"A genuine hero, then," he says, a little teasingly as he glances over at her - although, can he really be surprised? "I can't think of anyone who might have deserved it more."

He wonders why he never heard about her, then - why none of this ever came to light in the news, or elsewhere. He supposes Japan is still very much isolated from the rest of the world (despite any impressions to the contrary), and that unless he'd gone looking for that information, he would likely have never found it. And why go looking for information on someone you weren't even sure ever existed?