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Recap- Chapter 3- Akiya's Decision
Koenma questioned Akiya and her friends' loyalty to her. The ninjas are angry at Koenma for whatever he had said to Akiya to make her act so differently. When the ninjas try to confront her with the problem, she gets angered and pushes them away. Akiya runs off and argues amongst herself about whether her friends really are her friends, or were just pretending all of that time. When Katsu, Mika, and Yomi confronted her with the problem, they winded up getting into an argument. The children, as well as Akiya, wound up getting hurt inside. Them Hayate confessed his feelings to her, or at least it seemed like he did for the moment. He admitted in the end that it was just to convince her not to leave and nothing more. For the rest of the time, Hayate and the three children have been ignoring Akiya. She asked to speak with Koenma personally. Akiya has finally made up her mind. She has decided to join the team, without knowing that Hayate was there listening…
Run Away Forever Chapter 4- Convince Her! Difficulties Leaving
"So when are we leaving?" Akiya asked Koenma.
"We were planning to leave in a couple of hours," he answered. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason, I was just wondering."
Akiya noticed Jiruma from the corner of her eye. She walked up to Koenma and Akiya and stared at the young girl.
"Imaru-sama would like to have a word with you," she informed. "Please follow me."
"Okay," she replied. Then she turned to Koenma. "I'll meet you here in an hour and forty-five minutes."
With that, she walked away, following Jiruma. She led Akiya to Imaru's office and knocked lightly on the door before opening it with Imaru's consent. Akiya went in as he signaled for his assistant to leave. She bowed and silently left the room closing the door quietly behind her. Imaru was sitting at his desk. He turned around to face Akiya and looked her right in the eye.
"Rumors have reached me that you are leaving the village soon," he said.
"Yes sir," she answered.
"You're not going anywhere!" he said dangerously.
"Why sir?" she asked.
"Have you forgotten about your debts to this village already?"
"But I thought that you wanted me to leave," she said confused. "Wasn't this what you always wanted ever since that day the village got attacked and brutally slaughtered? I thought you didn't want me around sir!"
"I'm an elite! What I say goes! You are nothing more than garbage, a dog! You will listen to what your master orders! Do you understand me, doggy?!"
Akiya frowned at Imaru and was angered by the comment though she tried her best to stay calm.
"With all do respect sir, I'm not your little puppy!" she said trying to stay calm. "I may be under your command, but I'm not a puppy!"
"You are to stay here and not step a single step outside of this village unless you are on a mission, or gain my consent," he said firmly.
"Sir I thought that this was what you wanted! Why the change of heart?"
"This isn't a change of heart. I'm not permitting you to leave until you repay the village, or are you going to leave now and betray me? Are you going to stoop that low?"
"Sir I never betrayed the village!"
"Really?"
"Fine! If you want to put it that way sir, then let me make a point," she said firmly and angrily while at the same time, trying to be calm once again. "What you said was much on the contrary. If you want to say that I stooped low enough to betray the village, then you've stooped even lower! You betrayed me and the village by making them betray an innocent little girl! If I stooped low to the ground, then you've stooped low to the point where you can't even think about getting back up! I don't even want to try to compare myself to you because just thinking about it… I'd rather go to hell!"
"How dare you!" he shouted furiously at her.
"Sir, I'm leaving," she simply stated. Akiya was about to open the door when Imaru got up and slammed both of his hands on his desk.
"Stay right where you are!" he shouted at her. "You're not leaving until you pay your debt to me and the village!"
Why sir?!" she asked turning around to face him. "I've helped save the village so many times and all you ever did was make them betray me! But you know what hurts even more?! You were the one who led the whole village into that. You betrayed me."
Imaru's hard and hateful glare softened into a gaze.
"Was that really how I made you feel? Like the village betrayed you? Like I betrayed you? Come here and listen to me for a moment," he ordered as Akiya stepped away from the door and walked up to his desk. Imaru took Akiya's silence as a sign to continue. "I didn't know that I made you feel like that, honest. I never meant for it to hurt you so much."
"Then why did you even do it?"
"I was afraid that after the incident that day, you might've left the village out of guilt. Knowing the kind of person you were, I figured that if I made you feel indebted to the village, you would stay to pay it off. You're a stubborn person. I didn't know how else to make you stay. I'm sorry, if I made you feel that bad. I just needed to find a quick and powerful excuse to get you to stay around."
"And this was the best excuse you could come up with sir?" she asked disappointedly.
"I'm afraid so," he answered. "You have to believe me, it hurt me to treat you the way I was, but I could only secretly wish for your forgiveness."
"Sir, you know this doesn't change anything," she said. "I'm still leaving. You think I'm stupid or something? I could tell just by the look in your eyes and the way you speak that everything that just came out now was a bunch of junk. Like you said. It was a quick and powerful excuse, but it's not going to work again."
