Chapter 4

"Right now, the third stage of you're memory isn't working --'" she says to me, and we're currently sitting on the logs, how fast? anyway, this afterlife thing doesn't make any sense at all, and...

who's that voice? who's the woman in my memory, and why did I call her mom? at these times I can't really tell her everything, I'm that suspicious okay? "So... is that the reason why 'my reaper' is on the whatever you call is right? To fix it?" she looked at me seriously and nods with also confusion "Yes. and no, no wonder the higher ranks is looking out for you." she says, and that's even making me more suspicious of her, and she's not like any other reaper, she clearly show's vague emotions.. unlike Reaper, but maybe other reapers have personalities too...

or.... eh.. never mind... this whole afterlife is really strange... I can't trust anyone, I just have to trust in him, but the higher ranks looking for me? what is this 'higher rank' thing? "What and who's the higher rank, does the afterlife have a system too?" I said to her, she quickly averted her eyes on me, and slightly touched her cheeks rubbing it. "Uhh… did I say that? Please forget about that for a moment but right now!" she's totally suspicious!! then she looks at me seriously again and tapped my shoulder "You have to come with me to the mortal world" my eyes wandered and sparkled "Heyyyy! can I scare people?" I ask her. She got annoyed "No! and specially you in your case.... ugh, I'm talking too much, and I can really see you through right now, we have to look for your reaper!" She is actually kind of sharp, heh! no wonder Reaper says the same, but I'm still on guard just in case.. "Wait! Why?" she grabbed my wrist and I just remembered I'm not in the forest anymore.

------ A f t e r l i f e s o c i e t y : Ministry of the Afterlife ------

I left Joie at the Forest to be honest, each spirit has a certain stage in their life or the theme of how they will face or confront each memory, but in her case and how she died she died having an amnesia so it's a 50/50 thing if the memory she had is made up or how just she tries to recall it, but so far I think... it's more of recalling, and she's really really clever. "Reaper 1224." as I was traveling to the afterlife society to share my report again, the boss stopped me. "Man.. you're so dry, here.. check this out, the higher ranks just gave a report towards you're client" I looked at the scroll and my eyes widened the tie around the scroll is black meaning.... it's either

'Unsolved. Malevolent. and still not considered dead.' "there's a problem with your client, she's…. the body….. is.... well this is a very complicated case, but the body is surviving despite of how severed her head is… I will contact and go to the higher ranks to state the situation.. In the meantime you have to travel to the mortal world, and check her out Aubie, Reaper 0228.. is with here because that woman act so recklessly and thought you were there.. to check out, the case that's on going" I scratched my head 'ugh.. she's definitely going to be so loud when we meet, and I'm certainly not up for it'.

The boss left me and traversed to the higher-ups, well this is really troublesome, I don't want to go to any mess, let's clean this properly I open the scroll and check what's inside

It was basically her report

Joie Satoshi - Born November 29, 1997 - Died: December 24, 2020

born and raised in East Kanto, Ibaraki Prefecture

last seen wearing her scrub suits leaving the xx Hospital at 8 PM, left seen in casual attire with her long beige coat, a white turtleneck sweater tucked-in, high waist pants and a black flat boots, she stands at 160 cm, fair skin tone and had a medium length wavy hair.

the deed said in the end: Joie Satoshi, 23 years old, gone missing since December 18, 2020

Death.

"Death." does that mean this case? Is her judgement? or something more, this case is kind of new to me, I've been through hard cases, but her case is something more..

"Was she suppose to die that day?" this case is already troublesome, so is she... And now her body is fighting for her life despite her head has been severed, I saw it.

The only one who will judge her isn't the higher ranks but him.

The god himself.

This is really troublesome and I can't also stand her blabbermouth anymore. But she's been through a lot. I walked out the ministry of the afterlife society and head out to the mortal world

Really, what could this mean? God? What is it that you want.

----- A k i h a b a r a ------

Miss Auburn hair and I, came to a neon-light city, and huge billboards are welcoming us. "First of all why are we here?" I ask her, but she looks confuse and I ask her once again "Do you even know where we are?" she definitely doesn't know where we are. "But I'm really sure you were brought here." says her seriously, "brought in?" I'm also confused as her, because a lot has happened already, and what does she mean I was brought in here does that mean, I wasn't suppose to die? "What do you mean? brought in? does that mean I wasn't really suppose to die? But.. I really wanted to!" I said like I was a lunatic, but this is only how I act, other than being suspicious of her, it's just a sudden defense mechanism if I wanted to know something, she looks at me annoyed like what Reaper did "You sure are a very suicidal person, I get it but… the ministry are guessing that there's something to uncover, usually unsolved cases like yours go through a lot. and you're story is a complex one, so they we're curious" She was also curious, who is she, why is she here anyway?

