REAPER IN LOVE
Yomi
…
Jin
Say something already!
Yomi
Everything in life is predetermined. From the birth, to the people you meet, to ultimately your death. Oh you may think you have choices. But you are limited by geography who you can meet. You are limited by knowledge and culture what you can eat. And you are definitely limited by unseen forces in other choices. In the end, most choices boil down to either to take what is given, try to change things at effort or expense, or opt out. And there are some choices that you simply don't have, for instance... You cannot choose not to die. Any more than I can choose to quit my job to fall in love.
In this life, we must resign ourselves to what fate has to offer. Which reminds me... I have to head out. I have souls to take.
Jin
I watched as she left. There was such a sad face on that woman! I'm Jin, Reaper of Free Will, as I've mentioned before. My mission on the Earth is to make sure humans have free will. Of course, as humans have free will by default, so unlike Reapers like Yomi who are constantly working, I have too much free time. I don't want to be bored and miserable, so I find things to do. Well, it isn't a total picnic. I do a fair amount of talking people out of suicides, preventing totalitarian rule, and giving people ideas that ultimately lead to richer lives. And yet, his words are true, this world as it is now has only limited options. I want to change things! But first, I want to give Reapers themselves more to work with. For you see, Reapers aren't even allowed to fall in love, much less quit. Hmmm, something she said about not having a choice about... We'll see about that!
Yomi
"Hey weird hooded people, can you help me?" a little girl entreated us. She was at the age of imagination, the point before humans stopped seeing the supernatural. Of course, the elderly saw us again, but it was very definitely not her time to die. Young children, the elderly, the dying, and sometimes the mourning were the only ones who could see us without us touching them.
The little girl pointed at the tree, as I asked, "What seems to be the problem?" She explained, "My kitty is stuck in this tree. Can you rescue it?" Honestly? That was the job for a fireman, not a Reaper. But we found ourselves nodding.
Reapers are superhuman, and we could easily jump up even a coastal Sequoia without much trouble. But about this tree... Yggdrasil was old, beyond ancient in fact. When the Unseen World was chosen as the background of the visible universe, a seed was planted. This seed connected all of the nine "planets", which were given Roman names after the gods. But their actual names were Midgard (Earth), Asgard (Jupiter), Alfheim (Venus), Vanaheim (Mercury), Muspelheim (Pluto), Nibelheim (Neptune), Jotunheim (Saturn), Hel (Uranus), and Svartalfheim (Mars). Just like in the solar system, whether Muspelheim was part of the Nine Realms was sometimes debated, with another world sometimes swapped for Muspelheim. Unlike the solar system, these worlds were occupied.
They are arranged slightly differently from the solar system model, of course. The most obvious difference though was that many of them had their own sun and moon rather than a distant sun somehow serving all of these. The Sun cared for Yggdrasil, while Midgard's sun orbited around it along with its moon, rather than the other way around. Somehow or other, her cat had wandered onto the branches of Yggdrasil, and was climbing on a branch that housed Alfheim. I suppose it could have been far worse, if that kitty was climbing near Muspelheim and managed to make it there, she would only get cat barbecue back. Alfheim was full of friendly elves that would give the kitty a nice petting, but the girl wanted her cat back. "Float," I said, allowing me to fly outside her location, up the trunk, and snatch the cat. However, a giant spider blocked the way. While we Reapers are immortal, some creatures can present a significant challenge to us. This enormous could be nicked and scratched by our weapons, but most of them only did glancing blows due to the fact that one of its legs was roughly the size of a house. Rinne or I was usually able to cut creatures in half with our heavy blows, but my scythe couldn't even penetrate enough to activate its death effect. "Yomi, you defend Seishi. Seishi, hold this cat, and make sure nothing happens to either of them. I'm gonna get eaten. It can't actually digest me, so I might be able to attack it from inside." And with that, she jumped straight in its mouth.
Rinne
My original plan was make it to its heart, and stab it to death. I suppose I should have read biology books written by humans. Spiders do not have a centralized heart, but rather a long tube carrying their blood. But before that, they have a sucking stomach, also a tubelike thing, which connects to their digestive cecum, as well as branching like a tree to their ovaries, malphigian tubule, stercoral pocket, and finally releasing from their anus. I was dealing with a whole tangled web of internal organs, some of which, I had no idea their purpose. I was in for an ordeal, if I was going to kill this critter in time.
