"But your soul."
Haimo pointed at his own temple.
"This part of you is already broken."
"You've been steeped in this world's malice for too long."
"From the [New Human Creation Plan], to being abandoned afterward, to your self-imposed exile now."
"Hatred, madness, a twisted philosophy, contempt for others..."
"Those things have coated your soul like tar."
"You've already taken your final shape."
"Like a piece of scrap iron sintered and warped by heat, no amount of forging can turn you into a good sword again."
"If I took you to that world..."
"At best, you'd only be a shit-stirrer."
"..."
"A shit-stirrer..."
Kagetane Hiruko winced inwardly.
That analogy really was...
So crude he couldn't refute it.
"But that child is different from you."
Haimo shifted his gaze to Kohina Hiruko.
The little girl was gripping two kodachi tightly and baring her teeth at him.
"She's still a blank sheet of paper."
"Though you've smeared some messy colors over it, though you've filled her head with some wrong ideas about killing."
"But at her core..."
"She's still pure."
"She swings her blades out of instinct, because she wants to protect you, or simply because she wants to do what you say."
"Not like you, trying to validate some bullshit philosophy or satisfy your own twisted urge to destroy."
"That purity..."
"Is precisely the [Talent] I need."
"Members of my familia don't need complicated thoughts or some grand worldview."
"They only need to be pure enough."
"To want to grow stronger, purely and simply. To want to survive. To want to protect something."
"That's a rough gem with limitless possibilities."
"But you..."
"Are nothing more than a weathered old rock."
His words fell silent.
The entire place was deathly still.
Those words had been utterly merciless.
They could even be said