Hello, thank you for reading. Be warned that this is SPOILER for the ending of the series (although, I figure if you've read majority of the other fics, you already know). This will not take more than 5 chapters at the most.
Disclaimer: I don't own S7, I don't own the gearhead. I'm just a fan who refuses to believe the obvious. All this rigmarole is just conjecture and what-if. But I hope you like.
…………………………………
I've always wondered what heaven would be like. Would it have clouds? Other people? Buildings? Hehe, rice?
Maybe.
But I never expected to see Shikimoribito.
There are at least two of them, peering over me right now.
It seems like there are requirements for getting into heaven, and I haven't met them. Because I'm still here on this planet I've always lived on, and it's rather obvious that I'm deep underground. Where people go, when they have nowhere else to go, except heaven.
Aw, shucks.
I don't blame the boy for getting me hit. And he's surely not to blame for my getting pinned under a steel pillar. I thought I had paid my debts to the world already, especially with that last thing I did – blowing up the capital and all. I thought I could die in peace – well, just wishing I had had more of Kanna village's rice before I did. But heaven has other plans for me, it seems. And I'm still here.
I feel my head. Except that I don't have the pilot cap and goggles anymore, it's still my head, with no bandages and such. I feel weak as I raise my hands, but they're fine, too. My legs are still there, too, although they do feel a bit funny. I try to sit up ….. OW!
"Take it easy, Heihachi-sama."
Someone gently levels me back into bed. A young lady with short, boyish hair. Oh, no. Not HER!
"Are you sure you know who I am?" I ask her with a cough. It still hurts. "Because I'm the one who wanted to….."
"That's in the past, Heihachi-sama, and I deserved it," she answers.
Yare-yare. There's no reckoning with women.
One of the Shikimoribito waves a light over my eyes, asks me if I feel this and that, hear this and that. I think I answer correctly what he needs to know, because he nods to Honoka and leaves with the other one.
I do have a few questions for Honoka, because there is no one else to ask. "Um, um, how…"
"There were a few of them who rode to Kanna soon after all of you left – as a precaution, according to one of the leaders here. He said they would help should the help be needed. They did not intervene, because the five of you had things under control, they told us. They were supposed to go back already, when they found you, unconscious and bleeding."
I had to look away. "They should've left me…"
"They found you pressed under a heavy pillar, among the debris left by the capital. They were the ones who got you out. When they saw you were still breathing, just barely, they stopped what of the bleeding they could, did other emergency measures, and rushed you here."
"You don't understand….."
"So that's the story, so far. Report has it that you and your friends won. Amanushi is dead. Kanna is safe."
"You don't understand!" I pound a fist weakly at the mat. "You don't understand."
She makes a big sigh. "No, I do not understand. Please explain."
"Or maybe you do understand," I couldn't stop the heat from rushing to my head. "Haven't you felt that? Haven't you felt so sick of yourself for being a traitor that you want to stop living? Haven't you felt sorry that you couldn't take it back, do something good for a change? I had that chance. You took it away from me. The chance to finally do something good, then die. The chance to pay back my betrayal. You stole that from me!"
"But, it wasn't….."
"Now I have to keep living with myself. Worse, I have to be a burden to someone now."
Because I do realize that. My abdomen is still hurting terribly. It also hurts around my hips. With the pressure from that pillar, I know major damage was done to me. From now on, I'll be lucky if I get to walk. It would've been better for everybody if they just let me die then.
I know I had said something very terrible, to someone who didn't even know. But I couldn't hold it back.
She starts to sniff, and I see a few tears fall. She stands up to leave. "Ungrateful jerk." I watch as she walks out of the hut I'm in right now.
Yeah, I deserve that. Yare-yare. Me and my big mouth. I AM being ungrateful. There's nothing wrong with being alive, and here I am complaining.
I heard somewhere, during the years I was a ronin, that everyone is a guardian angel to someone else. Unless you fulfill that purpose, heaven will never let you become a real angel, if you deserve to be one. If you don't, then there's hell, or you continue to live.
I deserve to go the place even deeper than these caves, but someone somewhere thinks I'm a guardian angel. So maybe that's why I'm still alive? I haven't fulfilled my purpose yet? But, by golly, I've been living with myself for so long, how much longer do I have to live, to fulfill my purpose?
"You're not being fair to my sister, you know that?" a younger girl with a crop of silver hair peers over and gives me a bottle of water. Mizuki. "She's looked over you all of last week."
I look at Mizuki, very surprised. "A whole week?"
She nods. "Yeah, while our doctors and mechanical people here patched you up and fixed your back. They're just letting you heal for now. You'll be able to move around by next week. And, there's one more thing….."
"Oh?"
"Nee-chan begged the Shikimoribito to let you stay here."
"What? Why?"
"Well, you won't be in any condition to be a ronin again, that's for sure. Those things they did to you will need fixing once in a while."
"Not that 'why', Mizuki-chan. The 'Why is your sister being nice to me?', 'why'."
"I'm not sure. But she said something about the chance to finally do something good."
"I see." Yare-yare. I messed things up again. Oh, dear. ……Wait a minute, there's a few things I still need to know. "By the way, Mizuki-chan, what happened to Kanbei-sama, Shichi-san, Katsu……OW!"
"They're still alive, some scouts told us."
"I'm glad."
For now, that's all I really want to know. I'm still alive, my companions are still alive, and our mission was completed.
And I don't know what happens next.
