Countless and restless time going by, escorted by the astounding and most profound soldier left alive in the city while having the displeasing, and sickening feeling of an accompanying enemy forced to their side. After further examination of that information, the name of the perpetrators of chaos and destruction that plagued the world, just looking at his face was enough.
With Rika Minami's presence, Koichi Shido has been able to stay alive for the time being. If it weren't for her, he would not have a chance and he would have already met deaths cold embrace.
The group was still very cautious, keeping a close eye on him with much skepticism. If they didn't know any better, he would have lied to them all about trying to actually make up for his crimes, even if it did not seem possible to repent for such a long term and devastating disaster.
For all they knew, Mr. Shido was going to do something when they get to City Hall so his father may take care of the rest. It could have been a trap but that was the least of their worries. All that mattered, all that rested on their shoulders now, was what they would do this moment forward as they inched ever closer to the belly of the beast.
It had been hours ever since the heavy downpour that engulfed the city had soon passed and the formation of puffy gray clouds still hung overhead, reminding them of the weariness of the environment that has become their city they continued to stand foot in.
Covered in water as a result from the most recent rainfall, the streets still had a degree of water soaked into the concrete and scattered about. They could care less about submerging their feet in an occasional puddle that could be high enough to cover their entire foot, popping up from time to time. But as fluent and ever-lasting their motivations were, fueling on their energy, they had to acknowledge their mortality.
In those countless hours, they had to fend off from those walking corpses still aimlessly roaming the area. Getting closer and closer, it seems that the sudden attacks became more and more intensive, testing their ability to repel them so they would not succumb just as those poor people have.
If the march were going to efficiently continue they needed to rest, as Rika Minami proposed. It was already unbearably strenuous, and their clothes were being stained and riddled with stains of blood more than ever. They tried not to complain or tremble on the sight of blood on their clothes, as they were no strangers to killing or gratuitous violence. Regardless, Rika Minami reminded them all in the most respectful, scornful, and firm way.
"SUCK IT UP."
There was still so much more distance to cover, but rest was still needed. They managed to catch their lucky break knowing two things.
One: The close they found shelter in had a feasible defence to keep them out although they were less trying to break in.
Two: They were close to the waterfront. Not only did they have the possibility of contacting the remainder of the Self Defense Force, but they could also see Fujimi Academy from the roof. City Hall was close.
Officer Minami, with the use of some efficient and functioning binoculars, sat atop the roof to overlook the city which is when she managed to spot Fujimi Academy. There was no time to dwell, but the sight of that school again felt very nostalgic and it made her smirk, thinking of old times.
She could always just leave the binoculars in the hands of someone else she thought would be very willing to do so. Saeko Busujima seemed to be capable and eager enough, compared to everyone else, to look onto the sights of the city and perhaps take the time alone to think to herself. Rika was far from incompetent when it came to reading and observing people's body language and attitudes.
Even if that long, relenting walk that seemed to kill more time than they could count or track, they spent more time killing rather than opening up to one another. It had already been done before they left, but they could so once more. If it had to be the last time, then it was their chance to speak before they would go in and stir up trouble at the heart of the pandemic, ultimately risking their lives in the face of death.
The pain was difficult…Akio's traumatic knockout had left him unable to perceive anything. It was an uncomfortable feeling of being aware of one's own unawareness. Little did Akio know he was subdued and caged up completely, finally. He was finally cornered with no way to escape the hell he had resided in.
Despite being trapped in the deepest and darkest holes, there was a means for escape through his connection with the Force. Now that his yearning for wreaking havoc have been put under control, being forced into a sleep inducing state, it's as if the very essence of his soul was leaking out from his body and drifting away.
For there to be another episode of flourishing power for Akio would be impossible for the time being. Those dark powers lay dormant for the time being.
Though put into a sleep induced state, he felt conscious in his state of mind, once again stepping into a familiar place. All around him, was a realm empty and cold, and the distance of where to wander seemed infinite. Once again, in this…figment of reality within his own mind, he could sense a presence.
"You have toiled and you have fought, but yet you see yourself cornered into the disposition of defeat."
Firmly lifting his fists to his chest while breathing in slowly, Akio then exhaled as he pushed his fists down towards his stomach while still keeping them at a minimal distance from his body. In doing this, he shut his eyes closed and placed himself in a concentrated posture, allowing himself to sit on his knees and have his fists placed on his lap.
To listen to the words of his grandfather's mentoring lecture once more. He braced himself to heed his wisdom so he may once again, continue to forge the path he had strode down so far that it was irreversible.
"Open your eyes for a moment grandson. What do you see?"
"…I…I…" Akio choked, rigidly opening his eyelids. "I…"
"What do you see?"
