Chapter 1 - From One to Zero
As somebody who enjoyed her own personal space, Yokuna was not a fan of the Land of the Dead. Thousands of millions of souls covered the floor, and kept trying to claw at her boots.
"Save us... Save us..." they constantly wailed.
It didn't help that Yokuna was afraid of the dark. An odd fear for a member of the God clan to have, but Yokuna had always been 'unique.' Even her the other gods cocked their almighty heads when watching her. Though, none of them were watching her now, she had made sure of that. The only god that knew she was in Land of the Dead was Ageha, and he knew better than to run his mouth.
After a few more moments of tip-toeing over souls, Yokuna finally found the specific soul she was looking for.
"Here you are~" she sung when while walking up to Zero's imprisoned soul.
A young boy, probably not even fifteen in age, was entombed in a slab of stone. His petrified face spelled the tragedy he must have faced before his demise. His arms were bound by steel bars, while everything else from his torso to his feet was encased in rock.
Yokuna hummed in astonishment. "Wow... the other gods sure didn't pull any punches when they sentenced you. Though, I guess I can't really blame them. Killing a god is the greatest offense a human can commit. Especially when its a High God. We're pretty much treated like royalty by the rest of the clan. But anyway..." Yokuna clapped her hands together. "I know my kind was really harsh on you and all that, but could please do me a favor? Pretty please?"
Zero didn't answer. His petrified eyes stayed shut.
Yokuna still smiled. "I knew you'd say yes! I could tell just from hearing how you died that you would accept. Such bravado. Fighting alongside the woman you love, then sacrificing your life to save her's. There are actual Gods of Love who can't make love stories like that happen."
Yokuna kept chatting up the inanimate statue while walking around him. "Hey, Zero. Do you want to see Kurohime again? Well, for one little favor, I'm willing to make that dream become a reality. No strings attached, of course. I'm not like Yasha or Ray who play mind games with humans for fun. I just need you to do one itty-bitty thing for me."
Yokuna reached into her loose sleeve and kept digging until she found something. What she pulled out was a radiant sphere of light that so brilliant, so splendid, so lustrous all the souls that had up until that point been crying for salvation, clapped their murky hands together and harmoniously bowed their heads. Not even in Heaven would that have gifted with such incandescence, but Yokuna unceremoniously held the sphere in her hands like it was a ball to play catch with.
"I want you to hold this, okay?" she said while gently pushing the sphere inside of Zero's chest. "Now listen: when Yasha is in trouble, protect her. That's all you have to do."
Suddenly, a pillar of light beamed down on Zero. Alarmed, Yokuna quickly backed away, accidentally stepping on a soul in the process. While trying to scrape the poor soul off the sole of her boot, she noticed that Zero was floating up toward the light. He was leaving the Land of the Dead. Another god was calling him. Most likely Yasha, Yokuna assumed. She smiled. Her plan would be going into effect sooner than she thought.
It was barely a month later that Yokuna's efforts would into fruition.
The White Witch, the Ultimate Sorceress, the Strongest Magician - she went by many names, but the one she used while trekking up Big Horror Mountain's frozen slopes was simply Kurohime. She and her three companions – a beautiful demon known as Asura, a noble hearted samurai prince named Kazuma, and an adorable salamander dog with the character for "Dog" written on its back called Onimaru – all came to the mountain in search of a being with power that could eclipse even a High God: a Spirit King.
When they found him, he had already been sealed within a wall of ice. The enormous tiger stood petrified while Kurohime did battle with his captors. Yuki-onna and Yuki-otoka were their names. The former froze thousands of men who still stood like statues in her giant treasury. The latter was her lover who did all of Yuki-onna's bidding in exchange for her affection. The battle was fierce, but Kurohime eventually triumphed, overpowering both snow gods' to the point that they regressed back into children.
The witch-gunslinger pointed her Yamato Senryu at Little Otoka.
"OK! I get it!" Little Yuki cried while moving between. "I was wrong! …please, at least let Yuki-otoka live..."
Kurohime glared at her. "Bang!"
She and her shrunken lover jolted. Kurohime laughed at her reaction.
"Fine, fine. I'll let you go this time. Screw up again though, and it will be my gun going 'bang' next time."
"Well, isn't that sweet of you," a new voice said.
