Chapter 20 – You never know what you have until you lose it.
"The last time I was here, this place didn't have such an odor, did it?" The gravelly voice of the elderly woman draws a soft laugh from Pinnley's aged throat.
"Haha, you have my sincerest apologies, Ms. Shuzenji. It's been a long time since we had such a hard worker in our building, I've been working a sweat!" Returning a facetious comment to her, Pinnley politely bows to the woman as two maids close the door to the estate behind her.
A pound of grey hair covers the head of the elderly woman whose cane nearly matches her miniature size. Her closed eyes would make you believe she couldn't see, making her discernible sight shocking.
The elderly woman waves her hand to the bowing butler dismissively. "I've known you since you were young, Pinnley. No need to bow every time you see me. Though I do respect the manners." Her hand ruffles his aged patch of hair. "You aren't as old as you think, Pinetree."
Chiyo Shuzenji, Recovery Girl, is one of the first people that Pinnley met after coming to Japan. After Pinnley reforged his own freedom, Kazuhiro summoned the kiss-and-heal hero to speak with the young killer. Having never experienced therapy, or not wholly, Pinnley didn't understand the severity behind his first discussion with the woman.
Chiyo encouraged him to vent his frustrations and misdoings. Originally, he joked and spoke to the woman sarcastically. The habits he'd picked up as a slum-runner never fully left him after all of the barbarous experiences he endured. Shortly after his first confession of thievery, Pinnley startlingly released more than just small details of what he'd done. The young lad let out his emotions about his guilt and frustration. Each evil deed he'd done came with a follow-up of a few dozen tears.
It was the memories of his therapy sessions with the woman that Pinnley thought to call her to help enlist more control of the child's emotions. By the time a child reaches the age of five, it is believed by some that they're well at the ideal age for a psych evaluation. Based on this idea, Pinnley knew that Rimi was over the necessary age to be evaluated.
Although Recovery Girl might not have the qualifications to diagnose someone with a mental illness, she has proven that she can help cleanse one's mental depravity. All it takes is one good conversation and someone willing to listen, without fear of your weakness being shared. Pinnley knew that with Chiyo's kind nature, it'd be unlikely that anyone would hear what came from the child's mouth. This was good, especially with the mirroring image of himself that he saw come from the child the moment she grabbed his cane on that dark night.
"So, you want me to speak with the child from that incident some years ago, do you?" As a former Pro-Hero, and the nurse of U.A. Hero Academy, Recovery Girl can easily deduce and gain information on the infant who killed two villains assaulting her daycare. The public wouldn't know about it, but Recovery Girl undoubtedly would.
With such a straightforward question, Pinnley knows the woman's decision already. She came here knowing who she'd be dealing with. "Yes, Ms. Shuzenji. Rimi Yonamine—is her name." Pinnley has a brief pause when he feels a chill rush up his spine from saying the full name of the child. Sparing a transitory glance at his shaking hands, Pinnley clutches his wrist, keeping his hand in place.
If Chiyo noticed his trembling, she did a fine job not showing it. "Wonderful! Is that dear maid from before still here? Ms. Inaba?!"
Ms. Inaba, the maid who consistently wakes Pinnley in the mornings, has been here longer than he has. Her seniority makes her youthful appearance even more startling. "Yes, Ms. Inaba is still here, and will probably continue to be here long after many of our passings."
The elder's smile somehow becomes wider. "I only hope that she'll bring sweet children into the world before she's out of her few hundred-year prime!"
"I'd hope not! There's only so much hissing a man can take in his ear before he plugs them up, Ms. Shuzenji!" Chiyo can't stifle her chuckle.
Their jokes draw laughter from each other, a laugh shared between two acquaintances who'd not seen one another in a long time. The gratefulness reciprocated by Pinnley spoke volumes to Recovery Girl. If he'd never been introduced to her, he'd not be the fine butler he's grown to be today. Flawed, but not evil—as evil as he'd been in his youth.
Chiyo wipes her eyes clean of the tears building up. "So where is the young lady I'll be speaking to now?"
"We're keeping her in the guest room on the second floor, right beside Izumi's bedroom." Pinnley's words earn a slap on the ankle from the old woman's cane.
