Cutscene: Mutiny
Saturday, he reflected, always seemed to be the worst day for things like this.
Daigan walked slowly through Castle Mana. His body no longer leaked shadowstuff from his grevious wounds, but it was costly... For the demons he met, anyway. He didn't change his clothes. He didn't get a new pair of shades. The golden eyes of a Shadow looked out over the ornate halls of the castle, as he stepped forward into the throne room of the true power of Mikage-Cho. He entered Aki's little playroom, knowing he was going to see her probably sulking. Life wasn't always fair, Daigan reflected. It made him smile even through the pain.
He stood before the little girl and nodded to her. "Hello, Aki." Daigan began. "I just stopped by to thank you and let you know that I'm going to be leaving now. My work here is done and all these kids are about to blow your other buddies to bits anyway. Dark O might be able to slow them down, but that stupid bitch Chisato isn't even going to be a speedbump. She's too locked onto thinking up new ways to brutalize canvas." He turned around and shrugged. "I know you're going to try anyway. Go ahead, go for it. I just wanted to let you know I'm not going to be there to help. I'm not fond of lost causes."
Aki, just as expected, was glowering--her arms crossed--though not because she felt this particular plan was lost. It was something else entirely. True Maki had interfered in her plans, rejected her so strongly she nearly went berserk, but Aki was no weak Shadow like those found in the TV. Even as an Id, she had some control. And so, she did not immediately crush Daigan into dust upon being met with defiance. Instead she looked the Shadow over and said, "Lost cause? Even if they beat Chisato, she's just an experiment. They'd have to stop me, daddy, that Anise girl--even Dark-O. And even if they manage that, somehow, Maki will just as easily reject them."
"An experiment that you're using to shore up the dimensional boundary. She's a weak keystone. Too bad that's all you had to work with." Daigan chuckled lightly, and looked over his shoulder at Aki. "You're so focused that you're missing things, Aki. Pay attention. Brute force isn't going to win you this one. You're outmatched, and I'm not going to sink with this ship." He paused for a moment. "They sent a scout group into the Karma Palace yesterday. The Blue Wolves just went in there like a hurricane a couple hours ago. She might be able to pen those up indefinately, but if too many more show up, Chisato's going to crumple like a cupcake wrapper." Daigan frowned, then turned t face Aki a little more. "Making her use those stupid chants to use the Black Mirror is going to blow up in her face, you know." He paused. "Never mind, after seeing her, maybe it already has." He chuckled again.
"Brute force isn't going to win it for them either. I'm telling you, Maki will reject them and then all we have to do is slip in and take the DVA System--then we don't need any barrier." Aki was running low on patience. Daigan had spent the majority of his time here messing with Yosuke, which was WHY she brought him in, but seeing Yosuke suffer was running low on appeal. He was just rolling along with it. No fun at all. The harder he got trolled, the more he turned the trolling back on others. He was like a Troll that knew Aikido. Trollkido. Fucking annoying.
"They have to succeed on both sides. That's why I wanted your help with me--are you saying you're giving up because Yosuke outsmarted you?" She stood up, rolled her shoulders back. She had a solid feeling where this would be going.
Daigan laughed. "No. Yosuke is actually coming along nicely. But he's going to survive this, so I can afford to take the long view. I'm giving up on /you/ because you're pretty sad for a goddess. Even with all your power, all you know is how to hurt people. You're depending pretty hard on Maki rejecting them, you know, but what if she doesn't?" Daigan sighed, and turned away. "You helped me, but I don't need your help anymore... and I don't need to die for you. I don't owe you that much." He waves to Aki. "Hasta la byebye, Aki-chan. Have fun storming the castle. I'm gone."
If she doesn't... The idea was alien to Aki. She had been rejected for so long that she couldn't imagine something like that coming to pass. The memory of hope, of love, the sorts of things that could make even the Devil cry--a tear slid down from her left eye, but something was stronger than her sorrow and always had been: Her rage. It almost seemed as if that Daigan WANTED her to rip him apart, maybe stuff him into a /teddy bear/. But no, she thought, that's just what he wanted obviously. To feel her full wrath upon her, proof that all she can do is hurt people.
She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
An instant later she realized 'who gives a fuck about what he feels?' She materialized a small box in front of her and lifted the lid up.
"You may be right." She said, as barbed chains ripped out of the box, ensnaring Daigan--as he finds that his body can no longer move. Howls of anguish, whispered words that are never said but only thought, hateful gazes when your back is turned, the shadows of the world themselves tear into his body as the chains drag him close towards the box.
"These are all the emotions we carry, the weight of the world's sin. Listen to my song, Daigan." Aki whispered, eyes ablaze as the barbed chains tore across his flesh and dragged him into the pit of all the negative emotions both thought and unthought.
As Daigan fell in, a hand lashed out, having managed to grapple the edge of the box with surprising strength for one moment. "A song sucks when it's missing most of the instruments." He hissed... And then he fell in.
Aki closed the box for a moment, filled him with negative thoughts, power, hatred, rejection--all the things that power an instrument of the darkside--enough that he would BURST.
The box's sides expanded slightly, and she opens it up once more, upending it and shaking it once.
A yellow eyeball splorched onto the ground. She stomped on it.
"No more rejection. No more games." She said.
