#epsilon!jack

No king should have to traverse the halls of his grand home alone. That was his belief, and so it should remain.

But the king wouldn't have to walk alone. Not like him. The king had his lovely spouse at his side, wherever he was.

Jack was left alone.

Yuusei Fudo had passed some seven or eight years ago. He was a great king for his time, if not a little kooky. Atem helped with that, of course, ensuring to steer him in the right direction when his thoughts veered away from his initial goals. And Atem himself hadn't died much longer after the dear king, having been murdered not even an hour after Yuusei's decapitation.

Jack hadn't cared at the time. He hadn't wanted to care at the time. He had locked away his compassion for a reason. He'd driven himself to madness for a reason.

Hadn't he?

Kiryu had gone some weeks after their daughter, which made two more deaths that he hadn't initially mourned. Kiryu, oh, his beloved wife, had gone protecting him, and he hadn't given a damn. She and her child were so similar, and as such, they had such similar deaths. It was stupid, he believed, that they had to suffer so much, and he, so little.

Instead of looking after his dear Kiryu, when he knew she was ailing and weak, he mockingly guarded the corpse of his deceased daughter, their beloved child. Or, he at least believed it was out of mockery. He remembered the tears he shed for her, and the way that he curled up around her, to shield her from the world, but all too late, for she was gone. Maybe it wasn't so false a mourning, but he would never know.