Akemi wants nothing more than to squeeze her eyes shut, to look away from these memories. She barely even registers the lost time as being Kaoru’s memory, at first. She’s having a difficult time registering much of anything.
Think you’re getting good at this?
How many? How many targets? Why? What had they done? How much were their deaths worth? Why was it not enough the first time?
It had been for nothing. The money that paid for their life didn’t even amount to anything.
Was it true, for them, too? What had their bounty paid for? How much of it was a waste?
Her head spins, the ground feels unstable beneath her feet. Her stomach feels as though she’s swallowed concrete.
She doesn’t even realize they’re back in the projection room, for several long moments. She is far too lost in her spiraling thoughts, eyes fixed to the floor and expression eerily blank. She’s holding her breath, not even maintaining awareness of her own senses.
She’s immersed in the sounds of coyotes, vultures, the phone ringing…gunshots…the door being kicked in.
She flinches, visibly, when Vincent speaks to her. As calming as his tone is, the headspace she is in will do her no favors. She isn’t even certain she hears what he said, fully, she only responds to him with a somewhat vacant nod. She doesn’t even realize she does not have her jewelry, so she makes no motion to take it from him.
She only briefly glances at Kaoru, quickly returning her gaze to the floor with a hardened expression. She cannot look at him without seeing that estate. The widow.
“…if you invited me to see that, just to hurt me, I would have preferred if you told me to ‘fuck off’ instead. You have certainly won our gamble, if that was your sole intent.”
Her voice is even, almost robotic. She has her emotions in a vicegrip. She cannot will herself to yell, nor even to feel angry. Her chest feels empty, yet weighted down at the same time.
“…I expect answers, later. You do not get the luxury of simply running from this.”
She casts one last look toward Hikaru, of all people, her expression still inscrutable.
Then, arms crossed, she steps out of the room without reclaiming her jewelry, her eyes downcast and her pride wounded.