"Suuuusssss...." I said looking at her very suspiciously, she looks at me confuse "Haaaa? What do you mean 'sus' I am not! We are here to find you're Reaper" she sounds so defensively, wait does she like my reaper... wow that's... really cringe and do reapers even fall in love this girl right her shows clearly a lot of emotions. "Okay fine, I'm not going to tease you" I do feel bothered on what she says about me that I have a complex story and it's true that parts of my memory is having a block-out because I'm guessing I shot myself and that's what I saw when I'm dying… holding a gun in that position

Hey… who am I? did I discover something more morbid? or I was the one who felt morbid

My heart suddenly ached and it was beating hard like I was being resurrected, I poked her and pointed myself "Do spirits even experience this?" I felt dizzy and grab her wrist, and my hand is really numb and cold like I was back at that moment "Hey, Miss Auburn girly is this even normal? me having a cardiac arrest?" she looked at me and her eyes grew wide. She guards me and holds my shoulder while I was holding my chest, and felt like I was in need of air.

"Are you even a spirit? and you're hands are fading.... no.... this can't be? A malevolent spirit? But clearly you're not aware" she said, I can sense her being also afraid "Me a malevolent spirit, could you please explain it to me more?" I ask her while catching my breath "Usually, when we take spirits, some of them shows sign already at the first stage, spirits usually show anger, their aura turns blue when they feel incomplete, red, when they were angry, usually those who had red aura considered to be have some unfinished business and those spirits are usually the ones need to be exorcised, and lastly black, black aura is known to be malevolent ones, these spirits are usually died and turns to be much harder to exorcised, unlike the red ones, black auras have much more anger around them… usually when those who had black auras have tendency to be also become a reaper." she looked at me… what does that even mean? She's like telling me a story, my heart still aches, my hands are still numb, and fought for it "But you're aura right now, I can't see them, and you're showing signs of aching pains, and spirits aren't like that.. we've met some but not heavy as yours, you're aura is unknown it's mixed but I'm certain of one, anytime soon… you're going to -- No, once we finish this me and 1224 we'll bring you to the ministry of afterlife society." She held my hand, saying 'please stay strong' we will guide you, unlike reaper, she's more caring towards her client, show a lot of emotions unlike my reaper. Then I looked at my hand, the aching pains are gone, I stood up and we look both surprise "Does this mean... I'm already okay?" she nods and we both smiled "but we will never know what will happen next... you fought hard Joie, be proud" I smiled at her. "By the way, does 1224 ever seen you're aura?" She asks me, "oh yes come to think of it, we just had a normal boring conversations and he just treats me like, 'after you finish this' I'm gonna throw you." telling her, she looks annoyed and about to throw tantrums, but I continue to talk to her while she's trying to hold her anger towards my reaper "Yes, we just converse about our therapy session, said some stuff about life, he's workaholic, leaving me for the reports and that's all." She shows of sudden grimace with him "That son of a bitch! That's the first task he will say to you, you're aura!" she clenches her fist grabbed me and on to finding him on the streets of the city, looking very confuse, maybe he's not that interested in auras. I'm like meh, for his personality he will definitely not tell you that, disappointed but not surprised, while Ms. Auburn here is losing her own grace... "He's really a troublesome, that guy! And this is is a big-ass city, how can we find him" She likes him, I can tell that for sure or just looks up on him. Ohh to be in love. "I never thought you guys uses slur or swearing words, you guys are really amazing really" she gets embarrassed, she stops fixes her hair and outfit "This… this is so unprofessional of me! I will never speak those words again" she bowed to me in 90 degrees, I was caught off-guard "No! It's totally normal.. I guess?" I said and things got awkward. "Umm, do you have a way to find him? Reaper.. I mean 12-24?" I asked her as we were walking to be honest being a spirit isn't really tiring I think we were walking for days now, and we are not tired. We just walk and walk look around.

