Katsuko glanced at Hajime as he came back, worrying the nail brush with her thumb. “Everything alright?”

“He’ll be fine.” Hajime started packing up his and Genma’s bags, tone brisk. “We’ll head out after he’s done.”

She eyed the plume of smoke rising over Genma’s bowed head and said nothing, applying herself to working the dried blood from underneath her nails with the brush instead. The tips of her fingers were a bit pink, but clean by the time Genma returned, cigarette butt disposed of and some of the empty look gone from his eyes. He nodded at Katsuko in thanks and pulled his mask on, but not before unwrapping the second piece of chocolate and popping it in his mouth. She grinned at him.

Hajime, who had already put on his rabbit mask, clapped him on the shoulder and turned to look at Katsuko. “Let’s move out.”

Katsuko slipped her mask over her face and stood, shouldering her pack. “Sure thing, Boss.”

They left the cave and the town it overlooked behind, traveling on swift feet. Dawn had stained the horizon a bright red by the time they arrived at Three Rivers Gorge. They set up camp in a small clearing by a brook, lighting a smokeless fire. Hajime slipped away to hunt, hopefully for something small and furry that consisted of more meat than a ration bar. Genma went to refill their canteens at the brook, and Katsuko finished laying out her bedroll and followed after him.

He glanced at her as she hovered awkwardly over his shoulder, half-afraid that what she was going to do was a mistake. "Hey. You need something?" He handed her a filled canteen, jaw cracking on a yawn as he stooped down to work on the next one.

Katsuko sank down onto a nearby rock, fiddling with the canteen strap. “No, just wanted to talk.” Taking a deep breath, she forged on ahead. “About your hands, I mean. You don’t need to go into detail, but... I figured there was something we had in common.”

His back stiffened; the look he turned on her was narrow and infinitely less friendly than before. "In common?"

Mutely, Katsuko set the canteen aside and pulled off her gloves. The bandages on her right arm were beginning to come undone; she unraveled them and shook them loose, raising her arm to let Genma see the acid and cigarette burns marring her skin from wrist to bicep.

Genma’s eyes widened as he let out a harsh breath and sat back on his ass, losing his hostility. "Shit. How long ago?"

“Five years ago, for six months. Lightning.” Katsuko rubbed at her wrist, self-conscious. “You were in Iwa, right?”