[Something in Hijikata's eyes shifts, just a little. Softens, maybe, but grows sadder, too, more deeply steeped in the heavy weariness that has been his burden since he was a young man.]
[He's often been called cruel. Hell, he's often been sure people are right about that, but the worst of his actions have always been heavy with purpose -- they've been tactical, or driven by revenge, or by desperation to survive or protect someone else.]
[Not just to kill something helpless, but to abandon it to a slow death? It's pointlessly cruel, and that's a way of thinking that's unnatural to him, too.]
...You've let them out now, haven't you?
[It's a token protest, honestly. His heart isn't in it at all.]
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[He's often been called cruel. Hell, he's often been sure people are right about that, but the worst of his actions have always been heavy with purpose -- they've been tactical, or driven by revenge, or by desperation to survive or protect someone else.]
[Not just to kill something helpless, but to abandon it to a slow death? It's pointlessly cruel, and that's a way of thinking that's unnatural to him, too.]
...You've let them out now, haven't you?
[It's a token protest, honestly. His heart isn't in it at all.]