CATCH ME IF YOU CAN [2nd execution]

[akudamods]

Once again, the X-Class Akudama are herded into the shuttle. You see bits and pieces of the trial. There's Adam on the billboards, as he calls himself now and on Cardinal, blue and bombastic and beautiful—the true demon who destroyed the Shinkansen. A fraction of undecided voters. And... one screen amongst the others, of the Vessel with the sharp vines. There are some who suspect him. But 10% is a small amount. By the time you park by the police station, everyone knows for sure who's going to be pulverized.

Comments

LAST WORDS

[akudamods]

1/2

[fullswingkiss]

[ So this is it, then. Adam isn't afraid of death - he's afraid of many things, more than he would like to admit, but death is... In a lot of ways, it sounds like a release.

It is too bad that this is a world that will see his soul trapped. ]

2/3 actually

[fullswingkiss]

[ But he will bow, deep, to the cameras this time. So what if his pain is excruciating? So what if blood is staining the inside of his beautiful new magical clothes? Red on red, it's beautiful. ]

No encore, then? Tragic. Keep my final performance in your hearts then, let it light a fire in your heart.

But remember one thing...

[fullswingkiss]

The Shinkansen is just a train.

[ You weird fanatic post-apocalyptics. ]

[hunterandhunted]

[Adam laments the lack of an encore, but he'll certainly get one. Even if Zenos is the only one doing so.

He claps. Just smiles, pleased, and claps.]

[metamere]

[ He is not alone because Wizard is clapping too.

]

[hunterandhunted]

[They can appreciate the drama together at least!!]

[osssuary]

[Well, the real question is, what is a train....... Something that has been learned in theory but also boy that Shinkansen throws things off. But that's probably not the important thing. Anyway.]

[woodeneye]

[ what IS a train??? ]

[osssuary]

[Well if he's not going to ask and you're not going to ask then who's driving this train. Nobody. Nobody, that's who.]

[conways_retribution]

... _{[He'll slowly clap just to be an asshole.]} Sucka. Fucka. Ding dong.

[queendoms]

[ The second he says this, it's like a lightbulb goes on over her head.

Son of a bitch.

YUKARIIIIIIIII.....! ]

EXECUTION

[akudamods]

[People’s fervor is a powerful thing. The sight of Adam is enough to rile the population of Kansai – even though there are drones and law enforcement keeping crowds of people away from the shuttle, they manage to make their shouting and voices heard. They want Adam’s head. They want Adam to repent for his actions. They want the blood of the defiler of the Shinkansen spilled in front of everyone. There’s no doubt Adam has his fans – the voting proved it – but looks like the majority of people look up to the Shinkansen so much they’re turning their head to Adam’s showmanship. The online forums and social media probably will be bubbling with righteous indignation for quite a while!

If anything, that’s Adam’s legacy in this world: he has managed to go down in the history of Kansai.

Like any Entertainer, he doesn’t cower under people’s stares. Being taken to the arena by the Physicist keeps him safe from the raucous crowd, while robots keep everyone’s arms away from the soon-to-be-executed. And there, in the stage, is the Commissioner. To her side a robot holds a spear.]

People of Kansai! Any of you who crosses the line will be subjected to imprisonment immediately! I won’t tolerate anyone who dares to take action against the unrepentant Akudama. Anyone who sullies their hands with the filth will be treated as filth as well!

[The Commissioner does sound quite furious. Is she a believer as well?

The Physicist lets go of Adam once he’s on the stage. Behind him, the robot holding the spear lightens up with a greenish energy, covering the blade like a sheath, giving it an otherworldly appearance. It’s as if it’s gotten infused with the neon that fills the signs out there. It’s the same energy that pierced Loremaster over and over a week ago.
Needless to say, Adam will go the same fate.

The Commissioner enumerates Adam’s list of crimes while he faces the crowd of people eager to literally rip him apart. Some of them try to throw objects to the stage, getting tased by law enforcement the moment they try. This is the Commissioner’s arena, no intervention from anyone else is acceptable. Still, the Physicist is nearby to make sure Adam wouldn’t get any foolhardy ideas as a last attack, but no, he’s riling up the crowd, with a grin that outright says he doesn’t feel anything at all about having defiled the sacred station. Sparks fly, people fall to the floor, but the robots manage to contain them all.

His grin truly marks him as a demon in the eyes of everyone while he waves at everyone with the flare of someone who is giving the spectacle of a lifetime.]

...and defiled the Shinkansen with his actions. His punishment will be delivered now!

[There’s not even any fanfare. Suddenly, the Commissioner, who apparently had held herself back until now, rips the spear off the robot’s metallic hands and rushes towards Adam, the tip aiming for his ribcage! The blade goes deep, right below the shoulderblade, green energy coursing through him, even the other side of his chest looking like an intense green light was set in there! The Commissioner, with her advanced age, has trouble getting it deeper but she does what she can, pushing and gritting her teeth while the blade gets deeper.

