“

Asuka, I want you to stay here. In that place inside my heart, be safe and at your own pace. And I’ll do the keeping up and grow up right alongside you. You’re thrown and thrown against that wall - against either wall - but the stronger it seems, the more weapons will come into your hand. You’re in training for your life every day that you live. And you will learn to break through.

I don’t want to share my pain with you, or yours with me. I want that we should share our happiness instead, and grow closer that way. You see, life isn’t one exam, one time that determines everything. Don’t try and think everything all the way through to the end. Decide you’ll try and learn instead.

They say you have to climb mountains and swim oceans. No. You don’t have to do it that way, either. You can learn to eat mountains and drink oceans. You don’t have to merely overcome an obstacle. You can savor it and become a person of taste. Life is fun, Asuka - and you don’t have to rely on chance that it should happen that way; instead you can make it so.