"I never understood why you were so mad that day."
"YOU WHAT!?!"
Akira flinched, her eyes soft as her older brother wore an expression he never did.
Anger.
"You yelled at me that day. I still don't understand why you did. I was only defending myself. I was only trying to stay alive like you'd taught me. I didn't mean to kill them, but when it did happen...it felt Good."
"Oh god, Akira, what are we gonna do?" Akashi said, his hands burying in his face, "You can't go to jail, you're only 14!"
"Then we hide the evidence." She replied flatly, eyes staring at her own hands—the same hands that had taken three lives.
Akashi's breath hitched.
The clock kept ticking slowly, deliberate, inevitable. Like time itself was mocking them.
"What?"
"...Akira, we can't do that..."
"I hated the way you looked at me that day. Like I was crazy. Like I was the one who started this whole mess. Those bitches did, not me. I just finished what THEY—Ha. Calm down, Akira..."
"I was just finishing what THEY started."
"But you didn't see it that way did you?"
"You thought I needed help. You thought I was spiraling, that I was mentally unstable. Why? Why didn't you believe me? You saw the wounds on my body, the horrible state I was in and yet...you didn't seek justice for me. Instead you took me to therapy"
"AAAHHHHH!!!!"
"First rule, Ms Hashinada. Hybrids must refrain from what?"
"Take me home, please take me home. I wanna go home—"
"WRONG. ANSWER!"
"GYAAAAAHHH!!!!"
"While you thought they were helping me, guiding me through my...TROUBLED MIND, as they called it. What they really did was torture me. Electrocuting me with over 10 000 volts of Electricity. Have you ever felt that? Ever stop to wonder what if feels like to be shocked by that much power?..."
"Akira, you listening—?"
"No!" She flinched, only to realize that she wasn't there anymore, "Huh? Oh, Sh-Shi..."
"Akira. Please...tell me what they did to you. I promise, I won't be mad..."
Her eyes widened at the memories flooding her mind all at once:
( "I promise, Aki, I'll always be by your side." )
( "ARE YOU INSANE!?! WHY WOULD YOU KILL 3 PEOPLE, AKIRA?! CHILDREN! YOU KILLED YOUR OWN CLASSMATES! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND!?!")
("I-I was only trying to defend myself—")
("YEAH!? WELL YOU KILLED THEM, AKIRA! YOU DEFENDED YOURSELF, BUT YOU GOT THEM KILLED. YOU...Akira...you promised you'd never abuse your powers...")
("B-But, I didn't. I-I was only defending myself.")
("Okay. But...we need help.")
"You promised you'd always be by my side. Then when the time came for you to prove it, you not only FAILED at doing that, but you sent me to the most PAINFUL HELL of my life. You said you'd never leave my side, so why? WHY WERE YOU SO MAD AT ME!?"
("Now, Ms Hashinada, let's try this... rejuvenation again, shall we?")
("And remember...If you tell your brother this, we'll remind him about why you came here.")
("That you killedmy daughter and her friends in cold blood.")
"I killed that man and the staff afterwards. Started a fire and everyone inside— patients, staff, visitors— they all burned to ground. I was the only one that escaped...or at least I made it seem that way."
"Aki?"
"N-No, I'm okay...They...they didn't do anything other than help me, Shi. I'm—I'm okay, I promise."
His eyes softened painfully. He knew she was lying and that's why it hurt. Not because she didn't trust him, but because whatever happened there, it scarred her.
"Okay...I...I won't pry, but, Aki...please know that I'm here for you, okay? I'm your brother. I really worry about you, smallie. Got that?"
She nodded.
"I wonder...if I had told you that day, would it have made a difference to the outcome?"
"Dear Akira.
Hey smallie..."
Akira's eyes widened as she opened the letter by his apartment door, hand on his doorknob.
"No, Shi! Please! Not you too! I can't lose you too!"
"...if you're reading this, then that means that I went through with my selfish actions and have decided to kill myself..."
Akira's mind was in a frantic panic. Her body moving fast, sweeping throught the crowds, running on walls, barely evading cars as her sweaty thumbs pulled out her phone.
[ "Oh God, please! If you're there. If you care. If you're real, if you can hear me, listen to me now—" ]
The phone connected through:
"Heeeeey, Aki—" Yoshida purred over the phone
"YOSHIDA! I NEED YOUR HELP! PLEASE! NOW!"
"Woah, woah, slow down. Talk to me, what's—hey! Man I'm on the phone with her—"
"Hello? Akira? It's Hinasuke—"
"HINA! I NEED YOU GUYS TO GET TO THE BACK OF THE SHUTOKU BRIDGE! NOW!"
"Alright, we're on our way, what's going on?"
"IT'S AKASHI! HE'S GOING TO KILL HIMSELF!!"
She dropped her phone as she nearly crashed into an elderly lady.
Her lungs were on fire.
The air she was inhaling was shorter than the air she was exhaling and yet...one thing kept pushing her forward.
"If I told you what really happened to me in that asylum, would it have made you stop to think..."
The three of them got there.
Akira's eyes landed on Akashi, who was being filmed by the bystanders and the onlookers trying to get him down.
Her heart screamed for her.
"AKASHI!!"
He turned to her once.
That smile.
[ "God, if you're real..." ]
His foot slipped off the edge.
[ "Then please...God..." ]
" Would it have stopped to make you think what would happen to me?"
Her body covered the space instantly.
But her hand...
[ "...I beg you, God. Don't let him leave me too." ]
His eyes softened for that brief heartbeat their fingers touched.
Her breath died.
His eyes cried.
"If I told you that day. I'm sure you would've done the same otherwise..."
( " The day I die, it'll be in a grand way! I'll live to see a 100!" )
"Akashi..."
"Oh it was grand, alright..."
His body fused into the hard solid unforgiving concrete, liquidating his body...
...and Akira just watched...
"It's just that you... didn't get to see that 100."
...her brother die before her eyes.