[Week 2, Tuesday: Eichi]

[doublecrows]

[if the paranoia they experienced while separated last week wasn't bad enough, this week's partner effects are. . . well]

[Akechi bolts upright on Tuesday morning, eyes wide and completely and utterly bewildered. he blinks blearily at the wall opposite the bed, before sllllowly turning his gaze on Eichi]

[. . .]

[does he really want to bring up what just happened, or. . .]

Comments

[finethanks]

And what is your justice, Akechi-kun?

[He's still smiling, a little dreamy, somehow, but the way he says the word hints at his own feelings. What everyone thinks of as justice is hardly that. He hates it being flung around so easily.]

[doublecrows]

. . .

[his justice is so, so personal. but everything with Eichi is now out in the open, isn't it? he has no reason to hold back]

It has to do with my father.

[ah]

That scum of a man who drove my mother to suicide. Who had a bastard child he never acknowledged. Who killed and killed and killed until he made it to the top of the political ladder.

My justice involves destroying him.

[finethanks]

Because he's someone you believe is "wrong," is that correct? Someone who ruins others for the sake of themselves... That sounds just like a villain. And though heroes are only peaceful in story books, you're fine with being the type of hero who viciously kills to reach his end goal.

Isn't that right?

[He relates in many ways, at least.] If that's true, then I believe I understand, even now. Unlike many uses of the word "justice," yours doesn't make me want to spew, you know?

[thanks?]

[doublecrows]

[THANKS!!]

It's the only kind of justice that doesn't make me sick, either.

[Akechi responds, almost coldly]

Because it isn't hypocritical.

[. . . it is, just a little bit. perhaps he's more like his father in ways he refuses to acknowledge. but denying his worst faults had always been Akechi's strength]

[finethanks]

[Now that is something he wonders about. He's not so blind with admiration as to be ignorant to hypocrisy, Akechi's or his own. Still, correcting him would do no good, so he simply continues to smile.]

...You said what you saw of me was tame in comparison, but the truth is that when you see only pieces of a large puzzle, only small interactions of someone picking at others until they unwind like string from a shirt, it appears harmless. Normal, almost.

The truth is that I've done some vicious, horrible things. I've piled up corpses to use as ladders, bathed in the blood of friends and enemies alike, all to sit atop a lonely throne and control things from there. And pathetically, I was chased from the top, so soon after claiming it for myself.

Death might have been a mercy, for many that I trampled over.

[doublecrows]

[. . . ah]

[it's the hyperbole that Eichi uses that gets Akechi the most. a lonely throne, a ladder of corpses, blood shed from friends and enemies alike. . .]

Some would rightfully call you ambitious. I never thought ambition alone was a bad thing.

[turning to face Eichi a bit, expression even]

You speak of it as though you have regrets.

[finethanks]

...I wonder if I do.

[He still doesn't know, and he's quiet between his words for longer than usual.]

My actions aren't something that I regret. At least... the point that I've ended up with, I believe was necessary. But there are times when I glance back and realize that I'd been misunderstanding people, that they were truly trying to reach out to me and give me their hand, their friendship, only to have me trample over them with little regard.

Those connections are severed now, and there are times when I wish that they weren't.

[doublecrows]

[and here is Eichi with his redemption arc, while Akechi is still too terrified to start his. even though what Eichi says here. . . about regretting certain severed connections. . . absolutely applies to Akechi's situation as well]

[. . .]

What's more important, than? Your ambitions, or those connections?

[finethanks]

...That answer should be clear from where I ended up, don't you think? My ambition, the goal... it was more important.

My health dropped significantly in the middle of all that, and I remember thinking "it's fine if I die, as long as I finish this."

[doublecrows]

But you haven't died yet.

[and that's important. at least, in Akechi's eyes]

Nothing is completely over while life still exists within you.