Phase 24.6

Day 04, 2049 A.D.

"...Gai!? Tsutsugami Gai!?"

I was completely and utterly dumbfounded. Memories from my childhood and our adventures together tearing down GHQ flashed before my eyes.

"Sorry I'm late," Gai returned nonchalantly. "I had another pickup."

He indicated the back seat of the jeep with a gesture of his head, never taking his eyes off the rapidly approaching road ahead. What with how reckless he was driving I hesitated to look away myself, but I built up the nerve and leaned around to shoot a glance behind us. A pair of familiar ruby eyes calmly returned the look from the back seat.

"Inori!?" Somehow I felt I should have expected that. "Did you know about this?"

"Hang on!" Gai interrupted before she could answer. The words barely reached my ears in time for me to brace myself as he swerved around another vehicle on the street and then sped around a corner.

"No sooner than you," Inori said. "Is working in the Rooks always like this?"

"No," I directed my gaze back towards the man in the driver's seat. "Can't say I'm used to being rescued by a ghost!"

"Well, sorry I couldn't get a guardian angel instead," Gai retorted, mildly offended. "Don't tell me you've forgotten."

I thought hard, but ultimately an eternal silence betrayed my ignorance. Street lights outside whizzed by, each one marking another moment more awkward than the last. Gai let out a disappointed sigh.

"You may call me Tsutsugami Gai, but I am not he...and yet, I am one of many like him. No," he grimaced, scorning his own words, "not even like him. Like the one who called himself Izanagi, the one to whom all of my kind 'owe' our existences."

"Your...kind." It all started coming back to me.

"A-ah. I'm a clone. One of many you yourself played a significant role in rescuing from Da'ath's breeding facility in underground Shanghai. To this day my brothers take on the name Izanagi, but I am not of his function. Not all clones were created equal. I, like the Gai you once knew, was bred to bring balance to the equation. Even knowing this purpose was chosen for me, I cannot help but fulfill this role of my own will, even as the others cannot help but fulfill theirs."

"Balance..." I repeated. "Well, I hope you understand I have no such aspiration. I don't want 'balance.' I want every last trace of Da'ath to be erased forever!"

"Which is why I went to the trouble of keeping an eye out. I'm sure you've already figured out I never actually worked for the police department. My only subject as an 'inspector' was you. I wanted to test you, to see if Ouma Shu really was who they said he was."

"And who do 'they' say that I am?"

Gai veered off the main city street and into an abandoned private roadway, ignoring every tattered 'do not enter' sign posted around it.

"In a word: the imbalance. That has always been your role, hasn't it? I may not share my elder brothers' memories, but I am not ignorant of the past. Ever since the beginning, even if you tried to hide from it, you've always been the one to tilt the scales."

I looked back at Inori and she at me. It was hard to believe that one of the children we found in that facility was sitting before us, now fully grown and a perfect likeness of the man who first brought us together all those years ago. But that wasn't why I looked to her. While I grasped the truth of this Gai's words, I doubted whether I could live up to his expectations now, and I needed Inori for reassurance—reassurance that whatever those expectations were, I wouldn't have to face them alone.

"What do you want with me?" I asked him outright. "I know how you work. You've always got some scheme you're playing people into. So what is it this time?"

"I know it must be hard, but please try not to pin the habits of one of my elder selves on me, even if we do share a face."

The jeep started rattling noisily as we hit a patch of road so cracked and broken it must not have been tended to in a decade. In fact, I got the distinct feeling that wherever Gai was taking us, no one had been there in a very long time. Further and further down into the ground our path took us until we entered a tunnel lit only by our vehicle's headlights. Along the edges of the surrounding blackness we passed by the pitiful belongings of the poor and homeless who once took up shelter here and since had vanished, one way or another. But there was also something vaguely familiar about the place—a feeling I knew by now not to ignore as mere coincidence.

"But you're right," Gai confessed. "I didn't show up just to rescue you from the Kuhouin Group. In fact, for several days now I have been gathering you and your acquaintances for a special purpose."

"'Gathering'? Then...the disappearances..."

"Hare?!" Inori leaned forward anxiously.

"I'm afraid not. But I do have some familiar faces to show you. I would ask for your patience: all will be made clear in due time."

With that Gai slammed on the brakes and the jeep came to a screeching halt that echoed up and down the tunnel for kilometers.

"I've a bit farther to go to reach the parking garage, but this is your stop, here," he explained. "We'll meet early tomorrow morning, so get some rest for tonight...if you can."