"You're 'keeping her', Pinetree?" Her eyes pierce through him like arrows. Old age hadn't made the woman senile. Pinnley's mind operated like a soldier's still, even after all of the development he'd gone through across the years. "It's a miracle you managed to 'teach' that child for as long as you have." Her final remark leaves Pinnley standing there when the woman is led upstairs by maids.
His smile remains with a gloom forming over his head. The woman was correct, as disappointing as it was. Pinnley hardly had the right to try helping the child improve when he'd been coached to improvement by a woman now approaching her supposed deathbed and a man who's already been laid to rest on his own.
"Ms. Shuzenji," Chiyo is already more than halfway up the flight of stairs when Pinnley calls down to her from the bottom. "You've sworn a vow of silence." The butler gives his own parting words to the woman.
Watching as he goes on to freshen himself up before carrying on his unattended duties, a warm smile spreads across Chiyo's face. "You've become a fine man, Pinetree." Of course, Pinnley is not there to hear this himself.
***
Beacons of light stride through the cleansed, clear panes of glass beside the couches and tables filling the meeting room. Thick, soundproof walls prevent sound from wandering, so the chirping of birds only faintly reaches the ears of the child sitting across from the elderly Pro-Hero.
"You resemble your father a lot." Rimi hadn't heard this before. Everyone compared her to her mother in all aspects, including her grandmother whom she had yet to meet in this lifetime.
The child's curiosity gets the better of her. "How so?" The tone she asked the question in left the old-timer in front of her taken aback. She'd only said two words, but Rimi spoke much better than any seven-year-old Chiyo had spoken to in recent years. She was far more upfront with her questions, choosing not to beat around the bush.
"You see, a long time ago, I was taking a stroll from the supermarket," the woman leans in, walling the side of her face with her mouth, "back when I was young enough to do that alone." The jest earns a light chuckle from Rimi, who, in recent days, hadn't had much humor.
The woman continues, "I had been trying to push myself a bit too hard for someone my age. Three centuries, I'd been walking with this cane!" Exaggerating, the woman dramatically waves her cane in a circle to emphasize. "That day, I chose to go on without it."
"There were only about three bags in each of my hands, yet after walking for a little while, I'd barely made it up the street without running out of breath! I saw my life flash before my eyes, I swear it!" Between Rimi's faint giggling, Chiyo slips in over-dramatic expressions to add further immersion to her tale.
"So, right when I thought I was going to collapse town on those old, withering knees—an angel appeared! It looked like half his head was red, and the other side was a dusty blond! Boy, this young man was handsome as could be! He didn't even say a word until my bags were out of my hands!" The child's head leans over when she hears the way this old woman describes the person in the story. As she thinks about it, she realizes that the young man with the odd hair colors was her father, Koji Yonamine!
"He sounded like a hero, I tell ya'! 'You ought not to be afraid to ask for help, granny. This generation's full of helpful faces.' Dear, I nearly lost my composure! He was downright adorable, saying such sweet things to a lady like me."
"We talked all the way to my home, and he insisted on carrying all my bags for me the entire time! He shared some tidbits about his life and his occupation. He said that he was aspiring to become a police officer and his fiancee was on the verge of becoming an officer as well!"
Rimi's head perks to the side at the mention of a fiancee. Assuming that this fiancee is her mother, she has a hard time remembering if her mother ever mentioned working on the police force before. Then, she brushes the thought aside. If her mother was anything like her father in their younger years, this would be a boring thing to think of.
"Even as that young man smiled, even while his eyes shined with life and he sounded full of vigor... It was hard not to notice how disheartened he looked. He didn't need to take the smile off for me to see the sorrow underneath that face. Was it from a lack of confidence? I only assumed that something bad turned up for him recently. 'Someone as vibrant as his future officer ought not to look so sad,' I thought."
"Being the concerned, elderly woman I was, I asked the young boy what was wrong. He was kind enough to carry my bags across town, so it was only fair that I was considerate enough to check on him," she explains.
"He answered me nervously, saying: 'It's not something I should be speaking to a stranger about, don't concern yourself, please.' Why, those nervous chuckles he gave said everything it needed to. This young man ought to speak his mind! He can't just keep secrets forever! Everyone has to express how they're feeling once in a while!"
Rimi is silently conflicted with this notion. Pouring her feelings out to her mother made her feel better at the time, however, there were still many things that she couldn't vent about to the woman who'd birthed her into this world.
