...how big was that village?

[She doesn't expect him to answer. She would fall over in shock if he did, honestly, so she continues on, her soft, quiet voice piercing in the stillness of the afternoon.]

A thousand? A hundred? ...more than just two people, right?

[Her mouth twists into something that could almost be called a smile, if it weren't so... bitter isn't the right word. It's a breed of bitterness, a kissing-cousin to it, shot through with a generous helping of naked self-loathing.]

Even if you hated every moment... even if there was only survival to cling to and desperately stumble towards, no matter how much you wanted to... to find some other way. In the end, even if they would have cut you down themselves, given half the chance—you managed to save them. Maybe they resented you, and for all I know you could have regretted it in those last, those last, lonely seconds, but—

[Her voice cuts out. Helplessly, brokenly, all she can say is—]

...did you know? The opponents I faced... before you, and directly after. Both of them were just children.