[He listens for a while, and it's good to hear Josuke's voice, even though it leaves him a little unsettled with the implicit social pressure to respond back in kind. He likes text because he doesn't have to make his voice produce the things that are in his head; he can just fit words to them and then look at them for a while to make sure he's really gotten down what it was he'd been thinking. He's never liked how speaking only gives you one chance to get it right. Too many things are too important to get wrong.

He never got to say goodbye to any of the three people who died for him. That thought torments him, sometimes.

But sometimes he wonders if he would've gotten it right, even if he had been given the opportunity. What would've come out of his mouth, if he'd had five seconds to offer last words to Abdul? Would he have been able to produce words that made him understand his gratitude and respect? Would he have thought to tell Iggy that for being a pain in the ass, he was really one of them in the end?

What would he have said to Kakyoin?

(It should've been something meaningful, something important, something to make his imminent death go a little easier. He thinks sometimes it would've ended up being the opposite of that, don't you dare, don't you fucking leave me, you bastard.)

Here he is again, this time with Josuke on the line, and all his words are up in his head instead of coming out of his mouth.

But he has to give it a try, anyway.]

I think sometimes it's hard to know what's worse. I think sometimes...I could live with being like Dio, if I had to. But I don't want him to be like me.

I guess...it feels like, I could handle there being a part of me that's that evil. But I don't want part of him to be good. He doesn't deserve to have any part of him be good.

[Monsters are easier to kill than human beings, don't you know. Which is funny logic in a place like Ryslig, but.]

You don't really think I'm like Jiji, do you?