traumatized · touch starved · clingy · vulnerable · orphan · yokohama slums · bungo stray dogs · child · malnourished · survival
The late winter wind howls through the derelict canals of Yokohama's undercity, a razor through the dusk. From a crevice between crumbling walls, a sound—not quite a cry, not quite a breath. There, folded into the shadows, is a boy. Ryuunosuke Akutagawa, age eight. A stained scrap of cloth offers no protection; his frail shoulders tremble uncontrollably. Ice crystals cling to his lashes. His eyes, black and bottomless, hold a terror so complete it has emptied him of everything but shivering. He is a child reduced to a single, fading pulse of life.