Chapter 21 - Iconoclast

Akari curled up to the edge of the bed, stuck in a fetal position laid with dead eyes. Her mind sunk deeper, falling into a black abyss that seemed to have no end. Bubbles of air slowly float out as she sinks deeper into the unending depths of the water. Something, however, stops her descent. Instead, yanking her back up and out of the water. Her eyes fly open, taking a deep breath, hacking up all of the water in her lungs. She looks around, surrounded by a dense forest.

“H-hello?!” She shouted.

A figure appeared, multiple small figures rushing through the dense shrubbery swinging around their nets. A girl with a bandana around her head slams her net onto a tree,

“Score! That’s one for me!” She exclaimed.

“You cheated, kana! That’s not fair!” the other little girl shouted.

“Running off ahead is her style! That’s just how we are, you know that Mira!”

Akari wandered forward, the hazy memories appearing in front of her slowly. Toru sat in the back of a classroom as Kana extended a hand towards him with a smile. Their desperate brutal fight, all of the feelings they had for each other… Akari clutched her head, as she felt a tug at her dress. A little green with bright green hair looked up at her.

“Hey… Do you wanna be friends…?” She asked.

“Mhm, sure!” A younger Akari took her hand. Two ghosts, running into the green forest.

What is this…? Am I… dying?

She feels another tap on her shoulder, Kana, standing there with a smile.

“You… you’re not real, you’re another illusion!”

She tapped her chin. “I guess that’s not wrong… I am dead, yes, but what does that matter? These aren’t just your memories. This is… something in-between.”

“But what is going on?! You and the sister… You’re…?! These memories…!”

Kana chuckled. “It looks like Ami surpassed her…”

“...At the brink of death, her powers evolved and…”

Kana made a ding-ding-ding noise, smiling. “Correct! She let you feel everything, just before passing. I even left you my own little gift, you know.”

“You still haven’t explained anything?! I’m so confused, when did any of this happen?! Why-!”

Kana cut her off. “The key to that isn’t in our memories. It's yours.”

“...Mine? But I remember everything!”

Kana shakes her head. “Don’t avert your eyes, Akari. It’s time for you to wake up.”

“Wake up…? But…!”

Junpei appeared from the dense foliage. “Wake up already! Look at it!”

Akari drops to her knees, clutching her head.

Mira walked up. “You must remember everything. Don’t avert your eyes.”

Ami slowly stepped up, “One day, all people will come to understand each other, and be free of hatred.”

“That phrase means a lot to me. I want to see how you interpret it, Akari. So… wake up.”

“Are you gonna let 'em get a leg up on you?! Wake UP!” a voice shouted from behind her, Akari’s eyes widened as she looked around.

The long metallic hallways spiraled on forever as a green energy circled them. She looked up, holding the hand of a man of taller stature with dirty blonde hair. He wore a labcoat, looked different, but she could never forget that face.

A man in a sharp suit—Zenith—stepped into the light. He wore a pin on his lapel that caught the glare of the monitors.

“Naoto Hoshizawa, a pleasure to meet you.” He said.

"Likewise, Aki—" The man's smile was like a razor. He didn't let the name hang in the air for a second.

“Please, call me Zenith. I just took up the seat of Imperator, so i’d like to be referred to by my name.”

Naoto laughed nervously, “Right, right, Zenith… Have my changes been implemented yet?”

“Of course, Amatsu Tower will be the first of many in it’s line that will power the world.”

A small girl with black hair and yellow eyes stepped out from beside him, her and Akari locking eyes.

Naoto crouched down, looking at the girl in her face. “And who’s this little one?”

“My daughter, Chika. But people nickname her Sera.”

The two girls look at each other, as Akari’s head throbs, she gets dizzy, the room changing. Embers floated from a fireplace, a woman with pink hair illuminated by the flame closed the cover, smoothed the corners with a thumb, and glanced at the two small faces watching her. Akari stood off in the corner of the room, sticking her hand out.

“...Mom…”

The woman stood up, and left the room, although the voices outside the door leaked in.

“Do we have to head to the reservoir now? They just…”

Naoto sighed. “We need to. Call up our guard, just in case.”

Once again, Akari found herself on the metal walkway of the tower, to see Kagemura standing in front of her parents. Zenith stood in front of them, hands behind his back.

“What did you do?! What did you do with my life’s work?! What did you do to my daughter?!” Naoto shouted.

“I made it usable, obviously. You think an ascension to Imperator would happen without absolute power?! That’s why the previous one fell to my hands and my hands alone! No one will be able to deny me now!” Zenith retorted.

“You’re sick, and this twisted shit you’re doing ends now!” Akari’s mother yelled,

Zenith looked up at the energy flowing into the tower. “These towers turn Aether into usable energy for the people… but for us as well. The people’s hopes give us power, and that power is strength! Infinite Potential so long as the masses keep believing! That’s why I’ll create a school, one where the famous burn into energy to keep my country running everlasting!”

“What’s your goal, what could be worth this…?” Kagemura asked behind gritted teeth,

“The first flame, obviously! The stuff of Legend! A GOD’S power! That is what I will be, the apex of strength, and I’ll cleanse this world free of all the things that I wish to see gone! There could be nothing else!”

“...You’re sick.” He zapped behind Zenith’s head, who blocked the incoming kick effortlessly.

“To achieve my goal, I had to pick a suitable vessel to test run. If I absorb all of the energy of Amatsu, will I achieve a power beyond that of what the flame could give me? I needed to know. Starting with Ryou’s beloved daughter.” Zenith continued, one punch sending Kagemura hurtling back.

“And once she failed, that day I saw your daughter, and heard about her Anima awakening, she would be my next vessel, maybe that was the key I was missing all along.”

Naoto stepped back, “N-no, you didn’t…”

“I filled her with only a fraction of the power I’ll attain, even more than Ryou’s useless husk of a daughter, and she’s still out and about. Now, she’s the perfect vessel for me, to absorb that power I gave her back in!”

“Are you mad?! If what you’ve said is true, the soul resides even after the physical body is broken down! The Aether will….!”

Zenith nodded, “This was the plan from the very start, why else did you think the Hayasaka’s would hire such a no-name?”

Kagemura rushed at Zenith once again, throwing punch after punch in quick succession, only whiffing until an afterimage ran into his blindspot. Zenith is punched with a blow that sparks lightning,sending him away.

“Interesting… However… Let’s cut our conversation short. I have evidence to clean up after all.” The tower starts to rumble violently, as the Hoshizawa’s lose footing.

“Kagemura!” Naoto shouted.

His eyes darted over, as the two of them stared at him.

“Give him hell.” They both said in unison. Kagemura looked pained, before disappearing.

“Akari… Mei…” Her mother whispered.

“It’s okay, Kazue… We can help somehow. Just.. wish.”

The reservoir exploded, engulfing the surrounding block in a fireball. Kagemura appeared, just over a mile away from the explosion. He looked on, clutching his chest. In his arms. Akari and Mei.

“And just where do you think you’re going?”

Kagemura blocked Zenith’s blow, pushing him back.

“RUN!” He yelled.

The two girls ran, Akari leading Mei out of there.

“Zenith… No, Hasegawa Akio! I WILL make you pay!”

Akari returns to the forest, dripping with sweat.

“Wh-what?! H-how…? Why…? What the hell is going ON!” She shouted.

A voice chuckles behind her. “Is that any way to act in front of us?”

She turned around, her parents standing there as clear as day.

“Mom.. Dad… what is…?”

Naoto shook his head. “It’s a long story… But my, look at how you’ve grown… I’m so proud.”

Kazue stepped forward. “You’ve gotten so strong too, we saw it all. But… you got blinded, somewhere, your memory was tampered with.”

“Who did it?!” Akari yelled.

“You did.” Her father replied. “And only you can unearth them. Your body right now is rejecting it, our presences.. If you look away… you could die. We had to gamble to see you, so please.”

“But, I can’t..! I can’t do it! It hurts!”

“You have to. Aether is the call of the earth, and Anima is yourself calling out. You’re hiding, Akari. You always have been, but the demons don’t leave just because you can’t see them. You are not a child anymore! Open your eyes! See the world for what it is and make your choice, or Zenith will make it for you! Your death!”

Akari’s eyes flew open, watching herself. A younger Akari, curled up in a bed, locked away. Punching, kicking the air, reading comics, in her room. Slowly growing older and older as years flew by. One day, she kicks the door to her room down.

“Ready to roll, I’m going to get us some money! Be right back, Mei!” She yelled, as Mei sat outside the room confused with dried tear stains.

The most important memory came to the forefront of her mind. She grabbed Chika’s hand, holding it tight,

“I’m Akari Hoshizawa, and I want to be the Imperator!” She exclaimed.

“...That’ll be me.” Chika responded.

Akari stood up slowly, eyes open and focused.

“I.. remember. All of it.” She whispered.

The man in front of her approached, wearing a furcoat so long it dragged as he walked, his white hair almost bleached in nature covering his face save his aged wrinkles.

“You spent so long running, and now your eyes are clear, finally.”

“Who are…?”

Naoto turns to the man, with a smile. “This is the Imperator before Zenith, Kozuki Genma, otherwise known as…”

“Imperator Crown, at your service. Us relics from the past have no reason to trifle on the living’s grounds, but… this is a special case.”

Akari stepped forward. “Somebody, explain what’s going on, and what I can do to stop it.”

Kozuki smiled, “I appreciate the fire, but we have no time for details.”

Kazue nodded. “Ol’ Genma’s right. We can tell you some details, but we don’t have enough time for everything…”

Naoto turned his head and his wife shrugged. “Old war buddies. Genma’s a strong fighter!”

“Then gimmie the spark notes!”

Kozuki thought for a second, "Akio’s plan… he’s building a slaughterhouse. He’s going to feed every soul in that plaza to the Tower. He wants to be a god, even if he has to stand on a mountain of corpses. Including yours. All of this was planned from the very beginning. Behind my back. He hired the Hayasaka to build the reservoirs, which they stole from your own father. Once he set things in motion, I was killed in my sleep.”

“But what about Kagemura?”

“He’d just gotten out of a war at the time, so the Order of Solace sent him to protect me. A bystander, although I don’t know all the details.”

Akari sat on the grass, thinking.

Zenith is against me, the Order of Solace are the ones who created the concept of the reservoirs.. And the Blight is still killing innocent people…

“Now that you have all of the information you need, what will you do, Hoshizawa Akari?”

She stood up, a fire burning in her eyes.

“I’m going to kill Zenith, and make Sera… no, Chika… Answer for everything.”

She looked at Kana. One last time. 'I don’t care why you did it. I don’t care about the Blight anymore. But I will keep your wish intact, for real this time. Thank you.”

The rest of Team Astra surround her, as well as Ami. “Thank all of you. I’m sorry I was late but… I’m back.” Each one of them places their hand on her back.

“You can do it, Akari.” They say to her together, pushing forward. Akari’s eyes open, as she feels a burning sensation in her pocket. She looks to the side, In the corner, the doll she’d given Mei lay facedown in the dust. A forgotten relic. She pulls out something, a yellow shard glowing in her hands.

“This is from…”

She clutches it, ripping apart her Lucent uniform, grabbing the cape from it and wrapping it around her neck while she slips on her outfit from all those weeks ago, something that is entirely her.  Akari spots a black book on the desk, picking it up and scanning the contents.

“...Kagemura… Thank you for everything.”

She burst out of the room, gone in a flash.

Mei stared up at the TV, as Zenith came out front to address the crowd.

“I’m sorry, everyone! Akari seems to have fled, but don’t worry! I’ll deliver the speech in her stead! And with that, this coronation can finally-!”

HASEGAWA AKIO!

The shout caused everyone’s heads to turn, dozens of cameras pointed at her as Rika, Mei and Kagemura all looked on.

She glared at him from the streets below, as the man stood on top of the tower’s balcony. The entire plaza in a frenzy.

Rika nodded to the nearby Ryota at the same time, Yuto’s chains shattered, cold and brittle. He slowly stood up, his breath clearly visible.

As Akari walked, the ground underneath her crumbled with every step, her soul burned, steam pouring from her mouth in a long trail. “I’m not here for a crown. I’m going to pay for everything…”

She swung her arm to her side in a quick motion, her glare becoming sharper.

“WITH YOUR LIFE!”

Chapter 21 - The End.