Day 17

[from Project Spirit]

Miki Yotsuba was woken in the middle of the night by a loud bang. Tired and startled, she didn't quite process what it was, but it couldn't have been good. As she sat up, rubbing her eyes, she heard another loud bang, loud enough to jolt her fully awake. This time she realized what it was: it was a gunshot, and it sounded like it had come from inside the house itself.

Her attention now focused, Miki could make out more sounds; voices talking, although she couldn't quite catch what they were saying. Then rapid footsteps, heading in her direction. Miki started to panic. The house was obviously being robbed. She scrambled out of bed, reaching for the mobile phone on her bedside table.

Before she could reach it, there were two more loud bangs. The first was a man breaking down her bedroom door; the second, before she could even process the first, was a bullet fired straight into her forehead. Miki crumpled to the floor, dead before she even hit the ground.

***

Miki woke with a start, sitting bolt upright. Her first instinct, perhaps understandably, was that the whole morbid incident had been but a dream. She felt perfectly fine; there was no pain in her head, or anywhere else for that matter. She could hear no footsteps or bangs; indeed, she could hear nothing except her own nervous breaths. Surely then, she thought, it had all been just a dream.

"I'm afraid it wasn't a dream," said a voice suddenly, and that was then Miki realized for the first time that she was not in her bedroom any more. Instead, she was in what appeared to be an immense cave, larger than any cave she had ever seen before. At the end of it lay an equally vast opening, filled with a brilliant white light such that Miki could not see what lay beyond it. What startled her the most, however, was the creature that now floated before her, the creature that had just spoken.

It - or perhaps, she - looked rather like an ordinary human, with the primary difference being the two huge black feathered wings sprouting from her back. Every few seconds these wings would flap, sending a draft in Miki's direction that surprisingly did not feel cold; the creature thus hovered about a foot off the ground. Her hair, too, was black, as well as her clothes; her skin, however, was deathly pale. Perhaps most menacing of all, however, was the large scythe clutched in her snow-white hands, the blade gleaming sinisterly in the bright light shining from behind her.

For a moment, Miki was utterly lost for words, trying desperately to comprehend what was happening. Before she could speak, however, the winged figure spoke again, spreading her arms wide in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome," she said, "to the afterlife."

Miki remained at a loss for words for another moment or two, thoroughly confused, before asking the first question she could think of. "What are you talking about?"

"It's not that hard to understand, kid," said the winged creature in a voice that sounded almost bored. "You're dead. This is what comes afterwards."

Miki still refused to believe it. "I can't be dead," she said stubbornly. "I was just-"

The creature sighed, rolling her eyes as though she had had this exact same conversation a million times before, which she probably had. "You remember being shot, don't you? It's the last thing you remember. right?"

"Yeah, I remember that," said Miki, "but it was just a dream. But…how did you-"

Miki's voice froze as, from nowhere, the strange winged woman produced a very large and old-looking book. Opening it up, she flicked through the pages before jabbing at one. "Miki Yotsuba," she said. "Born 16th of September 1997. Parents: Rentaro and Kimiko Yotsuba, both deceased. Date of death-"

"My parents aren't-"

"Date of death," continued the winged creature, "14th of April 2015. Died of a single gunshot wound to the head. How do I know all of this? Because I, my dear, am the shinigami that was sent to claim your soul. I bear you no ill will; I merely wish to guide you to the place where your spirit now belongs."

"My spirit belongs back on Earth, with my body!" insisted Miki, finally beginning to get a grasp on the situation. "With my parents! Take me back!"

"Once a soul has been removed from its body, it cannot be put back," said the shinigami. "And as I already told you, your parents are dead too."

"Y…you're lying!" said Miki desperately. "My parents are not dead!"

Immediately the shinigami returned to her book. "Rentaro Yotsuba, born 22nd of June 1971. Date of death, 14th of April 2015. Died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Kimiko Yotsuba, born 9th of December 1971. Date of death, 14th of April 2015. Died of a single gunshot wound to the head."

