Michiru's eyebrows knit together, even as she brings one hand up to rest over Haruka's— not to pry it away, but to touch her fingers to the back of it, carefully.

"Of course I did!" Something— frustration, maybe— is leaking into her tone, now. She still can't bring herself to look Haruka in the eye. "You wouldn't have been able to bear this, if I hadn't."

Because Haruka had been too soft for her own good, at first. She's certain that, without that promise, she wouldn't have been able to fulfill her duty as a soldier. How it would've happened, Michiru doesn't know— but she's sure it would've been inevitable.

"Is that what you would have wanted?"