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"I don't mean to hold him hostage–"
"Then don't." Akira stares across the table with wide eyes, desperate eyes, as he keeps his gaze focused entirely on the therapist. "If you don't mean to, then don't."
"There's really not much I can do about that." The man laughs softly, that same laugh that Akira remembers hearing during every counseling session. The laugh that followed every dumb joke that Akira might have made and was always soothing, comforting, kind.
Akira never saw himself hating that laugh.
"He's alive now, in my world, and... you know if I lack control over the world, I can't maintain his life anymore."
"...you brought him back." Akira keeps his voice low. "You know how he feels about it. Do you... expect me to change my mind because of that?"
"Not necessarily. I just figured that you... wanted to make amends with him. We both know that you never got the chance."
"That... that wasn't yours to decide." Akira's voice stays softer, quieter than he really wants it to be. "He... Goro Akechi is supposed to be dead. So is Wakaba Isshiki. So is Kunikazu Okumura. So is Makoto and Sae's father. Morgana is supposed to be a cat. Shiho was... hurt and moved away. Ryuji can't run anymore. Sumire is Sumire and Yusuke lived his whole life with that abusive asshole. " Akira jumps to his feet, slamming his fists into the table.
"Everyone has things they wish for, but it is not your place to just go toying with people's lives!" Akira gnashes his teeth and clenches his fists and he knows that he should get himself under control, but he really can't stop himself.
"Akechi made his choice. Akechi made his choice and it got him killed and of course I wish... that he hadn't died. Of course I do." Akira clenches his fists at his sides and squeezes his eyes shut.
"...but that's what happened. Goro Akechi should be dead. And... it would be wrong to accept a fake world for my own satisfaction. Nice try. Take the calling card and get out. "
Akira pulls the calling card out of his jacket and practically throws it across the table. Staring with almost hateful eyes as the man picks up the piece of paper and carefully reads it over.
"What sin have I committed, then? You had a theme going." Maruki laughs, and Akira narrows his eyes before falling back into the seat of Leblanc's middle booth.
"Your will seeds called themselves those of Sorrow. That isn't a sin, though. So, if I had to pick one, it would be arrogance." Akira stares at him with eyes as blank as he can make them. "You think that you stand a chance against the thieves that successfully rebelled against a god."
Maruki chuckles, tucking the calling card into his jacket and giving Akira one of those genuine soft smiles that once upon a time made him feel so heard.
"Well, we'll have to see what happens then, hm?"
A short moment passes. A short, silent moment.
"...I truly did not want things to come to this, Kurusu-kun. You're... the last person I would ever want opposing me, and the last person I would ever want to force this on."
"Then you shouldn't have tried to force it on us." Akira doesn't meet his eyes, this time. "You saw the calling card. We have nothing left to talk about. Get out ."
"A reality where no one has to suffer, huh?" Akira almost snarls, fists clenched and head pounding from the bruises he knows are forming on his face. Even with how weak Maruki really is, he doesn't have Arsène to make him feel invincible. Arsène is gone, and Akira can't help but feel an added layer of rage that he didn't get the chance to say a proper goodbye.
"...I trusted you, Maruki." Akira watches as the man drops to his knees, then falls, sprawled out against the floor that has the look and feel of white glass. He's almost worried that it will shatter beneath them, if he grinds his heels in too hard. "I trusted you. I confided in you. I cared about you. And you... you..." Akira squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth. "I thought you were different. "
He sees the man's eyes, their soft brown looking tired and resigned, flick up to meet his own.
"I thought you cared." Akira swipes his fist out to the side and stares at Maruki with what might be contempt, he isn't entirely sure. "But I guess I was wrong. I guess... you ended up being just like every other black-hearted adult, huh?"
"Oh. Did I? I'm sorry, Kurusu-kun. I didn't mean... to disappoint you." Maruki smiles and it almost makes Akira sick. "I... really thought I was doing what was best for you."
"...and yet you never bothered to ask anyone if this was what they wanted. You just assumed you knew best." Akira grits his teeth and pushes himself back up. Back to a standing position, ready to move on. Walk away. Go back to normal, and oh how much he wants to go back to normal, and forget... that this ever happened.
"...come on." He finds himself saying. Because even now, even after all the hurt and treachery and hate he's had for the man he once called a friend, he isn't going to abandon him to a crumbling fate.
"No... I get it." Maruki laughs softly. "I'm done." Maruki laughs again, eyes focusing on the cracking sky above them. "Wow, you've really managed to teach me quite a bit, haven't you, Kurusu-kun? I thought that was supposed to be my job."
Akira doesn't respond this time. He finds his eyes darting towards the edge of the white glass. Finds his teeth closing over his bottom lip. Finds himself wanting to get this over with.
"And... I get it now. All thanks to you."
The glass begins to shake.
The glass begins to shake, tremble. Akira can hear a loud cracking and almost thinks he's about to die. Thinks that he doesn't want to go like this. He at least wants to apologize to Akechi for letting this happen – for letting him ever think that he would be able to live in this world again – and he wants to say goodbye to his friends and he and Sumire had a date for next week he doesn't want to miss–
But the glass doesn't crack beneath his feet.
Maruki is the one who doesn't move. Who stays smiling up at the cracking sky as the glass fractures beneath him and lets him free. Akira doesn't know what it is that sends him diving forward, desperately reaching for the therapist's hand with a cry of "MARUKI!!"
I won't let you die.
I won't let anyone die.
Akira holds on for dear life.
It seems to take a moment for the man Akira clings to so desperately to even notice that his life has been saved.
"...come on, Kurusu-kun." Maruki struggles to get the words out past what Akira thinks are meant to be sobs. "I said... I'm done. You don't have to save me. You can let go." The therapist smiles up at him and Akira refuses.
" I won't let it end like this. " Akira hisses through grit teeth as he struggles against aching and wining muscles to keep Maruki from the fall that will most certainly kill him. " I won't let you die, dammit. "
Akira keeps struggling. Akira keeps heaving. Akira keeps clinging to Maruki's hand and chanting that he won't let go.
"Your eyes... are as bright and honest as ever." Maruki smiles, and Akira tries to ignore it. Push it out of his mind. Now he needs to focus. Focus on the slipping of Maruki's hand in his and how the gloves that both of them wear probably aren't helping and if he lets go – if they slip – than this man will die and he doesn't want that–
"You... Kurusu-kun, you promise me. You keep your head up, no matter what, okay?"
"You can give me promises to keep once we're out of here!" Akira screams right back, squeezing his eyes shut for just long enough to focus on his grip. Focus on stopping them from falling because he left the grappling hook with Morgana and he can't let him fall he can't–
"I think... I think I was always afraid of this, you know?" Maruki seems so unafraid that Akira wishes he could punch the man again. "That you and I wouldn't want the same things. That you wouldn't wish for my reality." Akira manages to lift his eyes, and catches Maruki looking up at him again.
"I guess I knew you better than you thought, huh?"
Maruki slips.
All Akira hears is the sound of a helicopter approaching and his own desperate screaming as the world fades to white around him.
And when he opens his eyes again, he's in a prison cell.