"Adversity is a great teacher."
A great teacher?
Swift, precise, and to the point. The other's words had the capacity to sting without a source, biting her pride, not her skin. Yumiko's brow furrowed; her disciplined voice raised slightly above a murmur. "It teaches you to bleed." To sacrifice ones earthly self like the Savior in the West, the one she'd heard so much about under the cover of smoke and behind thin doors. But not for the "sins" of others, simply for someone else's selfish cause. Her gaze rose from the ground to glance at those focused eyes; a clear sky before the storm. Never in her life had she seen a moment of raw nature in someone's gaze before. Yumiko was wary of strangers, as any official's daughter should be. Especially when they'd recently killed someone like it was an errand instead of a challenge. Especially then. Hands fiddled with the worn fabric of her traveler's disguise — everything in her tensing at the idea of raising her voice to a more audible level. "Too much is just as bad as not enough, yes? The lesson should...stop eventually."
