He cupped his chin. "A fair point, Sumire. I suppose I shouldn't punch him. However, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist, on the grounds that I want to."

Still... the fact she didn't want him to be hurt was somehow touching. "I'd like to think I can. Though I'm not... sure. I'm not sure of much, anymore." He stared down at his free hand, frowning. "I'm not a complete idiot, Sumire. I know what I am. Just a Shadow. The 'true self', in one sense- but in another... Robin Hood is just a sense of Justice I no longer believe in. The Detective Prince a pretty lie I put on for the world, to hide how much I hated it. Loki is nothing but hate, blind, stupid hate for my father, for the society that enabled him, for everything he encouraged me to do... for the malevolent god that gave me this power in the first place, the Black Mask just the face I put on as Shido's perfect little killing machine. And when that burned away everything I had, Hereward is all that's left. Nothing but spite and the willingness to kill myself just so Maruki couldn't do to me what he did to you."

Amber-gold eyes burned behind the mask, uncertain and... frightened. "What does it say about me that all my Personas are just responses to how other people see me? When you take away what others have made me to be... what's left, really? There has to be something, but I don't know."