Gojyo stared hard at Hakkai's face, searching -- with not a little disbelief -- for an answer that he didn't even have a solid question to frame. He'd assumed that blight hurt, but he couldn't feel a damn thing on his fingers. Shouldn't it burn, or ache, or something? Something to let him know that it was there?

"What would happen," he asked at last, holding his blighted hand out loose at his side, "if I didn't know it was there?" If I didn't wash it off? Cho's reactions were telling him pretty much exactly what would happen, but he wanted to hear it spoken aloud.