Suzuki Sonoko was hiding under the table.
With one hand wrapped around her knee and the other pressed against her chest, her heart beat softly and heavily under her palm, interlacing in a disorderly sense of panic.
But not because of the robbers.
Rather, it was because... she was in a critical situation, and she was very nervous, but when she stayed in the shadows under the table, she felt a subtle sense of reassurance, and her heartbeat was getting faster and faster, to the point that it echoed in her ears, as if something uncontrollable was happening.
It was almost as if her instincts had sensed a glimmer of life before she even realized it.
It was a strange feeling.
Suzuki Sonoko couldn't help but blink, the green color of her pupils moist with moisture, her dry eyelashes briefly intertwining and separating between blinks.
Suddenly, there was a crisp sound of breaking glass, overlapping with her rapid heartbeat, "Boom!"
She raised her eyes at the sound, catching a quick glimpse of the crystalline shards of glass, her green eyes reflecting the red color running through one of the shards.
Warm darkness came over me.
Suzuki Sonoko's eyes were halfway up when a hand covered them.
Before she could see much, the bright color of sunlight-plated, gold-red blood lingered on her retina, and she let out a short, puzzled, "Eh?" from the back of her throat.
The sound of shattered glass hitting the floor and the wall was loud, dissolving Suzuki Sonoko's puzzled voice, and deafeningly silencing her heartbeat, as she blankly perceived in a darkness that was warmed by the sunlight.
The palm on her face was an adult's hand, cooler than normal, and when it fell on Suzuki Sonoko's face, which was a little warm from the palpitations and rapid heartbeat, it was even cooler and made her feelings even more vivid.
She clearly felt the index finger of that hand pressing lightly on her eyebrow, the tip of the finger pressed down on the end of one eyebrow, while the root of the ring finger was pressed against the end of her nose, lining up with the root of the middle finger on the curved line of the bridge of her nose, and the last finger was placed on the tip of her nose.
In the airflow of her breath, the tail finger moved, as if it was not quite comfortable.
Accordingly, Suzuki Sonoko caught a slight whiff of mint, and before she could react, she sniffed and sniffed a few more times, and then her nose shrugged and dug in between the ring finger and the last finger of her hand, and her lips met with a touch of coolness.
In an instant, the last finger moved up and the coolness left.
Then, Suzuki Sonoko heard a very short laugh.
It was short, soft, and sounded like the intruder who had suddenly entered and covered her eyes was a young man.
Her eyes rounded a bit, her eyelashes blinked frequently, sweeping up to her palms, her ears flushed red, "You."
Unbelievably, while reacting and finally being able to speak, Suzuki Sonoko, who was so strong in the face of the robbers and was able to lie and ask for help, actually realized that she was a little bit pathetically aggravated.
It's as if the person who is strong in front of outsiders, and who can show an unconcerned expression to seek justice for herself and never shed a single tear even after suffering and being wronged, would want to cry in front of someone she trusts and is close to because of the smallest thing.
She hastily blinked to relieve the wet eyes, and reached out to grab the wrist of the hand covering her eyes, slowed down the sore and swollen throat and nasal cavity, before carefully inquiring: "Are you here to save me?"
And even before it was answered, the question was: Yes.
...Amazing.
The rescuer was amazing. There were so many robbers in the factory, but he was able to sneak in unnoticed. The floor is so high, but he easily climbed in through the window, and before the hostage could even look up to see the arc of the glass shards, he landed on the ground and covered the hostage's eyes with his hand.
Superb!
Is he a police officer? Or a secret agent? More powerful than those flying agents in the movies!
But why cover her eyes?
The moment this question arose, Suzuki Sonoko heard the sound of a laughing voice again, this time lighter, as if the other person heard or saw something funny and laughed, but politely did not laugh out loud in front of the person being laughed at, but only made a small sound, a silent laugh.
Suzuki Sonoko could hear it even though it was too close.
