2023-08-19: Destruction

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<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

It's been... quite a time. Akane's had something of a whirlwind tour of the Earth Sphere the last couple weeks. Some of it's been good, and some of it hasn't. It gnaws at her, a bit, as she sits in Kamesan Park.

Theoretically, she's supposed to go to the Wadatsumi for a meeting in about 15 minutes. It's important -- even more important in the wake of recent events. They need to come to some kind of understanding about Tsutsujidai's governance and defense -- something that can be presented to the city council, as well as to several parties interested in building in a substantially undeveloped PLANT-type colony.

Right now, though...

"I'm kinda nervous about this meeting," Akane says, seated at a park table. "I feel like it's not my place to put a big stamp on it or anything." She looks out toward the city, admitting, "... I can't treat it like it's mine -- but I still think it's worth fighting for. I don't know."

She looks to Knight... or, well, almost to Knight. Her eyes end up landing on his tie, then turning away. Ever since she said, 'Don't look,' she's struggled to meet it.

"It's up to you whether you want to be part of this or do your own thing," she eventually says. "I'm honestly kinda not sure I do. Maybe I'll just go to college? I dunno. I've got a few months to figure it out. I guess I need to start studying for the U-FITS..."

... even if Akane's a little shaky on what the future holds, it's a nice conversation to have. 

<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.

        Since Akane has been guarding Rikka, Knight's been guarding Leina.

        Division of resources.

        But right now, he isn't. Right now, he's in the place where he slept. Right now, he's at the table where he moved in after so many empty humans got up and left the remnants of their park lunches behind, as thoughtlessly as they moved through their shallow lives. Soft hamburger packaging paper was useful to pack into the holes of his tree, so creatures wouldn't crawl from them in the middle of the night.

        He doesn't treat it like it's his, but the tone is different.

        Because it never was.

        Writ into his bones, he taps a finger against the wood, once. He doesn't force Akane to meet his gaze. He knows where she's looking.

        (His own gaze has fallen on a trash can.)

        "This is my home," he says, at length. "But it should not exist in this world. We owe it to them to live without stepping on the Earth... I won't turn away from that."

        A pause; he shakes his head. "But I'll do it my way. It's better if I have room to move. And it's easier if I'm not part of it." Why Knight would want to avoid answering to some central authority is a question answered in the silent, breathing history of Kamesan.

        This was HIS home.

        "You no longer have one singular purpose, Akane Shinjo. Even if you involve yourself here, you'll still go to college. You'll live alongside Rikka Takarada as long as that makes you both happy. And you'll still fix yourself." Knight's own gaze shifts over to Akane's ear; close enough. "You became a kaiju, but you're still human. I think you're no longer a kaiju, yourself... though your heart remembers. But humans are complicated. Contradictory. ... messy. That's what I've observed being human to be. Don't tie yourself to one purpose any longer." 

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

A long moment passes, amid the artificial high summer sunset. Cicadas cry; those, unlike the sunset, are quite real.

Akane looks out to the city thoughtfully again, thinking as Knight speaks. Having the chance to speak to him like this... to talk about the world, about the future. "You're definitely right about that... if I think too hard about the Galeoria Pliers my head starts spinning," she affirms, when he mentions Tsutsujidai shouldn't exist in this world. How much effort has been put into giving these people a real world, and a real future...

"Yeah, that's kinda what I thought," Akane agrees with him. "I didn't wanna put any pressure on you if you wanted in, but... you've always had a pretty good head on your shoulders." She's not sure exactly what she's getting at, but... well, Knight's always been at his best when allowed to choose his own way.

The idea of multiple purposes -- of pursuing everything the world has to offer -- has occurred to Akane before, but that thought's been hard to hold on to. "I guess that's true, yeah... 3G does have a few university partners. And Rikka and I were talking about apartment hunting." She really could be anything, move forward any way she wants -- and so many ways, even. Try things. Fail. Start again.

"... I wonder, sometimes," Akane admits, gaze tracking down that tie, then off to Knight's sleeve. "Sometimes I... kinda wonder. But maybe it's like that with that, too... I don't really need to be just one thing, right?"

Akane's eyes turn down further, starting to mist up a little. "... ahaha... before I knew it, you got pretty far ahead of me, huh." She brings a hand to the back of her head. "I guess that's why you look like the big brother now." 

<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.

        "They're complex." Knight agrees, of the Galeoria Pliers. "And my actions contributed to needing them." He's not the sole cause, of course, but... maybe that's why he's concerned not only with Tsutsujidai's future, but the world Tsutsujidai inhabits. Once upon a time, Anti would have destroyed the real world thoughtlessly, just to fix Tsutsujidai. Now, Knight...

        Less concerned with fixing things in place, he prefers to be a protector, these days.

        Watching over the Villa Mass, so that no one will steal in and slay Leina in the night.

        Whisking Alouette away from rubber bullets, before she can be knocked down and stolen again.

        ... keeping Akane company.

        "Thanks," he nods, quite simply, when Akane decides he's got a good head on his shoulders. "Now it's of average dimensions for a human in their late teens. Though there's some compromised peripheral vision. The Second is bolder."

