[Day 4, Night: Akechi]

[purrtagonist]

[taking Dazai up on his offer for coffee is awfully tempting. as is seeking out Ichigo, who is quite possibly the person Akira's come to trust the most in his four days trapped in murder school. but as tempting as both of those options are, a sense of unease and concern causes him to take a leap of faith he isn't sure he would've taken in any other circumstances]

[he finds Akechi fairly quickly. relief struggles with wariness, and although his posture seems relaxed with his his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slumped, there's still a certain tension in the lines of his body]

[Akechi said he wouldn't kill him. he wants to believe that. and so. . . here he is]

What a coincidence.

[he says lightly, voice dry]

Come here often?

Comments

[afailedmurder]

[Akechi has been rather out-of-focus with reality today, but having Akira around helps with that. Life is hard, but dumb banter is easy.]

Oh, all time. It's hard to leave.

[purrtagonist]

[dumb banter is good!! it distracts one from murderous inclinations]

It's the scenery, isn't it? The dirty floor tiles and windows covered in metal panels give it a nice ambiance.

[afailedmurder]

I hear that felony-abduction-chic is all the rage right now.

[purrtagonist]

Live the heart-racing, mind-blowing experience yourself for the low, low, low price of maybe dying.

[this is morbid humor]

[afailedmurder]

33% odds of survival! That's better than some cancers!

[yes, yes it is]

[purrtagonist]

[#coping]

Not responsible for any cuts, bruises, burns, lost limbs, raccoon allergies, or any other injuries sustained during your exciting vacation.

[afailedmurder]

Not responsible for much of anything.

Not yet.

[purrtagonist]

[ARCHES HIS BROWS. . . are they still joking, or]

[he continues the banter]

The possibility of being dumped into a fiery chimney is an assumption of the risk.

[afailedmurder]

And when is it not, really?

[Akechi is getting a little restless. Banter is all well and good, but now is a time for action.]

We have good comedic timing, you know. Shall we take our act on the road?

[purrtagonist]

[ha]

So long as my name comes first.

[brushes past him, jerking his head to the side to indicate Akechi should follow]

This way. Let's see what we can sniff out.

[afailedmurder]

Joker and Crow, Crow and Joker... well, our managers can hash it out.

[readily coming along]

Lead the way.

[purrtagonist]

Tell your manager I'm also requesting 75% of all profits.

[starting off on the first floor! testing doors here and there, to see if any of them have unlocked or something]

[. . .]

[time for that awkward question]

Tablets are a little harder to cut into paper snowflakes, yeah?

[he's easing into it, though]

[afailedmurder]

I'll tell my lawyer that.

[there is an obvious hesitation before he answers that question]

...Yes, they certainly are.

[purrtagonist]

[a soft snort, but he drops the joke there]

Could always try flushing it down the toilet.

[not asking what the motive actually was though, since he doesn't want to be assaulted by robot raccoons from nowhere. that'd suck]

[afailedmurder]

[if there's just the two of them it probably doesn't count as "in public," but fair]

I'd prefer not to know what the next level of their delivery methods looks like.

[purrtagonist]

[HE CONSIDERED THAT, but who knows with those whacky characters]

[Akira finally tries a door that swings open, leading them right into the newly opened nurse's office. ah. but he can comment on that in a second, because--]

Tattooed on the back of our hands, probably.

[aha]

. . . were you considering it?

[afailedmurder]

[it's tempting to lie, but he doubts he could pull it off even if he did]

...It's something I want. It would be impossible not to think about it.

[purrtagonist]

[. . . there's a well of relief when Akechi answers honestly, actually. he exhales a breath he hadn't even known he was holding as he slips into the nurse's office, and heads straight for one of those drawers]

I doubt you're alone on that front.

[. . . this drawer is filled with qtips. . .]

Do you think this counts as "public" with regards to the rule about not sharing motives? And why are there so many qtips--

[afailedmurder]

I don't know. It's embarrassing, anyway.

[Opens a drawer of his own. Qtips.]

...Are raccoons prone to ear wax?

[purrtagonist]

[despite the serious subject matter, Akira lets out a breathy ha]

What kinds of things is Goro Akechi embarrassed of?

[picks up a qtip and snaps it in half]

It may be more accurate to say they're prone to hoarding.

[afailedmurder]

...The chance to turn back time. Do things differently.

[and also not be alone in doing it, but listen, it's a lot easier to talk about your deeply pitiful friendship thirst when you're planning on murdering the other person afterward]

[purrtagonist]

[. . . oh]

[yeah]

[Akira feels himself tense up again. not because he thinks Akechi is going to turn on him (he doesn't; he doesn't think Akechi would have danced around it for this long if he had found Akira with the intent to murder him tonight), but because. . .]

[he suddenly feels like, after tonight, it may just be a matter of time before the shoe drops. and he doesn't want that]

. . . what would you do differently?

[he has a lot more to say on the subject, but he's asking this, first]

[afailedmurder]

I'd have punished Shido right away instead of... whatever it was I was trying to do there.

[going beyond that treads into areas where he can't even be honest with himself]

And if I'd known how to steal treasures back then, I wouldn't even have needed to inflict people with rampages. I could undo a lot of collateral damage.

[purrtagonist]

[on one hand? YEAH, TRUE. on the other. . .]

You'd be running away from your guilt, too.

[mmmmyep. he closes a drawer, opens another one. more qtips???]

And not just that, but you'd have to take a step back towards the person Shido wanted you to be in order to achieve it.

Is that worth it?

[afailedmurder]

...I don't know that I agree with that. If I undo what happened, the only thing I'm still guilty of is the price I paid for it.

[Digging through a particularly deep drawer of Qtips. Maybe there's something underneath them??]

And if it's my own choice to do it, even if it makes me a bad person, isn't that going against Shido's will as well?