She: "?"
Surprisingly enough, after hearing just a little bit of a stranger's laughter and quickly deciphering the meaning of the other person as if she were an acquaintance, she didn't feel embarrassed and shy, like 'What, what's going on, as a police officer, you can't laugh at a hostage! but only a subtle sense of familiarity, as if the other party was a friend with a bad character who had been teasing her a lot and she was used to it.
In contrast to this subtle sense of familiarity, she felt a real sense of unfamiliarity with her rescuer.
The combination of familiarity and unfamiliarity created an absurd sense of unreality, and Suzuki Sonoko blinked again.
She could feel the palm of her hand on her face move away a little, still blocking her view, but she could see the sunlight streaming in between her fingers, and she could see the ground beneath the edge of her lowest hand, and she could see the knee resting on her side, and the heel of her shoe, which was just a little bit exposed on the side of her leg.
Those were the pants of a police uniform.
Suzuki Sonoko kept blinking.
There was a cell phone key press, and after the crisp beep that signaled the start of the recording, came Kudō Yūsaku's voice, "Don't be afraid, Mochidzuki."
"Follow the young brother who found you, he's here to save you, don't be afraid of him."
His voice was gentle, with a touch of hesitant hesitation.
It was a mixture of trust and distrust in the rescuer.
If it were usual, Suzuki Sonoko wouldn't have been able to hear Kudō Yūsaku's barely audible hesitation, but now she did, and even more so, she heard the source of that hesitation, and even though her eyes were still covered, her eyes rounded out a bit, and her cheeks even puckered up a bit involuntarily.
Because: how can you not trust!
This sense of familiarity was just as unexplained, and the unhappiness that came from siding with the rescuer and being upset to hear that he wasn't trusted came and went quickly.
It rose for almost an instant, and when Suzuki Sonoko realized it, she was surprised herself, but it was immediately dissipated with no concern when she heard a human voice that was not a recording, "Did you hear that?"
The rescuer said, "Don't be afraid of me, just follow me."
He laughed again, "Well, you can't see, don't be afraid, the blue bar is rising."
"...Ahem, 'Ms. Mochidzuki', I've discovered the secret to getting through to you."
It wasn't the polite and reassuring attitude of a strange child, it was the attitude of a familiar child, with a touch of cat-and-dog indifference that wasn't offensive, but only intimate.
Even though he didn't answer Suzuki Sonoko's words at all, it was clear that he was a bit of a bad guy, not a serious rescue police officer, but someone who had casually put on a police uniform to save people.
Suzuki Sonoko felt intimacy.
With 'Human police rescuing a hostage, not answering the hostage's question and laughing at the hostage, human police are bad! ,'Officer Fox rescued the hostages, good for foxes! Officer Fox speaks human language, good fox! Officer Fox can laugh, good fox! Officer Fox will touch the hostages' eyes if they are afraid of the hostages' fear. It's a little bit of intimacy with the meaning of "good cat, bad cat".
But why 'fox'?
She wondered about her lack of time to think, but then it made sense: 'Fox' fit the rescuer so well!
"You, hello, Fox."
Suzuki Sonoko gripped the rescuer's hand tightly, gathering her courage, "Thank you for coming to my rescue."
She tilted her face up and rubbed her cheek against the palm of the hand that was still holding her eyes closed, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
The rescuer stopped laughing.
The room suddenly fell silent, loud enough for the rapid footsteps and sporadic warnings below to go unnoticed.
Suzuki Sonoko waited for a few seconds, a little rattled, "...Fox?"
In the silence, she heard what sounded a bit like a fox baring its teeth in displeasure, and a perfunctory reply that wasn't quite a smile, "Ah yes, yes, yes."
"Again."
'Again'?
Before Suzuki Sonoko could react, she was picked up, the rescuer's voice rising anew, "Yo, they found my infiltration, nah, gotta go soon."
