Yes.

[That's all he says — just confirmation. He doesn't try to justify it. He doesn't want to; he doesn't feel the need to. And he doesn't take pride in it, not really. It was something that he needed to do, something that felt good to do, and it's done. It doesn't haunt him now. He would do it again, as many times as it took.]

[The question is a surprise, though. He was half expecting Polnareff to get up and walk out now. He wouldn't blame him. The surprise registers briefly, his eyebrows raising, and then he lowers his eyes to think.]

Before then.

The man I told you I saved. He was from Passione. After I saved him, he repaid his debt to me by stopping my stepfather and everyone else from hurting me. That's when I started, mm, learning to be . . . less scared. Part of that was learning to fight.

It was a very cold time. Here.

[He knocks his knuckles against his chest, over his heart.]

I didn't start fights for the sake of starting them, but I went looking for trouble sometimes. Just to see if I was the type of person who could protect people the way that that gangster did — protect people with fear and power. And then at some point I realized that if I stayed with my mother and stepfather, if I stayed with them and continued to stand up for myself, I might have to kill them.

I didn't want to, so I left. And then I started working towards Passione.