[ this is a fair assumption, because even with his father being dead and all of the mixed emotions of that, shoma can acknowledge his dad made a bunch of mistakes. it's the same way he can acknowledge he did love him. it's just...complicated.

so yeah. there is regret and even when dion looks at him again there's guilt in his features all over again. ]

...there was a serial killing case back then. A guy named Tearer. He'd go around cutting his victims in half. And my dad...tried to blackmail him, I guess. Trying to get enough money to pay off the yakuza he was working for to pay off his other debts. You can see what the results were. [ komeji died. pretty straightforward.


and here he pauses again, staring at dion for a moment as if he's trying to determine how much he trusts the guy. but he thinks about one of the first things dion said to him and he thinks about that this man is a fucking dragon of all things, so. if he picks up on the implications of what's said next, fine. if he doesn't, also fine. ]

I'd say "they caught him" six years later, but the only reason the case really came to a close is because Tearer was killed, too.