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Dec. 30th, 2019 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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bemuseboxIf this is the afterlife, it sure is a shitty one.
But this isn't the afterlife - of that much he's nearly certain. When he'd lost consciousness back in Shido's Palace, headed for an early but deserved grave, numbness had overtaken him just before blackness. When he woke up again with an unfamiliar ceiling above him the pain had come screaming back, leaving him stunned and gasping for breath the moment he tried to sit up. The wound had somehow been closed up, but for a while his body wouldn't be convinced they weren't still dying.
The 'somehow' of everything - his survival, his wound, his arrival, his new tattoo, his new ears and tail - is eventually explained. He'd taken the news about other worlds better than his peers. He'd taken the news that was a 'Fighter', bound to a 'Sacrifice', and that he was to remain in this school until he could prove himself a suitable partner about as poorly as everyone else. Yet when the shouting and quickly quashed attempts to fight back start he's among those that stand aside, his calm, solemn expression betrayed only by his lashing tail and his ear pressing all the way back against his hair. No matter the front he puts up, Akechi feels his peers' rage keenly.
Even so, he doesn't try to escape. He lets someone else make that mistake first, so that he can take note of their shortcomings and the subsequent fallout. After the third such attempt he sets aside the idea of joining in. If he's going to escape it won't be from here and won't be any time soon. He'll need to wait for his partner, whoever that is. Akechi doesn't have much faith in them, not when they're nothing more than a vague feeling of 'someone over there' and the occasional flicker of emotion, but he suspects he'll have better chances when only one person is monitoring him.
Akechi is nothing if not patient, so he settles readily into the waiting game and even makes a few 'friends' once he puts his old charming persona back on, even once they're turned into opponents for one another. He throws himself into his 'studies', quickly mastering the basics of this strange new form of magic and earning himself a rank near the top of his 'class'. The kindness treatment it gets him is a comment from an instructor that Limitless seems to be an apt name, but Akechi had learned a long time ago how to work around neglect from authority figures. While he doesn't have the context necessary to gauge his own progress, he thinks he's adjusting well.
Despite that, he feels terribly unprepared be jolted awake and (almost literally) dragged out of his bed, barely given the chance to change out of his pajamas and back into his uniform before he's shoved out of his room and into the hall. A moment later, the school's intercom crackles to life with an unfamiliar voice.
"Locate your partner and proceed to the front gate. Failure will not be tolerated."
And then the fighting starts.
Akechi doesn't hesitate to distance himself from the chaos the dorm hallway dissolves into, the instincts he honed in the Metaverse serving him well as he slinks through darkened hallways. The assignment is hardly fair - their assailants seem to be seasoned professionals and he's been allowed access to so little of the school he doesn't even know where the front gate is - but rather than fear or anger it's intent undercut with excitement that thrums in his veins. The link between he and his partner seems stronger tonight than it did before, though he's not sure if that's the reality of the situation or just his adrenaline talking. Whatever the case it's suddenly quite easy to follow, a steady thread of guidance that he can nearly see.
Akechi takes a roundabout route through the school, chasing after the sensation of 'someone over there' until it's narrowed down to 'someone right here'. Or rather, 'someone on the other side of this door'. He'd like to take his time and be cautious about entering, but the sound of approaching voices robs him of the opportunity. He yanks open the door, slips inside, and quickly but quietly eases it shut behind him. Even while he does that, he casts his gaze around the room (a library, he realizes), looking for any sign of this new partner of his.
But this isn't the afterlife - of that much he's nearly certain. When he'd lost consciousness back in Shido's Palace, headed for an early but deserved grave, numbness had overtaken him just before blackness. When he woke up again with an unfamiliar ceiling above him the pain had come screaming back, leaving him stunned and gasping for breath the moment he tried to sit up. The wound had somehow been closed up, but for a while his body wouldn't be convinced they weren't still dying.
The 'somehow' of everything - his survival, his wound, his arrival, his new tattoo, his new ears and tail - is eventually explained. He'd taken the news about other worlds better than his peers. He'd taken the news that was a 'Fighter', bound to a 'Sacrifice', and that he was to remain in this school until he could prove himself a suitable partner about as poorly as everyone else. Yet when the shouting and quickly quashed attempts to fight back start he's among those that stand aside, his calm, solemn expression betrayed only by his lashing tail and his ear pressing all the way back against his hair. No matter the front he puts up, Akechi feels his peers' rage keenly.
Even so, he doesn't try to escape. He lets someone else make that mistake first, so that he can take note of their shortcomings and the subsequent fallout. After the third such attempt he sets aside the idea of joining in. If he's going to escape it won't be from here and won't be any time soon. He'll need to wait for his partner, whoever that is. Akechi doesn't have much faith in them, not when they're nothing more than a vague feeling of 'someone over there' and the occasional flicker of emotion, but he suspects he'll have better chances when only one person is monitoring him.
Akechi is nothing if not patient, so he settles readily into the waiting game and even makes a few 'friends' once he puts his old charming persona back on, even once they're turned into opponents for one another. He throws himself into his 'studies', quickly mastering the basics of this strange new form of magic and earning himself a rank near the top of his 'class'. The kindness treatment it gets him is a comment from an instructor that Limitless seems to be an apt name, but Akechi had learned a long time ago how to work around neglect from authority figures. While he doesn't have the context necessary to gauge his own progress, he thinks he's adjusting well.
Despite that, he feels terribly unprepared be jolted awake and (almost literally) dragged out of his bed, barely given the chance to change out of his pajamas and back into his uniform before he's shoved out of his room and into the hall. A moment later, the school's intercom crackles to life with an unfamiliar voice.
"Locate your partner and proceed to the front gate. Failure will not be tolerated."
And then the fighting starts.
Akechi doesn't hesitate to distance himself from the chaos the dorm hallway dissolves into, the instincts he honed in the Metaverse serving him well as he slinks through darkened hallways. The assignment is hardly fair - their assailants seem to be seasoned professionals and he's been allowed access to so little of the school he doesn't even know where the front gate is - but rather than fear or anger it's intent undercut with excitement that thrums in his veins. The link between he and his partner seems stronger tonight than it did before, though he's not sure if that's the reality of the situation or just his adrenaline talking. Whatever the case it's suddenly quite easy to follow, a steady thread of guidance that he can nearly see.
Akechi takes a roundabout route through the school, chasing after the sensation of 'someone over there' until it's narrowed down to 'someone right here'. Or rather, 'someone on the other side of this door'. He'd like to take his time and be cautious about entering, but the sound of approaching voices robs him of the opportunity. He yanks open the door, slips inside, and quickly but quietly eases it shut behind him. Even while he does that, he casts his gaze around the room (a library, he realizes), looking for any sign of this new partner of his.
