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That's what I thought about Ren. And you see how well that worked out.

[She actually may not see, in all honesty.]

I'm not sure I do, actually. [Which could be her timeline deficit showing, or could be some other factor.]

[He considers whether to share this. Then he thinks—if anyone else will hear it from him, why not her?]

I thought Ren and his troupe of performing clowns were immune from anything I could do. No Shadows, so I couldn't affect them in any way. Whatever they brought down on themselves, it wouldn't be on my docket. I thought that until Shido suggested I kill him in the real world. And, of course, I thought this was the most wonderful idea I'd ever heard.

[He did not. But it's easy to get... lost in the moment, when Shido praises him.]

Presumably Kurusu doesn't have access to the kind of muscle the Kirijo Group can hire, so it's somewhat different at the theoretical level.

That said... it sounds like he was looking to make you more disposable. If you have a real-world murder to your name, he has something to hang you out to dry for.

I know. I mean, I knew it from the start. It was obvious. He's always used me because I'm undetectable. Because, until certain people started poking their noses in, my crimes mostly didn't look like crimes. Either of the interrogators he has lined up could have done it. The guard on the door could have done it. But he told me I was the only one. He wanted to own me. [And he'd been okay with it. Everything was measured in months. No matter what happened to him at the end, Shido would come down with him, knowing Akechi brought him down. That was the plan.

Except Shido had known all along.]

And because you've been doing this alone, you had no one to make a better plan with. [She remembers the plan her Goro showed up with. It's half-baked at best. She knows how long it took to convince him maybe there was another way to get what he wants without handing Shido the keys to the kingdom first - and they still don't know exactly how they're going to do it yet.]

Have you followed through on the order yet, or do you still have time to subvert it?

Are you going to start on my plan as well? You at least have the advantage of having walked a little of the way I have. Do you even know what my plan is?

[They've hinted around it a little, but he hasn't discussed it with her. And he still thinks it's a serviceable plan, thank you. Improvised, of course, developed as he went, and—in retrospect—clearly driven by emotional needs he wasn't paying enough attention to. But it would have served the purpose he needed it to.]

I have time. I don't intend to do it. It's clear it would serve no purpose.

I know my Goro showed up planning to make himself indispensable, which isn't possible with this kind of person. They will throw us away when they decide they can't get anything else out of us, one way or another, unless we take ourselves out of the equation first.

I know he wanted to give Shido the keys to the kingdom, all the power he could dream of, before taking him down, and taking him down would no doubt be easier if he's not completely unassailable before you mount your assault.

I know he wants something neither of us are ever going to get, so we might as well take our pounds of flesh and move on. I just hadn't decided what my pound looked like until recently.

[She'd bet he also doesn't want to kill Ren, but that's neither here nor there with this kind of life.]

Well, you have plenty of time, space, and people to figure out what to do instead that'll keep you alive and hopefully get you some measure of satisfaction. Shido absolutely deserves the worst you can give him, no argument there.

[So she doesn't get it—even though what she describes isn't dissimilar to his plan. And he can't argue her point, either. The weight of evidence behind Shido's intent to dispose of him is becoming insurmountable.]

I don't want a pound of flesh. I want the whole damned thing. The fact that I can't get it doesn't mean it's not what I'm owed.

You are. And I'm owed far more than my father will ever give me. And we'll probably both have to settle for fractions of what we're owed.

It's not fair, but it's better than nothing.

It's not better than nothing.

[How to explain it? That Shido took everything from him, and he can't pay that back until Shido has everything he could ever want to lose? That giving him power just to take it away was always the point, and even if he didn't quite anticipate all he's done up-front, it would still all have been worth it?

That it's not even the loss itself that matters at the end of the day, so much as the look in Shido's eye—the knowledge of who Akechi is. Would Shido finally know fear, know powerlessness? And with Akechi there to see it all? To see him finally understand that Goro Akechi, the orphaned, bastard son of a hooker who nobody could love, has still outdone him.

But none of that's going to happen now.]

I thought he was smarter than that. That's all. [Ouch.]

Smarter than what?

Enough to *know* he owed everything to me. To know he'd need me to retain power, once he had it. That he'd need me to keep all those insane supporters of his sated, for a start.

[He's a month or more from Shido demanding he wipe out the inner circle.]

But if what the other histories imply is correct, he didn't care. He thought he didn't need me. [Just like everyone else.]

Edited 2023-09-23 03:49 (UTC)

He has more hubris than sense. [Possibly it's a familial trait, but Haru knows better than to say that 'out loud.']

I planted what I took from his Palace, by the way. The results are interesting. You're welcome to come by and see, if you'd like.

It's not hubris if you can back it up. [Whether nature or nurture, it's something he got from his father, for sure.]

But are you serious? They grew? And grew already?

They did!

I doubt you would have been invited to see my counterpart's work at any point, but there's a common thread in that I work fast.

I admit I'd like to see that. Where is your garden?

Iwatodai.

I claimed the love hotel, since it's not like anyone else was using it and it's about as far from what Father would consider appropriate as I can get. The garden's on the roof.

Yes, you mentioned you were in Iwatodai. But a love hotel?

[Watch the boy cover, duck and weave.]

For security, I take it?

The beds are nice.

That too. I didn't feel like tearing the ground up. I have greenhouses at my father's house, but I also don't want to spend time there if I don't have to.

That's fair. It's an interesting offer. [Akechi, you could just say "thank you".] I'll stop by later today, perhaps, if I'm not wiped out by babysitting.

Drop by any time. Just stay out of the poisons bed if I'm not there. I have it marked, just in case.

[She really doesn't expect anyone to just wander up there unsuspecting, but you never know.]

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