note: this fic was made based of the memory flashbacks in the movie, not the manga. so don't yell at me if I screw something up :P have fun and be imaginative
Silent Hours
Epilogue
The morning left Kaneda alone with his memories. Seated hugging his knees to his chest in a high window of his apartment, he watched the death of Neo Tokyo over and over again in his head, while the city itself loomed far away in the distance where it rested, ominous, dead and gray. It seemed like a punishment to him, when really it was his unforgiving conscious.
How apt of the landlord to sell him an apartment that faced the ruins of Neo Tokyo. After its fall about two months ago, the people who had survived the blast and the after-quakes flooded to the nearest apartment complexes and houses before they were forced to wander the streets. As soon as he saw the view from the large bay window, Neo Tokyo nothing more then a few sporadic black specks against the sky, he nearly doubled back around in shock. But Kei fell in love with the small living space, especially the window seat in the family room. The sight didn't seem to bother her at all; she instead focused on the bay. Kaneda told the landlord he and Kei were siblings who had lost their entire family in the blast and made the owner feel sorry. The got an extra low rent. They needed something affordable, since the jobs they had weren't only lousy but they didn't pay well and they weren't fulltime.
Kaneda only made it worse when he refused to sell his bike. He'd rather live on the streets then part with it. So it sat collecting dust over its gold sheet and lock chain, idling in the basement, patiently waiting for another ride. But the only joyrides Kaneda found himself taking these days were early in the morning on sleepless nights. At first it made Kei worry, but unfortunately she had grown accustomed to a lonely bed. They were empty of all joy though, which made the ride in itself merely ironic.
A soft stir behind him made his attention whir back around to reality. Kai was sleeping soundly on the couch beneath his own jacket, a magazine trailing from his fingers. Kaneda had barely even noticed him there. His friend wandered in sometimes to say hello or pick up something or sometimes even to sleep. It didn't bother him, and he'd be leaving soon anyway. His girlfriend just inherited a house near the Kyoto district off Lake Biwa. He'd be gone in two weeks.
He looked back out the window and sighed to himself. If all contact between him and his only living friend were going to be extinguished soon, he wondered what else there was to do with himself. Find a steady job and settle down, perhaps. Maybe his wild days were over. Too fast, he thought. They had grown up too fast and now, in just a blink, it was over too fast. It's amazing how fast one's life could change in a matter of days, even hours. Sometimes it didn't take long for someone to become a memory.
"Kaneda…"
The sun would rise over Neo Tokyo soon. He decided to wait and watch it instead of trying to sleep.
"Kaneda? Hey," A soft, tired female voice grew slightly insistent behind his ear. He slowly turned his head to see Kei leaning over him, touching his shoulder lightly. An oversized red shirt was acting as a nightgown and crumpled socks were on her feet. "Are you feeling alright?" She asked gently and sat down beside him in the window seat, tucking her legs underneath her.
"I'm okay."
"Can't sleep again." She stated and narrowed her eyes with concern. He nodded drowsily and she reached out a hand to brush some of the bangs away from his eyes. She let the back of her hand lay flat against his forehead, feeling for warmth. It was normal, so no fever. "You want some coffee or something then?"
He shook his head and murmured, "Go back to bed."
Kei yawned herself and her nestled her head into his shoulder and stared at what he was so fascinated with. "No. I'll never get to sleep now. Not knowing you're awake anyway."
Light was lazily peeking up over the horizon, making the clouds blush with deep mauve. It cast shadows across what was left of Neo Tokyo; the rubble, towering black skeletons of skyscrapers, chain link fences leaning in the wind, some cars and parts littered about the ground, the miles and miles of cement flatland that stretched out before them. The metropolis's remains where in the distance, she could see the great plumes of smoke dithering up into the sky and a few licks of fire dotting the dark nooks of the city.
