Stein cocked his head. "I'm not sure brain function matters. She's in a child's body, and a child's brain isn't fully developed, and is still herself. She's even managed to make the child look like her. But I don't think she'd want to inhabit something like that." He gestured towards the Licker.

His eyebrows rose faintly at Birkin's explanation, not quite sure how to take that. He'd never had genocidal tendencies. Personally, he preferred to be left alone to do his work, not change the world in drastic ways.

"I guess you're confident in your own strength," he said, his lips pulling sideways into a smirk.