KAAAALYN

Tenpou—

See you later.

Mh.

Four fates inexplicably, wonderfully intertwined. As Tenpou lets that door close behind him, he doesn’t look back to see his friend—caretaker, really—fight the last fight he’ll ever know.

He just keeps moving

Four fates, three lives left, one promise to keep.

That one way or the other, they’ll end up back together. So he doesn’t pause or hesitate, doesn’t rush to intervene in that noble sacrifice of his most trusted subordinate. He understands.

Besides that—

He has to get Konzen and Goku to safety. They’re so close now, the dimension gate’s elevator is but a corridor away, but Tenpou knows he won’t make it further than that. The enemy knows their destination already: they will be waiting, en masse, and there’s no hope that all three make it out.

But he’s going to give them a hell of a fight.

“So what do we do?” Konzen asks, understanding the gravity of their situation but not yet following its implications. Tenpou smiles vaguely, pushes his glasses up along the bridge of his nose, and offers a half-hearted shrug.

“Good question. I’ve brought you this far…

There’s only one thing left for me to do.”

The field marshal of Heaven’s Western army moves decisively, not allowing room for argument or debate between his two charges as he pulls them down the corridor and into their next battlefield behind him, watches the file and rank of his once subordinates turned enemies fill the edges. They know to fear him, they understand his placid smile as the front it is—but he doesn’t let it lose grip on his face.

If he’s going to die, he’s choosing it. He’s going to smile the whole way through.

And he’s going to smile one last time for Goku and Konzen, stopping short once they’re at the elevator that will take them down to the dimension gate.

He wants Goku to remember him this way, with this face. A man who has finally become a man: not just existing for the sake of existing, or fighting because of orders, but because he found something to fight for, people he wanted to protect.

Thank you, he thinks as those elevator doors close and the soldiers around him stare on, shouting orders to advance to one another that no one listens to.

They’re waiting on heaven’s foremost strategist to show his cards.

Four fates, two now sealed.

Tenpou rolls his shoulders, patting down his labcoat for a hair tie—it’d be nice to pull this brunet mop out of his face, but ahh—it’s in his other uniform.

The cleaners hate it when he brings his coat with pockets full. What a shame.

“Oh well. Well then—shall we begin?” he asks after a moment of deliberation, face still placid, step still light.

In one week, he’s gone from one of the highest ranking military members to a traitor, and now, today, he becomes a godslayer.

There’s some poetry to that, isn’t there? He swears he’s read a sonnet like that once—what era was it written? No matter.

Tenpou raises his nodachi, angular face shrouded in the shadows of his unkempt hair, and still he smiles.

They advance in waves, in swarms. He moves with that same lack of hesitation, blade severing godly flesh in wide swings, artful thrusts. Five, ten, twenty bodies fall at his feet and still more fill in, the ants of heaven scurrying forward. They get bites in here and there, the damage accumulates, blood splattering over his face, across the lens of his glasses, wounds opening in his back, his sides—

Still, no matter.

All he can think is: I’m running out of cigarettes. I’ll have to get more later…

More corpses fall, more gods crumple, his body bleeds a bit more. Bloody footprints are left in the wake of his advance as he fights off each successive wave.

Oh, that’s right. I forgot to eat that instant ramen I had stocked up.

Such a shame, that. There was a new garlic and chili flavor he’d been eager to try, when he could remember to eat.

Another wave falls, his stance grows wearier, tired. The smell of blood—his own as much as theirs—overtakes his senses, nauseating.

He’s running out of time.

And the light in the bathroom needs to be changed—

That book, how far did I get?

A katana breaks through his guard, slides past a high cheek bone, knocking his glasses to the floor where they’re crushed underfoot.

Aw…

That’s okay, though, he has some spares somewhere—though it’s been a while since he’s seen them.

He supposes Kenren will find them later, when he’s cleaning his room again, frustrated by his superior’s utter lack of organization.

His body is getting slower now, heavier, the last of the guards sliding from the length of his nodachi.

Only one ant left now. Their leader, his opposition, Heaven’s Eastern general.

They charge at one another and each are successful: Tenpou is gutted, innards spilling out like ribbons, while his enemy falls with a direct strike through the lungs and heart, artery spraying a wide arc of blood.

Without thinking about it, he heads not for the elevator: there’s nothing he can do there, but turns back towards that dungeon he’d left Kenren to die in, each step harder, breath shorter.

Well then.

The blood loss is too severe, his body too mangled. He can’t take another step.

I guess I’ll be on my way.

Finally this great tactician and soldier falls gracelessly, long body sprawled out into the empty hallway.

If he can’t walk, he will crawl. Slender, bloody fingers flex, grab onto the floor and inch him a little closer, the pain blinding but his heart clearer than ever.

Even if his eyes cannot see the way forward, his soul will always find those three. Will always find Kenren.

But it’s over now. Darkness fills his vision, the pain eases, his thoughts numb.

“Sorry...” he murmurs almost inaudibly, lying prone on his side, violet eyes closing.

“…I kept you waiting.”

Four fates, one promise.

Even if he’s a bit late.