Ryouma had heard about Shida--mostly from Sumire, before she left, with shreds of whispered rumors from his friends in the mission office. He was a nightmarishly disfigured monster who never left T&I's interrogation cells, a sadist who raped both male and female prisoners, a master torturer who could break a man in less time than he took to brush his teeth. What sort of man would he choose as his apprentice and protege?

A man a lot like him, Ryouma guessed.

"Did he touch you?" he asked fiercely. "Use genjutsu? Threaten you at all? Dammit, Tsume, you pulled me out of hell. You don't have to cover it up for me."