Diabolic Fiction

Rice King of the Jews

Jesus stepped out of his hut and surveyed the sweeping valley before him.
He could smell the miso soup bubbling over a fire. His wife was knealing before it, stirring the cloudy water with loving grace.
"Miyoki. Is it ready?"
"Not yet, Akuma."
"Why do you call me Akuma? Takahanada told me it means, 'devil'."
"Because that is what you are to the clan. A devil to destroy all they have built."
"Those fools, they have built nothing but a dynasty of hatred and sin. I will someday drive them out of this valley like I drove the moneylenders out of the temple."
Jesus drew a sword from the sheeth at his side and stared at the winking blade.
"If I only had Mitsurugi with me...I could have cleansed the temple with their blood."
Miyoki shuddered, and rubbed her hands over the fire. "Sometimes you scare me, Akuma. Darkness falls over your eyes."
"You haven't seen darkness...a shroud so thick you can feel its weight on your body. My father once brought a darkness that could be felt."
"Ahhh...Joseph, the carpenter."
"No. Not him."
Jesus stepped down the path and stopped in front of the bubbling pot. He dipped a small bowl in the liquid and then drank from it. "I must leave soon. I am being called to another land. I feel that Nippon is my true home, but I have duties elsewhere."
Miyoki stood and hugged her husband. "Why, Akuma? If this is your home, then why must you leave? Your brother gave his life for you...it might have been you on that cross."
Jesus held Miyoki's face in his hands.
"He gave his life so that I may continue my work. I am being called back to Rome. Pilot is about to return to the 21st Century. I must stop him before he can make the leap in time."
Miyoki look confused. "You always talk about Pilot...and the 21st Century. What are these things? How can someone go forward in time?"
"I'm sorry, Miyoki. I shouldn't have told you that. Just know that I will return."
The man they now called Akuma turned and walked into his hut.
The silence crushed him.