There is a clarity in pain.

A focal point that, at least for a moment, overrides all else.

Fear and the Nothingness have overruled so long, that I suppose there is something like relief to break their power even if only briefly.

It took me  a little while to realize that  it does not always have to be my own pain.

The enormity of what I have become, a twisted and broken thing molded by Tsume, begins to break upon me. That night, when I saw her panic and fear, that is what truly bared that realization to me.

I caused that. Me. In a moment, caught up in the grasp of those two things that predominate and control so very much of me, I horrified and hurt the one person who has meant more to me then my own life.

Pain.

There is clarity in pain. But I fear that it is not enough. The thing that Tsume has created is so strong, so consuming that perhaps nothing can ever truly stop it, not even pain.

…

Perhaps, it would be better for it to end.

End the Fear.

End the Nothingness.

End the Pain.