Life after Sunrise

Chapter 1: An old friend, new beginnings

"At the moment it's dormant, you have control over it, just like how you can transform between the two."

"Does it mean I'm immortal though?"

"I'm unsure of this, but I doubt it. When you change between forms, you change your body as a whole, as the light side, you are mortal, as the dark, immortal."

"Will it stay with me forever? I don't want it to hurt anyone..."

"It's hard to say at the moment. You overcame the darkness once, I don't doubt your ability to do it again. However, if you agree with me, I believe that it would be in your better interests to be fully purified. You are currently having to share power with your dark side, in other words, you can't fully utilise the power of sol."

"How will I be purified? Will I have to suffer as I did when I was transformed?"

"I wouldn't worry about it just yet, you need your strength back after defeating the evils of this world. I can tell you though, it will be much less painful that when you were bitten by that vampire form of Ringo..."


"Django, are you ok there sonny?"

Django slowly lifted his head from the desk he was sitting at, his eyes heavy from sleep. He shook his head and took a look around, remembering where he was. A moment later he was met by a chuckling Smith.

"Looks like you drifted off there a bit eh Django?" remarked Smith as he smiled and looked back at what he was working on. The tapping of his hammer had put Django to sleep, lost in his thoughts of his conversation with Otenko about recent events.

"Uh, sorry Smith, just thinking about what's happened lately."

"I don't blame you, it's not everyday you defeat the ultimate evil in these parts, you lived quite up to your father's name, you know that don't you?"

Django stood up, looked out of the window of the gunsmith's forgery and nodded, "I'm sad to see him go, but I'm also relieved somewhat, he saved us and now he's probably with my mother, it's what they both would have wanted." Looking out of the window he could see the beautifil blue sky again, a few white clouds sparsely littering the skyline. The mantra of Otenko and his father, 'The sun will rise tomorrow!' ran through his head once more.

Smith finished tweaking his work and looked back to Django, "Well, we still have this to remember him by," he said, revealing the fully repaired Gun Del Sol. "I've fixed the energy output but I've been able to maintain the power and charge shot, although I had to modify the frame somewhat. I'm sure you've got the other ones though, right?"

Django took the gun from Smith's outstretched hands, "You're right. This is only the basic Fighter frame, I kept the Dragoon along with all of the other powerful parts for the Gun Del Sol hidden away. Otenko and I were only travelling, meeting the occasional ghoul, I didn't really need the excess power, so I hid them. I kept the quint battery pack though. I was planning to retrieve them but then I lost the Gun Del Sol."

Smith chuckled as he observed Django reaquanting himself with his old friend, "You still managed with the Sol De Vice though. I never knew it could be used so well to fight the undead."

Placing the gun back in its holster Django returned to his conversation, "It was a blessing. I did sometimes miss the power of the Gun Del Sol, but it's the heart behind the tool that counts. It's great to have it back though, it will be invaluable if the undead return."

"I'm glad you like it," said a cheerful Smith, "Just remember, the charge shot only applies to the modified frame. The shot depends on the frame, so when you install the Dragoon again, you'll have the normal shot and spread, just like the rest of your custom frames."

Taking it all in, Django quickly re-examined the firearm. The new frame looked somewhat reminiscent of the original. However, it was much sleeker, with a white sun decal on the side, Smith's personal touch obviously. The other parts of the weapon remained unchanged, simply due to the fact they didn't need to be changed. SteelSmith, the forger of both the Gun Del Sol and the Gun Del Hel, had designed the weapons with the intention the gun itself would never need to be changed, an intention still evident in the item held in Django's hands.

"So how much do I owe you, it did take a long time for you to do this..." Django trailed off as Smith stood in front of Django and put an arm on his shoulder.

"How many times do we have to keep telling you, we owe you Solar Boy Django. You saved the world, let alone our city, from an ancient evil powerful enough to ruin the balance of light and darkness. Think nothing of it." Smith turned back to his workstation to pack up his equipment, "So what do you intend to do with yourself now, I don't think I can believe there are more immortals to take care of?"

Django thought for a moment, "Well, I'm not sure, Otenko said that now we've sealed Spiral Castle, the undead should decline by itself. I suppose you could say that we're out of work for the time being."

"You're more than welcome to stay in San Miguel, Django, I'm sure we could find you plenty of work to do. What about Lita, she seems to be doing well with her shop, what plans does she have?"

"I'm not sure, why do you ask, doesn't she talk to you Smith?"

Smith tried to supress a chuckle, "I just thought that you could stay with her perhaps, you make quite a good team you know, and she has nothing but praise to say about you all the time. I can't get anything else out of her now the solar tree is complete."

Suffice to say, Django had no idea what to think. Never had he thought about anything more than friendship between the two of them. He'd saved her life, she restored the solar tree and the two supported each other through the good times and the bad. Although there were times when he'd noticed a bit of a blush on her face when she talked to him, and the time he'd seen her at night in the glow of the solar tree and couldn't help but think how pretty she looked...