Haunting thoughts of sins from a previous life continue to haunt the child. Reflection on her actions in this world and the last leave no room for comfort in her heart. Always, karma catches up to her in many shapes and sizes. Her pets whom she'd considered her family were taken from her in the blink of an eye, at the hands of her first friend's father.
This prompted her to gruesomely steal her own friend's father from him—she'd done so many times in her past life, faking friendships that'd leave a person without their child or parent.
As the nameless boy, Rimi stole the lives of countless mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters without fail. In this life, her actions stole more lives and hurt more people. Reports claimed that villains who killed Ringtune were responsible for the deaths inside the building across from the daycare. She couldn't believe this when she blew a monstrous hole through the building while butchering yet another person's son.
Her first few steps in the world involved consuming the eyes of a man who'd broken into her home. Already, she'd hurt people, innocent or not.
Each step in the right direction has led her to hurt more people. Every ounce of motivation that ran through her in her first entry to this new life bled from her body the moment she watched her pets get butchered in her wake. Moments before she butchered the father of her friend, Pinnley did not attempt to stop her. More accurately, there was nothing the man could do to stop her at the time. Armed with his cane and emitting the pressure of a seasoned killer, none were brave enough to approach the child at the time.
"Young lady, it's rude to doze off while people are speaking to you," snapping her from her daydreaming, Rimi gathers herself, attempting to fix her indecorous display. The child was so caught up in her thoughts that she missed the jocose tone in the elderly woman's voice.
As she opens her mouth to apologize, the woman lifts her hand, stopping the child's sputtering. "You're far too young to be stressed, dear." The old woman's comment sends a heat rising to Rimi's cheeks in embarrassment. She'd been so focused on 'training' and her subconscious problems that she'd nearly forgotten the manners her mother drilled into her!
"I'm sorry," she softly speaks, lowering her head to the senior.
* * *
The knock of a maid at the door gives Rimi time to sit in silence and collect her thoughts once they enter. Carrying a plate of teacups with a steaming teapot on top of it, the Victorian-era dressed maid politely places the cups down on the table between the two.
Naturally, the old woman speaks and compliments the maid on her appearance, making small talk until the maid exits the room.
Once the maid exits the room, the woman turns back to face the child. The few minutes that had passed were enough time to give her the courage to face the woman. "Don't sip your tea yet," the woman warns the child, "it's awfully hot." From the steam coming from the cup, the old woman knew that the child's tongue wouldn't be able to handle the drink's temperature. The child knew this herself.
Rimi softly chuckles again, speaking, "You're bad at small talk." Both parties stifle a chuckle before they burst into laughter.
"I can't say you're wrong, young lady, I'm afraid I can't." The older woman warmly smiles at the child.
To avoid another long quietness, Chiyo begins speaking to the child again. "You don't have to apologize for thinking about life, everyone does it. If you're daydreaming, it means you have a lot on your mind." The elderly woman leans in closer, her body almost over the table.
"Would you like to tell me what you were thinking about?" The simple question made Rimi's body throb like she'd been hit by a battering ram the size of an elephant. Predicting the woman's question wasn't hard for anyone, especially not Rimi. As unsurprising as the question should be, the child finds it is heartwrenching.
Her lip quivers as she thinks of the words she can piece together. Her words abandoned her when she needed them the most: she'd become speechless.
"Ha..." Composing herself before she can let any more of her emotions spill, Rimi's hands stretch out as she exhales. One might think she's pushing an invisible load off of herself—pushing her burdens back to where they came.
Rimi shakes her head, no. "I don't even know your name, ma'am. It'd be rude of me to burden you with my problems."
Chiyo's dramatically lifts her senescent hand over her lips, gasping as she realizes her mistake. "You're right! I hadn't even introduced myself this whole time, how inconsiderate of me!"
'This lady's got a lot of energy in her, I don't think she's asking her age,' thought Rimi.
"My name is Shuzenji, Chiyo Shuzenji. Some know me as the pitch-perfect heroine who saved a couple of hundred lives in my day, though!" Rimi's ears perk up in intrigue as the woman describes herself. Shuzenji has made it obvious that she'd lie or exaggerate to lighten the mood, but Rimi can tell that the woman's heart is honest about what she says—whilst still maintaining its exaggeration for the sake of entertainment.
"You ought to know me by my hero name: Recovery Girl!" Sparks burn to life in Rimi's mind as the name is spoken. Trying to recall where she'd heard this name, first the thought of news programs came to the child's mind.
