Hi guys,
thank you so much for the support. I don't usually tend to talk about my troubles in general (even to my friends) so I am very grateful to you all. Things are getting much better that I don't think the worst will even happen but of course I always need to be on my guard.
Also, this fic has finally reached 400 reviews and 300 followers! I'm really excited about this since wow that's...a LOT.
Thank you so much for the support and I am very glad you enjoyed the last chapter!
Here, is the finale, to Fall.
秋：Hollow Affection
On the second day, Akakibana Inori had already removed herself from her room. While her Mother stayed convinced she had locked herself within, she prepared meals for herself at timely hours, eyes focused yet idle.
"What, you're out already?" Akakibana Kazuki commented in an attempt to sound unconcerned.
His cousin simply looked past him with a slightly unnerving smile before she proceeded to complete her soon-to-be lunch.
She paid him no heed, none at all before she finished and returned to her base, only to return after her mother made her rounds at home, banging and barking at her to open the door.
It had never occurred to him that her actions were out of place for her character.
To him, it was simply weak, then strong, then a wild mass of contradictions. He did not know enough about his cousin in the first place and although he tried, it backfired to the point where he began to only accept the strong and picked at the weak qualities.
It was the method required to make her strong.
It was the only method known to him from that strict household.
Yet, as he stared at her lifeless body, mechanically providing nourishment for itself, he couldn't see anything but a void. Looking at her sucked away his energy, made him feel helpless, that with a nauseating clench of the gut, he averted his eyes.
This started from the second day.
It was now the eighth.
Pulling himself back to the present, Akakibana Kazuki sat alone in the Shogi salon at the Japanese Shogi Association.
He should have noticed earlier.
That girl was no longer normal. Just as Akashi said, being able to erase her memories, her guilt, and manipulate her own heart to delusional ends could only mean one thing.
She had gone mental.
He clenched his fists. That was the most absurd notion he had heard. Yet, it was very fitting for her.
"Oh, isn't that Akakibana Kazuki? The heir to that household?" One of the Shogi members murmured in recognition.
"So it is! I wonder if he's planning on playing Shogi again. He was very good in matches back then." A male one quipped, as the red-head turned his gaze over and smiled sweetly.
"Good afternoon, I'm sorry for coming here after such a long time," He greeted, golden eyes settling into sweet crescents.
"A-ah, Akakibana-kun, so you heard! Sorry for speaking so loudly," the female member exclaimed as the male also gave his greetings.
They were well into their thirties, yet the caution in their voice gave way to their embarrassment.
"That's alright. I understand why you'd be curious but unfortunately, I won't be returning, I was just passing by to relive old memories."
"Oh is that so?" They chimed in before they warily glanced at each other, as if hesitant about something.
"Yes?" Kazuki asked.
The man squared his face. "Oh, if it's not too rude, we were wondering if Akakibana Inori was related to you? Considering your last names of course."
Kazuki did not waste a moment's breath. "No, not that I'm aware of. Is this the new talent?"
On the family registry, her name had never been there since the start.
"Ah, n-new talent?" The male repeated, suddenly uneasy.
"Hm? Is something the matter?"
"No, well actually, the JSA is having some complications with her as she's stopped attending the major tournaments or practices since the end of spring." The woman confessed.
"At this rate, the other players will far surpass her. It's a shame really," the man said as Kazuki nodded.
"And so it is."
That idiot.
He upturned his eyes towards the clock, noting the time.
It was almost time for Akashi Seijuro to arrive.
Despite leaving a nasty taste in his mouth, his confidence in that monster far surpassed what he had in himself.
He had still refused to believe after all, that what he had tried to do for her, broke her.
[=]
Prince Charming was a concept that was the embodiment of the ideal spouse. From afar, Akashi Seijuro seemed to fit the bill with his regal posture and confident gaze.
Yet, to those who knew him, this was far from the truth. In fact, to Midorima it was the most revolting notion in the world.
Akakibana Inori was finally aware of that—albeit for entirely different reasons from the norm.
Still, eight days of recluse was a long time, so much that she had let her guard down and completely removed herself from waiting to die in her room.
Her mother had given up on forcing her to go to school and let her stay put, with her cousin keeping an eye on her.
It was this delicate tenderness that Akakibana loved about her mother, because it was the only trace of those days where the sun still shone in their house.
