whisper that the past is gone eternally

[paysforall]

It's the Shibuya Crossing. The big, famous one, with all the crowds and the traffic and the 109 building overlooking it all.

And that's the thing.

The 109 building.

Paying no mind to the sea of empty cognitions around him, a Goro Akechi stands in the center of the crosswalk, staring up at the number-faced building with a frown. If you were looking for any Goro Akechi in particular, however, this one almost transparently isn't him. Twenty-one years of age and dressed like the masculine line of a Victorian goth brand was thrown over his head like a bucket of cold water, this Akechi stares at one of the most familiar landmarks of Tokyo like it's a river in a desert and he hasn't quite decided if he wants to take a drink.

He's back.

(Or, at the very least, he's no longer where he was. Her Shibuya was a 109 as well. And there was that strange room...)

"If the Shibuya Game has gone down the shitter again," he says, seemingly addressing nobody, or possibly the phone he's pulled from his pocket to glare at, "I am going to go after the Composer myself."

He lifts his phone. (It's the same phone he's always had. The only thing that hasn't changed, for anyone with a keen enough eye for detail. There's a new vinyl sticker on the back, a stylized skull in red at an angle, but it's the same phone as ever.) Snaps a picture. No change in the photo. Closes that, opens a different app, snaps again. His frown intensifies.

(It is, by now, a good thing that the cognitions are just filler that will continue to idle in whatever routine they're running, because otherwise he would surely have been hit by a car, right? But the crowd continues to wander around him, heedlessly.)

Finally, he lowers his phone, sends the photo to someone on his contacts, and apparently gives up, shoving it back into his pocket. The cognitions resume the flow of normal traffic, clearing the crossing so that cars can pass through, as he goes over to Hachiko to lean up against the side of the statue.

"I didn't miss the not having any idea what's going on," he tells the dog, firmly firmly and with a hint of melancholy. "Oh, if only a real person would show up with the answers right about now. Why, I'd even consider buying them a coffee for the trouble."

Despite nominally being addressed to the bronze canine, the way he lifts the volume of his voice makes it clear that it's addressed to you, onlooker, whoever you are.

[[OOC: I don't actually care what format you use i just always write introspective-y starters in prose. tldr twewy au post-canon post-death akechi]

Comments

[fogbornphantom]

I'd grumble about corporations, but considering that I work under Mitsuru Kirijo, that might be a bit hypocritical.

[Still, he'll scowl all the same. The idea of a sudden and abrupt outsider takeover is unwelcome regardless.]

It is good to hear you triumphed, at least.

[paysforall]

I have no doubt that Kirijo-san follows only the most scrupulous of business practices. And her 'you've been let go' package is probably better.

[By virtue of not being Erasure.]

It's a little aggravating to be yanked out in the middle of the restructuring, if I'm honest.

[fogbornphantom]

I understand that well. My team had literally just finished changing Wakaba Isshiki's heart. I was in the middle of a phone call with my dad—not Shido, just so we're clear— and then I ended up in the Velvet Room.

[Rather unfortunate. He can only hope time is halted, or Dojima would surely worry.]

[paysforall]

[There's a small wince, the kind that the younger Akechi might recognize, from his encounters with his other selves, as the one pre-fabricated for TV cameras.]

I wasn't that in the middle of things, thank goodness. I'd never be able to pick up the conversation as though it hadn't left off, and my partner would definitely notice.

[fogbornphantom]

Work partner, I presume?

[He doesn't want to assume romantic partner. That's quite a loaded assumption, after all, but oh. He recognizes that wince.]

[paysforall]

Not quite, but that's the closest analogy. Same class of partner, but a step higher.

[Straight into codependency territory in some cases. Fortunately both he and Asch are too independent to become that dysfunctional.]

The psychic ability he has is a supernaturally heightened intuition, but even without it he knows me well enough to catch when there's something on my mind. He'd notice for certain.

[fogbornphantom]

But not necessarily romantic, I assume? Though I can certainly relate. Ren is very attuned to my way of thinking, sometimes frustratingly so.

[It's said with a hint of amusement. The lightest twitch of a smile.]

But if there's one thing I've learned with partners, romantic or otherwise, is that they're equal parts adept at keeping us on our toes as they are providing a sense of balance and stability.

[paysforall]

Definitely not. Though I wouldn't object, we've never turned in that direction, and neither have the other pair among our coworkers - though they're getting over a rough patch at the moment, anyway.

[Which is a polite way of saying they've been a mess. Just another reason to hate Shinjuku, really.]

