quickly lay down on his bed, trying to relax a bit and trying to keep analyzing what he had dreamt that night...

GRRRR

But on the other hand, his belly began to tell him otherwise, and so Komatsu decided to leave the matter for another chance. Maybe it was the best for him, because it would allow him to rethink better with a full stomach.

---

March 17th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Cafeteria), Tokyo, Japan, 10:30 AM

-"Here's your fruit salad as you asked, doctor. Hope you enjoy it."-

Yoshinori Komatsu, who was an avowed vegetarian, had ordered a fruit salad for breakfast, along with orange juice, which caused many of the soldiers who were also having breakfast at that time in the bunker cafeteria to start looking at him in an odd way, and some of them even spoke about him negatively at his back, as it was not conceivable that someone who was in the same place as them would eat any other kind of meal other than they had to eat.

But that didn't seem to concern that troubled man in the least, who couldn't conceive of having to eat another living being, even if it was necessary to do so in order to feed himself.

In fact, his vegetarianism was such that he even flatly refused to eat any product from an animal, including milk and eggs. The only exception to this rule, however contradictory it might seem, was eating fish, something he had to do, considering that he lived in a country where the most commonly eaten food was just that, and when he was a child, sometimes it was the only thing he could sometimes eat.

But despite trying to enjoy his food as best he could, the terrible mental images of the nightmare he had that last night refused to disappear completely from his head.

In particular, what seemed to disturb him most were the images of that bunny that he had originally seen when he lived in Hiroshima, then when he saw him again in Ueno when trying to find the message out there, and finally when he saw him once again in his dreams, but this time dead in that destroyed city. And with respect to that city, what relationship did that place have with Hiroshima, his hometown? Was Raghu really serious about the city being destroyed in the not-too-distant future? And above all, was Raghu being able to enter into his dreams, or was it all just a product from his own head?

And again, he stumbled upon the same mental wall he found when he had awakened from his dreams that morning...

There was the possibility that all those dreams could be the product of years of PTSD that he had suffered since the beginning of the war. Being sent from one place to another, and being treated like a glorified servant since he was sent to Manchukuo by many powerful people must have caused him a lot of pain, both physical and mental, not to mention the resentment he held towards those responsible for his suffering. But there was nothing that he, a scientist who had a very clever and innovative idea in his mind, could do about it, apart from complaining within his own.

What if there were the possibility that what was said by that animal was true? That Hiroshima would really be destroyed?

At the thought of this, Komatsu's skepticism became more and more obvious, for it was impossible to predict the future, much less that an animal would do so, and much less if it did so through some kind of esoteric technique such as astral projection or the like inside someone else's head. In fact, the mere idea that an animal could do something like that was just as ridiculous.

There was a problem with that reasoning: Under normal conditions, to think that Raghu could get into his head would have been likewise absurd and he would have quickly dismissed that thought. But there was the small thing on regard of that last point on the fact that wild tiger was intelligent enough to understand and use human sign language, and above all, the Japanese variant, which would be difficult to learn for a human foreigner and much less for an animal, and more so for an animal coming from another country like India.

An animal like Raghu is already an unbelievable and unheard of being, and it would not be so far-fetched to think that someone like him might have other abilities that he was probably keeping secret, among them that of mentally communicating with other people in their dreams.

But in the same way, Raghu could also be a danger to both Komatsu and others, if that animal really had some kind of mind-reading ability, and if so, he didn't want to know what that animal might be able to do on a bad day with any human being, other than eat or attack him. Even if Raghu had nothing to do with his previous nightmares, something that was completely sure considering that neither he nor Raghu knew about each other before, he could not rule out that beast could attempt to do something wrong later on in a better chance.

And he knew he had to do something about that creature before it was too late for him and everyone else in the bunker...

Komatsu then rose from his chair where he was having breakfast and went to a phone at the bottom of the cafeteria, where he made a phone call to someone he knew well:

-"Hello? This is Dr. Komatsu's lab."-

It was the voice of Isamu Suzuki, his aide, who answered the phone on behalf of the doctor that day.

