The Renegades (novel)/Tear Jerker

Remember that there are unmarked SPOILERS ahead. Read at your own discretion.

• Vito getting slapped around is extremely hard to read. Especially as Elaine as no reason to hit him about and is just doing so for the sake of being a total bitch. She tends to punch him in the stomach and slap his face... The way he struggles back up to meet her gaze is enough to bring tears to the eyes.
  • Shichi is certainly pissed off about this and reacts in a totally awesome way.
• Shichi's past. Let's reilliterate; Shichi's father, who he Hero-Idolised, is shot down in battle when he was just seven years old, and then when he was nine his sister and daughter were brutally murdered by an assasin, who he learns was the man he's made friends with and saved multiple times, and then, when he tries (not wrongly... exactly) to murder him, he gets beaten down by his friend, and after all this, he bursts into floods of horrifying tears. He brings most of the readers along with him.
• Mizuko's "Smile" speech, and her pronoun usage. Mizuko is sad that she can't accomapany the team to visit the Disk One Final Boss and asks Shichi what he thinks she should do to help, he replies "Mizuko, all I need to make me strong is your smile. You'll keep smiling for me, right?" and she does smile throughout the battle, even when Vito's dead, Shichi's desperately injured and it looks like everyone's going to die, though it strains her visably and she's crying rivers. Also, she's a Third Person Person, so speaks as such, but she tells Shichi that when she "finds what she's looking for" she'll use the "I" pronoun. Shortly after he tells her he loves her, four simple words that she yells are enough to move everyone to practical tears; "...I!... I love you, too!"
  • Mizuko's First love, Ryou, is a tear-fest too. She fell in love with him, even though she was a clone and he was a human, and he liked her too. However, Rex Malgram discovered them and ordered Big-Headed Elaine to kill him, whereas Ryou's own clone, Elaine's personal soldier, took it upon himself to kill Ryou for her... which culminated in a Dying Moment of Awesome which is a CMOA to boot. Of course, his last words were for Mizuko to keep on smiling and for Ryoji to look after her.
    • Which makes things harder on Ryoji; he fell into an Angst Coma and had to have those memories erased, so he couldn't make true to Ryou's final wish. When he realises, he falls into a... wait. Is he a Hero or Villain...?
  • Also, Ryoji's Ironic Echo when Mizuko realises who he is. Her true love, Ryou, has been watching her all this time, in the form of the boy that killed her, and this boy who doesn't remember that action tells her, just before she faces the music of the past, to forget whatever's been making her so sad and to "Find new things to make [her] happy" is just heart-rendering. You can't just sit there without tears in your eyes.
  • Mizuko's reaction, also, is heartbreaking.

Mizuko: ...Ryo...Ryoji? It's you...? All this time! You stood there, next to Vituru, the whole time... watching Mizuko grow. She didn't know it was you, but you were there, Ryou-Kun. You always knew you'd be watching, that Ryoji-Kun would be watching. And he has... Thank you, Ryou-Kun. Your last words... they mean something now. And Miz- No. I've found it. I've found what I've been looking for. I love you, Ryou. And I love you, Ryoji-Kun... but I love Shichi most of all. Shichi... I've found it, Shichi. And I'll come home.

• Keeping in mind that Ryoji still doesn't know what any of that means. When he realises, though, it's a major Tear Jerker.
• Shichi discovering that it was actually Vito, the man he'd recently forgiven for all of his sins, that killed his beloved sister and mother, and possibly his father as well. It doubles as awesome and nightmare fuel, but seeing Shichi so utterly broken is horrible... and then his reaction...
  • To reiterate: When Shichi finds this out, he starts to hallucinate, badly, and he imagines his little sister telling him that she and his mother could only rest easy once Shichi killed Vito, so Shichi just lets go and finds Vito... Before trying to tear him apart with his bare hands, no powers, and very nearly succeeding.