"Or else," He made a sound like a fox's threatening huff again, and ghostly picked up the next half of the sentence, "you'll be disturbed halfway through eating a fresh kid."
"Foxes don't like to be disturbed when they're eating babies."
-Huh?
This, this means...this rescuer isn't a human, is it really a fox?
It sounded like a joke, and Suzuki Sonoko wouldn't have believed it if someone else had said it, but now that she heard it from the rescuer, she believed it without hesitation, and wasn't surprised at all, but rather, she had a sense of entitlement, as if she had known that she was a fox even before the other person confessed.
Like the sense of familiarity, it was a bit strange.
"Oh," Suzuki Sonoko responded obediently, "then let's go."
As if she hadn't heard the threat of 'I'm going to eat you', she took the initiative to wrap her arms around her rescuer's neck, arching the hand over her face away before bringing her face to the nape of her neck and shoulders, "Haven't I seen you before, Brother Fox?"
Otherwise, why would there be an inexplicable sense of familiarity?
But there's really no relevant part of her memory.
That...
Is it some kind of 'past life'?
In a past life, she knew a fox, but died and was reborn as a human? That's why the fox came to her rescue when she was in danger, and that's why she felt that the fox was familiar and strange, with a kind of intimacy that seemed to have melted into her soul.
Reasonable.
The rescuer, however, said, "Don't strike up a conversation."
His hand is patting Suzuki Sonoko's head very gently to show his positive attitude towards her initiative to adjust her posture to make it easier for him to get down the stairs, but his tone is a bit disgusted, "Bad habit."
And then, "So cooperative? I'm going to eat you, as soon as I get out of the factory?"
"Aren't you scared?"
Suzuki Sonoko caught the scent of mint on the rescuer's neck and shrugged her nose a few times, the skin she touched instantly moving away from the rescuer's threatening words as she tilted her head.
That sounds about right.
So Suzuki Sonoko knew: "Oh, a good fox with a bad mouth and a bad heart.
It's arrogant.
She nodded her head and replied in a similar fashion, "I'm scared, I'm scared, oooh, don't eat me, please."
Rescuer: "..."
He flicked Suzuki Sonoko's forehead, "Tsk, the tone is scared, not a bit of threatening feedback."
"Are you sniffing, why do you keep sniffing around? Cold knowledge, I'm not a gold coin."
"They're coming, get ready to jump."
Suzuki Sonoko immediately hugged tightly, wrapping her arms around her rescuer like an octopus, her cheek pressed against the side of the other's neck, which was warmer than her hand, and her eyes closed tightly, "Yes."
Before the answer could be fully bitten out, it turned abruptly into a scream at the sensation of falling.
The rescuer is jumping.
He was only jumping one floor at a time, and the sensation of falling came so fast and furious that before Suzuki Sonoko could digest one, the next came.
All she could do was cling harder to her rescuer and close her eyes tightly, not daring to look down.
After a few jumps, she felt the rescuer carrying her through the window, "Okay, okay?"
As she asked, she kept her eyes closed for fear of jumping and seeing her rescuer's face.
Because the rescuer obviously didn't want her to see his face, there might be some kind of taboo, such as one look could lead to seeing things humans shouldn't see at the moment of demonic encounter, such as one look would lead to staying in hell forever and not being able to meet up with the fox again.
"Better," the rescuer replied, "but not completely."
He was serious, "Not only did they not surrender, they had the audacity to fight back. No, I'm going to have to snipe them."
Suzuki Sonoko's translation: "Oh, the foxes are up to no good.
Her eyebrows drooped into a pitiful expression, "Okay."
Then she responded, "Snip?"
A fox that can use a human sniper rifle?!
Yes.
But it's not a sniper rifle, it's a pistol.
The rescuer was very good. He was not hit by a bullet once during the gunfight in the factory. As the one who could only hear the sound with his eyes closed, Suzuki Sonoko should have been afraid. But as long as she thought that the rescuer was not a human, but a fox, a god, she might run into the muzzle of the gun. As long as the god wanted to protect her, he would definitely protect her. She was not afraid at all.
