You treated them like a child. How odd! Aren't you scared? The clever fox is the one who lives, but the one who lives cautiously. Compassion blinds the fox and gives away its weakness.

At least, that's what Kyūsaku was taught in the mafia. Nobody would ever expect a child, let alone a six-year-old, to harm, that's what made them such a valuable weapon.

Everybody was a fox, a predator who could hurt them, and they were a rabbit with sharp teeth waiting for the fox to lower its guard so they could tear their throat out. But you weren't a fox or a rabbit.

Does what you did count as stealing? Kyū was beginning to wonder what punishment the mafia would inflict on you for whisking them away. Does it count as kidnapping if they were never treated as a kid?

They thought kidnappers were supposed to be bad guys, not people who put colourful bandages on all the cuts on their arms. Someone who gave them warm meals three times a day, or took them out to the park to play. It's not fair, humans are the bad guys. Why are you any different?

"Why won't you hurt me?" The words left Kyū's mouth out of the blue. They simply sat there, wide-eyed and curious, waiting for an answer ~~or to be harmed~~.