Title: One More Time to Kill the Pain
Notes: [Pointless news report was placed here. What the hell was the point of telling anyone all that anyway?]
I have this great urge to make Yomi hate Mukuro after all I wrote. In Yusuke the Detective and in Ride like the Wind they get along too well. (Edit: Lie. It was one sided. Though I made it less of a joke in Ride like the Wind than I did in Yusuke the Detective... But it was originally meant to be humorous nonetheless.) I think Togashi might get mad if he saw that. (Yes, because Togashi totally cares what an American teenage girl has to say about his series.) So here I make up for it.
I liked writing the part about the cult members though. A mix of super feminists and communists.
By the way, the chapter titles changed. I lost the thing that had all the chapter titles in it. So I'm doing like they did in Loveless (the anime) and every chapter will have a word ending with "–less" (i.e. Loveless, nameless, endless, etc.) Onward. (PS Don't ask me what the carving meant. I don't know. But I can translate everything else.) [PPS... Who uses PS and so forth these days anyway?]
-.-.-.-
Chapter 10 Bondless
"Forever and for never
What is and what isn't
And he walked to the sun"
"What's it supposed to meant, sir?" the young soldier asked (Whining probably did it more justice though.) Kirin, half tugging on his arm the way a child would to a parent for attention. After about five minutes of Kirin not answering, he went on, "I still don't get it after reading it five times… Does it make any sense to you? I mean you're smart and stuff so..."
"You remember Lord Mukuro's last laugh?" Kirin asked staring at the carving in the stone in intellectual pursuit. "'What makes the sky green? What relates a stone to a beetle? What makes water run up a hill? What relates all these questions?' That one? Tell me the answer to that."
The soldier just stared at him with wide eyes. After half a minute, he just came to the easiest answer he could have thought of. "…The speaker?"
"No dipshit! The answer's nothing!" another soldier growled, smacking the young one on the back of the head."Why are you so stupid?"
"Lord Mukuro's sense of humor lies more with intellect. He could be a real comedian to us if we paid close attention. This," he indicated the carving, "was one of them. Probably his way of saying 'I was here.'"
"You don't know? You've known him longer than we have and you don't know?" the second soldier asked.
"You could ask but he could come up with some other justification. I only know few of what lies in that brilliant mind of his…" He sighed, knowing that the little he did know was maybe a fraction of a percentage in the scheme of things.
-.-.-
"The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path
-Pink Floyd (Brain Damage)
-.-.-
We were marching off to war to take the border more Westward, into Yomi's territory. It was maybe four hundred years ago, if I remember correctly. (At that all of the wars were just running together. I never bothered to remember dates if I didn't need to anyway.) When we were within a few days of our journey, a series of protesters blocked the path. All of them were women, all dressed in identical white robes. Apparently they were dressed especially for those who were terrified of conformity.
"Halt!" one of the protesters, who I already knew was the leader of the group, cried as she stepped forward. We took a few moments to stop, just because we were curious as to what we just walked in on. The woman was silent and the rest of the group just stared at her for guidance. One of the generals grumbled about how we had no time to wait on these women to figure out what they wanted us to do and ordered for the troops to get ready to march on. Immediately the leader said, "If you go past our line we will be forced to take violent action!"
There was a long silence again. We stood waiting for the women to make their point and still it never came.
"What happens to be the problem?" Kirin asked. I could tell that the waiting was killing him.
"We have found enlightenment," the leader finally said. That made perfect sense to those who enjoy the psychedelics.
"Is that in any way related to the war? If not we'll be forced to…"
"Yes. Very much so. We have found enlightenment."
"So you've told us. I fail to see how that relates to this war. Unless you're going to make your point, then we will just walk through you regardless of how profound your 'enlightenment' was. You have ten, no, five minutes to start making your case."
She leaned forward and stared at him, eyes crossed. She grabbed him by the shoulders, being forced to stand on the tips of her toes. He pulled his face away from hers, but she continued to close the space until their faces were about a few centimeters apart. By the time he stopped trying to back away, she was practically straddling him. She finally whispered to him, "You know something? You have a goddess in you."
"W… What?" He stepped back apparently disgusted at the thought. He finally got out of her grip.
