[Fish Sandwich]

Of course Kusaka still has his head in the game! He's not some sloppy, overly emotional idiot, like that horrible monster Inui!

In all seriousness, one thing I really love about Kusaka's lies in this part of the show especially is how, and I'm pretty sure this a real thing emotionally manipulative people do, he likes to tinge his falsehoods with bits of truth. Was Mari attacked by Takumi? Absolutely not. Was her getting attacked his fault? Debatable! Same thing with him brushing off trying to murder the s*** out of Yuuji by telling him that whole thing was just part of a plan to destroy Smart Brain from the inside. This is why I say he seems to believe everything he says the second it leaves his mouth. Past events always exist to whatever level is most convenient for him at that particular moment. Sometimes it feels like he's deluding himself as much as his victims.

A couple translation cop notes for this one, by the way, and what do you know, they're both from Kusaka, during his conversation with Takumi early in the episode:

- "...it seems you're quite interested in my past. I'm not going to tell you anything about myself." is "You seem to be pretty interested in my past, but you never talk about yourself." Part of the actual thing Kusaka is doing here still survives in the next few lines, but Kusaka's jerk move here isn't merely stubbornly refusing to give information. What he's actually doing is trying to posit that Takumi is the REALLY suspicious one, which is just so much more Kusaka.

- Unfortunately, the part of this that made it in is still messed up. The "about that house" bit is complete nonsense, and a result of TV-N not being able to figure out what sono uchi meant. The full line is something like "I'd really like to hear about it someday. About your past."

By the way, Die, I'm amazed by the restraint you had not to make one of the screencaps for this one Kusaka saying "It's a terrible story." Refusing solid gold like that is how I know you really do like this show!