There are words that want to be spoken. Not for the first time, either, but he's ignored them before because there was no one he could say them to, and they didn't matter anyway. There was nothing he could fucking do about it if he wanted to survive.

That's still probably true. But here, lying on the floor of Mementos next to Akira, he can't swallow them back down anymore.

"I don't want that." He lets out a deep, shaky breath. "I don't want that to happen to him."

It feels like pulling the lid shut on his own coffin. It feels like a release.