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It was a quiet affair. Family only, rather than 'family' in the abstract, which left remarkably few in attendance. The urn was empty or - perhaps given the weight - contained ashes of someone other than the deceased.
"A funeral is a bit melodramatic," observed Sou, face to face with a photograph of himself framed in black, his own captured features shimmering in the haze of burning incense. "I still feel very much alive."
The bereaved woman's lips curled up in the same smile Sou saw whenever he looked in the mirror. Those in the organization so often said he looked just like his mother, after all. "Oh, but you aren't. Not really."
With no father left to mourn him, that was that as far as the guest list went. Sou Hiyori wasn't precisely in a position where he could invite anyone to his own funeral, much less have them accept. Though it had given him some amusement to think of how Shin would react both to learning that he had died and that he was still walking around.
It'd at least make the burial rites more lively. The mother and son both knew the meaning of the ceremony - 'You are dead to us'. No Sou Hiyori meant no chance of their family reaching the much-vaunted position of heading the organization. The fact that he was still around to protest his exclusion as a candidate simply did not matter - he had shown weakness, and that was the one truly indelible sin to those the pair served.
"You're lucky, you know," she said, breaking the silence. A private room in a nowhere branch office meant there wasn't even the hustle and bustle of others to interrupt their thoughts.
"Because now I get to hear your loving eulogy of the ideal son?" he teased.
Her mouth flatlined. "You're allowed to linger on in this world for one reason, and one reason only." She narrowed her eyes a little, in a way that must've broken many hearts when she was his age. "You have a mission from God."
God. The Organization. The Families. Asunaro. It didn't truly matter what the guiding force she believed in was called, only that, for all his life, Sou had been guided by it too.
In death, too, his holy work must continue.
"Aha, of course," he answered. One did not question God, at least not when it came to something as inarguable and inflexible as God's own continued existence. "You're sending me right back out there to get every participant's contract."
Few remained, in truth. But there had to be no possibility of a winner emerging who wasn't fully beholden to the interests of the organization. Before... this, there had been a chance of that winner being him. Now he was less than a spare, little more than a broken doll in the eyes of those on high.
"Just as one needs only one right hand," she said, raising the hand in question. Long, delicate fingers curled in, leaving only two upright - she drew those in a line, across her throat. "One only needs one head."
"Sou," she said. Or perhaps it was the English 'So' - Therefore. A statement of cause and effect. His mother was always fond of double-meanings, indirect attacks.
"Don't make God regret giving you one last chance."