"A shinki acts based off their core being. They may adjust their behavior depending on what people react, but at the start, all we have are our instincts." Not all that different from a newly reincarnated god. But where a god knows who they are, a shinki is malleable.

But her hands ball together as she thinks about the things she knows and the actions she's taken. She held back in the forest when Celestia asked her to. She changed her plans outside the compound at Aomi's quiet disapproval.

"I didn't kill my target. At least, I couldn't do it. She had a wife and a baby son. She was rarely away from him. I couldn't figure out how to make her death look natural without killing him too."

Ginia rubs her face as the argument with Erika and Beth replay in her mind. No, it was really only an argument with Erika, Beth didn't want anything to do with it. Maybe she'd already made a decision. Maybe she was letting the two of them argue it out. A ragged breath escapes and she peers at Ebisu from behind her fingers and smiles weakly as her hand falls away.

"I suppose children are my weak point. I killed a cultist for hurting children and feeling no remorse for his actions."