-"It's me."-

-"Oh? Hello, doctor!"- The young biologist responded in his trademark cheerful tone. -"What can I do for you, sir? I thought you were taking the day off for today."-

-"I just changed my mind at the last minute."- The man responded in a serious tone. -"I need you to prepare the following material that I am going to ask you for as soon as I return to the lab, and I want it ready as soon as I get there. You may be surprised or even frightened by what I am going to say, but I will explain it in more detail in the lab."-

That young scientist began to wonder why his boss not only changed his mind about having a day off, but also asked him to do some kind of non-scheduled work.

-"Is something wrong, doctor?"- Suzuki asked his boss. -"It is very unusual for you to ask me to do this type of work without a pre-defined plan."-

-"Like I said, I'll explain it to you in great detail in the lab."- Komatsu replied annoyed due to his aide's insistence on asking the reasons for his orders. -"In the meantime, do as I say."-

-"OK, what do you need, sir?"-

-"I'm about to need 100ml of strychnine mixed with xylitol."-

Upon hearing the name of these substances, Suzuki began to feel somewhat disturbed for a number of reasons: Both chemicals are very potent poisons commonly used to kill animals, usually sick or very dangerous ones. In addition, the dosage requested by the doctor was a very large one for any animal, which meant that it would be used on an animal larger than a domestic animal, such as a farm animal or similar beings.

There was also another important detail to take into account: Komatsu had a very strict policy in which it was not allowed to euthanize animals, except for those who were very sick and there was no possible way to save them, and yet the amount of poison used in those cases was minimal, since most of them died naturally without human intervention. Using such a large amount of poison to kill a single animal was unprecedented to him in the entire time he had been working in the lab. In addition, as far as he had a record of all the animals housed in the bunker, none of them were significantly ill enough to merit his slaughtering.

-"Excuse me, Doctor, I'm sorry if I question your orders, but why do you need all that poison?"- The young man pointed about the poisons that his boss requested. -"We don't have any animal sick enough to be euthanized, much less a very large one, if we consider the amount of strychnine and xylitol you are asking for."-

-"Just wait until I get back to the lab, and you'll see."- Komatsu replied in a very annoyed tone at his junior, due to all his questioning. -"For now, I want those substances to be ready and mixed by the time I get there. Understood, Suzuki?"-

-"OK, sir, understood. I hope you know what you're doing with that stuff."-

---

March 17th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Komatsu's Laboratory), Tokyo, Japan, 11:00 AM

-"Good morning, doctor."- Isamu Suzuki made an audible greeting to his boss, Dr. Yoshinori Komatsu, who was just entering the laboratory, with a very sour face at the moment. -"The xylitol-strychnine mix is ready as you ordered, sir."-

The poison, which was already in a special animal syringe, was ready to be injected, and it was on a table, ready for Komatsu to apply it.

Before doing anything with that dangerous substance, the chief scientist first checked that the syringe was in good working order to prevent the poison from spilling into his hands in the event of an accident or error.

-"Well, it looks like everything's all right."-

But the strangeness of the situation in which Suzuki had been ordered to prepare a potentially lethal poison led that young biologist to start asking his boss questions about the use of that substance. It was more than obvious that it was going to be used on a very large animal, and considering the rules his own boss had imposed regarding the use of such chemicals to kill animals, he knew that something was not right with that man, something he had to let him know immediately.

-"Sorry for my intrusion, doctor, but what are you going to use that poison for in such high dose?"-

Komatsu took a deep breath before replying to his subordinate, knowing that he would probably not like his answer...

-"Maybe it's not a very nice thing to say to you,"- Replied the man with the same, dull sour face -"but I'm going to have to euthanize Raghu, for the sake of everyone here. I hope you can understand that."-

Needless to say, Suzuki did not like in the least what his boss intended to do to the animal, bearing in mind everything they had done for that animal a few days ago...

