"I will never understand foreigners' obsession with touching people at every opportunity."

"... You had better come in."

She comes in and closes the door behind her. 

"I understand you are the priestess of a goddess who understands pain and suffering. Who cares about the artistry of tattoos and scarification."

"Is that what you did, in Nidal before you came here? You were a - body artist?"

"Yes. But the Church wouldn't let me produce the designs I wanted to. They were too symmetrical, too purposeful, too..."

She pauses. It's definitely not a fumble. She is merely considering her words. 

"... Too good to be allowed to exist."

"... I see."

Clearly her goddess has sent her a wake-up call. 

"And you want me to help you distribute your designs?"

"I..."

She swallows. 

It's hard to say it, now that it could actually happen. 

She nods. 

"It could be dangerous to disttribute Nidalese aesthetic outside Nidal. That is not - I don't want the people who hurt you to get more purchase in the world through your art."

"... What kind of category is that? You might as well say 'people who are alive.' Everyone hurts people."

Kumi has no idea what to say to that. She's noticed the missing fingers, now, and she's beginning to deeply suspect that this woman has more scars beneath her concealing clothes. 

"Most people do not deliberately cut off body parts or - sharpen people's teeth -"

She frowns. "Why not? It is not as if you need your pinky fingers."

"I - doesn't it hurt to eat with those teeth of yours?"

"Yes. So? It is not as if I cannot bear it."

A note of pride tinges her voice.

"... Normally people try to avoid pain."

"Life is pain. If you avoid pain you avoid life. It is pathetic to not be able to face up to the whip when it is time to."

Oh. 

This woman - 

She still thinks of all the pain she went through as necessary and right.

"When were your teeth filed?"

"When I turned sixteen."

"How old are you now?"

"Thirty-one."

She probably hardly remembers what it was like to eat without pain. 

Her body must ache constantly. Her leg doesn't bend right, hence the cane. The burn scars on her face. The sharpened teeth. 

But she's made the pain part of her identity, now. She's proud of being able to suffer so much and pass through it unbroken. 

The society that did this to her is beyond sick. It's barbaric. 

"Did you need education in how to - bear pain - when you were sixteen?"

"Yes. I had not learned the cane, yet. I was whineging about my leg. Children do that."

"You agreed to let your teeth be filed?"

"My family thought it would be good for me, so yes."

Lady above.

Who would do this to their own child?

"I... see..."

"You are discomfited."