"I bet he could," Ren mutters. He still remembers the look on Akechi's face that night before he left. He presses his hands against his face for a second, and sighs as he lets them fall.

"I can't give Akechi what he wants from me. He wants me to be part of Maruki's reality with them, and I—" He shudders. "I try to... to fake it. Being, you know, endlessly happy. He gets worried otherwise, because he can't see me, and—I try. But I can't always make it work."

He could've done better, before.