The catharsis is real with this one. After so much work, so many pages, we're finally learning more about who this fox is. Oddly, the same mysterious allure he's maintained this whole time is not exactly lost knowing who he is, but instead it's become familiar. A bit like how you learn more about a favorite artist and instead of it changing how you see their work, it reinforced the feeling it gave you all along.



Still, this doesn't explain everything. We can guess a bit about how Naveen got to where she is now. Becoming the administrator did not happen overnight, so there is still plenty of time between when Nick and Naveen's story ends up to the Otterton murder. So what has Nick been up to all this time? Has he been doing dirty work for the mob? Has he been hunting for clues regarding his parents assassination? Was his alcoholism his way of coping with either or both? In any case, we know it has kept him a secret from the vixen overseeing the entire city. There is still so much left unsaid between Nick and his sister. I bet Judy might actually feel bad now, wishing she had given them some space to clear the air between them. Maybe they'll get the chance to again.



But the most burning question I think she (and us) will need answered is this: Why did he take the job? Why would a fox who has spent years avoiding public eye with his own demons to track down suddenly drop everything to protect a naive rabbit whom he had never met? It wasn't money, and I doubt it was because he was as moved by the Otterton murder as she was, though I could be wrong because of how her death resembles his parent's demise. And how will Judy react, learning all of this?



Masterful work here, both of you. My favorite part about the artwork as a storytelling medium is how you separate Young Nick and Adult Nick. Since we are zoomed into their faces, they both look relatively the same size in the frame. Hard to show age using black-and-white, so what you did here is focus on the eyes. Specifically how wide they are as a kid. This whole time, we've seen Nick's trademark half-lidded glare assuming he was just hiding emotion for the sake of being hard to read. Instead, now we know it's because the spirit of that little kit died with his parents. He's hurting, and has been for a very long time.



Judy, for better or worse, might be the only thing that could possibly brighten those eyes once again. Here's hoping.