In the dense and chaotic gunfire, she is like a good fox cub, from start to finish, obediently around the neck of the rescuer, only to close her eyes and listen to the robbers shot after the pain cries and loud exchanges.
The cries and exchanges were intense.
Often, a robber would give a cry of pain, change his gun or report to his partner, and then he would give another cry of pain.
One robber even cried out five or six times.
It's pathetic.
But he deserved it.
He kidnapped people and upset the fox.
Kidnappers kidnap kids, bad kidnappers. Foxes beat up kidnappers, good foxes.
The robber stinks, the fox only beats the robber, good fox!
The 'Good Fox' was wondering, "That guy was standing by the same window as the one before, so why did he aim at the center of the window and only hit his left shoulder, but just now he aimed at the center of the window a few points to the right and hit his right leg?"
"...There's something wrong with the rifling."
"The rifling on this gun is faulty," The rescuer was serious, "the kid is faulty, the kid is affecting my power and my stance."
He realized, "No wonder."
"Even so, I can hit five or six out of ten, I'm a real marksman."
Translation by Suzuki Sonoko: The fox was being serious, not just being a bad shot, but playing with his prey, like a cat plays with a mouse.
She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her nose in her rescuer's collar, rubbing that skin a lot hotter, not smelling the blood outside, just the mint, and being a serious bad fox accomplice, "Mmm! You're a good shot!"
"You're good. You're good with a gun!"
It's true.
Foxes are great with guns.
But the rescuer didn't say a word, he just walked across the floor of a disarmed robber, climbed out of the window, and jumped to the first floor.
He carried Suzuki Sonoko on his motorcycle before he said quietly, "Kids can't be mean, dismissed."
Suzuki Sonoko was still holding her rescuer, with her back to the blowing wind. She felt the loud vibration and hum of the motorcycle, and her eyelashes fluttered a few times, but finally opened carefully.
She looked up at her rescuer's face, looking only at a patch of neck and shoulders near her face, and spoke somewhat blankly, "I'm not shady."
"That..."
"Your clothes, did you take them from another human?"
The Rescuer, who had one hand on the handlebars of his motorcycle and one around Suzuki Sonoko's waist, sniffed and glanced sideways at the police uniform he was wearing, "Huh, you saw that."
Kids are just small, not blind, of course they can see it, what's with the tone of some surprise!
Suzuki Sonoko angrily arched her collar, pushing the two layers of the rescuer's collar apart.
The top layer was a police uniform, the bottom layer looked like a sweatshirt collar.
"I opened my eyes," she said, less than pleased, "The uniforms seem to be a few sizes too big, and there's no minty odor, so of course I can spot it."
She added, "Fox, you know the police, can you borrow some clothes?"
Shouldn't you just change your clothes?
"Foxes can't," the rescuer replied casually, "but man-eating foxes can."
He huffed and got serious again, "I ate a passing police officer and put on his clothes, next, I'll eat you, put on your clothes, and use your appearance to meet your family, who will never find out that you're dead, how about it, are you scared?"
"Tell me, how do you want to be eaten by me?"
The rescuer's neck was tense as he pretended to exhale, and Suzuki Sonoko subconsciously sniffed at it before answering slowly, "I'm scared. How about some sugar?"
"Will you wash me before you eat it?" She was a little worried, "No, a girl has to wash me."
Then she added, "Mommy says only a gentle, pretty fox with pretty hands and a nice scent like yours can wash me."
And with some hesitation, "Can you be transformed?"
She had a good argument, "You are very gentle, I think you are handsome, your fingers are long, your hands are very nice, I can see that they smell of peppermint."
That's a good choice.
The rescuer stopped talking again.
After a moment, he inclined his head, "...stop sniffing around, I can feel it. Are you a man-eating fox, or am I a man-eating fox? If you know the difference between the sexes, don't keep sniffing me."
