[There does seem to be more waiting than usual. Kainé has to wonder if it's because of her own resistance, if a willingness to stand up to this amalgamation of childhood memories is enough to keep it from playing out in a more familiar way.

Tifa's question is a good one, and it takes a moment for her to answer. Thankfully, the progress of the children surrounding them seems to have halted entirely— each and every one of them is still, almost eerily so, unnatural.]

It's different every time. Sometimes bludgeoning. Sometimes heading towards the bottom of the ravine. Back then, I just— took it.

[Clearly, given that she was alive and reasonably well now, it had never gone that far in her youth, but near enough, and certainly not for lack of trying.]

Or sometimes— I become what they say I am. But that won't happen this time. I refuse.

[The boy laughs again, but the voice that comes out isn't his own. Instead it's deep, rasped; a voice on the edge of mania that sends a shiver down her spine for how harsh and invasive it manages to be.

"Aw, Sunshine! We talked about what happens when you refuse! C'mon, Kainé, they always thought you were a monster— now that you really are one, wouldn't it feel good to give them a taste of what you can really do? Their blood on the ground instead of yours, ahahaha!"]