[It was so damn hard. Minato can still see their face. The way Junpei's smile would falter and fade away when no one was looking. Ken, who was so good at maintaining a facade despite his age, better than most of them. Everyone was suffering that whole year, even before it got bad.

There's no use denying what they were. They were soldiers, forced to fight a war against an enemy they couldn't fully understand, all to clean up someone else's mistake. Nobody goes through that unchanged.]

February was...hard. All my friends kept commenting on how sick and tired I looked. They could tell something was wrong, but none of them had any idea I was dying.

[Slowly, over the course of the month. He was only holding on for his promise, after all. His soul was already in the Great Seal. No wonder he was so tired.]

I fell asleep before anyone but me and Aigis got to the roof.

I know I'm here now, but... I can't stay forever, can I? I have to go back. Saying goodbye the first time was hard enough, dammit...