Part 7: The Mask
Divine wasn't surprised when Aki was reluctant to use her powers outside the safety and familiarity of the Arcadia Movement building. Here she was accepted by people with similar problems and the training facilities gave her the illusion that what she did was not quite real. He couldn't let her keep that dream though.
Aki wanted to please him more than anything, he knew as much, and being unable to follow his orders pained her more than him.
So he invented a way out for her. He gave her a mask.
Behind the persona of the Black Rose Witch Aki was able to do all which Divine asked in plain view of others and she wasn't nearly as wound up afterwards as before. She still needed Divine's council and they shared long conversations discussing the use of her powers, but it got better.
Divine liked to think of them as 'their' powers, they were as much his as Aki's. Without him she'd never be able to make use of them. Aki was just happy to know that there was some use in these abilities she was still more than a little afraid of.
He understood her so very well, more than she would ever know. His own psychic powers weren't so different from hers and if anyone could relate their fate to hers it was him. They were meant for each other. Aki would have the mentor and advisor he himself had so desperately needed.
He had created the Arcadia Movement for himself in the past; in fact, he had created himself: Divine, and just like that he had designed the Black Rose Witch for Aki. A shield against the cruel, discriminating world that shunned them and in form of the training he provided for his wards, a sword to fight back.
No child of his would suffer at the hands of all those ignorant fools that populated the world.
*
"I need this mask.", she explained to Yusei when he asked her about it, "It helps me control my powers."
They sat alone, as they often did, talking and exploring. Aki applied an analgesic salve to the bruises she had left on his back earlier, feeling only a little guilty about them. Yusei had asked her for it, she rationalized, he wanted it.
"I don't see why hiding your face would do that.", he disagreed, "It doesn't change who you are or what you do."
He flinched when she put more pressure on one mark than she had to.
"The point is, it works, just like Divine said it would.", she insisted with determination.
He didn't argue after that, but he still thought the mask was a step in the wrong direction. Which brought him to an interesting dilemma: He had never known Divine to be wrong.