-"Wha-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"-

-"And please, don't try to stop me from doing what I'm going to do."-The chief scientist, still holding the syringe with the poison in hand, walked to Raghu's room when he was resting, while warning Suzuki along the way. -"If there is a problem, call Colonel Matsuoka to have him kill the animal if I cannot."-

-"With all due respect, sir, but are you crazy or WHAT?"- The young aide yelled in rage toward his boss. -"What happened to make you want to kill Raghu?"-

-"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! I can only assure you that we are all in danger if we let that animal live, and only I can take care of him!"- Komatsu furiously replied to his junior, while still walking to Raghu's place. -"So talk to the colonel if anything should happen to me."-

And while ignoring the pleas from his subordinate, Yoshinori Komatsu walked to where Raghu slept, who seemed unaware of what was happening in the laboratory.

On the other hand, Isamu Suzuki was not going to stand idly by and watch his boss kill an animal for no clear reason, and taking into account all the effort they made to keep Raghu safe, and yet considering that permission was needed from Colonel Matsuoka to kill an animal that technically belonged to the Japanese government, something that Komatsu seemed to care very little about.

-"Oh, shit!"- The young man cursed openly, knowing what might happen if he did not do something to prevent his boss from doing something foolish. -"Get someone to call Colonel Matsuoka RIGHT NOW!"-

Meanwhile, Komatsu had entered the room where large animals resided, especially Raghu, and he wielded the syringe with the poison, ready to apply it to Raghu. He knew that what was going to be is something that was against his own beliefs, but if he thought that Raghu's death would allow him to have some peace, then his sacrifice will be nothing compared to his own mental and spiritual health.

-"Sorry, Raghu, but this is for my own good and everyone's."- The man apologized to the tiger in silence so as not to wake him up, as he approached the cage. Raghu was peacefully asleep, so there would be no problem for him in injecting the poison. -"Soon you will meet Yuka in the other world."-

Already when Komatsu was getting ready to inject the poison into the tiger, he noticed something very strange in the cage, which theoretically should not have happened...

-"Why is the cage lock completely disengaged?"-

But before he could answer that question, the cage door suddenly opened, causing it to hit him in the face and he violently fell to the ground...

-"WHAT THE HELL?"-

But before he could know what was going on, Raghu came out of the cage suddenly, completely enraged to see that Komatsu intended to kill him, and in a single leap, the tiger hurled himself at the Japanese scientist to get him under his paws, preparing himself to kill him if necessary. Komatsu, without a second thought, cries out for help to Suzuki and the rest of the laboratory staff.

-"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"-

Isamu Suzuki, who already knew something like this could happen, had already asked for help from Colonel Hiroshi Matsuoka a few minutes ago, who along with three other heavily armed soldiers had come as soon as possible to take care of Raghu and kill him should the need arise. Obviously, the whole emergency did not make the soldier happy at all, and he demanded from Suzuki an explanation of what was happening in the lab.

-"OK, what the hell is going on here?"-

The young man explained at the military officer about what happened so far, as he, Suzuki and the soldiers went to the room when Raghu and Komatsu were.

-"Dr. Komatsu attempted to euthanize Raghu moments ago, but something went wrong and now the tiger is attacking him."-

-"And who the hell authorized that asswipe to do something like that?"- Matsuoka screamed like mad at Suzuki, almost barking at his face. -"Doesn't he know that tiger is government property?"-

-"Honestly, I don't know, sir."- The young aide tried at best as he could to explain himself, while having the angry man looking at him in a very enraged expression. -"The doctor simply asked me to prepare strychnine with xylitol to inject it into Raghu, and when he showed up at the lab, he took the syringe with the poison ready and he went to the animal's cage without giving any further explanation why he intended to kill him."-

-"And why didn't you try to stop him?"-

-"You know very well that, when the doctor sets out to do something, there's no way to stop him!"- Suzuki, not caring at all about the person in front of him, replied in the same way, considering the severity of the situation in which everyone was involved if they let that tiger kill his boss and anyone who crossed the animal's path if they didn't stop him first by then. -"Besides, with that poison syringe, who knows if I tried to do it in the first place, maybe he would have killed me with it!"-

-"THAT CRAZY SON OF A BITCH!"- Matsuoka kept cursing like a sailor. -"I knew he was mad as hell, but I never imagined he'd be so fucking stupid to do something like that!"-

And without further delay, Matsuoka, Suzuki and the soldiers reached the room, where Komatsu, meanwhile, was fighting the tiger with his own hands. For some strange reason, Raghu, despite having sufficient reasons to kill Komatsu, seemed unwilling to do so, at least that was what it seemed, noting that his claws were retracted and he would have used them at any time to gut that human if he wanted to.

