Chapter 10: A Wandering Soul

She opened her eyes and stared at an unfamiliar ceiling her memories were starting to recover little by little as she kept staring at the ceiling.

"!" Finally she reacted to something.

"FuMi!!"

She sat up on her bed and looked around finally she saw a girl not too far away from her gently sleeping.

"Haah" she sighed in relief

They were still somehow alive clearly somebody saved them while they lost consciousness.

"Oh it seems that you're awake, that's good"

Suddenly a woman opened the door to their room she had a long black hair with a tinged of white on the tip, red velvet lips, charming eyes and overall beautiful face and body, she was currently wearing a lab coat.

Even Shizuka who had seen her fair share of models on TV couldn't believe such a beauty could exist.

"Hmm? Are you probably deaf? No maybe you can't talk, well this is a pinch...oh wait!"

Suddenly the beautiful woman started making erratic movements, Shizuka recognized the movements as Sign Language and hurriedly cleared the misunderstanding.

"Ah no I can speak and I'm not deaf"

The Woman looked at her with relief.

"Really? Oh that's great I thought I'm gonna have do this thing for the whole time."

The woman stopped her movements and reached for her pockets Shizuka visibly flinched and the woman noticed this and smiled gently.

"Oh don't worry I'm just looking for this"

She showed a container for a specific supplement.

"You probably haven't noticed it yet but you've been sleeping for 2 days straight, honestly I was getting worried since I don't even have any Dextrous available so all I could do was feed you with soup so that your body could at least have enough energy to

function"

The Woman approached Shizuka and put the container at the table next to her.

"I'll make some soup and deliver it here okay? Drink at least 2 pills before eating or drinking the soup I'll have you eat the vegetables this time so that your stomach could get used to solid food again"

The woman left the room and her footsteps faded.

Shizuka looked at Fumi once again and attempted to stand up only to fall back down on her bed.

"I still can't stand huh?"

*Fumi seems to be fine, unlike me she looks like she's healthy*

Even Shizuka could tell that she was currently pale in contrast with Fumi.

*I'm glad that she's healthy... But her body shouldn't have been able to withstand not being able to get nourishment for days*

Shizuka had always took care of her sister since they were small, and she knows from experience that Fumi had a frail body since birth that's why as the oldest she always made sure that Fumi won't strain herself to hard.

*So...how?*

But as if contradicting her experience and bond with her little sister the current Fumi was healthy despite the stress and malnourishment she went through.

"It all started since we found Al"

An outline of a man she met flashed through her mind.

Shizuka gazed outside through a window right beside her bed and gazed at the rising Sun. She didn't know what happened to the man who helped them get here but she hoped that he was somehow fine.

"I hope he's alright"

The sun floated in the sky basking the window with warm sunlight.

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"Hey would you get your ass over here and help me!?"

A man dressed in black garb shouted as he sat crosslegged in front of a cold corpse.

"No, besides I'm not that guys Grim Reaper so why should I?"

A woman replied, she was sitting on a bench with a parasol shading her away from the sunlight.

"Tch, classy b*tch, I still remember you shaking like a twig while facing the Supervisor"

The man spoke.

They were the two Grim Reapers that was caught by the UNS-9008 Reaper Bureau and had met the Supervisor of the UNS.

Seemingly provoked by the mans words the woman closed her parasol and struck it to the ground.

Dangerous aura covered her surroundings.

"I don't wanna hear that from a guy who got crushed like a Cockroach"

Recalling the memory of a certain Grim Reaper crushed to the ground puts a smile on her face.

The man ignored her and continues to focus on the dead corpse.

The corpse in front of him was the current body of Alsyel Talon the soul assigned to him.

Alsyel's body was severely mangled especially from his shoulders down to his fingers, his skin was dyed dark-purple indicating the damage to the muscle tissues and internal bleeding.

"Hey Bitc– I mean madam you did acquire permission from the supervisor for this right?" He hurriedly corrected his words as he asked the question.

Although the woman made an annoyed face indicating that she knew what he was gonna say but despite her annoyance she still answered the question.

"Yes, I made sure the Supervisor got the message and he gave a reply here take a look."

The woman snapped her fingers and at the same time a transparent window with grey hue, next she swiped her hand in the air and the window disappeared and reappeared in front of the Man.

"... Well the supervisor allowed it so we'll do it"

Suddenly a scythe appeared in his hands, slowly it deformed and clanking noise came from it, the sound of metal and metal hitting against each other.

"My Scythe...." the male grum reaper whimpered as if losing something he cherished.

The scythe that he was holding has now transformed into a chain, the chain was realising a very gloomy aura and it seems to distort space.

