the yi city arc as foreshadowing for the final act of mdzs is such an unbelievably deft piece of writing.
what if you were treated as an inherent second-class citizen for the circumstances of your birth, what if you scraped and clawed your way to the top but still you couldn't escape your past or the disrespect it brought you. what if there was a man you loved and spent years of your life with but your relationship was haunted by the man he loved more than you, and not only metaphorically haunted but literally in the sense that what you did to that man in revenge for slighting you was so egregious that even in death he cannot rest. what if the very first thing you learned growing up was how to lie and make yourself into whatever you needed to be to survive and you spent so long doing that, the idea of being honest even if it would save you is completely terrifying. what if you had everything you wanted but it wasn't good enough. what if you ruined your own life just to be the one to bring everything crashing down before someone else could do it first. what if you held on to the blade so tightly that you bled.
and WHAT IF you would have gotten away with it if not for someone you wrote off as too weak and ineffective to interfere or even know what you were doing, falling for their constructed facade despite the fact that you yourself are made up of facades and really should have known better.
