Ria Ali

“Why don’t you try taking responsibility for the things you can control instead of the things you can’t?”
― M.L. Wang, The Sword of Kaigen

“It is enough that, even for a moment, I had a son like you. It is enough that Hiroshi, Nagasa, and Izumo will have a brother like you to look up to as they become young men themselves. It is enough,” she told herself, even though she would never hear him laugh with his little brothers again, never watch him bring beauty to another kata, never see that boyish smile, with those dimples, deepen into the smile of a man. For a moment, her hands had been full of pearls. She rocked and repeated, “It is enough.”
― M.L. Wang, The Sword of Kaigen

“And for the moment, Misaki let herself be thankful for the thing she was. After all, a lady wouldn’t have been able to slice a man’s legs out from under him and then plunge a blade into his mouth when he opened it to scream. A mother wouldn’t have been able to cut a young woman’s head from her shoulders. A human being wouldn’t have been able to turn from their dismembered corpses without a single pang of guilt. Thank the Gods she was a monster.”
― M.L. Wang, The Sword of Kaigen

“What sort of a man closed his eyes to the world and called it clarity?”
― M.L. Wang, The Sword of Kaigen