Duking it out (part 1)

"I know this is kind of late, but..." I hesitated for a second, feeling extremely weird now that I wasn't going to be the one partaking in the testing, "are you really sure about it?"

It was one thing for me to test out just how heavily I could punch out, for me to live through the brunt of the risk of potentially injuring someone—even if it was with their approval.

But for Claire to so readily jump on the opportunity to duke it out with her own mother?

'I couldn't care less about Leila. She's important only through her relation to Claire, but...'

"What's with that tense look on your face?"

Rather than replying to me directly, Claire reached out with her hand to my face, only to give my cheek a slight caress as she graced me with a lovely, affectionate smile of her own.