"He'll recover." Maeko shrugged. "And he isn't your sole responsibility. You could use that same logic to blame any of us for everything."
She was uncomfortable about the idea that it was somehow Tom's fault that Renju had gone. Too familiar.
"That's hardly your fault, either. If a confession at the wrong time could cause something like that then there's probably a lot else going on anyway. And we'll save her, so don't worry about that."
She paused to stroke Max's tiny paws with a finger.
"But we'll be able to save her much more efficiently if we're all at our best. So you have to get better fast." Another brief, puppy-related pause. "Drink more. You get dehydrated faster when you're sick and it'll help you recover quicker."