Seishi
Yomi fought valiantly to protect me and the poor girl's cat while I held it and cuddled. The cat nuzzled against my scythe, discovering it was no danger, despite its apparent sharpness. The cat was a gray and white long-haired of some breed that I wasn't familiar with. It had pointed grayish ears with black tips, and a wild wavy hair that was gray on the top of its head and part of the midsection, but white everywhere else. As part of our powers as Reapers, we sometimes gain knowledge or insight that pertains to our mission, so while I personally knew nothing of this cat, because it was my mission to save it from being eaten, I became increasingly certain that it was a Norwegian Forest Cat, and was a type of Angora breed. This didn't really help, except I knew now how better to cuddle it. And I knew that it suffered from hip displasia and that its breed was susceptible to Glycogen branching enzyme issues. I passed my hand across it and said, "Heal Ailment." As our powers don't need runes, I didn't have to worry about the area being so remote that runes were actually rare here, I didn't have to worry about having enough mana. I just spoke and it was so. The cat snuggled against my scythe, made a characteristic chirping sound found only on that breed, and fell asleep.
Yomi on the other hand, did not have things so easily. She valiantly slashed away at the spider, but it was immune to her scythe's death effect, being a higher creature from Asgard and a descendent of Loki. But even the gods could be killed, all but us Reapers and God himself. Just not from instant death magic. All the same, knowing that she was at a standoff against a much larger creature, she fought courageously to defend us both. I started muttering defensive and healing effects using the free hand that was only supporting the cat from underneath to cast it. I didn't move said hand, lest the kitten fall, but instead unclenched my fist and underhanded pointed to her. The buffs carried to her, and she was defended against even minor scratches and cuts. We couldn't be killed, but pain was a constant nuisance for someone who lived like us. Especially pain of the heart.
Reaper scythes return immediately to a strap on the holder's robe when they are disarmed. They are a symbol of the Reaper's office, and their best weapon against the creatures of darkness. Yet my hands were so full with this wee beastie that it managed to disarm me. I was pathetic. But when I looked up at Yomi, she just seemed so manly and awesome, defending the both of us.
Maybe it was because I normally just saw her fighting and never got the chance to see her in this position. Maybe it was the sparkles that I seemed to see around her as she performed dashing feats, slashing the spider's leg, belly, fangs, and thorax hoping for a weak point. She was an actual blur to mortals like the cat, but I could see her as if she was going in slow motion. Then my heart began to beat quickly, thinking of her. What was wrong with me? Was I coming down with something? Or was this what those humans called love?
I had seen these humans and their love. By all accounts, they didn't know what they were doing. They called arranged marriages in India more successful than romantic marriages, when actually the two partners were trapped in a system that wouldn't let them separate, and it had more to do with dowry or a parent's approval than anything resembling affection. Or marrying a child when you are forty, and marrying three other wives. Or marrying for money or convenience, as if money could hold you in its arms. Or marrying for love, then cheating for pretty pathetic reasons.
No, surely this was not love, and I was suffering from some Reaper disease. I resolved to have Bosatsu check me out later. But for now, I had more important things to worry about. I felt a twinge as the shield that I made shook, and slight pain as it shattered. The spider continued, leaving a nasty gash on her face that might leave a stylish scar if untreated, and the other legs poked her in the belly, sliced at her hamstrings, and poked at her chest. The spider wouldn't be able to kill her. But until her woulds healed, she would be in a lot of pain. "Yomi!!!" I cried, rushing towards her, even knowing that I had no offensive weapons against it.
Just then, the spider suddenly collapsed, spewing blood from every orifice. Rinne pried its mouth open, probably expecting congratulations for being the conquering hero. But my attention was drawn wholly to Yomi, kneeling toward her prone form. I whispered words of healing, while the kitty nuzzled her and perched itself on her breasts, covering the wounds there without actively trying. "It's okay... I can't die, remember?" she said shakily. It didn't stop me from worrying for her, as I set to work.
