[Gintama] Immortal

"This is how the world ends

not a bang

Instead weep softly and die"①

……

There isn't much sunshine this season, and it has been for 500 years.

The sky was neither bright nor gloomy, just a neutral gray.Yae stood in the valley where the weeds reached his knees and looked up at the sky. He stood there motionless for a long time, but he couldn't see where the gaps in the clouds began and ended.

The crows restrained their voices and hid in the shade of tall trees.The dark warships stopped in the open space in the middle of the valley, and the Naraku squadron that was going on the expedition had all boarded the ships, and everything was ready, just waiting for the order to set sail.

The breeze from afar passed through the valley, and the weeds rustled and swayed in the wind, making the sound of dry rain.The sound of the wind gradually rose, pouring into the sleeves and skirts, and the sleeve corners embroidered with flowers and birds fluttered, as if they were going to ride the wind away, like a bird fluttering its wings impatiently.

Yae stood there, the howling wind slowly receded, and the curtain of silence surrounded the four directions.

She retracted her gaze and looked at the black figure: "Are you leaving?"

"It will be over soon."

The fingers that rubbed against her cheeks were a little cold, Xu pushed a strand of hair that was blown by the wind back behind her ear, and lifted her chin naturally.

This time he went out as a member of the Heavenly Daoist, and he changed back to the black cloak. When he smiled slightly, he could only see the curved arc of the red eyes through the mask.

"This is for the final opening ceremony, I'll be back soon."

Yae raised her eyes and asked knowingly:

"Can't you take me with you?"

"...No." Xu said unhurriedly, "You can't leave the dragon veins on Earth right now."

"But I don't care." Yae said, "It doesn't matter to me what will happen if the connection is forcibly broken at this time."

There is no wind in the empty valley, and the silence has nowhere to go, so it has to keep expanding, expanding, and covering the entire space.

Yae was silent for a while, the silence was different from the past, with the meaning of silent pleading.

"Do you have to go?"

She asked him in the most common sentence pattern: "Can I not go?"

"What stupid things are you talking about?" Pausing for a moment, he raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly, "The last step is coming soon, and you will be free soon. You just need to wait for me to come back."

He caressed her cheek intimately, and held her warm neck with his palm, which was the position of the carotid artery, the place where the beast would bite first when it wanted to strangle its prey, life and death were all occupied in one fell swoop.

"But I want you to stay." Yae raised his hand to grab his clothes, "Isn't this more important than the others?"

The scarlet eyes drooped slightly, the corners of the mouth curled up slightly, and the tone calmed down:

"Does this mean you intend to stop me, Yae?"

"No, this time I just..."

"You just need to wait for me to come back." Xu looked at Naluo who was staying in place, and the leader Bi lowered his head, expressing absolute obedience with a simple and silent movement.

"There won't be another accident like last time, and I won't survive this time either."

Yae suddenly grabbed his sleeves.

"...empty."

He looked at her, his eyes were bent, and his expression seemed to be smiling.

"what happened?"

Yae thought of Oboro without warning.She waited outside his room this morning to see that he was preparing for the mission as usual, and finally replaced him when he became the thirteenth generation, and was given the black lanyard with the pattern of a yata bird.

That person didn't take anything away, as if he would come back, he neatly folded the clothes that belonged to the twelfth generation, and put them in the drawer covered with washi paper.

Everything was settled, and he stayed for a while in the humble and unremarkable room.

Knowing that she was standing by the door, Oboro did not bow her knees to salute, nor put on a respectful and distant gesture as usual.He turned his head naturally, and calmly said to her like a person who is about to go on a long journey:

--"take care."

Yae slowly let go of her hand, letting go of Xu's sleeve bit by bit.

She swallowed her voice, lowered her eyes, and said softly: "I see, let's go."

……

The long black knife lay on the knife holder, and the lacquered wood scabbard was smooth and cold, reflecting the flickering candlelight in the room like a dim mirror.

Yae held up the familiar black knife from the knife holder. Should it be said that it resembled the owner?

The night was quiet, and the corridor guarded by Naraku could not hear the slightest sound.The bronze lamp under the porch was burning with candles, emitting faint light in the darkness.

Yae sat by the window with the knife in his arms, looking at the distant night sky with his head tilted, as if he had thought about everything, but at the same time he seemed to be thinking about nothing.

