Summary

"Reeling for the Empire" – Kitsune Tajima, along with a host of other Japanese girls from all walks of life, are being transformed into half-human, half-silkworm creatures from whom the Machine will reel silken thread. Two new girls arrive at the Model Mill – 12-year-old Tooka and 19-year-old Etsuyo - sisters from Sakegawa in Yamagata Prefecture. Tooka is horrified by the white-furred half-girls that she sees in the mill. She has no idea what is going on, but she and her sister have already drunk the tea which will begin their changing. It is explained that the girls have been forcibly sold to the Agent of the Mill to pay off family debts in the middle of the industrialization of Japan. The silk produced by the girls pays that debt. The silk begins as liquid in the body, hardening by morning, and then...