It's a Secret

by Count Napula

We all know Youko Kurama was a thief, but how did he end up that way? As a young boy he fled from slavery and was found by a mysterious bat demon, who turned him from a slave into a cold blooded thief. This is their story.

19. Truth

Here we are, the last chapter. But the end of the story? No, this story is just a prologue of what will come. Youko's past present and future will unfold. Now let us at last witness the end of his past, and the beginning of his future. Thank you everybody for your reviews, now lets begin.

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It's a Secret: Chapter 19/epilogue

My soul wandered blindly through the fog, thoughts cloudy. I could not sense anything, it was as if life itself had given up on me. I was about ready to give up hope. Like the setting of the sun, my life seemed to be fading fast. All illusion was stripped away, my soul was exposed. I could no longer hide the truth.

There was no light or darkness. I remember thinking that this must be the truth of the universe. There was no black or white, no good or evil, just a vaporal gray. If my body had still been with me, I would have probably been unable to keep my eyes open when faced with this truth. But as it was, I had no sight. All I could do was sense the life around me, or its dismal absence.

Like a wave on the shore, I felt as if I was being washed gently to a destination, only to slide back into an ocean of endless wandering. Now I understood, when a soul left its body, the past was gone. All that it could do is move forward, much like any creature. A flower never lost magnificence when facing its death. I no longer felt anything. My endless curiosity was all that I had, my thoughts were what remained.

I wandered for what seemed like hours, but couldn't have been that long. At the time though, all sense of time and direction were gone. After I had left my body, nothing was holding me down. My identity had been stripped away, leaving only my soul. My soul. The only way I can possibly come near to describing what a soul is is the word life. That is what life is, existence. In a sense, you can never truly die, as long as your soul remains. Kuronue was alive, he just no longer resided inside a vessel. It didn't matter what happened to a body, the soul was important.

I realized this, but without feeling, I couldn't appreciate its importance. My soul wandered endlessly. If I think back I can still feel that sleepy emptiness that I had become. In a way, I had at last found peace. But like a flower, I continued forward. I had no goal in mind, but just continued to drift. If I held still, stopped for any reason, the spell would break. If I had lost my grip on life, my chance at finding a vessel would be gone.

All around me there was nothing. No solidity, no light, just an ethereal reality. For when all attachments fade, you have nothing tying you to the other reality. This was the truth of everything, that vacuum of a macrocosm. Nothing else existed, and I am not sure of anything does now. The philosophers that question the reality of this world are the ones who reach for this truth. In doubting existence itself, they are enabled a glimpse of truth. And there I was, fully submerged in what they seek to know even a minuscule taste of.

But I knew none of this. My soul only knew fog. And wander was all it was willing to do for a long time. There is a real possibility that years passed in that alternate dimension. But I have no way of knowing this, for in the world of time, little actually went by. If it seemed that long, then why should I doubt that it was? In my wildest dreams, I never would have thought that reality could be that way.

How is it possible for one world to seem so real, but for another to be just as true. Can the two in fact exist side by side? It is a question that nobody will ever be able to answer. Is it possible for one world to be so vibrant and lively, while another is so somber? I wouldn't think so, but how else can you explain it. When one life ends, it is gone. But the soul's destruction was the only way for that to happen.

So when a soul is wandering, do not seek to aid it. It is a life, but of a different sort. Desire, what moves us all, doesn't exist to a soul. There is no need to be concerned for a soul that wanders. Nothing will harm it, what I witnessed hasn't changed. No light has been shed on what happened then. Every time I think back I remember wandering. That fog is truly all that there was there, nothing else can be discovered by looking back on it.

Then the gray faded, and a world of color overtook me as I exited that reality, and reentered my own. Spread out before me was a strange place, one I had never seen before. My thoughts, my memories, they flooded back into me with such force that I feared being lost in the torrent. My awareness returned, and with it, my goal. I remembered what I had to do, why I was like this. As I looked at the panoramic world below me, I sensed the life within it.

I was in the Ningenkai. My soul had found a way to cross the barrier, an alternate way through. No sounds reached my ears however, all I heard was the rush of air around me. I could not sense a vessel that was open to me. All of the humans, creatures, and even the plants here resisted me. Not one of them would do. I felt time was running out, soon, my soul would be called away from this place.

I paid no mind to the strange things around me, there would be time enough later to examine this place. I needed to find a body, and fast. I searched, time had once more seized control. I had no idea where to go, so I did all that I knew how, I searched out the plants. There appeared to be a large concentration of them not far from where I was. I sought them and found myself looking down at what I now know is the park.

There weren't very many humans around here. But one of them caught my attention. It was a female. It was the soul nestled deep inside her though, that caught my attention. Inside of her, a new vessel was growing, and another soul had made a home in that empty place. The vessel was still open though. Very few souls wandered, so Rekai usually placed a soul inside of new vessels. Any number of souls could enter a growing body. So here, among these inferior human creatures, I had found my salvation.

I strung the spell through the young body, and as I did so, my soul was pulled into it. The strand was tied off as it returned to the ruby. The amulet was with me, it attached itself to souls, so it had been named the devil's amulet. Housed with my soul, though I can solidify it at any moment, is that amulet. So I had successfully cast the spell. The other soul beside me was welcoming, there was plenty of room in this warm place for the both of us. I felt a need to be close to this soul. As we resided together here, a bond was formed between us. Much like the mating bond I had had with Kuronue. I wrapped myself around it, we were together now. I felt a certain love for this being that I protected here. Much like what I felt for Kuronue. I felt that might be a problem.

It would take about ten years for the body to gain use of my power. Then the two of us would leave together. Yes, we would return to the band in demon world. But until then, we would be a flower. We would grow here as a human child, and without dwelling on the past. We had a chance at the future now. Together, we would create another being. Merged, when air was granted to us, our journey would begin.

My part of us felt truly happy for the first time in a long time. I had done it, my soul had found a way to survive. Kuronue would be happy as well, because I lived. If he was happy, that was what mattered. When my death arrived, then we would meet again. Now before me were infinite possibilities, the truth of what would happen was concealed once more. What my future is, it's a secret. Hidden from even me, it is the greatest secret in existence.

"and that my love, is what happened to me."

The End

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That's the end of my story. I couldn't make this any longer that it is, I really did try. The story of Youko's past has been told, and now his future will unfold. I am making a sequel to this set after the series. It will be called Words Once Spoken, and will probably be out in a few weeks, so be on the lookout or put me on Author Alert if you want to read it. Thank you very much for reading my story and especially for reviewing. Please leave a review with your thoughts about the story. And that's all for It's a Secret.

For those of you who don't read the little blurbs, I hope this gets your attention. Words Once Spoken, the sequel to this should be out in a few weeks.