The Romance of the Seventh Star
Epilogue
As I look through my entries, I dare not claim the greatest coherence or objectivity. Yet, to be fair, I speak from a very intimate perspective. This journal is as much a personal plaint as it is a eulogy and disquisition of Konzen Douji, Tenpou Gensui, Kenren Taishou and Goku.
If my delivery at various points has been trying on your patience, forgive me.
The script has ended, not least because there is nothing more to add but because it is a good point as any to conclude. The cause of the Four has been sufficiently expounded to the liminal degree of my understanding.
Where I stand, it has been three months since that terrible day. Our Realm struggles to move past the multitude of deaths, which concept is anathema to our philosophy and genetics. With wounds so fresh, it remains reeling from the shock of such devastation even as it is groping from the ruins to find its feet again.
Though I would not predict the effect of my journal on the present and future circumstances, it is likely to be reviled in the immediate time where fury and fear remain hot. The ways of the past – entrenched in the very fibre of our immortal reality – are not so effortlessly dissolved.
Nonetheless, the distant space is carved from our will and imagining.
I mean for this book to mirror both the earthiest scum and loftiest mount at which we may respectively denigrate and aspire towards. Now is ever the choice to build anew; to depart from the fundamental contradictions of our Realm which my expositions on the struggles of the Four have elucidated.
That it is simultaneously a warning knell, I shall not deny. The adage concerning those incapable of learning from history rears its head.
Hence, I cannot but be honest, even to my detriment: to pursue a path of truth beyond the pall of self-preservation. This is my way of redemption and the fortitude of my heart – my legacy received from them.
Regardless of what will become of me, it is with peace that I end my last word and peace I hope for our Realm. To the Reader, I thank you for your grace in coming so far with me.
May we wake to a brighter day.
Most sincerely
Seishin no Goten Nana-hime
Hikari
From Lady Rurouni:
This is the end of the journal segment, people! (waves victory flag)
Though this text within the text has ended, the story has not. Remember, Hikari finished her journal and handed it to her brother for safekeeping before she knew of her sentencing, though she was aware her future would not be the rosiest.
Therefore, there is one last Sideline (VII) coming up before I can – finally, finally, finally – close this fanfic.
Mwaahahaha…