So, Should I explain this generic afterlife theory of mine? Let me know, because I think I might like to try. Anyways, when I thought about it, the actual death should be kind of glossed over. I don't want to give too much away to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, and, having seen enough death in my time, I usually find it kind of anticlimactic. It happens, and that's it. There's nothing to be done to change it. By the way, I think this whole story makes more sense if you have the Sarah McLaughlin Remixed CD. I can actually see the rhythm of the songs and where they change in this one.

This just might become a sort of engine to explain this world I think I accidentally created. Thoughts?

********

After they left the boat, everything seemed an exhausted blur to Hikari. She pulled from her own strength to give strength to Kenshin, and when that failed, she carried him toward the dojo.

The sight of Kaoru gave him his energy back, for a time, and the good bye was short and bittersweet, but done.

"I thought it would be different, somehow," said Kenshin, who was standing beside Hikari. Relieved of his mortality, he was young and vital again. He watched Kaoru and the shell of himself, and couldn't understand why he wasn't as sad as he ought to be.

"Don't you think you should give her just a little peace?" Hikari asked. Kenshin realized that he could hear her thoughts and knew that she meant he should take his scar with him.

He paused, feeling the relief of the pain, and the smooth perfection of his skin. He then thought of Kaoru, and what he was leaving behind. He reached out to his own face and touched the scar, taking it with him.

Hikari smiled in approval, "Now would you like to take a walk with me?"

Kenshin looked at her, "How long a walk?"

Hikari shrugged, "One of the flaws of being Japanese. Your walk takes 49 days. Westerners usually are done in three," She was leaning against a tree, and Kenshin couldn't tell whether she was hugging herself or had her arms crossed.

"You can't be serious. We're cremated long before then.

She shrugged, "Blame your religion. You'll be surprised at how much of this process is dictated by that. Of course, you're about to get a new perspective on death anyways."

He looked up at her, "I've already seen all of this," he tried to sound jaded, but realized that he had never seen things so soft and distantly beautiful. He felt her hand in his hair, and the touch seemed to race through him. Her thoughts were a loud jumble, sorting through attempts to express what he would see and do.

The words stopped suddenly, and he felt her hand fist in his hair. He felt the pain, consuming everything, every nerve, every inch of skin, inside and out was on fire with pinpricks. Rolling aches seemed to consume her joints, and he knew that her whole body felt like lead to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, turning toward her. She was hiding it behind a half smile and a distant look down the road, but he knew she was in agony.

She turned her face toward him, and somehow her gaze wasn't so cold, but just detached, as if she were always looking beyond what she saw, "We pay a price when we meddle in the affairs of things stronger than us."

"No," Kenshin said, shaking his head urgently, "Not why is something, what exactly is wrong?" He failed to notice as they spoke that the world around them had faded slowly to gray, and he could hear nothing but his own voice.

"I don't know if I can start the journey with you, Kenshin," she answered, "I'll have to catch up."

When he looked around, he saw only the grayness and the stones that marked the road. He had been on this road before, but had not known where he was going. He turned back to Hikari to see her wings unfurling. He grabbed her wrist and squeezed, hard. She winced and recoiled from him, and relaxed her wings.

"Fine," she answered.

"If you don't tell me what is wrong, I can't help you," Kenshin said, trying to reason with her as they started to walk down the path.

"You could help me just fine by letting me help myself," She yanked her wrist free, and Kenshin stumbled, forgetting how much stronger than he she was. She caught him, and held him up.

"Hikari, I worry for you," Kenshin said.

She sighed and hugged him to her, the contact bringing bright flashes of pain in front of her eyes, "I worry for you. You know. You're dead now. That can be scary."

The contact was a welcome surprise to Kenshin, who found the touch enlivening and warm, "You can not chance the subject."

She started walking, and watching the road, "I just need a little recharge, like rice at night?"

Kenshin furrowed his brow.

"At night, the rice sags low, there's no sunlight to give it the strength to stand up straight. Same thing," She said, lacing her fingers through his, "I can only continue like this for so long before I fall into a slumber, and it hurts until I fall asleep. Or whatever that is, I guess an expanding of my consciousness to draw on as much as I can," she spread her hands in innocence, "I must've slept forever when I altered time to make up for my intrusion into your life. I essentially kept you out past your bedtime. And now I need to rest. But I promised you I would be here for you. You need me now. So I'll try to stay awake a while longer."

It dawned on Kenshin that he was the cause of her suffering, which she bore quietly and with dignity. An awful lot like…what was her name again?