Chapter 67

I die.

When Shuten-Doji pierces my heart, I die. No one can survive a spear right into the heart, much less when it gets thrown by none other than Phanes himself.

I feel as though I am floating. Floating in a deep sea. I can’t breathe and I should be drowning right now… and yet I do not feel like it at all. If this is what drowning feels like, then it is far more pleasant than I had ever thought it was.

As I look at the bottom of the sea, I see Lady Death standing there. She is smiling thinly.

Her mouth forms words. Normally, I would not be able to hear her. After all, I am drowning in a sea. However, as I am dead and thus in the endless space that can only be defined as the world or state of mind after death… a thing like sound doesn’t even exist in the first place. As I look at her I instantly understand her words:

“Welcome back.”

Welcome back she says.

That means… I had been here already?

And just when I think about it, I realize the truth. I realize the most horrifying truth about my being. And because I realize it and truly do understand it…

I stand back up. I look directly at Phanes as blood is covering my body. The world is still black, besides his hair that portrays space, my red blade, my red hair and Shuten-Doji’s red color and its colorful feathers.

“You stand again? I see… Perhaps this is the very same thing Itu had talked about. If so, then this will be a bit interesting. Great.”

I stare at him, blood flowing down my body. I slowly breathe in and out. This time, I stay behind a bit. I will not make the first move and thus defeat him through countering his attack.

Phanes takes a single step forward. Then he points Shuten-Doji at me. In the very next second the spear flies at me and pierces my head. The spear then flies into the air, still yanking me around. It crashes down into the ground and my body gets pressed into the ground as well. As I crash onto the ground I die yet again.

It feels like my very soul is slowly sinking beneath the earth. Yes: I truly do realize that I die. But yet again, I slowly rise up again. I force myself to revive.

What I do is nothing unusual: In fact, it is what I have done for the last 2 weeks.

When she looked at me from the bottom of the sea of death, Lady Death had finally reminded me of the truth: Back then, when all of my village had died… So did I.

I am long dead. That is the truth. Yet, I held onto life. I did not want life to end. I wanted to live on, if even for a single day… And thus, I crawled back into life itself. Was I a zombie? A yokai? Was I exactly like Itu? Was each and every Blessed by Lady Death exactly like this, a walking and yet living corpse? I don’t know… but this is also why I hated the activity I had once loved: Running.

Thus, I slowly stand up once more. Shuten-Doji has returned into Phanes hand as he smiles at me. He does not expect me to go down this easily either.

As I breathe heavily, I point my blade at him and fully focus. Once more, the spear shoots directly at me. This time, however, I will not die. I quickly hold up my sword and block the incoming attack of the mightiest of all Yokai. The spear flies a bit to the side. I use this to run directly at Phanes and try to strike him. He merely smiles and raises his hand. A golden snake emerges out of the ground beneath me and raises to the heavens, me on its top. Before I can evade, the snake easily opens its mouth and pierces me with its sharp teeth.

My soul slowly rises up. Out of my body, up into the sky. However, at this moment, someone presses against me. Aomade. Itoh. Nagano. Sherlock. The four of them appear behind me and slowly press my soul back into my body.

As I regain my life, I quickly ram my blooden blade into the golden snake. Even though the snake is made out of nothing but pure energy, I kill said energy. I am able to kill time - even if subconsciously - so this should be no problem.

I fall down from the sky. Phanes does not see this as much of a thing. This is the logical consequence, after all. As I crash down though, I slice him with my blade.