Chapter 3: Her Solemn Duty
I
Keisuke couldn’t meet her gaze. She saw it as her duty, after all. He wanted to be with her, though it seemed like forces conspired to drive them apart. He knew that when her hand touched his that he wanted her. Even if she was an unattainable dream he would forget in his next life, Keisuke knew he wanted to stay with Natsumi. He sensed a deep sadness in her heart, though she didn’t bear it on her normally stoic features. He wanted to be the one to soothe her tears.

Maybe it was her duty.

Maybe he imprinted on her because he had no memories and there was no one else but him and her at the Spawning Pool.

But Keisuke…knew Natsumi wouldn’t abandon a soul and do a job half-assed. She wanted to be thorough and do her job properly. She wanted to make sure he acquired his memories so he could reincarnate in the next life, though Keisuke wanted to be by her side. That’s all that he ever wanted.

“Natsumi-san…” Keisuke said with a blush on his cheeks.

“Yes, Keisuke-san?” Natsumi said politely.

“Is there a soul that you couldn’t save? Or one that you didn’t want to ferry into the next life?”

Natsumi’s features were guarded, though there seemed to be a hidden pain in her gaze as she glanced away. “I failed once. And it was my greatest failure. One that I can’t atone for.”

Keisuke looked towards her, watching her expressions carefully. Wondered what he should do or say. How to comfort her.

“Natsumi-san,” Keisuke said. “For the brief moments that we’ve met, you’ve given me a moment of happiness when you reached your hand out towards me and rescued me from the demons. It’s a debt that I truly can’t repay. I would spend several lifetimes trying to pay off that debt.”

Natsumi looked toward him and smiled a bit.

“Well, Keisuke-san…you’re an interesting soul that I’ve ferried.”

Keisuke felt his mouth dry when he watched her stroke her hair behind her head.

“I will help you,” she whispered. “I promise.”

Keisuke could feel the weight of her promise. He looked towards her, finding her lips oddly kissable, but he restrained himself. She was doing her professional duty, after all.

He also kept Toshirou’s words in mind as well.

“Does your brother always come in unannounced?” Keisuke asked.

Natsumi smiled fondly about her brother. “He has a habit of doing that. He can appear out of nowhere and so suddenly and silently you wouldn’t notice until he spoke. He’s my twin.”

Keisuke blinked. “Twins?”

Natsumi looked toward Keisuke. “I take it you’ve met him, Keisuke-san?”

Keisuke became a little curter. “We’ve met.”

Natsumi nodded.

“He’s an eccentric character, but he has a good heart.”

He also said that he doesn’t trust me, Keisuke thought to himself. And he thinks that I might hurt you.

Natsumi cocked her head to the side. “Keisuke-san…”

“Yes?”

Natsumi folded her hands into her lap, looking down upon them. “You seem to carry a great burden. I don’t know what it is, but…as the Shinigami that is ferrying your soul, I will make sure that you will pass onto the next life with no regrets.”

But I want to be with you, Natsumi, Keisuke voiced ins his mind.

Instead, he said, “I’m sure you will fulfill your duty wonderfully, Natsumi-san.”

Natsumi looked away.

“You’re kind, Keisuke. You may not have your memories, but you’re a gentle soul.”

Keisuke wiped his lips.

“Thank you.”

Natsumi looked thoughtful for a moment before a short white haired woman with red eyes entered the room. Keisuke looked into the woman’s eye and spoke, “Who are you?”

The woman looked toward Keisuke before she looked toward Natsumi, and a smirk appeared on her lips. “You know how to choose them, Natsumi.”

Natsumi seemed a bit flustered for a moment, before she said, “What is it that you wish to discuss, My Oracle?”

The Oracle looked solemn for a moment before she looked toward Keisuke. “You reported that he has no memories?”

Natsumi nodded.

The Oracle looked toward Keisuke, before approaching him, and she hummed and pursed her lips.

“Hm,” she said. “An unusual aura. As a Princess of Elysium, I can sense that this soul is like a blank slate…but there’s some great potential in him.”

Natsumi looked towards the Oracle. “Oracle?”

“Hmhmhm,” the Oracle said as she began examining Keisuke, fussing with his clothes and preening lint from him. “Not quite your Prince charming, not yet, at least.”

“Prince Charming?” Natsumi said, becoming a bit flustered. “Oracle, is this one of your jocular moments?”

The Oracle hummed. “Never mind me. Natsumi, please fetch me a cup of tea if you would, please.”

