Koinu: It was so . . . terrible and so wonderful . . . it was bloody . . . and it had . . . strings hanging out the back . . . The pupil opened and closed and then stopped . . .

Koinu (offscreen): He was on the ground, screaming and screaming, and I had his eye in my hand. There was blood everywhere—his blood, my blood. Blood on the sword, blood on the fangs. But I had him on the ground. I was a kid, he was a grownup, but I had him down. I was the winner!

Koinu: It was so wonderful to be the winner . . .

Koinu: I didn’t kill him. I could have, with his own sword, or the dagger, or my naked claws. I spared his life. I gave him his eye.

Koinu (offscreen): And I pronounced a curse on his master, my uncle. I swore to destroy the Houjou down to the last man.

Kagome: This means—you cursed your own family?

Koinu (offscreen): Yeah. Funny, huh?

Kagome: And did you go . . .

Koinu: Did I go back and kill them? No. I never went back, never saw any of them again. My Dad and I are the last. I would never, ever hurt my Dad—but I suppose I’ll outlive him.

Koinu (offscreen): Then I’ll be the last, and all I have to do to fulfill the curse is…live until I die.

Koinu: But that’s not . . . the worst part.

Kagome: Sigh. OK, tell me the worst part.

Koinu (offscreen): You’re not eating.

Kagome: You’re not telling.

Koinu: I’m trying to. I’m . . . It’s been so much fun. Last night and today, I had so much fun. I’ve talked so much . . . I’ve never been able to talk about this. I . . . Thank you, Kagome.

Kagome: You thanked me last night. I thanked you. We’ve thanked each other. Tell me.

Koinu: … Well. So. I gave the man his eye. And I ran away.

Koinu (offscreen): I climbed a tree and I sat in it and cried. I was cold, and hurt, and covered in blood, and my mother was lying dead all alone, and not one person in the world loved me and I knew it.

Koinu (offscreen): They were burying my mother that morning. I thought somebody would say, "The poor princess . . . what happened to her little boy?" They’d come looking for me, and somebody would hear me crying and look up and see me in the tree, and bring me home and bandage me up and let me say goodbye to my mother.

Koinu (offscreen): That didn’t happen. Nobody came. I stopped crying. I never cried again until you knew me. I suppose they buried my mother. I never knew where.

Koinu (offscreen): I healed a lot during the night—you remember how I was, how I could heal . . . and then I just started living on my own. I was…what? eight, maybe nine years old . . .

Koinu (offscreen): I’d never been hunting. I didn’t know much about fishing. I couldn’t cook—didn’t know how to start a fire. I would eat dry rice—I learned to soak it in a little bit of rainwater. Radishes. Whatever I could steal. I would catch chickens if I could get away with it, but mostly rats and mice and wild birds, lizards and snakes . . .

Koinu (offscreen): I would go to villages to steal food. People would chase me away with rocks or arrows. Sometimes they hit, sometimes not. Kikyou’s arrow wasn’t the first one I’d felt. I started hitting back, chasing after people, trashing buildings and fields, killing animals just to kill, just to scare them.

Koinu (offscreen): Time went by. My clothes fell apart, so I wore no clothes. I was dirty. I stopped taking care of myself. I smelled bad . . . I had . . . flies and lice and fleas. One of them was Myouga-jijii. He watched me in action for awhile, then went and got word to Sesshoumaru.

Kagome: Myouga-jiichan . . . and Sesshoumaru?

Koinu: Sesshoumaru had left the Stronghold. My Aunt Noriko says the humans and the youkai got together and drove him out. Then they pretty much killed each other. The ones left were human.

Koinu (offscreen): Aunt Noriko says Sesshoumaru needed an ally, so he went and found me. Aunt Noriko’s books talk like she thinks Sesshoumaru and I weren’t youkai, but I believe she really knows.

Koinu (offscreen): Sesshoumaru was traveling with a group of youkai. They cleaned me up and gave me clothes and food I could eat. I slept outdoors, but there was always somebody else to keep watch. I didn’t trust the others much, but I figured Sesshoumaru wouldn’t let them hurt me, and Jaken was afraid of Sesshoumaru, so I didn’t concern myself with him.

Koinu (offscreen): I had never had to worry about the night of the new moon. When my mother was alive, we had spent those nights quietly together in our room.

Koinu (offscreen): Even after she died, it was no big deal. I was slower. I stole more eggs than chickens. The villagers threw rocks at a homeless kid instead of a monster.

Koinu (offscreen): But with the war food was scarce. Sesshoumaru’s companions used to look at me. As long as I was hanyou, they kept their distance. Once I was human, though…

Koinu (offscreen): I didn’t take the chance. On the first night of the month I slipped away. I was so afraid they would come after me. I don’t know why they didn’t. I think I’d be able to track me, even now, if I had to.

Koinu: Right now you’re thinking I should have used that chance to get away. I didn’t eat well with them . . . raw chicken, raw horsemeat, a few roots I dug up. But I ate. I wasn’t starving. And I wasn’t . . . alone. So I went back.

Koinu (offscreen): . . . And I found out I would never be a kid anymore. That either I would be one of them . . . a hunter, a predator . . . or I would be their victim.