Death was an all-too familiar feeling for Osamu. The last time he felt it, he was killed during the Inari Standoff. Now, here he was in Death’s embrace yet again. He found himself standing in a realm of pitch-black nothingness. The only things he could see were his own body and a colossal, white pendulum swinging in front of his face. The pendulum displaced the air around Osamu as it swung by, blowing back his hair with a storm-like wind. The wind died down as the pendulum reached terminal velocity, but the howl of the air would return the minute it came swinging towards him again.
“Izanami…you finally did it. I always knew it would be you. I guess there’s only one thing left to do…to ensure Dark Dawn succeeds.”
Osamu blinked, and within an instant, his pitch-black surroundings were suddenly replaced. He found himself standing in the middle of the abandoned bowling alley, the sunlight pouring in through the row of colored windows behind the pews. A vibrant rainbow of light painted the entire interior with color. It was a sight he had always enjoyed by himself and with his loved ones. This time, he wasn’t alone, and his guest was the last person he ever would’ve expected to meet.
He nearly mistook the woman sitting on the pew for Taeko, but it quickly occurred to him that he was seeing the real Lucrezia. She sat in a pair of dark, midnight blue jeans and a cherry-red leather jacket. She greeted him with a smile and a proud glint in her emerald-green eyes.
“We finally meet, Osamu Ashikaga.” Lucrezia said.
“You’re…Lucrezia?” Osamu asked.
Lucrezia stood from her seat and stepped closer towards Osamu. “The one and only. Well, maybe it’s better to say I’m the original. Either way, we have much to discuss. I’ve been waiting a long time for you to get here.”
“I don’t understand. How did you know we’d meet here?”
Instead of simply telling him, Lucrezia thought it would be better to show him. The bowling alley turned into Izanami’s shrine in the blink of an eye. Osamu looked around to see the surrounding city and the shrine itself still in perfect condition. It was a sunny, beautiful day like any other before the Third Great Holy War. Osamu realized Lucrezia was guiding him through her own memories when he saw a second Lucrezia standing before the Shoku Twins at the torii gate. Akatsuki and Omagatoki still had their childlike appearances, proving to Osamu that this was a glimpse into the past.
“His name will be Osamu Ashikaga.” Akatsuki said. “He’ll be born about a year after you die. Sis and I have seen how it all plays out. He’ll be the one Inari gives her powers to. After she does, he and Taeko will initiate the Third Great Holy War.”
“And…what comes after the war?” Lucrezia asked nervously.
“Osamu will hijack the war effort and use the demons of Yomi to destroy the world.” Omagatoki answered. “He’ll push humanity to the brink of extinction and annihilate every country on this planet. In the end, humanity will thrive again, but every living being on the planet will be restricted from engaging in war.”
“We understand you don’t want to die.” Akatsuki added. “We truly do empathize with you, but it needs to be Osamu and Taeko that kick this off. There isn’t any other option left to them in the future. They won’t be able to succeed unless we lay down the foundations for them here and now.”
Looking at her own memory play out, Lucrezia couldn’t help but smile. “I knew I was going to die in the Great Hanshin Earthquake a year from now. At the time, I was terrified of what was going to happen to me and my mother. More than that, I feared what would happen with the pantheon and Inari, and how that would affect the world at large. In this moment, I held the future in my hands. If I went ahead with what the Shoku Twins were saying, I’d be enabling you to destroy the world. If I didn’t…well, that would be an entirely different future.”
“The Shoku Twins left it up to you?” Osamu asked.
“As you just saw, they wanted me to make the preparations for you and Taeko. Believe it or not, though, they never tried to force me into a decision. I was free to do whatever I wanted. Part of me wants to believe they were trying to avoid Dark Dawn, that giving me the freedom to make the choice might set the world down a different path. In the end, we shared the same concerns about Inari and the world. If the pantheon did manage to get their hands on that power, it would’ve sparked a civil war that would dwarf the War of Kin. That much was obvious. I wanted you guys to have a way out in case it really did come to that.”
“I see.” Osamu said, staring at the horrified expression of the past Lucrezia. “If you knew to wait for me, that means you also knew I was going to die right when I did. Is that right?”
“Yep. It might feel weird to see it this way, but I was your co-conspirator in all of this before you were even born.” Lucrezia answered with a smile. “Izanami took your head clean off, didn’t she? What a twist of fate, huh?”
Osamu sighed as he looked around the shrine. “Yeah, you’re telling me. It’s weird, I died here just moments ago. Or at least…it feels like moments ago.”
“You’ll get used to it.” Lucrezia assured. “Here, time and memories aren’t even a straight line. It’s all…a dot. I reckon this is how the Shoku Twins got their time manipulation powers in the first place. Instead of going straight to the Underworld, they must’ve ended up here.”
“What exactly makes us different from everyone else?” Osamu asked.
Lucrezia met eyes with Osamu and repeated an all-too familiar adage. “Don’t go floating down the river of time. Taeko’s words from centuries ago. Apparently, the most strong-willed souls can swim up or down that river. It takes a certain kind of person to support and carry out a plan like Dark Dawn. People like us can transcend both time and death. Heaven can’t subjugate us and hell can’t hold us.”
The scenery changed yet again. This time, Osamu and Lucrezia found themselves on the roof of a skyscraper overlooking a large, sprawling city in Japan. Osamu saw highways, train lines, business districts, and residential neighborhoods all interconnected like a vast nervous system. It was early in the morning, before the sun rose above the horizon. A cool, blue hue in the sky signaled the coming sunrise as the wind dragged pillows of clouds far above the city.
