Chapter Text
He was surrounded by the void.
It was just as most people expected it to look like. Completely black, devoid of life, silent. One could reach out and attempt to find light, but there was absolutely nothing. Only darkness, through and through, making one feel blind and trapped in a space that seemed small yet endless at the same time. There was no sound, no screams, nothing to pierce the deafening ring that was silence.
And Goro Akechi was floating in its peacefulness. Everything was just so calm, and at this point, he didn’t know if he wanted to leave. Actually, had he ever truly wanted to leave in the first place? Maybe this place was his home. Or perhaps he was dead.
Yet something in his gut was telling him that his life wasn’t over yet. That there was still meaning remaining, that if he awoke maybe he could find the answers he truly desired. Could he trust this feeling, however? It seemed to be spouting nonsense, and even then, Akechi had been lied to his whole life. He had lied to himself and others so many times that he didn’t even know if he could trust gut feeling anymore.
And yet the feeling was insisting and telling him that he still had something to do, but he couldn’t remember what. In fact, he couldn’t remember anything. Why was he here? How had he gotten here? Where was here? And why was this feeling so insistent that he needed to wake up? He could just stay in this silent void forever - wouldn’t that be the wiser option? It was so nice and quiet here, and he had nothing to worry about.
Suddenly his stomach lurched and his vision blurred, and Akechi felt like he was being dropped from an unfathomable height. A few moments later, the breath was knocked out of his lungs, and all of his senses snapped back to him so harshly that it made him feel numb. It had all happened within the blink of an eye, and Akechi had been so unprepared for it that the fear and adrenaline coursing through his body had threatened to make him pass out.
He waited a few seconds before he tried moving. At first, nothing happened, but he gave it a few more moments. Afterwards, only his hands responded. The rest of his body wasn’t following the commands his brain was screaming at them, to move, to at least show any sign that he was not paralyzed.
His neck was in pain and so was his left arm, and his legs were numb. Slowly, gingerly, he opened his eyes, only to see black, cracked pavement surrounding him. Sharp rocks and gravel were scattered on its surface, digging into Akechi’s body as he attempted to sit up and look around, maybe lean back onto a wall or something. Such action proved to be impossible, however.
And then the smell overwhelmed him.
It had almost been as sudden as the drop from the void. Everything smelled like garbage and vomit, like rodents and rotten food. The air was thick with the smell, and even with no breeze, the scent wafted all over the place, surrounding him. However, there was no sign of life in the back alley which Akechi had supposedly decided to hide in.
The boy was gradually starting to remember more - he had gone to the Metaverse, he knew that much. For whatever reason, his mind couldn’t pinpoint, but it must have been important if he hadn’t even taken the time to find a more decent spot near the target’s location to hide and take cover.
His head still pounding, Akechi decided to retrace his steps. He didn’t care how long it took, but at the same time, he needed to find out if he was in danger and if he needed to leave.
He almost choked when his latest memory came back to him. All of these feelings, these memories crashing back to him, was too much. It was gradual at first, but it didn’t take long for the feeling of extreme fear to rush back to him once again.
He had been shot. He had been in a situation of life and death, the latter seeming to be a more possible outcome, and yet he had let himself get shot. But if he was now here…
Why had he been shot? Who had shot him?
Those two questions were added to the already numerous ones spinning through his mind, and it took Akechi a few minutes (or maybe an hour or two, he had lost his sense of time a while ago, it seemed) for the memories of the prior events to clearly show in his mind.
...Right. Shido’s Palace, the large cruiser which had been sailing across a fallen and flooded Japan. He could hear the distant sound of an alarm, followed by the clash of metal against metal and the feel of the ground shaking underneath him.
He held his red longsword against a small yet sturdy dagger. Wait… was he in his Black Mask costume? And who were the figures standing in front of him? No… It couldn’t be.
He looked around. He was experiencing the memory again, and very vividly that it almost seemed real. He could hear shouts… which he recognized. The Phantom Thieves. So that’s who they were.
His surroundings were immediately able to tell him that he was in the engine room of the cruiser. Why was he there, however? And Joker. Why was he still alive? He should have been dead, murdered by Akechi’s pistol-
The Metaverse. Shit.
Almost as if on command, the memory suddenly warped and changed, as if it were being played on a record that had been sped up to be almost four times the normal speed.
There was now another Goro Akechi aiming a gun at him, except it wasn’t anything silly like a reflection. This Akechi was in his detective prince uniform, but his face was twisted and his mouth was opened to reveal cruel-looking fangs. He seemed terribly amused by the events playing out before him - the real Akechi was looking up at him, his outfit’s mask broken, his forehead bleeding, and Shadows surrounding him while the Phantom Thieves to his right didn’t dare move.