"No," I glared at the man in the driver's seat. "Where's Hare? You know, don't you? I won't sleep until she's safe!"

"Normally I would agree with you, but circumstances require that I be the sleepless one, this night. You'll get your chance, but for now I must work alone."

I grabbed Gai by the wrist and prepared to verbally assault him until I got my way, but Inori stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't," she shook her head. "We won't get anywhere if we don't trust each other."

"Trust? We don't even know if we're on the same side! I need answers before I can trust another Gai that just pops in out of nowhere!"

I didn't mean to come off so hard on Gai, but I could tell my words stung him a bit. At the same time, he seemed braced for just that sort of treatment as a clone of someone who had a deep history with Inori and me.

"If you don't trust me, fine," he shook it off coolly. "Your companions can fill you in instead."

"Please, Shu. Let's go."

I hesitated to give in, but not wanting to appear childish I retracted my hand and crossed my arms.

"Fine."

Inori and I opened our doors and stepped outside into the darkness.

"Here," Gai tossed us a flashlight. "Behind you is a passage. Take the stairs. I think you know your way from there."

"I do?"

He didn't give me the chance to ask. As soon as the jeep doors were shut Gai floored the gas pedal and zoomed off deeper into the tunnel, leaving Inori and me behind in a cloud of burnt rubber. If he hadn't gone to the trouble of saving my life I would've thought the setup looked like a trap. There we were, alone in a dark, abandoned tunnel with only a flashlight and a few vague instructions to show us the way. The passage we found easily enough, but all the way down the stairs I found myself doubting more and more that we'd get anywhere further. If Inori shared my misgivings she didn't express it, just walking silently, solemnly by my side.

"How are we supposed to find our own way in this place?"

The answer awaited us at the foot of the stairs—just as promised. A short walk away off to one side there was an automatic door with a bright red light glowing at its head.

"You think it still has power?" I asked.

As we walked closer to investigate the light suddenly turned green, as if someone had unlocked it for us, then a few steps more and it opened with the groan of old machinery. In the room behind were more lights—the regular kind—and a small group of people in black uniforms sitting or standing around, apparently waiting for us. But more remarkable than the occupants or the electricity was that I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I'd seen this before. There was no mistaking it in the light. I just couldn't believe it. Inori's jaw dropped a little bit as we crossed through the door and paused to let it close behind us. I'm sure I was making a similar face.

"Well, look who's here," said one of the people, leaning against a column. "Took you guys long enough!"

It was Yahiro. Yahiro. Alive, unharmed—actually, looking quite healthy and energized. Almost anxious for activity. Then Shibungi stepped up from the other side of the room.

"Welcome to Roppongi Fort," he greeted. "What's left of it, at least."

"Guess they never cleaned up underground after everything on the surface collapsed," Arugo shrugged from a nearby corner.

I never considered the possibility before, but it made sense. Roppongi Fort—old Funeral Parlor headquarters—was actually a giant Void, my sister Mana's, to be precise. After she was defeated and it collapsed, probably nobody wanted to come near the site for fear of catching the Apocalypse Virus from the tower's remains. The general public never did understand the true nature of the virus very well, so even if their fears were unfounded they did serve to keep them away.

"You look surprised to see us," Shibungi observed. "Has Gai told you, yet?"

"He said we'd talk at the meeting tomorrow, or that you'd fill us in, or...something."

I was still too much in shock to remember clearly.

"I see. Then are you aware he is one of the child experiments we rescued from Shanghai?"

Inori and I nodded in unison.

"Well, then you've already swallowed the hardest pill. The three of us—Arugo, Yahiro, and myself—were rescued by him. Preemptively, in most cases. Arugo was the closest call."

"Don't remind me," Arugo bore a pained expression on his face. "It's not right that I got to live and she...she..."

He cursed and kicked a piece of trash on the floor. Aki's death was obviously taking its toll on him.

"There's...still some cleanup left to do," Shibungi continued, referring to the litter on the floor, "but most of our systems and equipment that got left behind are still intact and functional. Yahiro's been most helpful in bringing them back online."

"It's just a hobby," he modestly dismissed the compliment. "I'm sure someone like Tsugumi would be much better at it since she actually used this stuff before. This is my first time being in Funeral Parlor."

"Funeral Parlor?" I repeated.

"A-ah," Shibungi nodded. "But that part I will leave to Gai. I'm sure the two of you have been given plenty to think about for one day. Take some time and rest for tonight. You...do remember how to get to your rooms, I assume."

