This is just another little side story set later in the timeline between the first and third generations. If I had to describe it I'd call it a crystalised moment of tenderness... then realise I was being pretentious and crack myself in the nuts with a hammer.

I'm still writing Divine Voice, it's just that because it introduces what many people see as a very significant character I want to handle it as best I can.

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

The Limitless Memories of Kurusu Masaki

That they had cleared such an area was a travesty. Every year they would dig out chunks of rubble break them up, move them away and for what? Masaki knew the answer even as he posed the question to himself. It was carved into the countless stone markers which dotted the vastness of the Lower Town cemetery. No, cemetery was too elegant of a word for it, it was a graveyard. He knew the answer because Mugenjou was a place ruled over by death and the ones that ruled over death were looking down from high above in Babylon Tower. His glance strayed upwards, knowing that someone was watching, always watching.

'Stop spacing out Mr. Masaki.' He looked down to the boy crouching at his side at one of the thousands of graves, the single flower he had placed looking a pitiful but sincere tribute not to that one grave, but to all. He looked down at the clear eyes, the hair swept back back the constant static which the Lightning Emperor produced.

'Sorry Ginji, I was just thinking of something else.' If there was a force which counteracted death, it would have to be the Lightning Emperor. It was easy to call him the tyrant king of Mugenjou, but for those who knew him, Amano Ginji exuded a warmth far beyond the reach of that same static field. 'What was it you were saying?'

Ginji shifted his eyes to the dirt piled over the grave, placing a tender, almost reassuring hand against it. 'I was just wondering. Why do you suppose people's lives can't be gotten back?'

'Ginji...' Masaki smiled as he looked down at the boy, he did not speak at first, merely offered the young man a hand up.

'Mr. Teshimine?' They were standing before the lonely grave in the centre of the small site they'd cleared together. The entirety of Lower Town was in mourning, but they had both thought the burial should be a private affair. Others could say their goodbyes when they visited.

Teshimine looked down at the young blonde haired boy, only his junior by a few years, but who looked up to him not just as an older brother, but almost like the father figure whom he had been deprived of. 'Hm, what is it Masaki?'

Masaki stared at the grave marker he had inscribed himself. 'Do you think...? Do you think that it's possible to recover someone's life? Do you think those two would be able to do it?' His eyes had begun to cloud with tears as he looked up at him. 'Could they... could they do it?'

'Masaki...' The older boy knelt down beside him, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder as he was rocked by sobs. 'Life isn't like an object which can be recovered, that's why you have to fight all the harder to protect it. Once it's gone it's something not even the GetBackers can retrieve.'

Masaki sniffed between sobs, tears already rolling off his face and pattering against the ground like raindrops. 'But why... why does life have to be like that? Why can't it be retrieved even in a place like this?' His entire body quaked as Teshimine put an arm around his shoulder, looking down at the grave marker as if for some signal or guidance.

'I don't know... I think that it's just something you have to try and figure out. As the future of Mugenjou, it's the people like you who have to find the answers for us doesn't mean we can't think about it together though.'

'And... and what happens then? W-when I've found the answers?'

'I dunno about that either, I suppose it all depends on the conclusions you come to. You understand right, Masaki? The future of Mugenjou depends on your answers.'

Masaki raised his head, looking in to the middle distance as his tears still fell freely and the sky darkened. 'What happens if I arrive at the wrong answer?'

Teshimine couldn't answer any further, the words he wanted to say were choking him. 'It's going to be night soon.' Masaki stood up and wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve. As Teshimine watched him something changed, his skin appeared to grow lighter, no, that wasn't it. He was glowing! Yes! Sure enough as he stood staring down at the fresh grave he was giving off a soft light which became steadily brighter until they stood in a soft circle of light. 'Masaki?'

The light receded and died, returning them to twilight. 'Someday...' Masaki clenched his hands into fists as he continued to stare down at the name carved in the marker. 'Someday I'll climb Babylon Tower and find my own answers.'

For this, Teshimine did have and answer, he stood by Masaki's side and laid a hand over the other boy's heart. 'That's not you Masaki, it's them. Your answers are already right in here.' Masaki placed a hand over Teshimine's, a quizzical look on his face as he did so. Teshimine removed his hand, leaving Masaki with his hand over his heart. He ruffled the younger boy's hair and smiled as best he could. 'C'mon, we better get back, we've got important work to do, you and me.'

They both turned away from the grave and began to walk. They did not see Masaki's tears which had fallen to the ground begin to evaporate as if under some intense heat until the grave marker of Ujie Kaijin was completely free of sorrow.

As Ginji accepted his hand and was pulled to his feet, Masaki laid a hand over his heart. 'The answers are in here Ginji, it's you that has to find them. When you do find them, a new age will begin in Mugenjou. In the meantime, we'll all fight to hold on to all the life that's in Lower Town.'

'So I just have to follow the path that's laid out in front of me, huh Mr. Masaki?'

The older man's eyes darkened, his gaze shifted to the structure high above them. 'That path isn't yours Ginji,' the Lightning Emperor's gaze followed his own. 'It's theirs. You have to find the path for yourself and proceed down it without hesitating. You're the Lightning Emperor of Lower Town after all.'

Placing a hand on Ginji's head, he ruffled his hair in affection. 'Hey, cut it out Mr. Masaki.'

'HEY! THERE YA ARE!' The ever energetic Emishi Haruki knew just how to spoil a tender moment. He skidded to a stop in front of the two to catch his breath before he carried on. 'There... phew! There's some guy coming in from the outside! He's defeating everyone in sight and keeps on calling for the Lightning Emperor!'

Ginji's eyes darkened instantly, his rise in tension was not lost on his companion. 'Ginji?'

He was obviously going deeper into being the Lightning Emperor, electricity had already begun to spark around him in short bursts. 'Emishi, Masaki, I want you to gather up the Four Kings and have them help evacuate everyone to the lower levels.' He had already begun to stalk off in the direction Emishi had come from.

'Ginji!' The younger man turned, but already the person who Masaki beheld had ceased to be Amano Ginji. 'If this is the path you choose, you can't ever go back on it, got that?'

Ginji nodded and turned back towards his goal, leaving Masaki alone with Emishi. 'Say there Kurusu-han? Don't suppose you're gettin' the same bad feeling I am are ya?'

Masaki just kept staring at the spot where Ginji had looked back at them, he did have a bad feeling, but he wasn't about to let it show. 'He'll come back.' He didn't know just quite who he was trying to convince. 'He always comes back... come on. We have to get moving.' As Emishi began to run, Masaki paused a moment, looking towards the epicentre of the graveyard, no, the cemetery before continuing after the other man.