"NDS: Book 13—Neon: Chapter 93: Passing"

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Okay, this is the first chapter that takes place in Book 13, which seems weird, because it is Clive's funeral, and you would think that belongs in Book 12, but, no, this is how I work things. Let's get on with the funeral of Clive Winslet.

Desensitization…I guess I can understand that, but I just have to wonder what games you played that made you feel that. I never have seen things that would desensitize me, but yet, I am desensitized. That's just odd. There's only one thing I can't stand, and that's the really disgusting looking medical operations on TV. Some reason I could watch a person get their arm cut off, but I can't stand their arm being cut open and be operated on.

I will say though, that there is something beautiful about death, and you have to respect it. It's not some mindless thing. That is why whenever I write death about a character you actually came to know, they always get the funeral chapter. Thus, this chapter. Those other people I kill off, like Ken or Nobuo, I don't consider them human by that point but instead monsters, thus, when their death comes, it doesn't matter as mucg.

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It was a calm day as the wind stirred the ground up just enough to breath some life into it. The wind though, was the only real sound you could hear by the sea of sand this day, even though there were twelve people at the shore, all standing in front of an empty brown casket. To the side of it were the two Winslet women, and Sakura Ryokai, while a priest that stood on the other side of the coffin shut a bound book closed. With silence that older gentleman walked away to leave the group to the coffin that held no body. It was more of a memorial for Clive Winslet, and not so much of a funeral. The man's body had not been salvaged after all. In the end when Jet and Emilia went back to search for it all they found was his metal leg, so that is what was in the casket as well as some other odds and ends that the man had valued in life.

Jet walked up to Catherine who stood first in the line of three women next to the coffin. He sadly looked to the three women. "I'm sorry for your loss." He muttered. "I'm sorry…that there is no body to fill the casket."

In response the wife of Clive sadly smiled and wrapped her arms around him in a soft embrace. "You have no need to be sorry." She simply said. Though her husband had died, she had little to feel sad about. She understood her husband better than anyone else, and she knew how he thought, or had thought. "Clive made his choice, and his sins can finally rest and no longer trouble him."

"I understand that now." Jet softly spoke as they separated and he looked to the young daughter.

Before he could speak, she did, "Without you, Jet, I would never have gotten my father back for the time that I had him." She said with a grateful smile. "For that I'm thankful."

"Stop forgiving him!" Sakura barked in outrage to the two Winslet's responses to Jet. "He let him die!"

"Sakura!" Catherine yelled in outrage of her rudeness. "Clive…I mean…Jet…" The older woman had trouble finding her words as the anger in the group of people left.

Mizu understood what was meant to be said by the woman though. "Still…he failed me." She muttered. "He made me a promise that could never be completed."

"You're wrong, Sakura." Jet simply said in defense. His glance never finding her though, and only aimed at the ground.

"How so?" She loudly questioned. She found it preposterous of him to say that he did come true with his promise to her. He made a promise that was impossible to be done.

"I may not have saved him from his fate, but I did save the man." Jet argued. "From the day we first met…through everything myself and the others have done…from the first moment we set out on our journey…we saved him." The carpenter explained. "We were able to give him his freedom, and his loved ones, which at the end included you as well." Jet finally looked straight at the woman's eyes. "I gave him the chance to atone for his sins which had started to outnumber him. I saved Clive Winslet, but I could not save his body."

Sakura bit her bottom lip as her fingers dug into her skin. She was satisfied with that response at all. She shook her head vehemently with emotion and then stared him down. "You still couldn't do what I wanted of you."

"But you never told me that." Jet argued. Jet paused recollecting his thoughts. "Sakura, I loved Clive as well. He was like a father, and I could trust him. And now that he's gone there will always be this hole in my heart that he once filled, but I have no way of patching the hole up. We all share that...but...if we hold onto everyone else we can at least cover over the hole so we forget it's there." The young man nodded to his words as he found them sounding correct. He was worried he would sound odd. "That is what Clive wanted of us. He died destroying his sins so that we would not have to inherit them. So that he could stop history from repeating itself." Jet walked up to her, but faced to her right, towards the coffin of the man he spoke about. Slowly he turned his face to see Sakura, "Hate me if you must, but remember that I love you anyway." Closing his eyes he took in a breath. "I hope that someday we can be friends again."

"We will be…but not today."

"Yes, I can understand." Jet nodded with acceptance. He made his way over to the coffin and ran his hand along the wood. "You were so pathetic to die atoning for sins no one would punish you for." He spoke softly to himself, and only to himself. He formed a fist as it sat atop the wooden box. "If I only….If I only was stronger I could have saved you. My Raven's Wing and lack of training made me too weak to save you." The carpenter hung his head in defeat. Sakura was right to blame him. He didn't try hard enough. He was too weak. He deserved to fail. He should have been the one to die though for his weakness. Not Clive. "Peace often makes the soldiers forget that fighting occurs…I suppose if I hadn't been one of those soldiers you would be standing with me now." With one last grit of his teeth and a groan of regret, Jet left the coffin behind.

Virginia in the meantime had walked up to her one-time rival, and now friend, Sakura. Looking at her softly with her usual kindness Virginia spoke in Jet's defense. "Jet is in pain as well. He feels responsible, and, you know that isn't true, so, please, do not make him feel worse by blaming him."

Sakura nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry." The silver-haired woman replied. "I know it wasn't his fault…but…I need someone to blame."

