[ Please, no more waterworks. It's bad enough that Akechi is completely out of his element here, commiserating with one of the Phantom Thieves, no less, and there's something... unusually contagious about Ann's heartbreak. Something that shouldn't reverberate in an empty chest like his, but does.

(Or: one day he'll learn of this now retconned Iconoclast connection between them and curse the heavens -- or hell -- for his luck.) ]

Do you mean which side I find more favorable, or whether I even believe them, in the first place?

[ He leans over the counter, a sigh welling forth. There's really no point in keeping up a mask right now, not about this, so: ]

To be honest, my answer is one and the same at this point. Whether various worlds across an infinite universe have met their inexorable end or lingered within salvation, the fact remains I have no world to return to. By taking their word at face value, there is only one logical path that I can follow.

[ In other words, he doesn't particularly care if the old world can be brought back or not, since he won't be brought back with it. Zenith is his only hope of having a future at all. ]

Naturally, I won't try to dissuade you. I presume Meridian is the one to have caught your interest?