Day 65: Company

Gabu left early again the next morning to return to the eastern forest. He wanted to let Jess and Gon know what had happened, and that he wouldn’t be hunting deer with them again. He also desperately needed to find food, and since he’d committed to not hunting in the Emerald Forest during the daytime anymore, the eastern forest was his only option. When he was gone, Mei lay forlornly on the floor of the cave, torn between regretting and being unable to regret the decisions that had led to this point.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lying there when Mii and Sagi arrived. “Oh no,” he heard the other goat say when she saw him. “This doesn’t look good.”

“Hopping hells!” Sagi whispered loudly. “I didn’t think he’d be this bad.”

Mei slowly got to his feet, embarrassed that he’d made his friends worry. “Mii, Sagi. How are you two today?”

“We’re fine,” Sagi said. “What about you? Where’s the wolf?”

“He’s gone to the eastern forest to try and fix my mistake.”

“Kuro-san told me what happened at the philosophy group,” Mii said.

“And Takkan told me,” Sagi added.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Mii said. She had always been the person Mei confided in most before he met Gabu. He nodded. “After you left the group, the others kept talking about whether you did the right thing or not. Takkan and Greta were adamant that you had, but pretty much everyone else disagreed.”

Somehow, that comforted Mei a little. Part of what had distressed him so much was feeling like he was the only one (aside from Darrel and Leo) who thought he had done something wrong. “Someone called Linda made a really convincing argument, I’m told,” Mii continued, “that you were wrong to meddle in who lives and who dies.”

“What’s more,” Sagi said, “she convinced Takkan, and that fox doesn’t change his mind easily. He really lives by all this stuff, you know? Every time he’s hunting, he’s thinking, ‘What would happen if I killed this mouse? Would I cause less suffering if I ate the mother or the kid?’ And that was before your wolf came along and became his philosophical muse or whatever. I went to see him after the meeting yesterday, and he’s reconsidering all of that. Says he wants to start hunting completely at random, no more discriminating based on age, species, or anything else.”

“What about the rolling bolder problem?” Mei asked.

Sagi laughed. “He mentioned that one, of course he did. Says he’d leave that up to chance too. The only thing he isn’t sure about is whether it should be more likely for the boulder to hit the one person instead of the six, or if it should be an even chance either way.”

Mei didn’t know what to make of that. In addition to possibly causing the death of Darrel’s wife, his actions had indirectly caused Takkan to change the way he hunted—for better or worse, Mei wasn’t sure, but it would certainly affect a lot of lives. He would have to ask Takkan about that, assuming the fox was still willing to speak to him. “I lost my temper with Takkan yesterday. Do you think he’s upset with me?”

“He didn’t say anything about that,” Sagi said.

“Kuro-san did,” Mii said. “He says the only thing Takkan seemed upset about was being proved wrong in front of all his students. What about you, Mei? Are you still upset?”

“Only with myself, but you’ve done a good job of distracting me. Thanks for that.” Mei smiled for the first time since yesterday. “Have either of you heard from Darrel? I’d feel a lot better to learn we were all worrying over nothing.”

“I haven’t seen him,” Mii said, “but I wouldn’t expect to normally.”

“Nor have I,” Sagi said. “We could go and find Greta if you really want to know. She always knows where everyone is, somehow.”

The three of them walked through the forest, talking as they went. The change of scenery improved Mei’s mood substantially. Mii told him a little of what she’d been up to since he last saw her: getting to know people and exploring the forest. She and Sagi had met a few days ago and now counted themselves friends.

When they found Greta, she told them that Darrel and Leo hadn’t returned from the eastern forest yet, which worried Mei. She wanted to talk more about whether Mei had done the right thing, but Mii deftly manoeuvred the conversation around to innocuous topics.

After they’d left Greta, Mei showed Mii the places he’d found with the tastiest grass, and Mii showed him some he hadn’t found. After a nice long meal, Mii and Sagi walked with Mei back to Moonrise Hill.

“Thanks for spending the day with me,” Mei said. “I’m not sure I’d have moved at all otherwise.”

“Not a problem,” Sagi said. “Glad to see you’re feeling better.”

“Will you be at Anything Day tomorrow?” Mei asked Mii. He hadn’t seen her there last time.

“Is that tomorrow? Sure, that sounds like fun.”

“See you two tomorrow, then,” Mei said.

“Oh, one more thing,” Sagi said as they were about to leave. “Takkan said to let you know he’s taking away your Virtue Point, whatever the hell that means.”