Epilogue
"The price of freedom
Extends deep beyond knowing
Lives are spent to hold a kingdom
And still the odds are appalling."
"The earth bleeds
With mud and rock
As her children seed
Their bodies in death and shock."
"Birds and beasts, FLEE!
It is too dangerous here!
Run through the burning and broken trees
Where war and death will not peer."
"Two thousand march
Only a hundred and half alive
To tell the tale under quiet arches
Long after they've survived."
"The heavens cry
'Tis not the way of things
One must fight one and die
Not this aimless slaughter by kings."
"The sky hides her face
And the heavens weep
Wondering when death's embrace
Shall send them all into sleep."
"Cease this slaughter!
End this violence!
The taste of victory turns bitter
As the plain is consumed by silence."
"Remember this, all who know, all who read
So long as this place stands
War shall not be the victor, nor the seed,
It can only be born and spread, lest its sister peace, take hand."
Excerpt from the Y. Memorial of Hitori Japan.
OOOOO
It's been six months since I destroyed Sassamashin. Because of his interference in the evolution of my ghost form, my sight was once more been taken from me in my human form. I paid a great price for the gift of the power to defeat Sassamashin.
The town, by grant of the, surprise surprise, Japanese government, gave the town easily enough money to rebuild the town and take down the military equipment. As close as is possible, things around town have returned to normal, even though a good chunk of the population right now is pretty well just workers rebuilding.
The first thing they did was put up the monument mentioned above on the east side of town, as to honour the battlefield, and the men and ghosts that fought and died there to protect us all. Basically, repairs and all that are pretty much complete, and people will be allowed to return and live again within a month or so.
Suzuki and his guys, to make sure that no unwanted ghosts got through the portal, and to avoid detection from the government, still being wanted and all that, have moved their base of operations north, so now Arrean will have someone to talk to. I hear that he and Snow are pretty close. Friendwise, I mean.
So, they've helped me out doubly, they saved the town, and "Yurei Ninja" can retire. It was fun at first, I don't doubt that, but I just can't seem to want to fight anymore. I suppose it all went out of me upon hearing of Tai's death. Rest assured, my fighting days were over.
Or, so I thought...
XXXXX
And so it has ended. Part one has ended (in case anyone noticed, in the little poetry bit at the beginning, the quotations mean a new paragraph. I couldn't space things evenly, thanks to this stupid piece of crap I'm supposed to call a computer!).
I'm going to take about a month or so off before I start writing a fic I more recently thought of, called "To Hunt a Soul". See ya then!