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“I’m telling you, Shoka! He can see me!” The distraught Reaper threw her hands up in the air. She almost knocked off her own glasses but that was beside the point.
“Miss Misaki, that’s totally…normal, isn’t it?” Her junior looked unabashed at her exclamation. Still typing away on her phone.
They were on the rooftop of 104, unoccupied at the moment by its usual lurkers. There wasn’t a Game on this week so they were really just hanging out.
“No, it’s not! I was one hundred per cent in the UG. And I was with Coco at the time and she was definitely in the UG too. This guy walked right through Coco but then stopped and stared at me like he’d seen a ghost!” Shiki’s hands were flying all over the place as she tried to explain her predicament. “I mean, not that we aren’t kind of like ghosts. But you know what I mean!”
“Huh, yeah that’s totally weird.” Still didn’t look up from her phone. “So, like, you’re saying the guy can only see you. Not anyone else?” At least the response indicated that Shoka was listening to her.
“Yes, exactly that! I thought I felt someone watching me the last few times I was out in town. I thought it was some other Reaper playing a prank.” Shiki buried her face in her hands. The motion displaced her glasses, though, so she stopped that almost immediately. “But yeah, it’s definitely that guy! He definitely can just… see me.”
“Think something’s wrong with you?”
“Oh Shoka, don’t say that .” Shiki fidgeted with her hands. “You think I can get into trouble for this?”
“Maybe,” she said, finally looking up from her phone. “I mean, if you want, I can try asking around to see if it’s happened to anyone else.”
“That would be amazing, Shoka, thanks.” As much as her junior did sometimes seem a bit disinterested in things, Shoka generally was a kinder person than a lot of Shiki’s fellow Reapers thought.
“In the meantime, if you can find the guy, why don’t you test out if he can really see you?”
Shiki looked down hesitantly at the street below. “What, like, now?”
“Yeah. If you can find him, why not?”
She didn’t like so much the idea of testing her theory out but if she didn’t do this she might look like a coward to her junior. She didn’t want to look bad in front of her, not when she had been given the responsibility to take Shoka under her wing.
“Alright. I’m doing this.”
xxxxx
Okay.
Like.
She didn’t think she was actually going to find him.
Shiki figured that she was going to fly around town for a bit. Scour the crowded areas like the base of 104, down to the crossing and maybe around the department store. Really, she only headed to Udagawa to take a break after trying to sift through all of the faces. She was even considering calling it a day - she could at least just tell Shoka that an attempt was made.
But there he was.
Jupiter threads and all.
Okay, right so she had been flying around all day. No one looked up and saw her. She even used the Player Pin that they were allowed to keep from back in her Game to scan some thoughts. She wasn’t visible to anyone that shouldn’t be able to see her.
She flew down from her spot atop the wires down to the ground level. The boy was facing the Udagawa mural.
That was good.
Ohhhh she felt her stomach feel a bit queasy. She hoped she had just been imagining things. She’d feel sorry for Shoka going around and asking about it but at least it meant nothing was up with her.
She slowly approached him.
And placed a hand on his shoulder.
In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best way to go about this.
But Shiki had been hoping so hard that her hand would just go through him that she didn’t think about what she’d do if it didn’t.
As one might be able to guess, no, her hand did not go through.
Instead, it rested there.
On his shoulder.
The boy froze.
Then yelled.
“Ahh!” Shiki yelled back, with a jump.
“You!” The boy backed himself against the wall, eyes wide and face turning pale. “...Wait, why are you screaming?”
Her outburst may or may not have gone on longer than his own.
“Oh er, sorry, you really surprised me - ahhh wait you can hear me t oo?! ”
“If you’re loud enough to get through noise cancellation," he said, wincing, as he adjusted his headphones, "the whole neighbourhood could probably hear it." He clicked a button on one side of his headphones. “I’ve turned that off so could you keep the volume down?”
“Uh, sure.”
He was still holding himself against the wall, clearly still on guard. “So, what the hell are you? Those are real wings, aren’t they?”
At the mention of them, she instinctively moved them up slightly, their black pointed tips extending. “Yes, they’re real. But you really shouldn’t be able to see them.”
“You gonna answer my first question, or what?”
Rude, much?
“With an attitude like that, maybe I won’t!” she said, crossing her arms. “You ever get taught any manners?”
