A/N: The muse has returned! With more Akira goodness, though this was difficult to write. Just a little filler fic of my own set during Spread, trying to work out how Akira may have gone from the culmination of her character arc to an apparently functioning member of society again.
Currently a one shot, I might make it a chapter story at some point depending on the response. We'll see.
Akira was angry.
No, more than angry, she was furious. And she had every reason to be as far as she was concerned. It was on a level she had never reached before, even when she realized that Ulith had merely been using her. She didn't hold that against her though, and had reached her own catharsis with the events that had happened.
But in the end it hadn't mattered. She had lost, after coming to confront Ulith and get her wish granted, just like the last tine they had fought. Now it was all pointless, all of it. Why should she give a damn about anything when she couldn't win a single match when it counted?
She was left then, herself, Mirirun, and a practically comatose Iona, in the apartment building that they had held their match in. The city stretched on beyond the large windows, seeming to mock and judge her at her failure as she stood with her fists clenched, teeth grinding together in visualization of the seething rage that filled the empty void inside her, fire easier than indifference.
After all, what did it matter anymore? Ulith was gone, and with it her entire purpose in this new life of hers. The only thing to show for it was her scar, and that was a curse rather than a blessing. Nothing had been gained, and everything had been lost for her. Better she had never bothered with this stupid game in the first place.
"Mmm, Aki-Aki is pouty-pouty," Mirirun commented from her card, resting on her stomach as her legs tapped together, thoroughly enjoying her Selector's suffering.
In that moment Akira had something to focus her rage on, and she snarled as she directed it downwards at her LRIG. "Shut up shut up shut up! This is all your fault! You're lucky I don't throw you off the top of this building so you can be someone elses problem."
"Ohhh~" That was all Mirirun said, leaving it be for now since she apparently still wanted to stick around. It was their typical routine, and yet at the moment Akira found it too much to handle. Which was also part of the routine, ironically.
In spite of her sharp words she didn't throw her away, still holding on to the card. Perhaps it was some vain hope, some dream in her mind even though her dream had just been shattered like the fake city that they had been in for the duration of the fight. She just couldn't, even if it meant more suffering for her. There was always the chance she might see Ulith again.
Iona seemed to be recovering from her shock of having her wish granted, or rather that annoying rat Tama was. Akira took the moment to consider the idea of stabbing her, getting some revenge for her defeat and for all the other crap that both Tama and Ruko had put her through in the past. Certainly they both deserved it.
She gave it a bit of thought before dismissing the notion. It wasn't worth it, hardly worth the time and effort now that she wasn't important anymore. Only Ulith mattered, and Ulith was no longer here. So Tama could consider herself lucky in this case.
With that decided she spun on her heels and began to walk away. She wasn't sure where she would go or what she would do, but she didn't want to stay here. It couldn't be that hard to come up with something, though going home also wasn't an option. She didn't want to deal with the old hag right now.
Akira almost made it out too, before she heard a voice from behind her. "Akira...Aoi, is that you?" The voice was familiar, obviously, but it wasn't just the sound of it. Something in the tone reminded her of someone, and that someone was not the annoying white haired runt that had berserked through her defenses and smashed all her Life Clothe.
"Course it is, idiot," she spat back with full vitriol in her tone, not bothering to look back even though she had stopped. "Who else would it be? It's not like I got my wishes in the five seconds since you made your Selector an LRIG." Really, did Tama think she was this dumb?
The confusion that Iona expressed came all the more out of left field for her as a result. "Wh...What? Akira, I don't know who you think I am, but this is me, Iona Urazoe. I'm back." There was some quiet satisfaction in that, which proved all the more aggravating for her in turn.
But what really caught her was the name. Iona. Not Tama, not Ulith, but Iona. She had not become an Eternal Girl, but perhaps her wish had been granted after all. She had certainly never expected to see the original Iona, after she had gotten her wish granted and been replaced by that other one, who was obviously not here since she was with Ruko. It was an opportunity as well, and she would not let it pass.
So she spun about on her heels, practically leaping forward as her face contorted into a snarl. "You," she growled, getting right up in Iona's face. "I don't know how you came back, but you had better give me a damn good reason to not kill you right now bitch."
Iona was understandably taken aback by the sudden ferocity and hostility, a look of surprise and fear flashing across her face. To her credit though, she reacted quickly and came to terms with the situation. "I don't know what others may have done while using my body, but I apologize for-"
Her voice fell off as she noticed the one obvious change, the reminder of Akira's shame, her weakness, and the kind of person she was inside. "Akira, what...what happened to you?"
That was not the right thing to say, though there was no way for Iona to have known that with her recent return. That knowledge didn't make a bit of difference to Akira, whose rage only grew worse with the question. "Uh oh, now you've done it lun-lun," Mirirun chided from her card, though neither were paying much attention to her at the moment.
