Death and the Swordsman

Chapter 9

By: Leelei

(Important) Author's Note: I have a lot to tell you guys this time. Things are getting pretty rough right now. My horse is having surgery and my boss wants to fire me for missing work to go see him during visitation hours. I'm already starting to worry about my homework for school and then after my horse comes home from the clinic he'll need daily care for about a month, so I have to run out and get my license on top of all of this. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that there may be slight delays between these last chapters getting posted. I've actuallyoverestimated the length of this fic a little bit since the way I planned it out leaves only a few chapters left, but I'm not going to force myself to finish it through this stress. I love this story, and I want to post it the way I originally planned it, without being affected by my mood or random, tiny little time slots to write entire chapters in. I owe it to you guys to at least finish this story right, if not on time.

I appreciate allof your patience. Thank you.

The last few scenes had all seemed to be occurring at the same time, or one right after the other, since the new image was just a little later than when Ulrich first saw Yumi and Odd as teenagers. The picture had moved, though, and Ulrich watched a group of younger teens gathered on a picnic table underneath a tree. He first noticed the girl in the center, sitting on the table top.

She was just a few years younger than Odd at the time, tall with long legs and dark skin. "Tamiya…" Ulrich muttered in amazement when he recognized her. The young girl had grown up, her dark hair out if the braids and long then, straightened with barrettes to hold it out of her face. She dressed in pretty much the same style as before, and was surrounded with friends her age, several boys included.

Ulrich searched the small crowd. "Death, where's Milly?" he asked, not seeing the red-haired girl anywhere. "Did she move, or did she and Tamiya stop hanging out together?" He turned to the ghost. "They didn't get into a fight, did they?"

Death looked down, Ulrich believing that he would have seen sorrow if she had any features. "So much…so much…" she mumbled, incoherent to his question.

"Death, what is it?" Ulrich asked, confused by her muttering.

The ghost sighed. "I must start from the beginning, don't mind me." She looked to the image. "Milly and Tamiya did remain friends, supporting each other through your death and the shock of experiencing it at such a young age –especially when it involved someone they knew and were so close to. Milly was devastated, but surprisingly pulled through all right. However…"

"Oh, no…" Ulrich groaned again, tears rising in his eyes.

"She suffered as well. Growing up, she and Tamiya finally matured, as they had always wanted, and had many friends along with their shares of healthy relationships with temporary boyfriends."

"What happened to her, Death?" Ulrich asked, his voice wavering.

"She still attended all those dances…" Death continued distantly as she gazed off. "With each one she had a boyfriend, but always longed to have you back to dance with, or even to have as a date for like she did once when you were alive. It was before one dance during the snowy season, she had a boyfriend who's parents trusted him enough to take their car -even without his license- to go and pick her up, taking her out to eat after waiting for her to have her hair done for the winter formal. She was so beautiful that night…"

"Death," Ulrich's tone became more demanding. "What happened."

"The restaurant she wanted to go to was in the opposite direction of the school, and her boyfriend decided to take a shortcut through the winding back roads to make it to the dance in time. She was running for winter formal queen, the first time a girl her age had been nominated, and he wanted her to be there in time for the announcing of the court. It's funny…he never noticed how fast he was actually going when they started sliding. By then it was too late to steer his car out of the path of that tree."

"You're sick, Grim." Ulrich growled lowly, his anger becoming obvious as his tears started to fall. "Was she all right?"

Death looked at him, the darkness of her missing face staring straight at his perplexed features. "No, Ulrich," she answered evenly. "She was not all right…"

Ulrich bit his lip to hold in his emotions, but found the strength to speak. "W-what happened to her after that?"

"She died that night…" Death answered softly, lowering her gaze. "Her boyfriend had promised that they would be there in under ten minutes, so she decided not to bother wearing her seatbelt. The impact killed her, but her boyfriend was able to make it through the accident and remained paralyzed for the rest of his life. He was wearing his seatbelt, but the ice that fell on the car from the tree sunk in the roof and put too much pressure on his spine, crushing several of his vertebrae. In the end, Milly's parents had to choose to have a closed-casket funeral, just like yours had been."

"That's horrible…" Ulrich said weakly, his eyes filling with tears. "She was so young…"

"She lived longer than you did." Death reminded him.

"Yeah, but…" Ulrich searched for the words through his shock. "Her life was worth something. She had so much to live for."

"And you did not?" Death asked. "After all you have seen, you still doubt that your life had any meaning at all?"

"Listen, I know my life had no meaning," the anger built in Ulrich's voice. "Because I lost everything that had meaning to me, and then my will to live went with it all, too." He took a step toward her, his tears flowing freely as he clenched his fists. "I couldn't play soccer anymore, I couldn't keep up in school, Yumi hated me, I was snapping at Jeremie and Odd, and I couldn't even get Aelita to the right tower."

"And yet all of that made you decide to end your life, even though now you see how negatively it has affected all of those people and more?" Death asked.

"Ye-" Ulrich stopped, mid-reply as he gasped, his eyes going wide at a new image that he saw appear in the distance over Death's shoulder. On the white background, another ghost-like figure was floating away from them, its long, tattered, dark blue cloak flowing behind it as it seemed to be wandering. It greatly resembled Death, but with no hood on its own different colored cloak. Short, red hair fell over the new apparition's back as it continued away from them.

Ulrich immediately recognized who it was. "Milly!" he called. The ghost didn't respond, floating far enough away from them. "Milly, come back!"

"She cannot hear you," Death told him. "It is not her task to receive lost souls."

"Why is she here then, Death?" Ulrich asked as he watched the girl vanish into the white. "Shouldn't she be in Heaven now?"

"She hasn't received her judgement yet," answered the spirit. "She didn't live long enough to fulfill her purpose in life, so she must wait in Purgatory until she is sent to her final afterlife." Death lowered her face again. "I wish children weren't able to die this young."

Ulrich regained his composure. "Show me something else, if there is anything else after this," he said evenly in a quiet voice. "And please, no more dying. I don't think I can take anymore of it."

Death paused, as if knowing what would come and contemplating whether or not his request was possible. "Okay," she finally replied. "But I cannot prevent the inevitable if you ask to see it."

"And I'm not going to know it happens unless you show me," Ulrich countered.

Death seemed to snicker. "Now you seem to be understanding." She waved her hand again and they returned to another image on Earth.

Chapter 10 in the process…