PROLOGUE ; THE END

━ DESIRE TO LIVE, DESIRE FOR DEATH, DESIRE FOR RETRIBUTION.

He never wanted to die. Although he has resigned himself and passed the burdens onto his younger cousin, he never fucking wanted to die. Splattering across the rocks underneath, red drifting through the murky waters that rush and tumble and rip his body against everything. And he's blind, poisoned, choking and retching on putrid vomit and water.

Uchiha Shisui dies afraid and alone, full of regrets and of what-if's, of what could-be's, and what will-be's. A soldier, he reminds himself, he's a fucking soldier. Dying is part of the mission. Dying is expected.

He can see himself on a swing— the one outside the Academy. Watching as his fellow classmates run to their fathers and mothers, and his heart starts to ache to the beat of a seasoned warrior, one that has seen too much. A sense of emptiness grows even bigger. He stands, and plasters on a typical Uchiha smirk.

The water tumbles around him. He can't see anything or feel anything real. Another memory flashes across his eyes and his body convulses to the twanging of a biwa— he clearly remembers this specific melody because the clan heads loved it. The sounds create a cacophony inside his head as his face turns white and blue.

*

There's no bright light, no tunnel, no heaven and hell. Just nothingness.

*

The Uchiha compound is full of hate that stains their prestigious compound with all shades of blood red. A prideful, sinful wrath, bestowed on them by the gods themselves; it goes straight to their heads, and they get drunk and high off the smell of insidious power. Shisui becomes a catalyst— an excuse to dominate— because UCHIHA ABOVE ALL becomes a separate, living entity. No longer a mindset or manifesto, it controls the cursed clan like a marionette and picks fights with the Will of Fire.

Everything Shisui tried to construct and repair comes crumbling down when UCHIHA ABOVE ALL kills him mercilessly again and again and again. The first virgin death takes place at that cliff— the one where he and Itachi used to play and train and talk at. The second, then third, fourth, fifth times when It kills him over and over is when his name, bestowed by his parents, are tainted with venomous gossips of the village. Uchiha Shisui is never simply Shisui; UCHIHA ABOVE ALL clings to him, because the Uchiha are sworn enemies to nature itself. Everything he tried to repair, everything he tried to be simply falls through his grasp because of a name.

The despair and failure of Uchiha Shisui forms a seed of not only revolution, but an otherworldly being. The searing grief and rage harboured by Uchiha Itachi tenderly nurtures it and the hate and pride of the Uchiha clan forces down the hammer. 

The seed bursts into fruition.

Everything freezes— raindrops are still in the air, the clouds are unmoving and no one breathes- and a ripple of pure, raw energy lashed out from the heart of the compound. Hundreds of whip like tails, all at once, slicing through the paper screens and wooden frames with such pure, undiluted ease. Too fast for anyone to react, a beast-like figure forms in the centre and screams, full of heartbreak and agony and hatred. The Uchiha all jump to their feet, Sharingans spinning into existence and dotting the fields of debris with red, red for spider lilies and red for blood.

The figure continues to take shape, bones becoming wrists and snapping into place while ankles break to become more human. Uchiha upon Uchiha leap towards it but simply pass through the figure with a howl of fury.

A hand can finally be seen; long slim fingers, talon-like red nails, flawless skin without any wrinkles and scars. A touch of a dangerous, leering smile can be seen on rosy lips glistening with a flick of a saliva-coated tongue. Glowing eyes and glowing fangs, then glowing, curled horns—

—And then everything reverts back.