"You have a goddess in you just as I have a goddess in me. We all have a goddess in us! This is because we a not ruled by many gods like everyone says but one goddess who gave us all life and put a piece of herself in all of us! And you know why, my sister?" Kirin didn't even bother giving her a sign that he was listening to her insanity. She took his lack of response as a question by default."Okay so in the beginning, the goddess created the world and then she put us here. And what she did to give us life was by putting her mouth on the first people and giving them her breath so we're all breathing the breath of a goddess, which means that we all scare the same amount of divinity. So by that logic we are all equal! Leaders like you shouldn't be here! We are all sisters in the eyes of our goddess Sarafim!"
"So that relates to this war how?"
"Every time you kill someone you kill a piece of the goddess! That's an unforgivable act! You should be punished with death!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. "All of you should!" She spat on the ground like it was supposed to punctuate her point. "It's like you guys always like to say- Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, wound by wound, life for life! You took a life so you should also die."
"Why would you punish someone with death if that kills a piece of your goddess?" I asked her. "That goes against all your principles and it just causes an unending chain of deaths and it will only stop when everyone's dead. It teaches nothing."
"You cannot kill another piece of the goddess without cause! You are killing without cause!"
"We are-"
"No you're not! Over land! All land you see is Sarafim's land! It's our land! Not yours or your territory's! The goddess is the answer to everything!" All the women cheered and yelled insults about men. Most of the soldiers were beginning to think it was stereotypical of them.
"The goddess is the answer to everything, right?" I was starting to see where I can have fun with this. At least to make this less of a waste of our time. If you want my opinion, it's times like this that make me support some of Yomi's domestic policies.
"Yes!" At least she was seeing this as a challenge.
"So how would you solve economic crisis in the south?"
"Through the power of the goddess! Since money corrupts it will be demolished and the goddess's power shall overcome all!"
"The outbreak of disease?"
"The power of Sarafim!"
"Starvation?"
"The power of Sarafim!"
Here's the killer. "What's two plus two?"
"The power of…! Damn it! Four!"
"What…?"
She already saw right through me. Well, that's the end of that. "No more!"
"No. Tell me. What makes the sky green? What relates a stone to a beetle? What makes water run up a hill? What relates all these questions?"
"Sarafim!"
"Dumb ass!" a soldier laughed.
"That answer's wrong. You fail." We walked around them. I knew the women were all glaring knives into us, but if they were really as passionate as they thought they were, they would have at least tried to stop us. (I know that they were unarmed and we were a fully equipped army, but if they were really that determined, they would have still tried.) I didn't want them to gain any publicity because some of the soldiers killed them though. "If any of you try to kill them you probably won't live to see the next day. Onward."
-.-.-
There was a general meeting the three of us kings have once every year not long after that incident. I can't remember what we were discussing this time. That's another thing that ran together for me at that point. They were all the same anyway. Right after it ended Yomi confronted me. He made sure he had me in a corner. He probably thought it gave him the upperhand to do so. Or maybe he was cocky because I was feeling pretty neutral at the time.
"I notice that when you put your hands on a table, it sounds like metal is hitting it at the same time your hands do," Yomi sait without wait, without any build up. How tactless. Or maybe he thought the sudden jump into that conversation would be enough to make me just tell him everything.
"I notice that you never step anywhere near sharp objects. Afraid you would explode if you get pricked? I suppose if you use a bandage it would stop. Oh, wait, I forgot, hot air causes steam, doesn't it. I'm so forgetful sometimes, you know... So I suppose you should have a right to be afraid. For the record, I do have a dagger in my pocket, I'm sure you heard the sound of it on me. I think you might want to back off if you want to avoid that fate. I also don't want steam burns." What the hell did he want me to say anyway? Was he really that stupid?
He ignored that comment, refused to open up any space like a creeper, and went on. "Why would there be metal on your arms, Mukuro? Could it be that you have shackles on? Ironic considering that you made your territory strictly anti-slavery… I'm guessing that there's a correlation. I mean, we have no idea of your background so it could be quite possible that you're actually a lowly slave. I'm also guessing that you're in power only because you were tired of walking around in someone's shit."
