[Text]

[trademark_skull]

From: Thanatos
Date: Dec 2


While we were in the forest, did anyone happen to see Ronald? ...Or even William or Grell? I didn't hear from any of them while the kidnappings were happening, now that I think about it.

Now I can't find two of their temples either.

[Already he has a feeling what this means. It's happened before. But does not want to admit it yet.]

Comments

text from: Suzaku Kururugi

[swordofzero]

Lady Grell is gone. [He probably should have made sure people knew. He didn't really know any of her friends but should have tried to find out. People deserved to know when their friends had disappeared.]

She wasn't taken in the kidnappings, but she disappeared three days ago whilst everyone was investigating. Mr. Spears has gone too. I'm afraid I don't know Ronald.

[trademark_skull]

[Perhaps, he should have. But also is not his full responsibility either.]

At least they weren't part of that.

They were all from the same world. I wonder if something happened there that they were all sent back at once. It's odd.

[swordofzero]

They were? [He hadn't known that. He's only recently learned that people came from different worlds here.] Perhaps, though Mr. Spears was here first as a shinki. So I doubt he has gone back. [You can't go back when you are dead, after all.]

[trademark_skull]

[Will used to be a shinki? No way.]

Yeah, they were all reapers like me, just from another world. It was interesting to see that we handle stuff differently. [Let alone the problems just being a demon caused. He'll miss Ron for having his back.]

What? Why wouldn't he go back?

[swordofzero]

[Reapers? He's not sure what that means exactly, it occurs to him how very little he had known about Grell.]

If he was a shinki once that means he died, so he can't return to his old life.

[trademark_skull]

[Oh, right. Yeah that would cause some problems. ...Normally anyway. However.]

Actually, I think he had already been dead for awhile. They all were. That's how they became reapers.

[Though it's strange, and makes no sense in his world.]

[swordofzero]

They were all dead? [Different worlds... It seemed a little strange but he was dead and yet he was here, being a shinki. In a different world dying and becoming a reaper might be normal.]

Perhaps that's why they were both gods of death. [So much he hadn't known about Lady Grell.]

[trademark_skull]

All of them.

[It is a weird concept, but it doesn't seem that weird the more he thought about it.]

It has something to do with specifically how they died, I think.

[swordofzero]

Oh [That didn't make much sense, but it's not like they were around to ask.]

You said you were a reaper too? [From a different world, the fact he knows this must mean he was a god here.]

[trademark_skull]

I am. [Right, he should get back to that.]

Death and reapers are all demons in my home though. So it was weird to hear that humans take care of it in other places.

[It's especially odd when he found out that Ron, Will, and Grell were also tasked with disposing demons as well. It certainly made things awkward...]

[swordofzero]

You're a demon? [That was strange as well, though knowing that he came from a different world made it easier to understand. Or at least easier to know why even the concept was not recognisable.]

[trademark_skull]

Yup! [A simple, nonchalant answer. Had it been in voice he would have sounded rather matter of fact.]

[There were other demons here. Val was around somewhere too. He did not need to feel so uncomfortable about it anymore.]

[swordofzero]

[A demon and a god. That seemed like an off combination.]

What exactly is a reaper?

[trademark_skull]

[That was one of the strangest things to get used to.]

They're the ones that bring souls to the afterlife. Without them humans would never be reborn.

[swordofzero]

Does this world have reapers then, do you know? [Are they what brougt them to the far shore? Or did the heavens work differently. After all Kamui had told him that ayakashi had been human once.]

[trademark_skull]

It should. It's got its own place were the dead go. [Not only the shinki, there seems to be a difference somehow.] It could be that one of the older gods is responsible for it.

[swordofzero]

A place that's not here? [That made sense, even accounting for an unknown amount of old gods who had shinki there were not enough shinki in the heavens for all the dead of this world, especially if the new shinki came from different worlds.]

[trademark_skull]

A few months ago, I had to guard one of the entrances. To keep ayakashi away.

[swordofzero]

[He remembered the forest and the child god Ebisu...]

Do you mean the underworld?

[trademark_skull]

Yeah that's the place.

[swordofzero]

I've heard of it. That it was not a good place.

[trademark_skull]

Well, it is a place for the dead. I guess it's not always the happiest place.

[He's never seen the inside, but since only so few souls become shinki it could possibly something like this world's version of Hades? If that were the case, only the sinful ones go down there. And if that is true, those souls are going to be in for a bad time.]

[swordofzero]

I guess not.

[It probably was a god that was responsible, one of Ebisu's shinki had mentioned gods that lived there.]

Thank you for explaining it to me, also I'm sorry for your loss.

[trademark_skull]

I'm sure they gotta be back home by now. Probably would be happier there anyway.

[But it does hurt a bit.]

[swordofzero]

I hope so. The only thing we can do is wish them happiness wherever they are.