Headlines come to life in her mind: 'Orange Salamander recovers to save the day with the help of Recovery Girl!' next to the latest installment of 'Archives of Heroism, with Recovery Girl' and several more articles praising the woman's seniority.
'I've heard this name somewhere else, maybe it was from the story... That's right, this world's story—why can't I remember her?' Rimi doesn't know whether to be concerned about the reality that her existence in another world's story has become common to her, or the fact that her memories of that fact have slowly begun to wither away; withering so harshly that she can barely remember the pages or settings that Recovery Girl appeared in.
Her memories of the story were fading, and she hadn't realized until now. It's largely because the events of the story have no influence on her life in the present. At least, this is how she brushes it off.
Rimi holds her best facade. "I've seen your name mentioned in news articles a few times! I guess I didn't recognize you, is all!"
"Splendid! Then with my introduction out of the way, you don't need to introduce yourself to me, I already know who you are! You're Rimi Yonamine, Koji Yonamine's youngest child... for now."
Rimi squints, opening her mouth to say something, but the elderly woman doesn't give her the chance.
"I hear that you're gifted, smarter than average. Every child gets that label once in a while, however, yours stuck true, even today." Rimi closes her mouth shut, now understanding that the woman intended to build up to something, a question most likely.
The elderly woman continues, "You're smart, but you're not old—not old enough to go about on your lonesome and ignore the advice of the people around you. I met your father all those years ago, and your expression is the same as... No, no. Your expression is even more grim than your father's."
It struck Rimi no surprise that this woman could observe her displeasure. The story that she's shared proved how observant she is—conjoined with the fact that they called her here to speak with Rimi, proved as much. Rimi fell to the defensive.
"Your reading may be a bit off, Ms. Shuzenji." Maintaining the light smile from their laughter only moments prior, Rimi dismisses the woman's reading as false. She didn't want the help of this stranger, nor help in general. All it ever brought her was a false sense of hope and comfort, and things only became worse from there.
"I'm tired of having hope."
'...!' Rimi is alarmed by her words, not realizing what'd slipped past her mental fortifications. Her gloomy thought slipped free, and as she scanned the woman to see if she'd heard her words, she understood that it'd be fruitless to wish otherwise. Chiyo's face says it all, filling with justified concern.
It is too late for her to escape the woman's sight.
"'Tired of having hope'... Oh dear, you mustn't think such dark things, you're just a little lamb! You've got a whole future ahead of you, hope should be brimming within you!" Rimi's accumulated seventeen years of life were a stark contrast in their halves. Her ten years in her first life, from what she can still remember, were hellish even besides the unjustifiable murders she committed. The visages of her victims continue haunting her now in the latter half of a seven-year lifespan, filled with everything her first life missed. Rimi was surrounded by people who supported her; loved ones who considered her feelings as best as they could and were willing to bleed and cry with her.
Sadly, those years of life didn't seem to make her any wiser than the uneducated ten-year-old boy she'd been in her life before.
Chiyo shakes her head, removing her facade of ignorance of the child's actions. "I'm sorry, I've joked too much. Now, I should speak seriously." Apologizing for her clear insensitivity, the woman announces that she'll no longer play the part of a senile old lady.
"Ms. Yonamine... It can't be denied that you've hurt people at a young age, accidentally or intentionally. The things you've gone through are nothing short of traumatic, and I don't presume your family has sent you through therapy, given that you're here."
She didn't need verbal confirmation that her deductions were correct—she knew.
"I'd like to ask you the same thing that I asked your father many years ago." Thus, the woman asks Rimi what's wrong.
The question is very straightforward, having no hidden meaning behind it. The sincerity in the old woman's voice proved that this wasn't a trick meant to make her open up, this was a cry for concern from a stranger. Rimi has never spoken to this woman before, yet she stands in front of her asking what's wrong.
"...Nothing. There's nothing wrong." Conspicuous lying to the woman did not get Rimi anywhere. The woman only asks her again.
"I told you, there's nothing wrong." Again, the woman recites the same question.
"Have you... have you gone deaf?" Rimi's tone shifts after being asked the second time, but she'd never even expected the third.
Repeatedly, the woman continues to ask Rimi a simple question: "What's wrong". Repeatedly, she asks the child the question, in a manner that Rimi views as childish herself. Every one of her answers is different than the last but never direct enough to suffice.
