Creation began on 06-04-24
Creation ended on 06-11-24
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Demon Slayer Evangelion: To the Depths of Depravity!
Opening her eyes, Asuka Langley Soryu found herself in a hospital room, indicating that she was in recovery. She had the craziest dream, seeing Shinji in the garden of some sort of mansion, blowing apart some sort of gourd as large as a person their age…and being praised by three girls with tiny, button-like eyes. And he looked a little different from before; he didn't appear to be wealthy or anything, but he appeared to have been working out and was shown to own a pair of swords…along with seeing another Shinji that was…distant and lacking in color in his skin.
Who…was that? She wonders as she rises up. "Hmm… Bleuah…"
The inside of her mouth tasted like crud.
"Ah!" She hears a voice gasp and sees Misato by the doorway, and she runs over and hugs her. "You're awake!"
It was surprising for Asuka to be hugged by Misato this way. Something must've happened that was really bad for this to occur. And then, her memory of what had transpired returned. It was the Fourteenth Angel attack…and nothing they did was affecting it…until Unit-02, which ran out of power and lost both its arms, revived, regenerated its arms, and defeated the Angel.
"How…how long…have I been here?" She asks Misato.
-x-
It was one thing for Tanjiro to try and intervene in this situation with a different member of the Hashira, but it was another thing for Shinji to also intervene and question the Hashira's plan of action if he didn't explain why he needed two of the Butterfly Mansion's personnel.
"Sharing information can go a long way," Shinji tells the guy holding onto Aoi Kanzaki atop the front entrance of the mansion.
"And who are you?" The Hashira questions Shinji; he didn't know who he was, but noticed that he bore a resemblance to Death, the Endgame…if not a little out of place.
"Shinji Ikari…and you are?"
"Tengen Uzui."
"Tengen Uzui? The Sound Hashira?"
"That's right."
Shinji had heard of this man from Rengoku prior to him leaving the mansion two days ago to resume demon slaying, learning that he was a man that liked to do things that were considered…flashy. He was starting to see why, based on the guy's appearance.
"And why are you trying to take Ms. Kanzaki?"
"Because the mission I'm on requires female Demon Slayers."
"Except Ms. Kanzaki isn't a Demon Slayer; she may have passed the Final Selection, but she hasn't been involved in any missions regarding any demons. She just helps out here at the Butterfly Mansion. With the sole exceptions of Ms. Kocho and Ms. Tsuyuri, none of the women that work here at the mansion are really Demon Slayers. Why does your mission require them?"
"Because of the demon that lurks in the Entertainment District."
The next thing Uzui realizes, the Kanzaki girl was no longer in his possession; she had just disappeared from his hands.
"Huh?!" He reacts.
"It seems that I am never able to get a moment's peace when you do something like this, Sound Hashira," he hears the voice of Death as he sees him on the ground behind him with Kanzaki beside him. "Can you not be more adaptable in your methods?"
Uzui frowns at the walking dead that provided his aid to the Demon Slayer Corps and was, apparently, the one that suggested that this young lookalike become affiliated with them. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground in front of the two men.
"Huh?!" He gasps again.
"You take too long to think," Death tells Uzui, "you lose sight of what is happening around you."
"Five seconds is too long to think?" Shinji asks him.
"You," Uzui says to Shinji. "Shinji Ikari, you said? What is your rank?"
"Mizunoto."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Uzui looks at Death and then points at Shinji.
"Seriously?" He questions.
"He hasn't even been a Demon Slayer for a month yet," Death tells him. "Raise your hand up and reveal your rank, Shinji."
Shinji does as he's instructed and reveals his current rank on his right hand, surprising Uzui that he was just a newbie in the Corps.
"And he was able to kill a member of the Twelve Kizuki?" Uzui demands to know. "No way! He must've gotten lucky! Being trained by a dead version of himself with a ghost twin has to be a fluke of the worst sort!"
Punch! Death punched the Sound Hashira in his gut and made him weak in his knees, falling to the ground.
"You don't believe in flukes," Death tells him. "Yes, Mako and I taught Shinji, but training is nothing compared to one's will to act. Our methods were unorthodox, but he survived his first mission. He can only get better now that he's taken his first step. How long did it take you to get where you are now? Don't doubt someone that is a Demon Slayer like you simply because they're starting out. He may eventually be around to save your life one day."
