Nimmie stuttered, surprised by the sudden question. “U-umm, well...”

She looked at her dismembered arm sheepishly. No wonder Tori wanted to mother her. No, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t “mothering” if you’d lost an arm. 

“I...” she started. “I needed some time, to sort things out I guess. After... you know.”

Picking up her tools, Nimmie worked in silence for a few moments, trying to find her next words. Curse you, social interaction! Nimmie Zinschmidt won’t allow your fiendish plans to succeed! 

“... At first, I... kinda just started walking into the forest. I wanted to be alone, I guess. I kind of have a hard time remembering those early days, but eventually it stopped being about being alone and started being about killing Grimm,” she admitted. “It... felt good. It helped, when I was angry, or upset, to have something to take it out on. There never seemed to be any shortage of Grimm, either.

“After a while, when I’d sort of... [i]sort of[/i] calmed down, I decided to go looking for you. When I couldn’t find you, I... hit the road. Started walking from town to town, taking care of the Grimm problems further out from the kingdoms that the other Hunters couldn’t or, y’know, wouldn’t.”

Nimmie swallowed anxiously before suddenly turning to face Tori. “Listen, Tori. I’m [i]so sorry[/i] I didn’t come find you. I should’ve looked harder. I should’ve...”

And like that, the words that had been coming to Nimmie stopped. [i]Dammit, not now![/i]