"You. You did this to me," Akira growled, resisting the urge to go for the knife she had in her pocket, a suitable replacement for the pen she had wielded before and one that she had few compunctions in using.
Instead, she took the second option. A punch driven home into Iona's gut without warning, doubling the model over as a result. A rush of air and a grunt escaped as the raven haired girl was driven downward in obvious pain and more on Akira's level now as she brushed her hair out of the way to show the full ugliness of her scar.
"A-Akira, I *gasp * I don't understand," Iona wheezed out, getting her breath back in the process as she tried to recover. Which was all well and good for the girl standing in front of her, who would prefer that she stay that way, perhaps forever.
For now she didn't attack any more, though her rage stood on a hair trigger, ready to be unleashed. "If it you hadn't comer into my life, I never would have gotten this scar, never would have been reduced to this. You took everything from me, and then you have to ask what happened to me?"
She trembled in place, held in the sway of her emotions and hardly inclined to be a nice person right now as Iona would be able to tell. "Ulith...Ulith was all I had, the only one who who saw anything in me worth saving, and now she's gone. So don't give me any of that innocence crap."
Having managed to get her breath back Iona looked up at Akira, expression uncertain even as black locks fell past her face, something that Akira was unused to. It was a far cry from the silent certainty of both the other Iona and Ulith, which had provoked their own hatred. And it sparked its own uncertainty in herself, even as she clamped back down on the feelings that fueled herself now.
Iona took a moment before answering, meeting wavering orbs with a look of calm and sadness at the same time. "Akira, I don't know what Lrig may have done to you while in my body, but I apologize. Sincerely, I do. I don't know how I can make up for it, but I will do whatever I can."
The returning void was swept away in cold clarity, reacting to the apology and the claim with it. Who the hell did Iona think she was, coming back like this and trying to be sorry for it? It wasn't right, and no matter how much Iona may have suffered as an LRIG, it obviously wasn't enough. At least, not for her taste if the girl was still the same as ever.
"You want to make it up to me," she spat, body cast in shadows from the light around her, her mental state given dramatic and terrifying form as her eyes widened. "Bring back Ulith. Go find her and bring her back here so I can do what I promised."
Iona looked bewildered, obviously unable to fulfill that request since she couldn't exactly go get Ulith right now even if she knew who Ulith was in the first place. It earned a smirk from the brunette, who took advantage of it as she practically shouted. "Then I want you to go away, to get out of my life. I never want to see your ugly mug ever again."
That said she turned around and strode away, summoning up all the haughtiness that she could muster inside her. She'd made her point, and hopefully Iona would leave her alone to her misery now. If she saw her again then she would not be responsible for what happened, and it definitely would not be good for Iona.
She'd almost left the room before a cry rang through the air. "Akira, wait!" It earned no response from her, but the follow up to it did. "I need you!"
Akira came up short, glancing back over her shoulder as those words registered. Iona...needed her? The urge rose to laugh in her face, but somehow there was the desire to listen her. It made no sense, but it was seemed so similar to when Ulith had said that in a small trailer, when she had revealed her secret, her truth, even if it had ended up being a lie.
It was still a laughable idea though. Iona was rich, beautiful, popular. What could she possibly need someone like Akira for, except to mock her and degrade her like before? Her curiosity would not be sated with leaving, it seemed. "Why? What could someone as filthy as me do for you," she asked, turning about to face Iona once more, who was back to standing at the moment.
Mirirun nodded in agreement from her card, not asleep yet. "Uh-huh. Aki-Aki's not much fun, lun-lun." Akira frowned at her but she was more fixed on Iona, waiting to hear what the model would say about this.
Iona got a light smile then, hands clasped in front of her as she fixed her gaze on the other girl once more. "It's been some time since I was me," she pointed out. "I'm afraid I don't know a lot of what's happened recently, or what I may have been involved in. You seemed like the person most able to help me, since you work with me."
That was true enough, Akira supposed. If there was anyone who was going to fill Iona in on what she had missed, it would be her colleague. That just left the slight problem of how she felt about the girl before her, though it was less clear cut given her muddled feelings for the previous inhabitant of said body, and her stint of unemployment.
"And why should I do that," she asked with a dark chuckle of her own, face twisting into a crooked grin. "There's nothing in it for Akira Aoi, now is there?" This would be the perfect opportunity, to have Iona crash and burn, to drive her into disgrace and take her place with the attention that she rightfully deserved. It would be all too easy, and it wasn't as if she had to care now that Ulith was gone.
For all the darkness she gave off, courtesy of the lack of interior lighting, Iona seemed unfazed. "I may not know what Lrig did, but it's not hard to tell that you were wronged. As an LRIG, I've seen the lengths people can go to when they have something they want." For a moment Akira considered how many Selectors she must have been with, but she kept her attention fixed, waiting for the bottom line.
She didn't have to stay long as Iona moved right into it. "I want to make it up to you, both as the heir to the Urazoe family and as myself. You deserve that much."
