Shino accepts the sound little beating he gets from the fluffed pillow as a short punishment for his own trespasses. He wonders if time has made all those thoughts and feelings flush out of him until now or if they've just been pent up somewhere quiet in him.

Then the pillow finds its final resting spot against his chest and he finds himself staring up at Yamagi instead of the ceiling, eyebrows raised. It's bolder than he'd have expected from the closed in boy he remembers. There's a lot of new things he has to learn about his family now, isn't there? He has to get used to the idea that, until now, for them, he's been nothing but a memory for years.

"That's not stupid. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Mm, I don't know a lot about it, though. Still, it's not bad to want that... and I was just as stupid, anyway, wasn't I? I could've done a lot more for you, knowing what I knew."