Cowards, his mind yelled at him.
And so the clone Akechi moved, the aura surrounding him setting off red flags in the normal Akechi’s mind - he was not real, he was a being of cognition, and a twisted cognition at that.
But his face. His narrowed crimson eyes, his cruel grin, the evil words being spat out of his mouth, the knives he was glaring at Joker and Akechi, the gun pointed at the latter’s head, the Shadows surrounding him who were all under his command.
And then the sound of sirens grew louder, and a wall now separated him and the Phantom Thieves, and the gunshot sounded, and the pain pierced his shoulder and Akechi brought up his own weapon to shoot his cognitive double, thus leading to the Palace collapsing along with his own consciousness.
And so Akechi woke up in the alley once again. Crap, he thought as he remarked the blood pooling at his left. How had he not noticed that before? He didn’t know the repercussions of being injured in the Metaverse could affect one in real life, but even then he had never been so critically injured before.
His vision was finally starting to clear up, his mind less groggy. He knew it. He had lost to the Phantom Thieves. So he now had double the problems he had before - how would he explain this to Shido? He had been in his Palace, ready to kill his Shadow, only to be stopped by the Phantom Thieves, who supposedly had the same goal?
Akechi sighed. There’s no solving this. I can’t just go running to Shido or the Phantom Thieves of Hearts begging for one of them to take me in after all that I’ve done. I’m on neither side now.
He was alone once again.
But he always had been, hadn’t he? Even his mother hadn’t been able to carry the burden of caring for her bastard child. He ignored the thought.
Part of his mind was telling him to go into hiding, but even that would be difficult. Shido could just use his many minions to track him down and kill him, and his disappearance probably wouldn’t even be noticed by the public thanks to Shido’s overwhelming power of the media and masses.
But what else was there to do? Kill himself? The idea was tempting - it was what he was going for in order to save Joker and his team, according to his still hazy memory. At least they would have had a chance of taking down Japan’s future Prime Minister - Akechi was as useless as he could be now that his mission had failed. The Phantom Thieves would probably try to trigger a change of heart in him, too, if that were even possible.
Unless I get to them first. Let them do whatever they want with Shido, but after the elections, I go after each and every one of them and trigger a mental shutdown.
The idea was so cruel that it was sickening. Akechi couldn’t help but laugh at the idea - it would be so fun to watch each of them drop dead out of nowhere.
And yet, deep down, he knew he couldn’t do that. Part of him just wouldn’t let it happen, despite all of the things he had done to those cruel individuals as well as innocents who had stood in Shido’s way to ultimate power. They had been different, they had been individuals which he had been forced to take down.
And when Akechi thought of the Phantom Thieves, he found that he… didn’t want to. Which was wrong! They had tried to kill him, had gotten in the way of his master plan, and had practically left him for dead. They deserved it. They really did. It was all their fault.
But nothing could be done if he stayed here. He had to get help, go somewhere, hide, fix his arm. He could forget the Phantom Thieves for now - they were foolish enough to have trusted him in the first place.
Akechi almost laughed at himself. Of course they hadn’t trusted him. He had to give them credit for something.
Yet his thoughts still swirled. Goro was almost sure that he had pieced all of his memories together by now, meaning he could at least remember his current goal.
Find somewhere to hide before he could be found. It didn’t necessarily have to be far, he just had to stop the bleeding of his wound before he lost consciousness once again. It was slowly creeping up on him, it really was.
But where could he find supplies in such a desolate and disgusting place? To think such uncleanliness was even allowed near the Diet building. The only objects near him were an empty dumpster and brick walls, and the rocks which he now uncomfortably sat on thanks to his inability to stand without falling over.
Goro peeked at his wound once again.
Left arm, lower shoulder, near the joint. The bullet had just barely missed bone, from what he could tell, yet he doubted the object created from cognition was still there. It had only served to injure him regardless, but at least it was one less problem to worry about.
His lower arm was numb, but now that he was fully awake, Akechi’s shoulder throbbed with the most intense pain he had ever felt. It felt like part of him was missing - which it technically was - even though the bullet hadn’t even pierced all the way through his skin. A faulty shot from that range.
He hadn’t been able to feel the pain before. But now it hurt like hell, and it was only spreading.
Still unable to move his arm, Akechi twisted his torso to look to his left. Not far lay the gates and guards that protected the Diet building, and Akechi pondered calling for them for a moment.
However, this method would require explaining how he had snuck onto private property and how he had gotten shot, which was not a story he wanted to explain nor have published, even if he came up with a lie. If Shido found out that he had been fooling around in his Palace and had almost caused massive destruction, he would instantly be deemed a threat and eliminated. Either way, Shido knowing that one of his missions had failed would result in a negative outcome.
