"Not... uncontrollable. Reflexive. Like it reached out to stop him falling over, I don't know." He sighed. "Part of me knows you're right. Part of me wants to give him a chance. One chance. Maybe that's me being irrational, maybe he's... still in my head, somehow. Making me sympathetic towards his point of view."

"If you push back on this, I'll give. All I've got to defend this are gut feelings and hypotheticals. Some of the shit I said seemed to get through to him, like he'd never considered it before and was really struggling with it. Maybe there'll be one timeline where Maruki goes back, and gives up. I don't know."