Akiya turned around, walked over to the door and opened it.
"You disgraceful traitor!" he shouted as Akiya was already halfway out the door. She whirled around.
"Remember this, if I betrayed you, it's because you betrayed me first!" she shouted this time, no longer able to contain her anger.
Akiya slammed the door behind her and walked down the hall when a voice said,
"You know, he wasn't lying…"
Akiya looked up to see Jiruma.
"I know that some of the things he says aren't said in the prettiest ways, but he's telling you the truth none the less," Jiruma said to her. "Akiya-san, please don't leave. Imaru-sama will be saddened by your departure, and so will I… but even more than that, your teammates, and the children, especially Katsu…"
Akiya walked passed her without saying a word. Jiruma didn't push the subject any further as she stared at Akiya leaving the building. When she got outside, Kohira was waiting for her. Akiya sighed. This wasn't how she wanted to leave. Kohira looked at her with an unusual seriousness in her eyes.
"You too?" Akiya asked tiredly.
"Let's go somewhere more private," she said as they walked into the forest. Once they got in pretty far, she stopped and turned to face Akiya. "I've heard already, that you were leaving that is…"
Not this again… Akiya thought.
"Akiya-chan, is this what you want or is it what they want? Because if that's what they want, then we want you to stay," Kohira said sternly.
"It's not who wants what Kohira-san, but it's a result of everything that has happened in the past years," Akiya answered.
"No it's not. You know, you're probably tired of hearing what I'm about to say, so I won't even go near that. I'm not going to pull you towards one side and away from the other, but you know that there are only two choices that you can make. Either go, and leave us out of your life from this point on and drop everything you've believed in, or, stay and drop them. The choice is completely up to you. I can only hope that you choose the right choice."
"And what do you think is the right choice?" Akiya asked her.
"That's up to you," she replied. "My answer would only weigh down one side of the argument…"
Kohira walked away. A couple minutes after Kohira left Keta appeared.
"I'm sure popular today," Akiya stated more to herself then to Keta. "Let me guess. You don't want me to leave, right?"
"No…" she said as Akiya turned around to look at Keta confused. "I just want to make sure that you know something very important. If you join them, and there is a fight between us and their group in the future, you know that you can't come back to our side. We'd have to see you as an enemy, and you would have to see us as your enemy. We'd have to fight against each other, and it's not like sparring during our training. It's like war, families split in two, forced to fight the most important people to them. Are you aware of that? Is that what you really want? If it is, then don't let me stop you…"
Keta turned around and walked away. Hiro happened to be walking by as well. He looked at Keta and stopped her.
"Keta, what's wrong?" he asked in concern. Then he continued on quietly so Akiya couldn't hear him. "When is she planning to leave?"
"I don't know," she said as quietly as Hiro. She looked up at him desperately. "Please, do something! Convince her somehow, to stay!"
"It's not my place to interfere with her choice Keta," Hiro said, sadness in his voice even though he tried to hide it. "If this is what she's chosen, then… I dunno… I won't do anything about it."
"Why?!" Keta asked trying to keep quiet. "Don't you care about her?"
"Of course I do. That's why I won't—"
"No you don't!! You don't give a damn!!" Keta shouted no longer able to hold her anger and sadness in.
Akiya looked up from where she was standing, shocked. Keta was always calm, in almost every situation. She might've gotten mad sometimes, but she never shouted, not to her friends anyway. Hiro sighed heavily as Keta disappeared with a poof. He turned to Akiya and walked up to her. Hiro didn't say anything. He just stared at her as she stared at the ground. The wind blew gently as the two stood in silence. After a few minutes longer, Hiro broke the silence and said,
"You know… it's harder on us than it is on you…" he said looking at the trees.
"I'm losing everyone… you're only losing one person," Akiya said. "You'll find someone else in this world that's like me. The world's a big place. I'm only one person in this big world.
"To the world, you may be one person… but to one person, you may be the world…" he said looking at her again. Akiya looked at him oddly. "Hayate and I are really close friends. You could say that we're brothers, or even more than that. Akiya-chan… Hayate cares a lot about you, as if you were his little sister. If you're not going to do it for us, do it for him. Do it for the person that cares about you most. You're the world to him."
"Hiro-san I—" Akiya said but stopped mid-sentence. Hiro wasn't there anymore.
This was definitely not how I wanted to let everyone know that I was leaving, Akiya thought. She turned around and began to walk out of the forest slowly, beginning to wonder if she made the right choice. She made it outside of the forest as the children were passing by. They looked up and stared at her as she stared uneasily back at them.
"Katsu, Mika, Yomi," she said.
"Akiya Ni-chan," they all said not removing their eyes from her.
"Are you still going to leave?" Mika asked after a few moments of silence.
Akiya nodded not removing her gaze.
