Saito Sejima would like to make it clear that he has no personal interest in eyeballs, and that eating them was simply a matter of convenience. This is a patently absurd premise. There is no universe where eating a human eyeball is more convenient than any of the other myriad ways to deal with that situation, including but not limited to simply putting the eyeball back into its socket. So... what are we doing?

You're about to Psync with Mizuki Okiura. She won't talk, but her vital signs make it clear she's nervous. You tell her about how it all works. The thing that finally calms her down is a promise to go get dinner with her after you solve the case, certainly no thanks to your phrasing. She will hold you to that.

Discussion of cannibalism has become a pretty well-trodden road in fandom spaces over the past couple years, specifically as it relates to metaphor. It's also a discussion AI:TSF seems wholly uninterested in having. The word 'cannibalism' is never said. We don't linger. Why would we, when we're playing as Kaname Date? When Saito does something upsetting, Date – and the camera – moves on as soon he allows it, and when anyone (Saito included) says "Oh, yes, Saito did that because he's insane and evil," Date believes it. He ate the eyeballs because he's insane and evil, let's move on.

The first thing you need to do when asking something about Saito is take a step back from Date's point of view, because having almost everyone you ever cared about murdered in the span of a week purely to piss you off tends to leave you somewhat biased. Saito is not an irrational actor, someone born a psychopath who does evil things because he's evil (because that's a less interesting way to read the text and you're going to need to be able to stomach this basic premise (heh) if you want to play toys with me.) The next thing I'd like to point your attention to is this moment when you're talking to him in the abandoned chemical plant. Most of the conversation is skimmed over because You Get The Sense You've Heard All This Before, but one moment that's brought up is Shoko's phone being inside the carousel horse. If you don't remember that, it's a pretty complicated detail they brush over quickly – Shoko (Saito) bought a burner phone, and then after Shoko (Renju) died, it fell out of her clothing. Saito explains as follows: "When I was fixing Shoko's body on the horse, her phone fell out of her clothes. I forgot that I had given her one. I didn't want to take it with me, and I didn't want to toss it away. So I decided to push it into the mouth of the horse." After this, Shoko got a call from So Sejima. This is because #89 (Rohan) called So Sejima with some vague message trying to get him to call Shoko (Saito) because #89 (Rohan) wanted to talk to her after she came to visit him in jail but he didn't have her number. This isn't relevant I'm only writing it because it took me five minutes of staring at the script to parse that. Mizuki hears the phone ringing (on route B), you find the phone in the horse. This is a second instance of Saito doing the same thing, isn't it? There's something he wants to get rid of, but he doesn't want to take it with him or throw it away. So he 'eats' it. Of course, it would be particularly time-consuming to eat a cell phone (heh heh) so he does the next best thing and shoves it into the mouth of the carousel horse. The phone, and the eyeballs, are two of many things that stay hidden just long enough for him to end up in a different body. So… he's impulsive, and hides evidence with all the rigor of a child shoving everything under his bed when cleaning his room. … but why eat it? "Yes. Even if she's abused on a daily basis, even if she's treated like garbage… No, maybe because of that… Mizuki is hungry for love." Cannibalism is taboo, to put it lightly. It's something many people claim they wouldn't stoop to even in a life or death situation. Someone who does it for fun is certain to come off as disturbed. Maybe that's really all it is. Another thing Saito does to get across that he's #fuckedupandevil. I still think the horse thing is oddly specific, though. So let's put it another way. Cannibalism is an act of turning a person into food. While this game has very little to say about cannibalism, it does have some things to say about food. Several of Date's most important moments with Mizuki are about food. It's probably the clearest motif surrounding them you'll come away with other than "A perfectly ordinary relationship in the most ordinary way." The first choice you have in the game is what food you offer her before the Psync. Date says Mizuki needs to eat with him after prodding from Aiba ("Data suggests that children who eat alone are prone to mental imbalances and poor physical condition."), to which Mizuki makes up excuses to not do it. A central moment in CAPTaiN is Mizuki eating Date's cooking. An equal display of this is present with the Matsushitas, another "perfectly ordinary family" by mizuki's definition. Mayumi 'runs' a diner in the restricted kabasaki district that no longer serves food, even if she thinks it does. The only food made there on screen is Ota serving omurice to Iris. In a moment of panic, Mayumi attempts to get Ota to return home using his favourite chocolate. Ota is seen being handfed by one of the maids in the maid cafe. Saito, as someone who does not feel love in an 'ordinary' way, thinks about eating something as a way to get rid of it. You can't metaphor your way out of needing food, though. Data suggests that children who eat alone are prone to mental imbalances and poor physical condition. To love through murder is to love through destruction, by consuming other people's love(AI)