soulping | Aoba's Shadow

Then we help them. Simple as that.

Yeah, of course!

[Squinting harder at the graffiti.]

Yarrow's my teammate, but Mizuki....that guy could definitely use our help, if he's here.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Especially if he's Yarrow's friend, you know?

Friend? That guy? You really think he's anyone's friend?

[ behind you, kids. ]

[JUMPS]

Oh my god!

He couldn't save me when it was important. He denied me. He'll do the same thing to you!

There's no way he'd do something like that! Yarrow's our friend.

[JUMPING IN AFTER HER EXPLANATION THAT TOOK FOREVER]

Mizuki, stop it! He didn't mean to hurt you!

He still did... How can you defend him after that?

He was trying to help you, wasn't he? Sure, it might not have worked out, but he's not the kind of guy to do anything malicious intentionally.

He made a mistake, I know that. He knows it too, okay? He feels awful for what happened.

[Trying to approach him slowly, palms up.]

Look, I....maybe it's stupid of me, but I feel like I understand what you were going through. Your team was your family, right? You wanted to stay with them.

... I know. He was my friend. Hell, he was like family.

And they were my family too. But slowly they left me! And then he betrayed me. Sure, it was a mistake, but it's one that he'll have to live with for the rest of his life.

And he's our family too, Mizuki. We're not going to leave him, or betray him.

[Can she reach out to touch his arm, is that a thing that can happen?]

He'll live with his mistake, and learn from it. We'll make sure of that, so....so your pain, it won't have been for nothing.

[ Once she tries to grab his arm, he'll phase out of existence, like he wasn't there at all. But you can still hear his voice echo through the alley. ]

You better remind him... remind him everyday.

[ The sobs in the alley stop, and somehow, the place seems a bit less oppressive. ]

[She reaches for him even after he fades, hand hanging in the still air.

Then Hydra just stares at the symbols scattered around, and murmurs:]

We won't let him make the same mistake. That's a promise.

Uh-huh. And he seemed....no, he was really sad in the memory that I saw.

[A pang as she realizes that she can make out, if only barely, the words "Dry Juice" under the new coat of spraypaint.]

See, he had been talking about working really hard to make his team feel like a family. Just like us, you know? Only his team was about something else, a game called Rib or something. And eventually, people started quitting his team to play another game called Rhyme. So his family was falling apart, and he didn't know what to do.

It was a game?

Yeah. I don't know the specifics, but it wasn't like the ones we've been playing in.

He said Rib was....it was fun, so much fun that he didn't want it to end.