Don't Fear the Reaper
~ (Rewrite) ~
Prologue
I don't own Naruto.
When I first opened my eyes, it was filled with a pure light. It was whiter than I believed was possible and for a moment I suspected I was blind. There was nothing there, only white. Slowly, I sat up, or at least I think I sat up. My body was numb, and to be honest my mind was blank, except for the pondering the white around me. My head turned slowly, but the view didn't change.
"Welcome,Stiller." The voice echoed slowly and I wasn't sure which direction it came from, so I turned my head back to its original forward position...Stiller? Was that my name? I couldn't remember well...anything. But this voice welcomed me as Stiller, Reaper – 4128 and from that moment forward Stiller I remained.
That time in purgatory was eventful for me, that's when I first met Enn. Enn the Head reaper, a young boy of 10 or at least that's how he appears. Hooded and cloaked in black he stood barely above 4 ft and his penetrating silver eyes stood out against pale skin. I could faintly see silver hair underneath his hood.
After that day, I became what is known as a reaper, a guide for the dead.
XxX
I glared at the goddess who floated before me, Enn by her side watching with his emotionless gray eyes. I winced and stared up at my own hands, shackled by the Goddess's soul energy to the side of her white palace. The goddess was beautiful, her long blond hair twisted into a dutch braid and her blue eyes sparked with anger. But just like a blizzard, she was both beautiful and cruel.
"Answer me, Stiller!" She screamed and I dropped my head, allowing my chocolate brown hair to hide me. "Answer me! Who is your Master!" She screeched and I couldn't help but think that for a divine creature she held more rage then she should.
This was the goddess I served? One that condemns love? I thought gods and goddesses were supposed to respect their disciples and love them as they loved subjects, to be understanding and kind. Tears of black blood dripped from my green eyes and everything became a haze as I wallowed in self pity. Silence fell as my black blood streamed from my eyes and fell onto the face of one of the other reapers in the crowed. Through hazed vision I met his eyes.
Kalin, he was called.
We worked together on the roads between Jashin's dimension and Purgatory, the Goddess Matsuro's dimension. I suppose it was my dimension too...although now I was ashamed to admit it. He was not only a fellow reaper, but the man who taught me everything I know and hold dear as well. Don't get me wrong, I had committed a crime and when I gazed into his cold onyx eyes I expected to see nothing but contempt and disgust, as showed on all the other reaper's faces. It surprised me to find them filled with pride and...something close to a plea.
A plea for what?
Then I remembered as his voice flooded my head, something he had said to me many years ago after I had slain my first demon. 'I can feel it child, someday you will dare to do something great and some people will not like it. They may even try to break your spirit. Your mind is your own dimension, you are the goddess of it and only you hold power there. Meaning only you can decide what is wrong and what is right. Let no one tell you otherwise. Never let them. Hold you pride...and your tongue.'
The whip, made of raw soul energy, hit my bare skin again, cleaning flesh from bone. Though I was reaper and it would heal quickly, it hurt just the same. I simply stared at my black blood, bathing the emotionless and enraged audience below, enraged with me. Matsuro was suddenly a mere inches away, her nose almost touching mine.
"Who is your master!"She ground out, her hair flaring out. My oily blood dripped onto her ivory silks but she paid it no mind. I held my tongue. The whip clashed against flesh again, more pain, but I continued to hold my tongue. I could not die, a gift from him and for some reason I found myself...enjoying the pain. She screamed the phrase at me again, her screeching reminding me of an eagle on the hunt.
More pain, and...I began to laugh.
And I laughed.
With each lash of the whip it all became funnier.
She grabbed me by the throat, by now I was nearly naked, my clothes having been ripped away by the strong energy. I hung off the wall of her white palace, blood like oil leaking down the wall and drenching what remained of my clothing. Her hand went to my throat, halting my laughter. "Who is your master?" Her whip hung at her side dripping the oily reaper blood. I began to chuckle once more.
"Forever will I serve and love him, great god of pain!" I screamed with laughter. Shocked gasps and murmurings came from below, things like 'she's possessed' and 'she's a demon'. I was no demon; I was simply one of them with a brain and values. Matsuro recoiled, as if I had physically hit her, hissing like a serpent.
"He has tainted one of my best..." She muttered. "Damn him and his demon swine!" Then she turned back to me. "I will not kill you, for you deserve much worse wench! Stiller, former reaper of the 3rd gate, I herby sentence you to eternity in confinement. You will not speak to a soul, you will merely become a ghost in these halls and your memory will be nothing but a story. May your dreadful mistake teach future generations to honour thy goddess and to honour the Reaper Code." Then With a wave of her pale hand, she removed the shackles and I landed to the ground, losing consciousness.
