[ As Makie says these things, Rin just listens. They are things she already knows. Some of the men she killed deserved it. Kuroi did. Kawakami Araya did. Shira most certainly did.

Anotsu? She'd had her doubts. Had sometimes wondered if, in a different world, they might have gotten along. But which of the things that went wrong would have had to go right for that to be possible? All the way back to their grandparents, that first grievance that ignited the feud?

In the end, things are as they are, and Rin knew, back at the docks, she had to stop him.

Rin nods at Makie's question. ]

Yes. He said his plan was to flee -- I think to the continent? Build a city there. Have children. Train them in the ways of the sword. And somewhere down the line, he or his descendants would come back.

It sounded a lot like revenge. Which, you know, is funny! Because I remember this one time, he gave me a lecture about how irresponsible it is to hand your unfinished business down to your descendants.

[ The corners of her mouth move upwards, into something that is more of a grimace than a grin, free of mirth. ]

He was really just a pathetic, cornered dog at that point!

[ She is vehement suddenly, buoyed by rage at how it had all gone down. Even if she doesn't quite know in which direction she's angry. At him, for ending up like that? At herself, for not taking him out sooner? It's all still a tangled mess.

But now he's dead and that is that. ]