The Bird and the Garden

Chapter 33: The Final Battle

Disclaimer: Video is not mine. The remix belongs to UNDEAD CORPORATION, and Touhou project belongs to Team Shanghai Alice and ZUN. Play the music when I say to. Put it on loop if the music ends.

And here we are. We are finally reaching the end of Y/N and Vao's adventure. In the next chapter, the first ending to be written will be decided - the good ending, which is the way I intend to end the story. And then there are the "what if" scenarios, which is the bad ending and the continuation of the timeline ending. Dice roll will decide which comes first.

I've also changed my mind about letting my readers have the choice of which ending comes first. I don't get enough comments on my latest chapters to do a proper voting system, so it will be decided on a d20 die roll.

This chapter will be shorter than usual. My apologies.

Let's begin the chapter.

...

It had been nearly nine months. Nine months ago, Y/N had become allies with Menagerie. Nine months ago, Neo had revealed she was pregnant. Nine months ago, Y/N had discovered a way to possibly save his brother.

He was now twenty-eight years old. Neo had been placed in the medical tent for the late stages of her pregnancy to ensure she stayed healthy enough to deliver her and the hero of Light's son. Y/N was walking there now, dropping his cigarette into the sand and snuffing it out under his boot. He was wearing Summer's old cloak again, the white fabric having been freshly cleaned glowing in the early morning sun as the frigid desert night air reached his bones. He pushed open the tent flaps and stepped inside, his eyes falling on the sleeping form of his lover. An Atlesian nurse was preparing a meal for when she would wake up, and smiled at Y/N when he entered. "Good morning, Mr. Xiao-Long. Did you sleep well?" She asked kindly.

"Absolutely not," was his reply. He gave her a smile in return. "Yeah, I slept alright. Just thinking about a lot."

The nurse nodded understandingly. "Ah, right. You're about to march on Salem's Citadel, right?"

"Yeah. After this, I have to meet with General Schnee and our allies." He gestured towards his lover. "How's she doing? Is she alright?" He asked worriedly. The nurse only laughed.

"To think the famous hero is worried about something other than the rest of the world. Yes, she is fine. She's progressing much better than expected, given the conditions of our location. She's expected to make a full recover, soon."

Y/N bowed his head. "... That's good..." He glanced at his scroll. If he hung around any longer, he was going to be late. He pocketed his scroll and said goodbye to the nurse, leaving a gentle kiss on Neo's forehead and pushing the tent flaps aside.

The new Warden MkII rolled past him. The first ones could never be properly created, and so they created the MkII. They now more closely resembled a tank with a large base, three turrets with lasers, and four mounted machine guns capable of firing exploding Dust rounds. Suffice to say, the were more reliable than the original Wardens. All around him, Atlesian soldiers were mingling with others. Some were from Mistral, and others were from Vale. Vacuo was not present, due to being wiped from existence. The only ones isolated were the Menagerie soldiers. It showed that even with all the hardships humanity and Faunus both experienced, they still could not fully get along. It only proved to Y/N that the gods could not be summoned. He wondered if Faunus and humans ever would make peace with each other.

He pushed his way into the command tent. A large rectangular table sat in the center, and around it stood Ozpin, Winter, Nora, and Sasha. They were discussing the best position to begin their assault on the dragon-shaped continent - the Land of Darkness. The rest of Y/N's group were off to the side, Raven gripping Yang's arm for guidance. As much as Y/N had been against it, he couldn't argue that Raven was needed when they finally stormed Salem's castle. She was a Maiden, and no doubt her powers would be useful against Salem, or even Vao if it came down to that. Weiss was standing with a blank expression, but Y/N could see it in her icy blue eyes. She was nervous. He couldn't really blame her. As the Winter Maiden, she was fighting in Salem's castle alongside the others. War in general was something to be nervous about. Velvet didn't try to hide it. She was biting at her nails, her rabbit ears twitching as they listened to the conversation.