“What is this place?” Osamu asked.
“We’re in Kobe.” Lucrezia said, the wind fluttering through her long, chestnut colored hair. “This is the day I’m supposed to die, the day the Great Hanshin Earthquake rattles this entire region.”
“This doesn’t seem to be a memory, at least not from your point of view.”
“You’re observant. It’s true. I’ve never been on this rooftop in my life. We’re here because we want to be.”
“I see what you mean now. I guess we really can transcend death and time.”
The morning was going like any other in a big city. Cars snaked up and down the streets below. The sidewalks were so congested and engorged with pedestrians that claustrophobia began to set in for Osamu despite being far above it all. The beating heart of urban life, in all its smoggy, tireless, capitalistic glory were laid bare for Osamu and Lucrezia to witness. And yet, as they waited for a powerful earthquake to rip through the city, they realized nothing was happening.
“It should’ve happened by now, right?” Osamu asked.
Lucrezia aimed a saddened, yet determined glance at Osamu. “I always wondered if the Shoku Twins saw everything when they traveled through the past and future. Did they see how this day actually played out and chose not to tell me? Or did they this miss this detail? I guess we’ll never really know.”
Lucrezia stepped forward and performed a lightning-fast sequence of twenty-six kuji-in signs. After the final hand-sign, she clapped her hands together before slamming them flat on the roof. Realizing what was happening, Osamu’s eyes widened in shock. He knelt by Lucrezia’s side and clasped his hands alongside her, lending her every ounce of power he could. For what they were about to do, they needed it.
“Holy Art…Broken Earth…” Lucrezia murmured.
At her command, the city of Kobe jolted and shook violently. The beating heart of the city entered cardiac arrest as the 1.5 million people in the city were either woken up or stopped what they were doing by the earthquake. Windows shattered, houses and apartment complexes collapsed into piles of rubble that would become their graves. Gas fires erupted all across the city and the support columns beneath the snaking system of highways throughout the city were severely weakened, threatening to collapse like many of the building did.
It was then that Lucrezia realized that they were the ones that caused the Great Hanshin Earthquake. They sacrificed the lives of the people of Kobe and killed Lucrezia’s past self, all to set the stage for Taeko’s resurgence in the modern era and Lucrezia’s journey into her current, transcendental state of being. Without this atrocity, nothing would’ve played out as it was supposed to. Lucrezia wouldn’t have been there to greet Osamu, travel to the past with him, and initiate the earthquake.
For two people who worked together to condemn the world to death, one more atrocity was nothing to them. In their eyes, it all had to be done for the greater good. It only served to prove Lucrezia’s point that they were different from most humans. They discarded their empathy and revulsion towards mass-scale violence to achieve a goal that most other people couldn’t even fathom. They would stop at nothing to create the future they both wanted, even if it meant exterminating billions of men, women, and children.
Osamu and Lucrezia stood before the great, white pendulum, standing side-by-side the vast expanse of nothingness and pitch-black oblivion. A brief silence settled between them as Lucrezia sat down with her legs spread out and her hands flat against the black ground. Osamu found himself adjusting to the constant change in time and scenery quite quickly. It felt as though he knew they’d end up in front of the pendulum before they actually appeared there.
Instead of becoming two souls laid to rest in the depths of Yomi or wandering spirits in Kyoto, Osamu and Lucrezia became something else entirely after death. Unbound by any resting place and free to travel through both memories and time seamlessly, it was as though they became the replacements for Akatsuki and Omagatoki, their souls existing in some sort of limbo between life and death. They were even capable of affecting the physical world itself.
“To think…you and I worked together to kill my past self, my mother, and everyone affected by the quake.” Lucrezia said, astonished.
“You didn’t know it was us that did that?” Osamu asked.
“Did you?”
Osamu shook his head. “…No.”
Lucrezia threw her head back and laughed softly. Her astonishment quickly simmered into a cathartic joy as she was overcome by a powerful realization. “The Shoku Twins work in mysterious ways. Well, whether they knew or not, my fate was in my own hands this whole time. Instead of succumbing to illness, I closed the curtain on my own life. That’s probably part of the reason I was able to come here. By that same logic, it’s a very real possibility that someone like Taeko could come here, too. If she does, she may try to undo Dark Dawn.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Osamu said. “If it does come to that, then I’ll just have to kill her.”
Lucrezia smiled, impressed by Osamu’s determination. The empty scenery instantly transformed into Downtown Kyoto and the silence was immediately snuffed out by blaring car horns, legions of roaring engines, and muddled chatter bleeding out from every corner of the block. Lucrezia and Osamu stood at a crosswalk at a busy intersection that flanked all around by colossal skyscrapers that reflected the orange, afternoon sun back at their faces.
“The Shoku Twins told me you’d stop at nothing to achieve this.” Lucrezia explained. “Naturally, I wondered what kind of person you were. While you lived your life, I remained here and watched you from within Limbo. I witnessed your ordeal with Aika, your triumph over Bishamon, how you dealt with Satori, the Inari Standoff, and even the Third Great Holy War. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting the young man I saw standing here to become the kind of person that would end the world.”
Standing across from them on the other end of the crosswalk were Osamu’s past self and his friend, Kenjo. They both wore identical high school uniforms consisting of simple, white, short-sleeve shirts and black pants with red stripes running down the legs. Osamu recognized the exact crosswalk they were at and remembered exactly what happened on this day.
