"You want me to... stab my daughter?" It's grinded out between a tense a jaw, but there's a pain that flashes across his eyes--little things trickle in. He's starting to remember why those wings are so familiar, and he doesn't want to. Kaede shakes her head.

"Dad, what are you doing...? Why does he want to kill me...?"

"Kotetsu, do something!" Tomoe speaks out, putting her arms protectively around Kaede's shoulders, pulling her away. The hero's feet feel heavy as stone; he can't even move the hand the General has securely in his hand.

A dry swallow.

"I don't... believe you..." But it's so uncertain, and he remembers the mikan orchard first, and then the kitchen--and then the drafts, the look Barnaby gave him as he died, the way he pulled Pao-Lin close in her misery. Sanji carrying him back from the forest. Tony's plan, Grune laughing, a tiny blind girl petting back tiger fur--

He jerks his hand away, eyes wide.

"No..."

"Kotetsu!!" Tomoe is frightened.

He can't break his gaze from the man in front of him, or else he'll just slip again; he knows it. He keeps remembering so many different people that, a moment ago, he would have said he never knew. "Why--?? Why are you doing this?!"