Regardless, compared to that kind mother from long ago, the prideful one quickly took over as at noon, when her mother returned home to retrieve a few documents, she suddenly gripped her hand, dragging her daughter downstairs.
Akakibana was surprised but did not complain; she only stared at her mother's movements with an incisive eye.
Her expression was happy, eyes like a hawk, aimed at a goal, an opportunity for success. It was no longer the look of a mother.
"Inori! Why didn't you tell me you were close with him? He even came to visit you!" She exclaimed as immediately, the situation dawned on her, despite how incredulous she once would have thought it would be.
Through her delusions, Akakibana immediately perceived what no one else should logically conclude, that Akashi Seijuro was somehow here, because nobody would make her mother as happy as he did.
But, eight days, was a long time.
Instead of freezing, shaking, and bursting out into tears as she had done in the company venue, a sigh broke off her lips, as though she had grown tired of waiting.
Heh.
Her Prince Charming had arrived.
It took eight days for her sanity to crumble, or perhaps it had already done so, ever since she met Akashi Seijuro.
"Sorry for the wait Seijuro-kun," Akakibana Shiori kindly smiled at the student at the door, his Teiko uniform fitting snugly on his shoulders.
"Inori, make sure to properly treat our guest alright?" Shiori urged with a light tug.
Akakibana stared into the red-head's crisp scarlet orbs unblinkingly, not even flinching at his soul-skinning gaze. "Yes mother," she parted her lips, the words tethering out.
"Well then, I suppose I should be going, be nice alright?" Her mother said with a slight warning in her tone as she headed back off to work. Her break was almost over and it was a wonder why Akashi was not in school at this time.
Akakibana blinked.
Oh right. Today, there was a day off.
She prepared her tongue, for she had not spoken in days as she sucked in a dilapidated breath and said, "Welcome, Seijuro-kun."
Ah. She said it.
What she couldn't say and used Kuroko as an excuse…because her mother had said it, and it had rung, so nicely in her ears.
The red-head was not fazed. "It's been a while Inori. Shintarou was supposed to come today but unfortunately he could not, so I came to give you your print-outs." He stated, making a slight shift with his shoulder bag. "Would it be alright if I came in?"
Akakibana released a thin smile. "Of course. Please follow me." She said, escorting him into her abode, a house that was considerably new compared to the rest in their district and much more intricately designed.
It was one for the upper-middle class, with redwood flooring and arched ceilings. However, there was a large discrepancy with its commodities.
The living room they passed had nothing but a sofa, a modest coffee table, and a small lamp, facing where a television set should have been. It felt oddly haunting due to the considerable space left in the actual living room.
"Are you planning on moving?" He commented at the void.
A smile drew at her lips. "Moving? Ah yes, we've been planning to, for maybe two years."
Akashi stared at the back of her swaying ebony hair, a tad messier than her usual neat appearance. "Is that so?" He said as he ascended the staircase, to the upper floor, past the living room.
Once they reached a certain door, Akakibana twirled on her heels, recalling something. "Ah, but, would you mind moving to my room instead? As you can see, this place is a bit too empty to welcome a guest." She said, words carelessly thrown, holding none of the weighty secrets she had constantly hid behind her.
She opened the door to her room, revealing a plain bedroom with a wooden bed and a large window on the other end.
Akashi noticed a damaged hairpin on top of the desk.
"I wouldn't mind but, I'm surprised you're fine with a male easily going to your room," Akashi brought up, allowing the girl to relish the moment.
"Akashi-kun? Surprised? Please don't say things you don't mean. That is impossible for you," she turned with a wide-eyed smile.
"Oh? Is that so surprising of me?"
The girl nodded as the two entered. "Of course, because you knew everything from the beginning didn't you?" She asked, voice suddenly frothing with poison.
A curt smile spilled across Akashi's lips, as one of his scarlet eyes bubbled gold. "Ah, you mean about your cousin?"
She nodded. "You got close you me on purpose didn't you? If you think about it logically there's no way you would like me. But, with him, there are so many benefits that can all blossom, from just one meeting."
"Hmm, so you believe I did it for benefits? That's very cold-hearted of you," Akashi mused in not a dismayed but rather mocking tone. "Even though, I do believe my feelings are very sincere."
And Akashi was pushed onto the bed.