Death stepped back and allowed Uzui to breathe and recover from the blow to his stomach.
"I didn't even see him move that quick," Tanjiro utters.
"Yeah," Shinji replies, "me, neither."
Uzui then looks at Shinji again and looks at his face more thoroughly.
"Tell me something," he says to Shinji, his tone less harsh than earlier, "what do you know about the Yoshiwara Entertainment District?"
"Nothing beyond now," Shinji responds. "An entertainment district? All that can be said about them is that…they come to life when the sun goes down."
"You've never been to an entertainment district before?"
"Not once. Has Death or Mako ever gone to one before?"
"Five in the last eight years," Death states, "but not the Yoshiwara Entertainment District. If there is a demon lurking there at night, it would make sense to hide in the entertainment district; it's a place full of sin and indulgence of the flesh."
"You got that right, and I need help to find the demon at this district."
"Please, elaborate on why."
-x-
Asuka was in disbelief over what Misato had told her about the aftermath of the Fourteenth Angel attack. Not only had Unit-02 defeated the Angel and devoured its S² Engine, but she had been inside the Eva for thirty days, during that time an operation was made to try and restore her body to normal after it was broken down. This was about as intense as it could've gotten for anyone that couldn't deal with the unrealistic. But what really upset Asuka was that after the Fourteenth Angel attack, the majority of Tokyo-3 had been abandoned due to the extremity of the attack, meaning that Hikari and her family had left.
"What now?" She asks Misato as she notices the inside of the Geo-Front was still heavily damaged from the last attack.
"NERV is on standby and operating at only forty-five percent," Misato explains. "Units-00 and 02 are undergoing repairs. We're supposed to be receiving a new Evangelion and pilot in another month, but…"
"Why?" Asuka questions. "I mean, after what happened with Hikari and Unit-03, I doubt that anyone would risk piloting an Evangelion if it's going to be taken over by an Angel. And after what happened with Shinji… I'm not even sure if I can continue myself."
"After the last attack, Commander Ikari put Unit-02 in cryostasis because of how it behaved. As a result of his decision, you're on indefinite suspension from piloting the Eva."
"Which leaves only Unit-00 as the only Eva able to face an Angel."
"It's as you suggested. There's doubt that anyone would risk piloting an Eva if it's going to get possessed by an Angel after what happened with Unit-03 and Horaki."
Asuka then thought back to that strange dream she had before waking up, the one where she saw someone that looked like Shinji…and someone else that looked exactly like him, only paler and almost more…grim and outgoing.
"Before I woke up," she states, "I saw Shinji someplace."
"Oh?" Misato reacts; even if it was just a dream the girl had, it would ease her heart to hear something different about Shinji, even if it was make-believe. "What was he doing?"
"That's the strange thing about it. I saw him…and someone that looked like him…at some old mansion in a place that might've been a rural area. One was blowing through some strange gourd and the other was atop a roof grinding something. And…I think the one on the roof noticed me before I woke up; his voice hollow when he spoke, like he was lifeless or something."
"And the one blowing through a gourd?"
"I don't know if it was a training regiment or just something he was doing, but he seemed more alive than the other one…and not as pale."
"One of them was pale?"
"The one that saw me; he was as pale as a…well, like he was dead. Not pale-skinned like Ayanami is, but worse."
"And he saw you, like…he was the only one that saw you?"
"I don't think anyone else there could see me, even if they wanted to."
Meanwhile, using a wheelchair to get around, Gendo was forced to assess the damages done to the base and the lack of time and resources that NERV had to repair much of it. Despite the success of Unit-02 defeating the Angel, SEELE was upset that disposed of Unit-03 and nearly compromised Unit-02 after the loss of Unit-01. While they would make sure NERV would have the parts needed to repair the Evas, they were not willing to risk Unit-02 or the Second Child to run wild and cause another disaster like before, ordering a suspension of both until the matter regarding them and their continued usage was investigated further.
"Tread with caution, Ikari," SEELE 01 warned him. "Because of this unforeseen circumstance, everyone is at risk."
But even with the warning, it wasn't like he actually cared. In truth, he barely cared about the situation regarding Unit-02 and the Second Child; without Unit-01, his scenario was out of his reach…and without the Third Child, he couldn't achieve what he was after. And he doubted that SEELE would get what they were after, either; if the Dead Sea Scrolls were no longer reliable due to Unit-01 no longer around, whatever events that were detailed to happen were no longer viable to anyone.
