"You were! I never had a friend who loved me for me, and didn't see someone else when they looked at me." Even back home his friends would always assume he was Agito until he corrected them. He couldn't begrudge Agito having a life, but Akito would have liked to have been able to do more than watch from behind the glass, so to speak.

Plume peeps at him and he scoops her back up to place her on his shoulder, where she settles in comfortably. He considers Jack's words and, yes, despite the death and violence and fear there was much more love and good memories to make up for it. "I think Adstringéndum was one of the best things to happen to me. Almost all of it was because of you, and my big sister. So... I'd like to be friends, if that's okay with you."