[Giorno realizes, very distantly, that he likes Asher Millstone. He didn't expect to. He came into this conversation irritated and expected to leave that way, but . . . he feels better. Or he feels as though he should feel better, as though this is the sort of thing that should make him happy. Someone feels the way you feel, he tells himself; why aren't you smiling?]

[He isn't, though. He isn't smiling. He's just worried, as though the bottom's dropped out of his own stomach, as though he's looking at himself from the outside, seeing all the mistakes he's going to make and the pain that's going to drown him.]

[Sometimes your best is all you can do.]

[He looks down at his hands.]

You're right.

[He doesn't say I hate that you're right, but he sure doesn't sound happy about it.]

Sometimes, no matter what you can do, no matter how extraordinary of a person you are, no matter what powers you have or don't, your best isn't good enough. But if you give up, you're not really human anymore, I don't think.

It's not just you. I hope you know that.