Passion
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PASSION

Jin

I am the Reaper of Free Will. It is hard for me to do my job sometimes, watching as humans do all sorts of things that maybe they ought not to do. Unlike the other Reapers, my actions are mostly passive, allowing events to happen and only intervening when people feel like they don't have a choice.

I was there when this one's mother made the choice to deliver a very unorthodox child, and I was there when his father made a choice to stay married and to protect that child from Herod, even though it wasn't his. I was there when Herod tried to kill Jesus. I was there when the disciples joined, when the Pharisees decided to cooperate with Rome to have him executed, when Pilate caved to peer pressure, and when Judas decided to betray him with a kiss for a few pieces of silver. I saw each of these choices.

I also saw the disciples choose to save their own skins, and the crowd choose to become a mob against him. But I saw good choices too. I saw people who tried to visit him in the cross. Who came to visit him after he died. Who donated a tomb for his burial. So many choices, good and bad, in those days.

Engaku

I heard the rhythmic crack of the whip. One stroke. Two strokes, back to back. Three strokes in a row. Five strokes. Was it just me, or was there a Fibonacci sequence? However, I did not see this pattern continue, although the flailing most certainly did continue. The soldiers of Rome were going to divide his garments, as I calculated how many scraps and what length and width would be required to have an even portion of cloth for use as rags. But then the soldiers decided to play a game of chance for this clothing instead, ensuring that only one of them would make use of it. How illogical.

Rinne

I'm not sure that Engaku understood what she was seeing. She is very logical, but her logic doesn't allow for a great deal of understanding about events in the world of humans and their emotions. I was a bit better about this. I could understand why Judas had betrayed Jesus, why the Jewish leaders wanted him gone, and why Pilate was so reluctant. He had a warning a few days ago that he should not let this man be crucified, but despite his power on paper, he was actually a very weak man.

I watched as they mocked him, asking him to save himself, as they put a crown of thorns on him, and dressed him in purple robes, as they gave him wine mixed with myrrh. This was to numb the pain, a small mercy, but he refused. I watched as he carried a cross, but in his weakened state, he fell. Another man known as Simon of Cyrene helped him. The two of them marched up to the site, where the cross piece was slid into a slat, completing the instrument of execution. He was then nailed to the structure, thick metal driven through his feet and hands. Unlike hanging, crucifixion is a long and slow process. The body is hung, and slowly loses oxygen, as they try to pull themselves up by straightening their legs, but since their legs are nailed down, they are in a constant state of discomfort, fighting for every breath of air by trying to boost themselves. While it potentially took days for those who were crucified, Jesus took only a few hours because he was also badly wounded. Nevertheless, he made the most of his time. He called his mother to adopt one of his friends as a son. He fulfilled prophecies. He forgave sins of his accusers. He told a fellow accused who defended him when everyone else mocked him that he would also be there with him this day. And he set up a system that revised our Afterlife.

It was my mission to guide Jesus once he died, but unlike the others he walked willingly with me. He did not need any "coaxing" from Yomi. I also carried the two who died with him on the cross that day, but they were a little later. Jesus had died before them.

Bosatsu

At the time of Jesus's death, a number of unnatural occurrences happened. I say unnatural, because even supernatural events, I have a part in, and I am normally ordered to help carry them out. But there were no events planned for me that day. This was all God, and Jesus himself. For several hours, the sun went dark. This could not be explained away as a solar eclipse, because during Passover, the sun and moon were in the wrong position for a solar eclipse, and beside which, this was simply too long an event. Also, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom, symbolically ripping the separation created by the Unseen Realm. Not humans were connected to the spiritual world directly. I am convinced that this is what this act means. Not only that, but these events were followed by earthquakes and people raising from the dead. As a Reaper, I could actually see this event from both sides of the Unseen Realm. While they saw frightening events at their end, I saw the utter breakdown of the rules of the Unseen Realm. The Afterlife had been set up for centuries so that that the dead would stay dead, but I saw Jesus in the robe and crown of a king with a sword in his hand, speaking to the dead while he marched to the edge of the Afterlife and slashed an exit hole in it. The Harrowing of Hell, it later came to be called. This hole was later built into a doorway, where all had a chance to overcome death, though despite a gaping hole, some couldn't look past their misery and see it. As for the Temple where the veil was torn, I watched over the next 40 years as a new Temple appeared in the Unseen Realm over the site of the old one. As Herod's Temple was smashed up, the new Temple was built over it. A Temple where all people could worship in spirit and truth.

Chiku

A little known part of my job is that I ensure that those that can be seen by humans have a body, whether animal, plant, human, or otherwise. They are made of flesh, have bones, and have blood. All of these are constructed from organic and inorganic materials found in nature. So when Jesus returned, without a mortal body, I was rightly a bit miffed. Here was someone who could simply appear and his own friends wouldn't recognize him. I know that the natural world is somewhat disordered, but this is too much, even for me! We can't have ferns suddenly turning into zebras, nor can we have shapechanging people, or people passing through walls, yet also being able to eat food and getting other people to touch their hands and side. Honestly, I had enough on my plate with thousands of new species of fungus. What was God thinking?!?

Yomi

Normally, I reap people, and that's the end. They go quietly into whatever Afterlife they can imagine they deserve, my job is done, and I'm assigned to another dying person. But... this one escaped me. Well, I kinda knew it would happen, since Jesus is the incarnation of God. I know Ambrosia pretty well, and she doesn't put up with crap. So any child of hers would be just like her.

Oh sure, I cut my scythe through him. But he died because his spirit left his body, well before I got there. The Romans were similarly confused. They knew their business, and when it came to break his legs, he seemed to be already dead, so they tested this by stabbing him with a spear instead.

And he raised to life again so that his spirit could collect his body. And his body, soul, and spirit returned to the Afterlife. And he kept returning back to the living world, over and over again. Until Ambrosia assured me that I would not lose my job over this, I was pretty worried actually.

Seishi

Normally, after Rinne guides souls to the Afterlife, I help them get reborn into new bodies. But this Jesus character simply refused to cooperate. The nerve! Here I was telling him about the benefits of being born again, and he simply looked at me and smirked. Then he basically wandered outside of my authority, and did his own thing. Now I have to answer to him instead.


I wanted a sort of "four gospels" thing where each of the Reapers focuses on different details. I especially liked how beleaguered Seishi and Yomi are, they're like "Why do I have to put up with this?!?" Rinne is closest to the main character that I have, so her story tells most of the actual events.

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