I started with her face, spending most of my energy making sure there wouldn't be a scar. I looked long and hard, healing first the gore (the blow had actually penetrated her skull through her eye and left ear, leaving a gaping hole, which would later heal on its own into a slight cut if untreated), then after regenerating her ears, eyes, and the entire left side of her skull, I set to work on making her look beautiful again. Not that I needed much help. With her cute turn-up nose, thin eyebrows, heart-shaped face, and long dark hair, I was fascinated by looking at her, even as I closed the last of her wounds like it had never happened. I touched her chest and back of her legs, when all of a sudden, she moved forward and planted a kiss on my lips. I flinched for a second, but only because I was startled. After a second, I eased back in and kissed her back. We held our kiss for a time, then she extended her tongue into my mouth. I returned the gesture, and suddenly I had an image in my head of sharing a paopu fruit. The star-shaped goodness. It was only later that I recognized that this wasn't my own memories but more of the same task information that Reapers received to help them do their job. For some reason, it was glitching and giving me references from Kingdom Hearts.
Then it was back on track as we removed each other's robes, helping me massage her breasts and other erogenous zones. I had literally never seen scissoring before this moment, but Yomi and I both instinctively understood how to do this. The kitten bounced off us when we removed our clothes, but stuck around, curious and interested by what we were doing. Rinne finally grabbed it, telling us, "I'm gonna return this little one to its master." She didn't seem to be upset, just left out.
I sucked on her breasts, slowly yet carefully, touching her playfully in the waist while doing so. Yomi was normally so moody and depressed from her job, but it seemed all of the tension had gone out of her, much like a scared cat which has been huffed, and is now totally at peace with the world. She started to really relax, and began to nibble at my ears. Her hands traveled down along my legs and worked their way towards my crotch. I wasn't as big chested as her, but I had wider hips, and well to be honest, a very sensitive pussy. When her hands brushed that spot, I gasped for a second as an electric charge ripped through my body. I stopped sucking for a second as my neck arched, almost hitting her head. Her breasts now free, she moved atop me with her mouth, sucking my breasts while rubbing my clit and my vagina up and down with her fingers. Then her fingers moved inside me. "No wait, Yomi! Yomi, you're gonna make me go crazy~!" I said between moans. Her other hand touched the small of my back in a particularly ticklish spot, so I stifled a giggle only to once again feel a twinge of ecstasy as both my nipples and crotch were on fire with sensation. Her mouth and fingers suddenly switched places, with her fondling my breasts while she started licking at my pussy. Her mouth moved up to my clit, and she started sucking hard. After awhile, she stopped sucking as I reached down, and grabbed her breasts. I spread my legs, and the two of us bumped and grinded for a good thirty minutes or so. She lay back exhausted, while I proceeded to suck on her nether regions, so to speak. It occurred to us only much later to ask the obvious. "Where's Rinne?" Yomi said.
Rinne
No, I didn't get all huffy and leave those two. The three of us had all been together for centuries. I considered Seishi and Yomi to be colleagues, and more than that, dear friends. I wanted the best for both of them, and I was glad that they had finally noticed what I had suspected over two centuries ago, that those two were meant for each other.
It's just... I didn't have a love of my own, so even though such a thing as embarrassment doesn't really exist among Reapers, I was nonetheless reluctant to watch them, as it was a grim reminder of my own aloneness. More importantly, Reapers weren't supposed to be able to fall in love. We were women with no active sex organs, and no understanding of human feelings. At least, this is what we were taught. To the best of my knowledge, none of us had tried it. The risks were too great. We had been told that if any Reapers fell in love, we would lose what made us Reapers and become mortal. Security or Maintenance would handle us.
There is a complicated hierarchy of how things work outside the scope of human life. We Reapers are immortal, and born at roughly the same moment that God made light from the Void. We in turn have Pales, mostly mortal assistants made from humans, birds, or other creatures. These do the bulk of our workload so that we aren't guiding every little bacteria or fungi into the Afterlife. Then there is God. God has angels to deal with mortal affairs, God has us to deal with behind the scenes events of reality, but God also has Maintenance to deal with glitches (mostly when we make mistakes) and Security to deal with threats. In the entire history of the created universe, Security has only had to deal with Monsters, never a renegade Reaper. But I wouldn't want to know what happens if one does disobey...
Yomi
Seishi and I finished embracing and returned to Rinne. Over the next few months, the two of us deepened our connection. With the resources available to us, we able to explore virtually anywhere or any time. I went back to the supposed age of dinosaurs to show her that dinosaurs weren't in fact real. Seishi and God worked together to create some as a prank. Ambrosia, as God, approved of our union after all. We explored the universe, walking in the strange alien landscape of other worlds. This current one had three suns and seven moons, with light green water turning a shade of aqua as the blue suns receded away from the sky. The sunset of all three suns was a rare occurrence, but a truly awe-inspiring spectacle. We even traveled to the early 20th century to watch the first screening of a film known as Metropolis, before the censors cut much of the footage.
