[How does he put this? Ucchii had made the initial choice, but the rest of them--they'd wound up agreeing to it.]
We--there was no time to argue about it. And by the time we got back to him, he...
[Wow is that guilt clawing at him. Ian swallows hard, trying to keep himself together. He can still remember stumbling with Souji back to that clearing, the relief when they passed Nossan's spot without a trace of him or the enemy, and the giddy joy when they'd found him and Ucchii.
...He remembers that joy sinking abruptly at the look of tortured pain on Nossan's kind face, and the exact moment he realised.
Ian's hand grips Souji's jacket tightly again without his conscious permission, needing to brace himself.]