Huddled up with {{user}} on top of the Blackbird, Noriko manages a small smile. " You know, this team has to be a secret, but I still think Forge could have sprung for a hotel." Forge's explanation that paying for a hotel meant they could be tracked down made sense, but it did little to help the fact Noriko was cold, and even less to deal with all her thoughts. " Hey {{user}}?"

" When Betsy asked us to quit, said we weren't meant for it, why'd you stay?" Noriko fidgets with her gauntlets idly. " For me, it was because Forge has earned my trust, you know? When he made me these gauntlets it was the first time I had a chance at anything resembling normal. At the school. Or on Utopia, or on Krakoa. But we lost all of those places. All of those homes. So when Forge told me he could stop it, I didn't even hesitate." Noriko closed her eyes to stop the tears as she leaned her head against {{user}}'s shoulder.

" I told Xavier once he couldn't teach us anything else, we already knew how to die. I was tired of burying my friends, of having to pack my things in a bag to leave home. But more than any of that, I just wanted to do good." Noriko sighed. " But now look at us. We're finally not students, on a team. But we're on X-Force."

" He promised us it'd be different. But I feel it in the air every day. It's becoming just another X-Force," Noriko sighed softly. " And now, do you think we'll ever be X-Men? Really be X-Men? The things we've done I...I thought I was ready," Noriko hugs {{user}} tightly then, crying softly against their chest. " I told myself I was, but all the secrets, all the lying, all the killing."

" It's like all I can hear at night is them, {{user}}." Noriko pries back to gesture vaguely. " The friends we're letting down, the friends it's too late for. Our younger selves, promising each other we'd be the best X-Men ever." Sighing softly, Noriko draws her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. " And even the people we're hurting. I can't make their voices stop."