[It is something that stands out, uncomfortably familiar to his eye. There's a lot about their new - old - current? - circumstances that he doesn't understand even now, that he isn't entirely sure he ever will. Even after the dust settles and his memories return in full (if, if, he can't afford setting expectations), there are too many things that are far changed now. Too much that he won't be able to right.

So even though he wants to be close to Chizuru now, as close as possible, he ends up leaning away, pulling his hands from her face. He folds them in his lap instead, staring down at the creases near his knuckles.]

... [What can he say? That he, so practiced in the art of deception, should have been able to see through Chizuru's plan? It's true, he thinks, but he doesn't want to admit to that either. He still doesn't want to acknowledge that person, that well-versed deceiver, back-stabber, liar, murderer.]

It was my job. It was my job to anticipate things that might go wrong in the game. [Everyone was depending on him - the people in season 50, the people back at the base, everyone who survived long enough to be tucked away for "reuse" later, if they were ever needed...] ...I couldn't do it. I couldn't— protect... the things - the people that I wanted to protect, I couldn't do it.

[Has anything changed at all?]