Afterstory 1 - Gu Ju
Whiiiiiii—
A snowstorm rages.
A cold winter day.
A boy drags his cold body home.
The boy, who went to the riverside to catch fish, returns empty-handed.
Today, it is far too cold.
The river is frozen to an abnormal degree, so frozen that even his body, warmed by his breath, cannot melt it.
"Mother...I am sorry. Tomorrow...tomorrow I will definitely bring something to eat..."
The boy, resolving that tomorrow he will, no matter what, somehow bring food for this mother, steps into the house.
And in that moment, the boy's eyes flash, and he plucks off an icicle that has grown under the eaves of the house, grips it in his hand like a blade, and adjusts his breathing to strengthen his physical abilities.
Someone has come into the house.
There is no sign at all.
With the boy's physical abilities, he can sense everything within a radius of three zhang.
This is because the sound of breathing, or something that should be called breathing, can be 'heard'.
However...
The [something] in front of his eyes has no breathing that can be heard at all.
No, leaving that aside...it does not give the feeling of a corpse either.
The existence in front of his eyes has the appearance of a woman.
Wearing golden clothes, she seems to be someone of high status.
As if...she is an existence that has come from another world.
When he sees the woman's face, unlike his body, which instinctively takes an attacking stance, his face turns red.
He does not know why.
She is just...
...so lovely.
"Come in. I have not come to harm you."
The boy looks behind the woman.
In the house...there is fire.
The whole room looks to be hot.
There is also the smell of warm food.
His stomach growls and clamors for rice.
But it is strange.
'From the chimney...no smoke is coming out, but the house is warm...?'
The boy knows what kind of breathing the existence called fire has, what sound it makes as it burns, and what feeling it gives off.
However, inside the house, he cannot feel the existence of [fire].
It is bizarre.
It seems as if a yaoguai, wearing a human appearance, has entered the boy's house and is tempting him.
'Should I...cut down the whole house with it?'
Is the woman in front of his eyes a yaoguai or not...?
If she is a yaoguai, he has the resolve to cut her together with the whole house, then tie the breathing that resides inside the boy to his own life, burn it all away, wound her, and kill her.
However...
The problem is that his mother inside the house.
"With the door open, your mother will feel cold. Please come in quickly."
"..."
The boy bites his lip.
But in the end, after judging various situations, he realizes that he has no choice but to go in.
In the end, the boy throws the icicle outside and goes into the house.
It is warm.
The woman has set down in the room a brazier that looks precious, from who-knows-where she has brought it, and she is filling it with hot charcoal to warm the air in the room.
With a shovel she pokes at the charcoal, making the heat spread to every corner of the room.
"Please, give it to me. How can we let a guest do work?"
The boy takes the shovel from the woman and stirs the brazier in her place.
'...What is this?'
The boy narrows his eyes as he looks at the brazier blazing at the end of the shovel.
That is not [fire].
It is far too different from the fires he has seen until now.
It is as if something transcendent is only pretending to be a [brazier].
This warmth is comfortable, but far too strange.
While the boy is suspecting this bizarre thing, the woman hands him a boiled potato put into a small dish.
"Would you like a potato?"
"...Who...are you?"
The boy takes a piece of the warm potato and asks her.
The woman, faintly smiling, speaks.
"I am a Reaper of the Underworld. Your honored mother will go to the Underworld tomorrow."
"What...!?"
The boy lifts the shovel, intending to cut the woman.
If he kills the Reaper of the Underworld, his mother...
"How warm... My child...did you light the fire...?"
And then, his mother, in a half-dreaming voice, speaks with a peaceful smile.
At that voice, the boy's hand that lifts the shovel to cut the woman pauses.
When was the last time his mother had spoken so happily and warmly?
It is as if his mother now has almost completely recovered from her illness.
"...Yes, Mother, a guest has come so the fire has been lit."
"Is that so? Well done. Because I am like this, I cannot treat the guest properly...I hope you can do it in my stead."
"...Yes."
Seeing his mother looking at peace, the boy cannot cut the other person.
Even if the other is truly a Reaper of the Underworld...
For if that existence disappears, the warmth in this room and the brazier seem as though they will vanish like an illusion.
The boy, instead of cutting the woman in front of him, politely asks her.
"Why...must my mother go already?"
