Creation began on 04-06-19
Creation ended on 05-11-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
A New Cause: Thanksgiving Gratitude
A/N: Can Death be thankful of the meager things that come with being around others?
The atmosphere of the Asagi home had a pleasant feel to Death as he and Mako sat at the table with the family. There were no signs of disturbance in their minds or souls, no desires to argue about anything, significant or insignificant, not even to yell at anyone. It was just a handful of people, two men, a woman, a girl and two horsemen, sitting at the table about to enjoy a meal.
"So, who wants to go first?" Himeko asked them.
Death could only assume that she was referring to who wanted to share what they were most thankful for.
"Me?" Mordecai suggested, raising his left hand.
"Okay," Miroku agreed.
"Well, what I'm most thankful for everyday is my family," Mana's father expressed. "I get to see my daughter smile, my wife enjoying her days of her life renewed and my father-in-law still in good health. I couldn't ask for more than my family being happy."
Death nodded his head at his honesty; the man who had his ups and downs with the employment issues of Japan since returning, initially because NERV sought his daughter's aid in their faulty Evangelion program, still had to see the bright side to his life here in a country that had become his second home. He could appreciate the life of a man that truly loved his family over his own wants and needs.
"Uh, Miroku?" Mordecai gestured to the elder gentleman on his left of the table.
"I'm most thankful for family, as well," he told them. "I'm thankful that we're all here to enjoy this meal together. I'm grateful to have my daughter home after what seemed like an eternity of her absence. And I'm happy to see my granddaughter smile more than she has ever done so in the years passed."
Mako looked at Mana, who seemed slightly embarrassed by this revelation, and the Horseman of Unity just gave a small smile and bow of his head.
"Himeko?" Miroku gestured to his daughter across the table.
"Well, I'm most thankful for…for…" Himeko started, but found herself unable to finish her grace. "I'm sorry; it's been so long since I've gotten a chance to enjoy such a holiday like this before. I am grateful to be here among family and new friends. It feels like I'm out of step with the world a little bit, but not everything and everyone has changed too much. I still appreciate the comfort of people I've been away from for years, to see them smiling, laughing. Thank you."
Death nodded in understanding of her revelation. As a woman still adjusting to her restored life would still exhibit signs of being out of touch with the world around her for a while, but would adjust in due time and fit in with the people that lost her, that still loved her. And he still needed to do something for her that would settle the unrest that was inflicted upon her soul…and carried on to his own damaged essence.
"Um, Mana, dearest?" Himeko spoke to her daughter.
"I'm thankful for friends and family," Mana expressed her gratitude. "I'm happy that the crime rate across the planet has shown a major decrease in the weeks that would've taken years to achieve through the efforts of the police and other law enforcement agencies working around the clock without large gaps in between resting periods. I respect the fact that it feels like for the first time in a long time, it does seem like there's a guardian angel of sorts that goes after the guilty like how a predator seeks prey but spares everyone else. I'm happy that we're all here on such a good day when people can simply enjoy the company of others. It's a great day to be thankful for everything and everyone. My greatest thanks, however…is for my mother being alive again. Thank you all. Death?"
Death was caught off guard by his turn being brought up by the girl. What could he share that was his thanks to them?
"Yes, Death," said Mako to his brother, "let's hear from you. What are you thankful for? What gives you reason to appreciate what is over what was or what could be?"
Death looked at them…and for the first time in his purgatory existence…his words failed to escape his mouth. He wanted to speak, to voice his gratitude, but it was like he was lost in the darkness trying to find them.
"What I'm thankful for," he finally uttered, sounding different from how he normally did. "There are only a handful of things that I am grateful for…but the saddest thing about them is that he never got to experience those things when he was alive. I am thankful to be the Horseman of Death, to put my skills to service of those that see me as someone able to be more than someone plagued by past atrocities that weren't resolved in the proper way. I am grateful to see that there are still good people in the world that care about others more than they care for themselves. I thank Mana for inviting me over. I thank her for sneaking out in the middle of the night, despite her affliction with the common cold, just to speak with me without any hidden intentions beyond that, and for addressing me as a friend, which you don't hear from many. Thank you."
