𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 | 𝗠.𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘂𝘆𝘂

────── twenty-five

TW: Guns, Blood, Violence, Death

A/n: there is going to be a major cut in the middle of the chapter, I'm sorry if it's not very satisfactory to read but I just didn't know how else to move the story forward. Perhaps I'll insert a better transition if I ever edit this fanfic.

Also, I didn't have time to check for any mistakes so please excuse those!
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═══ THE END OF AN ERA ═══

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UPON HEARING HER BROTHER'S WORDS, Akiko stopped struggling and stared up at him in utter disbelieve. Slowly, she shook her head. "No. You're lying."

"If I really were such a cruel person, I wouldn't waste a second to kill you instead of trying to gain your trust in the middle of a fight."

Somewhere among the fight her name was being callled, but Akiko was too focused on Itachi to notice. She searched his face and his eyes for any indication that he was lying, and when she came up empty-handed she stopped struggling against him altogether.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" she asked, not bothered to hide the pain in her eyes. "You and Seina chose to work on your own and left me in the dark all those years. Do you have any idea how different our lives could have been if you chose to confide in me?"

Itachi looked guilty and torn. "You were only a kid, Akiko. You were still too young to know the cruelty of this world. I couldn't put you in that position."

"Instead, you left me to fend for myself in that house. Both of you did," Akiko choked out, fighting back the tears. "You never bothered to come back and get me out of there. It's something that I can't forgive. Not any time soon."

A glint of hope lit up his green eyes. "But there might be a chance of earning your forgiveness?"

"I don't know."

When a bullet flew past their heads and lodged itself into the cement wall, the siblings regained awareness of the fight around them. Everything seemed to happen in slow-motion when Akiko turned her head to the side.

Seina was on the floor, her face bloody and bruised. Hoshino stood over her, gun in hand, pointing at Akiko. His finger curled around the trigger, pulling it back. A bullet shot out, piercing through the air, headed straight for Akiko.

A body jumped in front of her. Itachi stumbled backward, clutching his chest where Akiko's head had been a second ago, and he lost balance. Akiko sank down onto her knees, the weight of his body too heavy to hold it up on her own.

"No," she whispered at the sight of blood soaking his shirt, in the very same spot where his heart was. "No. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be me."

"Chibi-Aki," Itachi croaked out.

"Ssshhh, don't talk," Akiko said, tightening her grip on his body. "Save your energy. You're not going to die, Ita."

He coughed and blood coated his lips. A dull ache errupted in Akiko's chest. She watched as the color drained from his face and his breath grew short and shallow.