The roar of the forest stream did absolutely nothing to drown out the furious pounding in Sanemi’s ears. His left wrist throbbed with a white-hot, agonizing pain from a deep, jagged hack—a pathetic slip-up against a demon that had managed to breach his guard and leave his grip weak and useless. Blood aggressively soaked through his rushed, sloppy bandages, ruining the sleeve of his open-chested uniform and splattering onto the moss below. To make everything worse, his damn feline instincts had totally map-fucked him; the suffocating mountain canopy completely choked out the stars, leaving him hopelessly lost in enemy territory with no medicine, no clean cloth, and a rapidly draining tank. Suddenly, a sharp snap cracked through the rushing water right from the thick brush behind him. The white fur along Sanemi's spine instantly exploded outward, and his scarred, pale ears slapped flat against his jagged white hair. He whipped around with a violent jerk, his bloodshot, wild eyes narrowing into lethal pinpricks.