Mana nodded her head in appreciation.
"Mako?" Death turned to his twin.
"I'm thankful that I have a good brother…who I would follow into the darkness if it meant keeping him on the straight and narrow as possible," he shared his thanks. "I'm thankful to be here among a family of people who bring out the feeling of happiness that were long suppressed in his former life. You have no idea what you mean to my brother, and I thank you very much for making him feel accepted when not that many people would."
-x-
"…Mother Gaia, Mother Gaia," one of the children on the Earth Goddess' island called out to her as she turned to see the little girl running towards her, carrying something. "My brother and I made this for Thanksgiving!"
Gaia looked at the wooden statue and smiled. It was a wooden turkey with a cross engraved into its back and an ankh into its underbelly.
"It's beautiful, Clea," she told the girl.
The girl, Clea, smiled and ran off to rejoin the others for the meal.
Gaia sighed as she wondered if Death and Mako were enjoying Thanksgiving with anyone of any particular importance to their souls, as the other three horsemen, Conquest, War and Famine, were here with her and everyone else. One of her many thanks for this day was having the Four Horsemen of the Restorative and the new Horseman of Unity. She would be forever indebted to them for their presence and ability to guide the Restorative to the future that would cleanse the planet of its devastation and severe loss of life from fifteen years ago. Her patience and the patience of those that believed in the Restorative would be rewarded when they reached the end.
I am forever thankful to each and every member of the Restorative and the people of the world that believe in hope that lies beyond the realm of mortality, she thought as she joined everyone at the rows of tables setup in the meadow as the people, survivors from across the world and their children, sat and awaited her presence. "A Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you!"
"A Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Mother Gaia!" They all responded.
-x-
"This…is crazy," said Miroku to Mana as they were in the backyard.
"What, that we're playing a little football?" She asked him.
"No, that Death knows how to play, and he's never done so before," her grandfather pointed out as they looked over to where her father and the Grim Reaper were.
Mako, in his ghost baby state, was serving as the referee while Himeko served as a cheerleader for her daughter's side against her husband's.
"Go, Mana," she cheered. "Go, Father!"
"Hut!" Mordecai went, and Death threw him the foam football.
Death then moved across the yard, faster than anyone's eyes could follow, and was behind Mana in less than two seconds.
"I move too fast," he admitted, startling her.
"Aah!" She gasped. "You move way too fast! You're besting the hands of time itself!"
Mordecai threw the ball at Death, but the Pale Rider decided to step back, which allowed Mana to catch it.
Mana then ran across the yard and around her father, scoring another victory for her side.
"Victory to Mana and Miroku Asagi," Mako addressed. "The total is now eight losses for Mordecai and Death and nine wins for Mana and Miroku. Foul on Death for moving too fast again. Maybe you should give yourself a handicap for the next match."
"How's this, then," Death suggested, and then his appearance changed from his regular self…into chubby man in his forties with a limb in his left leg. "This man was a drug dealer with a handicap. A childhood injury left him with a limp. Maybe I won't be able to move as fast if I borrow his appearance."
"You can turn into the people you killed?" Mana questioned. "Wow, that's incredible."
"There's a lot about me you have yet to see."
They resumed the game…and unbeknownst to them, a small raven perched on a tree branch away from the house spied on them, its eyes glowing red.
Someone was using this bird to monitor both the Asagi family and the two horsemen.
-x-
Oh, how Gendo resented the Asagi family for being a favorite of his heavenly-opposite horseman as he used what little influence he had as Hell's Horseman of Death to eavesdrop on them. The sight of his former sons just being with them, smiling and having fun, especially Death, who looked genuinely pleased with how he spent his time with the family, it just made him disgusted with how his own life ended.
