[In Souji's case, perhaps the undercurrent of conviction in his words is only strengthened by the knowledge that the family you're given might be the very first way for life to betray you. It's never all that far from his mind, his sister putting him in his best clothes without quite meeting his eye, the way she sighed as she took him in hand and they left home, the tension in her voice which she tried so hard to hide as she spoke with Kondou. The things he already knew she was deliberately not saying, that there was something wrong with him, that he'd brought misfortune on the family, that she wanted him safe and unseen but also, perhaps, far away from the life she was managing to create.

Perhaps he's unfair; he knows his sister is a good person, that his family had tried to do what was best in a bad situation. But he's learned what he knows about family and obligation not from them, but from Kondou smiling at him and telling him he'd always be there, and from an impatient and harsh teenage boy, giving him a place to belong.

The distant scrape of the sleigh makes his head snap up too, his hand flying to the hilt of his sword, and he nods in agreement with Sano's words.]

We're too exposed here. [And so would Tetsu be, if he really is out there. But he would take cover from something like this, surely?] Some of the buildings I've tried have been locked. I don't suppose there is any uneven ground close to here where it would be harder for that thing to run?