-"AGGGHHH! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"- Komatsu yelled at the tiger, while punching him in his face. -"WHY DON'T YOU TRY TO DEFEND YOURSELF AND KILL ME ALREADY?"-

Suddenly, Raghu hits Komatsu with a blaring headbutt straight to his head...

-"WHAT THE...!"-

...sending the human down to the floor as he tried to regain his senses again.

Meanwhile, Matsuoka and the others were standing still at that sight, seeing that at least the scientist seemed fine, though with several blows all over his body, but without any sign of cuts caused by the animal's claws or bites.

But obviously, the colonel was not going to take the risk of letting Dr. Komatsu die or have the animal attack them first...

-"OK, MEN!"- Matsuoka yelled at his men, while holding their weapons. -"READY... AIM...!"-

But before the officer could issue the command to shoot the tiger...

-"DON'T SHOOT!"- Komatsu yelled Matsuoka and his men. -"DON'T SHOOT HIM, PLEASE!"-

-"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"-

-"I SAID DON'T SHOOT AT RAGHU, GODDAMMIT!"-

-"WHA-WHAT!?"- Matsuoka screamed incredulously, hearing that the doctor, who had originally come to kill Raghu personally, was now asking them not to do so, even to save his life. -"ARE YOU NUTS?"-

-"I KNOW THAT, COLONEL! JUST LET ME TALK WITH RAGHU, FOR ANYTHING SACRED FOR YOU!"-

On the other hand, Raghu, who minutes ago seemed to be attempting to kill Komatsu, was now completely still, doing absolutely nothing and with no intention of even defending himself or doing anything else. It was as if the tiger wanted to say something to the human with whom he was fighting a moment ago, but he needed to stop in order to do so to begin with.

Indeed, Raghu began gesturing to Komatsu with his paws in an attempt to communicate with him. On the other hand, Matsuoka, who did not know until then that Raghu could use sign language, was deeply intrigued to see how this seemingly wild animal was more intelligent than he had thought.

-"We need to talk."-

Those were the words that the tiger had said by gestures to his human interlocutor, in order to explain to Komatsu what had happened and his participation that he might had in his dreams.

Obviously, Matsuoka was completely out of the loop about how that tiger and his subordinate could communicate, and considering what had happened a few minutes ago, he was not happy at all to know that Komatsu knew something that he was not aware of, especially considering that he was about to order his men to shoot that tiger, because they could have killed Komatsu by accident as well, something he might not have cared much about doing anyway. But, also considering that scientist intended to euthanize a tiger that was owned by the government, it was also something that he could not completely ignore.

-"You better explain me what the hell is going on here, or else there will be trouble."-

-"Yes, sir."-

---

March 17th, AD 1945, Imperial Japanese Army Underground Bunker (Colonel Matsuoka's Office), Tokyo, Japan, 12:45 PM

That scene was somewhat awkward for everyone present in the office. And it was not for nothing, due to the presence of several specific characters: Lt. Hideki Nakamura, who was the person who had some connection with several of the events involving Komatsu, because it was he who authorized the doctor to leave the bunker to go to Ueno Park while Matsuoka was out of town, the aforementioned Komatsu, and above all, was also present in the office none other than Raghu, since the colonel wanted to know how that tiger could use a language made for humans to begin with.

-"Fuck, I just left town for a few days, and this damn place almost went to hell without me."-

And then the colonel began to look at Nakamura with a furious glance at how his subordinate had failed him so blatantly before him.

