Matsusa extended his claws and swatted at the bush, close enough to the shrew to increase the fear, but far enough away to not injure it.
Matsusa smelt the fear. It was in the animal's scent, its sweat, its urine which had released itself not too long ago. Fear was not a very pleasing scent coming from a prey animal. Matsusa wondered if it would be better from a predator of some kind.
Well, at least the shivering and physical reaction was pleasing. He prowled around the bush, grinning as the creature shook harder. Would it die of fear? Could it die of fear? Maybe Matsusa could find out.
---
Anupama trotted through more grass, but this time it wasn't high at all. Anu could clearly see well over the grass, so it was very short grass. Better to see others than tall high grass. That didn't mean there weren't good place to hide, so Anupama stayed on high alert. He didn't need anything popping out from behind anything and making it a generally stressful day.
As it happened, he didn't really need to be on high alert at all. The lion cub wasn't really being all that quiet about his hunt of a small rodent-like creature under the bush. Anu just couldn't understand what was deterring the little lion from pouncing to finish the hunt and eat its prey. After all, that's what you did on a hunt. You eat the prey. Anu sat down a distance away to watch the situation a little more and see if he couldn't find out what was keeping the cub at bay. It could be useful if Anupama every needed it. Not that he foresaw that, but one never knew on a day to day basis.
He could even find a way around the boundary the lion had to deal with and faster than him too. Any little bit of information could help until he found his place in the world. Something that was turning out much harder than he had originally thought it was going to be. No wonder his mother more or less jumped at the role that had come her way, even if it took her to the pridelands. Anu was even happier for her now that he was wandering around looking for his direction than when she had first announced it, and he absolutely loved her choice then because it made her happy. It had multiplied so much since then.
So what was that lion cub doing.
---
It had squealed! So far the little shrew had peed itself, ran, hid under a bush, and shivered, but finally it had squealed! Matsusa bounced a little in excitement. Fear was a wonderful thing. It was heady and Matsusa knew that the pride and its teachings were so right. Not that he had ever doubted it in the first place, but he was a cub, so he didn't see fear because of him all that often. He ded fear some of the big lions and knew they had the power in that situation, but then he was a cub and they weren't. So it made sense for him to fear them and it made sense for them to hold the power.
Matsusa circled the push and the shrew under it. It didn't move with him, but it also didn't take the opportunity to dash out and to saver ground. Amazing how fear froze the mind. it had stopped thinking logically apparently. If it could even think logically. Prey probably couldn't. They were prey for a reason after all. The force wasn't with them at all. But in this moment, Matsusa knew that the force was with him. The fear and the force aligning to give him all the power in this situation. And it was addictive. Matsusa wanted more of it. More power. Which meant he needed more fear from the little creature.
How long would the little creature last after he pounced it and really started to play with it. Because this whole time, Matsusa had been holding back and experimenting on the thing. And his need to know and feel more so his experiment would just have to provide more. It had to get more intense. Maybe Mastsusa would see how long, and what it took to make a shrew die of fear.
Matsusa grinned as a rough plan for his experiment started to form. He was back in front of the shrew and now whatever small chance it had to escape and find some kind of safety was all but gone. Unless Matsusa decided to give it some. He didn't see that happening any time soon.
---
This .... this definitely wasn't a normal hunt. Anupama watched with growing concern as the lion cub circled the creature which Anu could now see was a Cape Elephant Shrew. Not exactly a fierce animal in the first place, but they could be fast buggers. It was impressive that the lion could back it under a bush successfully in the first place. Obviously, though, the lion wasn't hungry otherwise it would have been eating by now. This was getting ... Anu had no idea how to handle this situation. There were no adult lion around supervising the lion and so Anu couldn't approach them with his concern.
And then the animal squealed. The sound, while normal during a hunt of any kind, sent chills down to Anupama's bones. It wasn't just a prey squeal of fear for its life. At least that's not how it sounded to Anu at all. It was a desperate fear-filled sound that was losing all hope in life, never mind in actual escape from the now circling lion cub. It didn't even take a chance to run when the cub was behind it. The shrew wasn't moving at all, beside quaking in fear.
