2025-06-26: Grief
- Cutscene: Grief
- Cast: Rikka Takarada
- Where: Nouvelle Tokyo - Takarada/Shinjo Household
- Date: 2025-06-26
- Summary: A viewing of 2025-06-25: Posthumous Release. Rikka Takarada listens to the message Akane left behind.
A laptop stands open on the Takarada/Shinjo household's sitting room table. Taking up the full screen is a video, depicting Akane Shinjo sitting in her office. There's no way that Rikka was going to watch it in front of everyone at Bay Tower. She had asked for a personal copy to take home and watch on her own time, when she was ready.
The video is paused - Akane frozen in time. It has been for a couple of hours, now. Rikka Takarada has stared at it, the cursor hovering over 'Play'. Her finger hovering, trembling over the button - but courage leaving her, ultimately unable to start it. It feels like a terrifying sort of finality. Her final message - the message she prepared in the event of her... her passing. Watching this now... it feels a bit like acknowledging it - acknowledging that she's gone, acknowledging that empty space will be empty forever. This feeling wars with that sense of distant pain deep within her telling her that Akane is still out there, must be still out there... If she watches this video, will that feeling go away? And if that happens, does it mean she really is...?
...She isn't sure she's ready to face that, yet. That feeling's almost become a driving force for her - a desperate hope. Maybe she is as selfish as Marusan said she was, denying Akane her last words like this.
She's been saved by distractions, once or twice. Most recently, her mother calling in for her daily check-in - sometimes twice daily, if she gets the sense it needs to be followed up on. Perhaps a part of her had intentionally stalled, knowing she would likely be calling soon. Today's topic - aside from the usual back and forth of assuring her that, no, she doesn't need her to come stay with her - was the video of Shinji Kaminaga that had finally reached her in Tsutsujidai. Thankfully, she didn't ask any questions that she couldn't answer anyway - she just reiterated her support and the support of the people back home, who owed 3G everything. ...Rikka found herself wishing the rest of the world was like that. Here on Earth, she couldn't go a day without people hounding her with questions about it.
Her attention turns back to the laptop. She meets the eyes of the Akane on the screen. She could almost reach out and touch her, like this. Her heart hearts a little at that thought.
...Then she thinks about how that'd mostly just end up smudging the screen, and it hurts just a little less.
Rikka exhales. ...Okay. This has to happen. If she doesn't watch this now... people are just going to ask her about it later. Or maybe they won't, and they'll just look at her with those sympathetic eyes and she won't know why. Still trembling, her finger finally presses 'play'. The Akane on screen starts to move once more, and Rikka listens. She leans forward attentively, one hand idly thumbing at Akane's wedding ring next to hers, turning it gently back and forth.
She smirks just a little, despite herself, as Akane pointedly says that 'it sucks' and comments on the circumstances of her own death. ...It's a very 'her' thing to say. But... she got to be happy. It's a happiness they shared together and she even smiles, slightly, as Akane reminisces on the past years. She stops, when she gets to the proposal.
She pauses the video for a moment, shutting her eyes tight and inhaling sharply. She grips the hand wearing the rings tightly, taking shuddering breaths. ...Keep it together. You're barely halfway through. You can't break down just yet. It takes her a few moments to work up the courage to start again. With a bit of trepidation, she presses 'play' again. The video resumes.
The last thing she remembers... She thinks back to their last night together. Two days before... it happened. She had been busy the day after, so they didn't have time to talk much that day. All things told, at least she can say they didn't leave off on a fight... If it had come to that...
And she continues. They were like family - and maybe one of them is.
The tears that Rikka had been holding back begin to flow, as Akane sheds tears of her own on screen. She thinks back to the future they had planned together. Their project MR-1, unfinished in the garage. Their marriage and honeymoon. The surprise Akane had planned for her that she had been so excited about. Living and growing old together... The future that had been stolen from them, from her. What she wanted more than anything...
...She wanted more time, too, to get to know her more.
Akane apologizes to her, directly - and hearing her say her name aloud, she finds herself unable to hold the brimming emotions back anymore. Once again, Rikka curls in on herself. She cries - for both herself and Akane, until the sunset gives way to night.