“Have you ? You’re the one who’s scared the crap out of me like that.” He glared at her.
He had a lot of bite for someone who was ‘scared’. Though, well, she supposed he was right, tapping his shoulder instead of trying to call out to him was rude. Reapers were all a bit laxer with that type of thing - what did it matter when you were dead, right?
“Okay, I’ll give you that one.” She cleared her throat. “Well, I’m what you would call a ‘Reaper’.”
The guy blinked at her. “A…death god.”
“Exactly.”
She smiled at his surprise. He couldn’t be rude when he was shocked, huh!
“Am I…” his voice dropped, “am I going to die?”
Uh oh. He looked even paler than before.
“No, no, no!” she waved her arms in protest. “Gosh, no. Seeing me doesn’t me you’ll die. I’m more of a…er…overseer…of people who are already dead.”
She didn’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of the Reaper’s Game, not knowing whether she was allowed to. Even telling him this much might be going against the handbook but she didn’t want to give this poor guy a heart attack and actually cause his death.
Shiki did make a mental note to actually read the Reaper handbook again because she did not remember a lot of the stuff about interacting with RG dwellers, since she really only did when she shopped.
“Just an overseer.” He was taking deep breaths.
“Yes, just that! So, like, uh, I’m not some harbinger of death or like a sign of it,” she tried to think of a way to calm him down, “or, or, I’m not going to be giving you a Death Note or anything like that!”
“...That’s an old-time reference.” Though he said that, his breathing did seem to return to normal so she thought her bizarre choice of words did do the job.
She sighed with relief.
He unstuck himself from the wall, his shoulders starting to relax. He pulled up his high collar. “If you’re not here to do any of those things, what are you here for? I’m not dead, last time I checked.”
“Oh, well you’ve seen me a couple of times before this, haven’t you? I kind of noticed you did.”
He nodded. “Yeah, at first I thought you were some weird cosplayer.” Ouch. “There are loads of those around so I didn’t really pay attention much until I saw other people were walking straight through you.”
“That’s what should happen with most people who are in the RG,” she said, then corrected herself at his raised eyebrow, “I mean, for people who are still alive. Um, you didn’t see anyone else with these wings around you?”
“There are more of you?”
“That answers my question…” She frowned. “So I was right, you really can only see me.”
Her phone made a buzzing noise.
“Oh,” she said, “I’ve got a text, excuse me for a sec.” She checked her phone. It was a message from Uzuki - Shiki’s superior wanted her to report back to hq. “Shoot, I’ve got to go.”
“Death gods have phones…” The boy muttered.
“Who doesn’t?” she said. “Anyway, I guess I’ve confirmed that you can see me. Which is definitely not normal. I’m going to try and get to the bottom of this. Er, sorry for the scare again. I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.”
“You’re going to drop in on me like this again? No, thanks!”
“What do you mean ‘no thanks’? You really don’t want to know why you can see a Reaper?”
“Not in particular. I’d just like to view the mural in peace.”
“Sure, you can do that. We don’t have to talk or whatever.” Shiki wasn’t really eager to converse with such a snappy guy either. “I just might have to observe you for a bit.” If this was a one-off kind of case it would be fine but this would be a weird outlier for the UG. Might as well keep an eye on it, just in case.
He didn’t respond to that, just looked away.
Urgh, she didn’t have time for this.
“Nice meeting you,” she said, as sarcastically as she could. “Bye.”
She took off, feeling irritated but as she looked back she could see that the boy’s jaw had dropped. Guess he hadn’t caught sight of her flying before.
She felt a bit more satisfied seeing that.
Xxxxx
Uzuki, a Reaper Officer that she directly reported to, had a field day with her report. Apparently, there was nothing about this in the handbooks. There were incidents of people that could get glimpses into the UG. These were detected on scans and usually, they were one-off incidents. The next closest thing was a rumour that there had been a boy who had been able to see the whole Game. That extended to Noise and all the Reapers, though. Not quite the same case as what Shiki had.
At least, they hadn’t heard of any cases such as this in Shibuya. Coco, finding this whole thing amusing, cackled as she volunteered to ask a friend of hers who was a Reaper in Shinjuku, since she was going to be visiting that town on her week off. They ran their Games differently Northside but there was no harm in it.
Shiki was ordered by Uzuki, as she anticipated, to continue to investigate this kid.
