In this chapter, we are introduced to a new character, the lone cat. We learn that the cat's name is elle, and that he is the son of a mixed-race family. . The cat asks his father to take him to the local bathhouse, but elle refuses, saying that she doesn't want to be "clean" in the bath. She also tells him that the only people who want to go to the baths are those who aren't interested in licking the blood off their own wounds. She tells him to go straight to the "inter section" of the bath house, where there are no attendants, and then to "the main road" , where the bathhouse is located. The only thing that elle can see is the monster and the cat, and she can't figure out what's going on. She asks her father if his mother ever taught him to be quiet, and he says that he's never been taught anything like that. He also tells her that the bath is full of noise, and elle is horrified. She thinks that the monster must be abyhei, pinsuke, and the other cats, because they're all in the same room. She's so sorry that she didn't tell everyone to stay out of the water.