It was hard not breaking down these days. Life had grown harder wandering the streets searching for a decent living, and modern Japan had grown callous and untrusting toward outsiders, which made help from foreign nations hard. She feared their own government would crumble and feebly lapse into bankruptcy someday. And sooner or later they'd have to start rebuilding their capital again, wouldn't they? Japan was accustomed to rising from the ashes, kind of like a Phoenix the people said positively. It had started with Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, then the destructive earthquakes of Tokyo and later the eruption that led them into the third world war. They were just tired of it, and perhaps thinking to themselves, "What's the point anymore?" Maybe that's why they had been putting it off—not lack of money and funding but just plain despair. Rumors had bustled around the café where she worked an afternoon shift that they'd move the capital to Osaka or even Nagoya, both wholesome and impressive seaports. Hiroshima, though fairing well now, was not a possibility, obviously. Maybe those cities could be the next Tokyo. But it just wouldn't be the same, everyone knew that. Things would never be the same.
Kei wondered sleepily, if they did resurrect Neo Tokyo, how many people would move back again? There were those who wouldn't let the fatalities of the supernatural hamper their lives, and then there were those who were too afraid. And they had every right to be. After all, if it had happened twice before, a third time was a threatening and high possibility.
The future's potential seemed ominous, and the government was too much for even her to tolerate sometimes. And some nights, cold and strange, she could see it in Kaneda's eyes too. The desolation, the misery. It was hard for him, she knew. Naturally it would be. She reminded him of how proud she was of his courage and stronghold, his tenacity to hold a sense of humor in the darkest of times, and even his stubborn nature made her thankful sometimes. But he dismissed it, claiming he wasn't as strong as he appeared. "I lost a part of myself with Neo Tokyo," he said once, a sentence that eventually made itself an abrupt end to a heated argument before it even started. And, sitting alone, wondering where he had stormed out to in the dead of the night, she knew he was right. She knew herself it was true about herself, too. It had been a big part of herself, a hopeful one. And like a person who had departed, she found she could never quite forget about it, that she could never stop feeling sorry for it's loss. Kei would just crawl into bed and hope that when he stumbled in before the sun rose, trying not to trip over something in the darkness, and sit on the edge of the bed and watch her sleep until morning, that her qualms would be gone as soon as the dawn arrived. And with the night their troubles would vanish, and so would her feeling of guilt.
Kei had to accept she couldn't help the dead. No one could. Death wasn't anyone's fault. It was an unbroken cycle, and it struck in eccentric ways sometimes. Maybe the metropolis's continuous falling was Life's way of cleaning out the sinful, the corrupt. Sometimes the innocent fell too.
Something wet dashed down her forehead. It startled her awake from her drifting thoughts and very quickly made her anxious. Kei acknowledged his tears; it was her turn to be strong now.
Kei tightened her fingers around his arm and held him tight, murmuring his name softly into his sleeve. He didn't answer, and so she squeezed her eyes shut and tried her damnedest not to let go. Biting her lip, she didn't open her eyes again. Kei didn't want to see anymore. She didn't want to sense its death.
It didn't matter. Kaneda was watching for her. Nothing like that bothered him anymore. For now he realized that if he gazed at the dead remains of Neo Tokyo long enough it would eventually all bleed together. Why feel bad if you can't see it? Besides, he had disconnected himself from reality now. The world seemed very surreal as he watched it through his blurry eyes. It appeared as nothing but a silver sky and smooth, black asphalt—the perfect playground.
The air was thick with silence as the sun rose over Neo Tokyo.
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I think I did this fic because I was bored. -_____-;; no!! bored and unhappy with the potholes of the system! The system is corrupt!!! The system as in Akira, that is. I think my most favorite parts in Akira were Kani and Tet's flashbacks as kids, cuz they were so sentimental and fuzzy and made me go "aaaaw" instead of "eeeww!!"
But my original vision was to have Tetsuo's dad drop him off at the orphanage, but when I watched the movie again I noticed how peculiar it was that he had an indifferent look on his face. I mean, if my parents just deserted me like that I'd practically be hysterical (if I was that young, I mean. now I'm not sure I'd mind :\). So anyway I went back to the drawing board and changed it so Tetsuo was used to being passed around. It made more sense when I look back on it too. I hope so anyway o_o Akira wasn't exactly a lucid movie, was it?
In case you were confused about the title or the chapter names, there was what I'm going to call "a watch of life" in this fic. The sun represented the hand and the sky was the face. Put the pieces together like a puzzle. I LOVE symbolism in stories!!
And isn't Tet's mum just devious? Creating a child in her place to eventually destroy the city and finally get her revenge for all her suffering. Crafty, ne?
As always, I encourage any comments or criticisms. Thank ya!