…………………………………………….
They managed to save my goggles and my tools (they're metal, anyway), but the rest of my gear and clothes are gone. They have me dressed in new clothes, so I look more like a farmer now. A lot like Rikichi-san, actually, but my clothes are gray, not blue.
As for that "fixing" that Mizuki talked about. She said they operated on me, and checked on my internal organs, but the damage to them was easily managed, thankfully. They corrected the fractures to my hip bones and spine, added pins here and there to keep them stable. They fixed my spinal cord so I can still, more or less, feel and move my feet and legs, but it still hurts to do that because of the pain at the hip and abdomen. I am glad they didn't have to replace my legs. I did think Shichi-san's arm was neat, but I wouldn't want to have that kind of thing on me.
I keep hearing whispers just beyond me, when they think I've gone to sleep. Something always about Kanna, and something about me. They don't want to tell me something, I know so. They think I'm too weak to handle it. But I think I can guess.
The world outside thinks I'm dead.
Eventually I manage to beg Mizuki to tell me what the scouts know. "Who's still alive, and who's dead, back at Kanna?"
"Kanbei-sama, Shichiroji-sama, Katsushiro-sama, as I told you before, are still alive," she says. "But there's this high point in Kanna village where they placed swords….."
"Yes, I know that place….."
"It now has 4 mounds, with 5 swords. A straight sword, two swords crossed, a very large one – the one owned by the mecha samurai, and…..and……one with a weather doll."
"Kyuzo-dono, Kikuchiyo……" I sigh. "And me."
"They're still there, Kanbei-sama and the others, but the scouts did not want to tell them about you yet. At least, not without your permission."
I sit up slowly – the fixing did allow me to do that – and face Mizuki. "Don't tell them."
She's clearly surprised at me.
"It's better that they think I'm dead."
"But don't you think….."
I hide from her what I really feel, and give her a wide smile. "Don't worry. I can be really useful here, too, don't you think? A lot of the vehicles here are asking for a regular mechanic."
She chuckles. "Okay, have it your way, Heihachi-sama." She hands me my dinner in a rice bowl.
I'm relieved that she didn't ask any further. I do not want pity from anyone. I have enough of that from me.
The Shikimoribito come around a few hours later, and let me try my legs, after having to stay in bed for so long. Honoka is there and helps me up.
I manage to stand up straight for a few minutes, even to walk a few steps around the hut. But it hurts, a LOT, and I have to ask to be brought back to bed. It's not the walking itself that hurts, you understand. It's the pressure on the hip bones. Even if they finally take out the pins and things, I have a feeling I still won't be able to walk long distances, much less fight.
"Thanks for all the effort, I really appreciate it, but it looks like walking is not something I'll do a lot of," I tell them with a shy grin. "Sorry for being such trouble. Don't you have a flying kettle I can use instead?"
The Shikimoribito shake their heads.
It's not so bad. A kettle would be hard to fly with me like this now, since I have to be standing to use them. It hurts too much to stay standing for a long time. But maybe……. "Can I ask a favor? If I design it, would you be able to make it for me? Something that works like a flying kettle, just a bit smaller, and lets me sit. Could you do it?"
They nod – more like, they bob their heads up and down – and I'm grateful.
It's great to be drawing schematics again. Slashing machines is fine, but I still get the most out of fixing up machines and making schematics, and seeing the machines work the way you want them to.
I draw up a plan for a circular, battery-powered flyer, much like a kettle in principle but smaller and lighter, and would allow my upper body to move freely. After all, I don't need so many weapons, and I surely don't need pincers. I just need something to use to move around in and not be a bother to anyone. A joystick for moving the flyer, a brake pedal where my feet can reach it, a few buttons for some minor weapons, a door to let me in, some space for a lunch box (of course). Some provision for a retractable shield, just in case I'm shot at. And a nice comfy seat!
The Shikimoribito are truly masters at what they do. I only have to wait three days for my flyer, and it's done! There's absolutely no way I can repay all their kindness to me…..but I have to find a way, eventually.
Honoka, meanwhile, is the model of the eternally patient woman. I still can't believe her, and why she keeps helping me out. Like right now, as she helps me walk up and get into the flyer.
It's much like before. I can't believe someone trusts me.
I put on my goggles and give my flyer a test run, as Honoka, her sister, and a few Shikimoribito look on. The performance of the flyer is better than I expected, and the response time is incredible for a machine its size. Slight movements of the joystick move the machine only just as much as I want. And it moves silently. Being battery-powered, it does not emit smoke or create a lot of whirring noises. I circle around the trees and the fields, then around the water surrounding the land, making good speed but not creating a lot of wind in the passing. The planters did not even look up at me, the machine is that quiet. I actually hide behind one Shikimoribito who wasn't paying much attention, and tweaked his helmet perfectly. It's a great piece of machinery, if I say so myself.
I drop down beside them, and bow.
Mizuki claps at the contraption. "It's so quick, and so quiet! You can scare people like that, Heihachi-sama, weaving in and out like a ghost."
Honoka, beside her, is looking at me with wide eyes. "Or, like an angel."
"Angel? Me?"
"Why not?" she says. "Angels are immortal."
……………………………
My thanks to the LJ people who gave the suggestions and support. You know who you are.
I've done first-person one-shots before, but even while thinking through this I realize this would be harder than the others. But I figured that using third person omniscient would not be right as well, so it turned out like this. Argh, present tense is tough to use! Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
