[ It's a prickle in the back of his skull and a memory of a time too long ago, too messy, too interwoven into a thousand other realities and worlds.
He recalls an all consuming distortion, a void giving way to light. It made him want to puke then. His stomach lurches now. ]
A joker, I assume. [ A hero. A guide. Funny how a boy that can't remember a near god still manages to change the future. ] Let me ask you - are you incapable from learning from your mistakes or do you just enjoy making them over and over?
[ That anxiety over admitting his transgressions gives way to irritation, flat as the expression he aims at Akechi through the steam. ]
You can rest assured I've learned my lesson now. Thank you for your own role in that, by the way. It was fascinating to go up against you in a group setting.
[ It isn't right. Akechi in a group, fighting Maruki of all people, to what?
Fix shit?
What does he care if the man distorted a world? He would have only intervened if Shido had been-
Taken from him. A heart warped and healed or pulled from his bloody hands.
And that is why Akechi tilts his head to meet Maruki's gaze head on. ]
I'll do what's needed to fulfil my goals. I assume you took that away from me, which left me no other option but to join that ragtag group of criminals.
[ That flattened expression falls– there's hurt visible in Maruki's eyes, but only for a moment, and it isn't because of anything Akechi's said or done.
No, it's all pain he caused himself.
Gently, calmly: ]
I didn't take your goal from you. I had nothing to do with that. I wouldn't.
[ It's easy to pick a liar from the crowd. Shido may have molded and cultivated a celebrity out of Akechi Goro, but the seed was growing long before it was exploited.
He knows when someone's lying. Knows that Maruki is a liar by nature - to himself, to others, to a world. He breaks impossible promises. Exploits a world for his own gain. He found a way to use Mementos to his advantage despite confirmations he'll wait, he'll wait, he'll wait. Of course he would use it to further himself. Everyone does. Everyone.
He's no longer an exception in the making. Maruki Takuto is as vile as everyone else.
An exhale - annoyed, not irate. They're past this shit, but a trip to reality had changed Maruki in small, minuscule ways Akechi has yet to parse. It's annoying. It's interesting. It's a matter to pick at during his limited time here. ]
There's no other reason I would team up with them again. None. If what you're saying is true, then that's what happened. Whether you're aware of it or not - that's irrelevant.
[ And to this conversation-
It's irrelevant. It's a promise he expected to be broken and one that won't matter because Akechi will deal with it. Has dealt with it. It bothers him little in this steaming hot bath. Maybe tonight it will carry more weight, when he's alone in a room he can't stand to be in. ]
But keep going. Let's hear more of your sordid escapades and your journey back.
[ He's ignored Akechi's urging to go on, honed in on that insistence. ]
There's no other reason? None at all?
[ Perhaps he can't yet admit to dragging Akechi back from beyond the grave, too wary of revealing too much about the boy's future to himself, too much guilt that alchemized himself into a grief he hasn't felt so fiercely since he and Akira were choking on flowers and blood in the tatami room–
But he can admit to this. ]
Why do you have allies here, Akechi? To fight back against a reality you're trapped in against your will and see it destroyed, right?
[ It's not wrong, even as Akechi loads protests on his tongue to claim otherwise. That he doesn't give a shit about this world - his only goal is to leave by any means necessary. If it survives-
Then it will pick at him during the few moments his mind isn't on Shido, on his overarching goal.
But it's not right either. The allies aren't thieves. They're a grotesque, vile group that doesn't hide behind their own self-righteousness. Akira-
Has a darkness in his own heart Akechi can snag and wield in rare moments meant for them alone. His power extends beyond that group. The thieves hold him back. He's valuable.
Haru, too-
Is an odd outlier to the bumbling group. He isn't sure what to make of her yet, but she rests somewhere in between competent and an eyesore.
He mulls this over in silence, a flicker of something crossing his features during. It's right. It's not. He would never align with the thieves as a whole again, even here. He would use them. Exploit them. Follow them and leave them behind in this world, but-
Wouldn't want them to be a team again. Refuses to be associated as a thief again. Their time together is long over. Only Shido could make Akechi consider it once more.
