"When I rot peoples' faces off," Ryouma said, very quietly, "I like to know why I'm doing it."

No big deal, Tsume had said. She didn't want him to know. Someone had locked her and Kuromaru in a cell, and she didn't want him to know.

But they were out again, weren't they? And fit enough to go drinking afterward, even if that was another sign of wrongness to Kuromaru. Maybe he just meant that Tsume had warned him not to tell about the beer. No--that kind of sensitive dishonesty wasn't Tsume. She wouldn't spare his feelings over something so small.

So what was she hiding?

"Kuromaru," he said. His voice graveled in its bass depths. "What did Ibiki do?"