And, on the escalator, his mouth wrinkles up. That's the opposite of what he wants to do. He doesn't want them near him. He's been keeping them at arms' length as best he can—not just to manage their expectations, but also for himself. This is a purely give-and-take relationship. I don't think I'll be seeing you like this any more....

"I know I have no choice. I don't need you to tell me that, and you're not the first to say it. The obvious first step is to engage them to keep Amamiya—" not Ren, quite abruptly—"alive."

He rounds the corner to the next escalator with the air of a crane stalking a frog—or like someone with a broom handle stuck up his ass. "And they'll do it because he's their friend. Not because of your—poorly disguised power-of-friendship lecture." He's not six.