Rimi denies there being anything wrong in several different ways, yet this persistent, stubborn old woman refuses to leave her alone.
It only takes a few dozen repeated questions before Rimi's annoyance boils over. "Why do you care so much!?" For the first time in this situation, she showed an emotion that was neither sadness nor the assuaging laughs that this woman skillfully drew from her. The child's voice is fueled with anger—nearly akin to the vicious malice that she threw at Pinnley in physical form.
She doesn't know if she's become angered by the woman's constant bickering or the fact that there wasn't a trace of duplicity in her words.
"Why do you care so much when you don't even know me!? I've killed people, innocent people! I've butchered people, and hurt people, and lied to people, and just keep doing it over-and-over-and-over again!" The tea in the teacups nearly spills over when Rimi's hands slam on the table in frustration. "I'm a monster who was born to hurt people, that's all! I keep making promises and keep trying to change... But it's all for nothing! I can't be happy—I shouldn't be happy! The world's just making sure that I'm not!"
Emotions boil over with her anger, tears stream down her cheek and onto the table that she stands over. In the heat of her tirade, Rimi expected the woman to stand up and try going straight for the door. None would doubt her if they heard what'd just been said, Rimi thought.
Dismaying as it may appear to her, Rimi finds the woman staring up at her with an unchanged facial expression. As she is preparing to conjure more of her makeshift rage, the shaking of Chiyo's head brings her to an ill-tasted halt.
"Ms. Yonamine," Rimi expected words of encouragement or denial from the woman. It was to be expected, she'd only come here to try and boost her motivation it seems. This is what she initially thought until she heard the next phrase. Her next string of words was so harsh and cold-blooded that they rocked Rimi's core—an unexpected yet simple statement. "You are a child."
Chiyo's words shouldn't have left as much of an impression on Rimi as they did, but just as they said, this child was smart for her age. Children are innocent, most anyway. They are prone to mistakes, including mistakes that lead to others being hurt or inconvenienced.
Rimi wasn't a normal child by any means. Even in her world before this one, she remembers being an abnormality with strength beyond what she should've had as a child. Children are easily influenced and learn from their environment, yet Rimi was filled with a loving environment that was only hollowed by the taboo life she'd led before this.
To hear something so unambiguous as 'You are a child' leaves said child speechless, with more tears dripping down her cheek.
"Children make mistakes, Ms. Yonamine." Rimi opens her mouth to retort but is stopped. She'd have never been able to get the words from her lips in the first place. "Your mistakes of killing are a mistake nonetheless. Not all mistakes are unintentional either. A mistake is a wrong choice, something that does not sit well with your goal or well with your morality. That is a mistake—and you've made many of them."
"Yet, when it comes down to who the blame falls upon..." Rimi feels like her heart will stretch out of her chest while listening to the woman. Imagery flashes in front of her, blurred to the degree of being unrecognizable. Somehow, she knew what these apparitions were.
"The blame will fall upon your parents."
Visions of her parents take a firm, malicious hold of her mind. Koji and Kimiko Yonamine are nowhere in sight in these visions. As the blur settles and focuses, the familiar, evil faces of her parents from the world stare down at her. The eyes of the brown-haired woman stare down at him with greed coloring her pupils. Beside her, stood a towering man in a suit. His face was so cold and smug that Rimi knew to compare it to the countless criminals and thugs this world offered.
These were her parents—the first parents. Before this, she'd been their son.
* * *
The life before this one was a sensationless one. By the time the nameless boy turned three, he'd already lost feeling in most of his body from the harsh conditions he was born in. The harshness of his living conditions which offered no better than scraps from a mechanic's waste disposal, conjoined with his abnormal physical abilities proved to bring the desired results for his parents.
They never gave him a name. In the best case, it's simply because they forgot to.
Once he turned five, he killed his first victim. His mother disliked how a woman in a store glanced at her, claiming that the woman was giving her a 'dirty eye'. In reality, the passing woman had done nothing more than give a supplementary to him—the woman's child whose skin appeared almost dirt-painted.
Because of her curiosity, his mother found the woman's residency and commanded her son to end the woman's life.
