"Like someone else," Souji repeats softly, trying to keep his breathing steady. "Yes. When I was younger, I really thought I had some kind of demon inside me, you know? I tried to keep it inside, I didn't want anyone to see, because I didn't want people to hate me and be afraid of me... I didn't want to end up alone. It's still scary, sometimes." Mostly because of the way people look at him afterwards, with eyes that are either like mirrors or like walls. He still doesn't want to be hated or feared, but now he at least knows that he'll never be alone.

It seems like maybe Yamato wasn't so lucky.

"But the thing is... at least this way, I know for certain that there'll be something I can do to help, if anyone ever threatens anything that's mine. It can be a good thing, as long as I only use it when I need it." He'll still stay away from fencing and anything that allows him to do damage when it's completely unwarranted, because there's still no excuse for that. It just means risking being taken away from the people close to him too early, and he wants to make every single second with them count. And without a word having been said specifically on the matter, his heart already aches for the desperate longing which opens like an abyss beyond the other boy's gaze. They're just the same, and yet so very different. And Souji... Souji needs to help him, somehow. He needs to make things better, he's sure of it.

"I never thought I'd meet anyone else like me either. It's a pretty lonely feeling, right? People accepting you even if they don't always understand is good, friends should do that, but... I think longing for understanding is a natural thing, you know?"