[And this, this is why they'd told him not to trust Hizumi. He'd tried not to, at the beginning, but over their time in Asgard, he'd become his strongest support, someone he's let close in spite of knowing what would come. He couldn't truly regret it, but.....

It made this so much harder.]

Because if it wasn't for the blade children, I'd have gone through life living like a shadow. [He'd forgotten what it was, to fight for what he wanted, to have a drive, a goal. Coasting through life like a thing half alive hadn't been living, not really.... he'd been a coward, still was a coward, but he was trying to be someone worthy of all the belief placed in him.

Rio's face, so full of faith and belief in someone like him, Kousuke's casual dismissals even as he threw everything he had into protecting his friends, Eye's strength, quiet and unseeming but brilliant, fighting for those important to him, believing, for their sake and his.

He wanted to protect it all, at least give them a chance to fight.]

Their lives.... they want to have a chance to live, to create good in the world. Just like us. They need a chance to make their hope, and I can give them that. I can try to give all of this some meaning, by stopping my brother.

[His voice is barely a whisper, tired.]

And since I'll die soon anyway, as long as I hold it off long enough, even if I hit my limit it won't matter.

[It was, if anything, a morbid sort of comfort.]