I wasn't, but I was tired of having it in front of me at that time. "That's not the case at all. You have six ears yet you still have impaired hearing. That is if the word impaired even does your case any justice. But hearing fake crimes against the state must do that to your hearing..."
"Which is ironic," he went on irritably, "considering that your people aren't free at all…"
No, really. What the hell did he want me to say? "Oh yes, you're absolutely right, Yom. I was a slave and that means everything to you." They must play Pin the Tail on Yomi these days. "Yes, your people are a lot better with six to a city and all of which have an organ cut off or removed from their body any other way. I can see who's really got the better standard of living. I think it's depressing that they literally have to make themselves fall apart while you have everything in tact."
"…What with all your slave owners being persecuted. Can't stand the competition? I also heard about…" Or maybe he just doesn't know when to shut up.
"I heard that you castrate your males and preserve all the organs in a freezer and when you catch someone committing treason you break the jar on their head. Then they have a wonderful time of having popsicled blue mountain oysters. You should call up the motion picture industry and tell them you have an idea. Or possibly for a bad porn. It's all your choice. You get to listen to the whole thing anyway."
"You enjoy torture, don't you?" Oh, that's perfectly on topic.
"Don't bite your tongue. You'll bleed to death. And you better watch out when you talk. You might stab yourself."
Yomi had this look on his face like I just screamed something at him in tongues. I've seen computers with better programming than this guy. "You criticize the way I rule my people and say I kill more people than I need to. Care to explain why your second in command died?"
How'd he get that information? Not that it was anything that he wouldn't have figured out on his own. Or something his advisers would be able to figure out for him, I mean."Funny coming from the guy who can't keep a second in command for more than a month. So tell me how long are you planning to let that Sachi live?"
"I took no part in that and have no idea how they were slain."
"So you can hear all criticism against you but not the sound of a dying man? That is really convincing."
"You can just go to hell and rot."
"So tell me if you know this one. What makes the sky green? What relates a stone to a beetle? What makes water run up a hill? What relates all these questions?"
I'm sure that if he had eyes he would have rolled them at that moment. "I've heard that one before. It's nothing."
"A five year old told me that one. I wasn't sure if you could decode it. And make sure your Sarafists know that. If you don't kill them first that is."
"Sarafists?" He cocked a brow. He obviously hadn't heard of the cult. I figured he killed them before they could rise in his area. Though you would think that he would have been one of the first to run into this kind of thing, considering that they didn't really have much of a right to give birth how many times they wanted, among other things. "Is that one of your dictator police forces?"
"Funny coming from the real tyrant. So tell me… What makes an apple fall from a tree?" He won't get this one.
"Gravity." Oh, Yomi, you were so sure of yourself.
"A kid with a stick."
He would have given me a blank stare if he could see. Then after a few moments he growled.
"You just understood that one? You're the type of animal that gets shot first. Or the animal that stops and turns around when he hears a gunshot. You should see a therapist if your reactions are that slow." Just as I started to walk away he asked me, "What do you have under those bandages anyway?"
"Why do you want to know? Is there some plan going behind that? No wonder you encourage homosexuality."
He twitched an eyebrow. "I want to know who the disgusting bastard is that I'm going to kill."
"In that case, I'm your father." I walked away from him. I wondered if he really believed me but I never gave it more thought. Though the answer should be a no-brainer.
On my way back I carved on a rock:
"Forever and for never
What is and what isn't
And he walked to the sun"
It didn't have a particular meaning. It was just something I carved just to leave something there. I thought it would get a meaning later. Or I would if anything at all.
-.-.-
"So Lord Mukuro… What did that carving mean?"
"About a man who jumped into a volcano."
"Say what?"
-.-.-
"The lunatic is the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
Everyday the paperboy brings more"
-Pink Floyd (Brain Damage)
EDITOR'S NOTES: People tell me that it isn't as good as it goes on but I like how easy it is to edit as it goes on. I mean, all I have to do from what I've been editing lately is just add more detail and pick out my typos. Other than that I'm good to go. I also liked in adding more of Mukuro's snarking at Yomi... even though that conversation had some unfortunate things going on there...
I'm on financial hold... :(