This was well before he knew how to kill a person. A knife to the brain was his usual method for a swift end, later in life. At this young age, unfit for murder, he opted to bludgeon the woman to death with his superhuman strength. Replicating the brutal beating he'd seen his father do to a man only some weeks before this, the nameless child's foot is what sapped the last shred of life from the undeserving woman.
This is, of course, the first of many kills. The body was not hidden or disposed of. It'd only appeared that someone rammed the door from its hinges and killed whoever was inside; a senseless slaughter.
The boy received no praise for these killings. His mother never thanked him, and his father even glanced at him in disgust. The child felt nothing about the disgusted glare his father gave him after finding out about the killing. Maybe, at this time, the man hadn't become depraved enough to kill the sons of competing business rivals.
His mother made his father realize how easy it is to have their abnormal seed kill someone. He didn't appear to be impervious, but his strength was in a class of its own, no toddler carried his strength. No child could knock a door down, besides him.
Income came to the family in the form of killing and theft. None could stop the child once he began to work, and none could find the child who had no name or registry in his birth. To the rest of the world, the boy didn't exist. School wasn't an option for him, and by the time law got involved, his parents already had enough riches to make a famed kingpin bend a knee. They'd become thoroughly untouchable, all thanks to the product of their one-night stand.
Their nameless child never received praise for anything but worked dutifully for his parents. Good children listen to their parents, his mother constantly reminded him.
A child who'd never been loved by their family was suddenly absorbed into a world after being killed by the most important person to them in the world. The child's mother strangled him to death, bringing what would be an undeniable end to her untouchable reign, after killing the only natural thing she owned in the world.
That child wondered if his mother later regretted killing him. He wondered if his father shed a tear knowing that his son was dead. No, they'd both certainly cried; but not for him. Knowing the two, they'd cried because their ticket to more riches was snuffed out in a fit of ignorant rage.
Yet, following his death, he was born into a new world as a little girl with a family that loved her unconditionally. Rimi Yonamine was his—now her—name.
Whereas she didn't have a name in her life before this, Rimi was finally given her first true name under the watchful eye of a concerned father and empathetic mother. She had an older sister who cared about her, although she wished that the two could've spent more time together before she moved with her grandparents for school.
Rimi often called her father, Koji, useless. She knew that she couldn't be any more wrong. After her battle with Yuuichi Yokota, Yuudai's father, Koji ignored the pleas of his co-workers while on duty to sprint to his child's side. She remembered his arms being around her, and the warmth in her chest from her father holding her close. Koji Yonamine was a stark contrast to her father from her previous life. Both of her parents were.
Her mother from her prior life would've never listened to Rimi cry and vent about her feelings and the guilt of killing. Yet, Kimiko Yonamine listened for hours. She let her child sob into her arms and held her with a motherly touch. The eyes that looked down on Rimi when she cried in Kimiko's arms weren't filled with greed. Kimiko's eyes were brimming with love and compassion for her child.
Rimi is pulled out of her daydreaming when a weak, strained sound comes from her lips.
* * *
Chiyo remained in front of her, unjudging as tears dripped down the child's face. "At your age, children cry a lot." Yet, Rimi had cried less than five times in her whole life. Another number is added to the count as sobs escape from her lips.
Rimi was prepared to shut herself away from society over the guilt of her actions. Believing that the world was against her, and unwilling to forgive her for her actions in her past life, she'd broken away from her emotions and her family.
She was stupid, as all children are.
"I do not know how close you are to your family, Ms. Yonamine. But, when it is time for you to go back home to them, please remember this saying." The old woman's words carry the weight and wisdom of perhaps a century of living.
"You never know what you have until you lose it. Please, find what you have before then." Rimi didn't need to, though.
Reflecting on the life before and after, she understood what she had and how she'd been shutting herself away from it. At the first sight of adversity, her knees buckled and she gave up the hope of protecting her family like she swore to when first arriving in this world.
There was one thing that Rimi had in this world that did not harm her and was there for her no matter her condition. Her loved ones.
While none could see it, a voice burned away from Rimi Yonamine's mind. One of the crying, haunting voices grew quieter. Rimi felt herself take a step forward, but her legs hadn't moved an inch. It was her spirit that'd moved, the spirit that'd been broken from her evil deeds.
Rising from her despair, Rimi's resolve, while irreparably damaged, was patched just enough for her to continue down her path.
The crying mess that she is, Rimi Yonamine feels her foggy mind clearing. She is still but a child, born to learn and grow.