When Hatsumomo's confidence is shaken by Sayuri's newfound status as the head geisha in the Nitta okiya, Mameha decides to push her even further. She and Sayuri follow Hatsumomo from engagement to engagement, just as Hatsumomo once did to Sayuri. When they follow Hatsumomo to a tea party hosted by her long-standing patron, the Kabuki actor Shojiro, Sayuri has a sudden flashback to a childhood incident where a wasp stung her and was then killed by a group of children: 

A wasp had stung me and was struggling to free itself from my skin. I was too busy screaming to think of what to do, but one of the boys pulled the wasp off and held it by the wings upon a rock, where we all gathered to decide exactly how to murder it. I was in great pain because of the wasp, and certainly felt no kindness toward it. But it gave me a terrible sensation of weakness in my chest to know that this tiny struggling creature could do nothing to save itself from the death that was only moments away.

When she sees Hatsumomo's displeasure at their arrival at Shojiro's party, Sayuri feels a brief moment of remorse and has a flashback to this incident with the wasp. Though the wasp had indeed stung her and she "certainly felt no kindness toward it," she nevertheless felt "a terrible sensation of weakness" when the other children kill the "tiny struggling creature." In the teahouse, she experiences a similar guilt at the sight of Hatsumomo's distress, as she knows that Mameha will not relent until Hatsumomo is kicked out of Gion. Ultimately, and despite her claims of feeling guilty, Sayuri does nothing to prevent Mameha from destroying her rival.