The name I call you by

I never thought Id see beauty in destruction (10)

The halls were dark and showed barely any signs of life. A shadow occasionally came by and ignored me, as though I wasn't even there to begin with. What a weird place...
Regardless of that, my goal is clear: get out. I've already figured that something here is blocking my connection with the outside world, as well as my persona. Neither are accessible, the metanav isn't working on my phone either.
"How annoying..." And to top it off, I've got no means of self defense other than my bare hands; that's not going to do very much.
"That damn shadow, how dare he drag me here. Why do I even put up with him? Joker I swear the second I return to reality..." I let the statement trail off, a shadow glancing in my direction. Can this one see me?
It seemed a bit different from the others, less... passive, almost. It approached me and I backed up, bracing myself for an attack; instead, it just walked by.
"...nothing about this makes any sense anymore." It'd be nice if there was some sort of weapon lying around, at the very least; teaches me about not carrying one normally.
"Looking for something? Or by chance... someone?" That familiar yet horribly infuriating voice reached my ears and I turned on my heel, glaring down the golden eyes bastard who brought me here to begin with.
"Definitely not you." Every word was coated with a careful hatred, an undeniable bitterness. Yes, I hate this shadow Joker.
"Aww... you hurt me." His joking was even out of character; a horribly done clone, if you ask me.
"Regardless, you are looking for something, aren't you?" He was met with silence from me, but continued on regardless.
"Let me think... what could you be looking for?" His eyes met with the floor as he took on a thinking position.
"Perhaps..." he dropped the theatrics and walked up to me; does this guy not know personal space? "An exit?"
A low growl escaped from my throat and I shoved him away from me.
"Personal space, asshole; lucky guess. I wonder why, perhaps, I may be searching for that to begin with?" I didn't give him a moment to respond.
"Probably because I don't want to be here to begin with." His expression fell a bit after hearing me say that; what's wrong with this guy-?
"Yeah, I guessed as much. Sadly, I can't have you running off on me; you're too important." He grabbed my wrist, his grip hurting a bit.
"Hey-! Get the hell off of me-" I tried to pull away, the shadow held tighter in response.
"I never believed beauty could exists in self destruction..." He began, but trailed off. What kind of thing is that to say-?
"What does that even mean-?" Great, he's going insane...
He shook his head, and for a moment, I saw Akira standing before me holding my wrist instead of a shadow counterpart. Honestly, that might've been easier to deal with, too.
"Nothing." It only lasted for a moment, but it was a reminder of what Im likely dealing with here. He pulled me closer to him, refusing to let me get away.
"You do understand though, don't you? You know how palaces work, and it's troublesome when the treasure can just up and walk away." He's still going on about that.
"Treasure my ass..." It was spoken quietly, but I could tell he heard it. The distance between us didn't make it much easier to say something without him hearing, though.
"And personal. Space." I put emphasis on the last two words, to no avail; he was unphased by my harsh tone and even harsher glare.
"I always did like you better this way." I hated that it was his voice saying that, Akiras voice talking to me through a shadow; a physical representation of a twisted desire.
"What the hell is this?" My eyes narrowed a bit.
"This whole thing with you having a palace." There's still other questions I've got, apparently, that I didn't think of earlier.
"Morgana said persona users couldn't have palaces, thus why I didn't. So why are you an exception to that rule? You of all people?" One of the most veteran Phantom Thieves, the one who cheated death for his justice, took down palace after palace, despite the threats surfacing each day. Fought me when I got in his way, but refused to kill me, and then jumped in and stopped me from dying to other means. The one who played me like a fool, and made it look impossibly easy. So... why him?
My eyes locked on a small knife hanging out from his coat; that's the closest chance I've got, he must've done it on purpose.
"Let go, you're hurting me." His grip loosened a bit, more than enough for me to break free and break for the weapon. However, I still wanted answers, and was being met with silence.
His eyes reflected back at mine, he looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't; So I made a rough guess.
"You don't want to be doing this, do you?" I pulled away my wrist and grabbed the knife, putting distance between the two of us.
