At first, he doesn't feel any pain, only the sensation of Tseng's knife slicing through his skin. Sometimes he thinks he's built up a tolerance so he'll need more to feel anything this next time. He can only trust Tseng to take him a step further and give him what he needs now.

"Again." His voice is slightly breathless as he feels the blood on his skin as the pain starts to creep in. There it is, it's something so familiar he doesn't want to give up. He looks down at Tseng, reaching to smear some of the blood across his stomach, over the raised ridges of visible scars, and tracing the outline of invisible ones left behind by the Geostigma sores. "Deeper this time."