Chapter 185: Little Soldier Boy

Baldr's vision suddenly blurred and he found himself in an empty dark space, memories resurfaced in his mind and he remembered who he was, Jade. Jade was quite surprised by how the experience happened, he had been made to think that he was Baldr and went through the events that led up to him being the New World Titan.

The experience of being Baldr settled in Jade's soul and he easily fit them in. The time of peace and prosperity of Asgard reminded Jade of when his family was still alive and well. The death and Ragnarok premonition and the actual death of Baldr fit with the loss of his family. From a technical perspective, the cause of the two events was the father but the direct cause was someone unrelated to Baldr/Jade.

The time spent in the realm of death and in the void resembled the time Jade spent with the Myriad Scars terrorist group and the time he spent creating space technology. The return of Baldr fit Jade's revenge on the murderers and the powerful people.

This made Jade wonder 'What is the New World?' Surprisingly an answer came "The New World is a place where you can forget about the past and venture into the future without regret".

Jade recognized this voice; it was the voice of his dad, Demilade. He turned around to see the source of the voice and the world around him changed. He was sitting in the living room of the family house in Lagos. His brothers and sister were sitting on the couches as well as his parents. The couches were arranged around a small table across, from which the voice came from.

It was a skinny, average height, dark skinned man with an afro cut. He wore a simple round neck shirt and shorts and he looked to be about 50 years or older. Beside him was a woman of about the same age with a tall and rotund build, short braided hair and dark skin; she was Jade's mother, Ireti. They both had soft smiles on their faces.

Jade looked to his left and saw the extrovert, Tokunbo. He had an average height and a similar build to his father and had dreadlocks, he had the countenance of someone that was always had something to say about anything. Beside him was Bola, a tall and plump woman like her mother, she had long braids due to the hair extensions she was wearing.

On his own side he sat with his brother Adeolu. They were the freaks of the house both of them being tall and skinny like none of their parents. Jade had a dyed low-cut hair with various designs etched on it. Adeolu who looked extremely handsome compared to the Jade and Tokunbo had a low-punk with koko waves and an expression of indifference as his face's resting state.

Jade was confused as he stared at the people around him. A major part of him wanted to accept that he had just been dreaming and that the apocalypse and the tragedy of his family was just a day dream he had when he dozed off under one of Demilade's boring speeches.

Making space technology, monsters appearing in the world, evolving, learning magic, learning about space, a soul battle, these were all unreal elements that Jade wanted to quickly erase from his mind the moment he saw this set of people alive and well. He did his best to hide the emotion of surprise and confusion to not fall back into his previous reality.

Seeing Jade's subtle struggle Tokunbo said "Don't worry, we're dead" ripping Jade away from the dream he was trying to immerse himself in. Jade shouted "I DON'T' WANT THAT TO BE TRUE! IF YOU'RE DEAD HOW CAN YOU BE IN FRONT OF ME RIGHT NOW?! ARE YOU GOING TO SAY YOU'RE JUST ILLUSIONS?!"

Bola covered her ears and squinted her eyes due to Jade's volume. Tokunbo sighed and said "We are dead. The only reason we are here and you can see us is because of the experience you just went through. Having a soul battle that caused you to lose parts of yourself to your glyphs and gain parts of a monster that had consumed many souls. You then experienced thousands of years of the life of an Asgardian. Your soul is super unstable right now and we're the anchor that is supposed to prevent you from losing yourself due to the flood of power you've acquired."

Jade remained quiet as he sadly accept Tokunbo's explanation. Ireti said "How was life without us?" Jade looked at his mother and his gaze became deep, showing the amount of sadness and depression that had weighed on his soul. He said with a deep tone "It's a cold world out here…"

He remained quiet for a while and tears welled up in his eyes as he said "Joy is not easy to find. It's… expensive. It costs a lot to get just a piece of it. You have to kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill just to gather those tiny pieces together but they are outweighed by the guilt of being a murderer; someone who kills innocent people for joy. So at one point you just want to die. You just want peace".

