Minato knows this is a pivotal moment, that whatever he says to Ken will resonate for a long time, for good or ill. He wants so badly to say the right thing, but that pressure doesn't overwhelm him, because surely the right thing is just the truth. The truth that Minato himself had taken so long to understand, the truth that had been strength enough to hold back the end of the world.
"Don't you think Shinjiro-san felt that way, too?" There's an urgency to his quiet voice. "And Akihiko-san. Mitsuru-san. Yukari-san. Junpei. Aigis. Me. Ken-kun... you haven't been through all of it yet, but all of us, we've lost someone. And sometimes it's been our fault."
Ken's mother. Akihiko's sister. Mitsuru's father and Yukari's father and Chidori and Ryoji and himself, for Aigis, and for him it was his parents and then everyone, Minato had lost everyone.
"Those feelings, the ones you have now that you don't deserve to be here instead of them, they're things we all have. Everyone wants to give up sometimes. This is what forms Shadows." Gently, one hand leaves Ken's shoulder to peel away the hands covering his face, to bring him out from hiding; and Minato's voice, too, is correspondingly gentle, a drift of snow being laid down or the first sheen of light across it. "We can't escape those, Ken-kun. They're ours. But that's not everything we are."
Before he'd have left it here. With his newfound appreciation for how much what he'd done before hadn't been enough, he pushes on. "You're my friend and my teammate and... and the person I will always guard. I've never regretted giving you this armband. You need to live, because I need you-- we all need you. What's coming when you go back... It was easier for us to bear with you there."
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Minato knows this is a pivotal moment, that whatever he says to Ken will resonate for a long time, for good or ill. He wants so badly to say the right thing, but that pressure doesn't overwhelm him, because surely the right thing is just the truth. The truth that Minato himself had taken so long to understand, the truth that had been strength enough to hold back the end of the world.
"Don't you think Shinjiro-san felt that way, too?" There's an urgency to his quiet voice. "And Akihiko-san. Mitsuru-san. Yukari-san. Junpei. Aigis. Me. Ken-kun... you haven't been through all of it yet, but all of us, we've lost someone. And sometimes it's been our fault."
Ken's mother. Akihiko's sister. Mitsuru's father and Yukari's father and Chidori and Ryoji and himself, for Aigis, and for him it was his parents and then everyone, Minato had lost everyone.
"Those feelings, the ones you have now that you don't deserve to be here instead of them, they're things we all have. Everyone wants to give up sometimes. This is what forms Shadows." Gently, one hand leaves Ken's shoulder to peel away the hands covering his face, to bring him out from hiding; and Minato's voice, too, is correspondingly gentle, a drift of snow being laid down or the first sheen of light across it. "We can't escape those, Ken-kun. They're ours. But that's not everything we are."
Before he'd have left it here. With his newfound appreciation for how much what he'd done before hadn't been enough, he pushes on. "You're my friend and my teammate and... and the person I will always guard. I've never regretted giving you this armband. You need to live, because I need you-- we all need you. What's coming when you go back... It was easier for us to bear with you there."