[ He should focus on the path that they're walking, but he can't help but watch Venat as she speaks so passionately about the very concept of life itself. It's so–

Maruki has always loved philosophical discussions of all kinds, even debates, but it truly is a subject like this that's the one closest to his heart. Ever since he was old enough to understand how improbable it was that human life developed on earth, no matter how much of the science behind it he learned, he never stopped considering it a miracle. Fate, as Venat said, with a guiding hand. ]

In my reality, I once read that the odds of life developing on our planet were one in ten billion trillion. A number I can't even conceive of! It never ceases to amaze me, how much had to go exactly, precisely right for that to happen – and, as you said, how easily it could have all disappeared into the ether if even one thing went wrong.

[ He looks away from her then, up at the sky with its stars peeking out as they exit the tree cover closer to the summit. ]

How absolutely improbable indeed... It makes everything that much more special, doesn't it? Everything. Even the ugly, horrible, painful things.