An image that was no more still that Akio Jin currently, revealed itself by manifesting itself through a visible crack Akio was able to perceive in the endless void around him. It was himself locked inside yet another containment chamber.
"My prison…" Akio sighed.
"This is where you currently reside. This was the consequence of a premature decision that YOU put ruthful faith in."
The unremitting cloud of regret ascended painfully upon Akio. It was rather peculiar and frightening for him to feel no pain residing from this regret, as if he had been invulnerable. Swiftly though he found that the cloud that hung over him was a legitimate cloud ready to begin the downpour, even if that downpour would be an illusion.
Everything about this still felt all too real.
"GRANDFATHER!" Akio yelled as he could hear the crackling of lightning above. "WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING TO TELL ME?!"
"You are far smarter than this. You know how your father had taught you. There is no try. What I have told you is something you already know by heart."
"Grandfather…" Akio groaned, his frustration building. "I cannot-"
He ceased himself from speaking ever further. Another image manifested itself into view.
"You have many steps after that first step."
Staring aimlessly onto Fujimi Academy, watching the abysmal moments of the times he spent cast off from his fellow peers, watching himself ruggedly make his way through his days without any joyous effort put forward in his routine. Even in the present, when the luxury of reporting oneself regularly to an education was long forgotten, it was rather depressing to watch himself stride through every day without real purpose, real nurture or care, just too slowly disappear.
Even with the significant mark he had left in Fujimi Academy in his time, all of that was gone. He was only one amongst the crowd of many. The silent mourning, the questioning, the rumors, they all died down in time. He remembered in those times, just wishing and dreaming of what could have been.
With the Jedi Knights.
With his one true love.
Without the traumatizing experimentation.
"But this was not the first step…This was absolute torture…" Akio shivered.
"You understand the true nature of your own past grandson. This past is unchangeable but the future can shift from one decision. You made that decision."
Afterwards, the image began to twist and turn until the Fujimi Academy he knew in the old world vanished and whirled into the nightmare that was the aftermath of the first day, and the dawn of the new world. What projected and played next was that decision.
Even with the fear that even his old friends would persecute and ridicule him for not only secretly being a Jedi, but for his absence when he cut off any contact with any of them. He could remember that acceptance, and the journey that ensued from that moment forward, when Akio finally set himself and his friends into the most plausible direction possible.
"There was no escape from this…I had to do it…I had to and yet…"
"You are imprisoned by your former master you refuse to serve. There is something however that you fail to see. He did not imprison you. He did not craft your cell."
"I crafted my own cell?"
"You know what I speak of."
In short time, Akio was shown what he had been not too long before being locked away from any fight. Just looking at it was enough for the return of that dreadful feeling he had felt the moment he had supposedly slain his mother, while she was still under his control. Regardless of her forceful allegiance, she was still a significant part of the Jin family.
In a disoriented matter, Akio hyperventilated and clutched the entirety of his cranium with his open palms while in the realisation of what he had done.
"I was after the artifact…I wasn't-ARGH! The Dark Side…The Dark Side…T-t-t-the…"
"I understand that we have traditionally taught you to resist the Dark Side of the Force. With much power comes much, MUCH responsibility. An unbearable load of responsibility can consume anyone and make them who they're not."
Akio continued to tremble, and continued to sweat through the barrage of confusion, peril, and grief that erupted in his head.
"This power, this strength…I warned you before. There needed to be control. You are paying a heavy price, but you have not failed, nor have you quit."
The pounding in his head stopped and he his head once more to feel the radiance of warmth shroud over him as he saw what had been projected.
"Look at her…Even now, they urgently search for you. This is a difficult fight to overcome. They are unwilling to cower out of this, even if you were gone. They are just as willing as you are to set the world on the right path."
"Saeko…"
In desperation, Akio extended his right palm out towards the moving picture of Saeko standing atop a roof and looking out the cloudy overhead city with a pair of binoculars. He could feel the chills of a light breeze smear against his skin, as Saeko appeared to wince simultaneously with his own reaction, as she seemed to pull the binoculars away from her to stare in his direction.
"Focus Akio…feel the Force flow through you, and let it…guide you. Feel it…you know your own principles."
"I am…" Akio croaked, tilting his head down. "I am…Jedi. I am...Sith. I am one of the same, longed for the two to compromise in the middle so there may be no more repulsion in my soul so I may…" He paused and looked up once again, at the image of Saeko, who was still facing the same way. "I may find at least find peace for..."
Unsure of his own statements, questioning the very fabric of their effectiveness and relevance, the barring image of Saeko starting out into the city while whispering and crying for his name soon began to fade away so he may learn of the fates of the others. There they all were, minus the absence of Shizuka Marikawa and Arisu Moresato. He knew not where they were if not with the group, but relief would soon find him as he realised they had not succumb.