“In a few minutes, a little girl is going to die here.” Osamu said. “From that moment forward, that boy across from us will start seeing the world for what it truly is; a hellscape where the good die young and the rest of us prosper. That one girl’s life was worth more to me than the rest of humanity’s.”
Just as he spoke of her, a little girl in a frilly, white dress skipped past him. Her black hair was tied into short pigtails on the left and right sides of her head. She walked hand-in-hand with her mother, both of their faces beaming with happiness. Both of them held plastic cups of frozen yogurt in their hands as they crossed the street. Osamu could hardly even tell what flavors the little girl got beneath the armada of sprinkles her yogurt was covered in. It was far too much sugar to give a girl so young, but at least just for one day, her mother allowed it.
There was a wondrous joy to being a child with permission to do what you normally couldn’t. Osamu saw every ounce of that joy on the girl’s face. It was reflected in her rosy cheeks and large, jewel-like eyes. She was innocence and happiness personified, and she truly looked like the happiest person alive.
As the girl crossed the street with her mother, she dropped her cup of frozen yogurt on the road. Thankfully, it landed on its bottom and hardly spilled any yogurt out. Seeing her delectable dessert was still salvageable, the girl broke free of her mother’s grip and ran back to retrieve the yogurt. A black SUV sped towards the traffic light, but no one was alarmed for the first few seconds. It still had quite some time to slow down. However, the danger became clear for all to see as the SUV kept speeding as it approached the traffic light.
Osamu gazed at the driver through the windshield, seeing he was trying everything to stop his vehicle. He could only surmise that the driver’s brakes were stuck and he was incapable of stopping. The driver saw the little girl and tried to swerve out of her way, but in her effort to get out of the street, she ended up running right in front of the SUV. Dozens of onlookers screamed out, some of them shouting for her to get out the way. Her mother rushed towards her as fast as she could, but she was too late.
The SUV slammed into the little girl and threw her tiny body into the middle of the intersection. Kenjo and the girl’s mother were the first to run towards her body, while others ran into the intersection to stop oncoming traffic. The driver stumbled out of his car, sobbing inconsolably as more people surrounded him to make sure he wasn’t hurt.
“Osamu! Call an ambulance! She’s losing blood!” Kenjo shouted. He urged the girl’s mother not to move her head. The girl was unconscious, her arm twisted backward and her face covered in blood flowing from deep cuts on her cheek and frontal hairline. Her cheeks swelled to the size of tennis balls and her lips were embedded with fragments of her broken teeth. Sudden and violent convulsions rocked the girl’s shoulders and neck as he breathing grew shallow. It almost sounded as though the girl was choking, or some sort of liquid was gathering in her lungs. Kenjo knew this was a death rattle.
The Osamu of the past stood in the shadow of the skyscrapers, trembling as he held his cell phone in his hands. He locked his jaw tight while his legs shook beneath him like two support pillars ready to give way and collapse. He was utterly paralyzed by the girl’s mangled body and the pool of scarlet blood leaking from her head.
“There I was, too scared to do anything to save her.” Osamu said as he and Lucrezia stood before the girl’s body. “I couldn’t understand why someone who was so happy to be alive could die so violently and suddenly. The most difficult part was rationalizing why I got to live instead of her. Why was my life worth more than hers?
“Kenjo died not long after this as well. It only assured me that there was something wrong in this world. If any of us deserved to die, it was me. Not someone as joyful as innocent as her. Not someone as brave as Kenjo.”
“So that’s how you viewed human life, huh?” Lucrezia questioned. “To you, some lives were worth less than others?”
“Of course they are. It’s why this girl’s mother practically lunged towards her daughter."
Osamu gazed upon the girl’s body with a cold, dead darkness in his eyes. When he blinked, the little girl was replaced by a pregnant Rousoku lying dead in a pool of her own blood. He blinked again, and Rousoku turned into Isabella. Isabella turned into Kenjo, Kenjo into Cyanide, and Cyanide into Inari. Seeing the corpses change before her very eyes, Lucrezia felt she began to understand why this particular event impacted Osamu so much, and how it informed his personality moving forward. His seemingly golden-hearted drive to save those in need was no more than Osamu’s own appetite of self-destruction for the benefit of others.
Osamu wasn’t born with the belief that some lives were worth less than others, but being the sensitive, young man he was, he believed he was born to have such a world view in the right circumstances. That girl’s death needed to happen so he would adopt the philosophy that he would later use to justify Dark Dawn.
“It’s as you said, Lucrezia.” Osamu sighed. “It takes a certain kind of person to go through with something like Dark Dawn.”
Their surroundings changed again, this time taking them to Yoko’s home. Osamu and Taeko sat one side of the kitchen island, the sun shining brightly through the windows behind them. On the other side sat Uzume and two tall, veiled bodyguards in white robes. This was one of several meetings that took place between Osamu, Taeko, and Uzume in the months before the terrorist attack that crippled the city of Kyoto.
Uzume and the gods had no idea Osamu and Taeko had already made plans to initiate the Third Great Holy War, nor that they had already established an alliance with Carmilla and the vampires. Osamu and Taeko agreed to meet with Uzume with the slim hope that a favorable deal might be brokered and war completely avoided.
“Amatsu and the War Council have asked me to inform you that this will be their final attempt at brokering a deal.” Uzume said, handing Taeko a folder filled with papers that outlined Heaven’s terms. She opened the folder and read the papers to herself as Uzume continued. “The council recognizes that none of you wish for Osamu to die. It is also Heaven’s wish to avoid a conflict with Izanami and Tsukiakari. As such, Amatsu is willing to sacrifice minor god in the pantheon, one whose powers aren’t nearly as harmful as the ones you have now, Osamu. Amatsu’s idea is for that god to sacrifice their blood and heart so that Heaven could make a swap. They’ll take Inari’s blood and heart from you and give you that god’s blood and heart instead.
