Chapter 12:
On Documentaries About Human Behavior
The Death on Green (and the cat who always lands on foot)
It had been a while since I truly rested.
Let me be clear—sleeping and resting are two entirely different things.
So, I’ll say it again: it had been a long time since I rested.I woke up earlier than usual.
There was noise downstairs, in the kitchen—like a cat crashing into furniture before realizing the window was open.
By the time the noise stopped, going back to sleep was impossible.
I’m not a heavy sleeper.
I got dressed slowly, no rush. The scent of damp grass from the night before seeped into the room.
As I walked toward the stairs, I noticed her door slightly open.
After everything that happened, I wasn’t sure how to talk to her, so I decided to keep going.
Still half-asleep, I went down the stairs step by step. There was something—a strange smell of burnt honey and warm flour assaulting my nose.The kitchen was a disaster. I would’ve preferred a cat, a bear, a kaiju.
But there she was, sitting at the table.
Two cups, two plates. My cup was steaming more than hers.
“Good… morning…” I said, first scanning the kitchen, which looked like a war zone, then looking at her.
She didn’t answer, just curved her mouth into a slight smile and gestured toward the breakfast with her eyes.
“You made this?” I asked as I sat down, though the answer was obvious.
“Yup!” she said. “I woke up with a weird feeling in my stomach… but when I started tasting what I was making, it went away. I guess that’s what they call hunger.”
[The black tea’s oversteeped. The dorayaki looks like something out of a horror movie, but it’s fine. It’s actually fine.]
“My tea’s hotter.”
“I figured you’d wake up later, so… I tried to make up for it by heating it more.”
“You put two dorayakis on my plate.”
“I guess you need double the energy now,” she said, raising her fork.
She was oddly cheerful, not in a mocking way—I could tell she was genuinely happy, though I didn’t dare ask why.
Of course, the breakfast tasted awful. She ate like it was nothing, probably one of the perks of just recently acquiring a sense of taste and having nothing to compare it to.
I was scratching my neck again. “Why… why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m hungry.”
“You know what I mean…” I said, catching my reflection in the tea. Though the tea was dark and oversteeped, my reflection was clearer, less distorted.
“You said you’d help me become human. That means we’ll keep living together,” she said, lowering her head slightly, her voice softening. “I guess… we have to get used to it… like the people on TV…”
“What people on TV?”
She jumped up and rummaged under the living room TV, returning with a stack of old DVDs that belonged to my grandma.
“I analyzed these all morning and finally got it. Look!” She shoved one of the DVDs in my face. “The man and woman cook together. They sleep in the same room, though I guess every human has different habits.”
“T-Those are…”
“Look at this one! In one part, the woman talks about how her pulse races when she’s near the man. It’s like what happens to me—her face even changes color,” she said, thrusting more titles at me. “I don’t know why you have documentaries on human behavior, but props for being indirectly useful.”
“Aranara…”
“What? Wanna watch one?”
“Aranara… those are not documentaries… they’re movies…”
“Eh? W-Well, they’re still great for learning.”
“Romantic movies, Aranara…”And there it was—the red she’d just mentioned, flooding her cheeks.
“W-Well… I watched them from a scientific perspective.”
“Uh-huh… you’ve been dealing with humans for thousands of years—how do you not know this stuff?”
“I’m not the omnipresent one, Eiji. Besides, the humans I’ve been with were suicidal, remember? I was only there for their final moments,” she said, raising an imaginary barrier.
“Back to earlier… so your pulse races around me?” I asked, teasing her a bit.
“Ah! Uh… yeah… no. I don’t know… I feel a few extra ‘beats’ than before…”
“Let me check,” I said, reaching my hand toward her chest.
She leaned back, hugging herself.
Was she embarrassed?
Had she really changed this much in so little time?
“Come on, I just want to check something…” I repeated, placing my hand on her chest.
Her skin was warm, even through her clothes. The first time her heart beat, it was once every five minutes.
As I mentioned before, a human heart beats about 60 to 100 times a minute.
Hers was beating around 140 times a minute, and with her so close, though she avoided my face, I could see her pupils slightly dilated.
“E-Enough?” she said, pushing my hand away.
“More than enough,” I replied with a laugh.