Akechi slides down until his shoulders ache from the heat. ]
Yes, that's why I'm handpicked those I deem capable of shattering this world, though I'll admit that comes second to simply leaving. If the phantom thieves were to arrive in this world in full, take up the mantle as delusional heroes yet again-
I wouldn't ally myself with them as a whole or fight with them unless absolutely necessary. It wouldn't be worth the headache. When I left their group the first time, I made that clear. I don't intend to go back on it. Ever.
[ After his betrayal, they must feel the same. He can't imagine it's not mutual. ]
[ A deep sigh blows across the surface of the water as Maruki sinks down to his chin, tipping his head back and groaning up at the ceiling. The hair at his nape gets damp; he tells himself it makes that phantom pain hurt less. ]
I'm not implying that they'll show up in this world. I'm telling you what I did that made you align with them back in our own.
[ A beat, heavy, and then– ]
Haven't you said before that I have too much in common with the powers that be that hold us captive in this reality? You didn't even know the half of it then.
I'm aware. And I'm telling you what it would take to make me align with them period.
[ But they've never seen eye to eye in many respects. Akechi doesn't foresee this issue making either yield and it's not why he's interrogating him to begin with. ]
But moving on - regale me then. It would be a refreshing change of pace to hear that I was correct from your mouth.
[ A stalemate on that front; perhaps it's a testament to how close they've become in this reality, how much they've grown separately and together, that they let it go. Neither budge even an inch from their stance, but they don't clash and argue over it.
They move on, and Maruki forces himself to sit up straight in the bath again, the skin of his shoulders and chest prickling gooseflesh as it hits the steamy air. ]
That's more or less the whole story. I gave everyone the painless reality I believed they deserved, and Kurusu helped me to kill that distortion in my heart.
[ A beat. He looks over at Akechi, and there's no hiding a tender melancholy that lingers at the edges of his gaze. ]
You were... different. I don't think it affected you at all. [ You were dead. I don't know if I truly brought you back or not. I don't know what I did. I didn't know you. ] Maybe your heart prevented me from granting your greatest wish. I don't know.
[ There's an unspoken confession in that final statement - Maruki's memory was warped until he forgot the lakeside proclamation that he wouldn't he touch that power again or-
He's been lying from day one. It never changed. He always wanted it. Akechi isn't sure which would satisfy him if he asked. It makes his skin crawl that this idiot would even attempt to grant a wish only Akechi can fulfill.
And of course Akira stole his heart. Of course he did. Of course he did. Maruki is a warped man with no future. Akira can't help trying to carve one out anyway. It's disgusting. It's stupid. ]
Of course it didn't. My will is stronger. My goal is mine. I won't be taken in by some delusion you've concocted in your own head. Still-
To think you actually went through with it. I have to say, even I was deceived by your words stating otherwise. You truly couldn't help yourself, but I told you before, didn't I? Power is an addictive thing. It doesn't shock me you would exploit it. Everyone does.
[ But he doesn't care what Maruki does. Maybe Shido lived due to someone else's wish. Maybe Shido's life, a way out of Akechi's grasp, was granted. Maybe Akira stopped it. The possibilities are endlessly frustrating no matter what path he follows.
So he doesn't. Blanketed by heat, steam and the hiss of a faucet perpetually keeping the water scorching.
He notes it. It's a matter to think of later, when he's in front of his notebook and has a chance to scratch theories across a near filled book.
His arms move - it may look like he's going to attack, but-
All he does is stretch them deep into the water, notes the beet red line on his skin. ]
At least your savior was hiding in the ranks to stop that madness. Aren't you lucky? You managed to give an unwanted gift to all the worthless, vile people who didn't deserve it and likely got away with no consequences due to the nature of it. Even I'm impressed by the scope of your betrayal to humanity.
[ A thought, a beat, and- ]
I wonder what Rumi thought when her reality shattered to pieces.
[ Akechi doesn't need to reach out to attack him. That final observation does all the work for him.
Maruki doesn't rise to the bait. He can't, because he can't let himself think about it, has desperately avoided having to do so – if he considers Rumi plunging back into that horrific darkness he pulled her from, he'll find himself sick to his stomach before he can get out of the bath. If he stops to think that she might not have been able to go on with her life in the cruel, unjust reality he helped her to leave behind, he'll–
He doesn't know what he'll do. The idea draws nothing but a vast white blankness in his mind, like fields of endless snow on the coldest day of the year.