"Alright now we have the Binding Chain, hey give me his soul"

He turned to the woman and reached out his hands in an expectant manner.

The woman was puzzled as if she had no clue on what the other person meant.

"Soul? What soul?"

The woman asked,

question marks visibly appearing above her head.

The man who saw this felt his non-existent blood boil in anger and his aura radiated with rage as it trashed around the air with its red hue.

"...you...didn't I tell you to go search for Alsyel's Soul!?"

"Ooohh"

"Don't you 'Ooohh' me! Where the hell is his soul!?"

"Are you blind? Don't you see I don't have it?"

"....You B%@$!! π@%`@%!! ∆¶××ו√•!!!"

The woman smirked and shrugged as if it was none of her concern she opened her parasol once again and relaxed.

An endless amount of anger washed over the mans mind, and hastily decided on his course of action.

"...Fine if that's how you want to do things"

Suddenly a transparent window with blue hue appeared in front of him and quickly disappeared again.

The woman who seems to realize what the man just did showed a terrorized face her already white skin still visibly paled.

"...y-you. Wha-t did you just do?"

"Take a guess"

Suddenly the woman felt her body become heavy, she knows this feeling its the feeling of having her Privileges confiscated away. Not even a second after realization her vision was filled with white light.

She was struck by lightning while having to feel the actual pain from it.

"Aaahhhhh!!!!"

It only lasted for a couple of seconds but the woman was visibly spent to the point she collapsed.

"If you still aren't willing to cooperate I'm gonna keep reporting you to the Supervisor"

The man made a smile that was akin to the devils he was either enjoying this or is just adamant on punishment either way it was still malicious.

"I swear... You'll pay for this damned cockroach!"

"Lets see you try, if you don't want to be bolted again then find Alsyel's soul"

"Tch! Fine!"

The woman stood up and moved while grumbling, she regained her Privileges after the lightning strike so now she could move normally although the pain still remained engraved in her memory.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Here's the soup, its not much but I hope you enjoy it"

The woman puts the soup on Shizuka's table it was mostly composed of vegetables and not a trace of meat but despite its simplicity it wafted with a very delicious scent.

"Eat up you'll need all the nutrients you can have, here I'll feed you"

The woman smiled gently and started scooping some of the soup. Shizuka who was flustered quickly stopped the woman.

"No please I'll help myself"

Shizuka took the spoon and started slurping the soup by herself. The woman saw how flustered Shizuka was and giggled as she watched her.

Midway from finishing her soup Shizuka asked the woman a question.

"This might seem late but what's your name?"

It was a very standard question to ask a stranger.

The woman smiled at Shizuka as if she was expecting that question.

"Hmm now that I think about it what should you call me?"

The woman puts her hands on her chin and contemplated a minute passed and she was still thinking finally breaking the silence Shizuka spoke out.

"Is it really something that you should think about?"

There are only a few reasons why a person would think over there name, its either ,They don't want to say it, doesn't have one, or is hiding their identity and sometimes they're just thinking of something else entirely.

"Hmm? Oh sorry I got distracted by something, my name right? It seems I'm Natashia"

Natashia proudly said leaving Shizuka a bit awkward.

Shizuka was staring at Natashia as if watching a exotic animal in some cases this act would be considered as rude. But Natashia didn't think of it as rude since she herself finds her self-introduction quite weird so she had no criticism to give she merely gaze back and let out a gentle smile.

Her smile coupled with her otherworldly beauty would put even snow-white to shame. For a split second Shizuka felt overwhelmed that she forgot to breath.

*The mirror on the wall would even break from her sheer beauty* Shizuka praised in her thought.

"Is something wrong?"

Natashia took Shizuka's silence as some kind of problem so she moved her face closer to Shizuka's and touched her forehead.

"Hmm.. well you don't have any fever and your breathing is normal your eyes are also normal, no abnormalities so far"

Natashia's beautiful face was too close for comfort, Shizuka despite being awoman herself found herself blushing and enchanted by the Natashia. Noticing that her heart was beating fast Shizuka finally felt the intense embarrassment wash over her body.

"Huh? Your face turned red are you alright?"

Natashia who was now concerned over Shizuka's health tilted her head as she asked.

*C-cute! and beautiful!*

Shizuka screamed on her head.

Sensing some kind of crisis from the situation

She pulled her face away as far as she could from Natashia. Shizuka's heartbeats were still erratical but she seem to have more emotional control than before.

*She's dangerous!* A conclusion Shizuka reached after surviving the mesmerizing beauty of Natashia which also had effect on the same and opposite sex.

"I'm alright now..."

Shizuka turned her head away to avoid Natashia's face.

This reaction caused Natashia's lips to twitch.