"We remember," Inori said.

"Good. Tsukishima, Samukawa: that goes for you, too. We've a long day ahead of us. Best eliminate the obstacle of fatigue while we still can."

Yahiro replied with a salute while Arugo just moaned at being given a direct order to turn in for the day. I almost felt like protesting, myself. We just got here, I wanted to say. To those three—no, four, counting this new Gai—it was no surprise that Inori and I showed up. But to us our arrival was anything but business as usual. I needed time to adjust, time to accept the reality of what just happened. I needed it so badly that I couldn't even form the words to ask everyone not to go so soon, and before I knew it Yahiro, Arugo, and Shibungi had filed out of the room, leaving Inori and me behind. For some time the only sound was that of an old, buzzing light overhead. I looked to the girl at my side. Her head drooped a bit, maybe deep in thought, maybe just worried about Hare.

"You...go on," she said. "I'll be there in a minute."

If I hadn't made the same request only a matter of hours ago I never would've left her alone. But since I did, it wouldn't be fair to say 'no'. So we embraced without a word and then, hard as it was, I left Inori standing there and headed down the stairs to the corridor of rooms I once knew so well. It hadn't changed much in the past ten years. Not that it was much to begin with—just a curved, concrete hallway with a few thin windows in the ceiling, looking up at the stars beyond. Now it was littered like the rest of the fort's remains and the windows were cracked and broken, but that didn't stop the place from giving off a distinct sense of nostalgia. I could almost see Ayase coming to wake me up with her clipboard and wheelchair to start my training as a member of Funeral Parlor. That, or the other incident we had in this place—the one I would've preferred to forget. Inori was mine now, for that I had no reason to worry, but that awful sick feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when I saw her go in to Gai's room that night so long ago was burned into my memory forever. My real hand broke into a cold sweat just thinking about it. It was a little embarrassing to think I let such feelings control me so much that I ran straight into Ayase, though. In the end Inori and Gai weren't even lovers, so I panicked for nothing.

"All in the past, Shu, all in the past," I calmed myself. "Inori's only coming in to one person tonight, and that's you." I had to admit, it was a little satisfying putting it like that, and here of all places. It was a very surreal experience.

My thoughts quieted for the time being and following Shibungi instruction I found my room from all those years ago. It looked like it had been prepared for me. The floor was mostly clear of debris, a broken window overhead had been covered with industrial tape, and the bed even had a fresh set of sheets and pillows on it. Still, it was hardly hotel fare. Like the hallway outside, the room was basically just a bunch of concrete slabs with some electrical cables running along the walls. Didn't bother me, though. When I first came here I was too scared and confused to even care about my personal quarters, never mind complain about them, and now the nostalgia of being back completely overcame the drab simplicity of it all. With nothing else to do, I slid off my boots without even bothering to untie them and slumped into the old, hard mattress in the corner.

Time passed. I couldn't let myself sleep until Inori came back, but neither could I let myself just lay there where my thoughts could wander. They inevitably wandered to all the wrong places—to Hare, to Haruka, to my father's research, to the terrorists, to this new Gai—and that only made me restless.

"Where are you, Inori?"

It was getting late, and I had given Inori some time alone, so I decided it best to go look for her. Deep down I was also worried for her safety, but I suppressed those feelings as paranoid. Nothing bad would happen to Inori in this place. She knew her way around better than me. But then...where was she? Eventually I got back up, slipped my boots back on, and went out into the corridor to take a look. I didn't have to go far. With the base so empty and quiet the least little noise echoed all throughout the fort, and before long in between my own footsteps I could hear a distant voice, soft and mellow, singing. The words were faint and indistinct at first, but the voice I recognized in an instant. I followed the sound down the hall and up a different flight of stairs than I arrived on and gradually picked up on the song, adding memory to recognition.

"...Karete yuku tomo ni, Omae wa nani wo omou," sang the voice. "Kotoba wo motanu sono ha de, Nanto ai wo tsutaeru..."

Although familiar, the words echoed in my head with new depth this time around. What do you think when your friends wilt? With those leaves that do not carry words, How do you convey your love? It was a bit too relevant for comfort.

I ascended the stairs as the song continued, drawing ever nearer.

"...Watashi wa utaou, Na mo naki mono no tame."

I shall sing the proof that you lived, For the sake of those who have no names.

