Tachihara yelps, caught by surprise. He really should have expected it, but he'd been lowering his guard, enjoying the nuzzling... He wonders if it bleeds enough that the blood will stain his fur.

"You're the one who set me up with this kind of job," he says. And they're not food, he doesn't add, because thinking of them as friends never ends well, if the human military wants to bring them in or have them killed. It's the part he likes the least about this whole arrangement.

And then, just to placate Jouno a little: "But if anyone can handle taking care of anything, it's you, Jouno-san."