Life still breathed through them, it is just that they had chosen not to follow so they may be safe, whilst assisting the remnants of the broken shelter in which Akio remembered to be the last place to see his friends.
Kenji Hisoka's camp at the elementary school…
"Do you still hold a contempt for that man Akio? Do you feel as though you need to take action to ensure that he may correct a mistake? Do you believe he was inadvertently responsible for your capture?"
"Grandfather…You had not called me that for a long time…since…" Akio realised.
"Just as I have come for you in the beginning…as I have come for you in the end my grandchild…Now how do you feel?"
"I understood the officer's for the Jedi had been misplaced, nor could I blame him. I also feel that I could not blame…blame…"
He could see it right in front of him, the eyes of his enemy, the emanating a long sealed sadness that was in his eyes, replicating the same pain as Akio when he saw his mother die. The light remnants of yellow that was heeding in that person's pupils, showed a pain that was as heartbreaking and shocking as Akio's.
Even there, Akio watched him converse with his comrades, even if he was held at a strenuous level of contempt and hatred, his eyes were as still as his passion.
"Mr. Shido…"
"Had you not known that both of your fates had been equally traumatic?"
"I had been blinded by vengeance…" Akio was not afraid to admit. "I had been unable to see. I was so focused on what he had done…"
"You may have viewed him as a monster, your sworn enemy, but like any monster, chaos lies at the center of their evil and it does not question nor sympathize its influence."
There may have been justifiable persecution for Koichi Shido so he may be held responsible for his past misdeeds, and the continuous disruption of order that continued to ensue, but they needed to further the justification if there were to be a truce steady enough for all of them to continue their journey. It was in for his own safety that he listened to the pleading, anguish cries of the former students before him. He did not shy away from the fact that he was the son of one of the most despicable and selfish politicians, and he took part in some one of the most scandalous acts known to man.
They all still held their hatred strongly, and they did not require a soldier to be present in the room to hold him. Rei, Kohta, Takashi, Saya…they were more than capable by themselves. But now that they have exhilarated all of their anger and frustration on the man, it was his turn to share his own motives.
"I do apologize for the wreaking havoc that had been plagued upon this world…I have sinned, and the blood on my hands cannot be washed away no matter what I do…"
Their expressions did not change. They already knew it. He was a bad man, with selfish interests and they've already heard it so many times and they did not need to hear that repeated to them over and over again. Not only that, Shido would get preachy and charismatic at times and they did not appreciate nor tolerate his passion in the past.
"But I am a man who can take responsibility for his mistake, even if it is long gone beyond my mortal control and," Shido focused his sight of Rei. "I do not expect forgiveness. I am far from worthy. My shame is most great, and I am unworthy to stand before you." He then slowly bowed. "I am truly sorry."
It was a radical change in his character, and the skepticism in the room did not depart.
"Takashi! Don't listen to him." Rei snarled quietly.
"Why would I lie to you at this time Miyomoto?!" Shido questioned with alarm.
"We all know what you do!" Rei growled. "You're just trying to get us to let our guard down so when we get to your father's facility, you'll lead us into a trap when we're not looking!"
"HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!" Shido began to snicker uncontrollably. "AH, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA! Have I taught you all NOTHING?!" He grumbled with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Yeah!" Kohta yelled. "That you will keep lying through your teeth just so you can what you want!"
"All I wanted Hirano was to be a teacher." Shido retorted. "I never meant to cause any harm, which is why I left my father to pursue a teaching career!"
Feeling rather upset about discussing anything much further, Shido stumbled, but steadily and slowly tried to leave the room with the sharp edge of a bayonet poking at the back of his neck.
"Let me tell you all something, something I hope is not forgotten. The only reason I am not standing at my father's side right now is because he has taken more than he has given. To the country he pledged himself to lead. To me. TO MY FAMILY. TO MY MOTHER. He's nothing more than a tyrant with a dark agenda. That you can assure yourselves is not a lie."
To hear these words made them stumble for a moment, but they were still looking at him skeptically, being cautious as to what he had said so they could debate whether it was false or not.
"I never speak about my mother's death for a reason. It had only done more harm than good. When a typical husband hears that his wife committed suicide, their typical reaction would be to trip over their own feet and throw their lives into absolute misery and dread, or to make the most out of it. Not my father. Nothing changed with him. He was the same as always. 'Hey son, one day this country-NO, this WORLD will be yours! If need be, destroy the world and rule what's left.' What kind of father tells that to his son?! What kind of father would threaten the mother of her child just to stay in absolute power?! What kind of father threatens and kills more fathers and more mothers, just to stay in absolute power?!"
With that the thoughts drifting in his conscience finally released, Shido stepped out.