And Adam doesn’t even acknowledge that. The moment the spear went into him he froze, only the barest expression of surprise marring his face. Even while the Commissioner is killing him with her own hands, he keeps facing the crowd, who had gone silent, immobile at the sight of the symbol of the law skewering the heretic.

If he could have, he’d have bowed. The spear stopped him from doing so, so instead he settled to a different gesture. With blood dripping from his mouth, he opened his arms wide to the sides, taking a step forward. No words cross the air, but it’s obvious he’s reveling in everyone’s enraptured attention. This is his moment! It’s the moment of the Entertainer!

Until the Commissioner ripped the spear off. Once she did, Adam slowly crumpled to the floor, blood starting to pool around his corpse.

Without even turning to look at it or at the Physicist, the Commissioner turned around and left. Clean-up was to be done by the assistants.

It was over: Entertainer was dead]

Re: EXECUTION

[conways_retribution]

...

_{[It... was over. But...]}

AAAARRRGH!! _{[Jake fell to his knees and shed his jacket, almost tearing his shirt as well.]} Are you fucking animals happy?! Are you all satisfied?!

You all have blood on your hands too! Pushing us to play your fucking games because you want to make us suffer! What makes any of you scum better than us?!

[voidseeing]

[He watches the entire scene, face impassive. Technically, this was the proper outcome, the guilty party facing the consequences of their actions while the innocent other choice escapes with their life.

It's a hollow victory, though, and he feels no satisfaction as he keeps his eyes trained on the spectacle. Still, as the one who leveled the accusation, he owes it to everyone to watch until the very end... or so he tells himself.

Watch... and quietly capture it on video, doing his best to be surreptitious about it.]

[your_best_friend]

[* Flowey impassively watches, only staying long enough to see the dead body slump to the ground. Only then does he burrow away.]

[queendoms]

[ She's seen her fair share of people mid-death, even an execution or two, and...yup, this is about as wild as she remembers. She can't say it makes her stomach churn, or anything, she's too used to it by now, but she does chew on her thumbnail pensively while she watches. Did they purposefully make his death into as much of an over-wrought spectacle as possible? ]

???

[akudamods]

[Meanwhile, the white vans come as they did for Loremaster and Cangrande; or rather, there's two at once this time, to take away Akira's wildly-retained body as well as Adam's, along with anything else they deem excessively connected to the case, such as the much-abused lamppost.

But someone went to great pains to put a tracker onto Akira's body. Slowly it moves north, past (presumably, by distances) Dotonbori, past Nakanoshima. There is no satellite view available to cross-reference, but perhaps they can determine an absolute location within Umeda.

Hopefully they're looking closely. Because less than thirty seconds after the tracker parks, it starts to transmit distances that seem completely impossible - off towards Kanto, off towards Kyushu, on the moon, in the center of the earth, and then—

Nothing.]

ADDENDUM

[akudamods]

Through truly ninja-like means, the third person in Akira's van is someone who is not supposed to be there (Kimimaro. It's Kimimaro), gathering information from the others who are. "That's classified," the driver shouts back, about when they started this particular operation. Odd when the question seems so innocuous. After a moment, the unloader admits that the demon's body itself is surely the freakiest, though she's seen much worse effects on humans—poisons, dissections. With that, it's time to drag this poor body out: Kimimaro will see they are among Umeda's many warehouses, the skyscrapers glittering far in the distance.

Sephiroth, meanwhile, is tracking the van by sight. A troublesome endeavor when so many police robots can see him, but with his teleportation, he at least sees the edge of Umeda—aha! Its single most striking sky building, with the bridge in between!

It's a man that usually wouldn't want to be caught seen in this part of Kansai. The man who clashes against the Populist, the one who argues that X-Classes are to be left alone, and that advocates for tolerance towards them to some extent.

The Loyalist. There he is, speaking on the phone -- a very bulky-looking phone, very different from the ones the populace and the X-Classes use. He looks extremely annoyed. The content of the conversation is unknown, this glimpse lasting for too short to tell, but even if it's for a brief moment he sees Sephiroth as well, just for a brief moment.

Given his position about the X-Classes, perhaps acknowledgement at best was expected. Anything that indicated he doesn't mind their presence as long as they don't go trying to murder him or something. Instead, when he sees Sephiroth even for a brief moment, all there's in his stare is...

...is the look of someone staring at somebody he considers doesn't even deserve to be in his presence. Looks like, despite the posturing he spouts, he doesn't consider the X-Classes anything more than lowly criminals.

The glimpse is gone as soon as it began.