POV: Yuuna Mizushino
Place: Forest of Withered Stars, Mizushino Cottage
Date: 22 Years Before the Fall
The wind was gentle that morning.
Not the cold, biting wind that usually wandered through the Forest of Withered Stars—but a warmer breeze, soft and almost kind. It brushed against the trees, carrying with it the scent of pine, dew, and something faintly… final.
Yuuna woke slowly.
Her eyes fluttered open to the golden light streaming through the cracked wooden shutters. She reached to her side—only to feel emptiness. The space beside her was still warm, the bedsheets wrinkled and slightly damp, holding the lingering presence of someone who had left too quietly.
She sat up, heart beating slower than usual.
Today.
She didn't know how, but her body had known before her mind did.
Wrapping her shawl tightly around her, she stepped outside the cottage, barefoot on the cold earth. The forest greeted her with silence.
And then—
Laughter.
A child's.
She followed the sound.
There, standing beneath the dappled light of the forest canopy, was the Crimson Stranger—Thanatos. His red hair, now trimmed short and tousled, shifted lightly in the breeze. He held Kai in his arms, cradling the child against his chest. The boy—barely months old—was laughing as he tugged at his father's ear, bright blue eyes sparkling with joy.
Thanatos didn't laugh.
But he smiled.
A soft, fleeting smile that belonged to no god. Only a man.
Yuuna stood a few steps away, arms crossed over her chest. She said nothing for a moment. Just watched them—her son and the being who had once said he could never belong in this world.
She finally broke the silence.
"You're leaving, aren't you?"
Thanatos didn't look at her right away. His eyes remained on Kai, his hand brushing against the baby's cheek. The way he touched him—gently, reverently—said everything she needed to hear.
He nodded. Once.
The silence stretched.
"Do you remember," she asked, voice quiet, "what you said the night he was born?"
Thanatos blinked. Slowly.
"That he was meant to exist… and you weren't."
"I wish you hadn't said that."
His eyes finally met hers.
"There are things… I cannot change, Yuuna. No matter how much I want to."
The wind picked up, brushing the crimson leaves from the trees. They fell between them like the turning pages of a story neither of them asked to be written in.
Yuuna stepped closer, her gaze never leaving his.
"Then why?" she whispered. "Why did you let me love you?"
Thanatos didn't flinch. But something inside him shifted.
"I didn't come here to love," he said, the same words as before. "I came here to die."
She had heard it once.
But this time… it hurt more.
He looked toward the horizon, where morning sun spilled between the trees. "The war is coming, Yuuna. A war between gods. Between realms. Between the truths we hide and the lies we live."
"I don't care about war," she snapped. "I care about him. About us."
Thanatos closed his eyes.
"I know."
A gust of wind swept past them. The forest groaned under the weight of something unseen. Kai shifted in his father's arms, then let out a small yawn before falling asleep once more.
Yuuna stepped closer, brushing her fingers across Kai's back.
"He smiles when you hold him," she said softly.
Thanatos nodded. His voice broke a little. "He's my son."
"You could stay. Hide here. With us."
He turned to her, and in his eyes was something ancient—older than sorrow. Deeper than regret.
"If I stay, Olympus will find me. The moment I linger too long, the heavens will burn this forest to the ground just to erase me. And they'll take him too."
Yuuna gritted her teeth. "Then fight them."
"I will," he said. "One day. But not now."
His gaze fell to Kai again.
"I need to disappear. So he can live."
Yuuna wanted to scream. To beg. To hold onto him and never let go.
But she didn't.
She simply reached out, touched his cheek, and whispered, "He'll miss you."
Thanatos leaned into her touch. "I'll miss him more."
Then he gently handed Kai to her. The baby stirred slightly, then settled in her arms, warm and safe.
Thanatos looked at them both—mother and child—and for a single, suspended heartbeat, Yuuna saw something in his eyes she had never seen before.
Fear.
Not for himself.
But for what came next.
He stepped back. Slowly.
"Promise me something," he said.
Yuuna looked up.
"Raise him strong. Kind. Wise. Let him smile more than I ever could. And when the time comes… tell him the truth."
Her hands trembled. "He deserves more than a truth written in blood."
"I know," Thanatos said. "But this world rarely gives what we deserve."
A pause.
Then—softly—
"…Thank you. For giving me a piece of a life I was never meant to have."
Yuuna's eyes filled with tears. But she nodded.
Thanatos gave Kai one last glance.
Then, as the wind swirled and the shadows shifted, he stepped back into the forest mist.
And vanished.
Not like a man walking away.
But like death itself returning to where it belonged.
—
Yuuna stood there for a long time.
Holding Kai against her chest, listening to his breathing, to the silence that remained in Thanatos' place.
She didn't cry.
Not yet.
But later, when the fire burned low… when Kai whimpered in his sleep and reached out for something that was no longer there… when the wind outside howled like it had lost its master…
She knew.
He was still watching.
Somewhere beyond the stars…
Beyond the veil of gods and forgotten truths…
The God of Death still remembered what it felt like to be loved.
To be human.
To be a father.
To be continued
[End of Chapter 3: The Farewell of Thanatos]