Here's the next one. I don't own Monty Python by the way. I just enjoy watching it. Enjoy.

Looking around, Ryo sighed.

"We're dead, aren't we?" Ryo asked, seeing that he and Shin were in a foggy graveyard.

"Yep. I had a feeling that Shu would be the death of me." Shin smirked, "At least in death, we're provided a deck of cards and each other, and strangely, I'm at peace with it."

Ryo put his hand into his pants' pocket, "Hey, you're correct about the cards."

They stood in silence before Ryo spoke again.

"Who was first to go?"

"I was. Direct hit from Shu but I took Masafumi with me." Shin sighed, now leaning on his assumed gravestone, "This is what Suzunagi showed us isn't it?"

"Looks like it." Ryo said, looking around, "So now what?"

"Wanna play a card game?"

"You'll have to teach me something."

"That's fine. We have plenty of time."

Sitting at the table in Nasuti's house, everyone was trying to cope with what happened an hour ago. Seiji was tapping the table with his fingers. Shu sat in a corner with his head in his hand. Touma was banging his head against the table. Not saying anything, Nasuti brought a pot of tea out to them. She tried to not spill it all on Touma as Seiji slammed his hands on the table.

"I should have been there with you guys." Seiji said.

"You were busy helping the others. You didn't know." Touma spoke in a soft tone.

"Still, nothing good ever happens when the five of us are split."

"I'm heading home guys." Shu said, "I'll be at the restaurant if anyone needs me."

"Are you going to be alright?" Touma asked.

"Yeah, I just need some alone time."

Touma sighed after the front door shut, "So what do we do about Rekka and Suiko?"

"Suiko needs to go to Hagi. Rekka, well, I don't know." Seiji said, "I'll take care of the armors. You have family to go home to."

"And leave you the burden of taking care of our friends?" Touma raised an eyebrow, "I think not."

"Okay, but you have to deal with Sayoko then." Seiji said, "I can't talk to crying women."

"I'll tell her." Nasuti sighed, "You two sometimes."

"Women cry, and then we feel bad." Touma said, "I'll call the football team and let them know that Ryo isn't going to be playing."

"Oh no," Seiji let out, "That's going to be all over the news."

"Yeah, that one is going to be a headache." Touma sighed.

"Do you have a pair of twos?"

"Go fish."

Ryo threw his cards down, as he barely had any pairs to Shin's seven pairs, "This game is dumb. Do you really not have any of those cards?"

Shin laughed, "You wanted an easy game to learn and yes, I didn't have a two, a four and a king."

"It's too easy for you."

"We can go back to crazy eights."

"No, teach me something else."

"The two of you should learn to be quiet and let the graveyard sleep in peace." They heard.

Turning, there was a man dressed in red. On his clothing was the Rekka symbol.

"You used to wear the armor." Ryo said.

"Yes, this is the graveyard with the previous owners who try to spend the rest of eternity with peace."

"What are we supposed to be doing here?"

"Anything that take your spiritual mind off of death. Most of us sleep." His tone was not one of joy.

"We'll move then." Shin said, grabbing Ryo's shirt.

They headed towards a single cherry blossom tree in the middle of the yard. There was a table beneath the tree with a single person sitting there. It didn't take long for the two of them to realize that it was Fionnuala waiting for them.

"I thought that it was the two of you I brought here."

"Death kinda rained down on us in the form of rocks." Ryo tried to joke.

"Sad. You two had a lot to look forward to."

"Is there a way we can get back?"

Fionnuala's sad smile turned into a frown, "There is, but I'm not sure that the Lord of Death will grant you permission to leave."

"We have to deal with Donn?" Shin gave Ryo a look, "We are not on his good side."

"Yeah, but we have people depending on us to be there." Ryo responded, "We still have things to do."

"I can bring you there." She said, cheerfully, "That is, if you want?"

"Of course. Shin?"

"Yeah, let's go."

She led them out of one graveyard and into a larger one. She explained that this one was where most people went. Both of the warriors noticed that there were people of all ages, chatting away with each other. Occasionally, one would look up at them and then continue what they were doing. A couple of people with smiles waved. Shin would wave back.

"Is everyone that friendly here?" Shin asked.

"What else is there to be? Anger is useless here."

They stopped in front of a stone building. The stone door was similar to the one off the coast of Ireland.

"So this is it then?" Ryo said, "Another hallway of statues?"

"Yes, and it has gotten longer since the last time you entered the hall." Fionnuala said.

"Creepy." Shin said, "I don't suppose we can find family before we go in."

"Take what time you need." She said, "When you're done, I'll be here to open the doors, but I can't go with you. You both need to do it on your own."

Ryo nodded, "Are you going to look for your mother?"

"Yes."