"You still with me there sonny?" asked a grinning Smith as Django got lost in his thoughts again, quickly snapping him back to reality.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry. Maybe I should go talk to Lita."

"Well if you do, here's a tip, give her something nice, you deserve a nice lass like that."

Django tried to hide his embarassment and slight blush by turning to pick up his things, "Um, thanks for the tip, I think, and thanks again for the Gun Del Sol."

"It's a pleasure Django, there's nothing I love more than nurturing your fine father's talent. Take care son!" said Smith as he farewelled Django from his forgery and thought, 'Why is it that a deserving lad can never notice the girl of his dreams right in front of him?'


Meanwhile, Lita was out for a walk and decided to see how Zazie was. It was late in the day, so she'd simply decided to close her shop so she could visit the inn. When she arrived she noticed Violet was giggling at Nero, who was playing with the solar bamboo and causing solar bugs to fly everywhere. It brought a smile to her face. She'd noticed that Violet was a rather quiet girl, who kept to herself. However, when Django had arrived, she started to open up. Not only had he saved her cat on numerous occasions, but he'd found the warehouse keys, enabling Violet to finally find out what was inside.

'He's so caring, he does everything for everyone around him, he worked so hard to restore the solar tree' thought Lita as thoughts of Django entered her mind again, 'I only wish I could repay him somehow, or at least tell him how...'

"Huh? HEY, what're those flies doin' in here? Come on, I didn't put that bamboo in here for nothin'!"

The loud voice of an angry Zazie snapped Lita out of her trance. It wasn't an agressive angry, more of a friendly angry.

"But Nero is having fun Zazie, look at him!" came the reply from Violet.

"Well, I'll tell ya' what, how about I make a bit of bamboo for you and Nero so you two can have fun wherever you want."

"Yay! Thank you Zazie! Say thank you too Nero,"

Nero went up and purred next to Zazie, before Violet scooted him up and ran off to play under the solar tree again.

"She's changed ya' know Lita, she's much more open now, just like a kid should be." said Zazie as she sat down at the bar, facing Lita.

"It makes me happy to see her smile, this town is so peaceful now, you could never think this was where the world almost ended," commented Lita as she sat next to Zazie at the bar. She noticed that Zazie was flicking through her star reading cards again, causing her to slightly wonder what was in store for the future. Zazie quickly shuffled them and placed them on the table in front of her.

"It's all thanks to that Solar Boy, he's definately got the spirit of his father Red Ringo in his blood," Lita shuddered a little, thinking how true that actually almost was, "Well, I didn't mean it like that, you know what I mean Lita, I got nothin' against him."

Lita smiled back, "Don't worry about it Zazie, it's easy to forget after everything that's happened..."

Zazie couldn't help but notice Lita's face falling a little as she recalled Django's horrible ordeal. It all started when he was dragged back into town in his own solar coffin by Sabata. Lita had been the first to notice and everyone literally had to hold her back from trying to get to his side.Throughoutthe entire ordeal Lita had never left Django's side, even when he passed out performing the Pile Driver on another dark guardian, Lita couldn't hold back the tears and only Django smiling to her again had calmed her down. All of San Miguel had been behind Django as he battled his dark side, but no one had even come close to matching Lita's support of Django, and the whole town knew it was only a matter of time before the two became a couple.

"Ya' know Lita, you and Django would make a really cute couple," said Zazie absentmindedly, instantly causing Lita to go red.

"W..what? Zazie! It's not like that," Lita replied in defence.

"Oh come on Lita, besides, there's nothin' wrong with likin' someone. Like I said, you two really suit each other."

Lita turned an even deeper shade of red, "Well, I...I suppose I do like him a bit"

Zazie smiled, "See, that wasn't too hard eh? Why don't you tell him though, I hate to see situations like this."

"I don't know, I just can't come out and tell him something like that. Besides,what if he doesn't like me!" Lita sounded slightly desperate, however, the star reader knew better.

"Are you kidding? Whenever you're not around he's always askin' where you've gone and when I ask what he thinks of you, he won't stop talking about you!"

This response made Lita start fidgeting a little, "You really think he likes me?"

Zazie sighed and rolled her eyes, "Of course I do, I am a star reader ya' know. If I'm wrong, then I reckon I might be lookin' for a new line of work!"

Chuckling to herself, Zazie got up out of her seat and walked over to the solar bamboo in the corner. As she got near it, she pulled out her staff and tapped the side, casing a single solar bug to appear, and quickly fly out of the window, where the sun could be seen making it's last flight over the city for the day.

"Ya' know, these little guys aren't too bad if they aren't flying around in your hair."

Lita couldn't help but notice too as she walked over to join her. Zazie twirled her staff quickly, causing it to vanish, sending it back to its holder in Zazie's bedroom.

"Thank you for your thoughts Zazie."

"No probs Lita! Now you go and find Django awright, and don't chicken out on me kay?"

Lita smiled again, quickly hugged Zazie and left with a smile on her face. Zazie then went back to her usual spot to fall asleep.

'My star readin's been right before, why not again?'