We kept up our job, but I could tell we were getting distracted. One child born to two normal parents appeared to have tentacles, and all of the hallmarks of a Monster. Rinne slapped a quick glamour on him in hopes that this would cover things up, though there was a fair amount of random gibbering from this flesh beast. He later became president of the United States in the early 21st century. Meanwhile, I allowed a number of people to live to about 900 years or so in ancient Israel, and when I tried to get back into things, I caused a whole lot of infant deaths in Ireland. I may have been overcompensating.
We had just finished exploring a city at the height of technology, before technology itself got replaced by the use of runes, but when we exited to a large forested area, something was strange. We started walking, but the area seemed to shift rather than our position. It was somewhat obvious because the city that we were in was on a small island, and because my ability to bypass this by making a portal was being suppressed. The terrain was getting simpler too. At the start of our attempt to walk outside the city, we saw craggy mountains, lush forests, and a beautiful coastline near this commercial center. The mountains began to disappear, so Seishi and I originally thought maybe we had walked away from their sight, but we didn't seem to be leaving the coastline or approaching anything. Then the trees faded away, one by one. In addition to the land losing detail, the sky and sea went from realistic detail to a strange washed-out almost watercolor tone. The color of the also changed from a beautiful azure to an eerie tone of amber cast with blackest pitch. The sky also opened up. No, it didn't start raining. The line of black appeared, and rent the sky from top to bottom. The abyss of darkness widened. A Gate!
Seishi didn't seem to expect anything wrong was from the look on her face, but this was too strange to be coincidental. Bosatsu, or worse, was liable to punish us for our recent mistakes.
Seishi
Yomi looked concerned about something. Holding her hand, I pulled her with me into the Gate. Within this black void were Maintenance groups working hard to repair glitches and lost strings of code that riddled the unseen world. "Ah good!" I said, "If Maintenance is here, the problem should be addressed quickly." Yomi looked at me strangely, as though I was woefully ignorant of something blatantly obvious. Rinne also stared at me. "What?" I asked. The both of them groaned.
At some point after Maintenance whistled for security but before they showed up in force, Rinne carefully explained that perhaps the fact that we had caused the Monster named Obej'deni to come to life, or years of high infant mortality, might have something to do with this small army of Security hoping to delete us from existence. I honestly wasn't sure if they could, actually. Security could deal with a number of beings that were otherwise immortal, but at the same time couldn't even deal with one human soul. Probably why there was so much evil in the world. Until people developed into decent beings, souls would simply keep generating spirits and bodies for themselves, all of which might continue on a lousy chain of karma for quite some time.
"Stop! In the name of God! ...You heathens!" exclaimed the Security and the Maintenance. I tried to explain that we weren't in fact heathens, but believed in God as firmly as members of Security or Maintenance, perhaps more so, but this entire explanation fell on deaf ears. Instead, they surrounded me as per Protocol 34B concerning the elimination of upper level beings. This was a good enough form to deal with even archdemons and beings that otherwise were not mortal, but I honestly thought that Reapers were probably immune to even that. But there was always an element of doubt there. Security did get a double portion of God's power to deal with Monsters and even the Elder Formless (loathsome things supposedly not created by God, such as Cthulhu and Yog Sothoth). If they could dispense with something that was so overpowering that the mind could not even grasp it, I had to wonder whether they could really kill a Reaper.
