Chapter 4: A Promise To Reunite Lovers
I
“That’s how it all happened,” Hana confessed after she finished telling her story to Kotone and Ayano.

“It sounds like it was really hard for you,” Kotone said. “You never got to confess to your lover.”

“That is a touching story and all,” Ayano said with an expressionless tone, “but there are complications in the matter that you’ll be facing. First of all, committing suicide messes with the Shinigami’s scheduling of deaths. It takes a carefully regulated system that handles the influx of souls that are being born, dying, and reincarnating.”

“So this shinigami is in control of everything?” Kotone crossed her arms. “Are there several shinigami or just one?”
“There are several shinigami that oversee the soul flow in the afterlife,” Ayano explained. “Just having one Overseer would be a tremendous task to put upon a single individual. Most of the shinigami would agree that Hana committing suicide is an inconvenience and they would have to rewrite their systems to accommodate her.”

“I didn’t know all that before committing suicide…” Hana said, while casting her gaze to the ground and putting a hand against her chest. “But even if I did know, I probably still would have done it. Without Misaki, there was just no reason for me to continue living.”

“That kind of selfish thinking only inconveniences people,” Ayano said matter of factly, to which Kotone frowned.

“Hey, I think it’s already punishment enough that she has to go through all these spiritual procedures without seeing her lover,” Kotone protested. “Besides, Ayano-san, why are you being so tough on her? Haven’t you ever been in love or loved someone before?”

“Are you encouraging people to commit suicide, Kotone?” Ayano asked.

“I’m not encouraging it, but I can at least understand the reasons behind someone would do that.”

“What matters now is solving the situation at hand, not the emotional reasons behind something,” Ayano said.

Kotone agreed, though she didn’t want to admit this out loud; she didn’t want Hana to feel any more worse than she probably already did. Besides, it would be a waste of breath trying to argue with Ayano further. The little white-haired girl could be quite as stubborn as she was.

“So let me think for a moment,” Kotone said as she tried to reason to herself what was going on. “When a person dies, they either go on to reincarnate or go to the void. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that is correct,” Ayano answered while Hana nodded.

“Are there any alternatives to the void?” Kotone asked.

“Usually a spirit tries to pay off their karmic debts by performing good deeds, though this is no small task either. It would take several lifetimes to pay off the ones that they currently have, and then there is a backlog of karmic debts from their current lifetime that needs to be paid off to the people it has affected. They are usually overseen by a Shinigami, and they work souls ragged.”

“But I don’t have lifetimes to wait!” Hana interjected when she heard Ayano’s explanation about the void and the performing deeds underneath a Shinigami taskmaster. “I need to see Misaki sooner than that! I know this is selfish of me to ask, but I want to see her as soon as possible, instead of having to go to the void or performing good deeds for several lifetimes. That is because I need to let her know that I love her. Before she reincarnates.”

Kotone could understand Hana’s reasoning. After being separated from her lover so cruelly, it’s only natural that she would want to see Misaki’s face again. However, there were more questions that bubbled into Kotone’s consciousness, along with a lingering doubt about whether or not she was capable of doing this for Hana. The pressure to perform had been something that Kotone thrived on, though determining the fate of a soul in the afterlife wasn’t a small thing.

“I need a moment,” Kotone said as she took off her backpack and took out a pencil and a notebook. She sprawled laborious notes about the spiritual world and its workings. “All right, what I need to know is this: Who is the shinigami that is presiding over your case?”

“Rin Kajiwara, I believe,” Hana answered.

“I see,” Kotone said, before she looked to Ayano. “Is there anything that you know about Rin Kajiwara?”

“She has a reputation of sorts,” Ayano said as she fiddled with the black ribbon in her hair. “What would you like to know about her?”

“Everything. Anything and everything,” Kotone said as she began to write on a separate page from the notes she made earlier.

--x--

A woman with light blue hair and pink-tinted eyes walked down a long corridor, walking with confident strides as her heels clacked on the floor. Her hair had two strands of curls dangling by the sides of her face, and the rest of her hair was put up into a sort of bun with spiky juts of hair protruding from the top of it. She looked over the case that she was judge over. Rin pursed her lips for a moment, frowning, as she saw the cause of her client’s death. Suicide. She didn’t approve of suicides, especially since it was considered one of the highest crimes in the spiritual world. Committing suicide meant that you were fighting against your fate, taking you away from your predestined journey through life and the spiritual afterlife beyond. Everything was perfectly calculated, so Rin believed; and committing suicide messed up those careful deliberations that the shinigami put into place for lost souls.

“Committed suicide,” Rin said while she narrowed her eyes at the case before her. “Twenty-five years old. Played video games and read manga a lot in his lifetime, stayed home as a shut in NEET. Original parents were divorced, mother sent him to an orphanage. Picked up by a stepmother that loved him, though he never showed any appreciation for her. Couldn’t find a job that would hire him. Took his life by putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Really, the people who commit suicide are so selfish.”

“Um…Miss Shinigami…” the man before her said timidly, his eyes darting to the ground and was unable to look her in the eye. “I know it looks bad, but please let me explain. I know that I never showed any affection towards my stepmother, though I was too afraid to get too attached to her.”

