Page 224 of Mercy Written in Blood

The girl moved the rabbit to the other side. Renji took the chair. Not immediately. Only after she had invited him.

Haruki felt something shift inside his chest. Small. Quiet. More dangerous than the kiss had been. The kiss had confirmed desire. This was something else.

Renji picked up the chart again. Yumi looked at it.

"Do you have work?"

"Yes."

"Will you get in trouble?"

"Frequently."

"For sitting with me?"

"No."

"You don't know."

"I am difficult to discipline."

Haruki nearly laughed. Yumi seemed less impressed.

"My teacher says everyone has to follow rules."

"Your teacher has not met enough adults."

"She says adults make the rules."

"That is why many of them are poor."

Yumi thought about this.

"My mummy says I shouldn't listen to strangers."

"She is correct."

"But you're a doctor."

"That does not make me less strange."

"You told me your name."

"Yes."

"So you're not a stranger now."

The logic seemed to surprise Renji. His face changed. Barely. A softness around the eyes Haruki recognised from Sunday dinner — from the moment the Takahara journal revealed that Renji had once saved children he believed he had failed.

"What happened to your rabbit?" Renji asked.

One of its legs had been repaired with blue thread. Yumi held it up.

"He got hurt."

"Who fixed him?"

"My mummy."