My concern was never answered, however. The very next moment, Ambrosia was there. She didn't use a Gate, she didn't teleport, and I couldn't see the trace of any runes. One minute she was somewhere else, and then the next, it was as if she was always there. She yawned and asked, "Who called my name? Who took it in vain?" A member of Security raised his hand. Although sleepy, I could tell that she was peeved at having been awakened. That Security member was erased from existence. Not just their presence but I knew their name before, and now even their name was stripped away. It was only possible to do this because Security and Maintenance didn't have actual immortal souls. God set this universe up so all living things had a portion of Godhood within them, and that part would retain even if God destroyed the rest. Security were some of the most powerful beings in the universe, but also the most expendable. "Now," she said, eye burning with passion and redness from sleep deprivation, "does anyone else have anything to add before I catch up on my eight years of sleep? Why was my name invoked, anyway?" One of the members of Maintenance gave a low bow, and explained, "Sir, I apologize for disturbing you." Since Ambrosia was God, she was always given male address, so people called her He and Sir and Lord, almost never She or Lady or Miss. The member of Maintenance, a girl named R4C431 continued, "These Reapers have as of late, not been doing their jobs. As a result of their negligence, a Monster was born in human form, and a number of early deaths resulted. This romance of these two needs to be halted for the sake of the system regularity." Ambrosia said, "Rachel," unaware that merely giving her that nickname actually obligated the powers that be to thereafter her an immortal soul, "I designed Maintenance and Security to keep the balance and keep the peace, respectively. But, much like a president of the United States being able to declassify anything he wants, there is no limit to the authority of the Reapers. But... you are correct that there is a problem here." Ambrosia addressed the two of us, "Seishi. Yomi. We do need to address this problem. There is a Monster who will later cause problems in the temporal world. There are too many people dying. You have become distracted with your feelings for each other. Even I cannot destroy you, nor will I."
Yomi was confused, "I thought as God, you were all powerful. Am I mistaken?" Ambrosia shook her head, "Yomi, what is the one thing that an immortal God cannot do?" She responded, "Well, you certainly can create a boulder that you cannot lift. You just weaken yourself or something. Or maybe become human. So, I suppose it would be that if you are eternal and immortal, the only thing you could not do is put a permanent end to yourself. You can't commit suicide, no matter how hard life gets." Ambrosia nodded, "So, explain what the myths say is the origin of all that exists." Yomi thought for awhile, probably trying to reconcile multiple legends together. Rinne spoke next, "Well, in Jewish and Christian myth, they say that there was God moving upon the waters of a thick Void, and that God, ummmm you, commanded there to be Light, and it was so."
I continued, seeing that she seemed to be wanting to hear this exact story, "Right, from there, Light was divided into light and dark, and a bunch of other things were divided like earth and sea, sea and sky, living and nonliving matter. But why are you asking us about this?" Ambrosia told us, "I have told you that you and existed for pretty much all of eternity, correct? Well, before there was me and the Void, everything was part of me. I was always alone, because there was nothing that could be differentiated from me. I needed others to tease me, to love or hate me, because there was nothing apart from me. And so, I split off from the Void, and then I created Light. You are the result. You are my Light. I cannot destroy you, any more than I can destroy the souls of living things, the First Materials, or the Unseen Realm. All of these have my very Spirit within them. I can only merge them again with me, or change them somehow. And so, I give you a choice. You may continue working as a Reaper, but you will have to give up your love. Or I will reabsorb you into myself."
Yomi, at this point, seemed uncharacteristically angry. She was normally too shy and regretful even to want to reap the dead. Every time she did this, she felt like crying. Where was that girl? Instead, I saw someone angry enough to murder God. Not that she could, of course, for reasons that had just been explained. "Like Hell! We will never give up our love! And if you try to reabsorb us, I will cut you. There has to be a better way." And then God clapped.
Rinne
Bosatsu was our leader for a reason. Even though God was technically all-powerful, there was something odd about Ambrosia. She could be deadpan, or she could get upset about random things that made no sense to any of us Reapers. And at one point, while Ambrosia was the mortal Ambrosia Brahman, the Oracle of Tao, she actually lost her sanity and started killing random people. Fortunately for the universe, she eventually got the therapy she needed. But dealing with her was very much a wild card. Bosatsu on the other hand, was very rational and predictable. This was probably why God subcontracted all of us, we seldom did anything too far out of bounds.
So I can't say that I was that surprised when Ambrosia clapped, announcing that the entire thing had been a test. "You two, if you consent, I will make you into human beings. But you will not regular humans. You will remember your past. And a legend will be told of you known as the Eternity Epic. Your lives will be a constant struggle, as you remember each reincarnation, but circumstances will get in the way of your love until the day when you can finally be together again. Even so, will you sacrifice everything you are, everything you have to become something new? Will you become humans?"
I expected them to say no, to be honest. But Yomi and Seishi volunteered to this without a second thought. These two were hardcore. I would have just given up my romance, probably.
Everything seemed settled now, so I thought I was free to go, and God would just wave her hands and transform them. But it was not to be. "Alright then," Ambrosia said, "you will need to destroy all of existence, and reset yourself inside it." I was astonished. Why would God destroy all of existence? She shook her head, "Never you worry, I have saved the data of all living things on this disk." She pointed to an old floppy disk. And by old, I don't mean a 3.5 inch floppy that stored 1.44 MB, I mean a 8 inch that could barely do over 240,000 bytes. I assumed that her compression system must be amazing.