“And?” Rin raised a brow. “She did everything for you. Though no, you committed suicide and left her a mess to clean up after while she was grieving for you. It’s inexcusable.”

“You must understand, please…I wasn’t thinking at the time, I was just so overwhelmed that—”

“Exactly, you didn’t think,” she said, tapping the clipboard that she held containing his case files. “There was a whole system prepared for you in this lifetime and the afterlife. You were supposed to live on and start a family with a loving wife that would have taken care of you, to balance out the karma that you had with your real mother, and have two lovely children. However, since you killed yourself, the wife that you one day would have married experienced a mysterious accident as a karmic ripple effect of your actions, and your two children were therefore never born. Don’t you see the foolishness of your actions?”

“I didn’t know all that!” The man put hands to his head, trying not to weep in front of her. “I just…couldn’t take it anymore! I didn’t mean to take three lives with me!”

“What’s done is done, can’t be undone. Into the void with you it is. No trial. I’m sure the Harpies will have a fun time with you.”

“Wait, please, give me another chance. I didn’t know this would happen!” the man cried.

Once Rin watched him disappear through the portal, she let out a sigh and took off her glasses. At least the case was done and over with. It was a pretty clear-cut case, she thought. These people may not know how the afterlife works, but suicide is a high crime and it shouldn’t go unpunished.

As she made her way out of her office, she heard the other shinigami passing down the hallway whispering to one another. When she approached them, she narrowed her eyes and said, “You two. What are you talking about?”

One of the shinigami, a young female with dark pink hair, turned towards Rin and her face paled. Rin stepped closer and said, “If there is something that you wish to discuss with me, then spit it out. Say it to my face.”

“N-Nothing, Kajiwara-san,” the pink-haired female shinigami said. “We were simply discussing your boyfriend, Karma-san.”
Rin had a look of contempt on her face, before saying, “He’s not my boyfriend. I have no time for silly romances with coworkers. It only interferes with my job as a professional. So put that thought outside your little head.”

“Yes ma’am,” both female shinigami said at once, before hurriedly making their way towards the other side of the corridor, away from her.
Rin let out a sigh. Putting up a tough front made her off putting with everyone else, though it was necessary. She needed to keep up this facade to make sure that she didn’t lapse into emotional weakness like she had before. It was something that put her reputation at stake, and Rin tried her hardest to make up for it. She was certain that the two gossiping shinigami weren’t talking about Karma after all, but rather of her mistake which she tried to undo.

No, she wouldn’t think about that right now. There were other priorities that she had to attend to, such as her next cases that she was supposed to work on. Karma was supposed to be working on the paperwork for that…that is, he wasn’t slacking off, as usual. Once she made her way towards Karma’s room, she knocked sharply on the door, and waiting for Karma to answer.

“Hello, hello, Rin,” Karma said after opening the door. “Would you prefer a cup of tea or coffee? I’ve got both. And do you take sugar in either of them?”

“Stop with the pleasantries, Karma, and tell me about the next cases I’ll be working on,” Rin said while adjusting her glasses upon the bridge of her nose.

“Right,” Karma said as he ran a hand through his red hair. He let Rin into the room and then handed her some files that she took a glance through, skimming through their contents. “How’d your last case go?”

“Sent ‘em to the void,” Rin said crisply. “He’s going to get what he deserves.”

“Don’t you think that you’re a little harsh on the people who commit suicide?” Karma said with an easy grin on his face as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back against his chair, propping his feet up on the desk. “I mean, sure, it’s an inconvenience for us, but it’s not like we don’t have the power to fix things right again. It just takes a little tinkering with the system.”

“Do you know how many suicides take place in a single year? More than I care to account for. Taking care of the influx of souls that come into our society is pain enough, and then we have to cast judgment on all of them, and then there’s the fact that we have to manipulate the destinies of other people to accommodate the person who committed suicide. It’s a cowardly thing to do.”

“I say it takes a certain kind of courage to commit suicide,” Karma said while he winked one eye open and stared at her. “That’s taking your own life with your own hands. It’s not a decision that is made lightly. Besides, what do most people know about the system of the afterlife? Most of the souls come in blindly and don’t know where to go.”

“Are you suggesting that our perfect system is imperfect? That is absolute nonsense. The rules are put into place for a reason. The souls that come into our world are lost little lambs that need guidance and discipline. If there was nothing to punish for suicide or murder, then there would be chaos. As ugly as the void may be, it is a necessary element to the afterlife which helps rehabilitate souls.”

“If you say so, Rin-chan.” Karma shrugged his shoulders. “Your next client is a young girl named Hana Yurizuka. Which is interesting, because I’ve passed judgment on a soul that was related to her, Misaki Hiraga.”

“And?”

“Poor Hiraga-san was disoriented when she first came to our society. She didn’t remember that she died in a car crash, and seemed so lost and confused. I asked her whether she would like to move on and reincarnate, though she said that she was waiting for something. She didn’t know what it was, but she felt that it was something important.”

“Hmph, so those two have been lovers in their past lives, is that correct? And she doesn’t even remember the face of her lover? That is just as well. It’s better that you send her off to reincarnate rather than having her linger around anymore than necessary.”

“I told her that I would give her a waiting period of three days. To make a decision.”

“You’re too soft,” was the only thing that Rin said before reading the rest of Hana Yurizuka’s case file.