Nijino Akira.
That was the name they gave him. The name the ToQgers created, just for him. The name that proved he was no longer part of the Shadow Line.
"Nijino Akira." he said out loud.
He closed his eyes and repeated it over and over again, letting it roll off his tongue, enunciating it slowly and drawing out each syllable.
"Nijino Akira."
This is the name they gave me, but I can not accept it.
OOO
The Shadow Line had always been a dark and gruesome place, a battlefield where the strong preyed upon the weak. You could never trust anyone besides yourself. You could never be satisfied with what you had besides the eternal desire for more darkness. You had to accept the way things were. You could never have hope.
Everything was simple. If you were strong, you lived. If you were weak, you died. That was how the cycle went. You were nothing but an enemy or prey to someone else. You meant nothing. Everyone accepted this way of life.
Maybe that's why he feels guilty. Guilty for obtaining light when others that probably deserved it more were left to die. Maybe it's because if it weren't for Schwarz, he would've been dead sooner, never had the opportunity to see the light, to feel hope.
Schwarz.
Akira could remember their first encounter together as if it was yesterday. How despite his rank, Schwarz intervened at the last second and saved him from dying by the hands of another Shadow. How he got himself hurt and injured just to save him.
Even now he still doesn't understand why he saved him. He was nothing, just another weak Shadow that would disappear from existence eventually.
"What is your name?" he remembered him asking.
"Zaram."
That was his name, yet it felt foreign to him, sounded so different from the last time he said it. Had he ever spoken it out loud before?
"Would you like to be my partner in world domination?"
Why would he ask that? Doesn't he know? You can't trust anyone out here.
"Yes."
So why? Why did he accept? Did he think he'd be different from all the others? Did he think he could actually change the world?
In truth, maybe he did. Maybe he truly believed things would be different, that they could change the world they lived in. Maybe he could make things different for everyone else. Maybe make things not so... dark.
But little did he know that would all change, that he would become the one thing he hated, despised. That he would be the same scum that inflicted pain upon others. That he would be the one to betray his only friend.
OOO
"Your name is Zaram."
Akira didn't turn toward the voice, he didn't need to. He could already sense the brooding Shadow figure that he once was standing behind him. Every bit of darkness left within him coiling around in the air.
"No, my name is Nijino Akira."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because my friends gave it to me. They trust me."
"But do you trust them?"
"Of course." he said without hesitation "I would give my life up for them."
"Do you mean that? Would you really give up your life for them?"
He tipped his hard hat so that it covered his eyes from the cold pin pricks of rain, obscuring the image of the rainbow in front of him, "Yes."
He meant every word. If he was to sacrifice his life for them, he'd give it away in an instant. He was nothing after all, a name could never change that.