so my main character is trying, basically, to recruit a new person to join their team and help them out, but is challenged to a fight with them to prove himself and see if he’ll “do what must be done”. of course MC, who has terrible role models, interprets that as, like, ‘would you risk everything to protect yourself, bc friends are weakness and bla bla bla’—so when he puts himself through a bunch of pain just to save his other friend who’s watching, he thinks he’s losing the challenge and going through a bunch of pain all at the same time, for his friend’s sake, but knows he couldn’t allow himself to let it be any other way. but of course—that was what his challenger fucking wanted to see! that he puts others before himself!! dumb dumb. ur good and ur right and that’s how you gain an ally. foolish demon boy.