Decades
He didn't intend to live the longest out of all of them but he does and he feels ashamed for it, like it was some dirty little secret he carries and he cannot even share it with anyone. He knows he doesn't deserve it, or perhaps it in itself was a sort of punishment for his sins. Five years ago, he had caught a glimpse of the paper announcing the death of the business tycoon Atobe Keigo, and he knew he was the last one. He wonders why he lives so long, and for a brief moment he doubts whether he really is alive and he isn't stuck in his own hell of unknowing. He doubts that Satan had such a sense of humour.
Shishido can no longer move, he can no longer feel and all he has to seep in is his memory, and he knows that his own God was punishing him for it. He laughs, and he hears the sound, but he knows that his body was beyond that function. How long has it been since he began counting age in decades and not years?
Had he been truly happy in this life? He couldn't really answer that question anymore. He had given himself up to fate so long ago and lived with abandoned expectations. He had worked, married, had children, and lived the sort of sordid upper class existence that his parents and grandparents had lived until he was numb. He hates himself for it. It was the easy way out and Shishido does not remember when he had resigned himself to taking the easy route. He had given up his hopes and ambitions to settle into a life that he knew would not hurt him, and retreated to his own little cocoon not to emerge as a butterfly but to slowly die.
His grandchildren put down the newspaper and wheeled him to the television. He does not pay attention until he hears the music, and he stops. His mind is blank and for once in his life, he has no memories. His children and grandchild surround him, and they hear of the excavation of the Gothic cathedral by students of the prestigious Hyotei Academy. There is a song that they play and the sound brings a sort of silence to his family.
Shishido does not have to hear the song to remember, and for the first time in seventy years, a drop of tear falls down his withered cheek.
A/N: expect the next chapter to be up within a week xD. because I'm lazy...