AN: Surprise! I bet you didn't expect to see me so soon. I am putting this Author's Note at the beginning because it just felt awkward at the end. I hope you guys enjoy the newest chapter. I am just going to go ahead and say that there will only be two more chapters after this one. You can probably figure out who those two chapters will be about. The end is near! Once again I want to thank everyone for all your support and your continued reading. This is long overdue but I want to thank Yessica-N for her story The Many People You Meet in Heaven. My story was partly inspired by hers and she deserves much love. Her story is in my favorites and you should definitely read it. Well I will stop rambling so you guys can read. Enjoy!

Tatsumi ignored the hand upon his shoulder. Why would he want to open up his heart only to have it ripped apart? He couldn't bear to see any of his friends again only to have them ripped from his arms. He thought that had made peace with the dead, but he realized that he had only learned to make his guilt tolerable. By now Tatsumi had seen the pattern; he knew that in all likelihood the hand upon his shoulder was Chelsea's.

Chelsea. If there was anyone he had truly failed it was her. If he had just been faster, if he had been able to defeat Kurome, then Chelsea wouldn't have died. She wouldn't have been killed and then they wouldn't… they wouldn't have cut off head and used her as a symbol of the Capital's power.

The hand upon Tatsumi's shoulder tightened its grip; he knew that he would have to face her, and he knew that she would probably hate him. Tatsumi took a deep breath, then slowly lifted his head from the ground and opened his eyes. He was ready to see Chelsea's disapproving gaze, but he was not ready to see a horrifying white mask mere inches from his face. What else could Tatsumi do but scream?

Bols jumped back and started rubbing his head with his hand, "Sorry Tatsumi, I didn't mean to scare you."

Tatsumi scrambled to his feet after stifling his screams, "Bols… I didn't… I was expecting… I mean what are you doing here?"

Bols clasped his hands in front of his body and either grimaced or smiled at Tatsumi, he could never really tell, "I was just waiting for you; I know we didn't know each other long, but I still consider you a friend. Although I understand if you don't feel the same." Bols finished uncertainly. Tatsumi had only briefly known Bols during his time as Esdeath's play thing, but a friendship had started to grow. Tatsumi could relate to Bols's desire to provide for his family just as Tatsumi desired to save his village. He saw that Bols was a good man in terrible circumstances.

Bols's family. The thought of them was like a knife to Tatsumi's heart. Now he understood why he had to face Bols. The man was just as Tatsumi remembered him, scars and all. He simply stood there and looked at Tatsumi, his mask obscuring his feelings. Tatsumi was just about to open his mouth to say something, anything, when a small screaming object suddenly slammed into Bols' back.

Bols staggered forward a few paces with the weight of the blow and started to turn when several more screaming shapes charged into his legs and brought him falling to the ground. Tatsumi started moving towards Bols, but stopped when he realized that the small objects were children.

Children. Here.

The full implication of this brought tears to Tatsumi's eyes which he quickly wiped away. For their part the children were climbing over Bols' fallen form while he tried to pick them off of him. Their combined laughter echoed through the air.

That's when Tatsumi realized that this new world had taken the shape of a courtyard surrounded by a large brick building. The building had huge windows, and through these windows Tatsumi saw rooms full of children of all ages either sitting in desks or playing with one another. Some adults could be seen scattered amongst the children trying to instill some semblance of order or simply being mobbed by tiny assailants.

Bols had finally managed to get back to his feet; the kids were still clinging to his body, attached to his neck and his legs. His laughter was loud and Tatsumi could hear him addressing each child by name trying to get them to calm down. Happiness seemed to radiate off of him, happiness coming from a man who had been murdered and taken from his family.

The kids finally detached themselves from Bols and then turned inquisitive stares towards Tatsumi. One little boy swaggered up to Tatsumi and stared into his face, "Who are you?" he challenged.

"Timothy, we talked about this," Bols lightly scolded.

The boy quickly dropped his gaze and gave a muted, "Sorry," before lifting his eyes and then thrusting his hand out, "Hi. I'm Tim, nice to meet ya!"

Tatsumi shook the little boy's hand, "Tatsumi," he stated with a smile starting to lift the corners of his mouth.

The boy nodded his head, satisfied with Tatsumi's answer, and then retreated back towards Bols and the other children. The children started pulling Bols towards a playground on the far side of the courtyard. Bols looked back over his shoulder at Tatsumi, but then allowed himself to be pulled along.

"Cute aren't they?" a voice asked directly behind Tatsumi. Tatsumi turned to look for the speaker and saw her. Chelsea stood smiling only a few feet from him. Tatsumi froze. She looked so much like when she was alive. He knew that he should say something, but he also knew that there were no words that could express how much her death had weighed on him. "Oh come on, stunningly beautiful is just a saying," Chelsea laughed. Tatsumi just opened and closed his mouth, no words forming. He couldn't comprehend how she could be so calm, how she could stand to even look at him.

Finally Tatsumi said the words that he had whispered to himself a hundred times, "I'm sorry." After the first time, it was like a floodgate had been opened; he couldn't stop, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," The words flowed out of him like the tears from his eyes. He fell to his knees as he continued to sob, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Chelsea moved forward and placed her hands on Tatsumi's head before pulling him into her arms and cradling him. "Shush," she whispered into his ear, "you'll scare the children." But Tatsumi needed a release for the pain that had haunted him so she let him cry out.