-"And judging by your breath, Nakamura, I can tell that a lot of this has to do with the fact that you were drinking too much while I was gone, isn't it?"-

Nakamura refused to answer that question, preferring to look away rather than say anything that would damn him before his commanding officer.

-"Obviously, you would not have been able to drink a damn thing if it were not for Komatsu going to Kabuki-cho on his way when he went to Ueno thanks to the permission you gave him, would you not?"-

The young officer finally answered that question asked by his boss, knowing that this was something he could not avoid responding to.

-"Certainly, I authorized the doctor to go to Ueno, and I was the one who asked him to go to Kabuki-cho to do some errands on my behalf."- Nakamura explained his participation on the previous events. -"I was also the one who gave the doctor money to buy wine for me there."-

-"And aside from the wine issue, did you also know anything Komatsu intended to do in Ueno?"-

-"No, sir. The doctor just told me he was going to study some birds there."-

-"Did he not say anything to you about Raghu or what he knew about that animal and its out-of-the-ordinary abilities?"-

-"No, sir. He told me absolutely nothing else about Raghu, sir."- Responded the man. -"Except maybe when Komatsu, through his assistant, Isamu Suzuki, asked for three soldiers to come to the lab on March 15th to help him in case Raghu tried to attack him when he let him out of his cage, assuming he did so that he could talk with the tiger for the first time if I take into account what had happened so far. Fortunately, we didn't have to fire a single shot on that time."-

And after he had done talking to his assistant, Matsuoka looked at both Komatsu and Raghu, the latter was lying on the office rug like a huge cat, while he was motionless listening to what the colonel was about to say.

-"And as for you, Komatsu, I want to know what the hell you intended by trying to euthanize the tiger without asking my permission."- The soldier demanded loudly on Komatsu's face, with a very unfriendly look in his face due to all that happened a few minutes ago. -"You know very well that Raghu is government property and you cannot decide on the life of that animal without a signed authorization from me. Considering that we had to go to your laboratory to try to save your hide from that beast, at least I want an explanation of your reasons for trying to kill Raghu."-

-"First of all, I am very sorry about what happened, and that you had to intervene in this whole thing, because it is a personal issue of mine, first and foremost."- Komatsu explained at Matsuoka about what happened so far. -"My reasons for trying to euthanize Raghu were due to security reasons, as I considered that letting Raghu live would have been a danger for me and everyone in this bunker, if not for the entire world."-

This last part left Matsuoka in disbelief because he did not understand the context of what the doctor was referring to.

-"The entire world, you say?"-

-"I would not hesitate to claim that it could be so."-

-"And how the hell can a simple tiger be a threat to the world?"- Matsuoka retorted in complete disbelief regarding the true nature of Raghu. -"We all know here that Raghu killed several people both in India and Japan previously, but from that to be a danger to all humanity would be a gross exaggeration, if you ask my opinion regarding that animal."-

-"I think for that I need to explain the whole situation in detail. And I have to warn you beforehand, sir, this will be a very lenghty explaination."-

-"No problem about it, I'm all ears. Besides, I have time to spare and I don't have anything important to do today."-

-"Thank you, sir."-

And so, Yoshinori Komatsu explained to him his nightmares he had in previous years and their outright bizarre content, the strange humanoid creatures he had seen within those dreams, the destroyed cities he saw, and above all, the simple fact of seeing Raghu communicating in his dreams with him, warning him about the possible destruction of Hiroshima, probably in the same way as the last city he saw in his dreams, all in great detail, as well as explaining some things in context, such as his participation in the events that led to the suicide of Dr. Masao Kazama in Manchukuo, among other events.

-"I know you're not going to believe anything I just said, and the truth is that I don't believe much of what I dreamed either, to be fair, but I think it's important to tell you this, so that you can understand the painful situation I'm experiencing in my head, and if necessary, you can take some action regarding my hometown of Hiroshima, just in case."- The man ended with his explanation with that last part. -"I don't think it would do any harm to emphasize Hiroshima's city security after what happened here in Tokyo, would it?"-

Hiroshi Matsuoka was silent when he heard all of Komatsu's history from his days in Germany to date, as well as the nature of his dreams and Raghu's involvement in them, not to mention the animal's warnings about the possible destruction of Hiroshima and other particularities about Komatsu's work.