Turning to the crowd, Shin knew there were a lot of people to go through. Ryo had already gone in one direction, so he took another. It didn't take long until he saw someone wave and call his name. Looking at the man, he realized it was the flight engineer he had tried to save.

"Yo, you bit it too?" the man asked.

"Not at the same time you did." Shin frowned, "I tried."

"No worries."

"You're not mad?"

"At first I was, but then I realized how dumb it was to blame you. Whatever happened to the shooter?"

"I threw him."

"Off the helicopter?"

"No, I ran into him again, and tossed him into a cave. It's a long story."

"We have the time."

"Maybe another time; I'm looking for someone."

"Alright. Later then."

Continuing his search, he started to follow a stream that ran through. Something was telling him that she would be near. The stream continued until it became a small pond. There was a bridge that stood before the pond. On it was two people. One was his mother and the other was someone he thought he recognized. When his mother looked up, he saw her smile turn into a frown. The man looked like he was about to leave until his mother grabbed his hand.

"Shin," he heard her say as he walked closer, "What happened now? It wasn't because of smoking was it?"

Shin laughed, "No mother, it wasn't."

"It was the armor stuff then?"

"Yes. It was a miscommunication between Shu and I and I paid the price of it." He watched her start to cry, "Oh don't cry mom."

"Sorry, I just can't believe that after everything that happened this year that you would be killed by sweet, friendly Shu."

"It wasn't completely his fault." Shin said, then looked at the man next to her, "Who's this?"

"You don't remember from the pictures."

The man cleared his throat, "I won't let the boy strain his mind. I'm Sayoko's father."

"Oh no." he heard his mother say.

"What?" Shin put a smile on his face, "You must be messing with me. You mean our father?"

"You didn't tell him." The man's tone was serious.

"No. I couldn't tell my sweet little Shin about everything."

Shin's smile went away, "There's more, isn't there? He's not my father?"

"Yes." His mother sighed, "We had a few relationship problems before you were born."

"So who is the man that's really my father then?"

"You might remember him." His mother paused to remember the man's name, "Pierre Blanc's his name."

"The French business man who would always buy the plate sets and bring us candy?" Shin's eyes grew wide, "Mom, that's something to tell your kids. Does Sayoko know?"

"She does, but you were such a sweet little boy. I couldn't break your heart about the truth, and it's not a big deal anymore. It's not like you're alive."

"But that's something I should have known!" Shin slapped his forehead, "I came to say 'hi' and 'goodbye' because Ryo and I are about to try and become un-dead."

"Oh dear."

Shin breathed in, and let it out to calm himself, "It's alright. I'll be fine. It just explains a few things. Wait, does Touma know this?"

"Touma is a very smart man. It certainly didn't take him long when he was looking at pictures."

Shin mumbled a few choice words that were uncommon for him.

"So how is Sayoko?" his mother asked trying to change the awkward conversation.

"Last time I knew, she was stressing about the shop and I." He sighed, "But, the shop looks better than before."

"That's good." She turned to the other man, "You're family's shop is still running, although we moved to Yamaguchi."

"I assume my family didn't give you all grief about it."

"Oh, they did." She said, "But they settled down after seeing how much more space we had."

Shin interrupted them to let them know he was leaving. Although it was nice seeing her again, Shin left confused and betrayed. Mostly confused, as why he started to understand why things were kept, he wondered why no one else told him.

"So, how was it?" Ryo asked after finding him.

"I'm confused."

"Oh, what happened?"

Giving him a quick rundown, Ryo shook his head, "That's so messed up in every way."

"Yep."

"So I found Luna again. She was glad to see me. And even though I didn't really know her, my mother said 'hi'" Ryo smiled and then frowned, "I hate this place."

"I do too."

The hall after entering the doors was very much like before, except that the duo could see statues of themselves. After comparing them and deciding that the stone was too lifelike, they started down. The walk down was quiet, as neither of the two knew what was going to happen. Walking into a giant room with similar doors on the opposite side of the room, they stopped in the center. A part of them were waiting for an attack like before, but instead the large doors opened. A booming voice was heard from inside the doors.

"So, you come here looking to become alive again."

Walking into the doors, they saw a cloaked man. His skin was dark, and his short beard was white. He sat on a throne, leaning on a scythe.

"And please," he laughed, "Why should I let two of the warriors who stopped me from entering the living world return? This will be amusing."

Both stared at each other before Ryo spoke, "Because we're needed to protect the world from evil."

The man laughed, "That is what I thought you would say, and it is sad because it's not good enough for me."

"Then what do you want to hear?" Ryo's temper was beginning to flare.