"You seem to be tired you should rest a little bit more"

Shizuka merely nodded to the offer and proceeded to lie down, not even a minute later Shizuka entered dreamland.

"I should come back later... Now where in the world is that guy?"

Natashia muttered as she left the room.

With only the snores of its two sleeping occupants the room remained unchanged.

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*Where Am I?*

I opened my eyes and the first things I see are rubbles, desk, papers and other things on the ground I looked around further and came to a conclusion that this place was totally unknown for me.

One thing was for sure though I was somewhere high up probably one of those buildings that I saw in this world. Buildings in this world are unnaturally high they're even taller than the castle's I saw, even the demon lords castle would be put to shame.

Last time I remember I was fighting a horde of undeads after that is a blur but I was pretty sure I felt pain along the way. How did I end up here?

"Hey over here!"

A voice echoed behind me so I turned around to see who it was.

It was a young girl maybe around 17 years old and following her were a pair of young man and another girl with a hair tinged with blonde color they all looked young as far as I could tell.

**Whistle~~**

"This place is wi~ide" said the blonde tinged hair.

The young man entered and started looking through stuff.

"You should be careful you know" I advice as I approached them.

"Whoa I found some snack bars!" The young man exclaimed.

Wow he literally ignored me I might be an uneducated adventurer but I know rudeness when I see one. Come on man everyone knows you should at least react.

Accelerating my pace I came closer to the young man he still ignored me even though I was so close the same goes for the two other young girls.

"Hey.. HEY!!"

I screamed on top of my lungs but its like they didn't even hear me.

"For heaven's sake man shut your trap!"

Another voice spoke right beside me but it wasn't the young man in front of me nor was it the other 2 girls the voice came from someone else entirely and it seems he can hear me.

I quickly turned my head to face the owner of the voice.

He was a tall man around mid-thirties he had a shaved beard and had sharp eyes, his sleek black hair and tidy that what I assume to be some kind of suit or uniform gave of some kind of sophisticated aura.

There was some kind of symbol on his breast pocket looking closer it was a scythe and it seems he has some kind of medal black in color.

"Hmm? That's weird you're a wandering soul?"

He chimed.

*A wandering soul? What does he mean? does he mean that I'm actually dead?*

This guy was a Grim Reaper without a doubt albeit his getup was different from the Grim Reapers that I know of. What's more is that he just refered to me as a wandering soul.

"Hey lets setup camp here"

While I was confronting the grim reaper the 3 young ones were already clearing away the area oblivious to my existence, they slowly pushed the desks away and along the way passed through me like I was some kind of illusion or air itself this was the final nail to drive home that I was indeed dead.

"Brrr Its chilly in here..."

"What do you mean its chilly? Its the middle of the day!"

The young man refuted the blonde's statement and continued clearing the room.

While they were minding their own business I was currently being stared down by the Grim Reaper.

"Well cases like this aren't really unusual so for now I'll take you to purgatory"

The Purgatory according to my Grim Reaper its a place where every single soul has to go through and its where the "extraction" occurs, my grim reaper didn't really specify what extraction is but he said its to purify souls to be reborn again. Basically the purgatory was just the reception before reincarnation.

Black particles started rotating on the grim reaper's hands slowly it turned into an object, the object it turned into was the ever familiar scythe and trademark of all grim reapers.

He tried to approach me with his scythe and I reflexively jumped out of the building and landed at the ground I hurriedly looked at the building that I jumped from and saw the Grim reaper staring down at me and I didn't know why but my instincts told me to assume a battle stance. Hand-to-hand combat isn't my forte but I learned it along the way I'm not good at it as fighting with swords but its my second most skill after swordfight.

Now the only question is does hand-to-hand combat work against a grim reaper?

Yes, yes it does. I mean I've punched a Grim Reaper before so that's the only proof I need.

Noticing that I was on guard the Grim Reaper stopped on his tracks and sighed like he just saw something stupid and annoying.

"Haaah... There really are idiots in the universe"

I was a little bit offended despite not hearing anything but before I could even think of getting upset the grim reaper disappeared from the building.

**Swish**

No. It wasn't that he disappeared, he just moved to fast for me to see and before I knew it a black scythe was already about to reach my eye. I couldn't react with his speed so instead I braced myself to lose my eye.

**VOO~OM**

But surprisingly I didn't lose my eye and instead the Grim Reaper was pushed back by an unknown force he was clearly shocked on what just happened his eyes were wide open and he didn't even notice that the scythe he was holding has only half of its blade left and black particles scattered from its broken half.

**Ping** **PING**

[You do not have the Privilege to take this soul]

"I'm a Senior Reaper! What's the meaning of this!?"