Anu started to circle himself, low to the ground as he tried to think of something to do or say to stop this terrorizing moment. He circled in the same direction as the lion cub, trying to stay downwind of him. Anupama probably didn't have to be that careful in his observation of the cub's behavior, but he didn't want to attract the lion's attention until he had a plan in place to stop everything that was happening between the lion and its victim. Because obviously the shrew was a victim to the lion cub, not prey. Not food in this instance. Whether the lion would eat the shrew once it finally died, Anu didn't know, but right not it was NOT food.
---
Another possible experiment popped into Matsusa's head. One to try eventually, but he didn't think the shrew would survive long enough to be the proper subject to try it on. What fear tasted like. The smell of fear was growing on Matsusa, it was a scent to acquire appreciation for. It was starting to smell delicious. It made Matsusa lick his chops as he swatted closer to the shrew. He a swipe or two, Matsusa planned to actually touch the creature and then a he would pick it up and start to play with it, to poke at it, to see what made it tick.
He swiped at the shrew, touching its side. If he had had his claws out it would be shredded in half bleeding with its guts spilled on the ground feeding the roots of the bush it hid under. But Matsusa had kept his claws sheathed. He was rewarded with a small scared little whimper. Matsusa grinned again. Wider this time.
The shrew was a treasure trove of fear and terror. It reacted with fear. It stopped thinking with fear. It spoke fear. And that fear just made Matsusa feel so powerful because he GOT the teachings of the pride now. He UNDERSTOOD it and that knowledge made him just a little bit more powerful. The pride was filled with fierce lions and lionesses. His own sisters were insanely fierce and wicked and they were his litter mates. He wasn't afraid of them, but he could see why others would be. Now he understood why others should fear him as well. Yes, this was only a shrew. A creature beneath notice really, but the fear it gave off was a good stepping off point to getting more fear and thus power.
Finally, Matsusa swiped and picked it up, applying enough pressure to hurt the shrew but not break it. He thought he was anyway. But it was only a shrew so even if he broke it, it didn't matter. Some other animal would come along and enjoy an easy meal. If Matsusa decided to give it up. He took a seat beside the shrew's bush and smiled gently at the creature in his paw.
Slight pressure. slight release. Pressure. Release. Matsusa kept up the rhythm until the shrew grew to follow it, breathing out on the release. and then Matsusa changed the rhythm. He allowed his claws to come out and scratch at the shrew's fur, not to cut into it but to illicit some more of the creature's pain and fear. The slow process of getting every single drop of fear and power out of it as he could before its heart stopped because of the fear it had and continued to grow.
Matsusa inhaled the sweet scent of fear and caught something else. Some one else. Some one was watching him play with the creature in his grip and their fear was just as delicious. Their fear was different. Matsusa inhaled again and waited to see what their fear made them do.
---
It just went from bad to worse in mere seconds. And Anu was out of options.
The lion cub hadn't been hunting the shrew; it was torturing the prey animal. As if being prey wasn't bad enough, the lion cub had made the shrew's life that much harder and horrible. Jackals weren't the top of the food chain, but at least they were pretty high up especially compared to a shrew, so Anupama could only imagine the difficulty of its life. Now in the cub's paw it was a torture victim.
No plan and no options was the worst thing Anu could have in a situation like this. Because the lion cub was almost as big as he was. Granted, Anu's experience and knowledge would tip any fight in his direction, probably, but it would still be a hard fight. And Anu wouldn't want to do any permanant damage to the cub. Still, something had to be done and now.
Anupama stepped out of hiding and circled into the lion's sight. The cub didn't seem to be surprised when Anu revealed himself. Apparently, while circling the cub Anu had not stayed downwind of him. The element of surprise went out the window. The small hope that the cub would be startled and maybe slightly ashamed of torturing the shrew went out the same window. The cub kept hold of it, continuing to squeeze a random squeak out of it.
Anu was amazed that the shrew's tiny heart hadn't given out yet.
---
Matsusa smiled at the jackal that came out of hiding. His fear was interesting because Matsusa couldn't understand it. Yet. He still had time. This experiment just got bigger. "Well, it's about time you came out of hiding." Matsusa greeted the jackal and squeezed the shrew just a little bit harder. The squeak was a nice sound. He didn't know which he liked more, the squeal, the whimpers or the squeaks. He had time to figure it out, even if this shrew died today. He could always catch something else and hold that experiment.