"I take it you heard the Second Child is awake?" He hears Dr. Akagi behind him in the damaged hallway; he barely saw her in the days after the Fourteenth Angel attack.
"What does it matter?" He responds.
-x-
Uzui had to give Shinji props for requesting clarification on why he needed help pursuing the demon that might be dwelling in the Yoshiwara Entertainment District. Anything less than sufficient information would risk compromising the mission. And Shinji was trying to comprehend as much as he could about what was going on here. Not only did Uzui's three wives go missing while undercover in the district, but he suspected that the demon dwelling there got wise to them.
"They must be dead," Inosuke claims upon hearing Uzui's lack of reports from his wives.
"We don't know that," Shinji responds to his claim, letting his opinion be heard. "There's been no confirmation from any of them. Until we know for sure, we operate on the assumption that they are still alive."
"Yeah," went Tanjiro in agreement, and then looked down at the letters the three wives had sent Uzui. "So, this demon could be hiding inside one of these three houses in the district?"
"That's right," Uzui says. "Earlier, we narrowed the demon's hunting grounds to these three houses within the district. I sent each of them to one of the houses to investigate, but three days ago, I stopped receiving reports from them."
Death picks up one of the letters and reads it. Then, he smells it.
"Uh, Death?" Shinji questions, confused by his behavior. "Just what exactly are you doing?"
"Oftentimes, depending on where a letter was written, they pick up a trace of where they were before being in transit to who they are being sent to," he explains, picking up a different letter from a different wife of Uzui's. "If there's a scent, however minute, however faded, I will pick it up and can say for sure if a demon was nearby when it was written."
"You can track demons by their scent?" Inosuke asks as Death picks up a third letter, and sees his eyes widen and whiten until the pupils are gone.
"This one," he reveals, handing it to Uzui. "It's faint, but a demon was near as this was written."
"Hinatsuru. I sent her to work undercover at the Kyogoku House. Are you sure?"
Death picks up two letters sent by two of his other wives and smells them.
"The other two houses where they were sent to investigate, I can't pick up the faintest trace of a demon ever being there," he tells him. "It has to be the Kyogoku House. Every other letter written by this Hinatsuru would have a faint scent of a demon nearby. We know where we need to go now. Do you have a plan of action to deal with the demon and rescue your wives?"
"My plan was to send in Demon Slayer women disguised as Oirans to find any information on what might've happened to them."
"I take it it's because you can't go in yourself?" Shinji asks Uzui; based on the guy's looks, he would stand out a mile away from the demon.
"I don't like being unflashy," he explains.
Shinji then looks at Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu and then at Death.
"Do you see an alternative here that I'm not willing to say here?" He asks the Grim Reaper.
"Oy vey, with a little makeup, Tanjiro and Inosuke would likely be able to get inside the house, but not Zenitsu."
"Huh?!" Zenitsu gasps. "Why not me?!"
"You don't have the looks to pass for a girl."
"Aaaahh!"
"Shinji here, on the other hand, can pass for a girl to a degree."
"Huh?!" Shinji reacts.
"You're one of the young men in existence worthy of the designation of a pretty face. So long as nobody knows you're a man, you can sneak around. Unless, of course, it's a demon that comes after you. Plus, it's a good time as any for you to be educated in the ways of the entertainment world in this country."
Shinji frowns at Death's reasoning; as helpful as he was, Shinji felt that this was just embarrassing and insane.
"What is your plan of action?" He asks Death.
Death looks at Zenitsu and sighs as he raises his kama up.
"My apologies, Zenitsu," he goes, "but you'll need to take one for the team."
"Aaah!" Zenitsu screams as Death moves toward him.
-x-
The Yoshiwara Entertainment District was a bountiful place of people dedicated to the business of pleasure in the most despicable form available. At night, it really came to life in a way that made it better than it did during the day. People were walking around, either doing business or looking for a good time…and it bothered Shinji because he was uncomfortable with being in a place where the cost of business was just as worse as the cost of failure in said business as he walked with Tanjiro, Inosuke and the others.