“This way, Heaven can take custody of Inari’s Bloodcraft while also keeping you alive and eliminating any need for a conflict. Amatsu already has a willing candidate to make the exchange. All that’s needed now is your agreement, Osamu. This is the best deal we could possibly put together. It satisfies both sides of the issue. I think you’ll find the terms favorable.”
Reading it over, Taeko’s face lightened up. She was impressed by the extent of Amatsu’s concessions. Osamu would be able to live a free life so long as he continued to stay out of supernatural affairs. His children would continue serving the Exorcist Program, but only until the exorcists fully rebuilt their ranks. Amatsu estimated it would be another ten to fifteen years before they’d be able to recoup the majority of the losses they suffered in the Inari Standoff.
By all accounts, the deal was everything Osamu’s family wanted. Osamu, however, wore an angered and dissatisfied expression on his face. He was not impressed by Amatsu’s offer whatsoever.
“My family and I will get to live freely and peacefully, right?” Osamu asked.
Uzume nodded. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“And what happens to Inari’s Bloodcraft? Who specifically takes custody of it?” Osamu questioned further.
“That’s…yet to be decided.” Uzume answered.”
Osamu aimed a threatening glare at Uzume. “Amatsu has no intention of destroying Inari’s blood and heart. He wants Heaven to make use of it. No one would ever let such a power go to waste. The only problem is, he doesn’t know who to give it to. If he takes it for himself. Amaterasu and those loyal to her will see it as him effectively taking full control of Heaven. If he gives it to Amaterasu, he risks upsetting the rest of the gods that have lost trust in her over the years. In truth, no matter who he gives it to, he risks sparking a civil war within the pantheon.
“There’s also the danger that whoever does obtain this power will seek to remake the world to benefit themselves or the pantheon. All dissent would be wiped away. All our enemies could be made to swear loyalty to us. Heaven could be manipulated into acknowledging one person as its sovereign ruler. It’s a power too valuable to destroy, yet too coveted to keep around. Its safest place is with me.”
Uzume’s face went completely pale. She had hoped with all her heart that this deal would please Osamu. Instead, it only drove him further away from the path of reconciliation. “Osamu…there’s no such thing as a perfect deal. We can figure out what to do with this power later. Who knows, maybe Amatsu can even be convinced to destroy it and eliminate any chance of conflict. But…none of that can happen unless you agree to this first. I’m begging you, as a friend to you, Izanami, and Gekko, please accept this. If you refuse this deal, Heaven will make no further effort to sort this out with you. Please, Osamu. Don’t let this turn violent. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
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Taeko put down the papers and turned her head towards Osamu. “It’s your decision. What do you want to do?”
Osamu stood from his stool and pointed towards the front door of the house. “I refuse this deal. Get out.”
Uzume was utterly horrified by Osamu’s decision. His refusal meant that a clash between Heaven and his family was unavoidable. Watching the memory play out from the living room, Osamu sat on the arm of one of the loveseats while Lucrezia watched from the comfort of the sofa.
“We had spent years trying to sort this whole thing out, to no avail.” Osamu said. “As the end of my seven-year term drew near, I asked the Shoku Twins to help me find a solution. The things I saw in our travels to the past and future confirmed everything I feared. The only way to solve this was through war. I took some time to think things through, and I eventually realized that the solution lied in the stomach of Yomi. I told them about my plan to destroy the world and they agreed to help me do it. By the time this meeting happened, we had already decided what we were going to do. Having already seen the future, I knew I needed to refuse this deal in order to put us on the path towards Dark Dawn.”
“What happened if you accepted the deal instead?” Lucrezia asked.
Osamu turned his head towards her, his eyes veiled behind his wavy hair. He took a deep breath before uttering the words that sat upon his tongue. “It wouldn’t have freed me or Amaterasu, Izanami, Taeko, or anyone from our burdens. Receiving Inari’s Bloodcraft meant having children that had the same potential as Himushi. It all but guaranteed that my descendants would’ve been enlisted in the Exorcist Program for time immemorial.
“The issue of who would take Inari's Bloodcraft couldn't ever be solved peacefully. No matter what Amatsu promised me, he wouldn’t be able to prevent their conscription once a war broke out in the future. I wasn’t going to punish my future descendants by pushing my problems onto them. I resolved to end it all while I still had breath to draw."
“Osamu…” Lucrezia said. “Some things cannot be avoided. Some things in this world are inevitable. War is one such thing.”
“It doesn’t have to be. Not anymore. For my future descendants, for my nation, I decided to put an end to thousands of years of conflict between humans and gods. That’s the Eden I saw. That’s the cause I fought so hard for. It had to be me, Lucrezia. Only I could’ve made such a horrific decision and lived with it. Only I could’ve made the sacrifices I made and kept on going. I marched steadily onward…towards Eden.”
The magnitude of Osamu’s resolve horrified even Lucrezia, and yet, she couldn’t deny that she at least understood where he was coming from. Osamu saw firsthand what happened when adults pushed their problems onto their children. He saw it happen to Amaterasu and it ruined her. It created the circumstances that led to the War of Kin, Izanami’s hatred towards the pantheon, and to every major conflict and tragedy that would come after. The only way it could’ve been avoided was if the rest of his children, not just Chiya, died.
