He's broken down, his limbs useless, consciousness wavering, blood everywhere, everywhere. He's slow to do so, every minuscule motion painstaking, staggering. But in the end, he stands, and in that moment Maruki wants nothing more than this. The two of them facing one another down, torn to shreds by themselves and one another, refusing to give in.
There is no future in which he and Akechi both live, yet they both refuse to die.
They both refuse to die, yet they both accept that they must – yet they both want to, on some level.
Blood-soaked, exhausted, rotten, Maruki smiles at him.
There has never been a person more worthy of how very much he cares for them. ]
You'll live.
[ A promise, a threat. A wave of his left hand.
The Tentacle of Healing spends the last of its energy on Akechi: Dislocated limbs jarring back into place, blood staunching, wounds patching, vision returning. He will live. Akechi Goro will live. Here, and in a memory, and nowhere else.
It only takes a few seconds for the worst of the damage to be reversed, to give him just enough strength to endure one last hit.
Maruki snaps his fingers, and all those tentacles return to Azathoth at once. It's only the two of them in reddened grass and dirt.
In the farthest, darkest corner of his peripheral vision, Azathoth grows, shifts, ascends, bursts forth as a blinding dome of light engulfs them both.
Maruki doesn't need to sacrifice himself this time, but he does anyway. It's only the two of them. It will only ever be the two of them.
cw suicidal ideation and a short tag for a thread like this
He's broken down, his limbs useless, consciousness wavering, blood everywhere, everywhere. He's slow to do so, every minuscule motion painstaking, staggering. But in the end, he stands, and in that moment Maruki wants nothing more than this. The two of them facing one another down, torn to shreds by themselves and one another, refusing to give in.
There is no future in which he and Akechi both live, yet they both refuse to die.
They both refuse to die, yet they both accept that they must – yet they both want to, on some level.
Blood-soaked, exhausted, rotten, Maruki smiles at him.
There has never been a person more worthy of how very much he cares for them. ]
You'll live.
[ A promise, a threat. A wave of his left hand.
The Tentacle of Healing spends the last of its energy on Akechi: Dislocated limbs jarring back into place, blood staunching, wounds patching, vision returning. He will live. Akechi Goro will live. Here, and in a memory, and nowhere else.
It only takes a few seconds for the worst of the damage to be reversed, to give him just enough strength to endure one last hit.
Maruki snaps his fingers, and all those tentacles return to Azathoth at once. It's only the two of them in reddened grass and dirt.
In the farthest, darkest corner of his peripheral vision, Azathoth grows, shifts, ascends, bursts forth as a blinding dome of light engulfs them both.
Maruki doesn't need to sacrifice himself this time, but he does anyway. It's only the two of them. It will only ever be the two of them.
Tyrant Chaos hits.
They're done. ]