“So… what? No big explanation like last time?”
“Don’t see the need.”
“If these things are going to happen, I need to know why they happen, Eiji.” It was more of a tantrum than a complaint.
“Uh… uh…”
“Come on.”
“Okay, look.” I took her hand and placed it on my chest. “Just focus on the beats.”
She closed her eyes and placed her other hand on her own chest.
It was only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.
My heart pounded.
Hers answered.
I couldn’t deny the absurd cliché of the situation. Surely a scene like this was in one of those DVDs, but as much as I hate to admit it, it felt good.
[Please, someone knock on the door.]
The closeness, the faint warmth radiating from her body, the way she was avoiding my eyes.
I felt myself leaning closer to her—it was a strange situation.
[Seriously, it’d be great if someone knocked right now.]
The scent of honey lingered faintly in her hair, and that red now spread to the tips of her ears.
She barely turned her face, and I hadn’t realized how close we were—our noses were almost touching.
“A-According to the… movies… this would be the kiss scene, right?” She pulled back, not avoiding me but making a bit more space.
[Yes.]
“Isn’t that supposed to happen at the end? Always the finale… it’s a kiss…”
[I don’t care about the stupid rules of a movie.]
[I don’t care what some idiot novel writer wants either.]
“It’s always after a fight, or something… when everything’s resolved.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “
When everything’s resolved…” I repeated, not realizing I’d pulled back a bit.
This was just another morning.
A different one, but still just another morning, and I was getting carried away, as if everything was already resolved.
Things were far from resolved.
[What am I doing?]
“Eiji…”
“Huh? Yeah… what?” Her voice snapped me out of my head.
“We can keep going like this…”
“What do you mean?”
“Even if it doesn’t work out with Sayo… this… I like it.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Leaving things as they were wasn’t what she wanted, or what I wanted.
Was she lying to herself? To me?
“It’s going to work,” I said, returning to my chair.
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I think I’m getting a stomachache.”
“Eiji, what if it doesn’t work?”
“Let’s go to town.”
“Why won’t you answer the question already?”
“Because I want us to go to town.”
“Sometimes I don’t get how you think, Eiji,” she said, standing up from her chair. She leaned to grab the plates for the sink, but I caught her wrist before she could.
“Simpler than you think… or than I think…” I said, turning my head this time. “Let’s go out together.”
“Uh… that’d be…” I saw her glance at the DVDs on the table out of the corner of my eye.
“Yeah, a date.”
Honestly, I didn’t know why or what was making me act this way. I’d like to think the breakfast was so bad it poisoned me. She didn’t answer, just pulled her hand away.
She stood, grabbed her parka, fixed her hair, and walked to the door.
“Well, it’s gonna be a really boring one…” she said, opening the door.
“I doubt it.”
“No one else can see me—what’s the point?”
“I can see you, and for now, that’s what we’ve got.” I said, closing the door behind me.
The cold of the season was slowly fading, and now the sun was a bit warmer than before, though we were still far from spring. Not the season, but the spring we’d set for ourselves.
“What’s so fun about being quiet all day?” she asked, walking with her arms crossed.
“This time, you don’t need to take a vow of silence.”
“People are gonna see a lunatic talking to himself, Eiji.”
“Just a lunatic, but I won’t be alone.”
She stopped abruptly and yanked me by the collar of my jacket. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I think we need some practice.”
“You saying you want to take the crown of the town nutcase now?”
“No, definitely not,” I said, her comment making me laugh. “You’re The Death. Or rather, a Death…”
“Amazing talent for stating the obvious.”
“What I’m trying to say is, I wasn’t scared of you—except the first time, because you were creepily cryptic.”
“Uh-huh… go on… where are you going with this?”
“I shouldn’t be scared of showing what I feel.”
“What you feel?”“
Yup.” I said, starting to walk again.I stayed quiet for a bit.
The neighborhood was the same as always, but it didn’t look the same.
The silence of the houses, the near-nonexistent traffic—it was the same, but it didn’t sound the same.
“Now you’re the cryptic one, Eiji…”
“I guess.”
“Well, spit it out already…” She flailed her arms a bit, looking like a penguin trying to fly.