He left himself fall, closing his eyes, ready to end the long opening act.
The play was finally starting.
A sudden weight contacted his chest as the girl jumped on top of him, golden eyes wild with the same resident madness Midorima sometimes saw in him.
However, that flicker of gold in his eyes had completely vanished as he looked at her blood-thirsty eyes, her distorted expression, and the tears that had formed from them in silence.
She did not say a thing, she merely gripped his arms with as much force as she could muster.
Yet he did not resist as he watched her pant, watched her whole world fall to vertigo.
All because he appeared before her.
"Ha…haha." She giggled from the depths of insanity.
"You…said something vague again. Always. Never did you say, that you liked me, not even once! You…even now, are toying with my feelings…" She rasped through choking breaths. "Even though, I love you…so much…!"
Akashi stayed immune to her desperation.
His perfectly-formed lips moved.
"Love? How long are you going to continue to say those things you don't mean? From the beginning, you've never harbored such emotions for me." He said.
Her eyes grew wide, "h-how could you say that—"
"If you did, I wonder why your mother wasn't even happier to see me. After all, from first meeting, she was already quite fond of m-"
Hands came at his throat.
Akashi did not fight back. He merely stared at the murderous gold that had possessed her, as her untrimmed nails dug in, seeking his blood, choking him.
"Don't you dare mention her! Not after what you did…" She spat.
"Because it went against your plans?" Akashi mustered out, not losing a sliver of his daunting presence despite the situation. "It's time to be honest with yourself, because you despise me don't you, Akakibana Inori?"
She froze.
Hate was not a word she would have ever considered to describe Akashi. He was her ideal, her Prince Charming, one exuding perfection, grace, dignity, and everything her mother hoped her to be.
But ah, her mother.
That's right.
She could not forgive someone who matched her mother's ideals, the ideals she had spent such a long time trying to reach to no avail.
Akakibana Inori was not better. She was not good at being strong. Trying to live up to her mother's expectations, facing countless disappointments that tore her apart, and being someone she wasn't...she couldn't do it anymore.
She wanted to run away, completely yet...he was the complete opposite.
She hated this person, with all her being.
She was jealous of everything he had.
He was everything she wanted to be, everything that came to him...like it was nothing.
So she thought, with the same rigid brain her cousin and mother had, that if she got closer to him, forcing herself to be near what brought her true despair, she would be stronger.
Like him.
But, that was a delusion.
Instead, she took that chance to commence her great escape, into the frivolous love and trivial things that being around him provided her, turning him into a tool to fuel her delusions.
Yet…he dared to ruin it!
"That's right! From the start, I hated you! I hated everything about you!" She roared fiercely, bitterly, with all the anguish she could muster. "I didn't care if I was a tool, and I'd rather that I wasn't considered by you! So you wouldn't get closer! So I could daydream about love forever! So you wouldn't meet my mother! BUT…WHY?! WHY?!" She wailed in a bitter spiel, her hands coiling tightly around his wan neck.
Akashi took in everything, did not struggle in the least as he watched her breathe, calm, rage, then breathe once more.
Eventually, her hands loosened, yet the searing pain of his screaming cells remained.
"…So this is the limit huh?" He muttered under his breath, so low that she could not hear above her own breath.
His gaze did not falter as he saw the tears spilling from her eyes, a reflection of all the pain he had caused her.
He supposed he felt guilty, as she was indeed a tool—not for meeting her cousin as he said however, but an experiment, to something he had always been searching for.
Regardless, it was time for the damsel to awake…from her long distress.
He was right, as he always was yet, the emotions that passed through her to him, shook him, and moved him.
When did this last happen?
Oh right, with Kuroko Tetsuya. The special yet ordinary one.
Yet, she was not even that.
"Then…is this your answer? To everything?" Akashi began, voice piercing through her sobs.
"Eh?"
"I'm asking if this is all you had to say."
Her eyes flew wide in alarm as her grip tightened.
But it was too late. His hands were clasped around her forearm, squeezing them with such acute yet precise force that her hands immediately fell limp.
Akashi was humoring her the whole time.
With shaking yet defiant eyes, Akakibana could only glare in fear as she was pushed to the wall, arms pinned to the side as chills shot up her spine.
His gaze was deadly, enough to kill.
