Page 376 of Mercy Written in Blood

"I love you," Haruki repeated. "Not Doctor Takahara. Not the last heir. Not the man who can save everyone in the room."

Something tightened beneath Renji's ribs.

"You have never required me to save everyone."

"No. You require it of yourself."

Haruki shifted, pain crossing his face. Renji began to rise. Haruki tightened his grip.

"Stay."

"You hurt yourself."

"I moved half an inch."

"You are not healed."

"I know."

"You continue acting as if knowledge removes consequence."

Renji felt irritation rise. Not because Haruki misunderstood. Because Renji was not certain he had.

"The First Law cannot simply be removed."

"I know."

"You continue speaking as though I support what they did."

"You continue explaining why they did it as though explanation changes what it was."

Renji stopped. Haruki looked away.

The argument returned. Not the Accord. Not strategy. Something more intimate.

"You believe you are allowed to sacrifice yourself because you have already lived too long," Haruki said.

Renji did not deny it.

"You think age is the same as completion."

"It is not."

"Then why do you keep behaving as though I lose less if you die?"

The question found the lie beneath every practical explanation. Renji stood. Not to leave. He could not sit beneath it. He moved towards the foot of the bed.

"My life continued after it should have ended," he said. "The night my family died, I survived because others did not. Every year after that felt borrowed. Useful, perhaps. But not mine."

"That isn't true."

"It was true to me."

"Then reject it."

Renji almost smiled.

"You make it sound simple."