I almost scratched my neck again but stopped myself. “What I mean is, I don’t want to die, but I like Death.”
Let me be clear—sleeping and resting are two entirely different things.
So, I’ll say it again: it had been a long time since I rested.I woke up earlier than usual.
There was noise downstairs, in the kitchen—like a cat crashing into furniture before realizing the window was open.
By the time the noise stopped, going back to sleep was impossible.
I’m not a heavy sleeper.
I got dressed slowly, no rush. The scent of damp grass from the night before seeped into the room.
As I walked toward the stairs, I noticed her door slightly open.
After everything that happened, I wasn’t sure how to talk to her, so I decided to keep going.
Still half-asleep, I went down the stairs step by step. There was something—a strange smell of burnt honey and warm flour assaulting my nose.The kitchen was a disaster. I would’ve preferred a cat, a bear, a kaiju.
But there she was, sitting at the table.
Two cups, two plates. My cup was steaming more than hers.
“Good… morning…” I said, first scanning the kitchen, which looked like a war zone, then looking at her.
She didn’t answer, just curved her mouth into a slight smile and gestured toward the breakfast with her eyes.
“You made this?” I asked as I sat down, though the answer was obvious.
“Yup!” she said. “I woke up with a weird feeling in my stomach… but when I started tasting what I was making, it went away. I guess that’s what they call hunger.”
[The black tea’s oversteeped. The dorayaki looks like something out of a horror movie, but it’s fine. It’s actually fine.]
“My tea’s hotter.”
“I figured you’d wake up later, so… I tried to make up for it by heating it more.”
“You put two dorayakis on my plate.”
“I guess you need double the energy now,” she said, raising her fork.
She was oddly cheerful, not in a mocking way—I could tell she was genuinely happy, though I didn’t dare ask why.
Of course, the breakfast tasted awful. She ate like it was nothing, probably one of the perks of just recently acquiring a sense of taste and having nothing to compare it to.
I was scratching my neck again. “Why… why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m hungry.”
“You know what I mean…” I said, catching my reflection in the tea. Though the tea was dark and oversteeped, my reflection was clearer, less distorted.
“You said you’d help me become human. That means we’ll keep living together,” she said, lowering her head slightly, her voice softening. “I guess… we have to get used to it… like the people on TV…”
“What people on TV?”
She jumped up and rummaged under the living room TV, returning with a stack of old DVDs that belonged to my grandma.
“I analyzed these all morning and finally got it. Look!” She shoved one of the DVDs in my face. “The man and woman cook together. They sleep in the same room, though I guess every human has different habits.”
“T-Those are…”
“Look at this one! In one part, the woman talks about how her pulse races when she’s near the man. It’s like what happens to me—her face even changes color,” she said, thrusting more titles at me. “I don’t know why you have documentaries on human behavior, but props for being indirectly useful.”
“Aranara…”
“What? Wanna watch one?”
“Aranara… those are not documentaries… they’re movies…”
“Eh? W-Well, they’re still great for learning.”
“Romantic movies, Aranara…”And there it was—the red she’d just mentioned, flooding her cheeks.
“W-Well… I watched them from a scientific perspective.”
“Uh-huh… you’ve been dealing with humans for thousands of years—how do you not know this stuff?”
“I’m not the omnipresent one, Eiji. Besides, the humans I’ve been with were suicidal, remember? I was only there for their final moments,” she said, raising an imaginary barrier.
“Back to earlier… so your pulse races around me?” I asked, teasing her a bit.
“Ah! Uh… yeah… no. I don’t know… I feel a few extra ‘beats’ than before…”
“Let me check,” I said, reaching my hand toward her chest.
She leaned back, hugging herself.
Was she embarrassed?
Had she really changed this much in so little time?
“Come on, I just want to check something…” I repeated, placing my hand on her chest.
Her skin was warm, even through her clothes. The first time her heart beat, it was once every five minutes.
As I mentioned before, a human heart beats about 60 to 100 times a minute.
Hers was beating around 140 times a minute, and with her so close, though she avoided my face, I could see her pupils slightly dilated.
“E-Enough?” she said, pushing my hand away.
“More than enough,” I replied with a laugh.
“So… what? No big explanation like last time?”
“Don’t see the need.”