"Boy, I am the Lord of Death; Donn, Hades, the Grimm Reaper, Freyja, Azreal, Anubis." He spoke, "Death entertains me and yours was quite amusing. You tried to kill a man holding a friend hostage and another friend was so blind to what was going on that he doomed the two of you to me."

"It was a mistake." Shin said calmly, "He must have thought that he was protecting us."

"Ah, Shin Mori. You are an interesting boy, you know." Donn turned to him, making Shin feel small, "I am going to describe a situation and I want you to tell me who is correct. Several men in some sort of uniform come to your village saying that they are protecting others, but because you feel threatened you decided to fight and those in uniform react by ending your life. Who is correct?"

Ryo could see that Shin went pale.

"That's not a fair comparison." Shin mumbled.

"Maybe because you at one point were the man in uniform. Now tell me why I should let you reenter the living world when that poor boy, which he was only protecting his siblings, should stay here and suffer? And why should I let the two of you go if you attacked a man who was protecting himself?"

"Masafumi was the bad guy." Ryo yelled.

"Was he? He simply wanted his brother's armor to take the Demon World."

"He attacked us."

"You attacked then him." They hear Donn let out a sigh, "We can go on for all eternity, and the two of you have not given me anything that's different than anyone else who can come here."

"So you are not going to bring us back then?" Shin asked.

"Not unless you can prove something for me. I will forget about what you have done to me in the past. A clear slate." He then let out a laugh, "I want you both to condemn an innocent soul to an unbearable afterlife. They must be unwilling to give their soul up or I will not let you return. For if you want to return to help, you must also know what it is like to send one to suffer. Bring one soul here and I shall consider you both worthy of the lesson of death. Now leave."

After leaving the room, Ryo turned to a wall, hitting it hard and letting out a yell.

"That's so unfair!"

Shin leaned against the wall. He didn't speak.

"You're not going to agree with me?"

"It's not that I don't agree with you. I'm wondering if it is really worth it." Shin sighed, "The people here seem happy. I'd hate to send one to a living hell."

"So we stay?"

"I don't know Ryo. I can't decide."

"You've killed people before. It should be easy for you to condemn someone."

"It's different. The people I've ended were trying to kill me, but most of the people here I've never known, and I probably won't." Shin's tone became heated, "It is two different things."

"Is it though?"

"Now you're starting to sound like him." Shin straighten up.

"But he's asking you to do the same thing as you've done before."

"It's not the same thing!" Shin yelled, "You would have done the same thing I did if our spots were switched. And now you're afraid to commit a wrong so you're trying to put it on me. Yes, my hands are stained, and yes, I want to go see my sister, and friends too, but I'm not someone who will easily pick greed over happiness. I would rather stay here."

Ryo sighed, "I'm sorry. I was foolish to push it all on you."

He felt Shin's hands on his shoulders, "We all have had moments of greed. We're only human. Come on, let's leave here and try to enjoy the afterlife. I think I still have a few card games to teach you."

"I'll pass on the card games for now."

As they reached the other side of the room, both exits slammed shut. The warriors stood back to back, wondering what was about to happen. Donn appeared before Ryo.

"I change my mind. I was reminded that although you are here, the two of you along with your friends tend to have death follow you where ever you go. And some of the other deities disagree with me that you have no purpose left to serve. So after thinking, I will allow you two to go, but when your time comes around again, I expect to see your smiling faces down here again. The dead need to be guided."

"So we're condemned to work for you?" Ryo asked.

"Yes, you both will be able to finish your lives and will work for me when you're done with them. It's only for a couple centuries. A fair trade I do believe."

"Just guiding souls?" Shin asked to make sure.

"Yes. Or you can stay dead. Your choice."

"I hope we're not selling our souls to the devil." Ryo sighed.

"I for one am not the devil. I just provide a lovely place for the dead and I like to fill it. When it comes to the unbearable afterlife, he does it. Life's a laugh and death's a joke. It's true."

Shin laughed, "Apparently you watch Monty Python as well."

"I do. Besides enjoying death, I like comedy, bad Western movies and romance novels." Donn said, "Now leave. I expect to see you two in sixty or so years."

"Shin, are we doing this?"

"Why not? It's only for two centuries."

"Then I'll write that rain check. Enjoy your lives. They are about to become painful. Very painful"

Besides the bright light, they could hear Donn's laughter. As the light lessened, pain filled their bodies. Looking around, they could see that they were in the Demon World. A couple of Youja jumped from surprise and ran off. Kayura soon appeared, wondering why she was being dragged into the cellars.

"Ryo? Shin?"

"I feel like the earth crashed on me." Ryo let out.

"My nose is broken." Shin said.

Rajura and Anubisu soon ran in to help cover any wounds. Giving Ryo a look, Shin laughed. The warrior of fire soon joined in, ignoring the pain.