Sure wasn't... I'll summarize but... we mounted an escape attempt. Using your amazing chip, even. Miss Nao never did tell me how Sara got her hands on it...
[That's neither here nor there though. He can't let himself get too sidetracked... this is going on a bit of a tangent as it is, but it feels like important background, to make the point, because everything leads up to the choice that was placed in front of Sara like a plate.]
Didn't have much time to look around, though. Seems like all that was predicted too! All in the palm of your hand... because we found the collapsed exit.
[Sometimes he wonders, if he hadn't fallen for the siren call of the facility map, if he'd just had more precious time to dig deeper, there'd have been something in Ranger unaccounted for, that could have actually got them all out.
...as if. His smile isn't visible behind the door but there's that taut wire thread to his hoarse voice. He stops, coughs, gingerly swallows.]
Don't need to tell you about the card trading, do I? ...there was one last trade, just before the main game started. Kanna took the sacrifice from Sara... or so I thought.
[The Sacrifice he'd sent to Sara in the first place. Stupid, stupid. Every single action of his laid out in horrific HD hindsight leading up to Kanna's, well, it wasn't potential death in Sara's universe now was it. His hand kneads the front of his chest. Shin could have 'me? defend kanna?'d as much as he wanted... It really was obvious, wasn't it... He knows he doesn't need to elaborate; Ranger knows the incentives that card creates as well as he does, if in more of an academic sense.]
Turns out, Gashu had intercepted it, sent it to Nao! Ahaha, he shot himself rather than let us have even 24 hours... An absolutely insane devotion. [Terrifying.] Think it was the same gun, even.
[His tone's turned conversational; he's detached, watching himself speak.]
Keiji was the Keymaster... So that's what it came down to. Me... or Kanna. And wouldn't you know it, the deciding vote was none other than our very own responsible Miss Sara Chidouin!
[There's a pause as he gets up, ostensibly to pull one off the blankets off the top bunk because this is taking longer than he thought, but mostly because he needs to if only briefly pace, earth the static electricity building up in him. He pulls it over his shoulders at the door, back in position.]
This next part... it's to do with the school. It messes with time, see? Sara could only have died after me, but she arrived before me. It also can show you different universes... Guess that runs deeper than I thought... because that's what she called me up on the roof to tell me, after half a year. [He's had time to get upset about this now, when there wasn't before because everything moved so fast in the moment, but she really had been just keeping this secret from him the whole time, souring so much for Shin in hindsight.] That in her world, she voted for the wrong person. And she didn't know why! Funny, isn't it?
[It feels kind of like that right now, one big joke played at his and Kanna's expense. He'll let all of that sink in... maybe grab some more water from the small container Ishimaru gave him. Those exclamation marks are costing him.]
no subject
[That's neither here nor there though. He can't let himself get too sidetracked... this is going on a bit of a tangent as it is, but it feels like important background, to make the point, because everything leads up to the choice that was placed in front of Sara like a plate.]
Didn't have much time to look around, though. Seems like all that was predicted too! All in the palm of your hand... because we found the collapsed exit.
[Sometimes he wonders, if he hadn't fallen for the siren call of the facility map, if he'd just had more precious time to dig deeper, there'd have been something in Ranger unaccounted for, that could have actually got them all out.
...as if. His smile isn't visible behind the door but there's that taut wire thread to his hoarse voice. He stops, coughs, gingerly swallows.]
Don't need to tell you about the card trading, do I? ...there was one last trade, just before the main game started. Kanna took the sacrifice from Sara... or so I thought.
[The Sacrifice he'd sent to Sara in the first place. Stupid, stupid. Every single action of his laid out in horrific HD hindsight leading up to Kanna's, well, it wasn't potential death in Sara's universe now was it. His hand kneads the front of his chest. Shin could have 'me? defend kanna?'d as much as he wanted... It really was obvious, wasn't it... He knows he doesn't need to elaborate; Ranger knows the incentives that card creates as well as he does, if in more of an academic sense.]
Turns out, Gashu had intercepted it, sent it to Nao! Ahaha, he shot himself rather than let us have even 24 hours... An absolutely insane devotion. [Terrifying.] Think it was the same gun, even.
[His tone's turned conversational; he's detached, watching himself speak.]
Keiji was the Keymaster... So that's what it came down to. Me... or Kanna. And wouldn't you know it, the deciding vote was none other than our very own responsible Miss Sara Chidouin!
[There's a pause as he gets up, ostensibly to pull one off the blankets off the top bunk because this is taking longer than he thought, but mostly because he needs to if only briefly pace, earth the static electricity building up in him. He pulls it over his shoulders at the door, back in position.]
This next part... it's to do with the school. It messes with time, see? Sara could only have died after me, but she arrived before me. It also can show you different universes... Guess that runs deeper than I thought... because that's what she called me up on the roof to tell me, after half a year. [He's had time to get upset about this now, when there wasn't before because everything moved so fast in the moment, but she really had been just keeping this secret from him the whole time, souring so much for Shin in hindsight.] That in her world, she voted for the wrong person. And she didn't know why! Funny, isn't it?
[It feels kind of like that right now, one big joke played at his and Kanna's expense. He'll let all of that sink in... maybe grab some more water from the small container Ishimaru gave him. Those exclamation marks are costing him.]