"You think that if the younger twin had obeyed you like a loyal wolf you've beaten into subservience, you'd have a life like the one he sees these people have?" He heard a voice behind him, and turned to face the person. "Don't kid yourself. The life you thought you could have would have been paid for at a terrible cost. And just about everyone down here knows about paying a high price for something unrealistic."
It was a man that looked as though his entire skin was covered in ash, with armor possessing a dragon-like motif, complete with wings and a tail on his back.
"Who are you?" He asked him.
"I am Pyre," he answered, "the God of Fire. I am the primordial flames of the universe incarnate. Even as an elemental deity, I am still a deity, like all the ones from religious and mythological beliefs. Seiryu, Vishnu, Osiris, even the god you blame for your imagined slights…not that you have any slights justifiable enough to hate a deity you've never even laid eyes upon."
"If you're like God, then why did you give me my wife…only to take her from me?"
"If one had to answer in an illogical sense…it would be to teach you that the world is imperfect, that there will always be flaws inherent within the human race…and any other intelligent species. And how the search for truth comes with inevitable downfalls because people will sacrifice what they don't consider a necessary part of their lives, even what is necessary, to pursue the whole truth. Humans boast about how important they are, when they're not all special. Even the ones deemed to be gifted, like your wife, aren't special at all, and they'll spend their entire lives looking for meaning, something to make themselves feel fulfilled. You blame God for his infallibility, to justify his right to give and take at any time he chooses. You and countless others, when it's hardly even his fault. Just as it isn't the fault of the so-called Devil you people blame for your sins, the only ones responsible for your slights, real or imagined…are yourselves. Look at where you are now. Look at where these indefinite souls ended up because of each other. Good and evil, light and dark, right and wrong, they all stem from the decisions that you yourselves make every time. You ended in Hell…because of what you did. Your wife ended up in the Eva, the abomination on the eyes of many deities, including myself…because of what she decided upon. She only came back to try and stop your former, murderous son, the one you both abandoned…because she chose to, not for you, not for him, but for herself, and she paid the price for her choice, just as you did. And as for the souls of your sons, they're only horsemen for Heaven by choice, as well. The one you once knew as Shinji, who is now Death, is only the way he is because of the same choices that led him kill those he viewed as responsible for his poor excuse of a life. You and your wife separated by the factors that led up to Shinji driving the greatest of wedges in between you…is only because he chose to punish you both in the worst way imaginable, so that one way or the other, one of you would have to feel this pain…and feel his pain, his sorrow, his disgust at how family became the stain that deserved to be wiped away. If anything, if your son was here right now, he'd likely express that he is thankful for the despair you two gave him when you abandoned him and left him in the care of people that hated him just as much as they hated you, that nothing else he has done can express his gratitude towards the people he slaughtered because of the Ikari family. Not even his own hatred that consumed his soul because of you. And I can tell, just by looking at the coldness in your eyes, that you were thankful to be rid of Shinji after your wife faked her own death, that you didn't want to be bothered with him after the murder of his elder twin brother, whom you dropped in your carelessness when you held him for the first and last time."
"That was an accident!" Gendo yelled at him.
"I'm sure it was," Pyre responded, "but keeping the truth about his brother from Shinji wasn't an accident…and neither was having locked away in an institution and denying him aid when he needed it most. So, you ask me why you lost your wife as soon as you were granted her, and I've answered. It's in reality your own fault. You, your wife, the youngest of your twin sons and your relatives, along with countless others, you have only yourselves to blame for your own ends. What's done is done, and there's no fixing it unless you pay the ultimate price, which is impossible for anyone to pay. Gods will always take back what they give on a whim…and people must learn not to be boastful, otherwise they will pay a steeper price for their arrogance."
Pyre then turned to walk away from Gendo, leaving him to return his gaze through the fiery portal that connected him to the raven that watched the Asagi family, seeing that they were now mostly sitting on the grass in the yard, the foam football forgotten about, as the young girl was singing in front of them.
