Inu was silent as he gently wiped the blood off her arms and face. They had made their way to the closest body of water which happened to be a remote pond hidden by trees all around.

It was quiet. Insufferably so. It was not calm quiet. It was space to be filled.

'He sees me like a traumatized child,' Liv thought, staring right at the only person in the world who may have cared for her. 'He doesn't see me. Only an idea. A problem for him to solve and prove his wisdom on. He doesn't comprehend that I have thoughts. That I see him too. That I know what I am.'

She shifted her gaze, looking at the blood flowing down her smooth hands. 'I know I'm responsible. These are my decisions. Not ones I have been led to by trauma. I didn't stab that man over and over because I thought I had to.'

"I did it because I liked it," Liv said.

Inu looked up and frowned but said nothing.

"Watching the knife go into the flesh... and seeing how the blood surfaced and flowed smoothly was... satisfying. If you weren't there, I would have skinned him. Just for the sake of it. Like how hunters practice on animals."

Inu's complexion worsened. He wanted her to stop speaking. She wanted him to hear it all. To know what she knew about herself. She didn't want the only person she interacted with to go along thinking of her as strictly a victim. She had once been one. But that Liv was far gone. It was like her soul had been switched out at some point to something that would endure. And it had. She was thankful for that.

"Liv, c—"

"I mean every word. I couldn't care less about that man's life. Even if he was innocent, I wouldn't have cared. You may think I'm detached or a victim of some cruel cycle, but I'm more than that. I am not driven to decisions. I make them. I didn't have to kill him. I wouldn't have had to kill most of the people I have. Still, I do not regret my actions. I do not feel sympathy for their families innocent as they might be. Not just because I'm angry. I've been much less so after I realized..." She tried saying it, but even after all that confessing, the words got caught in her throat. She bit her lip. Inu looked at her steadily. Was he encouraging her? Did he know? Had he understood her beyond an idea all this time? She cleared her throat and spoke. "After I realized that I didn't deserve to live anymore. I've killed too many to claim I do. In the beginning of all this, I was wronged. Not anymore. I'm as guilty as anyone."

Inu reached a hand out and put it firmly on her shoulder. Then he nodded with a smile, telling her that he understood. "It's okay."

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Then silence. Liv gritted her teeth as her eyes stung. She opened her mouth to dissolve the tension, but her lips began to tremble. She quickly shut her mouth to stop it.

Fortunately, Inu took it upon himself to break the tension. "You've done things that are unforgivable in the eyes of many. It's not just the legacy of the Red King that haunts you and desires your death. You've made a reputation of your own that makes men want to put your head on a spike." Inu's expression went hard as he spoke seriously. Seeing someone as naturally calm as him in such an unsmiling state was scary. It gave the feeling that he was capable of anything. A man who could flip a switch and obey his decree without a second thought. "Still, those same men who see themselves in a noble light would become worse than you if made to live your life. The fortunate often stomp on the unfortunate and are made out to be all the more heroic for it. But in reality, the fortunate and unfortunate are flimsy roles. They can be put on anyone to shape them into either the stomper or the stomped."

"Are you saying that everybody's as bad as me?" Liv asked, looking at her still bloody hands. "That nobody deserves to live."

Then Inu grasped her hand with both of his. "Everybody deserves to live. It is fundamentally so. But you see the people who want to snuff your right out and you hate that. Don't you? Isn't that why you kill so easily? Nobody is innocent in your eyes. Not even the families of the ones who come after you. Nobody. In the beginning, you saw yourself as the stomped, so everybody else was the stomper. Now you've become a stomper in your own eyes, but your position hasn't changed. So the world for you is just stompers stomping on each other. You would be right then. Such a world is one where no one deserves to live."

Liv felt dissected. He hadn't just understood what she understood of herself. He had understood more. And even with his acceptance of her nature, she did not feel a single positive emotion. She did not think a single positive thought. What consumed her was a sense of violation. To have someone put her life into such logical terms was an offense.

"Is that all you think of me?" Liv asked, infuriation seeping into her voice.

Inu seemed caught off guard and seemed to go into a bit of a panic at having voiced all his deep thoughts. "I didn't mean it like that. I just wanted you to know that I understand."

"Understand what? How flawed I am? How you're like a god to me, watching from above and shaking your head at my mistakes," Liv said as she scooted away from him, getting herself from his grasp.

Inu reached out. Liv slapped his hand away. Then she stood up and turned her back before walking away with a slight limp.

She knew what she was going to do. What she had to do. She couldn't change. Not after what had already happened. Turning back would have been meaningless. It was too late for that. At this point, there was no other choice. People had to die.

Inu couldn't stop that. He had no right to. It didn't matter how well he could put his understanding into words.

And as she walked away from the jumbled mess of thoughts, she strengthened her resolve. She would need it if the time came and she had to throw away any shreds of humanity left. If Inu tried stopping her, Liv would kill him too. This couldn't end before they all saw it. Death incarnate, coming for everyone.