If they died and he had new children with Yoko and the other girls, it would’ve been like starting anew. It would’ve eliminated any impetus for Heaven to conscript his descendants in wars that had yet to come. To Osamu, their lives meant so much more than the rest of the world’s. The love that led to their births was worth the brutal, horrific decimation of billions of others. To protect his own descendants, he’d burn away the lives of countless men, women, and their children.
It all tied back to the joy he saw beaming from that little girl that died in front of him. She represented every future child that would be unfairly killed and made to suffer in the future. He wanted to protect that joy, that same spark of life he saw in his own children. Even if it meant sacrificing Chiya to protect his other two kids and their descendants, it was better than having them grow up to see future Great Holy Wars, or euthanizing them to clear his bloodline of Inari’s power. In his own way, he was saving more children that were just like that little girl he saw die all those years ago.
The peaceful scene of Yoko’s home was replaced by the hellish, scarlet-tinged nightmare of India as it was destroyed during Dark Dawn. Osamu and Lucrezia stood at the bank of the Indus River and watched as the super-heated waters cooked thousands of people alive as they tried to cross over to the other side. Lucrezia’s unblinking gaze was forever haunted by the agonized expressions on their faces and the tortured screams flying out from their throats. Colossal skeletons and their veils of nebulae and starlight dazzled the reddish-black sky as the eclipse stared down upon the carnage in all its eldritch glory.
“I wanted this…with all my heart.” Osamu said with unbending determination, his eyes alight with the glow of joy and wonder.
Standing before the sinkhole of Fukuoka, Lucrezia watched in horror as men, women, and children were swallowed by a swirling maelstrom of twisted metal and debris. The frightened tears in the eyes of those sinking into their graves shattered Lucrezia’s heart. It was a scene straight out of the deepest, most torturous pits of hell. Not even the worst sinners on the planet deserved a death so terrifying and gruesome.
“I see..." Lucrezia muttered. "Perhaps you truly were born to do this. The twins needed someone capable of weighing people's lives on a set of scales. In the end, they had us."
Standing amidst the flaming city of Seoul was no different than standing in the heart of hell itself. Seoul’s skyscrapers burned like massive torches rearing against the raven sky, painting the entire horizon in its fiery, red hue. Flames swallowed everything. Every home, every car, ever inch of the street. It spewed like spit out of every alleyway, out of the windows of buses carrying burning evacuees that screamed from the inside. Dozens of people walked among the dancing flames like zombies freshly risen from their miserable graves. Their clothes were either burnt away or fused into their charred, cracked skin. Their hair and facial features were all wiped away by the all-consuming fire, equalizing the young and the old in a pit of infernal agony.
Osamu and Lucrezia ended up in the void again, this time standing on opposite sides of the swinging pendulum. Standing alongside Lucrezia was her grandfather, Johan Sommers, and the nameless, blonde boy that ended up taking his name for himself. Their eye sockets were empty and covered by shadow. Their skin was as pallid as snow, their icy blue veins coursing throughout their necks and faces. The bloodied body of the little girl that Osamu saw die on the street stood alongside him, joined by the child versions of Amaterasu and Inari.
The void instantly transformed into the sun-scorched, arid steppes of Kazakhstan. The heat was enough to make Osamu and Lucrezia's blood boil inside their veins. The gusts of hot wind offered no reprieve from the sun's unforgiving waves. Lucrezia looked around her and realized she was standing at the very top of the ridge overlooking the quarry adjacent to the Steplag, the very same labor camp where Johan's son was born and raised. The blonde boy, the prized specimen of Project Nirvana's eugenics experiment, sat at the lip of the ridge with his feet dangling off the edge. His sapphire-blue eyes scanned the miserable scenery before him, from the workers suffering from exhaustion and heat stroke in the mines off to the left, to the women being screamed at by Soviet guards to haul in the rock salt brought in by the men.
Everywhere the boy looked, he saw only oppression, death, and decay. He saw a bleak and hopeless reality before his very eyes. The Kazakh landscape itself served as a haunting symbol of the state of his life, of the circumstances he was born into. It was hopeless. It was incapable of growing anything pleasant, good, or holy. Osamu watched as the nameless boy perked up and stood onto his feet. The boy noticed a lot of prisoners flooding into the cafeteria hall with all haste. It was then that the boy remembered that Johan Sommers was to give his speech in the cafeteria that day. People flocked to hear from the freest vampire of their era, the only one who wasn't chained up and forced to live, labor, and suffer under Soviet oppression. If there was anyone in any position to give the vampires of the Steplag hope, it was Johan.
Osamu and Lucrezia followed the nameless boy into the overcrowded, mildew-scented cafeteria, revisiting the same scene Osamu previously witnessed alongside Taeko. All the vampires of the Steplag sat at tables, open-legged upon backwards chairs, and some even sat on the hard, wooden floors in a circle around Johan Sommers as he began his speech.
“For those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Johan Sommers, and I, like the rest of you…did not consent to being born. Each of us was plucked out from our peaceful oblivion and put here. No, not here in this labor camp. Not here in Kazakhstan. On this earth. In this world."
While Lucrezia gave Johan her full attention, Osamu surveyed the room, completely uninterested in hearing Johan's nihilistic soliloquy for a second time.
"It was always hard to believe we're related, him and I..." Lucrezia sighed, her eyes clouded and sad.
"You knew about your relation?" Osamu asked.
"My mother told me about it. It's ironic, isn't it? Johan dedicated his life to eradicating his own people, only for his descendants to undermine the Sommerist cause. Descendants he never should've had in the first place."