"Deserve? I don't deserve anything," Akira laughed derisively and incredulously, self mocking as she bowed her head slightly. "I'm a killer, a murder, covered in filth and worse. I'm a disgusting person, and I wouldn't accept your help even if you gave it to me."
To her credit, Iona didn't immediately try to flee or panic upon hearing that Akira had killed supposedly people. Instead, it might have been even worse, visible pity in her eyes even as she accepted what she was hearing. And if there was one thing Akira didn't want, it was pity.
Before she could lash out once more though, the raven haired girl answered. "In spite of what you may think, I'm not perfect either." Confusion spiked as she went on, written on Akira's face. "That's why I was involved in the Selector battles. I wanted to escape, to be free of the burden of expectations and status placed upon me by my name."
"Hmph." Akira snorted, arms folded across her chest as she looked on Iona in thinly veiled disinterest. "If you think that's going to get any sympathy from me then you've got another thing coming. Not all of us were lucky enough to grow up rich you know."
And yet Iona still wasn't fazed, ceding that with a nod. "I know. And while I was an LRIG I saw people who seemed to be happy with the lives they had. But all of them fell into battling anyway. I'm not going to blame you for something like that, in spite of what you might have done as a Selector."
Akira snorted once more, averting her gaze for a few brief moments as she stood there discontent. "That's easy for you to say," she grumbled bitterly. "You don't have to live with it, seeing every day what you did and how sick a person you are. So don't talk to me about forgiveness and all that crap. I don't need it."
And yet, in spite of her self loathing and the sheer hatred that radiated off of her form, Akira found Iona still persisting. The model stepped forward to take Akira's hands in her own, her expression firm, one more fitting Lrig more than the false sympathy of Ulith.
"Akira," she said once more, not swaying or faltering. "Please, give me another chance, just like this Ulith did for you. Help me, and let me help you."
In turn Akira could only stare at her, eye twitching as she warred with herself. She would not deny that there was the incredible urge to slap her hand away, to spit in her face and reject her out of hand. Yet at the same time she also couldn't deny that there was something that held her in place, the old memories of Ulith looking like that, when Akira had thought that she cared, and that affection, even if she wanted it buried and dead, sprang up once more.
Words, old memories welled up, hard to forget and leave be. Ulith had wanted her to hate this face, the face of Iona that she wore, while loving the girl behind it. And yet Ulith was now gone and there was a new girl behind that face. In spite of what she had said, Akira had, she realized, begun to love the face itself and not just the person behind it, in spite of what her supposed love and savior wanted.
She should have been angry, ranted and raged and hated herself for even thinking such treacherous things, but it wasn't betrayal anymore was it? Ulith didn't love her, had never loved her. Even as Akira loved her in return. So she wasn't beholden to anything the girl had said, was she? No, not anymore.
"Fine, fine," she gave in at last, pulling her arm free as she turned away. "Only so you'll shut up about it. And don't get any ideas, or I'll make you regret it. Got it?"
Iona took a step back, nodding, and glad that she had convinced Akira to tentatively accept her request. "Of course."
'I'm only thinking about it," Akira added, as if a reminder that she was only doing this because she wanted to. She began to walk out of the room, only to stop and glance back but not meeting Iona's gaze. "Oh, and you better call Ruko. She'll want to hear about this." She knew that Iona would have no idea who that was, but it wasn't exactly her problem, ow was it?
She left then, without checking to see if her suggestion was being followed, and instead began the trek out of the building to head home. There was no longer a point to sticking around here, and she wasn't ready to go off and find Ulith just yet. After all, it would take time for her to become human again.
The place was more completed than the last time she had been here, but like on the way up she paid little attention to it on the way down, engrossed in her own thoughts and malaise. It had all been for nothing, and now she was back to square one, or close enough.
Sadly, she couldn't banish everything as her companion spoke up. "Wow, Aki-Aki's so nicey-nicey," Mirirun commented from her card, looking up at Akira with a mischievous smirk. "Who thought you'd help someone just like that?"
Akira glanced downwards, but this time didn't snip or yell at her card. Which was surprising for Mirirun, to be sure. "I guess I'm turning over a new leaf," she replied, tone dead and still loud enough for her partner to hear.
"Hm hm~" Mirirun hummed to herself as Akira kept on walking, mind flowing back to her now vanished love. Yes, Ulith had gone and left her for her own wish, defying what Akira sought. But perhaps what she wanted was not totally gone forever.
The ghost of a smile flitted across her face before it was subsumed once more into the still mask she wore. Ulith could go have her fun with Ruko, if that was what she wanted. Until she showed up again, Akira would live without her, no matter how disgusting she was. That would be her last spite, and her greatest tribute to the lost LRIG's legacy.
The elevator dinged as it hit the ground floor, and Akira stepped out into the sunlight. Though she was barely aware of it, the journey back to normal had begun. It would have to be good enough.