He watched the jackal approach him with care. Matsusa couldn't tell if the jackal was afraid of him so much as he was afraid for the shrew. That was the interesting part of the jackal's fear. It was a different flavor and different scent. But it was still something that Matsusa liked. He liked it a great deal. So Matsusa smiled at the approaching jackal. He knew it was a charming smile. Females seemed to like it. And some males as well, but Matsusa liked the way they all reacted. He could get so much out of a being by just smiling. It hard ever - if at all - worked on his siblings, but he did had no need to get something from them that he couldn't take and they would take back. They could fight or bully or bargain with each other. It was strangers that Matsusa smiled at, just like this jackal. "Why did you stay hidden so long, Jackal."
As he smiled and spoke to the jackal, Matsusa wandered what else would make the jackal put out fear like that. And what it would take to change that fear into fear for itself instead of the shrew. Thinking of the shrew, Matsusa made sure to squeeze it harder and longer than he had been doing since the jackal approached. No reason to let the creature think it was getting off the hook with a distraction in the form of the jackal.
---
When the lion cub spoke to him, Anupama grew even more concerned. There was no ... emotion in it really. Monotone almost. There was a cadence but the cadence was without care, without thought, without sympathy. And then it became almost curious as if the lion wanted to push his buttons just to see if he could. The cub even smiled, and except for the underlying coldness Anu felt when seeing it as he squeezed the shrew's breath out of it, the smile was very nice. Charming even. But still.
"I didn't think you would appreciate the distraction until I noticed you weren't hunting." Anu stopped a few feet away from the cub and sat himself down. They had opened a dialog. Maybe Anu could get the lion cub to see reason through a conversation.
Anupama had a small hope to get the shrew away from the lion cub. Or at the very least put it out of its misery. Either or. "So why are you bullying such a small animal?"
---
"Because." Matsusa smiled and looked at the jackal as if that was obvious. Which it was. Did a animal bigger, stronger, cleverer and generally better have to have a reason to demonstrate those traits even to a lowly shrew. Matsusa didn't think so. He was being rather generous. Plus it made him understand the power of fear. The power of the force used by his pride. Easily grown in any being and plucked for the taking if a lion knew how. The pride meant to show him and his siblings how. Had already started the process.
Case and point: squeeze the shrew. And it squeaked. Such a nice sound. Matsusa smiled down at the shrew in his paw. It was being such a good subject.
Matsusa looked back at the jackal and extended his good mood because of good subjects to it as well. He was proving interesting and so good. "How else would I understand it and other creatures like it? Matsusa tilted his head as he studied the jackal subject. Perhaps the jackal didn't understand the inventory necessary for a good experiment. A subject was always necessary to have.
---
Anupama was taken aback by the cub's reply. He had actually planned this. The cub had wanted to torture the shrew it understand how it would react and how other creatures would react to the torture as well. It was disrupting to see the thought process and logic used for something that was - horrible. Studying an animal to hunt it as prey was one thing. It was the cycle of life, but this was something different all together.
"And why would you want to know how it would react to the torture you applied to it? Why not just study it to hunt it?"
Anu watched as the shrew was squeezed tighter. He wanted to wince when the next squeak came out of it, a wince in sympathy, but obviously Anu couldn't show that kind of emotion around the lion cub. The cub was likely to squeeze again and harder just to see the wince again. Since he seemed to enjoy the sounds of fear from the shrew.
This situation was deteriorating and Anu was losing hope that he could help either the shrew or the cub from the paths in front of them. A pointless and thus tragic death for the shrew and a twisted and dark path for the lion cub.
---
That was almost a reaction from the jackal. Matsusa watched the jackal carefully and that last squeeze and squeak was almost the right one. But it seemed that the jackal was forcing himself to NOT react. Even more interesting to Matsusa, that the jackal could tell a reaction was exactly what Matsusa was waiting for. That he wanted the jackal as a subject as well. And really he was, just a more complicated one than the shrew. This was turning out to be a much better experiment than he had ever hoped for.
"To understand its fear, of course. Study and understand the power of fear like my pride teaches." Matsusa shrugged at the jackal. "Consider this - homework. Extra credit homework, jackal." Another squeeze of the shrew and a small, tiny crack sounded from the shrew's chest. It squealed in pain. One or two ribs broken. Maybe a leg next. Back leg or front? The original experiment would have to continue until the jackal gave him something more to work with than a suppressed wince.
