"Akaname," he answered, keeping eyes locked on Hijikata so he doesn't have to look down and see just how close this monster is. The melting rubber smell was growing stronger and he knew soon he would have to move his foot, but that would be on less limb pinned . . . "My mom would tell me to clean my bathroom so it doesn't show up in the night when I was growing up." Was this karma coming back at him for being so bad at cleaning his bathroom as an adult??

"I'm guessing it's not one, if you were able to touch it, they said touching one would make a god sick--you're a god, right?" He looked at him, not sure if he should be more hopeful to have a god on hand or a shinki. Not that a shinki wasn't useful to him if not his own. "Maybe we can just let it go... Like letting a spider outside."

And maybe it would run away from them and leave them around.