Katsuko let out a breath and pressed a hand to her stomach, feeling the heat of her seal through the thin fabric of her t-shirt. “I never said I was giving up,” she said, steadily. “I’m just afraid. I’ve been afraid ever since the labs, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop being afraid.” She met Genma’s eyes. “But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up. Fear can suck my dick.”

Genma’s expression flickered from sympathetic understanding to startlement, and then he let out a surprised bark of laughter. “Yeah. Exactly. Mine, too. Although honestly it gives a lousy blowjob."

Katsuko snickered and took her hand off her seal, drumming her fingers against the table instead. “And that’s why no one likes fear.” She looked down at Genma’s scroll again, at the delicate tracery of veins and torn chakra pathways made whole again. “You trust Rina with your life.”

It wasn’t a question.

"I do," Genma said, simply. "If not for her, I don't think I'd even be here right now."

Katsuko nodded and took a deep breath. “Then... I’d like to talk to her about my seal. If she could heal injuries like this,” she flicked her fingers at Genma’s diagram, “then maybe she could help me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking forward to being prodded and poked and drawn on, but... I’ve still got things to do. Debts to repay. Dying would get in the way of that.”

Sensei. Hakuin. Ichiba. Asuma. All those poor, nameless souls who’d burned to death in the labs, still trapped behind iron bars. Kaminari was going to answer for what she’d done to her victims; Katsuko had spent too long training herself into a one-woman reckoning to turn back from that now.

"Yeah. Okay. I'll ask her when she's gonna be free. You could come over and meet her, just to meet her or something. If you want." Genma fiddled with the papers, rolling the edges between his long, crooked fingers. His gaze flicked over the sweeping lines of ink; he seemed torn between staring at the diagram in morbid fascination, or turning away from it in horror. "You want to keep looking at these?"

“I’m fine,” Katsuko said, gently. “You can put them away, now. Thank you for showing me, Genma.”

His lips curved, gratitude and relief and the slightest bit of embarrassment tinging his smile. He ducked his head, rolling up the papers and re-sealing them as quickly as possible. As the last seal went into place he visibly tried to shiver the tension out of his spine, exhaling soft and quiet. "Damn, maybe I should be drinking something stronger than tea. Some nights you can just tell what kind of dreams you're going to have if you're sober, you know?"

Katsuko chuckled. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I think we all have those kinds of nights.” She dragged her hands through her hair, letting out a sigh. “It’d be nice if I could dream about unicorns instead. Something fluffy and harmless-looking. Like kittens, or toast.”