Kuroyuki: Through the Eyes of the Shinigami

Chapter 9: I See Facade

The Knell tower - the highest ascending structure all across the Mid Horizon.

It serves as the symbolic foundation of the domain's System, guarded by a special line of Impalers that number to the hundreds. For the Impalers, the tower serves as the center of their operations, since settled atop the tower is the deity that employed them to perform Deliverance to the Mortal Realm - the Scheduler.

"He's finally coming back..." said the lady in red velvet as she stood before a large glowing book, which floatedin the middle of the large hall, its pages continuously filled up by an invisible quill. This is the Book of Mortality - an ethereal instrument completely responsible for measuring the ethereal bonds of souls in the Mortal Realm. Its ultimate purpose is to maintain balance in the circulation of ethereal energies between the Mid Horizon and the Mortal Realm, by directing the souls that have detached from expired ethereal bonds. Thus, denizens of the Mid Horizon, known as the Impalers, were tasked to determine the souls' worth for bond restoration in the Mortal Realm - the Deliverance. These Impalers are a special kind of souls, derived from the Mortal Realm, and were reborn as Mid Horizon inhabitants, as determined by the Book. For a certain Impaler to perform Deliverance, he or she must first determine the depreciating life time of the target, which is usually alerted to them by the Book, and at the final tick of the bond's life time, the Impaler will use his or her scythe to excise the ethereal bond between the soul and the corporeal body. Upon elimination of the bond, the Book of Mortality will decide whether the certain soul shall be reincarnated or have its ethereal energy be part of the two domains' pre-existing ether cycle. This is the Book of Mortality's justice and this was how the System started. The directive of the Book of Mortality was carried out for a very long time - until a certain incident occurred.

The Book of Mortality suddenly detected an imbalance in the ethereal energies allotted in the Mortal Realm. There was a severe increase in the number of souls being reincarnated, thus an overpopulation. It was known that the Book of Mortality controlled the reincarnation value of the souls collected - but it did not matter. It was as if an external force was dictating it to continuously increase the priority for soul reincarnation. With reasons still unknown, the Book performed compensatory measures. With the Scheduler as its proactive guardian, certain steps were taken to change the System's parameters - from rapidly decreasing life times of prejudged souls of the unworthy, up to performing double deaths. However, these countermeasures were not enough.

The Book finally contemplated for a calculated future and employed a very risky move - summon something with a potential to bring a sudden impact in the ether cycle of the two domains, something that can turn the tables against fate, something that has a strong will.

***

Right below the Knell tower and before the doors to the lift that led to the Scheduler's Chamber, a particular encounter was waiting to happen.

"Yuui. You look... different," said Kai in a very surprised tone. "It looks like Shiroe failed, and apparently so have the tower guards."

On the other end from where Kai was standing, Yuki, with a somber look, stood precariously with his scythe in hand. He still had the grey-colored hair and red eyes he acquired right before leaving the Mortal Realm. Behind him was Kuroha, who seemed to be concerned with her partner's sudden change in nature, and still showed a look of both shock and awe after what happened a while ago with the Impaler tower guards. Surrounding them were several chipped-off scythe blades and holders.

"That power of yours...", added Kai, "That power is very interesting. You were able to eliminate threats with a shockwave? No, 'disintegrate' seems to be more precise. Throughout the time I've been observing you, I never witnessed that. Yuui... who are you? What are you?"