"The Breath of God"

part 2

a Weib Kreuz fic by Mirrordance

don't own anyone.

Plot: When Ken dies, an angel gives him the chance to take over someone else's body to live again…

Ken's P.O.V.

      I didn't know how long I've been awake when I suddenly realized someone was with me, wherever I was.

      I turned my head to the side, where I felt the distinct presence.  It struck me as odd that I wasn't surprised to find an honest-to-goodness man with wings there.  He was sitting on something I couldn't see--and not because my view was obscured because there really wasn't anything there! I looked at what I was lying on and I couldn't see it either!

      The two of us were in an eerily quiet place.  Thin threads of what looked to be smoke drifted around in the grayness, like being inside fog or a dark cloud.

      He was about my age, and was a funny-looking angel, if indeed he was.  No blond hair nor blue eyes.  Pallid skin, midnight hair, midnight eyes.  He was wearing a white robe almost the color of his skin, and his wings were folded on his back.  He looked thoughtful, sitting there, smoking a cigarette.

      "Finished looking?" he asked, turning to me with wry amusement on his chiseled face.  If he was Weib, we would have even more women at the shop.

      I sat up, found that there was no pain and considered his question.

      "Aren't you supposed to be staying away from those?" I nodded to the cigarette.

      "I'm not perfect," he said with a grin.

      "Isn't indulgence a sin?" I asked, couldn't resist it.

      He just shrugged, got up from his invisible seat and walked towards me.  I was hoping he'd float and give me something to be fascinated about, though.

      "So…ah…" how should I phrase this question?

      "Are you taking me to heaven or hell?"

      He puffed on his cigarette again.  It didn't seem to be shrinking. 

      "That's the complicated part"

      That made me nervous.  To be considered as a candidate headed for hell, I mean.  Sure, my profession wasn't exactly a saint's, but I couldn't believe I was evil.

      "I'm that bad, huh?" I asked, hoping he'd say no.

      "It's not that," he said, "you aren't even supposed to be dead yet"

      This surprised and irritated me.  I mean, these guys have been arranging the fate of the universe for all eternity and they still manage to make mistakes like this?!

      "So what am I doing here?" I asked testily.

      "It happens once in every few hundred years," he explained with an apologetic smile, "angel-in-training gets first mission botched"

      "You got me botched?" I asked flatly.

      His face actually flushed as he laughed.  "No, no.  Not me.  I'm the clean-up guy.  I'm supposed to fix everything for you."

      "How?" I asked, keeping my excitement in check.  Was I going to get my life back?

      His brows furrowed.  "It's not what you're thinking"

      I was irritated that he could read my mind, but not as irritated over what he said next.

      "Your body is dead," he said quietly, "I'm going to help you find another"

      I gaped at him.

      "What we do is take his or her soul, place yours in exchange." he told me, "It might seem like a weird process, but it has been what was always done.  We take our list of those who should have gone before you, and you can take your pick out of them"

      Take my pick? His or her?

      "Who are you working for?!" I blurted, wondering about a god who could think of such a brutal contingency plan.

      "Ken," he said patiently, "you know in your heart who I work for.  And it may seem unfair, but the fact is, you shouldn't have died yet.  As a matter of fact, you're supposed to be the last of your friends to.  You've a bright future ahead of you.  Children.  A wife"

      "What was I supposed to do?" I asked, "let those men kill my friends?!"

      "They wouldn't have been killed" said the angel, "none of you would have been, if you waited.  Ran had a plan"

      "Doesn't he always" I said, crossing my arms over my chest.  It seemed inane and more than a little materialistic, but it irritated me that Ran's plan would have been successful and mine wasn't as good nor as effective.

      "But what's done is done, and you were willing to sacrifice yourself for others" said the angel, "As the Lord said, there is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends.  So anyway, we have to find you a body now.  When we make the exchange, you wouldn't remember any of this"
      "Then what's the point, if I won't be who I once was?" I asked.

      "Trust me," he said, "you would still get everything that was destined to be yours"

      I closed my eyes in thought.  This was too much, too fast, too brutal. 

      "But I don't want to deprive anyone of their life," I said in a thin voice.

      "You wouldn't be," he promised, "as I said, they are destined to die before you"

      I ran my hands through my hair, thinking about grass and sun-drenched fields and the flower shop and my room.  My life was just starting to come together again when it was suddenly taken away from me.

      "What do I have to do?"

      He gave me a list, and what I found there, made me hesitate again.

      It contained eight names, all of them familiar to me. 

      Ran Yoji, Omi.  Sakura, Yuriko, Aya-chan, Manx and Birman.

      My mind reeled.  If I agreed, I would take one of those lives…

      "I don't understand," I said, "I know all of these people"

      "They are the only ones you are allowed to replace" he said, "they know you, you know them.  The transition wouldn't be as difficult as with a stranger"

      I laughed nervously.  "This is a test, isn't it?"
      He looked at me blankly.

      Right.  I guess not.

      "I don't know what to do," I admitted.

      He considered this.

      "All right," he told me, "I'll give you a chance to choose.  Be each one of them for a day.  You'll still be you, so you'll know what you want.  But when you choose, as I said, you'll lose all memory of this.  Do you agree to my plan?"

      I gaped again, for the nth time.  "I can do that?"
      "I can do that"

      My brows furrowed in thought.  I've always wondered.  I really, really have, what it would be like to be any one of them.

      "I don't want to be any of the women"

      He laughed.  "I thought so"
      I expelled a breath. 

      "All right.  Let's do it"

      I opened my eyes again and squinted at the light that pierced my grimy eyes.

      What a weird dream that was.

      I yawned, and was raising my arms up over my head for an all-encompassing stretch when the sleeve of my…pajamas?! caught on my…earrings?!

      All of sleep was forgotten by now.

      I raced to the mirror found in the bathroom of Omi's apartment--

      --and screamed.

      I hastily got a grip on myself as I heard heavy footsteps pounding down the hall.  Predictably, it was followed by a kick that busted the lock on my--Omi's door, that is, and I soon found Yoji and Ran in the apartment, looking frantically for an intruder.

      Finding no one, their eyes leveled on me.

      Puzzled ones from above Yoji's signature frames, and annoyed purple ones from Ran.

      "What is it?" he asked curtly.

      I flashed them a sheepish grin.  "Cockroach"

      Ran stared at me for a long moment, making me squirm.  It's as if he knew it was Ken in here and not Omi.  Damn those eyes.  I was about to blurt out a confession when he just turned away.

      "You okay, kid?" Yoji asked.

      "Don't call me kid" I snapped, before I could stop myself.  Then I smiled and did a very Omi-like "Yes, Yoji-kun"