She stroked the knife, and traced a strange swastika along the cold metal with her fingertips.If it was normal, she would have whispered "the taste is really bad", but Xu left this strange knife to her, she held it for a while, and felt that something around her was better than nothing.

She has been able to see strange things since long ago.

"Seeing" might not be the right word to describe it, but when a creature's lifespan is nearing the end, and the shadow of death is quietly approaching, she has a vague feeling.

She had seen that thing take many people away, Xu was the only exception.

Now she is leaning against the window, that thing that looks like a premonition stays outside, like a silent beast, and like an old friend who hasn't seen her for many years, sitting quietly in the corridor, waiting for the moment when she can be reunited .

...is it tonight?

Yae turned to look outside the door.

The thing was squatting there, but it was just squatting there.

Naraku, on patrol, turned the corner of the corridor, oblivious to the death waiting outside her door.

After a while, the thing stood up and left.She retracted her gaze, leaned slightly, and bowed her head to blow out the last burning candle in the lampstand.

……

She had another strange dream.

This time she is not the protagonist in the dream, she is a bystander living in someone else's body.The grotesque dream began in the darkness, as if someone pushed open a decayed and ancient door, and her sojourned body stretched out her hand and pressed it against the cold and uneven stone wall.

Darkness is infinite, but space has edges.This edge is composed of stone walls and prison doors, whether it is rocks or wooden fences, there are deep marks like scratches from struggling beasts.

The shackles dragged on the ground, rustling, like a snake shedding its scales.The walking sound repeated itself, from one end of the cage to the other, and then from the other end to this end.

……

Yae knew something was wrong with her situation.

The lingering sense of guilt accumulated in her chest, and her dreams were dragged in together, sinking into this endless quagmire, so that even the time of her dreams was trapped in the pain and pain that was imposed on Xu Xu back then. in torture.

...What kind of feeling does it feel to be alone in a dark prison for decades?

There is no time in the dark.

A moment can be an eternity, and an eternity can be a moment.Losing the perception of time, one second becomes long, and this long second stretches infinitely, and is cut into many, many pieces.

The time spent in the dark was piled up by these fragments, and piled up, becoming some kind of colossus.

Maybe I will be locked in this darkness forever.

I can't see what will happen in the future, and I can't even know what I have become. The creatures behind the prison door, or the existence without names, go around the same path over and over again. He fell down, opened his eyes when his heart was beating again, and looked at the unchanging darkness.

... This is the place where "I" died last time, this is the place where "I" died last time, this is where "I" died last time, and this place, last time "I" I also died here, the last "I"...

In the end, there is no need to touch the rock wall in the dark to find the way.

Hope this thing is dead forever and the heart is still beating.

After ordinary people's rationality reaches its limit, it collapses very quickly, and they are also relieved very quickly.People who are completely insane will instinctively find the fastest shortcut to death.

But "I" will not die.

Even if the spirit breaks down, the "I" who is locked in the darkness will continue to exist.

There is only one "I", so later I learned to create many "I".

This "I" is responsible for suffering.

This "I" is responsible for despair.

This "I" stands for hate.

This "I" is fear.

This "I" succumbs to weakness.

This "I" longs for revenge.

There are many "I" in the darkness where there is nothing.

……just me".

Abandoned by the world in hell, there are only these countless "I".

……

Faint light fell into the Japanese room, Yae opened his eyes and found himself leaning against the window and fell asleep again.

The chirping of birds came from the mountains, melodious and melodious.The morning mist has not completely dissipated, hazy, like clouds falling from the sky.

very beautiful.

The peaceful world in the morning light is so beautiful.

Yae slowly came back to his senses.

There was a faint pain in her heart, which was inexplicably painful. She suppressed the feeling, propped herself up and sat up straight.

Touching it casually, her little finger touched the black knife.

She turned her head and looked at the knife for a while, such a formidable knife was now lying on the ground with no momentum, it was a bit pitiful to be thrown to her casually by Xu.

Yae found out the wooden maintenance box - she knew she was just looking for something to divert her attention from.

Flannel, powder balls, knife oil, Bongshu paper.

She patiently pulled out the nail, removed the handle, and carefully pulled out the blade.

The birds outside the window are chirping and singing, shaking their feathers in the morning light, and jumping lively on the branches.

The light became brighter and reflected obliquely on the tatami mats in the room, like a bright strip of light.

Naraku's footsteps sounded in the corridor, approaching in an orderly manner.

Yae put down the blade, bent slightly, and raised his hand to cover his chest.