Everyone in the treasury looked toward the door. A woman with pale, beautiful skin and a kimono with long sleeves was standing in its huge frame.
"Yasha!" Asura announced.
Princess Yasha clapped like she was at a party for nobles. She showed no tension whatsoever.
"You showed me something that touched my heart, Kurohime. Maybe I should return the favor... " She walked away from the door.
A figure was walking in after her. He wore black pants and a dark tunic. His hair was blue save for a black tuft that hung from the front. His hands were nothing but bones, and even though he no longer had knees or elbows, his forearms and calves still moved as if they were connected.
Kurohime's eyes quivered when she saw her late love marching toward her. "Zero...?"
She dropped her gun while taking a nervous step forward. He was taller now; he and she now met at eye level. Also his eyes were colder and sharper, as though they were looking straight through her, but it was still Zero. He was different, but he was still Zero.
Kurohime walked up to him with her hand raised. Then she saw Yasha looming behind Zero's shoulder.
She immediately jumped back and scooped up her Yamato Senryu. "You!"
Before she could pull the trigger, the hand cannon was blasted from her grasp. Had she not been wearing a gauntlet on that hand, a few of her fingers had gone with it. She saw Zero holstering his gun like a samurai sheathing his sword. He was the only man she knew who could draw so fast.
"Zero, why are protecting her?!" Kurohime asked.
Zero stayed silent. Yasha curled her arm under his chin and started talking in his place, but Zero wasn't listening. He couldn't hear anything except for a strange ringing that kept coming from his chest. What was it? Was it something Yasha had implanted inside him when she made Zero the new God of Death? Was there a part of him that was still trying to call out to Kurohime?
"Ridiculous..." he muttered.
Finally, Yasha stopped playing mind games with Kurohime. She leaned on Zero's chest like she was damsel in distress.
"The man you love is the new God of Death, and I will make him into the lover that you stole from me and this world, Kurohime!"
Kurohime clicked her tongue and raised her gun. Zero raised his own in retort. When he pulled the trigger, instead of a bullet, a phantom shot out. Kurohime dodged, but she wasn't able to evade the oncoming barrage. Even as the God of Death, Zero was still originally known as Zero of the Quadruple Triggers. With unmatched skill, he began drawing, shooting and reloading his four guns in rapid succession.
Hundreds of phantoms wrapped themselves around Kurohime, immobilizing her. Asura tried to unleash her full power and help, but more phantoms rose from the ground underneath and bound her in place as well. Kazuma got cornered against a wall with Onimaru hiding behind his leg.
The little snow gods were the only ones who weren't targeted, so they took the opportunity to try and free the men Little Yuki had frozen.
"Dammit! They're are too many!" Asura shouted.
Kurohime struggled to get free herself while Dark Zero strode toward her. "Zero, Please. Tell me that you still remember me. Even a little bit."
Zero showed no emotion. He dug his bony hands into Kurohime's chest. He pulled out a lotus flower. Kurohime's eyes widened as her body shrunk. She could only stay in adult form so long as the soul lotus stayed inside of her. Without it, she regressed to the appearance of a fourteen year old girl.
Zero snatched his scarf from her neck and wrapped it around his own. "The man you knew as Zero is dead. I am now Dark Zero – the new God of Death."
Zero snatched a blossom off the soul lotus. Kurohime yelled and her chest began to bleed. She had just permanently lost memories of the old Zero. All of her memories of him were trapped inside of the lotus. Without those memories she would grow stronger, but she would also lose her reason for begged for Dark Zero to stop, but he ignored her pleas and tore off another blossom, and then another. Tears streamed Kurohime's face. Yasha couldn't help but giggle at the tragic scene. Asura and Kazuma gritted her teeth while Yuki-onna and Yuki-otoka continued trying tending to the frozen men.
Only one blossom remained. "Now to end this once and for-" Dark Zero paused while grabbing the last blossom. No, it more like his body made him stop. Something inside was telling him not to do this.
'What are doing?! That's Hime! You know not to hurt her!' the thing inside of Dark Zero yelled.
Yasha made a face. "Lord Zero? What's wrong with you? Rip that last blossom off then kill her!"
Dark Zero froze. He locked eyes with the witch standing in front of him. "Kurohime... get away..."
Her eyes lit up. "…Zero?"
