"Famine!" Death hurried to my side to check my pulse and temperature.

"Is he alright?" Keiran voiced with concern.

"Death. It hurts. My head." I managed to tell my brother with drool dripping down the sides of my mouth.

The pain was heavy, crus.h.i.+ng my skull and making my eyes to burn.

"It's the mind s.h.i.+eld weakening." Death noticed. "The fight with Aidoneaus would've placed a lot of strain on him mentally."

The pain was too much, I faded out of conciousness to the sound of Death's voice speaking words of the magic language. My mind fell into a memory of being back at Gat s.h.i.+em.

----[

"Onii-san! You better finish up plucking those weeds before Bulldog finds you doing nothing and whips your legs with his cane." Pesti warned me as he kicked at my backside to get me up from the cosy bed of gra.s.s I laid on.

I stared up to my brother's form towering over me. Since when did he start getting taller and his baby fat turning into solid muscle around his skinny arms and legs.

His image was as still water with his almond grey eyes reflecting the last of the day's light and his short silk strands of silver hair being tousled about his smooth round face, and flicking past his full sober lips.

"I'm tired. We've been doing all this heavy lifting since crack of dawn. My body needs rest to get more energy." I pouted and closed my eyes to relax further in my cosy spot.

"Come on Onii-san!" Pesti tugged at my arm.

Not able to move my stubborn body from the ground, he slumped down next to me exhausted.

"It's our skin if Bulldog finds us on our laurels." Pesti pouted. His eyes giving off a light frown.

"What'd you think he'd do if he found us with this?" I sat up and sneakily pulled out a hip flask of moons.h.i.+ne from my tunic pocket.

"Onii-san!" Pesti gasped and glanced around to be sure we weren't going to be caught.

I licked my lips with a devious grin and uncorked the flash, taking a whiff of the bitter sweet liquor.

"You're going to get drunk as soon as you take a sip." Pesti soberly reminded me of my const.i.tution for strong spirits.

"I'll be fine." I brushed him off with staunch bravado and took a swig.

Stars swirled about my eyes. d.a.m.n hate to admit that my baby brother was right.

"Hand that over." Pesti groaned as he swiped the flask from my wobbly hands and took a swig from it.

He took another, sipping from the container like it was water. b.a.s.t.a.r.d never got drunk.

I grumbled when he tipped the flask, so all the contents went down his throat. He let out a mighty burp at the end and threw me back the empty container.

My jaw dropped at how perfectly fine he was.

"Savage." I pouted on the back of a hiccup.

My head felt light and dreamy that I rested it on his shoulder.

"Onii-san. We really should listen to Bulldog and Shuso when they lecture us on not indulging in fine spirits."

"You indulged."

"I can handle my drink." Pesti smugly complimented himself.

"Bah! What's wif the lecture anyway?"

"I'm the baby brother. Shouldn't it be the other way round?" Pesti chuckled.

"Your stuffy tone's like Death's. That guy needs to lighten up too."

Pesti's voice dropped to a serious tone. "Hey, Death-niisan's duties with Adams-san. I'm worried about him."

I raised my head to face him. "About Adams-san? Why?"

"No, silly. Death." Pesti finger flicked my head.

"Don't call me silly, dummy." I grumbled back, rubbing my forehead better. "What's wrong with Death anyway?"

Pesti was about to answer when a tree sparrow flew towards us and landed on his shoulder. It tweeted a ditty melody before nodding its head and flying off.

"What'd the bird say?" I drunkenly watched the creature recede into the orange streaked sky.

"Seems a strange energy is pooling at the foot of the mountain. The birds are warning some of the monks and Shuso." Pesti answered like having a conversation with a bird was something normal.

"Energy? But Gat s.h.i.+em is one big pool of energy."

Pesti faced me with his concern. "Onii-san. If something were to happen to us."

I laughed. Like what could happen to us at Gat s.h.i.+em? The place was a magical fortress.

"You and Death think too much. This is Gat s.h.i.+em. Nothing's gonna happen." I hiccuped.

Pesti frowned. "What if something did, and we were separated, would you find me?"

His question was spoken with such solemness that it made me sober.

"What is going on in that head of yours? Seriously, Pesti."

"Would you Onii-san?"

