[ 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. ]
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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. ]