The room was dim, with clutter strewn all over the floor. In the farthest corner stood an iron cage half a person's height, its rusty bars caked with grains of rice and grime.
Two little girls, eight or nine years old, huddled inside. They were twins, dressed in ragged, thin clothes, emaciated to skin and bone, their faces and bodies covered in filth.
They clung tightly to each other, staring toward the doorway with dark eyes that held none of a child's brightness, only a numbness etched into their bones.
Half a bowl of sour brown-rice porridge sat beside the cage. The bowl's rim was chipped, and a few ants crawled over it.
The air seemed to freeze in an instant.
A buzzing filled Qingxiao's head, and fury raced through his veins.
This was no accidental sacrifice on the mountain behind the village. This was imprisonment right here in the village, in plain sight of everyone.
They had locked two children in an iron cage like livestock, leaving them hungry and cold.
Everyone knew. Everyone stayed silent, blaming every misfortune on the two children.
It cut deeper than the scene in the cave.
Because this was not helplessness born of desperation. It was ignorance and malice bred into their bones.
He whipped his head toward Suguru Geto, and his heart sank to rock bottom.
Suguru Geto stood rooted to the spot, every trace of color drained from his face, his hands trembling slightly at his sides.
Cursed energy spilled uncontrollably from his body, its pressure sending dust showering down from the rafters.
He said nothing, only stared fixedly at the two children in the cage. A darkness Qingxiao could not understand churned in his eyes, like the deathly still sea before a storm.
*It's all fucked. All that talking was