Author's Note:
Sorry for the delay everyone, I've been very busy with school, but finally, the final chapter is here! Thanks to everyone who stayed with me throughout the creation of this fic, your support really means so much to me. Thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart! So I now bring you the closing chapter of this little fairytale… enjoy!Oh, and the reading's from John 3: 1-21.
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Don't Play With Fire
Chapter Sixteen: Starting Over in Faith
"There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. One night he went to Jesus and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.'
"Jesus answered, 'I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.'
"'How can a grown man be born again?' Nicodemus asked. 'He certainly cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time!'
"'I am telling you the truth,' replied Jesus, 'that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit. Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again. The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.'
"'How can this be?' asked Nicodemus.
"Jesus answered, 'You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don't know this? I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen yet none of you is willing to accept our message. You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven? And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the son of Man, who came down from heaven.
"As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, to that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For god did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.
"Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son. This is how the judgement works: the light has come into he world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up. But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God,"
Sayo Amakusa read out loud expressively, before she closed her Bible, turned to her fiancé Sanosuke Sagara who was listening to her intently, and smiled.He smiled in return, happy and content with his life. Ever since their narrow escape from the clutches of the Devil, life went back to normal for him, except for the fact that Sayo was alive and well. Not wanting to be separated from her ever again, he asked permission from Kenshin Himura and his other friends to join the Christian followers of Shougo Amakusa, his beloved's brother, in their exile. His friends did not want him to go, but they wanted him to be happy, so they agreed, wishing him goodbye as he boarded the ship that would take him to Holland with his new family.
"I have much to learn," he said, his face showing much eagerness. The cool morning air blew his hair away from his face, and it was a pleasant feeling. He had been in hell far too long that he missed the rain and the wind terribly.
"So have I."
Shouzo Rorenzo and Shougo Amakusa, the two other significant men in Sayo's life, looked on from a safe distance. Despite the feelings the former had for the young Christian woman, he knew that he would be robbing her of her happiness if he would force himself into her arms. He was happy, simply because she was happy. Shougo, on the other hand, was very pleased that his sister was finally having a good time, after all those years of tears and anguish. He had no complaints about Sanosuke as well, despite the fact that the young man gave him a different impression when they first met, for the former gangster was already part of their family, not only because he was sailing with them to be with the woman he loved, but because he shared the faith that they had.
"Well…" Sanosuke murmured, shifting his position to come face-to-face with his beloved, who was then blushing furiously at their closeness. He bent forward, pushing his face even closer to hers as he whispered, "We've got the rest of our lives to."
And in unison, they added, "Together."
They stared into each other's eyes for a few more moments, seemingly lost in their depths. Reflexively, he reached out to pull him even closer to him, closer than she already was, and pressed his lips against hers in a kiss. In a kiss that strengthened their bond and deepened their faith, not only on each other, but also on the divine entity who gave them miracles that brought them together.
THE END