"If you wanna change the world, all you have to do is just look at it differently… am I right?" Ryuji sat back in his seat after giving his surprisingly inspirational monologue. It's true, Akira realized, that that was the very moral of their story. Ryuji turned to Akira, a crooked smile adorning his face.
"And THAT is what "aesthetics" are." He declared as he playfully nudged Akira's shoulder, right on cue. As always, Akira smiled in response. "...Yeah."
There was a long moment of silence, and Akira wanted to scream, wanted to rip the hair out of his head in frustration. This first time around, this moment had been so freeing. It had made him feel as though there wasn't a thing in this entire world that could hold him down. Then, everything just reset. Just as the credits came to an end, everything froze, and the world closed in on him. And just like that, when he opened his eyes, he was on the train into Tokyo once again, ready to serve another year of probation.
Akira found he could no longer count the number of times he's done this; sent to Tokyo on probation, discovered the Metaverse with Ryuji, formed the Phantom Thieves, took down a bunch of rotten criminals, and saved the very world. Sometimes though, Akira tried different things, hoping that maybe if he changed the way the game was played, or if he didn't play the game at all and completely disregarded Yaldabaoth's insistent calls, this vicious cycle might finally come to an end, but nothing ever worked.
He waited with bated breath, waited for that quick flash of darkness. The van hummed quietly down the freeway, everyone sitting in companionable silence.
'Has it always taken this long before?' Akira silently speculated. A brief nod over his shoulder earned him kind smiles from Futaba and Haru. He forced a smile in return. There was still plenty of room in the back seat for an eighth passenger, he noted. Akira's mind wandered as he waited for the inevitable end that he knew was coming.
Goro Akechi, in Akira's experience, truly was a lost cause. During his first run, he'd been filled with such grief over his death. He foolishly believed that, had he just done things a little differently, he could have saved him. He had wept to himself the night after that dreadful fight in the boiler room, the event that marked Goro's fate, as he clutched his tie to his chest; Goro's "armor". If Morgana had heard, he understandingly didn't say anything.
The sad truth that Akira simply didn't want to admit was that Goro's fate was truly bound. He'd tried run after run to save him, but each time, in one way or another, he still ended up dead. Goro Akechi could not be saved.
"Had we met under different circumstances, we could have been great rivals... or perhaps even friends." Akira smiled bitterly, staring down at his lap. Maybe he was right after all. If he could have instead met Goro way back, back before any of this even began, maybe things could have been different. 'As if that'd ever happen,' Akira scoffed.
Then, as if taunting him, the world finally reset. Akira couldn't help but wince. It wasn't painful—in fact, he never felt a thing—but it was definitely jarring, to say the least. Opening his eyes, Akira braced himself for the sight of the packed train car but was instead met with the back of a car seat. Pause.
Akira's eyes darted around in bewilderment. There was only one other person in the car, an older woman with short brown hair behind the wheel, sighing frustratedly at the line of traffic ahead. On the seat next to him was a black trash bag filled with… something. Slung over his shoulders were the straps of a backpack. An odd feeling hit him then as he looked out the window; his head was barely high enough to see through the clear glass. Slowly, his eyes trailed down to look at himself, and horror rose up in his throat like bile. He was tiny. "Child" tiny. He nearly let out an undignified shriek, but then the woman was turning around and giving him a tired smile, which quickly turned into one of amusement as she took in his horrified expression.
"What's that look for? Was there a bug or something?" She chortled at him. Akira shook his head. "No. I'm not… afraid of insects," he trailed off. The woman's smile curved upward. "'Insects', huh? That's a pretty big word for a kid your age," she said softly, then turned back to face the road once again. Akira paled, feeling his stomach turn to stone.
' What the hell, ' his thoughts raced, 'what the hell is going on? What's happening?' Akira stared down at his small hands once again, whispering to himself, "Why is this happening to me?"
It was nearly two hours later when they finally reached their destination. There were several buildings in what looked like a small low-income housing neighborhood, with many of them being small apartment structures. The buildings were all very… white. The car pulled up outside the front gates, and the woman sat back and turned to look at him.
"Here we are, Akira-kun. Are you ready?" Akira stared back at her blankly and said not a word. She gave him a bittersweet smile. "I know you might now believe me now when I say this, but we truly want what is best for you. I hope you'll understand that when you get a little older," she spoke in a near-whisper before reaching back and gently ruffling his hair. "...Okay, grab your bag. We'll go introduce ourselves, okay?"
Not more than three minutes after they passed the gates, Akira realized what kind of place this was; there were children everywhere, running and playing, sitting by themselves, reading or drawing. This was an orphanage.
The woman Akira had come in with, who Akira guessed must be his social worker, had immediately been whisked to the office to fill out some information for Akira. A few minutes later, a young man approached him, a friendly smile on his face. He introduced himself as Takuto Maruki, one of the on-site staff workers.
"You must be pretty tired after that long ride down here, huh?" He bent down with his hands on his knees, and Akira wanted to smack him. Although Akira had 'woken up' just about two hours before they got here, his body still felt extremely stiff, as though he really had been sitting in that car for hours, so he nodded wordlessly at the man. He gave Akira a lopsided grin and motioned for him to follow, turning and heading towards one of the buildings. When they stepped inside, Akira was led into one of the rooms and found the left wall was lined with beds. Takuto pointed to the second bed from the wall. "We've got this bed here set up for you. We'll make some arrangements to get a space in the wardrobe for your clothes, but for now, you can set that down over there," he pointed to a dresser on the other side of the room. Still feeling awkward and weirdly jetlagged, Akira quietly shuffled into the room and set his bag down, taking the opportunity to also slip his backpack off as well. It was a solid dark blue with a little star keychain hanging from one of the zippers.
"Okay! So, I'm gonna show you the really important places, and then I'll take you to the lunch hall and you can get something to eat. Tomorrow, we'll go over the rest. Sound good?" Akira nodded and Takuto clapped his hands together resolutely. "Let's go, then!" Akira already felt exhausted just from this man's enthusiasm alone, but silently followed him around anyway, trying his best to remember each of the places he was being brought to. After all, he had no way of knowing if he was going to end up trapped like this. Surely, there had to be a reason why things turned out like this right? After all, didn't everything happen for a reason? Despite everything, when he was finally able to go to bed that night, he curled himself into a ball and squeezed his eyes shut, desperately hoping that when he woke up, he'd realize that all of this had just been some terrible dream. He'd sit up in his bed back home with none of this madness having ever happened.
He should have known better than to let himself foolishly cling to such a childish wish. He'd learned when the resets started happening that things like hope didn't exist in this world, whatever is was. He'd done everything he could to make it all stop. He'd protected all of his friends, and he'd killed of them, too. He even tried killing himself, but the moment that blade met the flesh of his wrists, he'd immediately been brought back to his last 'save point'.
And so, without even knowing how he ended up in such a place, his life here was already beginning… whether he wanted it or not. As his mind finally drifted past the threshold of unconsciousness, a deep penetrating voice somewhere in the back of his thoughts rang out; "I've granted you this one favor, so make the most of it. Just remember, though—this is your last chance."