So I'm guessing -- and this is because of a suggestion I made a while back that you said you might just use -- that the scratches were self-inflicted and in the way of a payment to the spirit for guiding him? Or if not self-inflicted, that Watanuki let them be made? *Is not sure how to reconcile this with Watanuki seeming genuinely surprised, though*
Not self-inflicted, he honestly hadn't been aware they were there until Doumeki pointed them out. He was fully aware a spirit like the one they were following would expect some kind of return though, but he didn't know quite what to expect. Once he saw those cuts he would have guessed what they were, right away, but he couldn't possibly have told Doumeki about something like that, could he?
And I bet the spirit knew damnwell it was leading them into a potential ambush.
Well, that would be one of those details I think best left a little ambiguous, though there should be a bit more said about the incident later in the story. The one small compensation Watanuki got out of being shot was that Doumeki forgot all about those marks on his arms afterwards.
(And it's telling that Doumeki left the sheet -- the pack, with whatever supplies might be there -- including what was left of the first aid kit! -- behind for the buddies of the shooters. He's fallen hard.)
Again with the Doumeki-logic - the pack is extra weight, and nothing in it is remotely as important as Watanuki. But beyond that, right from the moment he decided to take only the one sheet, he was beginning to pick up a funny sort of instinctual suspicion that this was one find that wasn't coming to them free. If the price for that sheet could be Watanuki's life, then to hell with it, he was leaving it behind.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-10-13 03:09 am (UTC)Not self-inflicted, he honestly hadn't been aware they were there until Doumeki pointed them out. He was fully aware a spirit like the one they were following would expect some kind of return though, but he didn't know quite what to expect. Once he saw those cuts he would have guessed what they were, right away, but he couldn't possibly have told Doumeki about something like that, could he?
And I bet the spirit knew damnwell it was leading them into a potential ambush.
Well, that would be one of those details I think best left a little ambiguous, though there should be a bit more said about the incident later in the story. The one small compensation Watanuki got out of being shot was that Doumeki forgot all about those marks on his arms afterwards.
(And it's telling that Doumeki left the sheet -- the pack, with whatever supplies might be there -- including what was left of the first aid kit! -- behind for the buddies of the shooters. He's fallen hard.)
Again with the Doumeki-logic - the pack is extra weight, and nothing in it is remotely as important as Watanuki. But beyond that, right from the moment he decided to take only the one sheet, he was beginning to pick up a funny sort of instinctual suspicion that this was one find that wasn't coming to them free. If the price for that sheet could be Watanuki's life, then to hell with it, he was leaving it behind.