where are you right now? who are you with?

[digestate]

i'd never let go of that hand again.

Comments

[26seconds]

[When he looks back upon this time period, maybe Aki will have the wherewithal to recognize he was acting out in hopes of a reaction. Shoving food in his coat pocket and hurrying off without a word about where he was headed - surely his parents would stop him at the door with hands on hips and say, "And just where do you think you're going?" But every time he did, when he was fed up or buzzing with a feeling he couldn't quite describe, he would push open the front door and it would squeak on its hinges and he'd briefly look back, lock eyes with the back of his mother's head, hear the sound of his father passing between rooms. He'd slam the door behind himself and tell himself he heard the small echo of Taiyou's voice - "Mom, where's he going?"]

[But then their mother would probably say something like, "He's just getting some air." He could continue with those mental paper dolls for as long as he liked, talking back and forth. Worrying about Aki, dismissing concerns about Aki. But it's a pointless game he's sick of playing. Aki shoves his hands into his gloves and treks down the path barely dusted with snow.]

[He's more or less memorized the current route at this point. He's had to re-memorize it every time it changes, when suddenly an area gets patrolled a little more heavily or there are whispers about some kind of vagabond in the area. But Aki gets it - very smartly said that he learned in school that the forest creates one of the biggest industries in this area. Lumber, woodworking, replanting... He knows about all that stuff. So it makes sense that someone with a chainsaw devil would have all the work he has here - and it makes sense that, even with all that work, every now and then something just seems to happen that blows all the money away.]

Denji!

[He calls the name out as he gets close to the makeshift home, boots crunching through the layers of ice that have frozen over the top of the shallow snow. A wind gusts through and blows some of the finer crystals over his face from the low-leaning trees and he scrubs at his cheeks, banging a fist against the makeshift wooden lean-to door.]

I got you some Calorie Mate! It's the cheese kind!