the boy in the belfry

[pancakeboy]

In the end, Akechi comes out of Mementos into the Shibuya night, walks past the people still making for the station, and sits in the shadows, on a bench under the trees. Nobody notices him; a lot of the people passing are drunk, and couldn't see a metre in front of their face.

Shido had dragged him out for a psychotic breakdown, of course. And it was fun, they're always fun, they're funny. Except for this one he'd also been really fucking angry; even getting to the target had almost killed him. That thing inside him that's not Loki, exactly, but is like Loki; the thing that's always in chains, and can't quite spread its wings. Akechi gives it a little prod every time he fights, to see what it will do.

And it's him, of course, just like Loki is him, deep down. Why shouldn't he hurt things? Shadows aren't fucking real. Even a person's shadow isn't them. And yet there's always that chain on his neck, fine gold rather than a prison shackle, whispering control.

For the first time, he consciously thinks about Ren, reaching for his phone. This time it's the gold chain that tightens on his neck, as he types from memory.

"In the moment a captive lion steps out of his cage, he possesses a wider world than the lion who has known only the wilds. While he was in captivity, there were only two worlds to him; the world of the cage, and the world outside the cage. Now he is free. He roars. He attacks people. He eats them. yet he is not satisfied, for there is no third world that is neither the world of the cage nor the world outside the cage."

Comments

[poesmasquerade]

[ Ren has been to the bathhouse in the meantime, and sat there thinking and synthesizing all the new things he's seen and learned about Akechi today. From the glimmers of honest feeling in the jazz club to the look on Akechi's face after he made Ren come. Like he was waiting for something, and Ren holding out his hand to him wasn't it. Ren can guess, maybe, what kind of response he might have been expecting.

He's at his desk, feeling his way carefully around a new kind of elemental bomb in a bid to distract himself from wondering whether Akechi is okay, when his phone goes off. He sets everything aside and opens it, in hopes that it's Akechi finally texting him back. He angles his phone away from Morgana, who sulks, as he opens the chat.

And—well. That sure is a text. ]

glad youre ok
sorry its not satisfying to eat ppl tho

[pancakeboy]

[The corner of his mouth twitches, and he goes all-out with the honesty. Because why the fuck not, Ren doesn't know what's going on.]

Oh, it's more satisfying than you know.

Sorry I had to leave so suddenly. Work calls me at odd times, sometimes. ["Work". Yeah.]

[poesmasquerade]

[ Hm. Ominous. One more little scrap of very bad circumstantial evidence in tenuous support of Ren's "maybe the black mask is behind the mental shutdowns and/or psychotic breakdowns?" theory, which is based on nothing much besides the fact that there can't be that many people running around the Metaverse, and those incidents seem a lot like they're related to people's shadows.

But never mind that. ]

dont worry about it
the perils of dating a detective

[ He's almost certain that it was not detective work that called Akechi away. ]

[pancakeboy]

True. Can't call my life my own.

[He thinks for a moment.]

Guess where I am.

[poesmasquerade]

[ A game, huh? A palace is Ren's immediate thought, but firstly, Akechi wouldn't be able to text him, and secondly, he wouldn't just say that. ]

HMM
sitting alone in a dimly-lit diner pining for me

[pancakeboy]

Please. If it was that, I'd never tell you so. Guess better.

[He is not sitting on a bench pining, either.]

[poesmasquerade]

[ He can see the look on Akechi's face as if he were here. He smiles. A glance over his shoulder and a brief conversation has Morgana finishing the bomb he started. ]

outside the hideout of the phantom thieves, about to stage a raid

[ He's pretty sure that's not true. It had better not be, anyway, with this bomb out on his desk. ]

[pancakeboy]

[That gets a grin: if only.]

Me and half the Special Unit, yes. [Tokyo's SWAT equivalent.]

I'll give you one more try.

[The leaves whisper quietly above his head. A man staggers past, dragging a laughing woman in a short skirt by the wrist.]

[poesmasquerade]

at home in bed...?

[ This is a joke, mostly. ]

[pancakeboy]

Wish you were here?

No, sadly not. I'm looking at Buchiko. Missed the last train. [It's about 1am.]

[poesmasquerade]

[ Ren sits up. ]

wait seriously
do you want me to come get you

[ Not that he can drive. But he can call a taxi as well as anyone else, and it's not that far from Yongen-Jaya to...

...to Shibuya Station. Was he in Mementos? ]

[pancakeboy]

[Shut up, he's not hinting.]

No, I'll get a taxi when I'm ready. You worry too much.

It's nice here at this hour, you know. Quiet. Dark. No dodging and weaving. [The crowds.]

[poesmasquerade]

when i came to tokyo ppl told me id get mugged if i went out after dark

[ By "people" he means the one elderly neighbor who wasn't too afraid or repulsed to talk to him. ]

[pancakeboy]

Did you believe them?

Anyway, I'm a detective. If I get mugged my revenge will last six generations or more.

[poesmasquerade]

[ That second text... too real. ]

i didnt know what to believe lol
it seemed a little sensationalized
but id never been to tokyo. for all i knew there were gang wars every night

and i was scared

[ Nah. He deletes that. ]

[pancakeboy]

You're more likely to get mugged here than you were in Ibaraki. But honestly, the risk is still low.

Nobody is even looking at me. Perhaps I should sing something. [Lol. As if.]

[poesmasquerade]

if ur going to sing open a video chat first

[pancakeboy]

[Something is weird about that text. Hm.]

I'm not singing.

I didn't think you could drive. Would you really have ridden to my rescue?

[poesmasquerade]

id have called a taxi and valiantly sat in the passenger seat as it drove to ur rescue

[pancakeboy]

At one in the morning?

[poesmasquerade]

sure

[pancakeboy]

[He stares at the screen.]

I think you just want to see where I live.

[poesmasquerade]

i also want that

[ No point lying about it, although he thinks he's about as likely to actually see Akechi's apartment as Medjed is to change their minds and issue a public apology. ]

but i couldve gotten another taxi home from shibuya if u just wanted some temporary moral support

[pancakeboy]

[Imagine being the kind of trash who needs moral support. He scoffs under his breath.]

You are quite the public servant, aren't you. Don't make the mistake of thinking anything I say when we're fucking is real.

[...that's the only thing I have. The only thing that's yours alone. He'd said it. He'd said it, and—he'd meant it?

In the end, he sends the text uncompleted.]

[poesmasquerade]

[ Ren looks down at his phone for a second with a quizzical little smile. Akechi is so strange. ]

or maybe i just like you
have u considered that

[ As soon as he sends those messages he deeply regrets it, and quickly follows it up with: ]

actually speaking of that i have a question