"I still don't get why it had to be me," went Zenitsu, still whining over the fact that Death, despite apologizing for his actions, was killed temporary by the horseman to assimilate his appearance for infiltration.
"If anyone asks, we're identical twins," went Death, wearing an exact duplicate of Zenitsu's face and clothing as he walked beside Shinji, who was dressed in a kimono version of his haori that Death and Mako gifted him with. "I'm starting to regret this choice."
"Why?" Shinji asks him.
"Zenitsu has great potential as a Demon Slayer, but it's hindered by his crybaby attitude and obsession for Tanjiro's sister. In addition, assuming the form of someone that was dead temporarily is an issue due to the person being revived. It's like trying to be someone that isn't dead and you're wrestling with them for the spotlight. He wants to run, which conflicts with my desire to stay."
Shinji faces Zenitsu and frowns at him.
"You two might be twins and everything now, but you need to mature a little more and turn your attitude around if you hope to survive," he tells the yellow-haired boy.
"How can you take his side?" Zenitsu asks. "He killed me."
"You're still alive, aren't you? Get over it. How do I look?"
Zenitsu frowns and replies, "Like a girl."
"Thank you."
Akaza was living on a prayer now. He had to find Shinji Ikari and kill him before he became a greater threat to Muzan…or Muzan would kill him. Either way, he was facing a critical situation due to his failure; either he finds Shinji and does everything in his power to kill him or be killed by him…or face the wrath of Muzan himself, who would be without mercy towards those that fail him.
I'll find you, he thinks as he runs across tree branches. I'll find you and kill you.
-x-
The Kyogoku House was beautiful on the outside, but Shinji was informed that its interior possessed a darkness that was comparable to the darkness within demons. It was also a reminder of how deceiving anything beautiful could be if not taken seriously.
"I'm sorry," went the house manager, Omitsu when being introduced to Shinji, Tanjiro and Inosuke, "but what is wrong with her?"
She actually thought Zenitsu was a girl, Shinji thought as he started working undercover within the house.
"He's upset because our friends here volunteered to help us settle a bad family debt," went Death, using Zenitsu's voice with a softer tone. "But I'm hoping it's only temporary while we find a different solution and come back for them."
But thanks to Death, we've narrowed down the house the demon is hiding in. As we got closer, the scent got stronger, and he can smell the things that we can't. And he'll be close by in case the demon acts up.
"Shinami?" Shinji hears his undercover alias being used by one of the girls living in the brothel house as he was cleaning the floor of a room.
"Yes?" He responds, keeping his voice quiet in order to hide his identity as a boy, turning to face the girl looking at him, holding a tray of food.
"The house mother requests that you take Hina's meal to her room," the girl informs him.
"Understood."
He stands up and walks over to her, accepting the tray of food from her. As soon as he heard the name Hina, he instantly knew that was the undercover name of Uzui's wife that was here. He might've never met her, but she was affiliated with the Demon Slayers, which made her one of them, so Shinji had to do his best to find her and make sure she got away from the demon in one piece…or slay the demon that claimed her life. And based on the faint trace of demonic blood that was in the air as they had gotten closer, Death had been able to give them a basic understanding of the demon that was here.
"If I had to wager," Death stated, "you're looking for a demon in the same league as Akaza of the Twelve Kizuki."
If this was the case, then it meant they were looking for a demon that was of the Upper Rank members of the Twelve Kizuki. But Shinji, simply because he had faced against a member of the Lower Ranks, couldn't run away and let this madness persist. One way or another, this nightmare had to end.
-x-
"…It's only been three hours since they went into the house," Uzui says to Death and Zenitsu as they were sitting in the room of a house with the wisteria symbol, as the Grim Reaper still wore Zenitsu's face while sitting in front of a cup of tea that had been served ten minutes ago. "What can go wrong in three hours?"
"Whatever can go wrong," Death responds, picking up the cup and drinking the tea. "I don't know what level of strength this demon is, but it's not a pushover. As a Hashira, are you prepared to fight beside Death to claim the demon when and if it endangers the lives of the people here?"
"I am prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure the demon is dispatched so that people can walk away from this."
Then, for just a moment, Death shifted out of Zenitsu's appearance and returned to his own guise…and then back into Zenitsu, his face looking ragged for a few seconds before returning to normal, surprising Zenitsu and Uzui.
"What was that?" The Sound Hashira questions.
