He smiled a little when he heard her laugh; talking to Clara always seemed to lighten the mood a bit. "Yeah, sort of. I know things die. Cats eat mice. Cuckoo chicks push other eggs out of the nest. It might not be pretty to watch, but it's kind of the way the world works. Still... that's survival. Killing that bug wasn't."

It was a bit difficult for Heiji to articulate his reasons exactly. It had been more of an instinctive reaction than anything else: part concern for fair play, part surprise, part upset at the waste, the ending of a life to prove a point that hadn't needed to be made.