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Something About Sharing

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For the name of power, he gave everything up. Friends, family, fortunes; he did not care. He gave up his mind, his body, his soul, his heart. Shared them all, to be truthful. And still, he refuses to give up this final connection. Hirose/Taisuke/Akuro's Heart

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It speaks to him, a dull constant in his life of grays. The heart does not have a voice, so it uses his. He did not actually speak to himself before, but these are the circumstances that make the most sense. After all, the heart does not have fingers so it uses his, the heart does not have an over-arching goal, so it takes on his.

The heart does not have a body.

And so, he gives it his own.

Somehow - through these moments - the heart has come to acknowledge the body (in fact, the boy) as its. Hirose would be quick to anger, would be quick to point out that he is the one actually in control, but he's tried that the first time, and even the second time. The heart ignores him, passes it off as the naïve judgments of lesser beings.

If it were not Akuro's Heart; the creation of raw power itself, the sharer of his body, he would have obliterated it.

And even then -

"You still think of him," he tells himself. Except it's not actually him (Hirose, the boy - but not human) but the heart, and the heart has no tone at all. It's a simple comment, and Hirose steadies himself, because the alien being is simply trying to provoke him.

"It does not matter," he responds to himself. (Except it's not actually himself.) And then the heart laughs, with his mouth, and Hirose, annoyed, twists at the air around his hand. The nearby school building is no more. The children inside mattered not.

"Of course not," Akuro's Heart consoles, and he can practically feel the wispy tendrils of undiluted power caress his face. They're ghastly imitations of fingers, he thinks, and then the fingers leave, because the Heart cannot bear to be an imitation of anything. "The only thing you care about is him," it continues, undeterred by Hirose's less-than-complacent thoughts.

Another twitch of fingers; another twist of the wrist. Five acres of a farm are gone.

"Careful, careful," The Heart warns, though its (not its - his - Hirose's) voice is giddy, delighted - perhaps even childish? "We don't want you to use up too much of my power. My body might collapse, after all, we have yet to reach Mitama-kun."

Hirose catches the 'my' power and 'my' body. But he doesn't care; the Heart can keep to its delusions.

"No response today?" The Heart laughs, and Hirose absently feels his own shoulders shaking. He cranes his head to look at the sky, and then briefly nurtures the idea of carving a hole in the atmosphere itself before abandoning said idea. "It's because you worry that it would negatively affect a certain someone, no?"

"It's a waste of energy," Hirose replies.

"A waste of energy...?" His own voice echoes, "A waste of energy?" The laughter that bubbles up is like the sudden bouts of insanity he often experiences, being the 'carrier' of the Heart and all. It starts off low, then because loud, high-pitched, and with a near-tragic edge to each of the 'Ha Ha Ha'-s.

And now - he's not even affected, simply waits for the gasps of air to subside, for Akuro's Heart to once again, because the smooth circlet of energy he is most accustomed to it being.

"I could kill him while you sleep." It is an old and tired threat, and Hirose knows that the only way to entirely stave off the possibility is to have another sleepless week. "But you can't do that, because then you'd be playing right into my hands, no?" The tendrils of power fade back into existence, curling around the trunk of the tree. Squeezing experimentally.

"You will not," Hirose replies, and the unspoken words are heard all the same.

You will never have him.

"Neither will you," Akuro's Heart retorts.

"I do not want him," Hirose says. And it is the truth. He does not 'want' the other in the normal sense of the word. He is perfectly alright with their separate planes of existence, the fact that they are no longer friends - enemies, actually - and the fact that they'll never be anything more than enemies.

And if I cannot have him, then neither can you.

"Hirose, Hirose," The Heart coos in his voice. The tendrils dance about his head, before drowning him in their chillingly warm light. "You give me your body, I give you a fraction - a miniscule portion - of my powers. Why will you not accept it? Why will you not give me everything?" The tone the Heart takes this time is curious, with the mincing hints of a threat.

"You will not," Hirose repeats.

"What of her - the girl - Megumi?" Akuro's Heart whispers. "I cannot fathom whatever affection you may hold for these strange creatures."

"It does not matter," He replies, caring less.

"You," The Heart whispers, mimicking his 'classroom' voice perfectly, in both tone and pitch, "You're nothing but a lost little boy!"

Snap of fingers; twitch of arm. A single, swift jerk, and the small town is wiped entirely off the map.

"Careful, careful," The Heart echoes.

Lest you end up with absolutely nothing at all.

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