Yes. Yes, everyone keeps saying that our past lives, or whatever Retrospec wants to call it, will just remain exactly that: past lives. We're different people from them. But the fact that we're getting these memories, our appearances are changing...

[A shudder passes through him.]

It's like a parasite, trying to take over. It's like that man will rip off my skin and wear it and I just won't be...me, anymore.

[And how hollow he feels, saying that! The cat chirps up at him questioningly, but he only moves his head to stare straight ahead, eyes as glassy as those of fish.]

I feel like I'm drowning again, Sakura. But this isn't the ocean. Even the ocean isn't this cruel.

[He finally turns some of his attention to her, eyebrows raising at the crack in her voice. We?]

[What could that imply...?]

We're...trapped in this together, aren't we?