A Little Bit

All the while Ryu was being put through the wringer, Hope could only sit there in a nervous mess. He had gone through many cycles of injury and recovery, and he looked as though he had almost died several times now.

How could she not be nervous?

The only thing stopping her from crying out was the fact that Ryu did seem to get a little better every time he went through one of these cycles.

But no matter how much she tried to keep herself calm, it was nearly impossible to do so when her husband started blowing up like a balloon.

It sounded like bombs were going off in Ryu's body, or like a Heavenly Tribulation had been triggered right in her presence.

However, all the while, Ryu's eyes remained almost lightly closed and his face was entirely expressionless. One could have thought that it was someone else's body undergoing such horrors and not his own.

That calm sort of sharpness seemed to stir something within Hope.