“You’re right, I’m sorry--” Kotetsu hung his head and rung his hands together on the cafeteria table. “--I forgot.” This whole backtracking was hard to remember! If he didn’t focus and approach this gently, it was going to blow up in his face. As much as he didn’t want to peel the band-aid back off, the former Hero had to. There were no other options.

“Bunny, I...” His lips continued to move, but no new sounds came out as he considered what to say. This was a lot easier to approach when they both thought he was dying. It really helped to relieve heavy baggage when you had nothing to lose. But the longer he let them both sit in silence, the harder it was to get this out. Finally, he gritted his teeth and began talking again. “I’ve--My powers have been declining for awhile now. I’m down to like three minute and some seconds now... Can’t really be a Hero without powers, right?” Kotetsu tried to play it off with a laugh, but the words were coated with deep-seeded bitterness despite his effort. “So I... had to quit and find something else to do.

“But I swear, Bunny, it had nothing to do about trust. I trust you! You were my partner, I just didn’t want you to worry. I didn’t want anyone to worry about me--And what could I have said to you, ‘Hey, sorry, but we can’t be a team anymore because I’m getting old’?” I didn’t want to put that on you...”