‘Reining it in, huh.’

When was the last time Maru was pushed to the extremes of his emotions? He couldn’t remember the last time he got truly mad or emotional in life. Even though he cut out most of his anger from his life since he knew it does more harm than good, he’d never thought himself logical. This was just an attitude in the 45 years he previously lived, the ability to look at a situation and call it as he sees it.

He had no intentions of denying that he was a calculating person. Some people believed calculating people to be cold, Maru wasn’t one of them. He thought being calculating was just another facet of human nature. So, trying to decide if that aspect of a person made them human or not felt foolish to him.

He recalled how emotional he used to be. He went on a trip without his phone without warning and he made big life decisions without giving it much thought. He started his road manager job without much thought. As a result, he became a bus driver. One that left his poor wife and daughter alone by dying. He didn’t think he lived a bad or unhappy life, he actually thought he was quite blessed. Just… he wished to be able to enjoy that blessing just a little bit more.

“Thank...