"The execution is tomorrow. Please pray for his soul."
A shudder ran through Sho's entire body as he heard the click of the connection being terminated. His hand dropped beside him, the phone falling from his grip, and he went still. That was . . . everything.
If Kei was gone, truly gone, then-
Sho took a shaky breath, his fingers spasming. He stared blankly straight ahead, hearing the quiet finality of the words over again in his mind.
After a few minutes it blended with Yi-Che's confused, but cheerful litany, her gentle words growing weaker almost every day, and Toshi's breathless, fading voice. Shinji's stubborn, angry declaration that he would take care of things himself.
The footage of his men being shot down in the street. Shinji's body and Sho's failure to shoot Son for his wife's sake. Yi-Che fading further and falling into near-constant sleep. Toshi bleeding and coughing in his arms, in the rain.
Ghosts, all of them, now, in one way or another, and now even Kei would leave him - the one person he had always been able to return to, to trust in no matter what. Whenever Kei was there, he would never walk away from Sho, never turn his back, much less when Sho . . . asked for his help.
Sho's thoughts turned to his bright, cheerful daughter, sleeping down the hall, and his heart clenched. Sho was not capable of raising her alone - he wasn't . . . strong enough. He couldn't do this with only his ghosts left around him.
Written as part of a challenge set for prompt: Ghost. (Written back in 2013; part of the reason I never posted it is because it is so very short. There was really no expanding this one though.)