( it certainly helps that makoto knows he might actually have other opportunities here. if kazuya were his only option, the only chance he might ever have, it might be more challenging to deny himself… but he’s actually been indulged in the worst and most macabre of his desires more here than he had been even in hell when he had been there, so he’s going to remain quietly appreciative of that and continue to try to stay his course. sometimes it daunts him to think he will have to live like this forever, constantly balancing the disparate, volatile parts of himself as if on a precarious tightrope walk. but the fact that he can sit and speak with kazuya like this, with the other fully aware of even the ugliest parts of him which hide in the shadowiest recesses of his heart… it feels like it makes it worth it, to be able to feel seen—and accepted enough to keep around.

for someone like makoto, something like that would never be taken for granted.

he nods, encouraging. ) And if others notice that you only apply your power sparingly, whenever you feel like it’s actually needed… I think they would grow to respect that as well.

( fear and contempt can build for the truly powerful who brandish their strength as a cudgel to bludgeon everyone around them with without reserve. but for someone who applies it instead as a precision weapon, with the wisdom to temper it? that was different, he thinks.

he pauses, glancing at the table, then up to his friend again. )

Um… I think that’s probably as much as I can eat, for now. ( and it wasn’t a lot, given he hadn’t really arrived with an appetite, but he’d at least sampled some of everything. he starts to stand up from the table. ) I can help you put it away… I’m going to be here all day, so we can definitely eat more of it later.