He cringed and stumbled back, his floating arms wrapped across his chest. Kurohime saw her transformed love writhing on the ground in pain. Most of her memories of him were gone, but her heart hadn't wavered in the slightest. Kurohime absorbed the remaining soul lotus. There was one good thing that came our of most of her memories being gone - her power had risen tremendously. A flash that doused the entire treasury in light occurred, and Kurohime transformed one last time. Her new body was still that of a teen, but it was more mature when compared to her old form. She was seventeen to eighteen now, and most of adult powers could conjured at will.
She quickly took aim at Yasha. She twirled her Yamato Senryu while motioning a pentagram into the air. "You'll pay for making Zero your toy, you bitch!Shark Teeth Bullet!"
A large blade shaped like a shark launched at Yasha. The earth goddess could have easily countered the attack, but before she could, Dark Zero jumped in front of it. Everyone was shocked, especially the martyr in question, who's body had moved involuntarily.
Now listen: when Yasha is in trouble, protect her. That's all you have to do.
Those words were what encouraged his strange behavior. Before he could recall where he heard them from, he heard something in his chest crack. The large shark-shaped blade lodged into his chest disappeared. Dark Zero keeled forward, but Kurohime rushed to catch him before he hit the ground.
Princess Yasha was still confused about what had just happened. Dark Zero should have known that the shark bullet would have done nothing to her. She stared at the new God of Death's back. Then she realized that some strange lumps were moving underneath his tunic. Suddenly, large golden vines shot from Dark Zero's back at Yasha, and wrapped themselves around her limbs, waist and neck.
"W-what is this?!" she yelled while trying to get free.
She tried using the Sacred White Wood, but the vines wouldn't allow it. They were sapping her power. Yasha, one of the most powerful of the god clan, was losing to some overgrowth. There was only one person she knew that could have been responsible.
Yasha boiled in rage while horns grew from her head, and her face contorted into the shape of an ogre's. "Yokuna! When I find you, there won't be a pit in the Land of the Dead deep enough to-"
"Is all that yelling really necessary?" Yokuna asked from behind Yasha.
Yasha looked back. Then she felt a terrible stinging in her chest and looked down. A blue dagger was sticking out from her heart. It was the Thorn of Wayward Souls. Whomever was stabbed through the heart with it would die and then reincarnate into their next life immediately.
Yasha's eyes no longer held fury in them; only shock. "Yokuna... it may not be in my next reincarnation or even the one after, but in one of my future lives, I will become a god slayer and personally rip your heart out..."
Yokuna smiled. "I hope you get reborn into a happy family."
Yasha's body glowed, then evaporated. Kurohime blinked. Asura, Kazuma, the snow god children and Onimaru all made the same expression. They watched Yokuna exhale heavily. She then proceeded to jump up and start cheering.
"Yes! I did it! I did it! I can't believe it actually worked!" she exclaimed. "Ageha isn't going to believe it when I tell him!"
"Uh... Excuse me, but who are you?" Kazuma asked, his mind still in shambles.
Yokuna stopped her dancing and focused on Kazuma. "Who? Me? I'm Princess Yokuna. The Goddess of Life, and one of the six High Gods. …well, I guess its five now! Woo-hoo!"
Yokuna started prancing around again. Everyone else watched her with cocked heads. One of the six High Gods just killed assassinated another High God, and was now partying by herself with the murder weapon still in her hand.
Suddenly, she stopped. "Ooh! I almost forgot." She ran over to Dark Zero and Kurohime. "I've got to back up on my end of the bargain."
"Your end of the bargain? What are you about to do to Zero?" Kurohime asked while still holding him.
Yokuna gave a lax gesture to Kurohime. Then she flipped her grip on the Thorn of Wayward Souls, and dug the hilt into back of Dark Zero's skull. Kurohime made a horrified face and raised her gun.
"What the hell are doing?!" she shouted.
"I'm bringing back the real Zero," Yokuna answered.
She twisted the dagger while the hilt was still inside of his head. As though she had turned a key, something unlocked, and place was the dagger's hilt was logged cracked. Then his face cracked, followed by his chest and everything else on his body. Like an egg hatching, the shell of Dark Zero crumbled off and revealed a young boy that was sleeping inside. It was the true zero.
Kurohime blinked in awe. She put a hand to Zero's cheek. Then she pinched it.
"Uuuh... What are doing?" Yokuna asked.