"Pesti. You're my brother. Of course, I'll find you and bring you home." I answered seriously to his question.

"I'll even throw you a big party with lots of cake." I wiped off my drool at the thought of sweet cakes. "Anyway, you testing my brotherhood or something?"

Pesti relaxed into a warm smile and hearty nod.

"Jerk!" I initiated a play fight with him, which sent us rolling down the hill we had been resting on and into the sand beds of the meditation gardens.

A few rabbits hopped to inspect our dirtied bodies along with Bulldog; the hem of his midnight blue kimono flapped about our faces.

"Brats. Yah get yahselves cleaned up and weed the rabbits' meadow after you finish off here." Bulldog growled at us.

We both shuffled to our feet and glanced with horror at half an acre of meadows covered with overgrown onion weeds, which the rabbits didn't like to eat.

"You're joking right?" I gulped and flinched at his cold grin pus.h.i.+ng back his saggy cheeks to show his front gums and what was left of his teeth.

"Famine. You can also weed around the Torii on your own when yah done."

"But that means I'll miss dinner?" I realised with a groan.

"Get to it." Bulldog lightly whipped at the back of my legs with his old man's cane.

I got the hint and hurried down the meadows, grabbing a basket next to the animals' water trough.

"Nice going Onii-san."

"Don't nice going me. You're just as much to blame." I argued back, grumbling bitterly at the onion weeds I plucked and threw into my basket.

We both kept our thoughts and words to ourselves as he weeded the rabbit's meadow until night was high in the sky and the savoury smells of hearty vegetable soup wafted towards our noses.

We cleaned ourselves at the well behind the Archive Tower, using the glowing white light from the moonstone wall to see what we were cleaning.

Pesti made his way to the dinning hall, whilst I strolled through the Central Courtyard with my basket under my arm to pluck weeds around the Torii, which shone bright underneath a full moon like a burning red archway.

I approached the entrance from the left side of the stone path way to the archway and began plucking weeds near the column.

Something dropped on my back and began crawling to my shoulder. I yelped with fright and dropped my basket, scattering all the weeds I had gathered all over the place. When a braved some courage to look over my shoulder, I saw Small Cap raising himself on his hind legs.

"Gah. Small Cap. Do you honestly find it hilarious freaking me out all the time?" I scolded my spider friend and sighed away the rest of my annoyance when I saw his small body trembling.

"Don't worry, it's all good friend." I gently patted his head and smiled when he crawled into my breast pocket.

An odd low whistling and unnatural rustling about the trees beyond the Torii made my heart race with a bad feeling. I remembered Pesti's warning about strange energy pooling at the foot of the mountain.

The air felt heavy, almost oppressive and filled with negative emotion. I felt a lingering pain of regret and unfulfilled desired that was causing my heart to be empty. My eyes drooped with a force willing them to close. It must've been the drink earlier. Had to be.

Unfulfilled desire, regrets borne with guilt and an insatiable hunger for world control. The dark side of an ego that wanted to be released. Absolute clarity slammed into my mind like one big headache.

"Ugh!" I dropped my basket and dropped to my knees, scattering dirty weeds along the Torii's sacred ground.

The night wind stroked feeling back into my cheeks. Gradually my mind was restored and the headache eased.

I stood and faced the dark way beyond the Torii. The obscure s.p.a.ce was silent and still.

"h.e.l.lo?" I tested for a response and gulped when I received further silence.

Not wanting to repeat the test, I hurriedly gathered my weed mess and scrambled back towards the temple and dining hall.

The whole time I made my way to the Kuri, I couldn't shake the dark energy to my back. I felt hungry. Morbidly hungry. Not for food, but with a desire to s...

"Famine. Oh, how ailing ghosts covers your face." Shuso cordially approached me.

His mysterious eyes regarded me with silence. I felt my heart lighter and an emotion of relief wash through me.

"Tired you must be. Yes. Eat and sleep." He smiled warmly as he walked past me, patting my back as he went.

The dark energy that had followed me was gone.

I sighed and entered the hall, my eyes danced with delight when I saw Pesti still eating at the tables. He had an untouched plate of savoury fried tofu next to him.

My mouth went wide with a stupid grin.

]----

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"Famine." I opened my eyes to daylight and my elder brothers faces looking down on me.