IZUNA

28

If Izanagi is the power to change fate then Izanami is the power that decides it.

::

"It's time to stop. Let's end this."

Izuna—-the Original—-stood alone in the void.

He was tired.

Death's Chosen. They were Death's Chosen. But which Death? The Master of Death?

No.

The Goddess of Death.

She-Who-Invites.

He stood alone in the void.

Yomi.

The underworld.

The place where Izanami dwells.

Give her to me.

He felt himself tear—his very soul was being torn apart.

"No."

Disobeying brought a special kind of agony. He had no body to feel pain with. The only thing left was his soul—his very essence.

It was a pain far worse than his death.

Give to me what is mine.

"She isn't yours. Not yet."

It hurt.

The dead obeyed her.

He was dead.

It felt wrong to disobey.

Still...

He had to.

He couldn't afford to give in.

Mine.

He shook his head.

Two of the same soul were not designed to meet in the same vessel, they weren't supposed to share the same body. To do so meant bending the laws of reality.

Only a God could bend reality.

Only a God could manipulate souls.

Souls.

Izanami was the Master of Souls.

Those she took, she kept, and none could take them from her.

Izuna was dead.

He belonged to Izanami.

It did not matter how many times he revived himself or tried to run from her.

There was no escape from death.

He was dead.

He had been killed by Senju Tobirama.

That was his death.

But his Other——his beloved Flame—-did not deserve to share his fate.

She was alive.

But...

She had also died.

The Shinigami had cut her previous life short so that she could live this one.

The Shinigami could manipulate death; he mastered death. But the Shinigami had not mastered the dead. There was a reason he was called the Master of Death, not the Master of the Dead.

Only Izanami could command the Dead.

And he was one of them.