Inori finished singing right as I first caught sight of her from behind. She was sitting on the floor a short distance away, hugging her knees and looking out into the city by means of a huge, curved screen made up of smaller screens that ran along one end of the cylindrical room. Several of the individual displays flickered or failed outright from damage or disuse, putting blank spots all over the image of Japan at night. Something about the scene reminded me of that abandoned building my friends and I used to use as our club house at Tennouzu High—the same place I first met Inori.

"This is kind of like the first time we met, huh?" I said, making my presence known. "It feels a little nostalgic."

Inori turned around sharply with a little gasp. I don't think she realized I had followed her.

"Oh, Shu...what is it?" she asked.

What indeed. I could've laughed at the question if it wasn't so serious. It would've been easier to tell her what wasn't keeping me up.

"A lot of things, I guess."

I walked across the room and took a seat beside her. Suddenly it occurred to me that this too I had seen before—the same night I recalled bumping into Ayase, in fact.

"Hey, Inori," I quoted my past self to ease the mood. "If...just if...I said 'let's leave this place together'...would you..."

Evidently Inori remembered, too. A tiny smile formed on her lips and she rested her head back on her knees.

"The answer was always 'yes', you know," she said. "Even back then. That's why I had to stand up and leave before. It was 'yes'...but I couldn't."

I scooted in closer and extended a hand towards Inori's, just like I did before. And this time instead of pulling away, she accepted it gratefully.

"I've always been yours, Shu. You should know that. You were always the first to have my heart."

There was double meaning in those words. Inori's heart—how long had it been since I last felt it, since I last slipped her Void from her soul? I shouldn't have remembered the sensation with a pang of longing to experience it again. But I did. It shamed me, but I did.

"Come on," I gave Inori's hand a gentle squeeze. "Let's go get some rest."

Deep down, I wanted the Power of Kings again...to save Hare. But I'd been through this before. I was tired and experiencing a mix of emotions too great for making sound judgments. Wishing anything like that upon myself was foolish, and I realized it. I needed the sleep to ease my state of mind. But more than that, I needed the next day to come as quickly as possible. I wanted that meeting with this new Gai. And whenever it was held...I wanted answers.


GC


Day 05, 2049 A.D.

By the time I awoke early that morning all that transpired the previous night felt very much like a dream. In fact, had I woken up in my own bed in my own apartment I might even have believed that to be the case. Arisa trying to murder me, Gai rescuing me—neither one of those ideas seemed real, but I couldn't exactly deny they happened when all around me was Roppongi Fort. The first light of sunrise seeped in through the window in the ceiling.

"Day five..." my heart skipped a beat. This was it. Whatever the terrorists had planned, it would happen in just 24 more short hours. I still wasn't entirely sure what sort of 'judgment' they were capable of, but I didn't want to find out so long as they had Hare in their clutches. Or at least, I assumed they did. She wasn't here at the fort, I knew that much. But even with Gai's rushed explanation the night before I still wasn't clear exactly which side was fighting for what. I knew I'd soon find out.

The sun wasn't even finished crawling up into the sky when a fist suddenly banged on the bedroom door.

"Y-yes?" I replied.

"Ready yourselves," a muffled voice answered. It was Gai. "Meet at the usual place. We will begin when you arrive."

"Understood!"

'The usual place.' This clone really was making every effort to be the Gai he took the name after. There wasn't time to think about that, though. I gently shook Inori awake and repeated Gai's message to her. Since we had no spare clothing with us there was nothing for us to change into, but Inori insisted upon at least fixing her hair before leaving the room. I anxiously waited until she was done and then together we hurried out to find Funeral Parlor's old meeting place. It was a three-story cylindrical library with a balcony encircling the upper levels where people used to sit and listen to briefings and debriefings while the more prominent members of the group discussed plans around a collection of computers planted squarely in the center of the bottom floor. Of course, now the place was an eerie ghost town. Shibungi, Yahiro, Arugo, and Gai were all there waiting for Inori and me when we arrived, but the presence of such a few was not enough to overcome the obvious holes where so many dozens of others once stood. Even so, the atmosphere there today was anything but bleak and lonely. This was a comeback. I could see it in the others' eyes.

"You must have many questions," Gai said as we walked in. "I apologize, but we will have to make this quick. Still, I will spare you nothing."

"You guys are lucky," Yahiro jabbed. "I was still freaking out when I got this talk. There was nobody else around!"

"A-ah," Gai nodded. "You are where it started. But let me go back a bit further."

"We're listening," I said.