XxX
I lost track of the years, that I was confined to that room. They placed gold bracelets around my wrists to keep my power in check and they had confiscated my dear Scythe, Bakuya. I was given a large wardrobe full of black silk robes, with the Jashinist symbol embroidered in red on the back as opposed to the white eight pointed star of Matsuro, something that was meant to humiliate me, but I took pride from it. I grew strong and independent.
Everyday I wrote in a small, black leather journal about my life, before confinement and during. Every day, food was brought to me, although the women that entered my chamber always wore white masks on their faces, masks with no eye holes, forcing them to use their soul energy to navigate. I gave up trying to speak with them hundreds of years ago, they all feared that wolf in sheep's clothing too much.
Although by now, it had been so long, my story was simply part of Matsuro's bible. No one was alive anymore, except for maybe Enn, who remembered watching me dangling from the side of the white palace. I wondered if I was part of Jashin's bible for my sacrifice, although I was unable to get my hands on such reading material. Matsuro ruled here, and so did her interpretation of the histories.
I had read her Matsurian version of my story and I had nearly puked at the lies they spewed. Apparently I was a jealous hag, envious of Matsuro's power. I traded my womb for power and immortality, birthing the son of a demon. In this story, I was not beautiful nor kind. They gave me not even the slightest redeeming quality. As the story goes I tricked Matsuro into believing I was her most loyal warrior, before revealing my intentions in a fit of jealous rage. Matsuro had apparently tried to reason with me, hurt, as she thought I worshipped her and only her. She gave me mercy, by placing me in this room and never stopped loving me as one of her most beloved disciples.
It was all lies! All of it! She was the hag not me! But no matter how much I wished it wasn't true, I was still a reaper and as such belonged to Matsuro. She could easily destroy my existence, but she chose not to in order to make her story more realistic and she knew that it would hurt more than dying. She also probably didn't want to provoke...him. It was getting to the point now that I wasn't considered real anymore.
I heard a pair of young reapers once outside my door pondering my existence and considering trying to take a peek. However, they were caught by their master, who asked them reproachfully what they were up to before hastening their arrival on patrol. I wanted to laugh though when I heard him muttering a prayer, begging my forgiveness. Hm, my story inflicted fear upon them I suppose.
I would often sit at the mirror and stare at my reflection. I always loved my hair, it was silky and long, falling just past my ribcage. It was also straight, with shaggy bangs hiding my forehead. I will always remember the feeling of him running his fingers through the chocolate tresses, separating the caramel streaks from the rest. I would laugh when he joked about me smelling like sundae toppings. My skin was not pale, but sort of like a mocha color. Call it vanity if you would like, but my favourite feature was my eyes. They were a soul stealing neon green, like a cat's eyes.
Being alone and silent for so long tends to create insanity and I was on the brink. I would also twirl through the room naked, there was no one to see me so what did I care? My room was large and posh, I suppose the goddess had specifically made it big and wide open to make me feel more alone. Cold white marble floors, white walls (which I longed to decorate) and a white ceiling; marred only by a white chandelier. A large white bed, the frame made of white stone and everything else made of the purest white fabrics. White curtains hung in front of the only window in my room, a window I had never once looked out of.
What was the point? All I would see was white. I hated purgatory and its white, I always had. It had to be the worst color on earth. White, the color of innocence, purity and peace. To the reapers, white was the color of Matsuro.
The color of your fate, the color of apathy and the color of death.
XxX
I had just stepped out of the bath and dressed in my black robes when the large white door opened, revealing a group of young reapers. They wore no masks, and looked upon me with a mixture of awe and reproach. There was silence as we regarded each other. There were four of them, probably only about 50 years old. 3 young men and a young woman.
You could tell they were reapers in training because they all had the same cropped locks, minus the girl, whose hair was bobbed and then pulled back for extra measure. Not only that but they had not yet earned their scythes, seeing as they carried none with them. The braver looking boy stepped forward.
"We were sent by the great goddess Matsuro. She wishes to speak with you." I stared at him for longer than I probably should of, causing him to shrink back.
The great goddess Matsuro, I thought with malice.
XxX
She stood in front of a large window and the light that bounce off the white walls were beginning to make me sick. She turned to me slowly. "Enn's scythe has been stolen." She said abruptly. "Go and retrieve it and I will release you from your punishment. You can go wherever you wish after that...even to him." I paused, my breath catching in my throat.
Even to him. Her voice echoed in my mind and she eyed me like a predator. She knew that I would fall to those 3 words. "Will you do it?" I blinked at her, in a daze. I fell to my knees, looking up at the woman I hated more than anyone else, my lips dry from shock.
"Yes."
