[Team One] Bloodied Endings
So this is the conclusion of the Bloodied!verse. Not to say I might not write more, but this is how the story will end, and I'm... actually rather happy to have realized where it was going and that it has an ending.
Into the dying sun they flew, and Fujigaya felt the darkness disintegrate until there was nothing left but weak slivers of his soul. Beside him, Kitayama became the only source of warmth and comfort left, hand in hand in a death-like grasp, though Fujigaya was afraid to look at them, afraid that even in this cleansing from the darkness, his would be stained.
There had never been time for goodbyes.
Above them, Death smiled.
Passing through the Gates hadn’t been at all what Fujigaya expected - he’d waited for the pain, the tormented agony to set in now that their contract was finished, now that they were allowed to pass through Death, never to return again.
It never came, and they found themselves standing in a grand cathedral, imposing columns of opal and marble, magnificent hourglasses of black sand, littered with moments glowing silver and pure. Scattered about were white-flamed candles, some seemingly random, others placed in sacred formations. But most of all, before them was an altar, though it was shrouded with billowing material, hiding the figure that loomed above it, terrifying and wonderful though neither knew who it was.
What deity could Death's hall possibly worship?
“It’s over, then?” came a voice from one of flickering circles of candles and from it stepped Nakama, followed by Kiriyama, their faces grave, considering.
“It’s over,” Kitayama said, for he found his voice before Fujigaya, for he did not have the remorse constricting his heart. “There will be peace.”
Peace that had come from Fujigaya’s bloodied hands, stained, stained, stained. It had been terrible to kill Subaru, a betrayal of trust, but Fujigaya hadn’t spoken since he’d driven his sword through Takizawa’s chest, since Takizawa had fallen in his arms and claimed by Death.
Silently, he waited, for Death to pass them on, for one of the Others to come and claim them, or at least him, because Kitayama would never be standing in this grand hall of Death if it had not been for Fujigaya’s desperate bargain.
“No,” Nakama said gently, smiling as if he knew Fujigaya’s thoughts. “No, Fujigaya Taisuke, you are not here to be condemned. They did not bring you here for that.” Beside him, Kiriyama smiled as well, and it felt like forgiveness.
“Child.”
It was a voice like nothing Fujigaya or Kitayama had known before, both the howling of the wind and yet the whispering of a forest, the roar of a firestorm and the gentle fall of rain, of sadness and joy and wonder and pain.
The shroud falling away from the altar and the being it had hidden.
Twined around Death was Life, radiant and woeful and unending, and Fujigaya averted his eyes as he and Kitayama dropped to their knees.
“Child,” they said together. “In Life, as in Death, you have served us well, and thus We grant you entrance to Our realm. You may never truly step forward to what others are promised, nor back to what you have known before, but…”
They looked upon them, upon Kitayama and his broken heart, upon Fujigaya and his agonized loyalty, upon their joined hands and the soul that bound them.
“Peace be unto you, My child.”
tag for jojin! jojibear :D
Into the dying sun they flew, and Fujigaya felt the darkness disintegrate until there was nothing left but weak slivers of his soul. Beside him, Kitayama became the only source of warmth and comfort left, hand in hand in a death-like grasp, though Fujigaya was afraid to look at them, afraid that even in this cleansing from the darkness, his would be stained.
There had never been time for goodbyes.
Above them, Death smiled.
Passing through the Gates hadn’t been at all what Fujigaya expected - he’d waited for the pain, the tormented agony to set in now that their contract was finished, now that they were allowed to pass through Death, never to return again.
It never came, and they found themselves standing in a grand cathedral, imposing columns of opal and marble, magnificent hourglasses of black sand, littered with moments glowing silver and pure. Scattered about were white-flamed candles, some seemingly random, others placed in sacred formations. But most of all, before them was an altar, though it was shrouded with billowing material, hiding the figure that loomed above it, terrifying and wonderful though neither knew who it was.
What deity could Death's hall possibly worship?
“It’s over, then?” came a voice from one of flickering circles of candles and from it stepped Nakama, followed by Kiriyama, their faces grave, considering.
“It’s over,” Kitayama said, for he found his voice before Fujigaya, for he did not have the remorse constricting his heart. “There will be peace.”
Peace that had come from Fujigaya’s bloodied hands, stained, stained, stained. It had been terrible to kill Subaru, a betrayal of trust, but Fujigaya hadn’t spoken since he’d driven his sword through Takizawa’s chest, since Takizawa had fallen in his arms and claimed by Death.
Silently, he waited, for Death to pass them on, for one of the Others to come and claim them, or at least him, because Kitayama would never be standing in this grand hall of Death if it had not been for Fujigaya’s desperate bargain.
“No,” Nakama said gently, smiling as if he knew Fujigaya’s thoughts. “No, Fujigaya Taisuke, you are not here to be condemned. They did not bring you here for that.” Beside him, Kiriyama smiled as well, and it felt like forgiveness.
“Child.”
It was a voice like nothing Fujigaya or Kitayama had known before, both the howling of the wind and yet the whispering of a forest, the roar of a firestorm and the gentle fall of rain, of sadness and joy and wonder and pain.
The shroud falling away from the altar and the being it had hidden.
Twined around Death was Life, radiant and woeful and unending, and Fujigaya averted his eyes as he and Kitayama dropped to their knees.
“Child,” they said together. “In Life, as in Death, you have served us well, and thus We grant you entrance to Our realm. You may never truly step forward to what others are promised, nor back to what you have known before, but…”
They looked upon them, upon Kitayama and his broken heart, upon Fujigaya and his agonized loyalty, upon their joined hands and the soul that bound them.
“Peace be unto you, My child.”
tag for jojin! jojibear :D