But it was evident that nothing of what he had heard up to that momente made the slightest sense to him, even leaving aside the fact that Raghu could understand and use human sign language. To think that an animal could predict the destruction of a city, much less the future, was something absurd on all levels and defied even his own intelligence.

Even then, Matsuoka began to question the sanity of his subordinate, who also did not like him in the least, thinking that he was probably inventing an excuse to get out of the problem he was in by trying to kill an animal that was government property. That soldier, a war veteran hardened in several battles throughout the war, but who by fate was sent to control a top secret bunker beneath the imperial capital of Tokyo against his will, felt that he had already heard enough nonsense from that young man to listen more.

-"Komatsu, I want to ask you a question."-

-"What is it, sir?"-

-"You want to make a fool out of me, don't you?"-

-"I beg your pardon, sir?"-

And without a second thought, the colonel draws his pistol from its holster, and first points it at Komatsu's head without warning...

-"WHAT THE HELL...?"-

and quickly, Matsuoka pulls the trigger of the revolver, opening fire...

BANG!

But the target of his weapon was not Komatsu, and it was never his intention to do so. As he looked back, the young scientist realized who the colonel had shot with his weapon...

-"Oh... no..."-

The target of his weapon and his fury was Lt. Hideki Nakamura, who was already on the floor of the office dead, with a bullet hole between his eyes. That terrible scene shocked both Komatsu and Raghu, the latter of whom had Nakamura by his side, thinking he could kill him first. But the animal never imagined that Matsuoka could kill his own assistant in cold blood in front of Komatsu and the tiger in person.

-"Wh...why did you kill him?!"-

-"None of this would have happened if Nakamura had done his damn job well, and he was not using funds intended for the army to buy wine and pay cheap whores out there."- Matsuoka coldy explained his reasons for executing Nakamura right in his office. -"And if I had to punish that asshole once and for all, it's better to do it now and save us the money and effort of a pointless trial, since the final result would be the same. I had suspected for months that he was embezzling money from us, and this is the best way to deal with bastards like him."-

For obvious reasons, the shot was heard throughout most of the bunker, causing several guards, members of the military police guarding the site, to come to the office to inquire what had happened.

-"What's going on there, Colonel?"-

-"I'll explain later as soon as I get in touch with the top brass, they pretty much know what happened here."- The military man explained the current event, without even losing his cool at any time, while Nakamura's corpse was still bleeding out in his carpet. Even Raghu, a tiger accustomed to seeing violence or being the victimizer, was horrified to see how a human being killed another one as nothing. -"In the meantime, bring a stretcher and two other people to take my carpet to the laundry."-

-"Yes, sir!"-

And without wasting any more time, Matsuoka continued the conversation, while Komatsu could not believe that he could continue to speak so easily while there was a corpse in the office under their very noses. Raghu had it even worse, since that dead body was at his side.

-"If you think I'm going to buy that story about that tiger who went into your head just to warn you that Hiroshima will be destroyed by God knows what,besides having see some animals in your fucking head, you can go forget it once and for all!"- Matsuoka yelled enraged at Komatsu. -"I will not waste army resources, as Nakamura did, only to please your absurd demands and only because you saw a premonition in your dreams!"-

-"But sir!"- Komatsu replied back at his officer. -"You saw what happened here in Tokyo and it would not be absurd to think that something like this could happen anywhere else in Japan!"-

-"I KNOW THAT, YOU MORON!"- The soldier barked almost at Komatsu's very face. -"But I'm not going to risk many people's lives for something we don't know if it's going to happen or not and just because a stupid tiger says so! Besides, why would Americans bother attacking a place like Hiroshima, huh? I know there's a base there, but I don't think it's worth attacking an entire city. If they wanted to attack again, it would be here in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka or God knows what another big city, but I doubt very much that they are going to bother with Hiroshima for something like that!"-

Komatsu did not know what else to say about the matter, seeing that Matsuoka was not going to change his mind about defending Hiroshima.