"So why did you interrupt my experiment, jackal? Especially if you have no plans to contribute to it?" Matsusa stopped smiling. And pulled the shrew's front right leg with the claws of his other paw, never once looking away from the jackal. Would this get a better reaction? Maybe the original plan was better for two reasons.
---
The scream the little shrew voiced made Anu's heart stop. Who would have thought a small animal that size could get so much volume. Granted an eagle flying above probably wouldn't have heard, but still it was louder than anything Anu would have expected. And the lion cub didn't even blink. He smirk at the sound, clearly happy, but not a blink in surprise. And he got a reaction out of Anupama more than what he had gotten before. The blank face from moments ago was gone and a wicked grin replaced it. The first real emotion the cub had shown while talking with Anu.
"I interrupted because torturing is wrong. I understand your need to understand it, but the way you are going about it is unethical." Surely Anupama could get the cub to see that. What did the cub's parents think of their cub torturing a weak, helpless and defenseless animal. "Surely even your pride and especially your parents would want you to understand fear in some other way, understand the power of it through observation."
The lion cub chose another leg of the shrew's a back leg and pierce it with his claws rather than pulling and breaking it as he had with the front one. As he chose the other backleg, the lion cub started to put pressure on it, looking like he wanted to crush it. The shrew started to scream even more, scream and squirm, finally biting the lion's paws to try and get away.The cub didn't even seem to notice. He continued to slowly crush it. "Stop! STOP!" Anu demanded, coming to stand on all four legs watching the little creature's pain.
---
There it was. A reaction. A really good one too. So Matsusa decided to pierce a backleg. And it just got better and better. The jackal was really reacting now. He was becoming an amazing subject, really. "I don't have parents. I have a pride. They teach that fear is power and those that are feared are powerful, it doesn't matter how you get that fear. Just get it." Matsusa knew that it wasn't a teaching shared by ALL prides. After all, there was that Jedi pride that the teachers and masters were always telling them was weak for their beliefs and unworthy of the power of the force. But the jackal had to be a rogue. Why wouldn't he think similarly to the pride. Power and fear was necessary really to keep others from coming at you as weak. Or so Matsusa assumed. He figured it had to be so, since he was told that his mother was a strong lioness before she died and they would be strong lions and lionesses as well. So for a strong rogue lioness, only a strong and powerful rogue lion could get cubs on her. Two strong and power rogue lions equaled four strong and potentially powerful cubs for his pride.
Maybe jackals were different. Hmmm.
Matsusa started to crush another leg. Slowly watching the jackal. The shrew's reaction was annoying really, biting his paw and all, but the jackal's was much sweeter. When the jackal demanded that he stop, Matsusa raised an eyebrow at him, but decided to humor him. What the jackal could possibly think he could do for the shrew or why was another curiosity. So he waited silently for the jackal to continue. This was far more amusing than a experiment on a shrew.
---
Anu was breathing hard as the cub obeyed him and stopped crushing the shrew's leg. But Anupama wasn't under any assumptions that the cub had stopped because he had demanded it. The cub had stopped because Anu was making him curious. Not a sudden understanding of the ethics of hunting and the unethical behavior of torture. Anu was making the cub curious as to why he cared about the shrew, its life, and its remaining legs.
"Kill it or let it go." Anu looked the cub in the eyes. "Don't torture it any more."
---
Matsusa tilted his head at the jackal. "Why do you care? It's just a shrew and all it can provide is maybe a meal for a smaller predator and fear." This was so much more interesting than the shrew. Matsusa wondered what he could get the jackal to do just to get him to "kill it or let it go" as the jackal put it. Hmm.
Matsusa put the injured shrew down and caged it in extended claws of one paw and waited for more from the jackal. "And why do you think I should care and what are you going to do to make me stop experimenting on it?"
---
Good questions, but at least the cub had stopped. He even put the shrew down, caging it in his claws, but it was out of his crushing grip.
"I care because you shouldn't inflict unnecessary pain on anything especially anything you don't plan to eat at the end of a hunt. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat the shrew? If so, kill and eat it. If not let it live its life."
Anu sat back down and tried to quickly find a way to explain to the cub why this was important, since the cubs parents weren't around to do it and the pride apparently wouldn't. But Anupama noticed the cub refused to call what he was doing torture. It was an experiment. It was all based on information and understanding the reactions of the shrew and now him. Maybe he could use that to get the cub to NOT do this.
