Soul Sakura: Springtime Gods

Chapter 2: The Meaning Of The Gods

Chapter 2: The Meaning Of Gods
I
"What do I have to do?" I asked the Shinigami, who bore solemnity in his expression.

"It will be a difficult path," the Shinigami said after a long while. "But if you're up for it..."

"Sakura is my reason for everything!" I teared up. "I made a promise to her. One I couldn't keep. Because of that, I..."

The Shinigami shifted his stance on his enameled throne, shaking one leg up and down while he tousled with a long strand of golden hair as he mused on my words. A golden halo of butterflies wreathed around the chandelier above his head, glittering with luminosity. While he continued to weigh the weight of my words, my convictions, he then beckoned for me to kneel before his feet, as a proper worshipper should to their God. I hesitated, though I half knelt on one knee, hoping to hear something that the Shinigami would provide that would help me.

"I'm the Shinigami who transcends everything. I'm the Golden Shinigami who gives an endless eternity for believers."

"What does that mean, exactly?" My brows raised.

"It's just as I say," the Shinigami said, twirling a golden strand into a loop with his sinuous fingers. "I give an endless eternity toward those who believe."

"So if one doesn't have your good favor..."

The Shinigami smiled pleasantly. "It can be a pleasant ending or an ending full of torment. I choose to ferry which souls to their proper afterlives."

I bowed my head, before I formed the proper prostration one would expect of an ardent believer to a Deity that would protect and fulfill their contract.

"Sakura's dream was to save everyone," I clenched my fists. "She would suffer herself if it meant someone else could be saved. It was because of that that I...I failed."

"Do you want me to give you consolation?" the Shinigami said in a toneless voice. "Because remember this. When you're born, remember to crawl back in, because life is an endless banquet of shit. Regardless, this is no reason to give up—your suffering will be meaningless if you haven't given a good fighting try to better your circumstances."

"And you think you're the answer to that?" I said, still keeping my prone form on the ground knelt before this golden spirit. "If I pray to you."

"Do you have any other choice?"

I kept my head bowed, not in reverence, but in shame. I knew the Shinigami was right. What choice did I have? No other follower currently existed to bolster the Shinigami's faith and give him the power needed to transcend time and space. According to the lore of Shinigami, Onmyouji and magicians or spirit users would form contracts with the Shinigami and the Shinigami would grant them powers that would give them immortality or some other boon that would make them achieve great things, should they curry the Shinigami's favor. Of course, as humanity lives and days, a Shinigami will remain and live agelessly and in immortality, not bound by the laws of what made humans mortal or the shackles of life and death that encompassed the Darwinian survival and evolution of a species as foolish as we are.

"But if I were to do this..." I said.

The Shinigami nodded.

"You know what you must do."

"Okay," I said, sitting across the table from the Shinigami and looking into his curiously crimson eyes. "Can I speak to Sakura? One last time?"

The Shinigami gave a curt nod.

"One last time."

I rose, keeping my head inclined. "I want to hold the memory of the Sakura I once knew before I go back in time...to save her."