"Is that what compelled you to help Carmilla and Hima?"
Lucrezia smiled as she thought back to the day she found an emaciated Carmilla and Hima in that crummy, run-down apartment in Japan, hiding out from the exorcists and the rest of the world. She distinctly remembered the haunting glow in Hima's eyes. Even amidst her suffering, Hima's desire to live burned bright behind her scarlet irises. That desire was instilled in her from the moment she was born, an heirloom inherited from her parents that fought tooth and nail to secure a nation and free lives for themselves.
That memory of Hima was the diametric opposite of the words coming out of Johan's mouth. His Sommerist gospel of nihilism and self-destruction soothed the downtrodden hearts of the Steplag's forsaken vampires and those living under hopeless oppression around the world. Against such insurmountable odds, Johan's desire for a peaceful end to vampiric existence was understandable, but to people like Osamu, Hima, and Lucrezia, it was utterly unacceptable. It was a violation of nature and the human spirit's desire to live.
"When I met those two..." Lucrezia began, "I already knew I'd be dying in the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Death walked behind me at every step of my life from that point forward. Forced to hide my vampiric bloodline, living under Johan's self-destructive shadow, burdened with the knowledge of my impending death...would you blame me if I told you I was afraid?
"For a little while, I regretted being born into this world. I was angry at Johan. How could one man be such a hypocrite, espousing the cessation of vampiric births while fathering multiple children. He knew we'd only be the end result of his eugenics project, but he brought us into the world anyway. How could he ever agree to such a plan if he knew our lives would be nothing but suffering?
"It all felt hopeless and burdensome. Until I met Hima. Until I stared into her eyes and saw...an undying will to just exist. She wanted...to live. She wanted to fight. She had all the hope that my own circumstances stole from me, the same hope these people all lost because of their circumstances. I wouldn't live to see our race win back our freedom, but Hima's will to live wasn't just her own. She was compelled to live for all those that had their lives and freedom stolen from them. She told me I was included in that. So...I could die...knowing Hima would take all of our pain, our anger, our sorrow...and use it to fight for our freedom."
Hearing Lucrezia's reasoning for saving Carmilla and Hima, hearing her dread and hope, it all resonated deeply with Osamu. He thought back to the night he attempted suicide at Izanami's shrine, the night he too thought everything was hopeless. He thought he moved on from that dark day in his life, but in reality, he never did. Over and over again, he constantly valued his life less than the lives of others. He even witnessed for himself that the only way to stop the Third Great Holy War from happening was to have succeeded in his suicide attempt or to have died at any time prior to meeting Inari. As long as he didn't exist in this world, the Third Great Holy War and the Dark Dawn would never have happened. Seven billion people would still be alive.
Osamu's eyes filled with tears as he suddenly remembered Inari's final words as she sacrificed herself to save him.
If my life's purpose was this very moment right here...I would happily do it all again. Every tragedy and heartache over again...just to end my life by your side. My heart forever belongs to you...Osamu Ashikaga.
Those words meant just as much to Osamu as Hima's undying determination to live and be free in this world meant to Lucrezia. It was affirmation that, despite all the chaos and heartache the world had to offer, their brief lives mattered. They meant something to someone. They gave someone else a reason to fight, a reason to live, and a reason to die. In making that sacrifice, Inari became what Osamu sought to become ever since he returned to Kyoto all those years ago; a hero whose life meant everything to someone. That selfless act became one of Osamu's strongest reasons to resist handing over Inari's power to anyone.
Lucrezia had seen what drove Osamu to become the kind of person capable of executing a plan like Dark Dawn, and Osamu realized what pushed Lucrezia to work so hard and suffer so much for a future she wouldn't even live to see. It was no wonder the Shoku Twins thought those two would make for great co-conspirators. One was motivated by sacrifice, the other motivated by hope. It was the kind of hope the nameless boy, Johan's son, didn't have.
He thought Project Nirvana had given him purpose, a reason for living. But even at that young age, the blonde boy realized that it was all just another pair of shackles. Under his father's protection, he'd never have the freedom to decide what he wanted to do, nor what was best for his own people. His own circumstances railroaded him onto one, unavoidable path; the slow euthanization of the vampiric race.
Osamu understood his agony and the pain of unfair circumstances more than anyone. Inari's power, Dracula's curse, it was all the same same. Both of them were used as justification to oppress and hurt their people and loved ones. As long as even one child of Osamu's existed in the world, the Third Great Holy War would loom over them like the Sword of Damacles, just waiting to drop on their heads. Saving himself and his wives wasn't an option. Putting the issue off for the next generation to figure out wasn't an option. Had he done so, his descendants would've been no different than the blonde boy, who lost his right to life and freedom because of what Dracula did centuries before.
Saying nothing, Osamu stepped forth. "Your father is wrong." Osamu said. "He's wrong to force this upon you."
The blonde boy looked around in shock. He couldn't see Osamu, but he heard his voice reverberate inside his head so clearly.
"Euthanization...freedom...or even just the power to decide for themselves...whatever it is you want for your people, that choice is yours." Osamu said. "The footsteps of fate aren't laid out for you. They're yours to imprint upon the earth. Don't let your father take that from you. As long as he lives, the vampiric race is doomed to be euthanized. But if you kill him...if you destroy this camp and kill everyone who so much as recognizes you...you can start anew."
"Osamu!" Lucrezia screamed as she came to a horrible realization.