"Oh you stopped now?" I ask her, and also looked around "do you see this glowing thing on my coat?" she says and points it out, and faces me, It's a clear brooch, she hides it under her coat, and shows it to me "Usually reapers carries this to search for their lost spirits because, the spirits they we're guiding might turn their auras into three colors.. if they saw the colors of red and black reapers will never hesitate to dispose you and even exorcised you, if the color is blue you're reaper will guide you back to the afterlife and tries to cleanse you, Now... if we found him, you're aura will lit up" She points her brooch "Since I have this, you're aura when you saw him will reflect in any color because you were the one who's finding him now" Oh cool! I wonder what color would it be we saw him, right now I do feel bothered and just disappointed because she's the one who's guiding me now, and I've been a very obedient client. She looks at me and says "It's orange? You're aura is orange?" she asks, I got confuse since I can never see my own aura, but one thing's for sure, if I saw that guy, I would just look at him in despise, like dead-ass thinking he's too troublesome compared to me. She suddenly looks happy "Oh! Ahaha! Orange again heh does that mean he's near?" she nodded and we rushed like I'm her compass whenever my aura lit up she'll walk then stop and find a good spot again until we reached a certain hospital. "He's in the hospital" I said and then suddenly my heart started to feel pain again, Miss Auburn saw me and felt it again during the first time we experience this, why now? "I feel tired" then saw myself in a hospital bed, there are people? I looked around, and someone is awake, holding my hand I can see it, it's a woman, I looked around the corners again and saw.. REAPER? Why is he here? a split second happen I saw the room number

809

"Joie! Joie!" then I woke up, "I uh, saw myself in the bead and reaper was there.."

"you mean 12-24?" she asks, I nodded "I believe the room is in 809? but I feel scared can we just wait him outside?" because I definitely feel something while I was in there myself surviving, but there is an ominous aura within me "Why?" she asks me but I cannot tell her that I felt something within me "Miss Auburn this is the second time I saw myself, what is happening?"

Her face shows worry, she can sense fear within me, "It's true… you're body is fighting… but why?" she froze for a minute and thinking hard, this is really complicated indeed.

"If the deed says death. That means you're dead, but this is really troublesome even for the ministry, even to your own reaper." she explains to me, "What is a deed?" I ask her she looked at me "It's a scroll and usually it's basically just report of how you die but at the end of the deed it should be written as death that means you're dead, but it varies within a color of certain knot or tie."

She the explains to me "If the tie is white, and the scroll ends with death, that means, you die peacefully, that's you're judgement.

Color of blue means, death at the end the deed means, you died in a certain occasion, and that's you're judgement

Red means the death at the end of the deed means, you died in a certain occasion unexpectedly, albeit it's suicide or under criminal law you did in the mortal world, you're judgement is you become like us reapers or be at the underworld and guard it.

Finally black means... death at the end of the deed means you died in a certain occasion unexpectedly also albeit suicide or under criminal law what you did in the mortal world...

if it's death at the end of the deed, you're judgement is upon him" She points her fingers up, the higher ranks? I ask myself she did tell me something but it's still "Everything is confusing you told me, firs you told me that I might become a malevolent spirit because of the pain I felt, now my own reaper is having trouble about my case double that up because you're also stressed and… what's with these higher ranks that's being interested in me? Why even in here at the afterlife, why do I have to go all through this? I'm so sick of this life!" I feel my rage being stronger and stronger, like I am really angry when someone held my hand, like it's comforting me "Miss auburn? Why is this happening to me? I am just so tired…" I look down and just blurted a huge sigh, now in control of my own self, I looked at her, then she says "This is I think what you need to go through…. you and 1224 will solve the case, right now… before you reached the third stage and bid farewell to everyone I think that will be your last mission. I get that you're confuse, I really can't blame you and I am in no position to walk you through this, I will get 1224 and meet you here, so stay still and wait outside of the room" I disagreed at her I don't want to be alone again! I must face this because this is my life, it's a pain in the ass but like what these two says "I have to fight for it... so I'm going with you inside that hospital" I was doing so well on the first two stages, I'm slowly accepting my fate.. but why now? Can you please let me be at peace??

Please??

'Selfish.' it's that voice again

'you are so selfish'

'selfish!'

'selfish'

I looked forward denying what the voice has been telling me, it's hard but deep inside

'I'm not..' I really am not.. I just want a clear head.. while we we're walking I heard someone

"Joie Satoshi." Oh it's that voice, "Face it" he says. It's reaper? he's back… I'm….