"She is having a hard time, is she not? To possess human flesh is truly a harsh burden. If she goes to the Underworld and in the Pure Land eats warm food, wears the clothes there, and watches the birds, then for your mother as she is now, that is actually better."
"...!"
That is so.
His mother is struggling.
And the Reaper of the Underworld before his eyes is saying that if his mother goes to the Underworld, she will instead be happy in the Pure Land.
"Please let go of those who must be sent off. I dare say, your mother, in this life, has lived in hardship and yet has cared for you with affection. To bestow compassion on another, even if that is only one's own family...the act of bestowing compassion alone is merit. Therefore...your mother will go to the Pure Land and live happily."
"...Is...that so?"
Must he send her off?
His mother?
If she truly goes there, will she really be able to live happily?
Various thoughts circle around in the boy's head.
And in the end, the boy has no choice but to make a decision.
By continuing to analyze the Reaper of the Underworld who has come into the room, he is able to know.
The boy as he is now can never defeat the Reaper of the Underworld.
And more than anything...
Did the Reaper of the Underworld not personally come to tell the boy of his mother's last moments, made the house this warm, and even steam potatoes for the boy?
Gulp—
The boy takes a bite of the potato given by the Reaper of the Underworld.
Drip...drip...
The boy cries.
"My throat...is blocked..."
"Would you like some tea?"
The boy accepts the tea the Reaper of the Underworld offers and drinks it.
And he takes another bite of the potato.
"Would you...happen to have salt...?"
"I thought you did not like salt, so I did not season it...but instead, I have seed soy sauce that I brought from the house of someone I know, so have at least a little of this."
The Reaper of the Underworld pours seed soy sauce into a small saucer and hands it to the boy.
The boy eats the seed soy sauce together with the potato and sheds tears.
"Thank you...thank you...Reaper of the Underworld..."
"Not at all. Please eat comfortably."
Those warm words.
A warmth just like his mother's.
In front of the Reaper of the Underworld wearing golden clothes...
That day he sobs hard and receives the potatoes and eats them.
And the next day,
The Reaper of the Underworld pours the seed soy sauce into a small saucer and hands it to the boy.
The boy eats the seed soy sauce together with the potato and sheds tears.
"Thank you...thank you...Reaper of the Underworld..."
"Not at all. Please eat comfortably."
Those warm words.
A warmth just like his mother's.
In front of the Reaper of the Underworld wearing golden clothes...
That day, the boy cries his heart out as he accepts and eats the potatoes.
And the next day,
The boy, following the Reaper of the Underworld's advice, does not go out of his way to catch fish and stays by his mother's side.
As for food, the Reaper of the Underworld brings various sauces and pastes and rice from who-knows-where and cooks simple dishes for them.
Saying that for some reason salt is not prepared, she cooks using only seed soy sauce from who knows where, but each and every dish is so delicious.
The boy feeds his mother food for the last time and lets her sleep deeply in the warm room.
After some time, the Reaper of the Underworld comes to the side of the boy's mother and calls her three times.
Mother rises at her call and stands up with a bright smile.
"Ah...are you a great being...?"
"Yes, I have come to take you."
"What...is to happen to me now...?"
"First, after you receive the judgment procedure that reviews your life, the rights and wrongs such as taking and eating the neighbor boy's candy when you were three years old will be judged, and you will receive the punishments you are due. But your sins are not that heavy, so in about seven days and nights, all your faults will be washed away. At that time...you will head to the Pure Land and enjoy all the pleasures you could not enjoy in this life."
At those words, she looks at her son.
"Gu Ju...I am sorry. This mother...has to go first."
"...Mother...Mother...Mom..."
The boy.
At those words, Gu Ju finally cannot endure it, runs to her, and throws himself into her arms.
"Do not be sad, Gu Ju... This mother...will go up to the heavens and watch over you. Please grow up bravely."
"Mom...don't go...Mom..."
Gu Ju clings to his mother, crying loudly.
Gu Ju's mother, seeing him like that, looks at the Reaper.
The Reaper, seeing her like that, speaks to Gu Ju.
"If that is truly what you wish...each month when the full moon rises, scoop up a plate of clear water and call for me. Then, at that time, I will specially deliver letters from your mother who is in the Underworld. It is not that you will never be able to meet your mother again. I will let you feel your mother's warmth at least through letters."
Gu Ju trembles.
Paaatt!