"Right. As you already know, I am one of many human experiments created by Izanagi: the leader of Da'ath you defeated with your own hand. If you recall, his DNA was ruled insufficient to lead humanity to Da'ath's new world, and therefore he created us in hopes that one of his clones would be selected in his stead. But in order for that to happen, each of us had to be slightly different. The point was, after all, to not be selected out as he was. And that being the case, not only was it inevitable that eventually one experiment would come along who took an opposing viewpoint, Izanagi intended for it. Conflict is the mother of change, and by introducing conflict within his own twin offspring he hoped to evolve himself further."

"And to draw out someone with the potential to hold the Void Genome," I added. "I remember. He told me himself."

"Shu..." Inori stood close against my side.

"Indeed," Gai continued. "But the desired end was always himself. He never achieved that goal. But if my brothers are correct, that is only because he was looking at the problem from the wrong angle."

"What...do you mean?"

Ever the strategist, Shibungi pushed up his glasses and explained:

"Izanagi wanted to be chosen by Ouma Mana. In this case, there are two options, but Izanagi only ever saw one: change yourself..."

"...or change the person doing the choosing," Gai finished.

"But that's impossible," I argued. "There's no one else like Mana, and without another meteor containing the Apocalypse Virus no one ever will be."

"I will let you go on thinking that way for the moment."

Gai folded his hands behind his back and started pacing about the room. It looked like something he was recalling pained him to talk about.

"After Da'ath's defeat in Shanghai, all of his 'experiments' were brought to Japan for physical therapy and counseling. Our caretakers had good intentions, but your government underestimated the depth of our conditioning. We improved emotionally, but nothing could rid us of the purposes written into our very DNA. Still, we kept this side of ourselves relatively secret, and when enough time had passed we were deemed eligible for adoption."

"That's where the Kuhouin Group comes in," said Arugo. "Seriously, what a pain they've turned out to be."

"The Kuhouin Group?" my ears perked up.

"Yes." Gai stopped his pacing and turned to face Inori and me. "They took us in. Publicly it was some kind of charity. But I knew better. Right from the start there was something about Kuhouin Arisa that made me uncomfortable. The way she looked at us with longing in her eyes, and endlessly talked about how we were fit to be kings—she's obsessed with the Gai she once knew. And it seems that strange infatuation has finally given way to madness.

"Enter the Ming-Hua Group: a Chinese organization based in Shanghai that once had a close association with Da'ath. Ten years ago, during Keido Shuichiro's administration of GHQ, Ming-Hua made a proposition to Kuhouin Okina, Arisa's grandfather: the Ming-Hua Group would see to Arisa's extraction from the purge zone in Japan in exchange for her marriage to a member of Ming-Hua: Xiu Shen."

The name struck me like a blow to the head. I didn't know many Chinese, but I remembered that one. He was the man I overheard talking with Arisa at the Kuhouin Group's formal party.

"Of course, the plan fell through back then," Gai continued. "GHQ intervened and in the end Arisa was in no need of rescuing, choosing the Gai you once knew over Ming-Hua. And Ming-Hua was only the more perturbed when a few years later you defeated Da'ath, the very organization they intended to win Kuhouin's alliance for in the first place. But in this case, Da'ath's defeat simultaneously provided them with a new opportunity to exploit the Kuhouin Group: namely, Izanagi's human experiments. Us. Do you see, Ouma Shu? The enemy you've been chasing this past week, the judgment that is scheduled in just 24 hours, both are one in the same: Ming-Hua intends to create a new Da'ath with Izanagi as its Adam and Arisa as its Eve."

"W-what!?" My heart started racing. I had no reason to doubt Gai's story. It added up perfectly. Too perfectly. But still I didn't want to believe it. "B-but...that can't be! It can't!"

"It is." Gai closed his eyes, brow furrowed, and waited for me to accept reality.

"Then what about all the people who disappeared, huh?" I stepped closer, fuming, and yet, angry at no one in particular. "What about Katsumi? What about Hare, and Haruka? I see a few missing faces here, but what about them!?"

Inori clung tighter to me without saying a word.

"My brothers are far greater in number and resources than I," Gai explained. "When I learned of Ming-Hua's plan and Kuhouin Arisa's intention to go along with it, I fled. My only goal ever since has been to oppose them. They mean to eliminate any who might stand in the way of a new Da'ath, and so I mean to rescue such people before they can. I've maintained some connection to the Kuhouin Group's systems, but predicting each new target has been...difficult. And after losing Yahiro and Shibungi to me, they became much more careful. Oh, they came off confident in their videos, taking credit for the disappearances anyway, but in reality I gave them quite a stir. They made it much harder for me to predict Arugo, and in the end it wasn't actually him they were targeting—not then, at least. Actually, I have a suspicion they deliberately switched targets to Katsumi just to make sure they finally eliminated someone at all."

