[He hears those words - the tone, it's all things he's heard before, even from his father's mouth - but he furiously shakes his head, his expression turning into one of the deepest self-hatred.]
It was my fault that she died! I was the one who ran towards that riverbank, because I thought I could help a little girl - even when all she was was just a lure that a hollow put out!
[That shaking intensifies, somehow, tears spilling down from his eyes again as he relives that rainy night.]
I ran towards it like an idiot - and my mom was the one who paid for it! She didn't have her powers then, and I couldn't tell the living from the dead! So she ran towards it, and -
[His hands ball so tightly into fists that his nails dig into his palms, breaking the skin.]
-and she died! Not just her body, but the hollow ate her soul! I'll never - my family will never, ever get to see her again because of what I did, and it's my fucking fault, Akira! IT'S MY FAULT!
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It was my fault that she died! I was the one who ran towards that riverbank, because I thought I could help a little girl - even when all she was was just a lure that a hollow put out!
[That shaking intensifies, somehow, tears spilling down from his eyes again as he relives that rainy night.]
I ran towards it like an idiot - and my mom was the one who paid for it! She didn't have her powers then, and I couldn't tell the living from the dead! So she ran towards it, and -
[His hands ball so tightly into fists that his nails dig into his palms, breaking the skin.]
-and she died! Not just her body, but the hollow ate her soul! I'll never - my family will never, ever get to see her again because of what I did, and it's my fucking fault, Akira! IT'S MY FAULT!