He'd probably spent at least a couple days out there, and he certainly wasn't counting. Haou had shed his armor and become Jaden Yuki again, though they were forever a part of each other.
Jaden remembered the terrible things Haou-no, he-had done and decided to do something. It wasn't much, and certainly didn't make up for any of it, but there was nothing else that could be done.
Jaden started digging graves. First it was only with his hands, but that grew tired quickly and so he searched the castle and found a shovel. Even with the tool, it was still hard work-the purple earth was hard and crunchy and didn't like being moved.
He still worked. He worked until his hands were bleeding, until there were holes all over the place.
There were no actual bodies.
Everyone in the dark world dissolved into stars when they died, so he didn't know the point of all of this but it made him feel like he was doing something. Slowly, he started covering up each hole, intended for all the people who had died during his reign. First were the guards, then the prisoners, and finally, the villagers who had died in his massacres. The mounds were filled and covered with a simple grave marker. A small stick was the only thing there to symbolize that there were people who had lived in this world.
Was it really fair that they didn't leave anything behind, or was it better that way?
There was a crunch on the ground and Jaden turned around. Chazz was right-his friends had found them.
