He knew what this looked like. So he approached. Unarmed, palms facing Falcon. Not-so-subtly placing himself between Falcon and the others.

"Took away Shido's restraints. That's all, and you have my word on that. Right, Futaba? Look- all of us know what Masayoshi Shido is like. Really like, not what he shows to the media. Half of us know, personally, what it's like to be under his thumb. One of us died at his hand. Every single person here came here to help you get away from that."

"I am... truly sorry it went down like this. Based on how you reacted when the subject of the Metaverse came up, and Shido, and everything else- there wasn't a way I could think of to get your consent for this. It was the best of a lot of shitty options."