"Your father said that Sommerism can be used to achieve much more than what it was designed for." Osamu explained. "It can be implemented with the intent of triggering a nationalist counter-revolution, rather than stifling it. Nation by nation, revolution by revolution, you and I can create the circumstances necessary to give your people the choice. You can work towards that goal now while making it look like you're aligned with the Sommerists. I'll do all I can on my end when I'm born into this world. Your father's pathetic ideology is no match for the both of us."
In that moment, the blonde boy smiled with genuine glee. He had seen a future far different than what his father had laid out for him. It was in that moment that Osamu finally understood the enigma that was the blonde boy, the second Johan. He wasn't against his father's Ethnic Euthanasia plan, nor was he against Dark Dawn and Osamu's desire to destroy the world. Much like he did when he walked out into the minefield, trusting only his unshakable belief in himself, he wanted his people to take the next step with their eyes closed and their hearts guiding them. He wanted them to have the power to choose their fate, not be railroaded into one outcome or the other.
It's why he spent decades spurring anti-communist revolutions throughout Europe, then selling the movements out to the Soviet Union as a double agent. It's why he created a Sommerist stronghold in Yakutsk's political class. It was all to sow the seeds for the violent, nationalist revolution that would take place in Minavere. The blonde boy would stand on the opposing side of Osamu's revolution, hindering him to ensure he would't be able to use Bloodcraft to force his people into any one fate. He would be Osamu's foil, the phantom behind the Sommerist movement, and drive the conflict that would result in both of them getting shot. Minavere and its people, faced with the prospects of annihilation versus world dominance, would have the most important freedom of all; the power to choose how they wanted their lives to be.
That once hopeless Kazakh landscape, where the dregs of vampirekind desperately clung to the edge of existence, where nothing good nor holy could ever grow, gave life to one thing that day; the blonde boy's ambition to free his people. Osamu convinced him without bloodcraft, without threats, and without intimidation. He did it purely by feeding the blonde boy's inescapable hunger for freedom.
Lucrezia realized that the downfall of the Steplag and the deaths of everyone who lived there wasn't just the work of Johan's son. He had an unlikely and untimely collaborator in Osamu. To the world, they would look like two opposing sides of the Minaverian Revolution, but in reality, they were both working in tandem to give the vampiric race the choice between sacrificing themselves to save the world, or sacrificing the world to save themselves.
"It was you..." Lucrezia gasped. "This boy got as far as he did...because you were guiding him from Limbo..."
“I’m not like his father. I’m not willing to sacrifice my own family to protect the world at large.” Osamu explained, his hands in his pockets. “I’d rather burn the world down to protect my descendants, my nation, and the children of the future. That’s the kind of person I am, Lucrezia. My life was never worth much, but the world proved to me that their lives were worth even less. If they were going to pose a threat to my family and my nation, then eradicating them was the only viable option.
It was then that Lucrezia pieced together just how deeply the death of one, little girl twisted Osamu’s worldview. If it were the entire human population aiming to trample that girl instead of one driver who simply couldn’t avoid hitting her, he would’ve decimated the rest of humanity just to save her innocent soul. If he knew anyone among the human race would harm her in the future, he would’ve done just the same. He was a man born to resort to extreme measures even if there was a more peaceful choice available to him. His ideals of whose life was worth more or less couldn’t allow him to think otherwise.
The blonde boy resonated with Osamu's resolve, his anger, and his iron will to set it all right. Osamu gave to him what Hima gave to Lucrezia; hope. That ferocious drive for freedom and peace began to shake the Kazakh steppes as the cafeteria suddenly jolted back and forth. The abrupt and violent earthquake send the prisoners and guards into a scramble to hide their heads beneath tables and counters.
“Earthquake! Cover your heads!” Johan ordered.
Brief shrieks and worried gasps filled the room as Kengir shook violently for nearly fifty seconds, then it all came to a sudden stop. Johan poked his head out from under the table, and the prisoners soon followed once they realized the earthquake had stopped.
“It’s alright, everyone. Be wary of aftershocks.” Johan said in a calm voice. “That’s strange…we don’t usually get earthquakes around here…”
Osamu and Lucrezia stood side-by-side and gazed over at the only two people in the room who didn't hide from the quake. Realizing who they were, Lucrezia's eyes widened in shock.
"Osamu..." Lucrezia began, "is that you and Taeko?"
Sure enough, Osamu and Lucrezia were staring back at Taeko and the Osamu of the near-past, from when they were traveling through the blonde boy's memories together. Osamu distinctly remembered feeling that earthquake when he first listened to Johan's speech. At first, he thought his anger towards Johan and Sommerism somehow affected the physical world in the blonde boy's memory, but it wasn't the case at all. It was the result of Osamu's future self meeting with Johan's son and giving him the drive he needed to become Johan's replacement.
Returning to the black void of Limbo, Osamu and Lucrezia stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the pendulum swing left to right, the right to left in an infinite loop. They had learned much about each other and their perspectives, as well as what drove them to agree to a plan like Dark Dawn. There was just one question that remained on both of their minds.
"The Shoku Twins hid the existence of Limbo from us all." Lucrezia said, stroking her chin. "They saw the future and knew the world would end by your hand centuries before you were ever born. The end of humanity and freedom from the Shinto pantheon is clearly what they wanted out of this, and doing so would've required exhaustive planning. And yet...they never tried to force us to do anything. They left the choice up to me just as much as they left it up to you. Why? Why gamble the success of their plan?"
At first, that question perplexed even Osamu. It almost seemed like the twins got what they wanted out of sheer luck. Wouldn't it have been better to be more proactive in making the future a certainty, to force and manipulate everyone around them into making the Third Great Holy War happen? At every crucial turn, the twins gave Osamu, Inari, Taeko, and Lucrezia the freedom to make their own decisions.
