Work Text:
MALKUTH
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24th, 2023
11:20 AM
Begrudgingly, Akira reached into the pool of bile that the rapidly-decomposing Shadow had left behind to rescue his knife from what looked so corrosive and slide it back into his suit’s pocket. Once it was firmly back within his grasp, the trickster pulled himself away from the carcass’ ever-spreading remains and stepped forward, further into the castle with the rest of the Thieves in tow. From their spot in between the outside world and the inside Palace, all that the group could make out through the alarmingly heavy darkness was a single figure, shrouded in black and sitting down in what looked like defeat.
“Is that him?” Sumire asked in a whisper, already reaching to draw her rapier just in case.
“I don’t think so.” Akira breathed back, shaking his head slightly. “Doesn’t look cocky enough…”
“Let me handle this.”
Sophia spoke up, taking a step forward and into the darkness. Before any of her allies could protest, the android put one of her hands forward and fired forth a small beam of light that shot just past the seated figure’s head and disappeared against the wall behind it. Sophia’s goal was to illuminate the room just a small amount, enough for the Thieves to get a glimpse at the figure without potentially stepping into yet another trap, but she failed. However, the shot was enough to get the silhouette to jerk to the side and shout out in surprise.
“Hey!”
He shouted out. Upon realising who the voice belonged to, many of the Thieves’ eyes shot open in shock, and Ann in particular called out.
“Maruki?!” She asked, Ryuji stepping forward to relay her disbelief.
“The hell are you doin’ here?”
He began, running into the darkness. As he began his pilgrimage towards the ex-counsellor’s voice, Makoto reached out to try and stop him, falling just a few inches short.
“Ryuji, wait!”
She called out, before sighing and beginning to follow the runner. Reluctantly, the rest followed suit, hoping that their ears had deceived them. Frankly, some – namely, Ann – hoped that this was yet another setup from their rival as the Thieves entered the void. As they got closer and closer to the figure, it became easier to make out who was sitting in the centre of what seemed to be the Palace’s only room. Soon enough, it became unavoidably obvious that the figure in question was, in fact, Maruki, and Haru knelt in front of him whilst Sumire spoke up.
“Doctor Maruki, what are you doing here?”
She asked. He initially did not speak, and simply looked away.
“Maruki?” Akira asked as well, unconsciously reaching for his pistol in case the worst came to pass.
“It’s my fault that we’re all here.”
The cabbie responded simply. Before any of the Thieves could go ahead and ask him exactly what the hell that meant, a second, meaner voice came from behind them.
“Not exactly.”
Upon hearing the voice, each and every Thief, sans Sophia, spun around to look behind them at where it came from. Standing there, with his gun in hand and pointed at the centre of the group, was Akechi, clad in his spiked, steel grey and navy blue-striped Black Mask gear. Acting on little more than pure, animal instinct, Yusuke went to reach for his sword, but stopped upon hearing detective speak again.
“I’d refrain from doing that.” He began. “For now, at least.”
“Well, we got here.” Morgana started, gripping his sword tight. “Now tell us how you’re back, and why you’ve brought Maruki here.”
There was a pause, with Akechi staring at the feline as if considering to go back on his deal. Eventually, he aimed his firearm away, and spoke.
“I suppose I should hold up my end of the deal, shouldn’t I?” He began with a slight chuckle. “Very well, then.”
It was at that point that the celebrity began to pace around to the back of the circle he had forced his adversaries into, heading directly for Maruki. As he stepped behind the ex-doctor, he looked down to address his captive.
“Stand up and turn around, Doctor.”
He ordered. Begrudgingly, Maruki did exactly that, slowly getting to his feet before turning to face away from the Thieves. He then reached back and parted a small patch of his hair with his fingers, revealing a small wound and the old, dried blood that had run down the back of his head and stained his skin. Upon seeing this, Yusuke and Sumire visibly recoiled, whilst the rest of the Thieves merely looked on with expressions that ranged from disgust to shock.
“The hell happened to him?!” Ryuji demanded.
“One of my helpers got somewhat aggressive with him against my orders.” Akechi responded, rather matter-of-factly. “Shooting first, asking questions later – I’m sure you all understand.”
“Real subtle, jackass…” Futaba muttered to herself.
“Now, Maruki did not give up his powers when we stole his Treasure.”
“I couldn’t…” The cabbie began, getting spoken over.
“And it seems that there was a rather particular person out there that convinced our counsellor here to bring me back.” The detective paused to let his grin fall, revealing the disdain that he felt. “Again.”
At that, there was another pause, during which time Maruki turned back to face the Thieves. Out of them, only Akira spoke up, swinging for the fences with a very specific accusation.
“So you’re the one that killed him? It wasn’t a stroke?” He asked, his tone flat and dead serious.
“Of course it was me. Oddly enough, it seems that forcefully resurrecting someone who you groomed to be an assassin and begging for their forgiveness often doesn’t pan out how you intend it to.”
“So, which one brought him back?”
Zenkichi asked simply, looking to Maruki. In response, the former doctor looked down in evident shame, before taking a deep breath and responding.
“Shido did.” He began, looking back up to the Thieves. “I couldn’t tell you how – even if my life depended on it – but he learned about Azathoth and my Actualisation. So, he came to me to ask for me to bring Akechi back to life. I just wish he’d have thought through everything a little more.”
“Yes.” Akechi joined back in, snickering to himself. “For someone whose campaign was so meticulously calculated to bring about as much pain as it seemed the world itself would allow, he seemed to drop his guard the moment I was back. However, I don’t see any more point in continuing this discussion of ours.”
“And why not?” Makoto asked, clenching both fists in preparation for something that she could feel was about to happen, deep in the pit of her stomach. “We don’t have all the answers we need.”
“Oh, is it a need? Then I’m sorry to say that you will be deprived.”
As he spoke, the detective snapped the fingers of his free, non-dominant hand, causing a wall to drop from the front of the castle and cover the entrance in a flash. The moment it landed, it fused into the surrounding architecture, hermetically sealing in the Thieves and dropping them into sheer darkness as a potent, pungent gas began to fill the room. Immediately, the flesh and blood Thieves began to violently cough, trying to cover their mouths to prevent the gas from reaching their lungs to little success.
“Don’t worry.” The celebrity began, his voice seeming to jump about the room in between each word. “Maruki will be allowed to leave unharmed.”
“Wh-What ab-”
Maruki went to protest, but seemingly stopped speaking or disappeared in the middle of his sentence. Meanwhile, the Thieves had begun to collapse to the ground, coughing and sputtering as they were forced to breathe in more of the gas. The officer, who had put her scarf to her mouth to unsuccessfully block it out, was the first to lose conscious, and passed out on the ground with a wheeze.
“M-Mako-chan?!”
Haru began, before she, too, fell victim to the gas and lost consciousness. From there, the Thieves fell like dominos, each passing out one after the other until the only ones still awake were Akira and Sophia. That was, until Akechi’s voice could be heard once again.
“As for you…”
All that could be heard after was the crackling of electricity, and the heavy, metallic thunk of the android hitting the floor. With his last ounce of strength and cognisance remaining, the trickster croaked out one word.
“No…”
From there, he could not keep himself awake any longer, and finally went down for the count. There was nothing more to do.