The Reaper of the Underworld opens the door of the house.
Beyond that door, an extremely bright and beautiful world is spread out.
Surely this is the place his mother is to go.
"Do not worry too much, Gu Ju. You will surely be able to do well. I will watch over you. And...the Reaper as well...will also...surely..."
His mother is wrapped up in that light.
A little later, seeing his mother completely engulfed in the light and vanished, Gu Ju breaks down sobbing.
Now...
In this world, he is alone.
Gu Ju sobs bitterly.
His mother is gone, and he, in this cold winter.
He is abandoned in this world where there is no one.
And, at the side of that little child...
A girl wearing yellow clothes comes and watches over him.
"Hey, get up."
Gu Ju, in a daze, looks at the girl.
Somehow, she is a girl who strangely reminds him of the Reaper of the Underworld who just took his mother away and disappeared.
But at the same time, she also gives the feeling of a country child similar to Gu Ju.
A fragrant scent comes from her.
It also seems like the scent of peach blossoms his mother once told him about.
"Who...are you...?"
"I...was sent here by a high one. I was told to help with holding your mother's funeral, and to teach you letters so that from now on you can receive your mother's letters."
"..."
Gu Ju can tell.
It is the Reaper's consideration.
"...Thank you."
She looks only a few years older than he is, but to Gu Ju that girl feels incredibly reliable.
Thanks to her existence...
Gu Ju quickly recovers and is able to finish his mother's funeral.
"Um...I do not know how I should express my thanks...if you would tell me your honorable name..."
"Mm? Is that what is important right now? Look at the state of this house. Hey, I will help with tidying the house, so you, from today on, repair the house and get some food. I will chop firewood and patch up your torn and loose clothes. I will cook too, so you at least twist some straw rope. You have to think about next spring. And starting today, in the time you have left over, you will learn letters with me. In the Underworld your mother will also learn letters and send news of how she is. If you want to stay in touch with your mother, get moving, quickly!"
"Uh, uhh..."
In the end, unable to withstand the girl's pressure, Gu Ju stammers and gets to work.
He repairs the crumbling walls of the house together with the girl.
And, just as the girl teaches him, he searches for and digs up the roots of plants that can be eaten even in winter, or peels off tree bark and boils it to eat.
They are things without taste, but once they pass through the girl's hands, every one becomes something he can eat.
The girl mends Gu Ju's old clothes, and in the late night, she lights an oil lamp and teaches him letters.
And half a month later,
The girl tells Gu Ju that a letter has come from his mother, and passes it to him.
Gu Ju is still not familiar with characters, so he cannot read, but the girl seats Gu Ju on her lap, hugs him, and reads the letter to him.
Gu Ju...
Feeling warmth, he listens to how his mother is doing.
And he comes to know that the place called the Underworld is not somewhere to be feared.
He realizes that death too is not something to fear or to only be sad about.
Like so, several months pass.
The boy learns letters to some extent, and now he becomes able to slowly read by himself the letters from his mother that the girl delivers.
And...
Spring arrives.
The weather eases and becomes warm, and the girl digs up spring greens and prepares meals.
And, from who knows where she gets them, she brings seeds and teaches Gu Ju how to farm.
"Let's plant the seeds, give them water and fertilizer, and try raising them. Good results are surely waiting for us."
As she says, Gu Ju follows the girl's words, clears nearby land, and sows the seeds.
The clearing is not difficult either.
If he regulates the breathing he has done since the time he was born, it is not hard to exert strength like an ox even with his young body.
Gu Ju clears the land while receiving the girl's claps and praise, and he endures spring while eating the spring greens the girl digs and the various spring foods she brings after going around the mountain here and there.
In summer, the days become hot and there is nothing to eat. But the girl goes to the noble household and teaches him how to sell his labor.
The two of them go around here and there, sell their labor, and, by receiving wages, are able to make a living.
This is possible because the girl is versatile, and because Gu Ju can possess immense strength through his breathing.
And autumn comes.
In autumn, at last, the seeds that Gu Ju and the girl sowed bear fruit.
Only when autumn comes does Gu Ju understand what it is to be full.
After finishing the harvest together with the girl, his belly is full.
Only when autumn comes is he able to completely shake off the shadow of his mother's passing and fall into a happy sleep in the girl's arms.
Together with the girl, he prepares to pass the winter with the harvest obtained in autumn.