        He's talking about the way she proudly displays her kaiju-red eyes, while his single remaining one is soundly covered.

        And maybe that's why, when he listens to Akane's reaction to his analysis, he reaches over to take her hand. With one of his, anyway -- because his other hand reaches up to brush his hair away from his face, revealing his eyes as so blatantly mismatched.

        "You don't need to be just one thing," he repeats, though the words sound more certain coming from him.

        For once in his life -- it IS possible, just deeply improbable -- he grins.

        "Yeah. You'd better --"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

When Knight takes Akane's comment very literally, she can't quite stop herself from giggling; he's always so literal. It's when that hand reaches for hers, though, and when he reveals his other eye, that her own eyes widen and she manages to meet his just for a moment. She gives that hand a gentle squeeze -- remembering the last time that had happened. When he pulled a drowning girl out of the sea of her self.

She sits up a little straighter, drawing her focus down to just Knight, and --

Alexis Kerib teleports in.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

In the next instant, a blade stabs through Knight's midsection. The wet noise it makes as it protrudes punctuates itself with a dull, woody 'thwock' as the blade meets table.

Alexis remains there for a moment, giving the blade a short tug that makes it wobble in its new resting point -- then a much firmer tug that actually removes it from the table and allows him to lift Knight, raising him until his feet dangle a few inches off the ground.

"Ah, Akane-kun," Alexis greets her, pleasantly; Knight is an afterthought. Indeed, he is removed from the equation entirely a moment later, as Alexis whips the blade off to the side. "I'm terribly sorry it took so long. I was really busy with the Vist Foundation. Finally found the time to dispose of him." 

<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.

        And all a sudden, Knight isn't squeezing Akane's hand any more.

        At first it jerks, and CLENCHES; then it tears away, with vain scrabbling, until finally his fingers fall slack.

        "Nnngahhh--" is the backing track, but it's secondary to the story told by his hand, as blood splatters over it.

        (And not from his fingertips.)

        He is aware. Of course he is aware. He was always aware -- it's why he pulled away in such a panic, back then. He knew what their guardian would do to him, given half a chance.

        But he wasn't looking at Alexis Kerib, this time.

        He was looking at Akane Shinjo.

        And his eyes -- no, his eye, as his hair naturally falls over one side of his face again -- widen, until such point as they don't. Until that blade jerks, inside him, and he can't even think of saying the word which his lips tried to shape. (He couldn't. He is human enough to need his lungs for such a task.) Something else comes out, instead.

        Coughing, seizing, splattering.

        There's a trash can across the way.

        Alexis isn't thoughtful enough to dispose of his trash there.

        On the ground, Anti bleeds. On the ground, Knight cannot protect Akane. On the ground, there's a kaiju. On the ground...

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

She'd better --

... better what? It's the last thought Akane clings to about Knight's words as they're quite literally cut off. She looks up to Alexis, trying to figure out what she can even say.

... She'd allowed herself, for just one moment, to believe in a future --

-- and that's proven to be a mistake. As long as Alexis exists -- and he is immortal; he will always exist -- she'll never be free of him. No, not just that -- no one who knows her will be free of him.

Her gaze almost turns to Knight -- but Akane's smart enough to know exactly what she'll see, and finds herself unable to look.

She pulls her legs up onto the bench, mute, mouth just slightly open. She needs to find a way to stop this. She needs to find a way to make sure Alexis can stop hurting everyone. She needs --


<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Alexis is, in the split-second Akane almost looks over at Knight, behind Akane. He moves through the unobserved space of the world easily, gliding on the inevitability of his narrative.

"Well, then... I'll have you prove useful one last time," Alexis tells her. His cloak flares out; nothing after nothing is inside.

And a moment later, so too is Akane.

The first sign any other living human gets of this sad family drama is a bright flare of teal light.

Alexis has grown at scale in Tsutsujidai before, now and again, to clean up Akane's messes. This is something different. A Hyper Being (and a Makai Worlder, a Hyper Devil -- whatever name you wish to apply to such an entity -- is surely the same thing) is always at its most complete, its most fully-realized, when merged with a human. Whether or not that merger is consensual or kind never matters.

Alexis practically roars as his cloak twists and shifts, forming more complete versions of his arms, his legs, his body than he's had in thousands of years.

"Magnificent!" he declares, feeling more substantial than he ever has. "You said you couldn't make kaiju anymore -- and yet, here you had these terrible emotions inside you!"

The door to Alexis's heart slams shut.

Akane remains inside.

Alexis glances back at the Wadatsumi, drawing forth his spear. The teal panels of his face blink on and off in their usual dance. "... There's nothing of value here anymore," he concludes. "And this universe could do with thinner walls."

In the next instant, he holds his spear.

In the next instant, he pierces the Galeoria Pliers with it; they pop apart into their component Carpenters, just as the first Vessel of Light to concern himself with this space did nearly two years ago.

Reality begins to flicker and shift. While the world doesn't instantly destabilize to the extent it did in December, unoccupied buildings flicker motherboard-green, and time and space distort... 

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

... and Akane, locked in her room, averts her gaze from the world. After all -- she (it) won't be its (her) problem anymore.

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