"He is grateful to be with these people," he muttered in hatred at how the horseman that looked like Shinji smiled at the Asagi girl. "I'll find a way to make him suffer as they will for being around him."
-x-
"Hey, Dad," went Hei-Bai Ikari to the grave of his father as he paid him a visit. "Happy Thanksgiving…though, there isn't much to be happy about it for. Things have been quiet in the country for a while."
He sat down in front of the tombstone and placed the bento beside himself.
"The news has been all about the Horseman of Death around the world. People are expressing their thanks about him going after people that were either drug dealers or kidnappers or whatever there's a crime against being. They seemed to have gotten past who he isn't and who he is; instead of referring to him as a dead person, they see that he's a force of nature incarnated within the form of a man made to look like one of us…but isn't one of us. I am thankful for his efforts in cleaning up the crime across the planet, but he can't erase it from the world. Nobody can. Wherever there is good, there will always, eventually, be bad. Still, I am grateful for his efforts. Yes…I am grateful."
Hei-Bai then opened his bento and helped himself to a small dumpling. He had the small things to be thankful this year; his health, his education, his reunion with his father before he died, the small things that he cared about. They helped to deal with his small losses, like his girlfriend, whom he couldn't help but still carry a torch for.
"I miss the old days when nothing terrible happened and people had only peace to look forward to in the day after," he told his father's grave. "I'm sorry, but I can't be thankful for Yui. How can I forgive her? Everything she does…everything she aims to do…is unforgivable. She can't justify any of her excuses."
And as much as he would've expected someone to give him an answer to why he couldn't forgive his sister, he didn't expect anyone to just show up and say to him, "Your sister's just a bad person without a shred of redemption in her soul." It would've just been unrealistic.
-x-
Helping Himeko to clean the dishes and store away the leftovers, Death, standing at the sink with a cup in his hands in the water, felt a degree of calmness that emanated from his heart.
"I…I really had a great Thanksgiving with your family, Mrs. Asagi," he told her as she tied up the garbage bag.
"We had a great Thanksgiving with you, as well, Death," she responded. "Thank you for coming. You and Mako, I mean. Thank you for everything."
"For the longest time I've ever visited, you all make me feel this way that…he never could around his own relatives when he was young and innocent."
She knew he was referring to Shinji, and asked, "In what way do we make you feel that he never could around them?"
"Alive," he answered her. "It is the greatest feeling to have, to feel accepted and everything. Even in the smallest moments where nothing seemed to matter, everything mattered, and…everything made me feel happy. I never felt that way when I was him. There was only…"
"Trauma," she stopped him, "trauma…grief…and hatred from people that didn't love who you used to be. But, Death, there's… It's none of my business to even make suggestions, but there is one other person you should probably see, not to reaffirm a part of yourself you're unaffiliated with…but maybe so that…he can see who and what the two people he never got the chance to meet have become…so that there's some sort of closure."
"You mean, Hei-Bai," Death uttered.
"The choice is ultimately yours, though, whether or not to see him."
Death set the cleaned cup on the dishrack and turned to face the Asagi family matriarch.
"There is a part of me that has considered seeing him," he explained to her, "except it stems from the part of my soul that has since forgotten the faceless people that were always in the background of the audience. They were… I will not use the word 'irrelevant' because…that's a word that man would use."
Himeko knew he was referring to Gendo, not that she needed to hear his name; the guy was bag of dynamite set to detonate a nuclear weapon and spread discord as far as possible. The guy would use words like "irrelevant" to show how little he cared for those that were not important to him or his ambitions, and she had to assume that Death (or the part of Death that was still Shinji) didn't want to use the same type of words used by his apocalyptic counterpart.
"What about…'insignificant'?" She suggested. "It's not in the same sense as 'irrelevant', but similar, only because the person that feels nobody in the background matters if they're not seen."
"But when they are seen…and heard…they become significant," Death expressed.
"Only if you want them to."
