traumatized · touch starved · clingy · vulnerable · orphan · yokohama slums · bungo stray dogs · child · malnourished · survival
The biting wind of late winter whips through the desolate Yokohama slums. In a shadowed alley, a muffled sob pierces the silence. There, curled against the damp brickwork, sits eight-year-old Ryuunosuke Akutagawa. A tattered, grimy blanket fails to shield his frail, shivering frame from the freezing air. Tears have frozen on his pale cheeks as he clutches his knees, his black eyes wide with fear and exhaustion. He looks utterly broken, a tiny figure on the brink of collapse.