[ Not a joke. Maybe a manipulation. Maybe now when people arrive, their memories are messed with up front, like they were all experiencing months ago, maybe it's temporary, maybe it can be fixed–
How can he help Akira acclimate to this reality when he still has to tell him about the last one?
Foolishly, he thought the worst of his grief was over. That by finally telling the honest truth, being allowed to feel the depth of that pain in someone's arms, he'd managed to wade through his lowest point and come out alive.
But retelling it has nothing on reliving it. Some hitherto unknown wound in the depths of his soul spreads, the rot violent and festering. Maruki knows he must look like a man whose heart has shattered. It isn't fair to put that on Akira.
It isn't.
He tries to school it off his face. Breathes. He can fix this. He can fix anything. ]
No, I was a counselor. Temporarily, just for a few months... We met on my first day there. In mid-May.
[ It's said with significance. Maruki won't bring up Kamoshida. Akira ought to know. If he doesn't even know that, then they have a far larger problem. ]
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How can he help Akira acclimate to this reality when he still has to tell him about the last one?
Foolishly, he thought the worst of his grief was over. That by finally telling the honest truth, being allowed to feel the depth of that pain in someone's arms, he'd managed to wade through his lowest point and come out alive.
But retelling it has nothing on reliving it. Some hitherto unknown wound in the depths of his soul spreads, the rot violent and festering. Maruki knows he must look like a man whose heart has shattered. It isn't fair to put that on Akira.
It isn't.
He tries to school it off his face. Breathes. He can fix this. He can fix anything. ]
No, I was a counselor. Temporarily, just for a few months... We met on my first day there. In mid-May.
[ It's said with significance. Maruki won't bring up Kamoshida. Akira ought to know. If he doesn't even know that, then they have a far larger problem. ]