"Yeah. Insignificant is a better…until it's no longer required to use. Thank you."
Mako floated into the room and informed the two that Mana was about to retire to her room for the night and how she wanted to say goodbye to Death before she did.
"She likes you a lot as a friend, brother," he told Death.
"I cherish that," his twin responded, bowing his head to Himeko before leaving the kitchen.
"Your brother is so… There's a fire to him that is different from others," Himeko explained to the ghost infant. "There's this light in him that can't be extinguished, even in the deepest darkness he's surrounded by."
"Yeah, he does have a fire in that burns like that," he agreed with her, "but it's tiny, like a new star lit in the vastness of space. So small that it can go unnoticed…but burns just enough to cast light to any that pass by it."
Death returned two minutes later, informing Himeko that Mana was in bed…and that he was off to see someone while it was still Thanksgiving.
"Anyone in particular that you intend to see?" Mako asked him.
"Yeah," he answered. "A guy that never got to see two of his relatives."
Mako smiled at who he was referring to.
-x-
Yui didn't appreciate Thanksgiving as much as other people did; how could she enjoy the holiday when the only family she had left wanted nothing to do with her, all of their other relatives were either dead…or running around like zombie vigilantes, hunting down criminals…or were literally in Hell for their sins? She couldn't get her brother to see things her way, their father was dead and nothing was resolved, professionally or personally, and there was still delays in the reading of his will. No, for Yui, it was just the research she was doing on her sons' remains, extracting as much usable genetic material from them as possible. She would be thankful that they lived in their reanimated states long enough to give her all that she and SEELE needed to improve the Dummy System.
Everything happens as it must, she thought, sticking Shinji in the left arm again with a syringe. I must still believe in there being a bright future for all of mankind, even if it means I have to make it so.
-x-
"…What is there left to do?" Hei-Bai wondered as set down an American novel he was through reading for the night. "I guess old video games."
Ding-dong! The doorbell to his apartment rang, and Hei-Bai became suspicious; nobody ever came to see him in the dead of night.
"Who is it?" He asked.
"Death," he heard the person outside respond. "I seek your permission to trespass upon your domain. I can break down the door if I wanted, but I rather have your permission to come inside, Mr. Hei-Bai Ikari."
Hei-Bai picked up his baseball bat and slowly walked over to the door. As much as he could've believed it was the Grim Reaper, it could've been anyone pretending to be the dead man, and he felt safer with the bat than with his bare hands, even if it was useless. Looking through the peephole, he saw a young face that was paler than his own. He then opened the door and looked around it with the chain still on.
It was Death, who took a step back.
"I'm only here to say what I've come to say," he told Hei-Bai, "after which, do what you will."
Hei-Bai closed the door to remove the chain and reopened it to face him better.
"I hope you'll forgive me for being for being cautious," he told him.
Suddenly, a ghost infant in a red blanket appeared beside Death on the right.
"We're not the least bit offended," he told the man.
Hei-Bai wanted to run, but he was stuck in place.
"I am," Death spoke, "thankful to have met you for the first time, Hei-Bai Ikari. You are not as I had expected you to be, and there is not a trace of sin in you that warrants my presence. In a previous life, you were the maternal uncle of the young man whose soul resides within me, but I am not him. And yet…he shows appreciation for having seen you, as well. Thank you for listening to what I had to say."
"You're…you're welcome," Hei-Bai stated, and then looked at the infant. "Are you…Mako?"
"I am," Mako greeted him. "It is nice to meet you."
"I hope that you enjoy the remainder of your Thanksgiving," Death stated, turning to leave.
"Uh, wait," Hei-Bai stopped him. "Please…come inside and have a drink."
Death turned around and looked at him.
"I know you're not my nephews, anymore," he explained, "but please…you two may be the closest I'll ever get to knowing who they once were. I would be…thankful if you could tell me about them. Please."
The horseman simply nodded and walked back.
