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After a few years without eyesight, you start to notice other things. Things that never stood out to you before.Musashi was aware of dim, faraway footsteps, miniscule dripping from the plumbing down the corridor, unidentified clicks and taps transmitted through the hard walls. If he put his bare foot to the ground, he could sort of feel or hear when someone was walking by, or opening a door.That was just a few month ago, and now he’d developed something close to echolocation. He’d never believed it was possible to the extent that the articles had suggested. The idea of a human being able to move freely just with the sense of hearing was difficult to grasp. Unless you were in that position.Musashi had plenty of time to develop the skill. His sentence still had what, two decades or so to go? So what else was he gonna do down here?Now he could walk around the cell without bumping into anything or stretching his hands out to make sure there were no obstacles. The bars were there, the wall there, his books over there. Almost as clear as sight. The sound of his own breathing bounced off of objects and returned to him and he’d learned to use this to judge distance. With his hearing so well-defined, he could also hear things that others couldn’t detect.Like the patter of tiny feet coming down the hallway.Musashi had been lying on his cot when he noticed the sound. He sat up and listened more carefully.
Pit-pit-pit-pit
Quiet little footsteps, far away, but getting nearer. Confused, he pressed a bare palm to the ground to get better reception. Miniscule vibrations that confused him still further were all that he found. Some kind of animal, surely, but he hadn’t seen – noticed – any animals around here lately.Unless…Cold washed over him and he shuddered.Unless it was another FROG.How did those awful things get down here, anyways? Wasn’t this a remote island? So why were there frogs hopping around? And bothering him? Musashi hated frogs with the passion of terror. They were so disgusting, slimy, and those dead eyes…he couldn’t see them but he could feel the weight of their repulsive gaze. If one touched him he just wouldn’t be able to take it. Frogs were the worst.
Pit-pit-pit-pit
But that didn’t sound exactly like a frog. It was small, but not that small. Also there was no slimy squish when the unknown creature moved. Musashi began to calm down. It wasn’t a frog, but what was it?
Pit-pit-pit-pit
The footsteps came right up to his cell and then stopped. He tilted his head and listened carefully. A small thing was breathing out there. Not a bird, too big to be a bird. Musashi wanted to make a loud noise to bounce off the animal and find out what it was, but he didn’t want to scare it off or make it attack or anything. So he relied on just the signals that his breathing produced.All that was for nothing in the end, because the animal announced itself quite coherently.“Mrow.”“Huh? You’re a cat?” He heard a soft thump – it was probably waving its tail on the ground. “What’s a cat doing down here?”
Pit-pit-pit-pit
Now it was walking up to him. Must be a pretty small cat, because it easily fit through the bars. He didn’t detect any squeezing or rubbing up against the metal as it approached. Small cat, and from the sound of its footsteps and tail it was a medium-long haired breed, and the color…well, that didn’t matter and he’d never get to see it, but he made a wild guess that it was a black cat.“Welcome to the basement, kitty.” It was pretty close now; he could feel the heat of it. He raised a hand and the cat pressed the curve of its back into his palm. “You’re pretty friendly,” he smiled, stroking the cat down to the tip of its tail. It WAS a medium shorthair, with a bit of a mane, and… “What’s this?” He found a strange object on the cat’s head. “A hat? Oh! You’re that supervisor cat I’ve heard rumors about, aren’t you? Coming to check out how things are going down here?”“Mrow.”“Cute!” Musashi felt the cat rub itself on his knee and try to get into his lap. “For a supervisor you’re getting real chummy with the inmates,” he joked. “You’re a good cat.” It settled into his lap and began purring while kneading at his loose-fitting pants. When it was finally comfortable, it lay down in a compact ball and dozed, still purring loudly.Musashi leaned back against the wall and relaxed. The warmth of the animal on his lap was surprisingly nice. It had been a while since he’d had any kind of contact. He smiled, carefully rubbing the cat under the chin. It leaned into it, raising its head and sort of snorting as it purred, tilting its head so that Musashi was running his fingers along its cheeks. He’d noticed that cats liked that a lot for some reason. It probably had something to do with scent marking.He sighed and curled his arm around the cat’s soft body. The steady vibrations made him drowsy, and he let himself slip into a doze. The cat flicked an ear, and Musashi was instantly awake. It felt like about an hour had passed. He sat up a little, trying not to disturb the animal, and listened carefully for the sound that had awakened the cat. There – more footsteps. Not Kenshirou, though. These footsteps were loud and forceful, spaced so that he knew that the walker was very, very tall.“Ah – I can guess who that is,” he murmured to himself.The footsteps stopped in front of his cell and Musashi said “Hello, Hajime. Haven’t seen you down here in a while.”Hajime grunted with irritation – or maybe something else, because he always sounded irritated. “Where’d you get that cat, number 634?”“This one? He came down here by himself. Thought you might have sent him to patrol,” Musashi joked.“Humph. Well, bring him here. You shouldn’t be caught with an animal in your cell. There are rules.”“You probably shouldn’t be caught with him either, huh?” Musashi stood, holding the cat. “Alright, here you go.” He set the cat down and pushed him a little, urging him to go out.He heard Hajime stoop down and pick the cat up. From the sound, Hajime was holding the cat right up against his chest – a remarkably familiar position for such a no-nonsense guy. “Hey, Hajime…”“What?” The other inmates had mentioned that Hajime had a really menacing face. From the sound of his voice right now, it was probably for the best that Musashi was blind, because he wasn’t intimidated yet.“Tell Jyugo I said hi, okay?”“Why should I do that?”“Well, I just thought, maybe if you don’t want stories about you and that cat going around, you’d do me a favor.”A long silence passed, and Musashi imagined that Hajime must be pretty irritated. Finally the supervisor gave in. “I’ll tell him. You just forget you ever saw this cat, got it?”“Done deal.” Musashi sat back down and listened as Hajime walked away. After a few minutes, all was quiet again. He sighed and reached for one of his books, opened it and began running a finger over the Braille marks. “Oi, number 15!”“Whaaaat?” The inmate with black and red hair sauntered up, looking at Hajime with annoyance. “I didn’t do anything.”“Shut up. Musashi wanted me to tell you that he says hi.”“Huh?” Jyugo lost the attitude, perking up immediately. “He sent a message?”“I said he did, didn’t I?” Hajime turned and started walking away from the door. “That’s all.”“Hey, hey, Hajime-chan!” Nico popped up, shouting through the bars. “I wanna send a message to Master! Please take him a message for me!”“I’m not your errand boy all of a sudden!” Hajime roared. “Pipe down! I just brought a message for Jyugo!”“Hm…what were you doing in the underground, anyways?” Uno queried, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not even close to your station.”“Speaking of messages, I’m hungry.”“Rock, it’s only been thirty minutes since lunch.”“Can’t help that I’m hungry. Hajime! How long until we eat?” “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Musashi.”“Let’s invite him to the game room again next time!”“That would be fun.”“Haaaaaajime! Can we invite Musashi to the game room?”“SHUT UP!”