It only took a few moments for Osamu to realize the answer to Lucrezia's question. He smiled as he realized how simple it all was. His smile gave way to a giggle, and his giggle erupted into a hearty chuckle.
"What's got you all cracked up?" Lucrezia asked with a slight smile.
"The twins...sought freedom." Osamu said. Freedom from godhood. Freedom from the pantheon. The freedom to die on their own terms rather than be forced to reincarnate and live again and again. They knew we would be the ones to do that for them. They could've easily forced us to make it happen, but they didn't. It was out of principle."
Osamu remembered some of Akatsuki's last words before she passed away. They rang in his head word for word and told him all he needed to know about the Shoku Twins.
Everybody needs to be themselves, to enjoy all the little things they do, to dream of all the things they want to be. In the end…it all goes back to what Taeko has always believed. Nothing is more important than the humanity and individuation of each person. When that’s taken…all hell breaks loose.
"They didn't want to force us to do anything." Osamu explained. "They already knew how far I would go for their freedom before I was ever even born. I guess that's why when they did finally meet me, they were quick to get close to me. Akatsuki and Omagatoki loved me enough to give me my freedom just as I would give them theirs. I'm sure that if I did choose another path, they would've helped me all the same. All of this happened because I wanted it to. It was in my nature to go through with Dark Dawn. They let us be free as a thank you for the future they saw, the same future we ended up making out of our own volition. There's no greater love than that."
Lucrezia's lips parted slightly, her eyes widening as she came to the same realization as Osamu. "I see. They truly loved you then. Did you notice it, Osamu? You were able to control Limbo to your liking and take us back to the Steplag. It seems to me that you're the master of this place now."
"Oh..." Osamu gasped, looking at his opened hands. "I guess you're right. I was so focused on helping Johan's son that I didn't even notice."
Lucrezia gazed up at the pendulum swinging before them, her chestnut colored hair fluttering each time it passed by. "It's a shame we never got to hear their explanation for this place, though. Did Limbo exist already and they just happened to stumble upon it? Or did it manifest after they were killed in the Genpei War, like how Inari's powers manifested on their own? I wonder if they even understood this place at all.
"The Underworld's Eye, Inari's Bloodcraft, and the Shoku Twins's Limbo. Something brought all of them into existence. Izanami's guilt and malice birthed the eye, we know that already. I reckon Inari's powers were less a product of her own will and the result of the pantheon's fears of her, that she would one day rule the hearts of worshipers everywhere. They inadvertently gave her that power. But what brought Limbo about?"
"If they died as children," Osamu began, "I can only imagine how terrified they were. One probably wished they could go back to their homes, to their parents. The other might've wished for a future in which they survived their ordeal. Knowing those two, they wanted to break free from the circumstances that killed them. One sister to travel back in time, one sister to travel forward. Together, they were able to manifest a place in which they were truly free to go backwards or forwards as they wished. Well...until Izanami brought them back and made them into gods. That's my conjecture, anyway. Everyone's burdens manifested in some way. I'm glad I got to use my life to fight for their freedom."
"And now they've given that freedom to you!" Lucrezia sang, her hands on her hips as she turned to face Osamu. "I no longer have to stay in this place. I did want to meet you first. I wanted to see for myself what kind of person you were. I just...wanted to know that all the agony I went through was worth it, in the end. I was correct to trust that you and Hima would set things right after I died. Finally...I feel at peace with everything."
Osamu smiled and extended his hand out towards Lucrezia. "I'm glad. Thank you, Lucrezia, for believing in us. Your people are free now. Minavere will be untouchable and the world will never see another war again. When humanity eventually recovers from this, they'll live in a better world."
"Then...it's okay for me to rest now?"
Osamu nodded, and his affirmation brought tears of joy to Lucrezia's eyes. She giggled and cried at the same time, burying her face in the sleeves of her cardigan. Instead of shaking hands, Osamu and Lucrezia embraced each other in the vast void of Limbo. Flat-out told she would suffer a terrifying and painful death, forced to endure a painful battle with emphysema, and being of vampiric descent in a world that hated her kind, Lucrezia's life was little but suffering, from beginning to end. The worst of it was knowing that the circumstances she lived in would get better in the future, but she wouldn't be alive to see it.
Her hopes lived on through Osamu and Hima. Her sacrifices paid off. Her suffering and her long wait in Limbo showed her that it wasn't all for nothing. Her life meant something. It saved her people and enabled the birth of a new nation. In Osamu's eyes, she was just as much of a national hero as Hima and himself were. Lucrezia and Johan's son were the perfect co-conspirators, one to enable Hima and Carmilla to escape to safety, and one who would utilize Sommerism so that he could protect Minavere from its outside enemies and give his people the freedom to choose between Sommerism and life itself.
At long last, everyone who was never allowed to live could live, and all those who were never allowed to die could die.
Being the master of Limbo, Osamu willed for Lucrezia to be freed from the realm and for her soul to find rest in the hereafter. As they embraced, Lucrezia's body lit up with a soft, white light. Her body slowly began to disintegrate into small cherry blossom petals.
"Thank you...Osamu Ashikaga..."
In just a few minutes, Lucrezia was gone, the final cherry blossom petal vanishing into the void. All was finally set right. Everyone was finally free. All that remained was for Osamu to make his choice. Would he remain in Limbo and live like a god unbound by space or time? Or would he close the curtain on Limbo and set himself free as well?