“Everyone fears their own mortality.”
❛ i don’t know about that. ❜ akane muses , soft , unbothered , like mortality is as simple a topic of conversation as the weather , their favorite movies , or whether they still take sugar with their coffee. ( which , for the record , she does. she’s changed – a lot – but she’ll always have a sweet tooth ) she tilts her head , ever the philosopher , brown hair falling over her shoulder , disheveled and untended. her fingertips are warm against the freshly printed documents she’s skimming , but her mind lingers on her brother’s words. live a thousand lives , die a thousand deaths ; the overexposure eventually drew fear into the cold void that budded when she was but a child , a girl – not yet five feet tall , and it continues to flower in her chest , devouring the person she was before. it was scary , at first. but no longer. she’s tired of being the damsel , tired of being afraid. she can defy death , she can change the world. and no one will interfere with their lives again. not if she can help it. ❛ i mean , maybe that’s true … for normal people. ❜
a knowing spark passes through her eyes , there’s a tap-tap as she aligns the papers against the table , tucks them away neatly in their folder. she hesitates , just for a moment , when she glances up at aoi , finding it difficult to read his expression. perhaps he’d have been more comfortable if she had simply agreed with him , like a normal person. or , perhaps he’s just worried. there’s no telling what’s going to happen at the test site.
akane expects to die – quite a few times – for that is simply the way of things. she might ( will probably ) kill someone. she decides to spare aoi the gritty details of her imaginings , her expectations. the path she treads might be gruesome , laden with the smell of blood , but she also expects to find a solution at the end. she always does.
❛ i’m not afraid , aoi. ❜
