Episode Guide

Episode #6: The Successors (Uketsugu Mono)

** Opening Sequence **

On the tiny island that housed the wolf pack of Zari, over a dozen large pyramid-shaped cages are being loaded onto orange trucks.  The cages are to round up "stray dogs", in other words, the four wolves.

In an abandoned part of town, Toboe puts medicinal herbs on Kiba's numerous wounds.  Kiba lays motionless on the ground while the rest of the pack debates leaving the island, but Toboe insists they cannot leave Kiba behind.  Hige gets chased off by Tsume, who is angry that he ate all the food yesterday, and Toboe leaves to get more medicinal herbs, leaving Tsume and Kiba behind alone.  Tsume looks down at the semi-conscious Kiba and sighs to himself.

Zari walks alone in the alleys, to be confronted by Cole, the female wolf.  He seems disheartened by his situation, realizing that over time his pack has become progressively disorganized and distant.  Cole makes the statement that perhaps the influence of the four younger wolves has opened his eyes finally, and made him realize that perhaps what he has been doing all along was wrong.  Zari is very jaded, and seems to believe that time will cure the younger wolves of their desire for paradise.  He explains the story of his pack when they were younger.  He led his pack to the island outpost many years ago following the scent of the lunar flower.  He led them into the tunnel by the graveyard, and discovered far too late that the tunnel system had been filled with poison gas by the humans.  A very large percentage of his pack was lost right before his eyes.  The ones that survived, Zari included, were extremely discouraged by the entire experience, and didn't have the heart to go back from where they came, so they decided to try to make the outpost their home.   With no animals or plants to feed themselves with, they relied solely on the train that made its stop on the outpost to deliver food, but in order to do so, they had to give something in return.

Tsume struggles to make conversation with Kiba.  Dodging Tsume's prying questions about what he was doing last night, he goes on about his childhood.  He used to live in a place filled with the pure white flowers that would only bloom during the full moon.  But, while he was a cub, they were all burned to the ground.  The way out was closed off, and all of his pack died, with Kiba as the sole survivor.  With nowhere to go, and no pack anymore, he had lost all will to do anything else but find paradise.  For the first time, Tsume finally understand Kiba.

Hige pokes around the outskirts of town for food, when he sees a piece of fresh lamb leg laying on the ground.  It is so obviously a trap, but in his hunger, Hige is oblivious.  As he reaches down to pick up the meat, four sides of the cage come up from the ground and slam closed around him.  Three of Zari's pack males approach the cage.  In his naïveté, he doesn't realize that they are not there to help him.  It soon becomes obvious that the trap is theirs, as an orange truck rolls in to collect the cage.  Hige calls them dogs, and is knocked out by one of them.  The cage is loaded onto the truck.  Toboe who is watching from a safe distance, retreats to tell the others.  When Tsume learns that it was the wolves that trapped Hige and knocked him unconscious, he rushes to rescue him.  Frustrated that Kiba was still injured and unable to walk very fast, he scoops him up and carries him to save time.  They quickly locate some of the other pack members in town, but before a confrontation can take place, Zari appears.  They angrily question why he would do such a thing to Hige.   Zari seems surprised, and questions one of his pack males, Mos.  Mos' silence is all the confession he needs, and Kiba runs to confront him, but is knocked aside by Zari, who strikes Mos, and tells Kiba to stay out of his pack affairs.  His pack defends themselves by saying it was okay to sell Hige tot he humans because Zari did the same thing with his pack.  They tell him they no longer see him as learder, and proceed to attack him.  Kiba starts to help, but Zari insists he not interfere.  They only stop the beating at Cole's cries.  They insist they do not know where Hige was taken, and walk away.  Zari leads the three to where he believes Hige might be taken to.

Unfortunately for Hige, the humans are planning on dumping him straight into the incinerator.  Zari and the other wolves run out in front of the truck, causing it to tip over and dump its cargo.  The three wolves stand around his cage, and Hige looks embarrassedly back at his friends.  Kiba bites through the metal and releases Hige from the cage.  One of the humans opens the door of the truck and, seeing the wolves, begins to open fire upon them.  They are saved from the gunfire b Zari, who leaps upon the human, distracting him while the others get away.

Back at the town they left behind, Hubb searches for Quent, and finds him at the usual bar.  Hubb pulls out the Book of the Moon and shows it to Quent.  He acts unaffected, and goes outside to get his dog and leave town, to search for the wolves.  Hubb decides to leave town too, to search for Cher.

In the island base, Zari leads the four wolves to the boarded-up opening of the tunnel he believes is the entrance to paradise.  The poisonous fumes have long since dissipated.  He wishes them luck on their journey as they leave him behind, and run through the tunnel.

** Ending Sequence **