"A momentary shift," Death explains. "For a moment, just a moment, I thought I caught a whiff of a scent from long ago. A woman that was not the same as she was before, crossing boundaries between life and death, rebirth and despair, light and darkness. But I have my doubts that she'd be here. She lived…lives…for one person only, and neither are here."
"A woman?" Zenitsu asks. "You know a woman?"
"A woman that is not a woman. You could say that she is…half of a woman, but is of the light because she chose her child over an agenda she once had, resulting in a fracture half-life. One of the cursed lives that holds more freedom and redemption than what one can imagine."
"Oh. She has a kid."
Even though it was typical of a young man to only hear what he wanted to hear, Death really was starting to regret killing Zenitsu temporarily to obtain an echo of his innermost self as he was currently. While the guy had potential to become a great Demon Slayer and a better man, he was just a self-loathing person right now because he didn't have a love interest that actually liked him for him.
"You…are a walking tragedy right now," he calls out on Zenitsu. "The sooner you let go of your issues, the sooner you open the doors to other possibilities you can scarcely fathom."
"Ouch," went Mako as he appeared before the three, floating beside Death's left shoulder. "True…but still hurtful."
"Tell me something," Zenitsu says to the ghost infant, "is he (he points to Death) always so…so…like this?"
"Detached? Indifferent? Grim? Obvious?" Mako asks back. "More or less."
"Tell me something," Death utters to Zenitsu. "Why did you become a Demon Slayer when you seem to complain about everything you are told to do? In fact, one of your primary quirks appear to be an incessant whining. You remind me of the life I once lived before realization came upon me that it wasn't even a life, just a waste because of others that were either heartless or devoid of any sense of humanity around the young boy I used to be."
"And just who were you in life?"
"In life…I also went by the name of Shinji Ikari…but in that life, it was nothing more than Hell on Earth for him. The only difference was that he had nobody to complain to about anything or anyone. In his existence, most people that only knew of his parents, not him on any level that constitutes a personal connection, had already made up their minds about the kind of person that he was likely to be. Shunned by the masses, looked away from by the so-called caring hearts of society, and condemned by the ties of blood that were as rotten as the men and women that thrive in the darkness of broad daylight. In a world so rotten to him, who could he complain to? Who would even care to hear from him of his pain and suffering that was amplified to such a degree that it drove him to a breaking point?"
"Your life back then," went Uzui, "couldn't have been that bad."
"You likely had relatives that gave you the time of day," Mako states to the Sound Hashira. "But my brother here, as he was the one to live while I died in the form you see before you, was not afforded such a luxury, even by relatives that he was forced to live with because of the man that was once our father who chose to abandon him. Even with them, pain and suffering were without end because of how they treated him, which only got worse the more he tried to keep his anger contained. In the end, you can only push someone so far before they break…and the anger, the hurt, the suffering that you give to someone…comes back to you, many times worse than you can imagine."
Zenitsu then has to wonder what this guy did to end up where he currently was.
"You're looking to ask," Death tells him. "Just ask the question."
"What did you do in the end?" He asks him.
"Well, it's funny you should ask. The aunt said some hurtful words that ended up becoming her undoing along with her husband and child…and several other people that deserved it in the end."
Even Uzui found his response to be unusual.
"When a breaking point is reached and only the full fury of one's pent-up anger is expressed, one becomes a walking mayhem towards the ones that wronged them," Death continues. "He killed them. He killed each and every one of them. He knew no mercy. He had no mercy. They all deserved in the end. The aunt said hurtful words directed towards her nephew…and she paid the full price for uttering such a cruel belief that haunted her nephew to his final day. If people get sick and die, will they be missed by those that wanted them gone? He decided to see if the reverse was true…and found that he did not miss them at all. He wanted them to go away…and he made them go away. Deprived of any control over his life, he got a taste for murder and bloodshed. He learned the cruelest of lessons that day he became a murderer in response to the people that wronged him: You reap what you sow. Everything you say or do to someone will come back to you in ways you can't comprehend or expect. And when you do things that have negative consequences toward the ones you openly admit to despising, you'd best be prepared to have them decide to want you either in pain or dead."
I guess that explains he has such a different view of others, Uzui thought as he couldn't imagine this guy that once had a heartbeat as being some simple person if he suffered at the hands of people that were kin and treated him like trash.
