#another day another horrible idea

A Shinigami, that’s how he was known in Japan. Elsewhere he was named differently, his name varied from culture to culture, from country to country, from religion to religion. But what he did, what he was remained constant throughout the centuries.

The God of Death.

When he was created and promptly assigned his role, he had been excited. To be assigned such an important role, the opportunity to help humans’ souls to safely pass on to the other realm was a humbling job. And at first, it was. He would stay by their side when they were dying, listen to their stories and little anecdotes about their life and make their ending moments a little bit more bearable. He would sob along with the family members when their soul would depart, feeling as if he had lost someone dear to him as well. 

It soon became his noose. It crushed him whenever he had to take a child soul. Their stories would be so innocent and filled with hope. To take these young souls, it ripped his heart out. And slowly, over the centuries, his heart hardened. Because he did such an amazing job of helping humans in their end moments, he was assigned helpers to make his job less burdensome. The world’s population was increasing after all. A single God of Death couldn’t possibly keep up with the genocide, the murders, the accidental deaths, the suicides, so he was given help. And slowly, he started to withdraw himself from the human world. 

Yes, they were lovely and yes, they were ugly, too. But that’s what made humans, humans. A person could be the best version of themselves in front of a set of people but a literal nightmare to another set of people. Humans backstabbed, cheated, lied their way through life. But they also created bonds and loved with their whole heart. They were a conundrum, a plethora of emotions swirled in them, none of them remaining constant.

To the God of Death, humans were precious and that was the reason why he couldn’t do his job properly. If he treated them as someone dear to him, once they were gone, they would leave their mark on him and for a God to be impressionable, that was most unheard of. And a God without a job couldn’t exist, so for his survival, he hardened his heart.

The long stories he would patiently listen to were cut off by curt words, the smile that would grace their face when they would see him were now replaced with grimaces. The completeness now replaced with fear. And he thought to himself, yes, this is good, as his chest caved in with pain.

His current location was Japan and for the first time in his existence, it wasn’t due to somebody’s death but due to his job being in peril. 

Two humans had somehow found the key to immortality. He wanted to roll his eyes. Humans and their fascination with staying alive. Well, they couldn’t possibly be aware what damage a long life caused to their souls, so he supposed their attempts to conquering nature were… appreciable. As an entity which couldn’t be extinguished, he wouldn’t recommend it though. But to each their own.

And so, he walked across the doors of Miyano Pharmacy. He knew that the humans wouldn’t be able to recognize if he came in as a celestial being, so he was confident in his stealth. He ruffled through the papers kept on the desk, surveying the lab and he was impressed. These humans had worked hard to defeat him. Seeing a photo frame beside the computer, he picked it up, curious to see who these humans were when the door knob turned. 

He didn’t pay it any attention, no alive human could see him. There was no way he would be found but when a gasp resonated, he turned around, only to meet the eyes of one of the humans who was in the photo.

“Who- who are you?” The woman asked, taking on a defensive stance.

He was stunned. He could hear the woman breathe. He could hear her heart beat but then how could she see him?

The woman’s tone grew angry as she asked again, “I asked- who are you? Hurry up or I’ll call the police.” 

He cleared his throat, caught off guard and said, “I’m Shini- Shinichi,” and he struggled to smile as he had seen humans do when they wanted to appear non-threatening.

The woman looked confused though, probably trying to place if she knew someone named Shinichi. Too bad she would come up empty. Before she could say anything, he hurried to spin a lie, “I’m here because your father wanted me to look at your recent… invention.” 

The woman searched his eyes and he tried to make himself look as innocent as possible. He wasn’t lying completely though, he was there to look at the invention. He just didn’t intend for the said invention to exist once he was done being there in the lab. 

He was curious about the woman who could see him though and he asked before he could stop himself, “I’m sorry but I can’t seem to remember your name. I’m not good with them.” 

The woman still looked cautious but his act must have been convincing because she said, “I’m Ran,” but then didn’t offer up any more information. 

He smiled at her, a genuine one, trying his best to put her on ease. He hadn’t tried to accommodate a human for centuries but he remembered that humans valued sincerity and so he tried his best to unarm his arch nemesis. 

“Hello, Ran, it’s nice to see you. I am-” and he was abruptly cut off.

“Raaaan, have you see my coffee cup. I can’t find it,” a girl’s voice came as she entered the room. 

Ran turned slightly to answer, “Sorry, Shiho, haven’t seen it,” and then turned back to face him. The brown haired woman, Shiho, walked in, trying to find her cup and this was when Shinichi knew his cover was blown. Because this woman, this Shiho couldn’t see him. 

“Hey, Shiho, aren’t you gonna greet our guest?” Ran asked, slightly confused at Shiho’s impoliteness. The man was standing in the middle of the room. Why was Shiho pretending not to see him?

Shiho tried to peer behind the row of books as she answered, “What guest, Ran?”

And Shinichi grew nervous.

Ran’s brows furrowed as she stared at Shiho’s back, had the two of them really slept so little that they had started to get hallucinations? “The one who’s wearing all black. Looks like he’s in his early thirties. He says his name is Shinichi.”

A book fell down on the floor as Shiho tried to locate her coffee cup but started  to face the room so she could see what Ran was talking about. Shinichi knew he had to escape while Ran’s attention was on Shiho. This Shiho couldn’t see him but that Ran could. She could mess up his plans and so he opened a little portal he could escape through before Shiho fully turned around.

Finding no one, she said, “Ran, there’s no one,” and then started her quest again, mumbling about how things could get misplaced and god, they needed to buy more coffee cups.

Ran faced the room again and was stunned into silence. The man had disappeared.