[ It's as those emotions recede that he takes a hand, the only one of flesh and bone that Nagito still has. He takes it gently at first, allowing him to easily slip it out of Red's grasp if he wants to, but then squeezing it if he doesn't, just around the fingers.

As for Komaeda words, there isn't much surprise. He remembers the theory too from long ago as he says it. ]

There's something about it. There always has been. [ He speaks with certainty. He's shared plenty his own theories about its part played in revealing the temple that first brought them, the tree's existence and then that of the teleporter. ] Whatever it's connection is to Simpathis, it's been playing a part protecting the island this whole time; it's the reason the people here focused so much on staying positive in the first place because of what would happen if they didn't with it.

[ He bites on his bottom lip, frowning. ] But who are they? Who are the people who took it? And why? Do they know something we don't?