A strange silence shrouded, and the birdsong outside the window was still cheerful, but seemed to be far away across the water.

She tried to catch her breath, but her body didn't listen.Yae raised his head, the Japanese room was still in the morning light, the world was still running as usual, the beautiful morning was like dewdrops, revealing the luster of Yu Yu.

"……grown ups?"

The door of the Japanese room opened, and it seemed that Bier asked her situation for the first time.

The taciturn man stood by the door, and Yae turned to see something else waiting in the hallway.

...Does an existence like her have death?

Once the consciousness dies, she will no longer exist in this world.

With a clang, the blade fell to the ground.Yae moved her lips, and asked in a voice so small that she could barely hear:

"……are you back?"

Immediately, without waiting for Bi to reply, she suddenly gained strength, rushed out of the room, and ran down the mountain.

Bi wanted to reach out and grab her, but he didn't dare.One of Naraku's warships belonging to Amaterasu Institute was parked at the base, and Naraku, who was staying in the main control room, saw her running in, all of them stood up abruptly, and quickly put away all their weapons.

"My lord." Bi finally stopped her, his deep voice tinged with warning.

Xu has always refused to let her intervene.She could sit in the viewing booth, she could stay behind safe and sound, but she could only stay there.This is an agreement the two made ten years ago, and she cannot interfere with his plan to wage war on the entire universe.

"Step aside."

Yae struggled to utter a word.

There was no other leeway, and the control over her body was rapidly losing, she tried to keep herself standing in place, and finally let go of those light, bright things that she had been trying to maintain.

"Get out of the way, brat."

She has lived for over 1000 years.Now she finally felt the heaviness of the years she had lived, and finally let those heavy things press down on her completely.

She's overwhelmed with her own time, but she can't end here yet.

Bi hesitated for a moment, and at this moment of hesitation, Yae restrained Naraku who was approaching from behind, and directly pressed him onto the console.

"Connect me to the main battleship."

"Whether it's mine, or your pain—things that never end, will end soon."

……

But this is not what she wants.

The communication signal lit up on the screen, and after an extremely long and short moment, she saw the scene inside the battleship at the other end of the universe.

This is not what she wants.

The celestial beings on the screen looked stunned, as if they hadn't expected to receive a communication request from the earth at all.

"Xu." Yae said, she couldn't hear her own voice clearly, "I want to see him."

The thing lay on her shoulder, and said to her in her ear: Your time is up, you should go.

"Hey, hey, do you guys know who you are talking to? We are the Fifth Division of Chunyu, a well-known group in the universe..."

Bi stood in front of the screen, and he seemed to have said something. The celestial being on the screen restrained his arrogant attitude a little bit, and reluctantly said: "The lord is not on the ship at the moment. The sudden appearance of Xinghai Fangzhu disrupted the original Strategic deployment, the lord has gone to deal with the emergency."

The voices from the outside world were hazy, and the consciousness seemed to be gradually stripped from the body, evaporating from the broken container.Yae moved her lips, but couldn't make a sound this time.

……

"It's over."

"It's almost over, Yae."

war.The destruction of the world.She doesn't care about any of this.

When everything is over, it is clear that as long as she is by her side, it will be fine.

There was a sudden uproar around.

How strange the word tumultuous was applied to Naraku.But the metal ground she was sticking to was vibrating, there were swaying figures, the noise of running and the shouting of human voices——

All chaos is very far away from her.

The sinking consciousness was blurred and dim, and birdsong could be heard somewhere in the darkness.It was the sound of singing the morning, facing the morning light, it was as clear as dewdrops falling on the leaves.

... Is it a dream again?

Is she dreaming again?

When she wakes up, she will find herself sitting by the window again, the light sunlight is the color of thin gold.There is a mist in the mountains, like the sky after the rain.

She was stunned for a long time, and finally recovered slowly.The fingertips moved slightly, as if touching the black scabbard.

……

Hey, whose thing is it?

……

"How to do?"

The window that popped up on the screen disappeared, and the communication from the earth was cut off. The celestial being sitting in front of the console looked at his companion with a hesitant look on his face.

Also a member of the Fifth Division of Chunyu, the other celestial being was much calmer.

He shrugged and pressed the operation key to clear the communication records.

"Cut it off, we're still fighting here." He said casually.

"It was just a small accident."

The author has something to say:

①From the poem "The Hollow Men" by the British poet TSElliot

This is the way the world ends

Notwithabangbutawhimper.