"Do not insult me!" Oriko's voice raises, rare as it is, brimming with so much offense that he would assume she wouldn't try to change things, that she hasn't tried, that people have not died for it before.

She had hoped to appeal to his caring, that he cares more for the man Haruto was, that it could save things, but those hopes quickly come unwound. It has always, will always, Oriko thinks, be a responsibility wholly to herself to change the future.

"It doesn't seem that you'll change you mind," Oriko says. She lowers her arms, places them around her waist.

Nitoh's fear has taken a flint to her frustrations. The desperation and anguish he has already had to deal with -- there is no convincing.

"...I will not stop you." But he will have to let him go.