“If these things are going to happen, I need to know why they happen, Eiji.” It was more of a tantrum than a complaint.
“Uh… uh…”
“Come on.”
“Okay, look.” I took her hand and placed it on my chest. “Just focus on the beats.”
She closed her eyes and placed her other hand on her own chest.
It was only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.
My heart pounded.
Hers answered.
I couldn’t deny the absurd cliché of the situation. Surely a scene like this was in one of those DVDs, but as much as I hate to admit it, it felt good.
[Please, someone knock on the door.]
The closeness, the faint warmth radiating from her body, the way she was avoiding my eyes.
I felt myself leaning closer to her—it was a strange situation.
[Seriously, it’d be great if someone knocked right now.]
The scent of honey lingered faintly in her hair, and that red now spread to the tips of her ears.
She barely turned her face, and I hadn’t realized how close we were—our noses were almost touching.
“A-According to the… movies… this would be the kiss scene, right?” She pulled back, not avoiding me but making a bit more space.
[Yes.]
“Isn’t that supposed to happen at the end? Always the finale… it’s a kiss…”
[I don’t care about the stupid rules of a movie.]
[I don’t care what some idiot novel writer wants either.]
“It’s always after a fight, or something… when everything’s resolved.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “
When everything’s resolved…” I repeated, not realizing I’d pulled back a bit.
This was just another morning.
A different one, but still just another morning, and I was getting carried away, as if everything was already resolved.
Things were far from resolved.
[What am I doing?]
“Eiji…”
“Huh? Yeah… what?” Her voice snapped me out of my head.
“We can keep going like this…”
“What do you mean?”
“Even if it doesn’t work out with Sayo… this… I like it.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Leaving things as they were wasn’t what she wanted, or what I wanted.
Was she lying to herself? To me?
“It’s going to work,” I said, returning to my chair.
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I think I’m getting a stomachache.”
“Eiji, what if it doesn’t work?”
“Let’s go to town.”
“Why won’t you answer the question already?”
“Because I want us to go to town.”
“Sometimes I don’t get how you think, Eiji,” she said, standing up from her chair. She leaned to grab the plates for the sink, but I caught her wrist before she could.
“Simpler than you think… or than I think…” I said, turning my head this time. “Let’s go out together.”
“Uh… that’d be…” I saw her glance at the DVDs on the table out of the corner of my eye.
“Yeah, a date.”
Honestly, I didn’t know why or what was making me act this way. I’d like to think the breakfast was so bad it poisoned me. She didn’t answer, just pulled her hand away.
She stood, grabbed her parka, fixed her hair, and walked to the door.
“Well, it’s gonna be a really boring one…” she said, opening the door.
“I doubt it.”
“No one else can see me—what’s the point?”
“I can see you, and for now, that’s what we’ve got.” I said, closing the door behind me.
The cold of the season was slowly fading, and now the sun was a bit warmer than before, though we were still far from spring. Not the season, but the spring we’d set for ourselves.
“What’s so fun about being quiet all day?” she asked, walking with her arms crossed.
“This time, you don’t need to take a vow of silence.”
“People are gonna see a lunatic talking to himself, Eiji.”
“Just a lunatic, but I won’t be alone.”
She stopped abruptly and yanked me by the collar of my jacket. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I think we need some practice.”
“You saying you want to take the crown of the town nutcase now?”
“No, definitely not,” I said, her comment making me laugh. “You’re The Death. Or rather, a Death…”
“Amazing talent for stating the obvious.”
“What I’m trying to say is, I wasn’t scared of you—except the first time, because you were creepily cryptic.”
“Uh-huh… go on… where are you going with this?”
“I shouldn’t be scared of showing what I feel.”
“What you feel?”“
Yup.” I said, starting to walk again.I stayed quiet for a bit.
The neighborhood was the same as always, but it didn’t look the same.
The silence of the houses, the near-nonexistent traffic—it was the same, but it didn’t sound the same.
“Now you’re the cryptic one, Eiji…”
“I guess.”
“Well, spit it out already…” She flailed her arms a bit, looking like a penguin trying to fly.
I almost scratched my neck again but stopped myself. “What I mean is, I don’t want to die, but I like Death.”
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