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They left a few minutes ago, promising to secure the route to the treasure and handing him a Goho-M, "just in case." Makoto said before she left.
8 minutes 21 seconds since he heard the double gunshots.
He didn't want to leave. He couldn't. Maybe the door would open if he waited long enough. So he waited.
And waited.
And waited.
"It's just you, me, and this watertight bulkhead door between us."
17 minutes 32 seconds.
"I don't know why I'm still here, I should've left with the others, but I can't just go."
The silence was consuming.
"I can't- I can't just leave you here… even if it's impossible to reach you- your body, whatever's left of you."
He didn't want to think about it, Akechi already looked terrible when they finished their fight, he could barely stand. He didn't want to imagine the amount of blood on the other side of the door. He could feel his own breath seize up.
"You were my friend you know, you still are, even after everything. You liked to call us rivals , and I- and I just went along with it, because you looked so… so happy whenever I said it."
21 minutes 15 seconds.
"Our games of billiards, I don't know how I won, I-I just wanted to impress you, to show you I could be a worthy rival for you. I bought books and an expensive pool cue, I did the same with darts. You… you always drove me to be better, I wanted to do the same for you…"
"I wonder why we couldn't have met a few years earlier."
"If we met earlier everything would be different… this wouldn't have happened, you wouldn't be… dead."
23 minutes 47 seconds.
The silence was suffocating.
"You don't deserve this… being left down here, alone, cold, although you can't feel it can you?"
His eyes were starting to sting.
"I think we can all agree that you were part of the team in the end. They're gone you know? They left a while ago, they didn't know you as well as I did, but I can tell they didn't hate you."
He felt a tear run down his face.
"...Maybe I could've saved you- stopped this if I was faster."
He let the silence consume him
52 minutes 11 seconds.
"I'm sorry it turned out this way…"
His throat hurt and his eyes felt heavy.
"Maybe if I told you that I knew you would betray me this would be different. We could take down Shido together… but it doesn't matter, I'll keep my half of the deal; I'll take him down for you."
He finally stood up and hit the door with his fist. "I'll hold onto your glove, I'll be waiting for our rematch. Goodbye Akechi… I lo-"
"Will you shut up!" A voice came from the other side of the door.
"A-Akechi?" His eyes were starting to sting again and his legs felt weak.
"Yes, you idiot who else?!" The voice, no- Akechi, Akechi who is alive said from the other side of the door.
"You're alive?" He was obviously hallucinating and was going insane from sitting in the bowels of a palace for too long.
" Yes , now will you either shut up or figure out a way to open this door." His voice sounded angry but was quiet, probably due to all the screaming from before.
"You were alive this whole time ?"
" Yes , now-"
" The whole time! "
" Yes ."
"Why didn't you say anything-!"
"Because I couldn't think of anything, you kept talking about us and I didn't know what to say."
"How about: ' Hey Akira, thanks for saying all this sappy shit, by the way, I'm alive." That would've been amazing, thanks."
"Okay, I'm sorry Akira , please forgive me." He could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Now will you get this damn door open!"
"How? It's impossible? I don't even think it can open."
"Oh you have got to be kidding me, did you forget we can summon fucking demons?" There was a wheeze from behind the door which sounded almost like a laugh.
"Okay, hold on." Akira looked through his mental stock of personas and tried to figure out the strongest and decided on Hecatoncheires, he had a buncha arms- it was an obvious choice. "You better stand back- Persona! "
Hecatoncheires appeared in blue flames and used several of his many arms to lift the door. It went up slowly, but the main point was that it was going up, but it was enough for him to see a body on the floor. It was Akechi, still in his black mask outfit, he met his eyes through the crack in his mask. There was blood, around his shoulder staining his outfit, it had dried by now, but still looked incredibly painful.
His thoughts were interrupted by the door no longer going up, it was only lifted to around his knees. "You're going to have to pull me through."
"What? What about your arm?"
"Doesn't matter, you have healing items don't you?"
"Okay, okay, just hold on, I'll grab your legs and drag you." Akira got down on his own knees and lowered himself under the door.
"I'm past the point of caring- just get me out of here already."
Akira reached out and grabbed Akechi’s legs and pulled; he wasn't as heavy as he expected. Akira started shuffling backwards while pulling Akechi, it was hard to concentrate on doing it as fast as the other boy wanted to, but he couldn't help but be distracted by the mask scraping against the metal floor and Akechi hissing in pain.
It took another 2 minutes to get him to the other side, mainly due to trying to drag him carefully, which resulted in a lot of hushed apologies. Akira de-summoned his persona and collapsed on the floor next to the other boy.
"Ngh please tell me you have healing items." Akechi hissed.
"Yeah, yeah hold on a second." It took a bit of shuffling around to find some of Takemi's medicine and gave it to him. "So… what happened with the cognition?"
