Okumura Syndicate Ending 1

Chapter 174: Love, Hope And Despair

TW: Major character death, suicide

Meanwhile, Rou walked alone among the flowers aimlessly as his heart and his head weighed on him heavily as if they were full of water. He'd blocked the path to comfort, and as he tried to take in the last moments of calm, his world erupted in light and sound. The light blinded him, and all was just a haze, devoid of nothing but a crestfallen future. Rou sat on the ground for some time, his head resting on his knees and his hands. Tentatively, he rose to a netherworld of despair, as the blood on his hands began to grip to his soul.

"Aaaaah!!!", he violently struck his body, shrieking at the pain; but nothing else came out of his mouth, save for a few retches. Then, another light, and another scream. Hopelessness, he tried with all his might to stop it, but it was still there. Is it time, he wondered, is the light becoming unbearable? The full horror of his nightmare coming to life hit him, the absolute feeling of fear, sorrow, and loneliness.

As the dizzy haze of insanity begun to bind him, the soft echoes of a familiar song distracted his mind. "Rou, Rou..." a voice made his body spring up, and he turned around in a panic. No one was there, but hope did arise. In his need, this voice always came to him, for no apparent reason. The only clear nail in a haystack of jumbled instability. Reaching Rou's ears over the screams, it becokened to him, "I want to see you...Rou...".

"W-who are y-you? Was it y-you that hurt me?", Rou shuddered. A cool breeze washes over him, as he reached ahead of him, clarity filling him once again. The light seemed to have dispersed, and the trees have lost their shade, only leaving a figure behind. Feeling hauntingly calm, he called out to the air, "I see you...". Suddenly, the looming truths came to him, the blurry spirits feature shone through Rou's mind and finally into his heart, "Kakei...I can hear you...".

"Look at you, you're all grown up! You can achieve your-", the youthful voice took a short pause, "But...", and with the sound of a sigh, the air became dark once again, "You had to leave, didn't you?" As the darkness neared his face, it brought a chilling realization that brought pain to his being. "I should've been there for you, I never got that out of my heart...", the blue haired man's tears dampened his sight as his love returned to his side.

Rou looked up to the sky as the spirit embraced him. The figure was so close, the one silver lining in a world of pain. "My life since you've been gone...it's been hell...I'm not ready for you to go...please...", he began to cry, he knew what he had to do. He embraced the air as if in a hug, as if it were Kakei. "My sweet love... the reason I'm here is because I'm not ready to let you go...", echoed the voice. "T-take me...", Rou's fragile hands extended out to Kakei, only to go right through him.

"I'm afraid the barrier between our worlds is too great...", explained Kakei. He left in a dimming fade as the unbearable haze returned, "C-come back!", Rou pleaded to his lover, as a shockwave pulsated in his chest. He was surrounded by fear entangling him into a morbid world of malice, visions of Lin's cruel philosophy of delusion. But was he right? He could not do this alone, for if he did, he'd lose his senses. The pain of his existence was one that could not be shared. He knew what he had to do, he had to leave this world.

Gathering his remaining thoughts, he took the slow walk down to the end of the mansion gardens, and to his eventual death. His eyes fell on the secluded waterfall at the edge of destiny, a forbidden shore, a solitary place. It was the one place in this world where he could truly rest. Taking off his cape, he slid into the pond. His shaken hands reached for a rock as the water pulsed, "Oh God, what do I do now?", he kept his head bowed in regret as the thought of everything he did rushed back to him.

He sat down, as his knees buckled and he lost the will to continue. The voices echoed on, unbidden, but unyielding. His hand raised into the current, as a rippling rain poured on. "I'm sorry," he said to himself as images of everyone he'd disappointed met his view. Aster, Fleur, Edward, Demitris, each of them he couldn't save, not unless his demise brought them together. Nothing else mattered anymore, not a glimpse of them, not his job, his fingers twitched in panic, as his final storm welled up inside him.

The fallout was instant, one second a babbling brook, the next, the final icecap of a man so cold that the light of day did not warm him anymore. He melted into the abyss within the freezing waters, met by a dimly glowing sky. The road of his soul is up to interpretation, something only a deity could fathom. Whether Rou had thawed, his pain healed, his blood purified can never be certain. However, one thing was guaranteed, the man with a frozen heart left a hole in the syndicate that would never be filled.