accidental video; un: A.

[fabrications]

cw: murder, firearms, blood, suicide imagery

[ The scene opens up to three people in an interrogation room: Akechi, Akira, and a uniformed police officer standing guard.

Akechi steps into the room, calm and composed - even as he lunges forward, steals the guard's handgun, and swiftly attaches a silencer. A single shot is all it takes to drop the officer, and then Akechi and Akira are alone. The former glances at the later, tone distant and icy. ]

I owe you for all of this.. Thanks.

[ Akechi lingers where he stands for a moment, explaining to Akira that this all worked out how he expected and how it's going to serve some other purpose in the end. It's not an elaborate monologue, but it gets the point across: however they got here, Akechi has clearly been planning for it.

When he finally falls silent he adjusts his gloves and steps towards the table. As he raises the gun to aim it directly at Akira's head, a deranged and gleeful expression crosses his face. ]

Case closed. This is how your "justice" ends.

[ Akechi pulls the trigger.

There's a moment of horrible, suspended stillness, Akira's eyes gone glassy and vacant as blood from the bullet wound in his forehead trickles down his face. The stillness only breaks when Akira - when Akira's body - finally slumps forward and over the table, splattering blood across its pristine white surface. Akechi stares down at him for the span of several heartbeats before he steps forward, nudging Akira's head with the barrel of the gun to ensure that he's really dead.

Staging the scene is incredibly simple. The silencer is unscrewed from the gun and tucked away in his coat pocket; the gun itself is placed in Akira's hand, his fingers loosely curled around the hilt and his index finger tucked just so inside the trigger guard. That's all it takes. Akechi steps away and turns to give the scene one last once-over, his expression one of thin amusement.

Then he turns around and walks away. ]

----
[ The scene fades away, revealing nothing more than a perfectly pedestrian home library, shown from the low angle of an Omen that assumes a smaller form. Akechi isn't in view, but his voice can be heard: ]

What was--

[ There's no answer, and the angle of the video feed doesn't change. After a long moment Akechi heaves a sigh, and the video finally cuts off. ]

Comments

[fabrications]

[ Things have been a little a little weird with Adaine since the whole attempted murder thing - or at least, they would have been if he'd spoken to her at all since then.

So really, it's not like the situation can get much more awkward. So he answers the question. ]

That's right. The exact amount of time that's passed doesn't quite line up, but I turned 19 today.

[adaine]

[Oh, that feels bad. In fact, there's something about the pleasantness in his tone that sends a chill down Adaine's spine. She's reminded faintly of Penelope Everpetal telling her that her jacket or her nails look cute with a bright friendly smile on her face one morning and then come May, screaming and laughing in the throes of madness as she tried to kill everyone in her way, but even she never felt this... fake.]

Right. [She tries to think of something to keep going with but, she can't.] Hell of a birthday present from Trench, then.

[She switches to private.]

Are you doing okay?

private

[fabrications]

[ If it seemed fake before, that'll be even more obvious when they switch to private. His expression slips, going from cordial and pleasant to cold and bored like a switch being flipped. Akechi knows that he should probably try a little harder, but he also knows Adaine has already seen some pretty damning stuff. ]

That's a strange thing to ask. I'm not the one that was shot.

[ Not this time at least. ]

[adaine]

I don't know Akira that well.

[She doesn't know Akechi that well either, apparently. Is Sumire hiding some dark secret other than the whole twin death thing?]

He ran into a post once and I had to walk him home. That's about it. [She frowns, contemplating why she's concerned. A year ago, she'd have felt betrayed and angry and would have punched Akechi's head off of his shoulders, but, well. Aelwyn's challenged a lot of her more morally black and white feelings of outrage. Now, she just wants to understand.] I've been shot a lot of times. I've also killed a lot of people, some I could care less about, others I wouldn't want to tell anyone about.

[Lunchlady Doreen... She still remembers staring at her brain dripping off the ladle.]

It's not really fun to have your dirty laundry put up for everyone to see. [A beat.] Also, there was the curse last month that made us try to kill eachother, so I feel like I should probably check in.

[fabrications]

He--

[ Ran into a post. Of course. Akechi huffs out something halfway between a sigh and a laugh. ]

That sounds like him.

[ And the rest of it... Akechi is silent for a while before responding - partially to process what's being said, and partially to carefully readjust his assessment of her. ]

No, it's not fun.

[ He can at least admit to that much, since it's not like it's obvious. And... ]

I came to terms with this incident some time ago, so the annoyance of having my privacy violated is worse in this particular answer.

[ An outright lie, though Akechi doesn't entirely realize it. ]

[adaine]

Seems like you're both... friends? On speaking terms, at least? So I guess that makes sense.

[That should probably be more foreign of a concept to her, but... well. She still remembers how it felt to wrap her fingers around her sister's throat after humiliating her in front of the lowest of the low.

She still loves her. They both still love one another. Despite all the hurt.]

I assume he wasn't your first.

[fabrications]

'Friends' is probably too strong of a word for it.

[ It objectively is not. ]

'Allies' is what I would use. I can't fathom why he would agree to such an arrangement, but he did.

[ Her next question, though... that's not one he was quite expecting, and he regards her for a moment before responding. ]

No, he wasn't. I'd been active for years before I finally targeted him. He was one of the last before I ended up here, in fact.

[adaine]

[She looks like she's between pinching the bridge of her nose and just straight up laughing, but she drops it.]

Active... You don't really strike me as the serial killer type. [Even after having seen how deranged he can really get. It still strikes her as... off.] So I'm guessing you were an assassin, of some kind?

[She frowns.]

I think the last person I killed before arriving here was my father.

[fabrications]

[ It's not like Akechi thinks Adaine is dumb. Entirely the opposite, in fact. Even so, the accuracy of her 'guess' gives him pause. But finally: ]

That's right, though my targets tended to be too low profile for that to occur to anyone.

[ While he'd paused at her guess, his reaction to her next comment comes in the form of a pronounced lack of reaction. He doesn't blink or freeze or let his expression slip. He is, however, a little too perfectly unconcerned, and there's a note of interest a little sharper than he intends when he speaks. ]

That sounds a lot more personal than any assassination.

[adaine]

[Being the Oracle has it's perks, even if she's not always aware of them. Her potential as a paleblood is near-limitless. She nods at Akechi's words, frowning.

Assassin is easier to stomach than serial killer.

Then Akechi's reaction... well, everyone else she's told about this has given her a bewildered look, so it really says a lot that he doesn't even so much as raise an eyebrow.

Interesting. Adaine crosses her arms on the other side of the omni, then with a sigh, she elaborates.]

It was self-defense. But... [But she enjoyed it. She tries to enjoy it. Adaine isn't a sadist, she doesn't take pleasure in killing. It's only a means to an end. But she spent so long fantasizing about killing her sister, so many nights laid awake with fantasies of murder and revenge for every single flicker of mistreatment she received. It took her a long time to realize her blame was misplaced. That her own revenge would avenge her years of suffering too.]

He wanted to enter into my mind and... well, reprogram me. Make me pliant and obedient as a daughter. My sister stood up to him, and he nearly killed her.

So, I killed him. And took his sword, which was mine by right, but he'd stolen it because he was a dickhead. [She pauses, her expression twisting a bit, revealing a deeper hurt and bitterness because unlike Akechi, Adaine isn't any good at hiding her feelings. It's what made her so hard to love to begin with.] ...It didn't make any of it feel better, in case you were wondering.