"Farewell, my love."
Takagi Noriko.
Her last words to me. Or that's what she thought.
At least I think. I was dead when she said them. I still have no idea why she said what she did. If she did love me, she probably wouldn't have put a knife in my neck. I told myself that I want to know why she said those words. Perhaps, that's just a farce, and I truthfully don't want to know why she said that. I still haven't figured it out myself. I'm not even sure if she said those three words anyway. It was someone else who told me she said that.
My childhood friend went and killed me. Not the friendliest of gestures. I forgave her, though, because I repaid her in kind.
Truth be told, I was very hurt after she killed me. I was broken inside, in fact. It was tragic, since I loved her. My feelings for her started to slowly, very slowly, dissipate after I accepted that she had just killed me.
I was more concerned about the fact that I still had a conscience after being murdered. After I calmed down- no, regained my sanity(The ability to think after being killed will fuck with you), I cried for roughly half an hour. I needed to process that my best friend Noriko had murdered me. She was smart too, she definitely would get away with it. When I was done crying and accepted the truth, I had more pressing matters to attend to.
"Where the hell am I?"
"The River Styx. That's what you'd call it, anyway."
The voice sounded pretty. It belonged to a pretty girl. I was already on a small island surrounded by water, so of course I'd give a warm welcome to a visitor, let alone a cute girl. Although you'd argue that I'm the visitor here.
The River Styx, she says.
Huh.
"Makes sense, I just got a knife to the throat and now I'm here." I said to her.
"Two things: One- This place doesn't have a real name, The river Styx is just what most alive people call it. Two- I know what happened to you. I was watching. It was pretty funny in a morbid way."
"I don't see how my best friend since childhood carrying out the ultimate act of betrayal is of any comedic value."
But if that's how she got her kicks, I wasn't really opposed. I didn't care.
"Your best friend? That sucks, sorry for laughing about it then. I only witness the moment of death. I don't get the details."
It was rude of me to not first ask for her name.
"My name is Kawakami Miwa. I'm a-"
I interrupt her.
"Shinigami?"
"How'd you know?"
"Well I'm dead, on a stranded island, and a random person eerily approaches on a boat to greet me, river Styx, etc. You get the rest. It wasn't too hard to figure out."
"That makes sense. I'm not here to usher you into the afterlife though. I mean, I can if you want. But I was going to offer an alternative."
I don't fear death, and I'm accepting of it. It's not that I was upset that I died, it's that it was by the hands of my lifelong companion that broke me. I was fine with death and whatever would come after(if there was anything after death), but I considered the possibility of the afterlife being boring. That I could not tolerate. That made her other plans seem intriguing.
"So, talk to me. What's your alternative?" Asked myself.
"You'll return to being alive. Kinda. You'll both exist, yet not. Other people will be able to see and interact with you if you make yourself visible, otherwise you'll be invisible. You won't need to eat or sleep, but you can still do both. No need to use the bathroom either. You'll have no pulse, but you will still look and feel identical to humans. You won't age, but you can make yourself look however old you want. You could make yourself appear to be twenty seven years old, but I can't help you if you don't age well. The best part is that you'll have cool powers. You'll be strong, fast, have quick reflexes, you'll develop a strong affinity for spirit magic, all the cool stuff you've always wanted to do but can't because it 'doesn't exist outside of manga'. Floating, invisibility, all of that. We will also have a test done to determine which demon weapon is fit for you. At the end of the day, the closest thing I could compare to what you'll become is a ghost."
A lot to take in. But if this were a game, it would be like +5000 to all stats including new magic skills.
I can work with that.
"Obviously, if I need a demon weapon, there's a catch to me being sent back. Will I have to slay monsters, arrest underwordly criminals, or kill spirits that wandered out of here back into the living world?" I humored her a bit.
"Your last guess is the closest. You'll act as the underworld's bounty hunter basically. You're getting special permission to return to the living world, but there are plenty who do it on their own anyway. Authorities here don't like it when they do that, so we have them killed. It's by no means an easy job, as the targets are all mostly people in most sense of the word. They'll likely try to smooth talk you into letting them go, or take other measures, including hostility. It's not for the faint of heart. You won't be limited to the targets assigned to you by us. You may also go after any living person who has taken another person's life without justification."
I still don't know where that lands on my moral compass.
"So I could kill Noriko?"
I truly wanted to, after she killed me. She was no longer my best friend, and I had put aside my feelings for her to deal with later. She was no longer my best friend, and she was no longer my best friend. She must have accepted those terms when she put the knife in me. That was the point of no return, and I was determined to find out if she knew that when she killed me.
"Who?"
"The one you watched poke a knife through my jugular."
"Oh, her. Yes, you could get retribution. She did murder you on a whim anyway. There definitely is no way to justify that one."
Whether I kill her, or don't, didn't matter to me. Though I definitely wanted to kill her back.
"No issues will surface if I off her?"
"Nope."
"Question for you: Is the afterlife boring?"
"I've heard that all they do is drink and socialize at high class parties."
Ah. Boring.
"Very well, I accept your offer, Kawakami."
"Call me Miwa."
Starting then, I was a freelance rogue spirit killer and mercenary.
What goes around, comes around.
Takagi Noriko.