Natsumi took this as her cue to leave the Oracle and Keisuke alone together. Once Natsumi departed to fetch the tea and closed the door behind her, the Oracle looked toward Keisuke with a disconcerting crimson gaze.

“Natsumi is a good, obedient girl,” The Oracle said with a chuckle before she turned to Keisuke. “So, Keisuke. I take it that you do not wish to reincarnate into your next life?”

Keisuke looked at her in surprise.

The Oracle giggled.

“Come now, Keisuke, it’s obvious you’re infatuated with Natsumi. I know and see all.”

Keisuke’s shoulders slumped. “It’s that obvious, isn’t it?”

“I’m a great advocate of love,” The Oracle said as she folded her voluminous sleeves together. “Your love is an admirable thing. But how true and devoted are you towards that path to achieve that love?”

“What do you mean, Oracle?” Keisuke whispered before the Oracle pressed a finger towards his lips.

“Many futures are being shaped. Converging into one. Many possibilities and threads. Your wish may come true, but it will be a long and hard path of suffering.”

Keisuke looked towards the Oracle, feeling his breath taken away. “You’re saying I shouldn’t pursue Natsumi.”

“I didn’t say that,” the Oracle said. “I merely said it will be a long and hard path of suffering. Though her heart could eventually open up to you.”

“Am I…” Keisuke said, swallowing. “The one causing her suffering?”

The Oracle hummed. “I’m saying that a path to your wish is possible. I sense people’s wishes, and as a Princess of Elysium, I try to fulfill them. If you want to open a path toward Natsumi’s heart…you will have to sacrifice greatly for it. What do you wish to sacrifice?”

“A sacrifice?” Keisuke said numbly.

The Oracle looked towards him coolly. “When wishes are made, they must be compensated with a sacrifice or the price of something that has equal or greater measure towards the wish. In order to win Natsumi’s heart, you must stay in the afterlife, but that means giving up your chance to reincarnate and go towards your destination, which is, ultimately, Heaven. Or Hell. Depending on what memories you have and how you choose to overcome the trials with them.”

“But I don’t have my memories for a trial to the next life,” Keisuke said, and the Oracle wagged a finger towards him.

“Ah, but that is just it, isn’t it? If you don’t receive your memories, you will be incomplete. A hollow shell of a man. Unable to reincarnate and undergo the trials to go to your place that is deemed worthy for your soul. Incomplete and hollow things seek to compensate by taking life from things that have wholeness or completion to them.”

“The memories are the sacrifice, then?” Keisuke said.

The Oracle held up a finger. “The memories are one of the prices to be paid, yes. You will be stuck in Purgatory, true, where you can continue to hang out with Natsumi and maybe win her heart. But without your memories and undergoing the trials to the next life, you will be stuck in a state of half-living. Those with half life eventually become corrupt. And sometimes…they may even have to be purged.”

Keisuke’s slumped his shoulder. “I wish to be by Natsumi’s side, no matter the cost.”

The Oracle looked toward him, before saying, “I said the memories are part of the price, yes? There is another caveat to this wish. If you wish to be by Natsumi’s side…you will have no chance of going to Heaven and have eternal bliss and your ultimate fulfillment. If you wish to go to Heaven, then that chance is lost to you. You will go to a place that is neither heaven nor hell, but instead drifts between worlds as a lost soul that we Shinigami shepherd.”

“Is there anything else towards this wish,” Keisuke said, feeling a moment of doubt. But he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to win Natsumi’s heart. No matter the sacrifice.

“You will be taking away her Wish,” the Oracle said.”But what that Wish is..hmhmhmhm.”

Keisuke paused.

“May I have a moment to think, please?”

The Oracle nodded.

He composed himself and took a deep breath. “I know this is deeply selfish of me. I know that I may be taking away Natsumi-sans Wish, whatever it may be. But I want to have a chance to win her heart, fall in love with her, and get to know her as my best friend and lover. Even if…even if that were not to come to be, then I would forever serve as her loyal Knight.”

“Is this the Path that you truly choose, Keisuke?” The Oracle whispered in his ear.

Keisuke’s lips parted, thinking about Natsumi and the wish held deep in his heart for being together with her.

He just wanted that one chance…that moment to hold her hand…

He nodded his head.

The Oracle stepped back, and curtseyed, before saying. “Very well. I will grant you your wish. You will be unable to reincarnate to a guaranteed passage to Heaven, and live a life of hardship and suffering while you have a chance to win Natsumi’s heart. But if your love is true and resolute, then love can truly overcome everything, after all. Will you love her to the very end, Keisuke?”