The flash of the headlights were blinding, and the blaring of the horn had him fearing for his ability to hear in the foreseeable future. Still, he managed to get out of the way of the car and out of the road rather unscathed, the knees of his jeans scuffed and his hair ruffled. It was dark out, the stars and lampposts lighting his way and sky had just stopped its rainfall. That rain had truly been a setback. Akatsuki had been forced to take shelter under the awning of a restaurant for over a half hour. Still, even he couldn’t bring himself to complain about such a minor thing. Even at night, the world around him always held wonder. He had never been caught before, and he thought that was part of the exhilaration. The elders had done everything in their power to shut the young God away from the rest of the world, to get him under their heel and obey.
It was a horrible game Akatsuki had played his whole life and sometimes, they did manage to reign him in. But he always broke free. He wondered if they honestly believed he had never set foot outside of the estate. They were fools, to be sure, but that foolish? Well, he had shrugged. What could they possibly do to him? What hadn’t they already done? They had tried subduing him with medicine, with blackmail. There was even a time they had resorted to using physical violence against him, but they had found this only made things worse. They couldn’t even threaten taking away his position as the Head. Not only did such a title not matter to him, but the only person they could replace him with would be his sister, Rin, and even the elders understood that this would be a mistake, that she would be worse than he.
Aka laid back against the concrete curb he had landed on trying to avoid the car that, dammit, had come out of literally nowhere. The driver must have been drunk. Rainwater fell down his hair, and onto his thin jacket. As he picked himself up, he shoved his bruised and scuffed hands into his pockets, pulling out some red bean mochi he had purchased earlier and saved. As he walked, he wondered. What would it be like to just leave? To go anywhere, do anything? He knew this thought had crossed the minds of nearly every Zodiac that had never had such a chance, trapped as they were within the Miyamoto estate. Growing up, some of the older, more respectful members of the family told him of a time when things were supposedly different. There was a time when there was no such thing as a “keeper”, the elders did not have the control they did now. What had that time been like? Had the Juunishi of those generations been happier? Akatsuki hoped so, for that was a time he fully intended to bring back.
At that moment, another car zoomed past him, causing water to rush up from the street to meet him. He turned so most of the water hit him in the side, protecting his mochi. Grumbling a little, he stuffed the rest of the treat into his mouth before wiping his hands on his jeans, and then he took off running. He had traveled this particular path many times. Always at night, always. He knew the layout by heart now, and had no use for streetlamps, making traversing the alleyways and unlit roads simple enough. Every once in a while he would scare a stray animal, but that hardly concerned him. He leapt over a fence and his feet pounded on the grass. There was no better feeling than this he was sure, as he thought his heart might burst.
He supposed he had been lucky. Akatsuki had heard that in generations prior, every God had been born with some debilitating illness that affected them from birth to death. Aka had never experienced such a sickness, well, no more than a normal healthy boy would. But he was just lucky. Otherwise, he would not be able to do this, to give himself a small taste of what freedom could be like. He desired to be free, almost so much that it hurt. But, in the back of his mind, he knew he feared it. For he knew there could be no true freedom as long as the Curse remained, and that’s what scared him most of all. Losing his Zodiac would kill him. They were his everything.
He ran faster to shake the thoughts from his head. There was a high wall made of slick wood that surrounded the Miyamoto property. It had taken him months to discover it, but there was a way to scale the wall, to be up and over in seconds. In the wet darkness, climbing it proved a challenge. As he swung his leg over the top and let himself fall, his stomach plunged, and it wasn’t because of the fall. This was always the worst part- willingly bringing himself back to this prison, this hellscape. Back on Miyamoto property, his feet felt heavier. He jogged now, his footfalls lighter. He was a ways from the area where the family slept, but he never took chances, not on the estate. He could see a little bit easier now, the sky was beginning to glow light, a signal that the sun was only just beginning to rise, but everything was still cast over in shadow.
He made his way towards the garden, to the side of the house where the room he shared with Chouko was located, and the door there that he always used as his exit whenever he planned to sneak out of the house, but stopped short. Something was wrong, and he immediately saw what. The door was open. He had shut it when he left. He always did. Aka’s eyes narrowed. This in and of itself was no need for alarm, but he was wary now. He stepped closer to the door, considering for a moment to turn around and find another way into the estate, and he immediately berated himself. This was pathetic, having to sneak into and out of his own damn home as though he were a criminal. His pride was easily getting the better of him, but he turned his head to look over his shoulder one more time, and what he saw made him scowl. There was a person standing behind him. Aka’s hand clenched into a fist. He didn’t need to guess to know who it was.
