It's not about what else there is. That's all that it was, he told me I was tainted by the fog, and that I was...being reductive for trusting in people I know who follow the Fog.

Atem, trusting in friends is the only thing I have left. If I couldn't trust you, or Yugi, Celeste or Horatio...even Mukuro...then I wouldn't be in any better of a spot than I was before you asked me to move in with you.

I've changed...and very little of it is for the better, I've had to destroy entire lives just to make sure I survive, and to make sure that I can't do worse ever again, just because I can't control myself.

Elias saying I've been misled...b-being told I'm not in control of who I am anymore, and having someone say it in my head...I can't. I can't do that again.

[He can't. He can't let someone else in his head and let them whisper sweet words to make him comply.

For perhaps the first time while he's alone, with someone who is meant to comfort...Ryou growls, low and deep and resonant in his chest, because he's frustrated.]

I don't want to hear a child in a box tell me that he thinks I'm a good person who doesn't know what he's doing!