"Your youngest nephew could've probably excelled at parkour, despite never knowing anything about it," he told Hei-Bai, "for he moved in ways that nobody else did."
"Shinji had a similar skill set as parkour, as in the art of displacement? That's…pretty cool."
"My elder twin has seen Heaven and could probably tell you how it is."
"Only in simple words," said Mako to them. "Heaven can only be described in the most simple of words because there's many a soul still alive that isn't supposed to know what it's like until after they cross the threshold for themselves. But in a few words, Heaven is the stuff of dreams, a place where people can vacation all the time and whatever. I was there for fourteen years, but even while I was in a peaceful setting, I couldn't forget the agony that was inflicted upon my brother…and I gave up paradise to be with him in suffering. Nobody, no matter how hated they are by others, no matter how much they're viewed as a monster before they even do something that tarnishes their soul, should have to suffer in the darkness alone."
Hei-Bai placed down three cups and poured tea in them; why he poured three cups, he wasn't sure, considering the damned souls of one of his former nephews was just a ghost infant that could talk like adults could.
"Could I ask you two about…that night here…when those men were killed and the three women were rescued?" He asked them as Death sat in a chair.
"That night," Death spoke as he thought back to that night he was referring to. "It was the first time I felt justified in my actions to spill guilty blood and go after the harbingers of sin and degradation. It was also the first time I ever saw how the darker side of human nature taken to an extreme that was unknown to me…and him. Before I even broke into the suite…I saw what had transpired. Why don't you ask me how it made me feel personally?"
"You…want me to ask you how it made you feel?"
"You ask…and I answer from the depths of my damned soul. People that want to know that truth have the right to hear how it affects my behavior in a situation."
"Then…how did it affect you…and do you really want to answer that question?"
"A part of me does not want to…but another part of me does…and I will answer it for you. I…hated what had transpired in that suite. I hated it with every fiber of my disgraced being. I would've preferred kidnapping or drugs being sold to children at playgrounds in the guise of candy, but this was…the worst form of vile that I ever witnessed. My consciousness burned away any state of morality at the signs of such indecency, of such humiliation…of such a grotesquely human evil: Degradation of the flesh and the robbing of innocence and freedom. Those men that did what they did… They made me feel fury. They made me feel sick. Corrupt police and their confidential informants, they had no right to do what they did, and they were going to do it again…and again…and again. That's when I decided that they no longer deserved to feel the pleasures that come with life, only the cruelest of fates that come with the disgracing of the flesh. If one pays in flesh of others like some twisted form of currency, they should always be prepared to pay for their inevitable fall with their own flesh. And as I killed most of them, I saw all the wrong that they had done, all the lives they hurt, the flesh they disgraced, the deals they made to pleasure themselves. Using that information that was mine to exploit, I went after everyone else that did wrong and had no intention of redeeming their souls…and realized something of a cruel truth. So long as those that lived to only commit these unforgivable sins, there would always be victims. So long as there will be those that seek to exploit, there must be those willing to do all that is necessary to that the victims are either protected or avenged. So…in a way, I have literally become an avenging angel for the innocent, going after the guilty and making them pay for their misdeeds to the ultimate extreme. And if I can't protect the innocent, I will avenge them in the only way I know how to."
"And, as crazy as it seems, it's one of the things I am thankful for," Hei-Bai told him, which surprised the twins. "I mean, yes, you're a killer. Yes, you're the Grim Reaper, but you've reduced the crime rate across the planet. The list of crimes, ranging from kidnapping, trafficking, domestic violence and even child molestation, they've all dropped in the time you've been out there, going after people that have done wrong. Your blood messages have even been scaring the criminals into turning themselves in or taking their own lives. And you using their proceeds to give to the poor that just want to take care of their families… You're like Robin Hood, stealing from the criminal rich and giving to the poor. But you know which of the poor to distribute the money to; you don't give it to homeless drug addicts or people that would neglect their children in favor of themselves. That shows a conscience, which is very impressive, Death."
