A. N. : I feel like this is a verse I could revisit someday, but for now these two chapters will be it, probably.
Inspector Tsunemori Akane stands before Makishima Shogo.
It feels like she is being judged – no, she is being judged, even if she is the one holding the Dominator, even if she has the eyes of Sibyl at her back, as witness to the horror that is the man threatening Yuki –
"– suspect is not a target for enforcement –"
But Sibyl's eyes are closed, and Akane is the one being judged.
The numbers keep going down, Makishima looks down on her like some kind of twisted god, and Akane's eyes fall on the shotgun at her feet. The only judge will be one willing to kill, but Akane cannot do this, it would be contrary to everything she – but Yuki is looking at her with desperate eyes. Yuki is going to die if Akane doesn't do something.
She grabs the shotgun – it is heavy, almost impossible to hold with one hand, Akane's arm hurts as she tries to aim and Makishima's slithery voice is taunting her to give up the Dominator, to judge him herself, like a man unafraid of death.
Is he a fool or is he enlightened ?
18.3, under 20, says Sibyl as Makishima plays with Yuki's hair like a child would play with a doll, with that blade so dangerously close to Yuki's neck and Yuki sobs and doesn't dare cry out anymore and Akane's arm hurts –
This is the weight of a human life.
No, this is the weight of two human lives, two lives that Akane has to judge, two lives she has to put in scales she shouldn't own to see which is heavier and she can't do this – but she has to. Not making a choice, relinquishing that choice is as much a decision as any other she could take.
In that instant, Inspector Tsunemori Akane sees more clearly than she ever did, through her own eyes. Makishima cannot be judged but he judges her, and with clear eyes she sees the paths laid out before her. She makes a choice.
The scales tip and the shotgun weighs lighter – half as heavy really, the Dominator crashes into the ground with the metallic echo of a sword coming down, and Akane looks up with unclouded eyes. Sibyl is blind now, but Sibyl isn't the one passing judgement here.
Akane is.
In that instant, Inspector Tsunemori Akane bares her soul to Makishima Shogo, and the shape that soul takes is –