Eventually, I nodded in agreement. "What does this entail?" I asked God. Ambrosia explained, "You are familiar with the Tree of Knowledge, correct?" Yes, I should be. "That was Yggdrasil, the tree where all mortal life exists upon. The same tree that Seishi and Yomi made out in," I said as I pointed to those two. The two of them sighed, as she continued, "As long as this exists, the current perception of reality maintains, and you cannot be reborn. Be warned, the Tree is more powerful than any of you individually." I could not see how a tree could actually be a great threat, but then, I hadn't played Final Fantasy V. Ambrosia summoned the Tree to this area, and then a rousing battle theme named played in the background while we fought. I was impressed with how big a geek she was, especially since the game that "Battle of Providence" came from didn't exist yet. You had to be a pretty big geek to fangirl over a particular battle theme when roleplaying games weren't even invented yet to everyone else, much less Bravely Second: End Layer.
Yggdrasil began the battle by shaking its branches, causing apples the size of small worlds to fall at us. Ambrosia caught one and planted its seeds in a pot. It fairly instantly grew into a sapling, so I assumed she had a plan. So distracted was I watching her perform horticulture magic that I completely missed the roots of the tree wrapping around us. The rest had avoided this without much effort.
The giant tree started trying to suck out my energy for nutrients, using its roots to try to break me down. Not that it would work, but it was very uncomfortable being crushed. Yomi cut me loose using her scythe. Normally, the mere touch of her scythe would bring any living thing into death. Yet Yggdrasil was life itself. It only succeeded in making a branch die while the tree simply grew new stems and leaves around the dead area. Even when she sliced at the trunk, it was too thick for her to cut through, and it simply sealed the cut area off, then grew branches around it.
Hmmmm. It appeared we were at a standoff. As Seishi kept Yomi in good health (while completely ignoring me) and Yomi continued trying to slash away at the tree, I realized this was going nowhere. We could be fighting this same battle for all eternity, much like Ra's battle with Apophis. Those two would never achieve what their hearts desired. Was this God's plan? Had she only been pretending to be on our side? Perhaps we had better think of a new strategy.
And so, while I mindlessly slashed away along with Yomi, I spent time thinking about what sort of power would defeat a truly immortal creature like this. And then it occurred to me. Our scythes and our unique weapons, each of these was like a puzzle piece. A portion of a larger whole. Birth, Death, and Afterlife. All of these combined to make the Six Paths of the Desire Realm, the pattern of life and death. My name, Rinne, meant "six paths." Perhaps this was God's plan, to have me take up the mantle of the other two. Or maybe Ambrosia was making things up as she went along, and didn't have any plans beyond letting us make our own decisions.
"Stop, you two!" I called out to the others, "Hand me your gear!" They looked at me like I'd just asked to borrow an expensive car, but after I explained, they began to comply. Not only their weapons and gear, but we all stripped naked. The other two were embarrassed and vulnerable without their vestments, but I promised to be quick. There was some tension though, as while we were still immortal to the best of my knowledge, without our robes our bodies were as soft as humans and could be in a lot of pain from attacks, and seldom let them farther than a few feet from us. Not having to do things like humans (such as washing) meant that we didn't normally have to bother with that anyway.
I carefully examined each in turn, and realized that there indeed was a sort of metal clasp on each robe. It resembled a sort of disc in parts, each one part of a full disc. I joined the portions of the robe, and immediately a sort of light flew from us to the robes, blending the three robes into one, and merging the energies. Seishi's robe had been white, mine was a dull gold, and Yomi's had been black, but now the robe shimmered a golden color with darkness and light gleaming at every step I took. I felt like I was wearing sequins, but obviously I wasn't. As the other two had no clothes, God knit together fig leaves to make some knock-off Gucci and Dior outfits. Seishi was decked out in a white pleated Gabardine mini dress,while Yomi got Look 26 from the Christian Dior Resort 2013 collection.
I'll say one thing for God, she knows her style. All of which was made from figs, of course.
