All Kou can do is watch, exhausted, as the labyrinth changes around him- he ends up in a void at first, and you know what? It's preferrable to everything that came before, even if it sets him on edge. Who the fuck knows what hitting that button actually did- he's not sure he has the emotional capacity left to care.
All he cares about is that the visions and cognitions are gone- if only for now. He knows he can't let his guard down, his hands still trembling, his heart still beating in his throat, and his eyes wet, but he really is out of energy; he doesn't have a morsel left to even summon Palnatoke, let alone use his Persona to defend himself. All he has is his sword, and his gun.
The world shifts once more-
-and suddenly, he's watching several other visions. Visions from Maruki's past, he's very quick to realize, watching the scenes play out in front of him. It's nothing he didn't already know, not really.
What he doesn't know is why he's seeing this in the first place.
It's hard to feel sympathy for the man who just put him through... all that. But he does feel somewhat bad for the woman, Rumi, but that's just the world they live in, don't they? She definitely didn't deserve what happened to her- but what Maruki ended up doing to her, even if by accident-
A spark of irritation goes through him. What's Maruki hoping to achieve with this? Or is this his Palace working against him, showing it to Kou for... reasons. He doesn't know, and he doesn't particularly care. So Maruki had to go through some hardships, and decided to take out his own inability to cope on others by brainwashing them- or trying to force them to his side.
The rooms, the maze keep shifting, and like it or not, Kou is along for the ride, apparently.
That is, until he ends up in an office of sorts- a counselling office, and the woman, Rumi, sits in front of him. She cries and screams, causing the whole room to shake, and Kou tightens the grip on his sword, but at the same time- he can't fucking move, it's like he's glued to the chair, his breathing picking up again as she stands up, the entire room pulsing.
"Stay away-" he warns, but it looks like he didn't need to; rumi flickers away, wailing and scream, while Maruki's own voice answers in kind, small and pathetic.
In spite of his exhaustion, the remaining anxiety and grief and all, Kou's anger rises again.
"Do you think you're justified?" he grits out, though his voice is still tight from the earlier events, his hands still shaking. "Is this sob story supposed to- to convince me? You're dispicable."
The room flickers again- and suddenly, he's not in the counselling office anymore. No- this room is far darker, no windows at all. Cameras are mounted in the corners, and used syringes litter the floor.
Across from Kou, a very, very familiar figure sits in the chair of the interrogator.
Ren looks him in the eye, his glasses conspicuously absent, his gaze neutrally disappointed.
"You betrayed me. And now you dare to forget?"
What?
"Trying to guilt me now?" Kou bites out, but he can't stop his voice from shaking. "I didn't forget, for your information, and if dregging up my worst memories didn't, then guilt certainly won't either."
It wasn't even him who went to shoot Ren- that was Goro. Oh, Kou certainly betrayed the Phantom Thieves in his own right, but this?
Maruki's throwing shit at the wall, and it shows.
"Make this fucking circus stop," he hisses. "Give me the tape. You're not getting shit from me."
no subject
All he cares about is that the visions and cognitions are gone- if only for now. He knows he can't let his guard down, his hands still trembling, his heart still beating in his throat, and his eyes wet, but he really is out of energy; he doesn't have a morsel left to even summon Palnatoke, let alone use his Persona to defend himself. All he has is his sword, and his gun.
The world shifts once more-
-and suddenly, he's watching several other visions. Visions from Maruki's past, he's very quick to realize, watching the scenes play out in front of him. It's nothing he didn't already know, not really.
What he doesn't know is why he's seeing this in the first place.
It's hard to feel sympathy for the man who just put him through... all that. But he does feel somewhat bad for the woman, Rumi, but that's just the world they live in, don't they? She definitely didn't deserve what happened to her- but what Maruki ended up doing to her, even if by accident-
A spark of irritation goes through him. What's Maruki hoping to achieve with this? Or is this his Palace working against him, showing it to Kou for... reasons. He doesn't know, and he doesn't particularly care. So Maruki had to go through some hardships, and decided to take out his own inability to cope on others by brainwashing them- or trying to force them to his side.
The rooms, the maze keep shifting, and like it or not, Kou is along for the ride, apparently.
That is, until he ends up in an office of sorts- a counselling office, and the woman, Rumi, sits in front of him. She cries and screams, causing the whole room to shake, and Kou tightens the grip on his sword, but at the same time- he can't fucking move, it's like he's glued to the chair, his breathing picking up again as she stands up, the entire room pulsing.
"Stay away-" he warns, but it looks like he didn't need to; rumi flickers away, wailing and scream, while Maruki's own voice answers in kind, small and pathetic.
In spite of his exhaustion, the remaining anxiety and grief and all, Kou's anger rises again.
"Do you think you're justified?" he grits out, though his voice is still tight from the earlier events, his hands still shaking. "Is this sob story supposed to- to convince me? You're dispicable."
The room flickers again- and suddenly, he's not in the counselling office anymore. No- this room is far darker, no windows at all. Cameras are mounted in the corners, and used syringes litter the floor.
Across from Kou, a very, very familiar figure sits in the chair of the interrogator.
Ren looks him in the eye, his glasses conspicuously absent, his gaze neutrally disappointed.
"You betrayed me. And now you dare to forget?"
What?
"Trying to guilt me now?" Kou bites out, but he can't stop his voice from shaking. "I didn't forget, for your information, and if dregging up my worst memories didn't, then guilt certainly won't either."
It wasn't even him who went to shoot Ren- that was Goro. Oh, Kou certainly betrayed the Phantom Thieves in his own right, but this?
Maruki's throwing shit at the wall, and it shows.
"Make this fucking circus stop," he hisses. "Give me the tape. You're not getting shit from me."