"So…how many people did he kill," went Zenitsu, "before he died?"
"In one day at the age of five? Eight people. In ten days at the age of fourteen? Almost four-hundred people, and that's including his father. But the day after he escaped from the confines of those that wanted to exploit him, he went from being a boy to a man by climbing up a mountain on his own and coming back down on his own. The boy that goes up a mountain unaided comes back down a man, and no one can call him a fool ever again."
"For some," Uzui says, "that is the only way to escape the status of a boy child and prove to oneself that they are worthy of being a man."
Zenitsu found himself unable to complain about Death's mortal past if he was someone that suffered a life so cruel and heartless. The mere fact that he did the very opposite of complaining about his issues, making the people that caused his issues to go away forever. He may have not been a demon, but he lived with people that were no different from demons…and he exorcised them through his own brand of violence.
"I'm an orphan," he found himself revealing. "The closest person I had to family was Gramps, my instructor. Despite my inexperience and lack of confidence, he put up with me. He was once a Hashira."
"Thunder Breathing?" Death questions.
"Yes."
"How many forms are you able to perform?"
"Just one."
"Thunder Breathing has six known forms," went Uzui, "and you can only do one? That's pathetic. I have never known a Demon Slayer that could only perform one form."
"Which form?" Death wants to know.
"Thunderclap and Flash!" Zenitsu yells, admitting his fault.
"The fundamental form from which all others spread across the world of Thunder Breathing. To master future steps, one must master the very basics of the first step."
"I tried to master the other five forms, but I failed! You killed me! You should know this already! How pathetic is that?!"
"Not according to your memories, it isn't."
"Huh?!"
"From what your instructor informed you, even mastering the first form is beneficial to those that learn Thunder Breathing. The other student he taught alongside you, the one that mastered the other five forms, he's basically your opposite in this case. He's strong and has the experience necessary to master one step after the next…but he skipped the first step. You, due to inexperience and lack of confidence in yourself, know of the other steps…but are only capable of doing the first one. Nobody can truly master all without knowing how to do one thing."
"How can you praise him when he can only do thing?" Uzui asks.
"When I received my kama as my weapon of choice after becoming the Horseman of Death, I was not a master of it. It took me a while, but I got the hang of it. A kama isn't the same as a knife or a sword, but I grew into it. If you need a demonstration, I got no problem showing off."
Now, Zenitsu felt the guy that looked like Shinji and was now wearing his face to walk around without drawing too much attention to himself until it was necessary…was truly scarier than the demons, even though he was an ally to them.
"Mako, just how dangerous is your brother with his kama?" He asks.
"He's tough when he takes the fight serious," Mako expresses. "But no matter the enemy, the competition, not even the weapon of choice, whether it's a kama, a sword or even a length of chain, my brother here, the Restorative Horseman of Death, even when he was named Shinji Ikari in life, is among the most brutal of fighters because he puts it all on the line. His heart may not beat, but his soul compensates in more ways than one."
-x-
Shinji slid the door to Hinatsuru's room open looked inside after announcing his presence…and found the room empty.
"Miss Hina?" He calls out to her, setting the tray of food down to look around. "Hello? Miss Hina? Are you here?"
As quiet as it was in this room, Shinji felt a sense of unease for the moment. Even though he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, as ordinary could have been anything in this universe's time and culture, he couldn't let go of his fear…that he was stepping into a death trap. Left, right, up, down, back and forth, Shinji couldn't stop feeling the unease.
"What are you doing in here?" He hears a female voice utter behind him.
Slowly turning around, he faces a very beautiful woman that he learned earlier was the oiran, the highest-ranking courtesan of the house, Warabihime. Beautiful, graceful, the envy of women and the lust of men. But even as he looks up at her decorated face, beautified to draw in the devotion of those seeking the pleasures of the womanly flesh, Shinji felt like he shouldn't be looking at her…but looking at one of the women from his past. The women that, according to the twins, he still had a longing to see again.
"I'm…just bringing Hina her meal," he explains himself. "Have you seen her?"
To be continued…
A/N: Today was the birthday of one of my brothers who passed away last year. As stressful as it was today with the drama of everyday life, I really wanted to dedicate this chapter to him by finishing it before midnight. I hope that other people today are taking the time to think about their brothers and sisters that aren't around now.