Akeshu oneshot// Alive.

Alive

"I didn't expect to find the world's savior alone on Christmas Eve." Sae said as she approached Ren.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" She asks, her expression was rather serious. Ren nodded, listening to what she had to say intently.

"First off, thank you for taking my request." She bowed, a small smile of gratitude now present. "With your actions, I can only hope that public opinion changes... It will change, won't it?"

"I'm sure it will." Ren spoke softly.

"I believe so, too. Shido confessed to a variety of crimes. We can arrest him on those charges. The problem lies in proving him guilty. It'd be difficult unless the correlation between the Metaverse and the mental shutdowns is made." She inhaled deeply, then sighed heavily.

"I'll be blunt." She started again, "I want you to turn yourself in to the police."

"Why?"

"Your testimony will be necessary in order to prove Shido guilty... However, that will mean placing you on center stage. You'll be treated as a hero who saved this country. But there's no way that the police or public prosecutors will let that slide." She combed her hair with her fingers, taking another deep breath.

"If you turn yourself into the police, you'll definitely be arrested."

Ren took his hands out of his pockets, the trauma of being drugged and beaten mercilessly setting in again and causing him to tremble a bit.

"I'll close all the cases surrounding Shido. I intend to expose them all. It's to prevent society from becoming distorted again. That's what you want too, isn't it?"

Ren thought for a moment. His testimony was necessary to prove Shido guilty for his crimes and put an end to this. But there's no knowing what the police would do. They'd never let a Phantom Thief be the hero. If I take the stand and testify about Shido's crimes, everything can be taken care of. But, before that...

"I'll ask you once more. I'd like for you to turn yourself in to the police, of your own accord." Ren put his hands back in his pockets. He decided what he would do and was ready to tell Sae, but was cut off.

"There's no need for that." A familiar voice said, footsteps approaching the two.

Akechi now stood between the two, his hands by his side.

"If they get their hands on the perpetrator, there'll be no need for him to turn himself in, no?"

Ren wanted to vomit from the shock he was just put into.

"Surprised to see me?" Akechi smiled at the ravenette, making his stomach churn.

Ren knew this wasn't just another hallucination, ever since his death at Shido's palace, he'd been seeing Akechi. At first it was just in the corner of his eye, but it gradually got more intense. He would go to the Jazz Jin Club and see him sitting across from him instead of his friends. He'd go to the Penguin Sniper and see Akechi standing in front of the entrance with a warm smile on his face at the sight of Ren.

But this, this was real. Sae saw him, acknowledged him.

"Akechi... You're alive!" In almost an instant, Ren had his arms wrapped around the detective, which took the other aback a bit.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He smiled sadly with his chin hung over the brunette's shoulder. Ren didn't expect what happened next, which was Akechi slowly hugging him back, quietly sobbing into his ear.

"You're glad? I tried to kill you, I was selfish and I hurt you." He whispered.

"Shut up for one minute and just embrace the moment. You're too caught up on the past. Just keep moving forward." Ren said as one hand held the back of his head, combing his hair with his fingers.

"This is... very touching, but if Akechi-San is planning on turning himself in, then that means you can forget everything I just said."

Akechi cleared his throat, the embarrassment of the public affection now seeping in as he backed away from Ren, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"My apologies, we should get going."

"Right..." Ren nodded, "Thank you." He said before Sae turned around and began walking off, Akechi following closely behind.

Later that night, after Sojiro, Futaba and Ren ate turkey and sweets for Christmas, Ren lay awake on his bed.

Akechi turned himself in... I hope he'll be okay. We still have a promise to uphold, afterall. Ren smiled softly, drifting off to sleep for the night.