I held back on the truth longer than I should have. [ He's right. ] I was afraid and I was selfish, and I hurt you and the others and you had every reason to think I was a threat after that.

[ She shifts, drawing her legs closer to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. ]

And I knew it was wrong but it felt nice for once to not have to fight for my life or think about how everything was riding on me and all the blood on my hands, I could just be normal and have friends and I know--

[ Tears blur her eyes now, shoulders quivering, for all that she's doing her best to get the words out. It'd be easier, to suck it up and speak steadily and calmly. Cry later. Like she always did.

But she's not going to run from it now. ]

I don't have the confidence. When they told me I'd have to erase an entire world and its--everyone, I almost let them kill me right then and there. But one of them told me--I can't let my world lose to his. Even if it's too much for me to handle. I had to keep going. I had to prove why my world had been the one to win in the first place and why it could survive now. I--

I saw them once, Josuke. When someone was trying to drive me mad in an attack. Every single person who got killed in the attack on the base, the people I met in the Lostbelts, the people I can never see again, everyone who was lost, all talking to me, and so much of that is my fault and I could have told her that she didn't have to put me through that because I already see them when I sleep. Out of the corner of my eye when I turn the corner. Everywhere.

I have to keep standing up. [ She draws in a shaky breath, doing her best to swallow a sob. ] N-no matter what.