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Stress relief comes in many forms. Regular people might take a bath, go drinking or exercise.
Not Akechi, though. These things can no longer satisfy him when Mementos is right there, teeming with trash to be eradicated by him. He doesn’t have reception there, either, so not even Shido’s paranoid orders will reach him.
It’s the perfect refuge. It continues to be the perfect refuge as he watches the public’s cognition of him deteriorate, discredited as an enemy to the heroic phantom thieves.
Even now, Mementos would never betray him. Loki is here, his bloodlust incarnate, the chaos of his mind as a blade for him to wield.
It’s liberating.
So why, why, why …
Why is Joker here, fighting the Reaper on his own?
What the hell ?
Akechi considers letting the Reaper finish off Joker, but not only would that ruin the plan, it would also mean Akechi’s only equal would die without the score ever being settled.
He can’t have that.
“Loki!” Akechi has not actually beaten the Reaper yet, but he does have a plan for if he ever has to: Debilitate, Call of Chaos. That’s the whole plan.
He gets the first of the two spells in when Joker notices his presence. “A black mask…” Then, giving Akechi a once-over, he shakes his head. “You should leave.”
“You can’t beat him alone, idiot.”
“And what does it matter to you?” Joker does a stupid backflip, dodging the Reaper’s shots and landing on his feet. Show-off. “You’re the one causing the mental shutdowns. Wouldn’t you want me dead?”
Akechi grits his teeth, grateful for the helmet that comes with his outfit for once. “Clearly not right now.”
And not ever, if anyone actually asked Akechi. In fact, if Joker just stopped , stopped everything, really, he wouldn’t need to die for the sake of the plan.
Joker has the audacity to laugh. “You’re surprisingly easy to read, you know?”
“I can’t say the same about you.”
And Joker isn’t making a dent in the Reaper’s health at all. He twirls his dagger, finally looking at Akechi. “If you ever took my actions at face value—”
Joker takes an unmitigated Megidolaon to the face.
Akechi is about to ponder whether he should use one of his few revival items he solely keeps to make sure he doesn’t accidentally cause a mental shutdown too early, or cave and use Robin Hood, compromising the plan even more…
…but Joker gets back to his feet, snarling and throwing himself back at the Reaper.
What even…?
“Why are you doing this?” Akechi toys with a Bead, wondering if he should just toss it in Joker’s way. Still, if someone stole his prey, he’d be mad. So he won’t interfere with this.
“I’m pissed off.” No shit.
If there’s one thing Joker is good at, it’s dodging. He dodges most of the Reaper’s attacks, and Akechi makes note of his methods for when he gets to fight Joker. Good footwork, slightly worse reflexes on the upper body movement, but commendable nonetheless. (If he was Akechi’s ally, Akechi might take him to go bouldering. But Akechi does not have allies, and he never will.)
Then, after landing a particularly strong hit on the Reaper, Joker speaks again. “If it was just me, it would have been fine. But they did it to you, too.”
“What—”
“Akechi.”
This is it. Akechi has to kill Joker. He doesn’t know what blew his cover, but this is bad, really bad, and his thoughts are spinning, and—
Joker is staring at him. Joker is getting hit by Vorpal Blade. Joker is bleeding. Kurusu Akira is bleeding from his shoulder.
Akechi doesn’t know what happens next. He knows he’s in the fray, now, between the Reaper and Joker, and he manages to distract it for long enough to be able to throw Joker over his shoulder and run. He runs and runs, until finally he reaches the next rest platform, and the rattling subsides.
Cool, so Joker isn’t exactly dead, which means Samarecarm won’t work. Which means Akechi will have to force healing items into him.
(It’s for the plan, it’s for the plan, it’s not about Joker. It isn’t.)
Akechi takes off his left gauntlet, suddenly aware that he’s gonna mess up Joker’s face with the claws if he doesn’t. Of course, he shouldn’t care about that, but it would be a lot better if Joker was awake while Akechi is messing up his face.
He runs his thumb over Joker’s chapped lips. Embarrassing. Imagine not having a lip care routine, actually, and still having all the sycophants love you.
(Couldn’t be Akechi.)
Akechi pulls at Joker’s jaw, pleased to feel it move under his fingertips. It’s exhilarating, to have Joker’s life at his fingertips. Akechi considers making it last, considers healing him just enough to have him regain consciousness, but if he wants any chance at salvaging this, he can’t do that.
So he forces a Bead down Joker’s throat, ignoring the feeling of relief he gets when the wound in Joker’s shoulder closes up.
Akechi puts his gauntlet back on, and he considers leaving, he really does, but he should be doing damage control right now, and so he stays.
“Akechi…?” Joker’s half-lidded eyes are something Akechi could’ve done without.
Well, there’s no point in denying it. “We’re at a rest stop. The Reaper won’t come here.”
“Are you hurt?”
A good question. Akechi is hurt indeed: it was a miracle the Reaper only hit him with fire-elemental spells, because any hit to his weakness would’ve meant both his and Joker’s death.
“You should worry for yourself first.”
Joker has the audacity to chuckle. “Well, I’m not dead, so I presume you saved me.”
Akechi doesn’t know what to reply to that, so he doesn’t. “Why were you fighting the Reaper alone?”
“Do you never let off steam in Mementos?”
Akechi, in fact, does let off steam in Mementos. A lot. That is why he came here today. “You don’t strike me as the type who would.”
“People contain multitudes. I’m sure you, of all people, know best.” Joker winks and heaves himself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall.
“You do know I could still kill you right now?”
“Clearly you won't, or else you would have already. You said as much before.”
Akechi sighs and takes off his helmet. This is ridiculous. “So you were just going to keep hanging out with me despite what you know?”
“That was the plan, yeah.”
“Why?”
“I thought you’re a detective?” Joker tilts his head in mockery.
Akechi crosses his arms. “I don’t have time for your games.”
Joker braces himself on the wall, finally standing up again. “It’s no fun if you don’t figure it out on your own.”
“And you think I’ll let you go?”
“I won’t tell the others.” Then, giving Akechi a once-over, “I don’t know what your plan is, but you do realize that getup doesn’t exactly inspire trust, right?”
Akechi ignores the criticism in favor of asking the important questions. “Why would I believe you?”
“You know Ryuji. If I had told him, you’d know by now.”
Well, that is a convincing argument, but it explains nothing. “I’ll figure out what you’re doing.”
“Good luck with that.” Joker waves, making his way to the escalator. “And by the way, you should get better at pretending to not hear Morgana.”
Akechi waits until Joker is gone, and he screams.
Back at his apartment, Akechi finally opens Kurusu’s text. He’d deliberately not looked out of fear of breaking character in public, and he was right to do so.
>> so that wasn’t the best first date impression, sorry about that
<< What.
>> you are soooo dense
<< It wouldn’t even be a first date, if we were to count any hangout as a date.
>> it was my first date with the real you lol
Akechi ignores the trembling of his fingers, ignores the giddiness that Joker is like him, a beast clawing below the surface, ready to eviscerate anything that comes with him. That Joker would accept him for what he is is… interesting.
Regardless, the plan will continue. And Joker is letting Akechi salvage this, so he’ll take it.
<< Well, you’re welcome to retry that first impression. Same place tomorrow?
Of course, Joker accepts. Sure, this will make things more difficult, but who said Akechi wasn’t allowed to have some fun before the end?