"Then blame the Ark of Destiny or Ken Ninomara for helping to create the sins Clive gave his life to atone for." The brunette suggested before leaving the rest for the coffin as well to say her final farewells. "You were always the greatest, and I don't think we would have made it anywhere without you, Clive. Your skills were needed by us, and we eventually took them for granted." She looked to the sky. "Y'know…I was going to have you walk me down the aisle at my wedding. Now you will never have that honor." She slowly looked back to his coffin. "Clive…I hope it was worth it."

Gallows was in the meantime giving the young Winslet a hearty hug. He always gave the best. After paying his respects to the family, he moved to the coffin to say a final good-bye to the professor of the group. "You always seemed invincible in my mind…but I see now that you weren't." Gallows chuckled even though it was sort of sad. "You and Virginia always put your trust in me, and I thank you for believing in me like that. It helped me accept my own destiny. I sort of feel that it was better having you for the time that I did, than rather never at all."

By the time he had walked away Emilia had come to the casket watching it carefully as the sun was setting in the distance. Soon it would be nighttime on the shore that was near Humphrey's Peak. She looked down at the box. "You died in battle…I should see that really as an honorable death…but I cannot." She shook her head unconsciously. "It's seems that your death will only be the same as mine…and I will die to atone for what sins I carry as well. Aries and Rufus have proven that to me. I wonder sometimes how many more people there are out there that have a wish that I die." She hung her head thinking about how her past sins keep coming back to haunt her. Eventually would she end up in the same position as Clive? "I don't want to live like you did. Die like you did. To suffer and die in an effort to atone." The engineer formed a fist out of desperation. "I won't die like that. I'm going to live so you don't have to. I'm not letting those damned sins weigh me down more than they should."

Pike had come to the box, but had nothing to say. He couldn't sum anything up, and simply decided not to say anything to the deceased, and left just as soon as he had come.

Adven meanwhile came to Sakura's side and put his hand in hers' in a brave and bold step for him. "Sakura, I won't die and leave you like this. No matter what. Death will not take me from you."

"Adven?"

"I've always got your back…so don't be afraid to fall." He said without glancing her way at all.

She nodded and gave him a soft squeeze of the hand. "Thank you, Adven. I know that I will always be able to count on you." She took her steps and walked up to the coffin with Adven at her side. She spoke to Clive in thoughts, in order to say her final good-bye to him, though she did not like that thought. "You must frown down on me now. How harshly I treat Jet…you would be disappointed in me." She hung her head. "I just hate that as soon as we were able to come together, I lose you. Thank you though, for the time and love you did give me though."

Adven himself, had words to say to the deceased man as Sakura walked away slowly. "You have nothing to worry about." He simply said. "You can count on me to help everyone through this. I will regret not being able to gain some of your wisdom and help though, as I step into a time of life that will only be harder on me." He smiled though despite the sadness of the situation. "I will think you might regret not being able to see your daughter grow and wed, and that you never got to see Sakura truly happy. I swear I will just have to do that in your place though."

Clive's daughter was too afraid though to say her farewells to the father, so she joined the rest on the return back home. Catherine was left to the box. Later once the sun had fallen, Jet and Gallows were instructed to throw it to see and set it on fire. It would be Clive's funeral pyre despite his body not surviving to make it. Still, his artificial leg was left behind, and it had to be destroyed and sent off as if it were his own body. It was just the proper thing to do.

For the time being Catherine ran her hands along the top of the box. Feeling as if the man was really there. She held such a fond look in her eyes as she stared at it. Carole had fallen ill after finding the news a bit nerving. She was saddened that not only did Clive die, but everyone else was in such a similar danger. She was so relieved everyone else survived that it hurt. That was why Carole could not have made it out here today.

Still, Catherine was the one who was left to deal with her farewell. How she wanted that he could remain with her. She spent so many years waiting for him, and was anxiously waiting for the time not much unlike the past two years where they lived together in a calm atmosphere with no worries. Still, she had known about the sins he had that weighed him down, but thought they would never lead to this point. She had lost her father already, so she was capable of handling such a change. Still, how it hurt her so.

The wife smiled brightly though. "You have nothing to worry about now, Clive." She told him. "You can count on me to help your daughter through this. To help your friends and the girl named Sakura who had grown so attached to you. They are as much my family as they were your own after all." She looked to the orange sky with a red portion near to the sun. Tomorrow would be a nice day if she believed in the superstition that red sky at night meant sailor's delight. "I always knew life was haunting you. I knew this would happen, and that is why I already was prepared for this, but it hurts me anyway. Still, I will keep strong so that your family will remain strong as well." She placed her finger to her lips and then to the box in some odd kiss. "Farewell, Clive."

It was perfect timing that the last moment they had together was the same moment the sun set on them. Though she soon walked back to town as the others did to eat dinner. They would all probably end up telling tales about Clive and everything. How he acted. And in the nostalgic moment they probably will laugh so much it will hurt. Somehow a funeral often started sadly, but by the end, people found their love for the lost one, and they will have so many tales, or hear so many tales, and recover some fading memories that they almost lost, and it would bring smiles to them. It was an odd occurrence, but one that was welcomed.

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I am getting really slow. I looked back at Book 1, it took me two days to write over twenty chapters to it. So far it's been five days and I only have two chapters of twelve for Book 13, this being one of them. So…slow updates is all I can say.