He's frigid, suddenly. He lowers himself down to his shoulders again, barely feels the scalding water prickling at his skin. ]
There may not have been consequences for what I did in terms of actions taken against me, but Akechi...
[ Even. Measured. Genuinely curious. For all they spoke about the Phantom Thieves' methods over their time together, he never asked about this, because he never stopped to consider what came after for any of those targets. ]
Do you really think there are no consequences for a changed heart?
[ He thinks of those changed hearts. The weeping pathetic messes whose confessions were passed around as gossip on social media, done through press conferences, uttered in smoky offices while the most vile discussed the how to exploit former conspirators.
Maruki doesn't have the sway to end up behind a teleprompter. Knows that anguish was contained to a single, tiny apartment forgotten by the masses he tried to control.
The image disgusts him. A powerful man brought to his knees by a group of self-righteous teenagers who should have disbanded long ago.
The image delights him. A vile adult pressed into the corner of a couch, eyes brimming, hand in running through hair. He can see it. Is glad to have had a part in causing it, even if it should have ended with a bullet through his skull.
Akechi should have killed him. A changed heart is pitiful. It's a loss. He can't fathom why he stood side by side to that group of idiots in whatever future Maruki lived through. ]
Don't misunderstand - I know there are consequences to the person's psyche as well. It's why I was so adamant the Phantom Thieves were dangerous. I meant every word I said back then.
But frankly, I don't care about that. The emotional impact, the damage to a heart - you allowed the thieves to 'save' you and now you're living with that disgusting salvation. [ A hand rises from the water, opens dramatically between them. If water splatters on Maruki, so be it. ] Those consequences are meaningless to me. Unless you plan to start sobbing here and now - in which case, I'll put you out of your misery myself. The proper way.
No. As soon as those words leave his mouth, echo softly through the empty, humid bathhouse, a smile bursts to life across Maruki's face. ]
You know, it's funny...
[ His changed heart may now be open to all the pain he'd buried deep for so long, but it's open to all the joy he denied himself, too. He beams at Akechi and laughs, soft but radiant, appreciative. ]
You wanted to kill me then, too. Just now, you sounded exactly like him.
Is that so? That's one way he isn't a disappointment, I suppose.
[ Because in every other way that Akechi has been. Teaming up, letting Maruki live, the unknown fate of Shido-
Maruki should have a died. A change of heart is a fate too miserable for someone worthy of more. Maybe Akechi has plans to end him later. Maybe Maruki will take an easy out for himself.
But that's his life. His failures. The outcome is irrelevant. He'll suffer, he'll survive, he'll live, he'll die.
It all led to his return and-
Akechi's not unhappy to be sharing this space with this particular man again.
And so they fall back into familiar silence, Akechi lowering the temperature of the water slightly. A little. A few degrees to extend this time for himself, not Maruki. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
He recalls an all consuming distortion, a void giving way to light. It made him want to puke then. His stomach lurches now. ]
A joker, I assume. [ A hero. A guide. Funny how a boy that can't remember a near god still manages to change the future. ] Let me ask you - are you incapable from learning from your mistakes or do you just enjoy making them over and over?
no subject
You can rest assured I've learned my lesson now. Thank you for your own role in that, by the way. It was fascinating to go up against you in a group setting.
no subject
Fix shit?
What does he care if the man distorted a world? He would have only intervened if Shido had been-
Taken from him. A heart warped and healed or pulled from his bloody hands.
And that is why Akechi tilts his head to meet Maruki's gaze head on. ]
I'll do what's needed to fulfil my goals. I assume you took that away from me, which left me no other option but to join that ragtag group of criminals.
So let me ask bluntly - what did you do to Shido?
no subject
No, it's all pain he caused himself.
Gently, calmly: ]
I didn't take your goal from you. I had nothing to do with that. I wouldn't.
no subject
He knows when someone's lying. Knows that Maruki is a liar by nature - to himself, to others, to a world. He breaks impossible promises. Exploits a world for his own gain. He found a way to use Mementos to his advantage despite confirmations he'll wait, he'll wait, he'll wait. Of course he would use it to further himself. Everyone does. Everyone.
He's no longer an exception in the making. Maruki Takuto is as vile as everyone else.
