Well, well. What's this?

Amazing! I'm finally able to remember everything, Eichi!

You're so coy with Himegimi and the rest, but you share everything with me like a mother bird!

.........

I was told SANCTUARY's true nature beforehand, knowledge I gained precisely from your own mouth.

You say that as if it's someone else's problem.

How rude! I'll have you know that I still can't combine the memories of the five year old me with the present me!

This happened to me quite often in the past. I used to get so caught up in my acting that I couldn't get out of character afterwards.

Naturally. Our personalities are not as simplistically static as those in stories. The person I am today is not the same as the person I was yesterday.

Personalities are simply a heap of episodic memories spun together—a story. What we are right now is merely the latest page in that book.

Humans can easily be manipulated by revising and adding on to that story.

Hehehe⁠♪ You talk like we're back in the miserable days of the War, Eichi!

Though I'm merely speaking from my imagination. We barely knew each other then!

How could you, the greatest actor in the world, read me incorrectly?

...I thought you lost interest in me as a "character."

You were only paying attention to me because I acted in ways you didn't expect.

By now, you should've given up and abandoned me.

After all, I'm only repeating the motions. I'm only using Tori—who loves me from the bottom of his heart—for my own personal gain, just as I did Tsumugi.1

I always hide my true intentions behind only those beautiful parts I choose to reveal... As such, I'm able to devour everyone's adulation as tinder for my soul.

Receiving so much validation led me on to believe that I was doing the right thing, and I began to think that I could do whatever I pleased.

I thought I could play with people's hearts, using the excuse that it furthered my ideals.

If no one validated me, I would've just curled up on the spot and never taken another step.

Why couldn't I just lie down on my hospital bed and dream about it?

I'm trying to change the world for the sake of my desires. Lies, tyranny, inflicting harm...

I keep destroying the world in the name of revolution.

.........

What's with the face?

Oh, I'm just wondering why you and Tomoya-kun both have such low self-esteem.

I guess it's not your fault a superhuman like me is just a stone's throw away!

Of course you'd feel inferior if I'm the comparison!

Yet it's truly unfortunate you two don't recognize your own worth, in any case.

Oh, how I wish I was capable of expressing to all the world just how charming and fascinating you two as characters are!

Is it because I always have a mask on? Because I'm always spewing lies? Because I'm always reciting lines someone else concocted?

Even when I'm saying my honest feelings, no one believes me! Tragic, isn't it!?

Care to elaborate...?

See, you don't understand! It's so hard to express your honest feelings as is! Well, I'm certain the receiving side also has problems of their own, but...!

You're both too busy overthinking to notice the bluebird of happiness right in front of you! Ah, such foolishness—but that's precisely what I adore!

......?

You were mistaken, Eichi. I didn't leave because I hated you.

You make it sound like an awfully familiar story. It's similar to when you find out that the person you like actually hates⁠—

Isn't that right? You created ES—an idol production plant that disregards the feelings of others—and SANCTUARY, an idol farm.

You made a deal with Gatekeeper—a wicked man in every respect—and used vile, shady tactics, yes?

You knew that he was using the Order System to hurt other idols.

But you turned a blind eye to his abuses because you thought of doing the same.

.........

However, you were willing to do anything for that goal, even if it meant dying!

People would normally hesitate to go any further and stop, but you charged at full speed!

This insanity of yours is precisely why you're so interesting, Eichi⁠♪

When you say that I'm insane, you take it as "normal," correct?

Amazing! How harsh! Interestingly enough, both sides of a coin can be considered the "front"! Ahahahahaha☆

However, just as one side of righteousness is another side of righteousness, one side of insanity is another side of insanity! Not normal and normality!

It's insanity in the name of common sense! What we take as "common sense" and "moral" is nothing more than asinine conventions with no foundations at all!

In Wonderland, Alice—a normal girl—is the only one that's "insane"!2

It is because Alice didn't conform to her surroundings and stayed true to herself that she is a remarkable character. One that is befitting of a lead role.

That is what you've always been to me, Eichi.

.........