"There are other ways, better ways to learn and understand reactions. Simple observations of others," Anu suggested, thumping his tail rather nervously.
---
Matsusa laughed. He couldn't help it. "What do you think I'm doing now? Simple observation. That's the main action of an experiment, jackal. There are other steps, but you need to observe your subjects and their reactions." If that was all the jackal had, this experiment, while a good one, would be short. Matsusa could always take his shrew subject and head back to the pride's den and finish his experiment there. He would have to of course share it - unfortunately, but still it would be another observation of those around him. And many of the adults could give him pointers, he was sure.
Hmm. That actually sounded like a very good plan now that the jackal was becoming less interesting. And Matsusa didn't feel like fighting to finish the experiment only to possibly lose the shrew. It really couldn't get far, but it was the principal of the thing.
"If that's all, jackal, I think we can part ways now. I'll take my shrew and you can take your ethics and we'll part. I go back to my pride and you go back to the rogue lands or wherever it is you normally go. This is getting boring." Matsusa picked up the shrew with his teeth, careful not to puncturing its hide and started to get up to leave.
---
Anu bounced back up onto his feet again. Wow, this was going in the opposite direction. "Wait!" Anupama bounded to be in front of the cub once again and thought and spoke quickly. "But why have an observation that ends so quickly? A longer experiment offers more information and understanding than a simple and short experiment. If you torture and kill the shrew, maim or injure it too badly, it can only be a short experiment which provides only a small finite results but a long term, well cared for subject can provide and infinite amount of results for infinite experiments as long as the subject isn't continuously put under the strain and stress you've been putting the shrew under."
---
Matsusa stopped and glared at the jackal as he bounded into his path again. The jackal had gone from interesting to boring to irritating in mere moments. And then he started to make sense. The shrew was a short term experiment, and that was what Matsusa had intended but the jackal from the very beginning was a more complex subject and was presenting a great many ideas of future experiments as well as results from this single experiment.
Matsusa put the shrew back down and caged it. "I'm listening, jackal." The shrew shivered under the pad of his paw, but Matsusa was barely paying any attention to the creature now. The jackal was far more interesting. Again. And so were the points he was raising. Matsusa may only be a cub, but the pride started logic and reason and training early. It's not like Matsusa didn't play, but this was turning into something just as fun as pounce the sibling and bite their ear or some other game of theirs.
---
He had his attention again. A few more moments to save the shrew from whatever fate lay at the cub's pride. Maybe he could even get him to not take the shrew in the first place. "The shrew really isn't a good subject in the first place. As prey, they are always in fear. They are afraid of everything and everyone. They have no defenses. It doesn't take much to instill fear. You could say 'Boo' and they would quake in fear." Anu waited for the cub to nod before continuing. "Besides, they have relatively short lives without the stress and strain of the pressure of being a subject. Really, you should just put it out of its misery one way or another and find a better and more resilient subject that will last much longer."
---
Matsusa looked down at the shrew and nodded as the jackal spoke. That was all true. And the jackal would be so much more interesting that a shrew. Everything really was more interesting than the shrew shivering beneath his paw. As Matsusa thought about it more, the more he felt that the jackal was right. The shrew was all wrong for the short term and for the long term experiments necessary to understand creatures, all creatures, to gather power through fear, the shrew had been all wrong. They were naturally afraid of everything. He would have gotten a rather average grade from his teachers which really wasn't acceptable to them, his siblings, or himself.
Matsusa picked the shrew up by its tail and offered it to the jackal. "You're right, jackal. Here, do whatever you feel you need to do to it and let's go. It'll be feeding time at the den if we don't get back soon and that will mean less food for us. My siblings are rather greedy. It's their nature. And mine. I would so eat their share if they weren't there to eat too. Majanga might have a secret stash for me just in case, but it wouldn't be nearly as much as the first serving."
---
"What?" Anupama took the offered shrew in his own paw, but stared at the lion cub. Anu was fumbling again. How the young lion was able to do that so quickly to him was baffling, but this was outside any logic Anu could apply.
Anu quickly looked around for a very small hole for the shrew to crawl into and heal after the day's ordeal. Finding a rock stack not to far away, Anu carefully carried the shrew to it, allowed it to make its slow way to a comfortable hole, all the while squeaking gratitude at him, before turning back to the lion cub.
"What do you mean, 'let's go'? As in you and me?"
