There are many ways to get sentenced to execution here. Every crime is punishable by death to a different degree. If you're lucky, you'll be sentenced to lethal injection, but that's usually reserved for people who've brutally serial murdered, raped, created genocide –really any of the more typical forms of crime. The electric chair goes to those who deal or do drugs. Guillotine and hangman's noose are fan favorites. They go to the petty white-collar criminals.
The worst crimes, as expected, gets the worst punishments. Torn apart by four horses, stampeded, tortured (either physically or mentally) to death, really the most grotesque stuff. Despite all these methods, the late Lord Kishin always favored punishing those guilty of breaking the anti-daemon laws to a "good, old-fashioned death".
I remember the first time my mother brought me to a celebration. I must've been… 7. Yes, that's right, I was 7 years old. I remember because it was the same year I first began hiding from my own execution.
We walked along a road stained with dried blood until the original black of asphalt became light brown with dark brown, almost black, intersecting circles. Those days, the Kishin was still freshly dead, so his –it's?- madness clung to the air in thick, humid patches. Unlucky citizens, also on their way to the celebration, would sometimes find themselves walking face-first into a dense fog of madness, only to fall and convulse under it in a seizure of pure insanity. My 7-year-old mind found this odd display funny. My mother did as well.
When my feet began to hurt too much to walk, my mother carried me to our destination. A light oak stage, specially built for such occasions, stood tall in front of us. On the stage stood a woman in a black tank top and camouflage cargo pants. Two men in suits were just finishing tying the taut ropes attached to her arms to their respective opposite sides of the stage, so that she was forced to stand with her upper limbs in an angular, curved "X" over her chest. My mother made a comment about it being a "beige letter soon stained scarlet".
The woman onstage stood, tall and proud, surveying the ever-growing crowd around her. Her platinum pixie cut blew in the light breeze, making her look like a character from an action cartoon. The "X" displayed muscles built of necessity and years of work.
A lady in a navy suit took the stage, and I found myself immediately disliking her. Her arms were too skinny to have ever seen any hard work. Her pointed glasses sent two kinds of glares towards the woman standing tied to the platform, who returned the glare with an even, cool gaze. An unafraid oak tree staring at a tidal wave of hatred, knowing its end would be brought forth through a dark-blue clothed entity, but standing strong against it nonetheless.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the lady with glasses began with a smirk. "Thank you for gathering here today." Shouts of excitement erupted from the crowd that I hadn't known grew around my mother and I. The lady checked a clipboard she held on her hip to one side in a similar fashion to how mothers would hold their babies. "Today, we carry out the punishment given to a Bernadette Albarn. Mrs. Albarn was charged and convicted of not only being a Meister, but using her powers in tandem with a Weapon."
At this, Bernadette's face evolved into a prideful, beaming grin that sent a venomous chill through many members of the crowd. Boos and insults rained on her from her place on the stage, and yet she continued sharing that beam with all who stood before her. I don't know why I began smiling, but something about her expression was heartwarming. As her gaze swept across the crowd, emerald orbs found my eyes. I smiled wider at her. Her grin faltered, a look of shock crossing her features, before the forest fire in her brightened further. She nodded at me and continued moving her stare along the crowd.
I realize now what exactly she had been shocked at, but back then, I just thought she was surprised to see a friendly face in a sea of hatred.
"As you all know, this violates multiple sections of the anti-daemon laws. Therefore, in the spirit of fairness and our late Lord Kishin, she has been sentenced to the highest form of execution." My gaze shifted back to the tidal wave that stood, clipboard in hand and on hip. Her chocolate eyes became ferocious, predatory sparks that reminded me of the convulsing bodies I saw on the way here. A pang of fear hit my heart as my mother, and the people around her, lowered to the ground to pick something up.
"So, without further ado, may the stoning begin."
A few seconds passed without event, each person not wanting to be the one to go first. Eyes scanned all others' to ensure that they wouldn't be the only pair committing the act.
The first rock, a shiny white one with a jagged edge, flew in a high arc from someone at the front of the crowd. The white stone, glittering from whatever sediments it contained, hit her straight in the eye. Bernadette's head was pushed to the side from the force of the rock as shouts and cheers once again roared from below her.
I will never forget what happened after that first rock was thrown.
She took her time, Bernadette, before her face fully looked back upon the crowd. Her forest-green eyes gleamed as she shot a look of condescending pity down at her thrower.
"Oh! Before I forget!" The tidal wave lady added, turning on her heel back towards the stage. My mother handed me a rock, a look of humor in her eyes. It would dawn on me later that this was a common joke done during celebrations. They hadn't been waiting for the first to throw, they'd wanted to ensure only one person threw a rock. A ripple of laughter roared through the crowd.
"Ma'am," tidal wave began, her chocolate bob bouncing slightly as she turned sharply towards the lady in the center of the stage, "do you have any last words?"
The woman slowly turned her head towards the microphone held out to her. The smile never left her face as she leaned forward slightly to speak.
"Fuck you."
The tidal wave reared back slightly. She made to move the microphone away, but Bernadette continued speaking, the words pouring from her mouth even after she was sure no one would hear them.
"Fuck you, for thinking that just because someone can see you for what you truly are, they deserve to be punished. Fuck you, for thinking that a person is not only guilty of being different, but is guilty BECAUSE they're different. Fuck you, for letting Asura brainwash you into thinking that Lord Death was the bad guy. Fuck you! For condemning all those who want to make the world better for assholes like you. Fuck you. Fuck you! FUCK YOU!" She screamed, all her anger and hatred pouring from her like the blood that now cascaded down her arms and neck and teeth, which were slowly being hit, one by one or two by two, out of her mouth. I dropped my rock in sheer horror when I realized what everyone was doing.
I will never forget the fact that -from the moment I first saw her onstage to the moment she died from blood-loss and head trauma- that her pride and smile never once left her face.
I fainted in my mother's arms. I only remember one thought of mine that day, a thought I would later hold for another strong woman who would arrive in my life 9 years later.
That is the coolest woman I've ever seen.