Real & the Ideal: A Persona 5R Dark Sun Sequel (Goro Akechi x Amamiya Ren)

15: Why Does It Hurt You to Look Me In the Eyes?

Bzztt bzzt!

Ren: We need to talk.

Akechi: I don't have time. It'll have to wait.

Ren: I don't care what you have to do. Come to LeBlanc at 10pm on Thursday evening.

Ren: Don't make me come get you.

---------------

(Akechi's P.O.V, three days after killing Shido)

Is this...what I deserve?

Is this what I'm destined to become? Will I truly never escape the suffering?

....Will I...ever find my peace?

.....
......
.......

I was sitting on the floor of my balcony again, the usual spot I favoured when I had to think. The sun was setting, painting the sky with a mix of orange and yellow hues. There were people on the streets below me; some walking with their children in tow after a grocery store trip, while other single, suit-wearing businessmen passed by on their way to the line.

Maybe they had something worthy to eavesdrop on as they passed under my balcony, but it didn't matter. I couldn't hear a thing.

The only sound that met my ears was a high pitched ringing; a constant since I'd killed Shido two days ago. Besides the pain of my shoulder, now wrapped in a make-shift sling, the sound was the only reminder of the revenge I'd taken over my piece of shit father.

"I remember the last sunset I watched...with her..."

Well...that, and the ghost of him that now haunted my mind every moment. Of all the things I couldn't hear, I wished his voice was one of them.

I grit my teeth, but didn't move my head.

"It was--"

"I was under the impression you used her, then dumped her after she became pregnant with me."

I spoke without an ounce of feeling in my voice. I was well aware that I was talking to myself, but I wouldn't allow anyone to disrespect my mother.

...even if it was only a ghost in my head.

"It seems like a surprising shame to know you actually lead her on with trivial romantics just to get what you wanted out of her..."

The delusion chuckled in pity at me as he stood in front of the balcony door.

"I only got rid of her once she was certain she was going to have you."

The dissapointment in his voice was the same, mimicking the exact tone he had when he was alive. It was evident that he wanted to hurt me.

"Besides..a whore is only as good as her commitment to her client..."

In a heartbeat I was standing, shaking violently with blind rage as I threw my fist through the glass panelled door and effectively dispersed the hallucination. The glass separated in a large fissure that cascaded from both ends of the door, and left the knuckles of my only good hand split and bleeding.

He reappeared behind the broken door, and I had to summon all my willpower not to tackle the illusion through the glass.

"You know as well as I do that, once a woman has a child...their devotion for their baby can never be shared..."

Shido seemed to be attempting to convince me that the abuse he'd pushed onto my mother was justified..

But I would never concede to such disgusting filth.