"It missed obviously, probably because I shot it before. But that doesn't matter, we're going after Shido, we'll change his heart or whatever."
"You want to change his heart?"
"No, I want him dead, however, that isn't the unanimous decision, so jail will have to do."
"But-"
"Oh, I'll kill him if you really want me to-"
"No- no don't do that, we'll change his heart, together." Akira smiled at the detective, who had finally healed his arm and was moving it around in circular motions.
"Yes, yes we'll do it together, let's just get out of here." Akira stood and offered his hand to Akechi, who hesitated before grabbing it and pulling himself up. "Ugh, now we have to use a fucking vent to get out."
"Nope! I have a Goho-M, hold on." Akira grabbed the Goho-M from his pocket and pulled Akechi towards him, close enough to get hit by his mask. "Ready?"
"Just use the damn thing!" They disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
61 minutes 36 seconds.
"Stop panicking, he should be back any second!" He could hear Makoto's voice through the door, as well as everyone else's muffled voices.
"Looks like they're eagerly awaiting you, leader ," Akechi said beside him, he was trying to stand up by himself after leaning on Akira shoulder the entire trip to Leblanc. He could easily see the bags under his eyes now, as well as his hair being a lot more messy than normal- either he didn't know or didn't care to fix it.
"Are you sure you wanna come in? Last chance."
"Oh please, do you really think I could make it to my apartment like this?" He gestured to himself.
"Yeah, okay, I'll get you some curry when we get inside." Akechi just hummed and went back to leaning on his shoulder.
Akira pushed the door open and was immediately met with silence from everyone else and then all of them speaking at once as soon as they spotted Akechi.
"You're alive!" Ann screamed, slamming her hands onto the table she was sitting at.
"H-how?! Your signal was gone, I double-checked!" Futaba cried, jumping up from her seat at the counter.
"Guys, please calm down, we'll explain everything."
"Hypocrite."
"Excuse me?"
"You were exactly the same." Akechi turned to the rest of them. "Yes, I'm alive, surprise. The cognition missed mortally wounding me, thankfully. Anyway, I believe I owe you all an apology for my… outburst earlier."
"Don't sweat it, dude, it's kinda a relief that you're not actually that prissy," Ryuji said, while Ann elbowed him in the chest.
"Okay, fine he missed, but that doesn't explain why your signal disappeared," Futaba said, pushing Akechi onto his normal seat at the counter which gave Akira an excuse to sneak behind the counter to make him some coffee and curry.
"Well, you never saw my signal in any of the other palaces did you?"
"That-that makes sense, but how? How can you just hide your signal like that?"
"Yeah! And how do you change your outfit? Just curious." Asked Ann.
"Honestly I have no idea, I think it's just one of my persona's powers. Ah, thank you." Akechi said after taking the coffee Akira made him.
"Well, we're all very happy you're alive, but what do you plan to do next Akechi?" Haru asked while cupping the cup of coffee someone must've made her before they arrived.
"Well, I'm going to kill the bald bastard of course." He said with a fake smirk on his face and was met with gasps from the rest of them. "... that was a joke."
"Your jokes are shit dude. Ow Ann, stop hittin' me"
"No, in all seriousness we're changing his heart, if not death the man deserves to rot in prison."
"Well, you're gonna love this calling card!" Futaba said, grabbing her laptop from the side as the rest of them went back to their own conversations.
127 minutes 7 seconds.
"Are you sure you want to stay the night?" He asked Akechi, who was now standing in front of him in his own clothes.
"No, I'm just here to rob you of your clothes and leave. Yes , I'm staying." He made his way over to the sofa and sat down.
"Akechi you were shot, you're not sleeping on there."
"Goro."
"Huh?"
"Akira you literally saved me today, you deserve to call me that by now." Akechi Goro said with a flat look on his face. "And I'm pretty sure before I interrupted you, you were going to confess something to me."
And thank god Goro stopped him. "I think you misheard me."
"Akira it was silent in that room the entire time we were there."
"So… what are you saying?" Oh god, this was the most embarrassing moment of Akira’s life, Goro heard everything, everything.
"I'm saying…" he got up and sat next to Akira on his bed, "that I return your sentiments."
"...and that means..?"
"That means that I'm willing to give us a try if you are," Goro said, shuffling closer to him.
"Wait, seriously?"
"Mhm, after we beat the shit after Shido, we'll go to a fancy sushi restaurant to celebrate."
"Lemme guess, I'm paying?"
"Well if you're offering? Anyway, I'm absolutely exhausted, how about we sleep? We're sending the calling card tomorrow, right?"
"Absolutely." They both arranged themselves under the covers, Akira wrapped his arm around Goro and felt his eyes begin to close as he borrowed his face into his hair.
"Just so you know, I do appreciate the amount of money you spent on getting better a billiards. You truly are a worthy rival, Akira."
142 minutes 38 seconds.
The silence was comforting.