So he stayed put. Goro Akechi, Second Coming of the Detective Prince, sat ashamed in an alley which he had forbiddenly entered, only to get a serious bullet wound to his shoulder which would eventually cause him to lose consciousness from blood loss.
And there was nothing he could do to save himself.
It had been twilight when Akechi had drifted into unconsciousness.
Now when he looked up at the sky, all that could be seen were stars and the bright light of the full moon overhead. Meaning he had been out for only a few hours.
It seemed that nobody had noticed his presence. He was far back enough in the deserted alley to not be seen by patrolling guards or cameras at this time of night anyway, so he was safe. For the time being.
As soon as dawn struck, he would have to escape. Escape before more people showed up near the building, so preferably near the back exit where he had been able to sneak in prior to all of the events.
It was a miracle that he was even still alive.
By now his wound had ceased its bleeding, and Akechi felt dizzy from blood loss. He still hadn’t patched up or even touched the wound since its infliction, and dried red blood now surrounded the area where the bullet had struck and had soaked his clothes so thoroughly that he couldn’t even pinpoint the exact location of the hole near his left shoulder.
If he didn’t do something about it soon, it would become infected, which was already bad enough news on its own without the consideration of all the other factors currently affecting his life.
Yet Akechi was in no state to even stand up. He had lost too much blood and had no food or drinks or bandages with him at the moment. His best chance of surviving the next few hours was to get medical care as soon as possible.
But he had argued against it ever since he had first woken up in the alley and realized that he had been shot. There were no underground doctors which Akechi could afford to pay, and no one else would keep this injury a secret. He would be lucky enough to even get noticed by a building guard by yelling.
And what was the worst that could happen after he had died in this terrible alley, anyways?
He could end his misery right here and now. He could forget all of his plans - they wouldn’t matter anyway. Let the Phantom Thieves and Akira Kurusu do whatever the hell they wanted, while Akechi rotted on the ground near his bastard father’s main office.
He knew this wasn’t a good thought process to be having at the moment. Or at all, actually, for it had happened before - these suicidal thoughts.
Akechi had worked so hard to get to where he is today - or was, yesterday. Studied double the time of a normal student, entered a prestigious high school, and applied to a college. He had formed a plan to take down his father when he was only fourteen, and the gifts of his Personas had been a tremendous help when it came to fulfilling Shido’s orders and taking down his enemies one by one.
On the outside, Akechi was merely a simple boy leading the life of a TV-famous ace detective who helped solve crimes and bring equality to society. A true hero of justice, just like he had always wanted to be.
Not some… cursed bastard child who had been rejected and caused pain to his mother and relatives, not a child who had suffered what a child shouldn’t have suffered, not a young teenage boy who had been unlucky enough to stumble upon supernatural powers which had eventually led him down this twisted path of death and destruction and betrayal which he had grown accustomed to.
Goro Akechi was no one’s pet. He didn’t work for Masayoshi Shido nor the Phantom Thieves. He was his own person and could fulfill his own lifelong goals of bringing justice to society, to the country he had lost belief in…
By murdering for the future prime minister? By killing someone whom he had thought to be his only friend, only to discover that he was, in fact, his enemy? The boy who could have changed his life and perhaps could have had him avoid the Metaverse if only they had met a few years earlier?
It was a sad, dark story. Oh, the pity Akira Kurusu had probably felt when he had heard the devastating story of the famous Detective Prince’s life.
Screw it. Screw it all.
Nothing could be fixed now. Akechi hadn’t succeeded in sacrificing himself for the greater good, which meant that he now had to put himself out of his own misery. Did someone of his calibre truly deserve to live?
Everyone and everything could go to hell for what he cared. If he stayed here just a little bit longer without being noticed, his injury would eventually get the best of him and he would die. Here, in this dark alley near a building infested by underlings for a malevolent future Prime Minister, with no one and nothing to keep him company but the foul smell and the rocks which lay at his feet.
His mission had failed. He was finally coming to terms with that and the fact that the plan he had been concocting for years had just been a waste that would eventually lead to his demise. In the end, nothing he had done had mattered.
Not even the trust he had wanted to gain with Akira Kurusu, the leader of the Phantom Thieves, so he could eventually kill him like Shido had wanted to kill Akechi after he was done with him. They both would’ve been out with the trash, just like that.
Not that it mattered anymore, as Akechi had been telling himself for the past twenty minutes or so.
He could die here. The Phantom Thieves would forget about his existence and so would the public, and Goro Akechi would succumb to whatever kind of afterlife awaited the dead.
It didn’t seem like such a bad plan after all.