OK, I am having a hard time reconciling the "aki-child" with what the story has said about fiends. Is this child really a fiend?
The fiends, so far, have been presented as uncontrollable and killing
everyone in their path. Yet, this child seems to be influenced by its queer rat handler. Are we suppose to accept that the queer rats have figured out how to control a fiend after a dozen years? That is something humans could not achieve in a millennium.
If instead of being a fiend the child is just leaking cantus how is the child capable of controlling the leakage without killing the queer rats around it? Shun was only able to control his leakage only with great effort and only for a short period of time. I think the story has made a case that leakage was unintentional and uncontrollable. Also, the story has made the point that even "normal human" cantus leaks and not 100% controllable.
If, at present, the child is both obeying the queer rat handlers and not subject to the genetic death feedback then that suggests the child still has the potential to become either a fiend or a cantus leaker.
SO...considering Yakomaru's longer range strategy of raising his own cantus army, it seems as though he is planting the seeds of the queer rats downfall. ALL cantus users have been described as walking nuclear bombs and it would only take a few of the stolen babies to go nuclear to destroy the queer rat civilization.
Maybe this is not a plot hole?