"How are they always one step ahead of us?" I muttered. It was more or less a rhetorical question, but Gai took it upon himself to answer anyway.

"I already told you: they exceed me in number and resources. But I suppose it is true that in your case they had a bit of inside help."

"Inside help?" Inori repeated. "Who?"

"You should be able to answer that for yourself, by now. Especially you, Ouma Shu."

"Me?"

I had my suspicions that there was a mole in the Rooks' midst, but what about my personal experience would make me particularly able to figure out who?

Gai let out a disappointed sigh.

"Tell me: why do you think Takahashi assigned you to Arugo's case when the president had just gone missing? Why assign one of his most valuable assets to the least significant case? Or how do you think the Izanagis were able to so easily broadcast their message right into Special Intelligence Division headquarters?"

"Well, how did you shut off the power and kidnap the president in the first place?" Arugo countered.

"Easy. I posed as a member of your security team, just like I posed as an inspector with Shu."

"Man, we had an impersonator on the team and nobody caught it? There goes my career."

My ears barely even heard the conversation. In my mind the pieces of the puzzle were all falling into place.

"Then...Takahashi..." I interrupted.

"A-ah," Gai nodded. "He's with the Kuhouin Group—with my brothers, the Izanagis. His vice presidency was designed to position him for a takeover from the beginning. He was using you, Shu. He wanted you to find me, the one thing standing in the way of a new Da'ath. Even if you succeeded and discovered the truth, it would've been too late. So I decided I better find you first."

It was a lot to take in at once. To think Arisa had been keeping such a secret from the world! I knew she had a reputation for hiding behind a public face, but I wanted so desperately to think that everyone involved in the Lost Christmas incidents had put all that behind them that I trusted her unquestioningly. Even now it was hard to accept that the woman I spoke to at the party and the woman that very nearly killed me in cold blood were the same person. But then I recalled that bizarre dedication of hers to Gai that led her to side with GHQ back in the day.

I broke from my thoughts to look over at Yahiro. Our relationship was sometimes a bit rough, but I had nothing but respect for him now. He and he alone expressed concern over Arisa's past days ago. Perhaps he was more perceptive than I gave him credit for. Yahiro gave me a solemn nod, as if to confirm he suspected something was up all along.

"Then I have just one more question," I turned back to Gai. "What about Hare? What is the 'key to Pandora's box'?"

He didn't answer right away. First he strode over to the hub of computers and touched one of them to bring the whole group online.

"That's what I intend to find out," he said. "The Izanagis believe Hare's DNA can be used to replicate the effects of the Power of Kings without a Void Genome. How, I don't know, but now not only do they have their test subject, they have Ouma Kurosu's research and Ouma Haruka to help them with it."

"No!" Inori screamed. A desperate panic took over her face. I felt the same thing inside, and only by sheer inability to process it did I refrain from shouting out, too. Gai just looked over at Shibungi, who took position at the computers in response.

"We're out of time," he said. "So what will it be, Ouma Shu?"

Gai stepped forward and extended a hand.

"Are you with me? Or not?"

It was never a question in my mind. Not since I heard half his story, and certainly not now that Hare was in danger and he had a mind to stop her captors. I nodded firmly and accepted the gesture without hesitation. He returned the nod as we shook hands, then stepped back and raised his voice as if speaking for all the ghosts of the past to hear.

"Then together let us take the fight back to Kuhouin, to Ming-Hua, to Izanagi!" he swung at the air. "Let us end the madness of Da'ath before it can begin again! This is the purpose for which I was bred. So have I rejected my brothers, so have I gathered those who would fight alongside me, and so will we send this message: that defeat is not inevitable, and that we will resist! That Funeral Parlor...is reborn!"

He paused, eyes closed emphatically, a fist held before his face.

"And our songs will not be silenced."


Author's Notes: Yep, I'm still here! Apologies for dropping off for a while. Between the holidays and coming down with the flu my progress on pretty much everything stopped for a week or so. But! I am now back, and very, very happy to have gotten this chapter out! It was a fun challenge crafting that convoluted plot, and now it's not just my secret anymore! Obviously the story is really building up to the climax now, so stay tuned, and thanks for sticking with me this far!