The shinigami slammed her book shut again with a loud thump that seemed to echo across the empty chasm. Finally, Miki seemed to succumb to the reality of her situation. Tears began to fall silently down her pale cheeks. The shinigami extended a hand towards the girl, with barely a hint of pity in her spectral features. "Your parents are waiting for you," she said. "You can be with them again shortly."

Miki looked at the ghostly hand for a moment. Then she looked at her own, and saw that it was just as ghostly white as the shinigami's. Finally, she decisively shook her head, tears still falling from her eyes. "It's not fair," she said. "Why did we have to die? Why did I have to die? It can't be my time yet… I'm only seventeen!"

"I'm afraid it's your time when the gods say it is," said the shinigami, "and the gods said it was your time. You humans, always thinking you're entitled to live to a certain age…"

"You wouldn't understand!" shouted Miki, starting to lose her temper. "You're probably immortal or something! Of course you don't understand what it's like to want to live! To grow old, and have children, and have time to do all the things you wanted to do…of course you wouldn't understand that! You're not human!"

This outburst silenced the shinigami momentarily. Then, to Miki's surprise, she conceded. "You're right," she said. "I have existed since the dawn of humanity, and I still don't understand your human desires…except for one. The desire to live. For every human I take who has lived a fulfilled life, and is ready to move on, I meet one like you. One with regrets, one who wishes they'd had more time, done more things. Almost every human your age is like that."

"Of course we are!" said Miki. "We have our whole lives ahead of us, and…and then…"

"You do have your whole lives ahead of you," said the shinigami. "Those lives are just a lot shorter than you expect."

"And it's still not fair!" exclaimed Miki. "I don't understand it… why did I have to die? And my parents? Why did they have to… what did they ever do to deserve this?"

Again, there was silence for a moment. Just as Miki was about to get angry again at the shinigami, for not answering her, the winged women spoke again. "Would you like to find out?" she asked.

Miki was so surprised that she stopped crying. "What?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

"A person's spirit cannot move on until it is at peace," the shinigami explained. "Your spirit is clearly not at peace. Perhaps… if you were to discover the reasons behind your family's deaths, you would be happy?"

This question captured Miki's interest, and she sat forward, her face glistening. "You know why I was killed?" she asked. "Can you tell me?"

The shinigami shook her head. "I do not know," she said. "All I know is that you were killed in your own bedroom, by a single gunshot wound to the head. However, if I returned your spirit to the realm of mortals, perhaps you would be able to uncover the reasons yourself, and find your own peace."

"You can do that?" asked Miki. "But I thought you said I couldn't go back?"

"I said you can't go back to your body," said the shinigami. "But I can return your spirit to Earth by itself. I believe you humans call this a "ghost"."

"I'm going to become a ghost?" repeated Miki.

"That's right," said the shinigami. "Once back on Earth, you can find the answers you're looking for. However, I must warn you: you will not have forever. Once you leave this place, a red string will bind you to the afterlife, allowing you to find your way back when you are done. However, the string will fray over time. You have forty-two of your Earth days before the string breaks completely, and your spirit will be left on Earth for all eternity, peace or no peace. Is this a chance you are willing to take to be at rest?"

Miki did not even consider this possibility. Forty-two days was plenty of time. "Yes," she said. "I'll do it."

"Very well, then," said the shinigami. From thin air, she conjured a long red thread, and tied one end around Miki's little finger. The other end, she pinned to the ground with the blade of her scythe. The moment the blade impacted the ground, Miki heard a faint rumbling that steadily grew louder. Looking behind her, she saw to her horror that the ground was crumbling away beneath her, the same white light that shone through the exit now shining up from below as well.

"Your forty-two days start now," said the shinigami. "Good luck, Miki Yotsuba." Then the ground disappeared completely, and with a terrified squeal Miki found herself plummeting deep into the shining abyss.