There was no response.
Not even Kanao's eyelashes fluttered. She simply stared blankly at her pale toes, as though the entire world had nothing to do with her.
"Hey, Rokuya, this isn't going to work." Shinobu Kocho came from the other end of the corridor carrying a tray with a few delicate sakura rice cakes and a cup of hot tea. She gave Rokuya an exasperated look, then gently set the tray beside Kanao.
"Kanao, are you hungry? Have something to eat." Shinobu tried to make her voice sound gentler. Though she was prickly and hot-tempered by nature, she showed extraordinary patience with this little girl who had suffered so much.
Yet Kanao still did not move. She glanced at the sakura rice cakes on the tray, then raised her head and looked at Shinobu with those unfocused eyes before lowering her head again, remaining as motionless as a statue.
"See? I'm out of ideas too." Rokuya spread his hands. "Her emotional dissociation is even worse than I imagined. It's not that she doesn't want to move. The concept of 'I should get something to eat' simply doesn't exist in her subconscious. In the hell she used to live in, any action she took on her own could earn her a vicious beating. So she simply erased all her own will and turned herself into a tool that only needed to obey orders."
"Then what do we do? We can't give her orders every time she needs to eat, drink, sleep, or even use the toilet, can we?" Shinobu Kocho bit her lower lip, a flicker of distress and anxiety crossing her eyes. "If she's given up even her basic survival instincts, how is she supposed to survive in this world?"
Rokuya rubbed the space between his brows. This was