"You know who these kids are?" she finally spoke after several minutes. "These are kids who are waiting for their parents." Tatsumi continued to sob quietly into her embrace; Chelsea started lightly stroking his hair, "Each and every one of these kids died before their parents. Some died in the Capital's training programs, some died at the hands of vengeful Revolutionaries. But you know what? To these kids and their parents it doesn't matter why they died. It doesn't matter if they died for some noble cause or if they died in some unfortunate accident; all that matters is that they are gone. All that matters is that they don't get another Birthday, or another goodnight kiss, or another day. These kids lost everything, but just look at them."

Tatsumi loosened himself from Chelsea's embrace and he turned his head to look at the kids who were playing with Bols. They were laughing and running around just like any kid that Tatsumi had seen when he was alive. It seemed impossible that these kids had been given such terrible fates, fates they didn't deserve, and been able to recover from such tragedy. The last of Tatsumi's tears fell from his face and he finally spoke, "How are you and Bols both here?" Tatsumi couldn't understand how they could possibly work together, "Doesn't Bols hate you?"

Chelsea spoke to Tatsumi, but kept her gaze fixed on the children, "He was the first person I met in this world. While I was still struggling to understand where I was he came up to me, to his killer, and he gave me forgiveness." Now Chelsea had tears upon her face, "When you're alive you have to fight. There's not enough so everyone fights. And when you find something worth fighting for, everything else loses its meaning. You'll do anything to keep those you love alive. But here… here there's enough. You don't have to fight, no one does. You get what you need and you face the consequences of your life." Tatsumi thought about those he had killed, were they here? Could he truly be confident that each life he had taken had deserved it? Hadn't he hurt innocent people too?

"If things had been different we could have been friends, Bols and me." Chelsea's voice shook Tatsumi from his thoughts. "We decided that we would both repay our debts, so we came here. We came where we could try to help these kids find peace, and try to find some ourselves. So we spend every day here, waiting. Waiting for these kids to be reunited. Waiting for families to become whole again." Chelsea was clearly looking at Bols now. Bols seemed to sense her gaze and looked up from pushing the kids on swings and gave her a slow nod. "He told me that every time he closes his eyes he sees his family, and every time he opens them he hopes he doesn't see them." Chelsea pushed herself to her feet and held out her hand to Tatsumi. Tatsumi took it and hauled himself to his feet. "That's the hardest part about this new world. You get everything you want, except those you left behind. You want them here with you, but you also want them to live long lives. As nice as it is up here, life is an experience you only get once."

Chelsea had started pulling Tatsumi towards the center of the courtyard, where a large clear pool calmly reflected the sky above. Once they reached the edge of it she dropped to her hands and knees and stared into the shallow depths of the water. Tatsumi joined her. "I came here and joined so many others who only wished to give these kids some peace. Put it was these kids who gave me peace. They taught me that if you keep hate in your heart you can only hurt yourself here. These kids forgave their killers, just as Bols forgave me, and just as I forgave Kurome."

At the mention of Kurome's name the pool's reflection suddenly shifted from the sky to a bird's eye view of a chapel. From this perspective Tatsumi could see rows of pews illuminated by sunlight shining through stained glass. The chapel was filled with every color imaginable and sitting in one of the pews sat Kurome. She was talking to a bunch of kids who were all dressed similar to her and next to her sat the blond man that Tatsumi remembered from their fight. He was clearly no longer a puppet because Tatsumi saw him throw his head back in laughter over something that Kurome had said.

"In this world we can chose to let ourselves be happy. We don't forget what happened when we were alive, heck that's what defines us, but we don't have to let it destroy us." Chelsea kept her eyes fixed on the pool as she talked to Tatsumi. "You will have to make that choice too. You will have to choose to forgive everyone who hurt you, but most importantly you have to choose to forgive yourself."

Tatsumi turned his gaze to the pool and saw that the reflection had changed. Now he saw Susanoo busily preparing a meal while a white haired man who looked remarkably similar to Najenda chopped vegetable next to him. Tatsumi could see that Susanoo was laughing as he worked.

Then the image changed once again to Seryu who was talking to two people who must be her parents. Seryu's body was free of all the alterations that had been added to her. She seemed so happy, talking to her parents while holding Coro in her arms. Tatsumi sat back on his heels and tried to absorb everything that he had seen. This world belonged to everyone. No matter how he saw them, everyone deserved to be here. They all had to face their demons, but everyone got the chance to try and fix their past wrongs.

Next to Tatsumi, Bols sat down and started staring into the pool. "I have done so many terrible things," Bols' voice was full of pain, "Some of these kids are here by my hand. I keep my scars so that I never forget how I lived." The image in the pool changed again. Tatsumi leaned forward to see what was now being shown. Sitting at a table were two figures, a mother and a daughter. Bols reached his hand out and lightly touched the reflection. "Or why I lived."

Tatsumi turned to talk to Bols and saw that Bols, the courtyard, and even Chelsea had all vanished. The world was changing once again. Tatsumi tried crying out in misery, but found he had no more tears left. He had faced so much pain since coming to this world. He had wallowed in misery for as long as he could. So he did the only thing that he could still do. The only thing left after all the pain and all the fighting and all the heartbreak.

He forgave himself.