An exhale - annoyed, not irate. They're past this shit, but a trip to reality had changed Maruki in small, minuscule ways Akechi has yet to parse. It's annoying. It's interesting. It's a matter to pick at during his limited time here. ]
There's no other reason I would team up with them again. None. If what you're saying is true, then that's what happened. Whether you're aware of it or not - that's irrelevant.
[ And to this conversation-
It's irrelevant. It's a promise he expected to be broken and one that won't matter because Akechi will deal with it. Has dealt with it. It bothers him little in this steaming hot bath. Maybe tonight it will carry more weight, when he's alone in a room he can't stand to be in. ]
But keep going. Let's hear more of your sordid escapades and your journey back.
no subject
[ He's ignored Akechi's urging to go on, honed in on that insistence. ]
There's no other reason? None at all?
[ Perhaps he can't yet admit to dragging Akechi back from beyond the grave, too wary of revealing too much about the boy's future to himself, too much guilt that alchemized himself into a grief he hasn't felt so fiercely since he and Akira were choking on flowers and blood in the tatami room–
But he can admit to this. ]
Why do you have allies here, Akechi? To fight back against a reality you're trapped in against your will and see it destroyed, right?
no subject
Then it will pick at him during the few moments his mind isn't on Shido, on his overarching goal.
But it's not right either. The allies aren't thieves. They're a grotesque, vile group that doesn't hide behind their own self-righteousness. Akira-
Has a darkness in his own heart Akechi can snag and wield in rare moments meant for them alone. His power extends beyond that group. The thieves hold him back. He's valuable.
Haru, too-
Is an odd outlier to the bumbling group. He isn't sure what to make of her yet, but she rests somewhere in between competent and an eyesore.
He mulls this over in silence, a flicker of something crossing his features during. It's right. It's not. He would never align with the thieves as a whole again, even here. He would use them. Exploit them. Follow them and leave them behind in this world, but-
Wouldn't want them to be a team again. Refuses to be associated as a thief again. Their time together is long over. Only Shido could make Akechi consider it once more.
Akechi slides down until his shoulders ache from the heat. ]
Yes, that's why I'm handpicked those I deem capable of shattering this world, though I'll admit that comes second to simply leaving. If the phantom thieves were to arrive in this world in full, take up the mantle as delusional heroes yet again-
I wouldn't ally myself with them as a whole or fight with them unless absolutely necessary. It wouldn't be worth the headache. When I left their group the first time, I made that clear. I don't intend to go back on it. Ever.
[ After his betrayal, they must feel the same. He can't imagine it's not mutual. ]
To be frank, they make me sick.
no subject
I'm not implying that they'll show up in this world. I'm telling you what I did that made you align with them back in our own.
[ A beat, heavy, and then– ]
Haven't you said before that I have too much in common with the powers that be that hold us captive in this reality? You didn't even know the half of it then.
no subject
[ But they've never seen eye to eye in many respects. Akechi doesn't foresee this issue making either yield and it's not why he's interrogating him to begin with. ]
But moving on - regale me then. It would be a refreshing change of pace to hear that I was correct from your mouth.
no subject
They move on, and Maruki forces himself to sit up straight in the bath again, the skin of his shoulders and chest prickling gooseflesh as it hits the steamy air. ]
That's more or less the whole story. I gave everyone the painless reality I believed they deserved, and Kurusu helped me to kill that distortion in my heart.
[ A beat. He looks over at Akechi, and there's no hiding a tender melancholy that lingers at the edges of his gaze. ]
You were... different. I don't think it affected you at all. [ You were dead. I don't know if I truly brought you back or not. I don't know what I did. I didn't know you. ] Maybe your heart prevented me from granting your greatest wish. I don't know.
no subject
He's been lying from day one. It never changed. He always wanted it. Akechi isn't sure which would satisfy him if he asked. It makes his skin crawl that this idiot would even attempt to grant a wish only Akechi can fulfill.
And of course Akira stole his heart. Of course he did. Of course he did. Maruki is a warped man with no future. Akira can't help trying to carve one out anyway. It's disgusting. It's stupid. ]
Of course it didn't. My will is stronger. My goal is mine. I won't be taken in by some delusion you've concocted in your own head. Still-
To think you actually went through with it. I have to say, even I was deceived by your words stating otherwise. You truly couldn't help yourself, but I told you before, didn't I? Power is an addictive thing. It doesn't shock me you would exploit it. Everyone does.
