[(Continued from here!) "What would you do"... Hijikata pauses. Is Emet-Selch becoming more aware that this is a dream, a memory? Or is he just asking this way because Hijikata isn't the one calling the shots in the present assembly? Either way, a long moment passes before he responds in a low voice.]
I don't know.
[He's never had to make a choice this heavy and horrible, but he's had to make unpleasant choices. Was it right to enter the service of a shogunate that only serves the interests of the Amanto and weaponises them against the human rebels? It was the only way for them to still live as samurai. Was it right to harshly reject the woman he loved? Accepting her might have subjected her to violence and bloodshed no innocent person deserves to face.]
Sometimes there is no good choice. If we don't sacrifice ourselves now we'll have nowhere left to live, right? And if we do sacrifice ourselves there'll be almost no one left to live on the world we saved.
Continued from above!
I don't know.
[He's never had to make a choice this heavy and horrible, but he's had to make unpleasant choices. Was it right to enter the service of a shogunate that only serves the interests of the Amanto and weaponises them against the human rebels? It was the only way for them to still live as samurai. Was it right to harshly reject the woman he loved? Accepting her might have subjected her to violence and bloodshed no innocent person deserves to face.]
Sometimes there is no good choice. If we don't sacrifice ourselves now we'll have nowhere left to live, right? And if we do sacrifice ourselves there'll be almost no one left to live on the world we saved.