Soukoku One-Shots

Death's Red Camellias

Alternate Universe

It was beautiful.

That was the first thought that Ace had as he was led along the winding cobblestone pathway. Meticulously curated and cared for, based on the particular blacks and reds flooding the garden and the healthy, glittering blooms of each one. The sea of ominous buds and flowers was alarming, and it was beautiful.

The same could not be said of the two people dragging him toward the palace. One of them was stone-faced and silent—he wore the same long black coat Ace had seen him in the last time they'd met, in Ace's palace on his death day. The other one, though, he didn't recognize and had a small smile on his face that was much more unsettling.

The garden came to an end as the palace began, and the guards stopped just in front of the doors with enough force that Ace nearly slammed straight into them. They all paused—awaiting some kind of command, he assumed—when the giant doors swung open to reveal a throne room that put even Ace's own to shame. The ceilings looked higher than the sky, built with sweeping arches and elegant pillars large enough to rival the mortal mountains. The decorations were exquisite and he spotted many very fine items on his way toward the centerpiece of the room: the throne.

It was the most magnificent and most terrifying thing Ace had ever seen. Crafted from obsidian and the screams of the damned, it looked, as the torchlight danced across the black stone and revealed hidden intricacies in the carving he hadn't noticed until he was a few mere yards away from it.

It, and the thing sitting in it, of course.

Ace couldn't call him a person, because gods were not human, but he almost looked like one. Wavy hair the color of chestnuts and smooth, pale—very, very pale—skin. He had the bone structure of a human, with his delicate cheekbones and the sharp lines of his jaw. He even sat like one, perched comfortably on the ornate throne of his and looking down at Ace with glinting eyes.

His eyes. Those were what gave it away, Ace thought as he was shoved to his knees before the throne and held at the mercy of such a stare. Red eyes, glittering with joy and stained with malice, stared back at him with such a visceral intensity that Ace felt like every layer of his skin was being peeled back to reveal every inch of his soul, bared before the King of the Underworld.

That didn't trump his ego, though. "So, you're the fabled King of Death? I have to say, I expected someone less... boyish."

Dazai cocked his head to the side, an action very and most certainly inhuman. "Is that so? I'm terribly sorry for letting you down. Tell me who you are and why you're bothering me."

Ace cocked his chin up and pushed his quaking nerves down into his gut. "I am Ace, King of Corinth."

"Ex-king," Dazai corrected with a cloying smile.

Ace's own smile was just as smug. "Of course."

Dazai gave a small nod and the hands restraining Ace vanished. He frowned when the man in the long coat shot him a glare. "Akutagawa, how was the retrieval?" Dazai asked.

"He tried to tie me up and trap me underneath his bed," was Akutagawa's deadpan answer. "I dragged him here by his ankles."

Ace watched Dazai study him for a few moments and kept his chin up, unwavering. "What do you think, Ace?"

Ace scoffed, shaking his head. "That's ridiculous, I was perfectly civil. Your errand boy is exaggerating."

Akutagawa had to be held back by his companion before he tore Ace to shreds.

Dazai chuckled at that, something mocking and unsettling but not hollow. "It would have been a shame if a mortal man had finally gotten the best of you, Akutagawa. I hope such an incident won't happen again."