[ But he doesn't care what Maruki does. Maybe Shido lived due to someone else's wish. Maybe Shido's life, a way out of Akechi's grasp, was granted. Maybe Akira stopped it. The possibilities are endlessly frustrating no matter what path he follows.
So he doesn't. Blanketed by heat, steam and the hiss of a faucet perpetually keeping the water scorching.
He notes it. It's a matter to think of later, when he's in front of his notebook and has a chance to scratch theories across a near filled book.
His arms move - it may look like he's going to attack, but-
All he does is stretch them deep into the water, notes the beet red line on his skin. ]
At least your savior was hiding in the ranks to stop that madness. Aren't you lucky? You managed to give an unwanted gift to all the worthless, vile people who didn't deserve it and likely got away with no consequences due to the nature of it. Even I'm impressed by the scope of your betrayal to humanity.
[ A thought, a beat, and- ]
I wonder what Rumi thought when her reality shattered to pieces.
no subject
Maruki doesn't rise to the bait. He can't, because he can't let himself think about it, has desperately avoided having to do so – if he considers Rumi plunging back into that horrific darkness he pulled her from, he'll find himself sick to his stomach before he can get out of the bath. If he stops to think that she might not have been able to go on with her life in the cruel, unjust reality he helped her to leave behind, he'll–
He doesn't know what he'll do. The idea draws nothing but a vast white blankness in his mind, like fields of endless snow on the coldest day of the year.
He's frigid, suddenly. He lowers himself down to his shoulders again, barely feels the scalding water prickling at his skin. ]
There may not have been consequences for what I did in terms of actions taken against me, but Akechi...
[ Even. Measured. Genuinely curious. For all they spoke about the Phantom Thieves' methods over their time together, he never asked about this, because he never stopped to consider what came after for any of those targets. ]
Do you really think there are no consequences for a changed heart?
no subject
Maruki doesn't have the sway to end up behind a teleprompter. Knows that anguish was contained to a single, tiny apartment forgotten by the masses he tried to control.
The image disgusts him. A powerful man brought to his knees by a group of self-righteous teenagers who should have disbanded long ago.
The image delights him. A vile adult pressed into the corner of a couch, eyes brimming, hand in running through hair. He can see it. Is glad to have had a part in causing it, even if it should have ended with a bullet through his skull.
Akechi should have killed him. A changed heart is pitiful. It's a loss. He can't fathom why he stood side by side to that group of idiots in whatever future Maruki lived through. ]
Don't misunderstand - I know there are consequences to the person's psyche as well. It's why I was so adamant the Phantom Thieves were dangerous. I meant every word I said back then.
But frankly, I don't care about that. The emotional impact, the damage to a heart - you allowed the thieves to 'save' you and now you're living with that disgusting salvation. [ A hand rises from the water, opens dramatically between them. If water splatters on Maruki, so be it. ] Those consequences are meaningless to me. Unless you plan to start sobbing here and now - in which case, I'll put you out of your misery myself. The proper way.
GOD WE CAN WRAP UP...... HELL ON EARTH
Oh, Akechi couldn't be more wrong.
No. As soon as those words leave his mouth, echo softly through the empty, humid bathhouse, a smile bursts to life across Maruki's face. ]
You know, it's funny...
[ His changed heart may now be open to all the pain he'd buried deep for so long, but it's open to all the joy he denied himself, too. He beams at Akechi and laughs, soft but radiant, appreciative. ]
You wanted to kill me then, too. Just now, you sounded exactly like him.
TERRIBLE......cw: suicide
[ Because in every other way that Akechi has been. Teaming up, letting Maruki live, the unknown fate of Shido-
Maruki should have a died. A change of heart is a fate too miserable for someone worthy of more. Maybe Akechi has plans to end him later. Maybe Maruki will take an easy out for himself.
But that's his life. His failures. The outcome is irrelevant. He'll suffer, he'll survive, he'll live, he'll die.
It all led to his return and-
Akechi's not unhappy to be sharing this space with this particular man again.
And so they fall back into familiar silence, Akechi lowering the temperature of the water slightly. A little. A few degrees to extend this time for himself, not Maruki. ]