Doll doesn't waste time. It leaps. Claw. Sploosh. Slice. Grab.

Nothing new, but Doll doesn't care this time. Leap. Claw and knife. Stabbing, not slicing. A slight rip on the shoulder of its dress, but it heals quickly after doll slices open the first fish.

Once more. Leap, claw (only one?), slice, grab.

Once... Doll thinks. Then shakes its head.

No, it's irritated by these fish. Once more.

Leap, and...

Doll's view blocked by scales. A much bigger fish, and heavier too. Doll barely manages to push it to the ground, and barely manages to leap off it as it struggles.

And continues to struggle on the floor, flopping back and forth.

It isn't dead. Doll leaps forward, to try and finish it off.

And feels pain as it's slapped by the same view it saw before.

And barely, by instinct, leaps to avoid the biggest splash it's felt or heard so far.

Its whole body hurts. Even leaping hurts. But it knows that if it doesn't, it's going to die. As if to prove it right, it flops right over again, and it leaps as a ball of water bigger than Doll fires toward where it was.

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If it gets close, the fish will throw itself at it, and it will die. If it stays away, the fish will hit it with that... It can't call that a bullet. It's far too big for that... That will shatter it.

It doesn't have time to think. All it can do is leap, and hurt, and...

It has to kill it. It will kill, or it will die, there is no choice.

So it leaps forward.

At the worst possible time.

The fish's mouth is pointing right at it. There is no escape, and the water around its mouth has already formed, ready to...

Doll is going to die. It's going to die. It's going to die from the...

Water.

Doll stops thinking. Thinking won't be quick enough. Doll doesn't have time to think.

Doll just lets its body move the way it wants to. Lets the water, or rather, the feeling of water come forth.

Doll's bullet is smaller than the fish's. But it's tighter, and it will either do the right thing, or Doll will die. Doll's body moves as if it won't die, because there is no choice, no thought, just a pure instinct to live.

The bullet shoots forward, toward the large ball of water.

Doll's body twists, knife slinging it round.

The ball explodes outward, and Doll feels its legs shatter as they're pushed, as Doll's leap is twisted.

But Doll is lucky. Doll's knife bites right into the fish's head, and the fish dies before its body can move again.

Doll hurts all over. Its knife is broken in two.

But Doll still has the blade.

Doll can still slice.

Can still, painfully, reach into the large, powerful body...

..And Doll... Feels stronger.

There is nothing new. But there doesn't need to be. Because there is something more important.

Doll is alive.

Doll.

Is alive.

And it knows that it really, really shouldn't be, with the choices it made.