Shoka gave Shiki the chocolates in her pocket the next day as if that would console her. “Bring this to your next stakeout.”
Well, it was the thought that counted.
xxxxx
She returned to the mural the next day, though a bit earlier, and the boy was there again. She thought it weird that she didn’t actually need to go looking around for him since he seemed so adamant about her not bothering him again. She thought for sure that he would just change where he went.
But the next day he returned there as well.
All he did, really, was stare at the mural and run his fingers along the edges of the tags.
It was a bit weird but honestly, it reminded her of what she’d do after school when she was still alive. Just go to 104 and stare at all the trendy clothes that she didn’t have the pocket money to buy.
He hadn’t said a word to her when she had come around yesterday, even though she did give him a curt ‘hi’.
This time, however, he managed about twenty minutes before shaking his head and marching up to her.
“Are you just going to spend your time stalking me? Don’t Reapers have better things to do?”
Ooh, how she wanted to give him a piece of her mind. But she didn’t want to irritate him enough to make him actually change locations. “I’ve got orders to do this, officially. I’m sorry to say, you’re stuck with me.”
“‘Orders’,” he repeated, “you guys work like some sorta company or something?”
“Something like that.” Shiki had been told to by Uzuki that she was indeed supposed to keep the workings of the actual Game hush-hush. That was fine with her but she wasn’t enjoying being on the receiving end of the boy’s piercing stare with at her vague reply.
“You’ve been staring at this mural past two days,” she said, unsubtly changing the subject. “You a fan of CAT’s work?”
And just like that his whole demeanour changed. “You know about CAT?” For the first time, he didn’t sound either scared or like he wanted her to go away.
“Yeah! They’ve got great design sense. Across all their different kinds of work. And a really distinct sense of style too.”
The guy nodded and if her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her she could see a hint of a smile there. “Exactly, they’re multi-talented. From clothes to art to music - they can do it all. I don’t think there’s anything they're bad at.”
“So, do you have a favourite type of work from CAT?” she asked.
“That’s a tough one…I’d say - ” And the boy went on with his opinion on whether he thought overall CAT’s music or art was better. She wasn’t counting the seconds but she was sure he was talking about it for at least five minutes. Seemed to be in his own littler world about it. Didn’t even come to a conclusion by the end of it, though. Said they were both too good to decide between them.
She giggled by the end of his spiel. “You really are a CAT-taku.”
He looked affronted. “What did you just call me?”
“Oh you know, just a CAT fanatic. A CAT-taku.” She giggled again and he seemed to bristle at that. She put her hands in front of her. “Wait, no, it’s not a bad thing! I get like that when I’m talking about clothes.”
She decided to sit down, feeling like she had been standing around for too long. Now that she was actually having a conversation with the boy, she felt at ease enough to do so.
“Clothes?” Unexpectedly, he joined her, leaning against the mural and pulling his knees up. He sat a fair bit away, avoiding her wings.
“Yep, clothes.” She confirmed. “I love fashion and keeping up with the latest trends. But not just that, I like to sew stuff so I’m also super into knowing what materials the clothes are made of and how they’ve been stitched together and what colour combinations are right.”
He leaned his head against his knees. “Weird. Reapers seem to have a lot of free time.”
“I’m glad I do have time for hobbies, otherwise Reaper work can be a bit of a downer,” she said, before adding, “just, uh, ‘cause you know handling a lot of those who’ve passed on can be a lot.”
That was probably teetering on what was okay to say but the boy seemed to take that into stride. There was a bit of a pause as he looked like he was pondering over her words.
“So is you coming to stalk me really an ‘order’ or is this some new ‘hobby’ of yours?” It looked like that lull in conversation was just so he could tease her, though.
“What! Hey, it was an order! I’m not choosing to spend my free time with a CAT-taku,” she fired back.
“We really going back to this ‘CAT-taku’ thing?”
“Yes, since that’s what you are, Mr. CAT-taku.”
“Oh please don’t tell me you’re going to be calling me that.”
“Why not, Mr. CAT-taku?”
“It’s going to give me a migraine. My name is Neku Sakuraba, if you have to call me anything.”
She really didn’t expect him to give her his name on his own. She pushed up her glasses, “Oh…then…Neku, it is.”
“...First name basis off the bat?”
