[The End of Osamu Ashikaga]: Limbo

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 hesitated to answer. He turned his head away from Lucrezia as if to hide an obvious lie in his eyes. “…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. To her, her daughter’s life was worth more than her own. I’m sure most people would agree that if the driver had died instead of the girl, it would’ve been a far less tragic outcome. A child’s life is held in much higher regard than an adult’s. The driver was probably thinking the same thing.”

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.”

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. “Amatsu would’ve agreed to destroy Inari’s power. He would’ve seen that its risks greatly outweighed its utility. Everything…would’ve worked out perfectly.”

Lucrezia couldn’t believe what she just heard. She had paved the way for Osamu under the pretense that he’d have no way out if a conflict ever arose over Inari’s Bloodcraft. Except that there was an out. There was a peaceful alternative that didn’t require anyone but one minor god to die. Osamu knew that, yet he deliberately put the world on an irreversible path of destruction.

“Why?” Lucrezia cried. “Why didn’t you accept the deal if you knew the Third Great Holy War could’ve been avoided? The war was meant to be a last resort if you had no other choice! Why did you prioritize global genocide over peace?”

“It wouldn’t have freed me or Amaterasu, or Izanami, or Taeko, or anyone from our burdens. You think that preventing the Third Great Holy War here would’ve stopped it from ever happening in the future? Don’t be so stupid. The peace I’m building is eternal. Winning peace here with this deal would’ve only lasted a short while. 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.

“I wouldn’t have had Inari’s Bloodcraft anymore, but the problem lied in the fact that my children already existed. Anyone they bring into the world would be treated no better than Belle or Himushi. They’d just be soldiers in Heaven’s eyes. 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.

“When I thought about my descendants living in a world like ours…I was so disgusted. I was scared for them. I know better than anyone that promises made in the present cannot be guaranteed in the future. Circumstances change. Leadership changes. Necessities change. Would you have been able to live the rest of your life knowing that your descendants were going to fight for the pantheon in wars that had nothing to do with them?”

“Osamu…” Lucrezia said, her teeth chattering. “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.

“Had the Shoku Twins told you everything, you would’ve never agreed to help me.” Osamu said. “That’s why they didn’t tell you that we were the ones responsible for the Great Hanshin Earthquake. It’s why they told you that we’d have no choice but to prepare for war in the future. Your decision could’ve either forced me to accept that deal or given me the option to massacre the human race. They did everything in their power to make sure I would get exactly what I wanted.”

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.

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.

“This world and its entire malignant system of evil deserved worse than what I did to it.” Osamu continued, staring straight into Lucrezia’s eyes. “Burning it all away was a kindness to all who would come after me.”

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.

“You and I aren’t the co-conspirators you thought we were, Lucrezia. You were an obstacle, a potential hinderance in my plan. We had to manipulate you so your decision wouldn’t doom my descendants.”

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. Their black eyes glared at Lucrezia as hateful scowls formed on their faces.

“I’m not like Johan or his son. 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. Sacrificing the people I loved to save the world was never an option to me.”

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.

“No!” Lucrezia screamed. “There’s still time to take it all back! I understand your concerns, but stealing the lives of billions of others just to protect your own family is going too far! We know there’s another path we can take, Osamu! We should explore that option and see what we can do to protect your family without sacrificing the rest of the world!”

“No. I refuse. Any future in which my children live as pawns to either be sacrificed or conscripted is a future I’ll burn away with my bare my hands. This world has prospered off of the sacrifices of children for far too long. As long as they don’t have to live to see the consequences themselves, humanity doesn’t care who they push their problems onto or how it affects them. The gods are no different. It ends now.”

Lucrezia tried to turn back time, to go back to the moment she unleashed the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Despite having a strong conviction to do so, the scenery wouldn’t change. She and Osamu both remained in the void.

“What’s…going on?” Lucrezia questioned as she gazed at her trembling hands. “Turn back! We need to turn back!”

“You surmised that only those with incredibly strong convictions could come here and freely travel through time and memory.” Osamu said, a sly smile on his face. “People like us who would agree to a plan like Dark Dawn, right? You may be desperate to save the world, but my conviction to destroy it is far more powerful. Now that I’ve told you the truth, you no longer have the freedom to do or undo anything. That power lies solely with me. The Shoku Twins knew that by withholding critical pieces of information from you, you’d end up initiating the Great Hanshin Earthquake from Limbo in order to protect what you thought was our only recourse. I needed you here so that you’d go through with it and seal the world’s fate.”

Lucrezia looked down at her hands again, seeing black chains bind her, Johan, and his son together. Though his Bloodcraft was gone, Osamu’s unshakable will allowed him to freely manipulate Limbo to his liking. He could even restrict Lucrezia’s freedom, for his convictions overshadowed her own.

“The twins…they showed you what would happen after you died, didn’t they?” Lucrezia asked, her eyes wide with fear.

“Helping you go through with the quake and then eradicating you before you could undo it all…that was my final task.” Osamu explained. “You’ve served your purpose. Now you can join the rest of humanity in the afterlife.”

In the blink of an eye, white flames consumed Lucrezia’s feet. They traveled up her legs, burning through her clothes and eating away at her flesh.

“Osamu!” Lucrezia screamed. “It’s not worth it! It just isn’t!”

“That’s no longer within your power to decide.”

The flames consumed Lucrezia’s entire body, then traveled across the chains to engulf her relatives. Her screams echoed throughout the void until her body was reduced to a pile of smoldering ash. She was ejected from Limbo now that she lost the conviction to go through with Dark Dawn. If only Taeko or Manami had any idea that Lucrezia was made to prepare for a war that wasn’t truly necessary. They wouldn’t have fought so hard to ensure that the Third Great Holy War would be possible. Had there been any way to warn them of the danger Osamu presented, they would’ve resisted him and his plans.

Osamu’s selfish will won out in the end, and the machinations of his two co-conspirators, Akatsuki and Omagatoki, allowed him to carry out his convictions even in death. His will to protect his descendants and his disdain for the workings of nations and humanity prevailed over Lucrezia and her desire to protect the world. It was all to ensure that everything would go as it needed to, from the Great Hanshin Earthquake to Dark Dawn.