Warnings for discussion of violence, portrayal of nations as not entirely morally the same as humans, some gross medical stuff, and serious psychological fucked-up-ness. While I don't think for a minute that China's a weak person and don't want to ukefy him, I think he would be pretty damn broken by something like this, because until this point he had little reason to think he wasn't effectively invincible, at least to human opponents. I'll also warn in advance that the next chapter's going to be pretty brutal; I decided it was okay to have China describe what happened, and it was not fun. "Speaking bitterness" was a real thing, and while it was indeed used to persuade the people all their problems were caused by the old regime, talking about bad things in one's past can indeed help (doesn't work in every case and I'm not a therapist so don't rely on me for info, though).
Nations who had not had their turn to murder while they smiled were few and far between. Japan had tasted mortal blood enough times, and seen China do the same. All of them had; he'd seen the Asians firsthand and heard the stories from Europe, of Spain's conquest of the South American nations and England's and France's in the North, of Prussia born to a crusading order and on the battlefield almost from the start. Even sweet Korea had danced in his enemies' entrails and thought nothing of it. China had one of the longest and bloodiest histories of all the nations, had killed and been killed in return and always got back up and never borne a grudge, but Japan had never seen him in this state. Huddled in Dragon's coils atop the pillow-laden bed, he looked small and broken, even now his wounds were healing. Much too slowly; even lethal wounds on a nation would usually close in hours at most, and he was still bandaged six weeks after Japan had first seen him. He was thin and ill-looking, and gnawing nervously on the stem of an opium pipe for the first time in decades. He was wearing a thin robe, pulled tightly around himself as if it could somehow protect him. Japan wasn't sure what had been done to him this time, but it had been more than a simple death. Not for the first time, but definitely for the first time it had felt worse than simple exasperation, Japan felt like the older brother.
Dragon's home was near the top of a mountain, far away from potential human intruders. A safe place for China to recover.
Looking at his hands, Japan spoke. "I'm sorry, China. I never wanted this to happen to you."
"So it's okay if it happens to my people?" said China bitterly, not looking at him.
Japan squirmed and mumbled "That's not what I meant."
"Yes it was, don't lie to your big brother," said China, waving with the pipe and leaving a wobbling trail of smoke. "Heh, don't worry. Mine would have done the same to yours, if they had the chance, and I wouldn't have cared either. Comes with the job, yeah?" He stared at the ceiling. "Never hurt this much before."
"Are you really sure you're not upset with me? This happened because I declared war. I'm willing to take any punishment you want to aim at me. It's only fair."
"No, really, it's okay. I know you didn't want this. I know you're a backstabbing little bastard, but I don't think you'd really want to torture your own brothers. My humans would probably have done the same to you, too. Not that I'd have wanted them to, I swear."
"Yes, but mine are the ones that actually didit," Japan pointed out.
"Still. You going to try to call the war off now?"
"Of course not!" Japan said. "People will wonder why, and I can't explain this." Under normal circumstances, most mortals weren't even technically supposed to know the personifications existed. If he tried to explain this to the humans who did have clearance, the news would probably get out; the public would wonder what was happening, and humans couldn't stay quiet about something this big to save their lives. Spreading the information that not only did they exist, they could be hurt ... well, Japan didn't want to think about the potential problems there.
"Hm, suppose so," China said, shrugging and wincing as the motion pulled on a wound. Dragon nuzzled him soothingly. "I don't really want you spreading this around anyway. It's embarrassing." From his tone, Japan understood that "embarrassing" wasn't really the right word. Humiliating. Shameful. Dishonourable.
"Besides ..." Japan added, the opium haze in the room making him bolder, "When I win, I can protect you."
"Ha! I'm so going to kick your ass once I'm up." China poked Japan's nose with the tip of his pipe, as if Japan was a troublemaking child again, and laughed until he choked up smoke.
"Are you sure you should still be smoking that?"
"Yes," China said firmly. He stretched, yawned, and tapped the pipe out. "Though right now I think I should sleep."
Japan took this as his cue to get up and leave.
"You can stay here," Dragon called after him. "There's no spare room, but I have futons and blankets back from when the kids used to visit."
Japan flinched, remembering when he had been one of China's "kids"; he and Korea had spent many a happy afternoon running around in the mountain air, sometimes climbing on Dragon's back, perfectly and innocently happy. Well, he should stay. China might need him.
Later that night, Japan was woken by a muffled cry from China. He jumped up and ran to his brother's side, finding Dragon trying to calm the struggling nation.
"Stop ... please don't ... leave her alone ..." China whimpered, eyes screwed shut. As Japan touched China's arm in an attempt to wake him, his eyes shot open and he screamed. "No, get out of me, get it out!"
Finally, Dragon and Japan managed to wake him. He stared at the ceiling, tears streaming down his face, gasping for breath until he retched. Japan managed to get a basin under China's chin just in time. What he brought up was mostly watery bile; his stomach was empty. Without looking at his two carers, China reached automatically for the pipe and matches on the bedside table and lit up.
"Thanks," he mumbled through the smoke, and sighed.
"Bad dreams?" Japan asked. China scowled and nodded. "Sorry. Stupid question." He reached out a hand. China let their fingertips brush, not comfortable with further contact. "... Do you want to tell me what happened? I don't know if you want to talk about it, but I'll listen if you do."
"Mm. Maybe I should," China mused.
"You don't have to tell us anything," Dragon said reassuringly.
"No, it's okay. You already know everything, and I think Japan needs to. And he's right, I'll feel better if I talk about it." China stared at the pipe in his hand. "New human bosses came up with this thing, 'speaking bitterness'. Just talk and talk and talk until it stops feeling so important. Like piercing a boil. I think they're actually just using it to make everyone persuade themselves our old bosses were jerks, but I think it could work the way they say it does. It's worth a try, anyway."
He took a deep breath from his pipe, then another breath of air, closed his eyes, and started to talk.