[ oh, but that's good, romani thinks. yes, that's good. there's something sad about the way chise talks about fate, as if it's something for whom its positive connotations couldn't be applied to her. romani can sort of understand. you have to be in some kind of terrible situation for you to be so young and deemed worthy by this world to contribute to a war, of all things. romani has beheld the tragedy already in not so many words: that each child that he's met so far on this base were scarred in different ways. they are all weapons of a kind. romani feels sick to his stomach just thinking about it.

so not having learned to fight is good. it means that at least someone in this child's life didn't want her to solely use her abilities for violence. but also... perhaps it really isn't that great now, given that this place wants everyone to fight giant monsters. romani pulls up the briefing again. giant slugs, huh... they're large, too. they eat people. but you could earn points by saving people. there were a lot of ways you could save people without having to harm someone. ]

Oh, you're helping me already. I was very nervous starting off this entire thing, but talking to you has helped tremendously, Miss Chise. Isn't that another way of saving people? [ talking it through is helping romani too, he thinks - maybe this will work after all. ] Let's stick together, then. I might be a little unreliable, but at least we can go through all this together and see what four pairs of hands can do, right?

[ romani turns his gaze from the ocular image back to chise. he smiles. ] Don't worry so much. It's just a simulation. And the people here - well, I've only met kind people here so far, too. It'll be like your College all over again. So I think it'll be okay?