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Prologue - Life and Death
Immortality
by Siew Lee
siewleewong@time.net.my
In serene harmony, the bells in the mist-shrouded palace chimed together. Haunted and whispering, the lingering tunes were carried over the unknown boundaries of the mysterious land. Far and wide, no-one knew what was happening in the big building, except Death itself.
It was rumored that no-one had ever seen Enma-Daiou face to face, except on Judgment Day of the souls. In ancient legends, the God of Death would take his seat in the imperial Reikai court, waiting to bestow a place in heaven for each kind spirit and sentence the evil to eternal suffering in the lowest level of Hell; but it was totally different just moments ago. A sentence was passed down and the innocent was given the harshest punishment available.
As the bells continued chiming, a lone figure was sitting on the cold marble floor of the imperial court. Broken and silent, he sat there, listening to the bells of Reikai.
No, that did not make any difference. He was still alive at this point, but his status had been greatly changed. He was given the worst punishment ever pronounced to any prince of Reikai.
It all just came in a flash. So fast that he had no time to think, let alone take any actions. How could he escape from such a sentence?
He squeezed his eyes shut. How could it be this way? His father. His very own father who cared and fed him for the last 700 years wanted him out of Reikai! Enma betrayed him.
A teardrop rolled down his smudged cheek before landing onto the cold stone floor. It was simply too much. The soft clank of the iron chains binding his hand and feet echoed in the silent space, the metal links not allowing him to run or move freely. He tilted his head up towards the ceiling of the huge court. Still no light, still no sound.
*Three hours to dawn.*
After sunrise, he would become ningen once again. A human who was made out of flesh and blood. A being who was vulnerable to mortal feelings such as love, hate and jealousy. Once again, he would be banished to the mortal world; a place where he had once experienced sickness and death.
Seven centuries ago, he had decided to leave ningenkai forever, and chose to serve Reikai in exchange for his mortal body and feelings. Out of so many souls, he was selected to become the next leader of Reikai. For seven hundred years, he was groomed and trained as part of the preparation of his ascent to the throne of the spiritual world. Years of training and centuries of paperwork; he never thought that he would throw everything away from the sake of a lowly servant.
As an immortal, he never thought that he would fall in love, or be riddled with envy. The pain of loving someone, but not being loved back was hard to swallow; but he never realized that he would be a victim of these human emotions. He just thought that he would be contented with his work and life but he did not realize his mistake until it was too late.
What was the conclusion? He fell into the web of human feelings. Maybe mixing around with Yusuke and Kuwabara too much had changed him in every single aspect. Very often, he would remind himself that normal friendship did no harm, as long as he did not love another person more than his own soul.
*Dear lord, I could even die for her...*
As he realized that, it was too late to save anything. After putting his heart and soul into his job, after sacrificing so many important objects in his entire life, he lost everything in a blink. Was she worth the price he was forced to pay?
He bent down, his eyes staring blankly at the chains which bound him. A little more time, then he would be human once again and, be banished to Ningenkai until the time of his Death.
Before that, he had one single wish:
"Botan, where are you?"
Author's Notes:
[Copyright reserved 2000, 2001 W. Siew Lee]
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