Uncharacteristically, you decide to address it, clearing your throat and taking on a more serious tone, "Well, in order to travel around, I had to steal from an angel to get it. Good luck with that."
You can feel her gaze more intensely now, but you stare down into your tea instead of meeting her eyes. "That angel you mentioned before..."
You shake your head, "Not her, a different one. But I'd do a lot to take her wings too."
"Her wings?"
You explain the concept of the Angel Wing to her. How she'll likely have to kill an angel. Preferably two. It's not pretty stripping them off either, they're practically embedded into the flesh of the back, and can only be removed when they've been manifested. Killing comes with flaying, then the excrutiating pain of attaching it to your body. "Going off instinct here, it sounds like Julien's been consorting with one too. If you want this life or just a fancy method of suicide, that's your best shot."
She snorts, "You're just saying that."
"Everything comes with a price. I have the power to do what I want, but I've done a lot of bad shit to get it. Worse things than you can imagine. And I've been on the run for as long as I remember. This life isn't for everyone, it takes everything from you that you don't fight for. I don't have a home, a family, barely any friends, or peace of mind of where I'll be tomorrow."
"I have a lot of enemies that wouldn't think twice about selling me out or killing me on the spot. Got angelic assassins chasing me for every breath I take. I wake up half dead sometimes. I've lost limbs and been blown up more times than you can count, but I keep moving because I have to. There's nothing else waiting for me, except the kiss of a blade."
Eiko stares at you with a mixture of suspicion, "That sounds terrible," a pause, "Why keep going?"
"It is terrible." you lean your head back on the couch, "But I'm alive because it pisses people off. And I want them to stay pissed off. Not sure if that aligns with you the same."
There's another moment of silence before you bring it back around, "Of course, seeing what exists out there... It's unlike anything that can be."
Eiko stares down, contemplative, as you continue, "There's the cosmodaes, there's food out there that you can't even fucking believe. I've eaten things that have danced on the plate before they died. Drinks that taste like sweet liquid gold. Been to places where lights dance around the sky at night and castles travel on the backs of turtles. It's an endless frontier out there. I admit, you don't have to do what I do out there either, but you gotta keep some kind of living to maintain it."
She snorts, "Sounds like you just make it harder on yourself."
"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Yeah, you have a bit of a sunk cost fallacy complex, okay? We all have something we dig too deep in.
"It's a full-time commitment, and yeah, I made it at about your age, but it's not easy. It's never easy."
She sighs, "No, it never is. Nothing's easy," her ears flatten, "But it sounds better than this."
"... Killing Julien?"
"No.. Just.. Everything else in my life. I don't know what I'm doing.. I thought I'd have more time to just concentrate on killing him. Building my life after it. But now that it's going to happen. Well." Looks like your intuition was just right.
"Hey, it's fine. You're young. First kills go like that."
"I don't have anything. What is there for me to lose, really? My brother's gone, my mom's old, I don't have a job or an education. The friends I had.. I cut them all off when he died. I was.. I was so angry. I don't know why. I threw it all away, like a fucking idiot. I threw my life away."
There's a snarl to her words now, "And I was. I was supposed to take this gang. Now it isn't right. I thought I'd have more time to build.. Something with them."
You're a bit surprised, yet you aren't, grief can do that. "To lead them?"
"I don't know! I don't know. I thought I could understand once I got there. Why. Why he started it. Why he spent his life for it. What made it all so fucking worth it? At least I understand now why you did it."
For the first time in a long time, you feel a pit in your stomach.
Eiko becomes eerily calm, yet tired, shoulders slumping. You try to find the words, but she beats you to it. Her words are icy, like she's held them in her chest for years, the fire dying away and leaving ash in the soil. Ground away by every winter past.
"Did Akito mean anything to you? My brother? Did you even meet him before Julien killed him? Was he anything to you, besides a concept?"
There it is.
You admit, you never met the former boss of the Wolf Bites. Not much to go off in looking for a family resemblance.
Do you LIE? Or tell the TRUTH?
Your answer will not change the objective.