In any case, I continued to examine these items. I concluded that merging the Sword of Sorrow, Staff of Love, and Mirror of Faith together would likely create the Regalia of Six Paths, which would likely give complete power over life and death. I was pretty such that this sort of item was too dangerous to be in anyone's hands, so after this was all over, I set to work on scattering each as far away from each other as possible. The Mirror of Faith went to one of the Oracles that would train the Oracle of Tao, the Sword of Sorrow went to the angel Cassiel, and the Staff of Heart I kept. But I digress. I got to work merging the scythes to form a weapon worthy of me. This scythe could defeat any opponent with a single strike, reincarnating it into a mortal body. I suppose the only one it wouldn't work on is maybe God. But I imagine she had the power to make herself a mortal (at least temporarily) if she so desired.
I rushed forward, and with a might swing, rent the tree into four pieces. What had been Yggdrasil faded in an explosion of light, and soon all that was left was a large seed.
God smiled on me. "Go right ahead. You know what to do," Ambrosia said. I apologized to Seishi and Yomi if I caused them any pain for the scythe slice that I was about to do on them as well, though I was certain they would never remember it anyway. And then I swung, turning at a wide arc before striking each. I would remember this day forever, though.
Two children were carried gently in my arms that day as I made my way toward the Well of Souls. I replanted Yggdrasil, and watched as it quickly shot up, restoring all existence and all life. But as I dropped the two young souls that had once been Reapers to be born into the world, I knew that each would never remember me again. They would remember each other, as the souls of Reapers were ideally suited to dealing with the trials of life, death, and reincarnation. But they would never remember me again. Just before I dropped them off, I heard what used to be Yomi ask me, "Mama?"
Reapers are trained to be impassive at even the most intense situations. We don't always manage, but it helps us do battle without restraints against the most fearsome of creatures. Yet after I sent them on to be born their first time, I broke down in tears. How could I deal with their return for eternity? These two were fated to be lovers in each life, and to die again and again. How would I deal with them never knowing who I was? Ambrosia put her arms around me. "This is what humans have to deal with," she explained. "It gets better, right?" I asked. She shook her head, "These feelings are hard. But I wanted them enough to become human. I cared enough about how these humans suffer that I wanted to do something. And you'll be the only Reaper in your team from now on. But the other Reapers are here, and I'm here if you need me." Ambrosia took the Sword of Sorrow, preparing to give it to her angel. "This Sword is a funny thing, no? It can deal out sorrow to a great extent, killing whoever gets stabbed with it. But you can literally feel that what it actually wants, to give people a means to see their dearest friends again." I suddenly felt an urge to take it from her, but I stifled it, since I knew it would do no good. What they were before was gone. "Life is sad for a reason. It's sad so that we turn to each other. Life is sad, but it is not hopeless. I have a feeling that things will resolve themselves," she said as she went back to sleep, restoring the fabric of reality as she dreamed.
In the next weeks and months, I set to work on my task, which was quite demanding. I split my scythe into three separate ones, because I wanted to personally guide each soul from death to the Afterlife, to being born in a new life. As before, the tasks of the Unseen Realm were not arranged in chronological order. I might get sent to a prehistoric period as readily as the distant future, to the old Earth or the New Earth. I had always wondered why it was that we didn't seem to do our work in a particular order, unlike Chiku and Jin, and the others. Why did we sometimes go back in time to claim Hitler's soul when he committed suicide? Or to kill of individuals of a species when a larger mass of them existed. Weirder still, during some events, I remember having to meet up with the others, as for some reason, I wasn't there at the same time. Having just sent a man on to be reborn who had cheated on his wife and finally repented of it in the Afterlife, I was surprised to be sent on a routine mission to collect the souls of Trilobites.
With over 22,000 species, this was a neverending task, since the entire species more or less died out, with the except of those that evolved into something resembling a horseshoe crab. I had left some jobs some jobs to me Pales, since I was simply overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work I now had. How had those two managed? Well, I suppose we did have all the time in the world.
This job, Bosatsu had said, was mandatory. Perhaps he too had noticed how lonely and depressed I had been without my friends. And it was true that slowly extincting trilobites was strangely fun.
When I got there, though, I realized why I was sent there. Yomi and Seishi were there. I talked for hours with them, being filled with joy anew, and I began to remember something Engaku had said about the mechanics of time travel. She said that whenever I stepped into the same timeline as myself, the new me tended to merge with the other one, so that when I left the timeline, I would exit to wherever I came from. I realized that I would get to meet them as often as I wished, in any timeline where birth or death was frequent. And since there were deaths and births every moment of every day, there were quite a few places they had already been that I could visit again.
