[He hates the way this is going, and it's extremely hard to sit there and watch Hinata get grilled in front of his friends like this. Choices are choices, and taking responsibility for them is one thing, but in the end, they honestly had no say over whether or not Hinata would go to Akechi and tell him what he already knows. Ryuji made him promise not to say anything, but even if he did break that, he wouldn't hold it against him. It's not his place to do that to begin with, and slowly, as Yusuke starts staring between him and Ren, he walks over to Hinata, and squeezes his shoulder lightly.]

He ain't gonna do shit to any of us, and he ain't gonna do shit to you, either, Hajime. Yusuke's right, we're tiptoeing around the thing that nobody wants to say. It's uh. It's definitely more a fear of what he's gonna do to himself.

[He wasn't stable, that much was for sure.

But there's another thing bugging him out of all of this.]

And Hajime has every right to join in the conversation if that's what he wants. And if we wants to join up with us goin' forward, I don't see why he can't be one of us, either, y'know? All of us joined up together through finding out the truth one way or another. I mean, shit. Makoto was stalkin' us and... uh, sure, it was kinda my lame ass big mouth that spoiled it, but still. Just 'cause we're in goddamn space doesn't mean we stop bein' who we are or what we're supposed to do.

Think about it, y'know? We're supposed to make life better for people, even if it costs us our own happiness. Akechi's not excluded from that either!

[His head reels back to the conversation he had with Ren about the possibility of Akechi having a palace. It feels right, and Ryuji runs on feelings and hunches. They wouldn't have even started up as thieves if it weren't for that mentality.]