Everyone was quiet with a slight look of shock as they hadn't seen this part of Jade before, it was like he had aged a few decades. Adeolu, to Jade's surprise was the one that spoke first. He said "Sounds harsh, we really messed up by dying didn't we".

Jade said "it's hard to survive your throat being slit. I know this because I've slit many myself". Bola smiled and said "You killed those guys right?" Jade smiled back and said "Of course, I tortured them too". Bola smiled and said "Good".

The faces of the entire family brightened on hearing that Jade had killed the people that killed them and this lightened Jade's heart. He thought 'At least I've done something that can make them happy now in death'. Demilade said "I'm sorry for bringing this on the family. If not for my own stubbornness we all wouldn't be having this meeting. Although we may have died in the apocalypse which would just bring us back to square one".

Tokunbo said "You're not wrong in supporting a party that you like, it's the fault of whoever sent those guys". Jade nodded in agreement and said "I killed those people too, even the president".

Surprise painted the face of the family members and they couldn't hold back asking for details. Jade recounted his journey to being the famed Stealer of Men, starting from after their deaths. Telling the story to the people he wanted to tell it to the most and the people who understood the considerations for his actions was beyond heavenly.

The whole world knew about Jade, the Stealer of Men as the exposé on his identity and his motivation was published immediately after he made his face reveal. But the story of the Stealer of Men wasn't for the world to be amazed by, it was for his dead family. Tears and laughter filled Jade's speech as he did the thing that he always wished he could do but never could.

When Jade was done Tokunbo said "That's badass!" Jade nodded his head and said "I thought so too". Silence filled the living room again after the recount. Bola asked "So what do you do now?"

Jade was silent as he thought of a way to answer her question. He concluded his thinking and said "I just go with the flow. I wanted to die but that didn't happen so I felt it would be interesting to survive the apocalypse. Maybe the reason for it will be revealed at the end. I say that but it's the things that I try to achieve day to day that keep me going."

Ireti said "So in essence you have no hope for the future". Jade nodded and said "I've done what I wanted to do". Ireti said "You should try making friends or even reconnecting with your old friends, at least the ones that survived."

Jade said "What's the point in that? It's not like I haven't done what you're saying already. It just doesn't do much for me". Adeolu said "Lies. It wasn't like you weren't happy when you saw that Jola survived. True you don't care much but you do care. And as much as you like to call yourself Samira's business partner you are her friend. You help her without thinking of how she'll pay you back then you say she should pay you back next time. That's how friends behave".

"I-I-I" Jade stutter not knowing what to say, he said "I just want you back". Demilade sighed and said "You're angry at yourself for enjoying life while we're dead. You feel like you've left us behind".

Jade had no response as he lowered his head. Demilade said "You can leave". Jade lifted his head and looked at his father in the eyes, disagreement was vivid in his sad expression. Demilade said "You can move on, you've done enough, more than enough even. You did good boy!".

Ireti said "Jadè, o la ti lò. Jadè sayo" (Leave, you have to go. Step out to joy).

<Author note: Jade is an abbreviation of the name Jadesayo>

Jade said as tears flowed from his eyes "I don't want to leave you guys! I don't-". Jade's words were cut short as Bola started singing the families favorite poem and the family sang along.

"Leaves from the vine

Falling so slow,

Like fragile, tiny shells

Drifting in the foam

Little soldier boy

Come marching home

Brave soldier boy

Comes marching home

These leaves did fall

From branches overgrown

Drifting slowly down

Resting all alone

Little soldier boy

Taken from a home

Forced to fight a war

That is not his own

Leaves from the vine

Falling so slow,

Like fragile, tiny shells

Drifting in the foam

Little soldier boy

Come marching home

Strong soldier boy

Comes marching home

Leaves fell that night

When everyone was silent

No one dared to make a noise

The little soldier boy

Found his way back home

His mother wrapped her arms

Around his corpse

Little soldier boy

Come marching home

Tough soldier boy

Comes marching home"

<Leaves from the Vine by Jonathan Nunez (I made some changes to it)>