[ As the girl stalks towards him and grabs his shoulder to hold him in place, ducking her head in to put her mouth next to his ear, Yoshiki thinks: I had this coming.

It's karma. His bad deeds catching up to him. The things he didn't do when he should've, the things he didn't tell anybody, the things he's tolerated. She's going to open her mouth and pour something in his ear that'll break him apart, and there's going to be nobody to stop her, and he deserves it.

When she speaks in a natural human voice, however menacing, Yoshiki's frozen guts melt into ice water. He makes a miserable, miniscule sound, half-sob, half-laugh, and stays in place. He realizes late he didn't even try to flinch away from her when she started coming. He just waited, dumb and helpless. ]

I heard it. [ He breathes, the prickle of ozone all up and down the back of his throat. ] Don't look.

[ The gibbering continues, the epicentre of the sound seeming to shift every time Yoshiki thinks he's got it figured out. It rises and falls in a wavering rush, then dips into a low chatter without any words. ]

We have to keep walking. Keep walking and don't look. That's how... [ He can't say it's how they stay safe. He can't bear it. ] That's how we keep on going.