Her head shot straight up. She actually didn’t mean to use it - it just sort of rolled naturally off her tongue.
“I - ”
“Reapers don’t use honorifics, I guess?”
The excuse was handed to her on a silver plate. She didn’t really have any reason to correct it so she just nodded, meekly.
Talk about an embarrassing social blunder!
Shiki was surely better than that.
“I’m Shiki Misaki,” she said, thinking she should at least introduce herself back.
“So…if I’m not supposed to use honorifics - I’m just calling you ‘Shiki’ then?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
If there was any chance for her to correct him after all it would be now. Except she didn’t take it. Both her superiors and her juniors referred to her as ‘Misaki’.
It was kind of nice to be ‘Shiki’ again, after so long.
Neku was now pulling at his hair. His cheeks were pink; judging from his prickliness, and the fact that he was coming to this mural after school when usually people would be hanging out with friends, he probably wasn’t one to call people by their first names very often.
“Alright, then Neku,” Shiki said, trying to lead into a conversation again, “what did you think of CAT’s Spring line this year?”
“Enlightened. As always.”
“I don’t know about that, I feel like his last line of clothes was a lot better,” she said, tapping a finger against her cheek, “Don’t you think his concepts were a lot more cohesive last time?”
Neku, who she rightly guessed, was not about to take any criticism of CAT lying down, launched back into a swift counter-argument.
Maybe it was because she hadn’t spoken to a living person for this amount of time since she had died, but Shiki was beginning to enjoy this assignment.
Observing him didn’t seem to be so bad, after all.
xxxxx
Shiki was back on duty with Shoka. They actually had a Game to run this week. She was grateful to still be a wall Reaper but the Players of the day had already come back with an ensemble of Mus Rattus (one which Shiki heavily disliked) and so she was free to just hang about.
Shoka was also currently still a wall reaper but Shiki suspected that Shoka would be promoted to a Harrier soon. She seemed to have the stomach for it. Whereas Shiki on the other hand…she still wasn’t ready for that. If she would ever be.
They were hanging out on the roof of Towa Records this time since 104 was occupied. Shiki told Shoka that she couldn’t stay for long though.
“You headin’ off to see that Neku kid, again?” Shoka asked.
“Yep, Miss Uzuki hasn’t said anything about my assignment changing, so since our Players are in Rest now, I should be fine to still go around the time that Neku gets to the mural.”
“So not fair that you get to skip out on shifting duty,” Shoka says, with a hefty sigh. “I hate moving Players around. It’s hard to carry them even with wings! I’m moving a pair from A-East to Cat Street!”
“That doesn’t sound fun. They definitely could’ve got you some other pair to move.”
“Think Miss Uzuki did it ‘cause she caught me on my phone when I was supposed to issue some Players some Noise to find and beat.”
“Yep, that would do it,” said Shiki. “Anyway, that’s me off now! Don’t get into any more trouble.”
“Yeah, yeah…” said Shoka, with a lazy wave.
Shiki took flight with a smile on her face. It had only been a few days but she was having fun talking with Neku. Honestly, it was kind of tough to get him talking a lot unless it was at least mildly concerning CAT but she thought that she’d be able to get him talking about other things soon.
As she neared Udagawa she felt her phone vibrate.
She landed on top of the telephone wire pole by the mural to check the message. It was from Coco.
> Totes forgot to update you but my darlingest friend told me they have heard of a case like yours!
Shiki pulled the phone closer to her face.
> They got a Reaper who’s wife can still see him. But like, none of the other Reapers.
> High-key sad to say this but even then the other Reapers don’t know the exact reason why.
> They both say that it’s because they’re soulmates though. Wouldn’t that be splendiferous?
> You, like, might have just gotten a soulmate.
> Send us a pic, me and Tsu are like dying to see one of your new bae
“W-w-w-what!?” Shiki, spluttering and thrown completely off by the messages fumbled with her hands and almost dropped her phone.
“Hey Shiki, you alright?”
She squeaked as she heard the voice come from below.
Neku had arrived.
“Yeah, I’m good, I’m good,” she called back down.
Soulmates?!
There was no way.
She watched as Neku shook his head. “You gonna come down here, or what?”
Absolutely, no way -
The angle from here was just about right that she could see his mouth and there was an unmistakable smile on Neku’s face.
- right?