Beneath the bleak, frigid sky, the souls of the dead wailed atop the muddy Blood Sea. Beneath it lay the corpses of countless dead.
Watching Lu Sheng, his face ashen, being led away, Asano Kiyoshi suddenly felt hollow inside. He stared in the direction Lu Sheng had left for a long time without speaking.
White Impermanence, however, did not hurry away. Standing beside Asano Kiyoshi, he watched the raindrops falling from the sky as a bright red umbrella slid from his sleeve.
He opened the umbrella. As the rain pattered against it, Asano Kiyoshi watched the water continuously run off its surface, his voice slightly hoarse.
"Thank you..."
Hearing Asano Kiyoshi's reply, White Impermanence fell silent at first. Then he turned to look at him, his tone no longer as calm as usual, carrying a trace of unfamiliar emotion.
"What is it? Do you think I'm too heartless?"
Asano Kiyoshi paused slightly before answering.
"Yes. A little, at least. I think you should have let them meet, even if only to say a few words. Lu Sheng... he has suffered quite a lot."
White Impermanence did not refute him. He merely looked at the rain filling the sky and said to Asano Kiyoshi,
"Do you know? It hasn't rained in this world for a very, very long time..."
Hearing this, Asano Kiyoshi understood the deeper meaning in White Impermanence's words. Yet he did not answer, only asking,
"Then, do you like rain?"
White Impermanence shook his head. Looking at the raindrops streaming down the crimson umbrella, he said,
"No. I don't like rain at all. Every time it rains, it means this world is very sad. And I... don't want anyone to be sad..."
Asano Kiyoshi looked at White Impermanence and said quietly,
"But just now, you made someone utterly