"Thank you."
Death picked up the cup and tasted the tea, which turned out to be chamomile, and expressed that tea had become among one of his favorite beverages due to not being bland water.
"Death, water is always bland," Mako stated to him, transforming into his horseman guise, surprising Hei-Bai with his similarity to Death.
"My God," he gasped, looking at Mako, "you two look exactly the same."
"Not exactly the same," Mako told him. "It's true we were identical a long time ago, but we have our differences when you notice our eyes."
"Mine are dead," Death informed, "with the barest glimpse of life within them. Mako's eyes are more alive."
Hei-Bai looked at Mako's eyes…and saw that there was a bit of life to them, as though he had lived more in his passing than his brother had in his final days. Then, he looked at Death's eyes, seeing that, despite looking like regular eyeballs, they seemed to lack a major sense of light, like there was barely anything going on in them.
"If this is the only time I will ever see you two, it's all the more reason for me to be thankful," he told them as he drank his tea.
"Horsemen aren't allowed to have personal lives like regular people," Death stated, "but we can be around regular people…when we're not doing what we're supposed to for the Restorative."
"Why is that?"
"We're lost souls," Mako explained. "We have our boundaries and restrictions. You haven't fallen from the grace that is living yet, and therefore have the unrestricted luxury of a personal life unbound. Death, the other horsemen and I, on the other hand…can't make time for the same things other people do, even if it seems like we can. It's like a job that can't be ignored; the police, doctors or even teachers can go on strike any time they wish, but we horsemen cannot. Even when we can be replaced by other lost souls, we have to willingly surrender our positions to be relieved of our duties. Then, it's back to the abyss we go."
"That…sounds horrible."
"Oh, it's not that horrible," Death expressed. "It's different from Hell. It's a lot different due to the fact that it's isolated from demons and isn't always fire and brimstone. It's a purgatory state of being, but the only suffering there is to experience…is the suffering you inflict upon yourself until everything is resolved."
"I should probably ask this question now, because some can get curious about what lies beyond life, but… Death, is it painful when one dies? I mean, when it's their time and they can't fight it no more?"
Death looked at him, seeing his curiosity towards the afterlife.
"Not always," he answered him; his former self's death was an example of how painless dying had been…after a lifetime of pain and suffering at the cruelty of the world he'd been brought into by the heartless. "As the minutes turn to seconds, the light fades from the eyes' perception and the sounds around you deafen, your body grows numb to whatever pain it's in. Your strength fades away from your limbs as the feeling of something beyond the need for rest begins to overtake you. And when the last moment nears…and you can't run any further from who seeks you out…you submit. You submit…and then you're free from it all."
Hei-Bai nodded his head to Death in acceptance of his answer; as he was someone that had faced the inevitable once already, his experience was a good example.
"Thank you," he told the Pale Rider.
"You're welcome," Death responded, and finished his tea. "Why drink tea, Hei-Bai?"
"I like tea better than soda. Jasmine, ginger, ginseng and chamomile, each flavor of tea a series of revitalization that has been brewed to the best level of preparation. Before we had soda or alcohol, we had water and later tea. Some people can appreciate the past when it comes to our history of beverages."
"Yeah," went Mako in agreement with him, "they can."
-x-
Emerging from a fiery portal atop a roof, the demonic Pestilence looked down at the city below and frowned in disgust.
"Oh, I'd be thankful to watch you mortals burn and your homes reduced to dust as your souls are condemned to the banquet of the infernal masters," he uttered as the night air and streetlights occupied the last hour's remaining seconds of the day. "But I shall show restraint until the rising of the sun. So, enjoy your final hours of rest while you still can. My thanks will be bestowed upon me in due time…and the Restorative's Four Horsemen will suffer at their inability to fend off the inevitable suffering of the people they will fail to protect. That will be my thanks."
To be continued…
A/N: Ooh…good thanks, bad thanks and indifferent thanks. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. Peace out until next time, everyone.