-"And there's another thing that pisses me off even more than your stupidity about your hometown."- The military man asked Komatsu, still enraged with him. -"Why the hell did you ask me to come to the lab to try to kill Raghu in case you couldn't do it, so you changed your mind at the very end?"-

-"Because Raghu wanted to tell me something."- The science man replied. -"And I think at least he deserved to be heard, even after what I tried to do with him. I admit it was a mistake, and I want to apologize to you for wasting your time with me and Raghu. You clearly saw that Raghu can use sign language, so you can't say I'm lying."-

-"Well, I'll admit that tiger is smarter than he is. But still, I'm not going to believe that he can read people's minds, let alone sneak into dreams, and even less be a threat to everyone here in the bunker as you said."-

-"The latter I think we can rule it out, at least I have to admit it, sir, and I think I exaggerated a lot with that."- Komatsu replied in shame, knowing all that mess was his fault by making the situation even bigger by involving Col. Matsuoka on it. -"Would you at least allow me to talk to Raghu before you intend to do something with him?"

-"Who said I'm going to do something to Raghu?"- The soldier retorted at him. -"I must admit that at least you are trying to get results and, although that tiger has nothing to do with your research, at least it is a sign that your work could be successful. Besides, that tiger is too valuable, both in money and in kind, to be used in trivial things like displaying it publicly or things like that, so I'm not going to do anything about it."-

-"Thank you very much, sir!"-

-"However, there is one thing I must warn you beforehand."-

-"What is it, sir?"-

-"If I don't see results from here until the end of this year, or if I hear again that you, your men or your specimens are involved in some kind of incident like the one that happened today, I will personally see to it that you end up in the same way as Nakamura, if you know very well what I mean."- Matsuoka grimly warned to Komatsu, knowing the latter the reach of the colonel's fury after seeing the dead body of Lt. Hideki Nakamura, who was behind him. -"Be thankful that I changed the deadline from August, so you have plenty of time, so don't fail me this time, Komatsu."-

-"Thank you, sir."-

-"Very well,"- Matsuoka finished the conversation. "You're know dismissed. Also take your tiger out of here with you."-

-"OK, sir."-

After the conversation was over, Komatsu and Raghu left the office, while on the other hand, the military police were waiting for the conversation to end before they could enter the place, with a stretcher in hand, to take Nakamura's corpse and also the colonel's blood-soaked carpet.

Once out of sight of anyone else, Raghu stopped in the middle of the way so that he could speak to Komatsu about what had happened.

-"Humans can be too cruel to kill themselves for so little stuff."-

-"Does that seem too little for you? I've seen worse when I was working in China."- Komatsu agreed with his feline friend, considering what he saw in Manchukuo. -"Humans are capable of killing each other for such absurd things. And you haven't seen anything yet, I think there have been even worse things than executing a subordinate in the office."-

Raghu noticed that his human interlocutor was still trembling with fear because of what they both saw in the office, where Colonel Matsuoka wasn't afraid in executing his own subordinate in front of them. Komatsu knew that man was a cruel and tyrannical person, but he never imagined that he would go that far just to assert his authority and just to warn him to prevent such a thing from happening again.

And, while he never liked Nakamura, even someone like him did not deserve to die like that, considering that he was concerned about Raghu's welfare, and like Komatsu, the lieutenant was horrified to see that tiger was sexually abused in India. But now with his death, any opportunity to seek justice against the aggressors of both Raghu and those responsible for Yuka Nagahama's death went straight to the toilet.

-"There are times when I think what could be worse: The cruelty of the human race or seeing that there are good people who die at the hands of the bad ones."- The tiger commented about the topic at his human friend.

-"For once, I agree completely with you."- Komatsu replied. -"And I feel like we haven't seen the worst of humanity yet."-

END OF ACT XI