"The one who apparently tried to kill himself using me was just a boy, Riku, who had gotten himself possessed by a power greater than himself. The one possessing him was mildly interesting, his ambitions grandiose, but he had little care for keeping the fragile mortal form he wore free of harm," Yrael replies. "It is not my concern if the boy chose to seek me out in my true form, to try and provoke and then attack me for dealing cordially with the one possessing him. My warnings that righteous anger was insufficiently flame-retardant went unheeded, and Security saw it as 'violence by neglect' or some other such nonsense."

Yrael sips his wine. "He was a handy diversion from time to time and occasionally made himself useful, but others from the same sheaf of worlds were much more interesting. I would have liked to learn more about the creatures that could devour a world's heart."

And he does, Yrael would admit, miss Axel.