"Making sure this is real."
"Shouldn't you pinch yourself in that case?"
Kurohime continued pinching and pulling on Zero's cheek. Eventually, he groaned in discomfort and put his own hand on hers while still sleeping. She could feel the warmth in his hands, and it made her tear up. Not wanting to muscle in on the mushy atmosphere, Yokuna backed off.
Yuki and Otoka finally succeeded in reversing Yuki's ice imprisonment magic and all the frozen men in the cave were freed. They were confused, obviously. Even more so when Byakku the Spirit King of Earth was also freed. The giant white tiger let out a mighty roar that frightened most of the people in the cave.
Asura rushed to calm him. "Byakku, please calm down! Everything is fine now!"
"Everything is fine?! The two who imprisoned me in the first place are standing right before me!"
"But they're also the ones who released you. Please, consider the circumstances, Byakku!"
Byakku snorted. "I will-" He stopped when he spotted a certain goddess out of the corner of his eye. He jumped over to where she, Kurohime and Zero were, invoking a small tremor when he hit the ground. "Yokuna... Of all the people I would meet here."
Yokuna put up a hand. "Yo, Byakku. Having a nice day?"
"I was frozen in a wall of ice, unable to speak or move for days."
"That nice. I'm having a wonderful day myself~"
Byakku sighed. "Still ignoring others when they speak, I see."
Zero groaned again and shifted in Kurohime's arms. He finally opened his eyes. Kurohime's smiling face would have been the perfect sight to have woken up too, had it not been for the enormous tiger standing above her.
Zero yelled and put up his arms. "T-t-tiger! H-huge! Does it eat meat?!"
"Spirit don't eat, boy," Byakku said while, perhaps purposely, licking his lips.
Zero calmed down a bit, and he finally realized that Kurohime was holding him. He sat up, and locked gazes with her.
"Hime... Is this really happening, right now? Am I really... alive?"
Kurohime wiped her eyes and nodded. She was so happy she didn't know what to do. Should she kiss him? Maybe hold up and not let go? She eventually settled for gripping the end of his scarf and trading smiles.
'Zero is alive... He's really, really alive...' she kept repeating in her thoughts.
Her happy thoughts were interrupted by the only person in the treasury who might have been more happy than she was. Yokuna began singing some terribly offbeat tune while rocking her head back and forth. She really wasn't the motherly, gentle image one would expect out of the Goddess of Life. Kurohime glanced back at Zero and noticed he was watching Yokuna peculiarly. Honestly, everybody was, but Zero was particularly fascinated by her. It looked like he was trying to remember something.
"Excuse me," he said while extending his hand. Yokuna stopped her singing and shot a broad smile at Zero. "…have you and I met some-"
Before Zero could finish the sentence, Yokuna pounced on him and joined her lips with his. Kurohime jaw skimmed against the ground. Asura and Kazuma both ogled at the scene. As did Onimaru after he climbed one of the previously frozen men's shoulder to get a better view. Byakku just sighed again.
"This girl still just does whatever she wants..." he said.
Yokuna finally parted her and Zero's lip with a loud 'smooch.' She rubbed his hair gingerly. "You did a really good job, Zero. Tell you what, when I take over Heaven, I'll let you visit anytime you want."
Yokuna heard the sound of a gun cocking beside her head. "Hey, reality goddess or whatever. Do you have any idea who's man it is you're sticking your millennium old lips on?"
Kurohime looked like she couldn't wait to pull the trigger.
Zero gulped. "Hime, I don't think you should-"
"Shut up, Zero."
He shut up.
Yokuna giggled. "I'm just thanking him for helping me get rid of Yasha. I've been planning for centuries how I could get her. You see, even among the High Gods, Yasha's pretty tough, and even I might not have beat her in a one-on-one fight, so I needed to ambush her. To be honest, I didn't think it was actually going to work. …but it did!"
Yokuna squealed at her success again and hugged Zero close to her chest. She smiled at him again. Then she kissed him.
Kurohime snapped. She twirled her Yamato Senryu and motioned a pentagram in the air. Zero tried to stop her, but she had already summoned a dragon to attack both him and the life goddess. Byakku, who had gotten safely out of reach, slept on his paws until the mayhem subsided.
"Princess Yokuna... Still nothing but trouble," he yawned.