"I told you before, Neku. I don't hate him. I just hate what he did to you."

Neku snorted

" Right...I'd believe you if you didn't just try to drown him."

"I didn't try to drown him! I just gave him water and he decided to over indulge!"

The redhead sighed, "Ok ok. But tell me, while he was sputtering and gagging, why didn't you take the water bottle out of his mouth?"

"He wouldn't let go of it!"

Neku chuckled "Well, he does tend to do that."

Shiki sneered under her breath "He 'tends' to do a lot of things."

She waited until Neku went to take a nap, before sighing and going over to the figure on the couch. His eyes looked at her without really seeing, his mouth trying to form words of greeting but all that came out was a pathetic squeak. The girl clutched her hands together and scowled at the 'boy' lying prone. She took a deep breath and sighed.

"Look, I know I should forgive you for what you've done. I know I should look at you and feel some kind of empathy. But I don't. Look at you, look at how pathetic you really are right now. Neku was just as affected by what you did to him, you know. He was just as helpless. Do you even care? You don't do you. Neku's hurting again because of you! Neku is getting tormented because he refuses to let YOU just fade away. I am in pain because Neku just won't abandon you to your fate. Do you even care?!"

The body on the couch looked at her, still not really seeing her at all. She started as she felt his skinny hand grasp her own, fingers that were more bone than flesh closing around her wrist. The amethyst orbs suddenly glared right at her, finally making contact, and acknowledging her presence. She recoiled, not wanting him touching her, but his grip stayed surprisingly firm.

"Let go of me, you monster!" the girl snarled, disgusted that she couldn't pull away, weak as Joshua was at the moment. The grip simply tightened, and the eyes...the eyes stared at her intensely.

She hated those eyes.

But right now, those purple orbs conveyed the answer to her question. They conveyed the monster's will, his intention. They told Shiki one thing that she doubted still, only there was a problem with that doubt and that was simply that he used his eyes to answer. The eyes never lied.

He knew.

Not only did he know, but he regretted.

Shiki didn't think it was possible, but again, the eyes never lied. Yoshiya Kiryu was well aware of Neku's suffering.

And he cared. He regretted.

"Do you think this is easy for him, watching Phones deteriorate, unable to die even when his body begins to shut down? Do you think he's enjoying seeing the person who changed him suffer right next to him, while he lays here unable to even offer a word of comfort? Believe me, Joshua cares. He hates every single spasm, every cry of pain, every drop of blood spewed. But this was Phones' choice. As much as Joshua wants him freed from this torment, he has no say in it. Josh cares. But even he is powerless to intervene."

Shiki finally yanked her arm free of the monster's vise and said with tears in her voice and a bit of shaky venom in her tone.

"He wouldn't be powerless or regretful if he hadn't interfered to begin with."

Sanae had to chuckle at that "You've a point there."

He knelt next to the couch "However, don't forget that if he hadn't interfered in your lives, you would have never become friends. You owe him at least that much gratitude, at least. Begrudging, but you do owe him that much."

Shiki sighed,

"Yeah...I guess we do."