"So what we said didn't even make you think it over? Not even a little?" Yomi asked this time.
"To be honest… yes it did," she answered softly. "It made me think it over a lot. It had me questioning myself… on whether I made the right decision or not… but I don't want to change my mind."
"You're so selfish," Katsu said, his voice trembling.
Akiya looked at him. "You're right. I am selfish. I can't give you guys what you want… I can only give myself what I want."
"Want?" Katsu asked her, his voice still trembling. "I don't want you… Who would?"
Katsu jabbed his hands in his pockets and walked away. Akiya didn't remove her soft and sad gaze on him until she could no longer see him. Yomi began to walk away as well.
"You know what?" he asked stopping. "I give up. Katsu's right."
Yomi continued to walk away as Mika looked straight into Akiya's eyes. Akiya stared right back at her. The least she could do for them before she left them all alone was to listen to what they had to say.
"None of us ever wanted you," Mika said really softly, her voice slightly trembling. "We needed you… and we're not mad at you for doing this. We're just disappointed. Katsu wanted you to know that, but he couldn't bring himself to tell you. He was afraid that you'd feel sad…"
Akiya walked and stood beside Mika, her facing one way and Mika facing the other. She raised her hand and softly put it on top of Mika's head.
"Mika…" she said. "I don't know how to show you guys how I feel about doing this. I know this weak, but… sorry… make sure they know that too…"
Akiya left. Mika didn't move. Akiya looked at her from the corner of her eye and forced herself to not go back and comfort Mika. It would only make it much harder for them both. It had already been an hour and a half. Only fifteen minutes before she had to leave. She hoped that she wouldn't run into Hayate. That would make it a hundred times harder for her to leave.
-----Hiro, Keta, Kohira, and Hayate-----
"We couldn't do anything," Hiro said to Hayate. "If you want, you can try one more time. I don't know if you'd be able to convince her but…"
"Please Hayate," Kohira begged. "Don't let her leave."
Hayate, who had his eyes closed and his head tilted downward, looked up. As soon as he did, his eyes went to Keta's immediately. It had automatically drawn him somehow. Keta didn't want to beg with words. Her eyes begged Hayate for her.
"Forget it," Hayate said emotionlessly, still staring at Keta. The moment he said that, her eyes showed sadness and depression. Akiya had been her best friend even though they didn't talk much with each other. She didn't want her to leave.
"Then we better get to the front gate. She'll be leaving soon," Hiro informed.
"We should get the children too," Kohira said.
"Yeah," Hiro replied.
Once they got the children, they began walking to the front gate.
"Hey," Hiro said getting everyone's attention. "Let's not act all gloomy and sad when we see her. I'm sure she'd want to remember us smiling at her, not depressed and unhappy. All right?"
Everyone nodded and continued to the front gate. When they reached it, Akiya was already there, ready to leave with Koenma, Botan, and the detectives. Akiya turned around to have a surprised reaction when she saw who were there.
"So this is it huh?" Hiro asked smiling. "Good luck to you."
Everyone smiled at her and Akiya felt so happy inside.
"Thank you everyone. I'm sorry for all the trouble you guys had to go through," she said.
"Don't worry about it," Kohira said.
"You guys behave. Kay?" Akiya said to the children.
They all nodded and hugged her. Keta didn't say anything but when her and Akiya's eyes met, Akiya knew what Keta wanted to say to her and acknowledged it with a small nod. Hayate, who was standing in the back, hesitated a bit before saying,
"I'd like an answer the next time we see each other."
Everyone looked at him and Akiya, wondering what Hayate meant. Akiya stared at Hayate with shocked eyes. Did Hayate really mean what he meant to say back at the cliff after all?
This is it… Hayate thought. If this can't convince her to stay… then… I won't try to stop her anymore…
After a while, Akiya smiled softly and nodded.
"Sure," she said. Your persuasion worked… I convinced me to stay… one side of me… just not the other… I feel bad about leaving now… or at least a lot worst than I did before…
Akiya said goodbye to everyone one last time as she turned around and began to walk outside of the village.
-----In Imaru's Office-----
"Are you sure that you don't want go down to bid her farewell sir?" Jiruma asked.
"Yes," he replied. "I think that somehow, it's better for her to think that what I said was all a lie. Why aren't you down there saying goodbye to her? You know that this may be your last chance to tell her about yourself."
"No…" she said quietly. "I don't want her to remember… that she and I are half-siblings… more than that… I don't want her to remember… that Rejuko… is my father…"
-----Next Chapter's Preview------
Run Away Forever Chapter 5- An Unpleasant Reunion
Akiya has finally left the village, but when she gets to Koenma's palace and meets someone unexpectedly, she gets upset. It was a person who she had saved a long time ago, but she doesn't seem to be all that grateful. Who is this person, and why do they hold such strong grudges?