And, "Me, gentle?"
The compliments were so good, so good that even when they were repeated, the rescuer paused before continuing, "Ah yes, yes, yes."
This time, Suzuki Sonoko heard the perfunctory dislike, like a cat's perfunctory dislike of pushing away a human's face with its paws when it's being kissed, and immediately said, "But you're really gentle."
Specific examples are: "I rub you, you will not be happy, but you will not immediately push me away, after I rub you again and again hard, you will leave me alone."
She said solemnly, "You're a good fox."
"You're a good fox." She said solemnly.
But he's a fox.
Rescuer: "Oh."
"Why are you upset?" Suzuki Sonoko, distressed, ran her hand down her rescuer's back, smoothing the fur rustily, "Don't be upset."
She thought for a moment and then curled her eyes happily, "I see."
"You're a human now, you shouldn't be called a fox, right? You're a good person!"
Rescuer: "..."
The motorcycle lurched, Suzuki Sonoko was shocked and stopped smoothing her fur and hugged the rescuer tightly, "One by one, you're a good person."
"Don't be angry, okay? I'm sorry."
"...Don't be a baby," The rescuer spoke, "I'm a man-eating fox."
Wasn't he scared the first couple times?
Now she's so familiar with rescuers of unknown origins that she's just sticking to them.
Suzuki Sonoko: "Okay."
It's perfunctory.
The rescuer let go of his grip on the handlebars of the motorcycle, flicked Suzuki Sonoko on the forehead when she felt off-balance and wanted to scream, regained his grip on the handlebars and stabilized the motorcycle, "Tsk."
After a few seconds of re-stabilizing, Suzuki Sonoko slowed down, "Well, you're a good fox for a human."
It had only been ten short minutes, and she was no longer as nervous and frightened as she had been in the factory, but rather relaxed and lighthearted, like she had never been in a kidnapping case before.
She said honestly, "I don't know what happened, but the moment I saw you, I thought you must be a super, super, super nice fox."
The kind that would save her over and over again.
Just as the rescuer had saved her many, many times in countless memory fragments that she couldn't remember, even if the memory fragments dimmed and shattered, she was left with instinct.
The rescuer was silent again.
The motorcycle sped through one street or another, leaving only the sound of the motorcycle and a flickering shadow for the pedestrians on the roadside.
Having gotten this far, they could have slowed down, but the rescuer didn't, and Suzuki Sonoko didn't ask the rescuer to slow down. She looked at the patch of road spit out by the rear wheel of the motorcycle and whispered, "Thank you."
"I was so scared. Thank you for saving me."
And then, "You must really like humans. Am I your favorite human?"
Why else would she come to her, and why else would she have so many subtle feelings?
"..." After a sustained silence, the rescuer had to speak, "No."
"I don't like humans."
Suzuki Sonoko's translation: a bad-mouthed fox with a bad heart.
She nodded, "Oh, then you must really like me!"
"If you don't like humans and you're still so nice to me, you must really like me."
"Was I your lover?"
Rescuer: "?"
Rescuer: "..."
He slows down the car a bit and asks politely, "Hello, passenger, this destination is a police station, would you like to change the destination to a hospital?"
Suzuki Sonoko: "Sorry!"
Although she didn't know why the fox was angry again, she didn't hesitate to apologize, after all, the other person was a fox, and if she was upset, a human should be coaxed.
"So," She changed the question, "why do you hate humans?"
The rescuer corrected, "Not hate."
"But don't like means hate," Suzuki Sonoko wondered, "and don't hate means like."
Following the rescuer's earlier correction, she asked again, "Why do you like humans?"
Rescuer: "..."
"Okay," Suzuki Sonoko questioned, "Don't be mad, I'll ask again, why don't you like humans?"
Because...
Humans are something that can devour all kinds of desires and twist themselves into an inhuman existence.