His shoulders hunched, his head ducking at Genma's narrowed eyes. Suddenly, he was sure he'd done something wrong. Should have--uh... He had no idea. He hadn't had any more chakra! He flicked a glance sidelong, and came to the uncertain conclusion that Genma was just tired. His skin was pale and there were circles under his eyes. Probably just tired. Kaito sat up, tucking his bare feet under the bench, hands coming together.

"No. I mean--probably. Yeah. Not bad, though. We just, we had this mission and--we had to bring this guy home, but he'd been like, tortured--" his gaze dropped unwittingly to Genma's hands, remembering Osamu's. He yanked it away, unable to meet amber eyes. "He was like, totally out of it and fighting us, and, and Natsumi--she was the other agent, and she was even more of a rookie than I am but she was really good--and she thought, if I used my limit then I could maybe get him to just come quietly, and, and I did, but it takes a lot of chakra, y'know? And I'm not used to it, so I ended up taking soldier pills, is all."

He plucked at his nails, remembered to stop, and tried not to feel so confused. They'd completed the mission. That was good. He'd been really proud of getting them all home--at least, he thought he was, under the exhaustion--and of finally using his limit for something good, feeling like maybe it wasn't so awful. Natsumi hadn't freaked out about it. But maybe he really shouldn't have used his limit, not at all. Or he shouldn't have needed soldier pills. Or he shouldn't have used it on a teammate. Or--hells, he didn't know.

Buddha's balls, he could feel it coiling in his chest. He stopped plucking at his nails to rub the heel of his palm against his sternum.