She bit her lip, distraught from being over-powered before she gnashed her teeth together, in her last attempt to find strength. "What do you me-ngh?!"
He pressed his lips against hers, sending an electric rush crackling through, resulting in a fierce blush up her cheeks as it coursed through her body, leaving her in shock.
He promptly broke the kiss, the lingering ecstasy powerful enough to bring her those saccharine illusions once more…if only, Akashi had not spoken.
"This. And…'save me'. 'Protect me'. Isn't this what you wanted to say?" He flatly stated.
"W-what?!"
He continued. "Because why else would you actually tell me your true plans? Like a cornered dog pleading for mercy, you wanted me to pity you, to help you."
She immediately revolted as shame stung her cheeks. She shook herself free, Akashi no longer placing any weight upon her as she realized he was right.
She was immediately disgusted with herself, hands clasped around her face, ready to pull her flesh off and away from such a revolting act.
Amidst her embarrassment, Akashi removed himself from the bed, standing up and creasing out the wrinkles that had settled on his uniform.
"Don't fret," he said in an emotionless voice. Since, I won't ever pity you, no matter how much you grovel before me"
Her eyes flew at him, sending him sanguinary glares as she grounded her teeth in a mixture of shame and anger.
That's right. It was his fault from the beginning, everything was his fault!
"Oh? Are you mad?" He asked, while his back was still turned towards her as he knelt down to retrieve his school bag before wordlessly slipping the rose hairpin on the desk inside the 3-dimensional depths of the bag.
She did not say a thing.
After he finished packing, he tilted his head back her. "I see. So that's all you ever plan on doing. Being mad, sad, and pathetic."
She found his gaze locked on hers.
"You've disappointed me, Inori."
"Eh?" Akakibana blinked.
It was the most devastating blow she had ever received.
It wasn't even from her mother.
Her eyes widened as inexplicable emotions suddenly rose from within, ripping out her throat in the process to escape, to engulf everything she knew, as she watched him open the door, step out, and—
Don't go!
She did not understand why this was happening.
She did not care about anyone in the world but her mother's opinion.
That was what she had promised herself.
Yet, with him…what, was happening?
The door closed behind her, leaving her in a world of black.
She would never enter that scarlet realm ever again.
Ah…even he, her Prince, was disappointed in her.
She laughed.
Hard.
His words, his parting, meant that he would never help her, never protect her.
She laughed as she watched her last thread to those sweet and wonderful days disappear, shattering all her delusions.
The pain in her heart spilled out from her lips, a concoction of dark, heavy disappointment, a bitter truth, and an explicable feeling of hate for the red-head.
Long ago, she would have said this to be the pain of a broken heart, a rejected love yet, love and hate were entangled so deep within her that she could no longer tell them apart.
She never could.
In the dispelled silence of her room, she breathed with failed attempts to calm herself as she recalled watching him leave, the sight sending another wave of emotion through her as she gritted her teeth.
What was this?
WHAT WAS THIS?!
Easily, she understood he would never see her again, smile at her again, and call her name ever again.
She wailed.
Why, was this the fact that brought her the most pain?
She was confused, shocked at how easily Akashi saw through her, shredded her whole being apart.
She was embarrassed and humiliated, a mass of dark despair, that because of this, she failed to see the truth behind Akashi's words.
That, from the beginning, like they always had been, they were a confession of love.
"A dream that was not meant to be,"
"you broke it for me."
"A love that would never come true."
"you destroyed it for me."
"I fell to rock bottom that day"
"never to hear your voice again."
"Autumn was over for us."
"From here on, Winter began."
"And I was alone."
Fall-Track B
End.
Fall leaves us with a lot of mysteries solved, but apparently not enough-Akashi Seijuro-wise of course.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and was satisfied with Inori's suppressed character!
Suppression was a big theme in this chapter, along with love, and "madness" of gold. I wonder what this could mean for the next part ;D
PS
one thing to note about Akashi and why he is addressing ppl by their first names in Teiko, is because when I wrote this fic, there was no Teiko portion in the manga so everyone thought Akashi always called the GOM by their first names.
I wanted to change this but since I based a pretty good portion of my fic on this, please overlook this part orzlll
Also, although this has followed the Teiko timeline, for Winter, the timeline will be skewed so Aomine and Akashi won't start changing until winter.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed!