The silent, desperate prayer begins to fade. He can only repeat it so many times before it starts to feel like it's taunting him, reminding him that he's on his own. No one is coming to help him. No ancient gods are coming to help him any more than the people around him are. So few people want to get involved in someone else's problems. Especially when helping someone comes with the threat of violence. It would be easy enough to look at Akihito's face and see that future for themselves, to know that's not a future they want for themselves.
Akihito is just starting to close the dusty old text when there's the sound of a voice, and the form of a man in front of him where there was no man just seconds before. He jumps in his surprise, knocking over some of the books next to him and his uninjured eye grows wide. Every step of his reaction makes him wince or groan in pain. He's taking a few breaths in an attempt to get the pain under control when the strange man reaches out to touch his forehead. He flinches at the sudden movement and unwanted contact but otherwise stays still, merely staring at the silver haired man.
Atreyun will very clearly see their faces, faces that are forever burned into Akihito's memory. Faces that Akihito will never again forget, ones that he'll have to live with for the remainder of his days. Atreyun will see the way they cornered him in a dark alley, the way they viciously attacked him. The awful things they did to him. The things that will stay with Akihito forever.
"Who are you?" he asks, his voice barely more than a whisper. It's the least painful way to speak and calls the least amount of attention to himself from whoever else may have entered the store when he wasn't paying attention. "A...treyun?" A ridiculous question. A stupid, ridiculous, desperate question.
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Akihito is just starting to close the dusty old text when there's the sound of a voice, and the form of a man in front of him where there was no man just seconds before. He jumps in his surprise, knocking over some of the books next to him and his uninjured eye grows wide. Every step of his reaction makes him wince or groan in pain. He's taking a few breaths in an attempt to get the pain under control when the strange man reaches out to touch his forehead. He flinches at the sudden movement and unwanted contact but otherwise stays still, merely staring at the silver haired man.
Atreyun will very clearly see their faces, faces that are forever burned into Akihito's memory. Faces that Akihito will never again forget, ones that he'll have to live with for the remainder of his days. Atreyun will see the way they cornered him in a dark alley, the way they viciously attacked him. The awful things they did to him. The things that will stay with Akihito forever.
"Who are you?" he asks, his voice barely more than a whisper. It's the least painful way to speak and calls the least amount of attention to himself from whoever else may have entered the store when he wasn't paying attention. "A...treyun?" A ridiculous question. A stupid, ridiculous, desperate question.