And when winter finally comes, this time he is able to get by without being as miserable and hungry as last winter.
This winter, together with the girl in the room, Gu Ju spends the nights staying up with stories of all kinds of exotic countries and worlds that the girl tells him about, or with stories about Immortals, and his body and heart grow up abundantly.
And...
Spring comes again.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
And then spring once more.
The four seasons continue on and on, and Gu Ju grows.
The girl grows as well.
At some point on, Gu Ju's mother stopped sending letters.
Gu Ju also takes it as natural.
Even in the last letter, his mother said she is doing well.
While wearing black sunglasses and strange clothes, eating a strange snack made from a crop called corn, put in a red bag...
She attached to the letter and sent along a drawing called a 'photograph' of her eating something delicious together with the Reaper from that time.
He does not really understand it, but anyway...
Because his mother's appearance in the picture called a photograph looks strangely happy,
He is now free from his mother's death.
The boy Gu Ju becomes a young man.
And the girl who takes care of him also becomes a woman.
On some bright spring day,
One morning,
Gu Ju proposes to the woman.
The woman seems to be gathering and steadying many emotions.
And only when evening comes does she finally accept.
The two become husband and wife.
"My name, is Bong Hwa."
She, blushing as she is held in the arms of Gu Ju who is now her husband, reveals her name.
From that day on...
Bong Hwa and Gu Ju, as husband and wife, continue on a happy life.
Once again, life repeats without end.
Gu Ju's farming goes better and better as the days go by.
They also come to have a child.
Before he knows it, Gu Ju decides to leave the house where they have lived for a long time and go to the city.
It is because a stretch of good farmland along the river beside the city caught his eye.
With the money they have earned until now, they buy land beside the city.
The harvests they obtain there are enormous.
As the days pass, the wealth of Gu Ju's household increases, and by the time he grows old, he becomes one of the most prominent rich men in the city.
Everyone in the city says so.
That there is no one who grew his wealth by working as diligently as Gu Ju.
That a person that diligent definitely deserves to have that kind of wealth.
After he accumulates a certain amount of wealth, Gu Ju, together with his wife Bong Hwa, also sometimes engages in activities that help those who go around starving.
He gives alms to beggars.
Among the beggars, in particular, a beggar who is a cripple with no legs also comes into Gu Ju's house and is given meals, and Gu Ju finds that the sound of that leg-cripped loudly praising him is something he enjoys hearing so much.
Gu Ju lets the crippled beggar live in his house.
The crippled beggar becomes a conversation partner for Gu Ju as he grows old.
He performs all sorts of miscellaneous things that can be done by hand in Gu Ju's house and devotes his whole body in service for Gu Ju, who has become his master.
Gu Ju sees his child grow up and become an excellent scholar.
The child passes the state examination, becomes a grand academician, and as an excellent scholar and a famed namer, spreads his renown.
Countless people come to Gu Ju's son and want to receive a name.
Gu Ju's house becomes crowded at the gate with people who come seeking his son.
In his later years, Gu Ju thinks about what is called honor, and in any case, he rejoices greatly in the fact that the son of himself and Bong Hwa has grown up so splendidly.
Thus, Gu Ju,
As he watches the guests who come to his house, grows old together with Bong Hwa,
The two become an old couple.
And,
As they spend a long and longer time living together as husband and wife...
They wait again for the day they die.
One day, Gu Ju comes out into the yard, sits on a chair in the yard together with Bong Hwa, holds his wife's hand, and speaks.
"Dear, are you perhaps the very same Reaper who came looking for me back then?"
Bong Hwa does not answer and only laughs.
"Who knows, why don't you try guessing, my husband?"
"Haha, I feel like I am right. You...unlike the likes of me, have always seemed noble by birth. I'm sure the Reaper taking pity on me and sending someone by my side...is you. Isn't that so?"
"...Well, if so, what will you do about it?"
Bong Hwa holds Gu Jus's hand and reclines her back against the chair.
"If I am not human...was the lifetime you spent with me not enjoyable?"
"...No. That is not what I mean..."
Gu Ju smiles broadly.
"To the point it feels almost too fortunate...I am so...happy. Thank you for gifting me such a grateful life... That is what I want to say."
"...What a foolish man. You should have said that earlier."
Looking at such a Gu Ju, Bong Hwa, as if she feels proud.