"You're hesitation makes you weak, Joker!" Blue flames consumed me, and through them I could see those eyes staring back at me, and they weren't giving me a kind look anymore.
Weight settled onto my head and shoulders, and I couldn't feel the handle of the blade against my bare skin anymore. He acknowledges me as a threat; good.
The emptiness in my chest was filled again, a burning hate, a heavy sense of chaos...
"Manifest, Loki!" I dropped the shadows blade and let my own fill it's place; the edge of the red serrated blade reflected the minimal light, making it look more intimidating than usual.
"Megidoloan!" The order was issued and I moved, the almighty attack hit the ground and exploded. The sounds of several types of material breaking passed by me, the psychotic haze already taking over. The edges of my vision blurred a bit red, focused solely on the target in front of me.
The almighty attack didn't seem to do very much; he's at boss level then, noted. I reached my blade forward and was met with a familiar dagger, the one Akira normally used in the metaverse.
"Copy cats are pathetic!" I grabbed the edge of the blade in the serrated edge of my own and forced it down.
"Loki!" My gun found its way to my hand and I pulled the trigger point blank, laevatein hitting directly in front of me. I felt the backlash of it to and backed off to avoid being hit by it, the shadow seemed to have the same idea.
"Tch.." Dust formed in clouds between us, cracks in the floor and walls already visible. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glowing a pale dark blue shooting in my direction, and stepped back. Not being able to see is a pain...
Something crashed into the wall near where I was just standing, accompanied by the sound of my quick footsteps against the broken floor tiles.
A smile stretched over my lips, my eyes locking onto my target and nothing else.
"Loki!" I used another almighty attack to hide myself, feeling the backlash from it as I moved. It took a short time to find shadow Joker in the midst of light and debris; my body moved before I had the time to realize, my blade lodging itself into the shadows shoulder. I turned the blade before pulling it back out, drops of blood dripping from the edge of it.
Blood soaked into his coat and I pulled out my gun, a memory flooding to my mind again.
"Case closed, this is where your justice ends." The bullet was released from its place in the gun; I was met with a shocked look as blood dripped from the critical wound I had just created. A moment later, he fell, and I placed a spare gun into his hand. It would look like a suicide, no strings attaching themselves back to me.
My smile widened at the memory.
"I've got you this time, Joker! Die!" The gun went off, the sound resonated soundly in my ears the moment it happened. It was followed by the sound of metal against metal, and the shattering of a tile.
A moment later, I could feel the harsh embrace of a curse attack as well as a hand wrapped around my throat, and my back being slammed painfully against a wall with an audible thud.
Instinctively, I grabbed his wrist from where it was around my throat and raised my gun up, letting it rest between his eyes.
"You're childish to not understand, Akechi." I felt my transformation collapse on me, the chaos energy that alerted me of Lokis presence went dormant again, and the gun vanished from my hand.
"Foolish to fight a battle you can't win." His free hand grabbed my wrist and forced it against the wall, his grip tight and surely going to leave a bruise of some sort. I could feel the pressure of it, my hand going slightly numb from severely reduced blood flow.
"I even gave you a chance to prove me wrong, and you failed." His grip on my throat tightened and I could feel the loose grip of lightheadedness; this is the second time in the past few days, even though the first time was supposedly a dream.
My own grip began to falter and my vision blurred.
"To think I'd have to subdue you so soon... you haven't changed a bit." It began to sound like I was back underwater, drowning, and unable to escape. Part of me hoped to hear that feminine voice calling out to me again.
"Why not sleep off that psychotic haze? You'll probably feel a lot better then." My mind was faltering and my vision was blurring and getting darker by the second. My hand had already fallen from his, and his hold on my wrist and throat the only things keeping me up at the moment.
Both stung and both where sore, but that pain was minimal, numbed out by the lack of air.
63, 64, 65...
When did I start counting-?
67, 68, 69...
The danger before me became a blur of colors, I couldn't make anything else out.
72, 73...
And despite my efforts, my consciousness faded out again.
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Words: 1766