[Hate, he says, as if that even comes close to defining their relationship.

For reasons Akechi can't even begin to understand, the sight of Ren going panicked like that, looking like a cornered animal scrambling for safety, it twists something awful within him. How utterly unfun. His Ren would have countered without missing a beat.

That manic look twists into thoughtful disappointment instead.]

I did. Maybe I still do. But things between you and I are quite different now. In the end, we came to an arrangement, of sorts. Had a common enemy, a common goal. And then I was killed.