Epilogue: Everything's Eventual
Danny blinked, mind going blank for a second.
Well.
Couldn't say that this was not interesting. Danny staggered back, raising an eyebrow.
A raven. If it couldn't be a skeleton wrapped in a black cloak with a long scythe, it was a raven.
Of course.
But the raven itself couldn't be the spirit of death....that was simply some nonsense invented by the people. If Cardinals or Robins had been heralds of doom, did that mean-?
"Quit?" asked the raven again. Danny staggered back, heart now pounding.
"No! I-er-who are you talking to? Me? Or Danny?"
The Raven cocked it's head, staring at the young hybrid with beady eyes.
"No! No!"
The ghost boy rolled his eyes.
When the raven starts talking, time to start walking. Danny leapt to his feet.
"No, "Danny", or "No" Daijiro?"
The bird let out a dreadful squaking noise.
"No! No! No! No! NO!"
Danny wondered if you could strangle death.
Might as well see if it the birdbrain tasted like chicken. He let out a sigh, scanning the somewhat pretty perimeter.
His eyes widened.
Or what HAD been a pretty perimeter.
The sun was no longer glimmering faintly between the treetops. Quite the opposite.
The sky was now a sea of grey, rapidly turning into a shade of indigo ink as the wind whipped past.
The emerald leaves were freefalling off their blackened branches as Danny peered about in disbelief.
Spray from the waterfall was repeatably striking his arm. He moved back, shuddering slightly. What had been cool and calm before was now a catacomb of icy, churning foam.
Stepping back, Danny whipped about to face the bird again, a faint echo in his ears from someone's voice:
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that sounds frightening."
Who had said that? It was certainly true....and the voice had sounded slightly familiar.....but Danny couldn't hit it exactly.
Death would be welcome, if it ended the misery of his half-existance.
Everything was Eventual.
So why not now? Danny opened his mouth, then paused.
Did he really want to die now? Those people looked rather disappointed when he couldn't recall them....perhaps he should look into that.
And....Natsumi....where had she gone?"
The ghost boy closed his eyes. He wished this bird would shut up-it kept quoting its two cents worth: "No! Quit? Quit?!"
Stress and tension beginning to bubble in his stomach, Danny whipped around, eyes wide.
"Please! Will you SHUT UP?!"
"Quit? No? Quit?"
Danny let out an exasperated sigh and buried his face in his hands.
Who knew the spirit of Death was so...so....
Annoying?
Letting out a sigh, Danny sank back to the ground, face in his hands.
"Danny or Daijiro?" asked the raven again.
Danny started slightly, looking at the bird from his locked fingers.
"Wait....it's either me or him you want to take with you....yes?"
The raven ruffled its dark plumage, looking well pleased.
"Yes! Yes! Quit No? Danny or Daijiro? Daijiro or Danny?"
The ghost boy paused, staring at the bird, biting his lip.
"I....don't want.....to die, if that's what you're asking," he said slowly, selecting his words with care.
The bird abruptly stopped talking, and penetrating eyes met the teen's.
"And....as for Daijiro or Danny....live and....let live."
The wind roughly stirred the treeptops, emerald green quickly fading to amber, and then black. Danny's own raven bangs brushed softly in his face.
Danny closed his eyes, and let the hardest words he had ever pieced together pass from his lips.
"Make me who I was."
There was a pause.
And light overwhelmed Danny's eyes.
* * * *
Danny was flying.
Well....more like hurtling, betwixt and between the worlds, own flesh twinkling slightly.
No other light bounced back as his particular shade of green, but as he traveled along at warp speed, he finally saw that he wasn't the only soul blasting towards home. There were other colors, all of them spanning the brightest rainbows. The souls surrounding him on his journey were rapidly sending towards home, just like him, and home was sending back in beams of red, green, blue, purple, pink, and whatever hue existed in the star spattered sky.
Soon, all the darkness was flashing with twinkles of rainbow lights. The darkness lay as a blanket across the wide space that went on forever. There were countless sparkles of colored light tossed about. Nearly every inch was covered with speckles of color, and Roxas was astounded at how some of the rocket-souls next him spiraled off at high speeds ahead of him.
They shot towards home like shooting stars across the galaxy, and their home-stars welcomed them by sucking them up, combining as one great white flash, and it was gone. Darkness returned in one spot, and all the other lights continued.
Danny had never imagined anything so beautiful to exist, but when he thought about it...
It's just like me. It exists without existing... Something can exist without a physical form, without anything to really prove it's there. Wow...
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BAM.
IT WAS LIKE slamming into the pavement after falling from eighteen stories, a big crash followed by a large aftershock. Bones rackled into place, guts squelched with a new
arrangement; Danny's body writhed, arched its back, and snapped like tiny gun shots as his spirit plunged back into it. He writhed as heat warmed his pale, cold flesh. His body
trembled as life filled every fiber with a flow of electricity, and he took a huge breath -- a labored gasp of air of life returned.
The morning was unforgiving. The light burned Danny's eyes as they slowly fluttered open. He winced as he used his eyes alone to take in his surroundings.
Fluroscent lights were flooding his vision....it made twinkling spots dance in and out.
His eyesight was still a bit blurry as he saw a black humanoid-shape standing before him...or bending over him, more like. Danny blinked.
Actually, there were a LOT of blurrydark shape....
He wearily struggled to sit up on his elbow, feeling an awareness zap through him when he tried to sit up all the way. He sucked air through his teeth as fire blossomed in his
veins again.
"C'mon-son-you can do it, just don't-"
The words were awfully blurred-muffled somewhat. A figure near him swooped down and, from what he could vaguely feel and see, kissed him on the cheek.
He suddenly felt warmth burning across his flesh; A rippling heat licking at him like a raging fire, frightening him as his mind poured with images of red flames burning on the dark
horizon; a whole forest of trees being consumed in flames as a hot blush made its way to his face.
He managed a small smile, as the doors' bolts finally broke.
"S-Sam."
Ikuo blinked from the window, taking a small sigh.
As least onee-chan was alright. But hopefully, his ghost sense wouldn't detect the small boy hovering outside of his hospital window. He smiled.
"Mommy...."
The spector beside him slowly turned.
She was a young woman, face less careworn then it had been in life. Her face had oriental features, and she had been gazing fondly at Danny's limp form, which was being crushed
by two....three,,,,four....five people in a hug.
Awwwwww.
Natsumi tugged on Ikuo's hand gently.
"C'mon, dear. We need to go."
Ikuo nodded, but didn't tear his eyes away from the scene.
"Hai. Demo.....Mama?"
"Hai?"
The two were steadily rising into an overflowing cerulean sky. Ikuo fidgeted slightly.
"Y'think Onee-Chan will be okay?"
Natsumi paused, and the two turned to look at a corner of the Amity Park hospital building, which was, admittedly, all they COULD see from beyond the clouds.
The woman squeezed Ikuo's hand before setting off again.
"Yes, my dear. I know he'll be just fine."