---
Matsusa rolled his eyes at the jackal's care of the shrew. It was only a shrew. But whatever. Matsusa had given it to the jackal to do what he wanted with it, so he would be patient. Grudgingly. "Yes. You are my long term subject. My familiar or whatever others call it. I don't care. But we need to get back to the den. Now. I want to eat, especially since you just released the shrew." Matsusa flicked his tail in annoyance as the jackal continued to be so slow.
---
Anu was still dumbfounded. "I didn't mean me. I am not subject material."
---
Matsusa rolled his eyes. "Then why did you release the shrew? I could have kept it before I found another subject. Now I have to recatch it, which will be easy, but still a pain and time consuming." Matsusa headed over to the rocks the shrew had crawled into to dig it out."
---
"No! We released it. Leave it alone. It needs to rest and heal now." Anupama explained moving in front of the cub again. He didn't want to give the poor shrew a heart attack and die in there just when it had gotten some hope to survive the day, to heal and return to its shrew family. This was getting all messy and turned around. Chaos. "We need to leave it alone."
---
Matsusa looked at the jackal, not at all happy. "I need a subject of some kind and I won't wait for the 'right' one to come along. The shrew will do for now." Matsusa glared at the jackal that had messed everything up. "Unless, we are going back to the pride and den together, then I want that shrew." And really, Matsusa was powerful enough to get what he wanted. He wanted either the jackal or the shrew. He was flexible. The jackal seemed not to be at the moment. "So?
---
Anu stood uncertain of what to do. The shrew really didn't deserve to end up as a short term experiment subject as the lion cub was thinking of it as. But Anu didn't want to be a long term one either. It was a lose lose situation. The only thing that was tipping the scale - that Anupama was a predator in his own right and could reason and argue with the lion cub, maybe make him see the wrongness in something, in a roundabout way. Even if he had to argue around the wrongness.
Finally, Anu sighed. He was going to go to this lion cub's den and see if he couldn't steer him down a slightly less twisted and dark path than what he was already walking. "Okay. Let's go back to your den."
---
Ah. The jackal was finally being reasonable. Matsusa smiled at the jackal. Finally. "Good. I'm Matsusa." Matsusa said as he turned toward the way to the den and the pride. He would have to find a way to keep his siblings from poking too hard at the jackal when he got there, but he did provide a great study in behavior. "My sisters and my brother are also there. They can be ... difficult, but they should leave you alone once they know you're a subject to study. Studying ways to gain fear and thus power from others is very important to the pride and little cubs like us." Matsusa was trotting at a good pace and notice that the jackal had fallen behind him. He stopped and looked back. "Come on, jackal. We need to move a little quicker. I'm serious when I say they'd eat our share. Well, my share, but I'll share with you. That's what you said a long term subject needed, care and tending. You feed the things you need to take care of. And I need to introduce you to Majanga before another adult tries to make their own rules. But Majanga is the the most powerful lion in the pride. What he says goes." Matsusa smiled in pride at the thought of Majanga. He loved Majanga and wanted to make him proud as well. A long term subject to understand believe would be impressive, right? Matsusa hoped so. "And he's our guardian, taking care of me and my sisters and brother. And in a way you know since I'm taking care of you."
---
Anupama blinked at the - happy cub. He-Matsusa was happy. Not curious. Not blank. Happy. Matsusa was happy. Anupama moved to catch up with the lion cub, feeling odd. A mix between not wanting to be a subject, but also ... kind of ... needed. Matsusa needed him, and Matsusa didn't even know it. He was happy to have a long term subject to keep, take care of and tend to. Maybe there was some small hope that Anu would be able to keep the darkest path away from Matsusa. Maybe. A jackal could hope. "Matsusa. I am Anupama. You can call me Anu, though."
Anu watched another true smile form on his face as he joined Matsusa, trotting at his side as the cub talked about the pride, his siblings, teachers and trainers and everything else in his life. Anu felt - purpose and direction take a hold of him and he utterly and completely understood his mother's decision. And oddly, despite the situation, was happy as well. It would be a hard path espeically considering the teachings of the pride and the ... difficulty of Matsusa's siblings, but it could be well worth it. That's what mattered.
FIN
Word Count
Total: 5,981
Matsusa: 3,350
Anupama: 2,602
Total: 5,981
Matsusa: 3,350
Anupama: 2,602