[ Akechi only acknowledges that initial response by looking up, but says nothing on the matter otherwise. So it seems he had come to the wrong conclusion, before... Well, he was quite a bit of a fraud, anyway.

And for once, he didn't mind that at all. ]

That is true; I do believe fate brings people together. But it doesn't mean they always will be.

[ He can't tell Akira why or how he knows that, but that is the truth as he has learned it; even if they were meant to meet, had they stayed back in Tokyo and each followed through with their lives the same as usual, then surely by now they would have been on opposite paths again. By now, Akira might not even have been alive anymore.

Had nothing changed between them, then that thought wouldn't bother Akechi as much as it does now. ]

You, on the other hand, always said you believe only in yourself, and in the power of your bonds. Perhaps free will might be the other half of the equation.

[ Even now, they are thesis and antithesis. Separately, at least. ]

If it is true that fate brings people together, then could it be that choice is what keeps them that way?

[ Together, they could be synthesis. ]