Or as if she feels light-hearted...smiles like so and begins to close her eyes.
"I am tired. I will...sleep a little first, husband."
"...Of course. You have worked hard."
"Hardly...a hardship."
"I will see you...tomorrow morning."
"See you...in the morning."
With those words, Bong Hwa closes her eyes.
Gu Ju knows.
His wife is dead.
Gu Ju's chest is hot.
Various emotions arise.
But...
He is not sorrowful.
He is just...
Grateful.
"For gifting me such a life...I am grateful."
He too begins to lean his body back against the chair.
"I will follow soon as well...dear..."
Now, he too is tired.
Surely he too will die soon.
However, he is not afraid.
For the fact that the place called the Underworld is not a place to fear, and that what comes after death is not an endlessly sad place...
...is something he already knows.
He suddenly sees a black snake that has come into the yard.
The snake is staring fixedly at Gu Ju.
If it is Gu Ju as usual, he would immediately drive out such a harmful creature as soon as it comes in.
Because it could harm not only his wife but also his sons.
But now his wife has fallen into an eternal sleep, and his sons as well have learned Gu Ju's breathing and can drive out a snake like that by their own strength.
Also, Gu Ju himself no longer has the desire to live longer.
Instead of driving out the snake, Gu Ju throws words of consolation toward the black snake.
"I also hope...that you will be happy."
Up to now he has only ever received consolation and blessings.
It is the first blessing that such a Gu Ju utters for the sake of someone else.
With those words, Gu Ju too starts to close his eyes.
'I am...grateful to everyone.'
There is not a single speck of regret in this life.
Even if he has done wrong and receives the punishment of being thrown into the hell of fire and being torn into a thousand and ten thousand pieces.
If he remembers the blessed things of this lifetime, he can accept and embrace it as much as needed.
Thinking thus, Gu Ju, who has become an old man, at last stops breathing.
His hand, until the very moment he dies...
Holds his wife's hand.
Hwioooooooo—
Inside the Gestation World where innumerable chaos flows.
In a new world that was created when the great god of attraction force died.
There, a divinity draped in a golden dragon robe lies down, looks at him, smiles, and opens her eyes.
She may have just dreamed of a future that will someday come.
: : If someday you awaken...let us try living such a life once. : :
Perhaps it is not merely a simple dream.
For that golden god is a divinity that has held Omniscience.
It may be that she has read the history of the future.
Yes, perhaps...
If this great god of attraction force someday comes back to life and resurrects, he will surely complete such a life together with her.
Afterwards, he will regain his memories and receive the 'price'...
But he will at least experience happiness once.
The First King, the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld Bong Hwa, as she waits for the events of the future that will someday come, looks toward the outside of the Gestation World.
: : May the day when everyone can be grateful for life...come someday... : :
Thus she, for herself and all the existences inside the Gestation World.
And even for all the existences of every otherworld and separate Heaven and Earths that drift outside the Gestation World, smiles as she blesses them.
It is a light, faint smile, free from every bridle and conflict.
Hwioooooooo—
Between world and world, in the void close to eternity where the Vairambha Wind blows,
A small black snake is flying through that place.
Shik—
The black snake glances back once at the world they have left.
It is strange.
As if...
They have foreseen a distant future.
[Did I dream?]
But they consider it nothing more than a dream.
For they are nothing but a black snake who, in the dream, looked at someone.
[Having fallen from a complete existence to an incomplete existence, I even end up dreaming. I must be careful. Power that does not even reach the level of a Supreme Deity... Since I have brought the Origin Essence, my power is barely guaranteed, but even that is the bare minimum. As I am now, I am at a level more lowly than even the leftover of Yu Hao Te. I have to recover my strength. I must at least recover up to the Sacred Vessel level.]
The snake completely shakes out of their mind what happened in the dream.
A fleeting dream they have had after becoming an incomplete existence.
Is there any value in remembering it?
And so, Heuk Sa,
The fragment that was born from the black aspect of the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju, restores their own strength,
And, in order to confirm into whose hands the Origin of Omnipotence, their final objective, has gone...
Merely rides the Vairambha Wind, moving toward a distant other world.
Someday, in order to put the Origin of Omnipotence upon their head and return again to Mount Sumeru to prove that they are the one who is right...
In order to walk a distant pilgrimage road,
They begin their long journey.