Himiko feels that her heart has become a stone in her breast. Her blood has chilled to ice and frozen her entire and whole. To see Midou Ban, like this, here and now; no greater pleasure, no greater pain, and between the two of them she hangs suspended like a doll.
She is conscious of her anger at Amano Ginji, her smiles for Mr No-Brake and Doctor Jackal, the words of fury that she spits at Midou Ban, but beneath them all, something is dead, so very dead.
For three years now her brother's memory has ridden on her shoulders. She has lived with it like a ghost; it has pursued her like a shadow, walked in her dreams, haunted her while waking.
Between them, Midou Ban and her brother killed her heart. Her emotions clotted and stopped, and while this let her keep on going, let her become Lady Poison, the payment was something that she couldn't perceive because it would have required a living heart to recognise it.
Now there's the chance to live again, to feel again, and sorrow and anger together run like a tide and churn through her body, restart the engines of her heart and drag the tears from her eyes.
Doctor Jackal is smiling as though he can smell fresh blood.
Time's up now. Either Midou Ban lives or he dies. Either she dies or she lives.
She isn't sure which will be worse.
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