[ The words pierce the air like gunshots, ringing out into the vast expanse of the hangar and leaving Ein hollow. He's stunned into stillness, letting the other boy leave him behind there, on the catwalks, only able to stare after Mikazuki's retreating form.

It doesn't make sense to him.

It makes perfect sense to him.

His own defeat was nothing. A drop in the sea of Gjallarhorn's might. It is only logical that Mikazuki eventually broke beneath that endless siege.

Opposite sides though they may stand, they are the same kind of casualty. Sighing out his breath, Ein climbs over the railing himself to follow. ]

Cooperation means something to those who have brought us here. There would be benefits to our partnership. We are familiar with one another's combat skills, or at least I with yours.

Or do you mean to give up, now that your ambitions have come to an end?

[ It's not a challenge. Just a question. It's something Ein has been considering for himself as well.

He moves forward because it's what he's always done. For the sake of it. Because he doesn't know any other way.

He's been wondering, since waking here, if there's a point to it.

He's beginning to suspect there isn't. ]