... Our Game runs with a few guiding principles, and one of the biggest is Trust your partner. It was the harder one for me to learn.

[It's probably not hard to put together why... Nor to guess how that influence made this older Akechi, in particular, more even-keeled and less paranoid overall. Once someone else gets their foot in the door, it becomes much harder to justify keeping it locked tight.]

[fogbornphantom]

Don't I know it? It was one thing to trust Kanji after he quite literally saved me from my horrible circumstances. Dojima-san and Nanako-chan were easy enough to adjust to, once I realized they truly cared for me, and their home wouldn't be like all the other godforsaken foster "homes" I'd suffered through.

[And still, he blows a tremendous sigh.]

But with anyone outside that circle, I put up walls. I kept them at arm's length. I was terrified of getting too close to others, fearing they would hurt, betray, or abandon me.

[paysforall]

Then I'm sure you can imagine how much higher those walls were with no connections to the outside at all.

[He doesn't see a point in comparing beyond that. Those were an obstacle he wouldn't allow himself to tear down even when he wanted to. With the Phantom Thieves, he still feared getting hurt too much.]

I would have kept turning down those connections if I hadn't been put in a situation where ... Well, it wasn't even a matter of life or death at that point. We were all already dead, after all.

[fogbornphantom]

I can relate, for whatever it's worth.

[Ah, the memory is rather fresh, even if it's been years.]

I reached a point where my friends clearly supported and wanted the best for me, but I was still hesitant to fully accept that they cared. Rationally, I knew that they did, yet my heart only solidified the walls around itself. I knew I had to accept my Shadow, yet I found myself too terrified to just own up to it.

So naturally, I forced myself into a life or death situation that would force myself to accept it once and for all, by thrusting myself into my own TV world dungeon with a note telling them to come find me and prove they give a damn.

[His head tips down, and he covers his face beneath his palm.]

Yes, I am aware of how stupid that sounds. In my defense, I was twelve.

[paysforall]

The stupidity of youth is epidemic. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll make more mistakes you can be embarrassed about in the future.

[The half-joking tone is probably a better indication that this is an attempt at solidarity than the words themselves.

But afterwards... There's no smile in his tone now.]

One of the other Players threw herself in front of an attack to save me. She had no reason to. And then she was gone, and I'll never be able to ask her why. What the hell she was thinking, saving me, instead of herself.

[It's not the whole story, but it's enough.]

[fogbornphantom]

[It takes several moments for Akechi to reply. Self-sacrifice is hardly anything new to him, mind. It's a tried and true trope in stories, a well worn glove in Featherman, for instance... He'd also heard stories of a boy who gave his life to prevent the apocalypse, who became "The Great Seal," and all manner of other tales...

But to live such a sacrifice, and one where someone truly dies...]

My deepest condolences. I imagine the lack of closure weighs heavily even now.

[paysforall]

Sometimes.

[Other times, it's like the weight isn't even there, until he remembers again.]

But it's proof that I can't argue with. There's no pretending or making it out to be anything else but what it is. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Mio who thought Goro Akechi was worth dying for, even at his worst.

[In other words: People care. That's a thing that's genuinely true, no matter how he looks at it. They even care about him.]

[fogbornphantom]

I imagine that was quite profound.

[Ah... He can relate, sort of. Perhaps without the same severity.]

It's frustrating, though. What I did, making them endure my dungeon, it was certainly selfish, even if it got the job done. They didn't hold it against me, and ultimately it did help me see in ways that words and small gestures never could that they truly valued me the way they valued each other.

[paysforall]

'Changed utterly' is still the description I prefer.

[Changed him, changed his world, pick and choose. It doesn't matter. The world shifted then and it took... far more than the two days left in that Game to put it to rights.]

By the time I was in a position to have people like that... I was already too far gone to ever consider something like that. So, good job getting out of that one.

[fogbornphantom]

It really was just a matter of luck. The right person saw me at the right time. All the pieces gradually fell into place. I'm an outlier, really. I'm very conscious of that fact.

[His gaze his distant, his voice subdued. It's been hard, truth be told, grappling with how lucky he is.]

I can only hope that the other version of us can alter his course before it's "too late" for him as well.

[paysforall]

... We can only do the best we can, there. It's ultimately up to him to save himself - it's not as though any of us can leave this place with him.

[fogbornphantom]

True, but the least we can do is prepare him for what awaits him. You likely know that better than I do, anyway, considering how wildly different my world is.

[His status as a Phantom Thief alone stands in stark contrast, after all.]