Footprints Left Behind
A strange sense of peace settled deep within his marrow, when Akechi knew that he was destined to die young.
It was the only logical conclusion to the last chapter of his life, anyhow. After all, what else would be the ending of the story of a murderer with the blood of his father's nemesis?
Even the justice he spoke of so loftily would turn her blindfolded eyes from him and slain him with her righteous sword, forged with the rage and the unrestrained disgust of those who used to love his facade. The general masses would finally see how rotten the flesh of his representation of justice was, turning the tide and opinions of many until everything that was left behind his name were ashes of a pitch black record.
The chronicle of an unwanted child.
It wasn't like he would be there to see what the future behold, anyway. His only wish before oblivion greeted him was to be the final piece that would topple the monster that shared his flesh and blood.
What was there to life? He certainly didn't wish to live any longer. He has been submerged too deep within the dark underbelly of humanity to be able to leave and pretend to live peacefully.
Akechi has stood with the Shadows of many broken humans after they had lost his father's favour or gained the man's ire, who paid for it with their very own lives in the real world. Their reputations and families were scorched to the ground, only to never rise again. Akechi thought that it was his ablution to them, listening silently as the Shadows of humans whom his father deemed as useless marionettes sobbed their pleas for penance again and again. He stood by their side until their essence of life were snuffed out, gasps of their words etched forever in his eidetic memory.
He softly promised the bereaved of his false justice, grasping their trembling fingers until the echoes of crying voices were overtaken to the background by the white noise. He thought that he would never escape that kind of life, only to remember that when Death rung its bells for him it would be his own jailbreak.
Akechi learnt to anticipate it afterwards.
As he grew into his power, the concluded ending of his life only grew more resolved. The novel sensations of being able to touch and control the core of humanity with his mind, the only thing that used to bring him a small measure of happiness -something that belonged to him alone- became more taxing each day. The intimate knowledge about the gears of negative human emotions was a constant drone in the back of his mind, whispering incessantly as his ears were assaulted by the screaming insanity of the lingering Shadows.
The worst of all, the very worst of all, was how apathetic he had became with his own life. Akechi only took the barest care of his health. He wore clothes that complimented his figure but let his hair uncut. The Detective Prince only wore the most expensive of what money could buy because it was expected of him as a public figure, as the idolized Detective Prince even though he was the one who created and solved the crime of his own making. The double-edged knife of his own existence was what made him unworthy of the title. Because Akechi Goro was the villain who solved his own crime scenes.
What could the future possibly hold for a human like him? How did someone who can only deal with being alive by reaching for a nonexistent approval even begin to contemplate the crawling boundaries of morality?
Akechi knew the exact nature of his inevitable end, so he moved and planned from one day to the next, never contemplating what would happen beyond the final chapter of his story.
Akechi destroyed his mother's Palace accidentally at five-years old, and other people's Palaces accidentally on purpose at fifteen, obeying the order that came from his phone and absorbing the praises like a plant that basked in the sunlight. He knew that it was only temporary before the man on the other side of the phone realized who he truly was, so Akechi took the words in stride and offered his service.
He didn't know anything about what a son was supposed to do, and he hoped it was enough.
At sixteen, the knowledge that his devotion alone wouldn't grant him a position within his father's Palace was obvious. The man was cautious, and Akechi knew the risks he brought to the man each time the order came through. He promised to be more careful, assuring his beloved father that no ties between the victims and his father would be found.
Akechi made sure of it, and became the second advent of the Detective Prince.
At seventeen, a Ren Amamiya crossed his father and was arrested for assault. Akechi finalized the proofs and built the case by the man's order, while his father sneered at the naivety of the younger teen's defence. He knew better, and averted his eyes from the truth.
He furnished the key to his father's satisfaction and the teen was sent away, his future chained under the thumbs of adults. Masayoshi Shido granted him more cases and TV broadcast slots as compensation.
With the rise of his popularity and the adoration of the masses behind his back, Akechi decided that his time was near and he planned accordingly. He wanted to make sure that the downfall of the corrupt politician that was his father would be something that even a man as deceitful as him would applaud. Because his acknowledgement was everything Akechi ever wanted.
He calculated his probable lifespan and counted that Goro Akechi would be dead by nineteen.
At eighteen, just a year before his promised appointment with oblivion, Akechi met him. The foolish example of the very people that his father spit at –someone who defied the taint on his history and rose from the ashes, the foolish Joker who extended a hand to write a better story of his life that he cared nothing about.
Something took root within him, then. It transformed and grew slowly, so slowly that he didn't even realize that the hero of his story has changed and he was cast in the role of the villain, once again. Akechi found himself closed off from the world outside the Metaverse with the overflowing hatred and rage of the Shadows that surrounded him, bidding eternal farewell to his only friend.
The burn on his eyes wasn't real, however. But even though it wasn't real ( why are you... looking at me like that?! I've... I've succeeded until now... All by myself... I don't need... I don't-) Akechi knew that he had thrown his life away.
Akechi understood that it wasn't true. He truly believed that he was at peace with himself. The cool, settled feel on his marrow was the attestment to it. Eight lives for one, after all, was a steal for such a trivial matter.
He thought that firing the last bullet on the Shadow of himself would be easy because it was time. He was nineteen and Death has rung its bells. Akechi was ready to greet the abyss and it was fine. It was a relief.
But as he locked his eyes on the Shadow that wore his skin, Akechi was surprised by the silent drops of tears that flown freely from the Shadow's eyes and a revelation came to his mind as the sound of two fired bullets resounded through the stagnant air.
I want to live.
The thought accompanied him to oblivion.
Author's Note:
Akechi is a sad human being and I felt my chest clenched painfully when he said that he was an 'unwanted child'. I wish he had met Ren sooner before he was corrupted by Shido. Damn... my heart's being ripped to pieces by Persona 5 :'(