The Goddess of Souls

"Where am I?!"

I tried to scream, call out. Nothing would come out. I'd only experienced the feeling once before, when I was younger and visited Miraikan in Tokyo. We'd wandered into a room with fabric panels on the wall and no matter how loud we spoke or yelled our voices had fallen flat. Were the clouds acting the same as those panels?

It was a stretch at best. Especially since I found myself in my middle-aged body. I was even wearing the same suit and heels.

YOU RETURN

The voice crawled over my skin, digging inside and forcing a sense of comfort on me. I hugged myself in a futile attempt to ward the violating feeling away.

DO NOT BE AFRAID

"Easier said than done when you're a disembodied voice holding me against my will!"

The sea of clouds darkened to grey and flickered with lightning. Had I been too irreverent? I was finally catching on to the divinity surrounding me and only one name came to mind.

"Vide."

I AM SHE

I ASK OF YOU

HAVE YOU CARED FOR MY CHILD?

"The one you abandoned? Left to fend for herself until I found her?"

I couldn't swallow my disdain. Vide this, Vide that. I was sick of hearing her name. Reincarnation? Souls? I couldn't care in the slightest. So why did her voice sound so familiar? Why did my heart feel like it was being crushed by my own shortcomings rather than boil at her indifference to the people who worshiped her?

"I apologize for my rudeness." I wondered if the remorse I felt was being manipulated from me. "This is just so sudden. Why am I here?"

TO RECEIVE MY EDICT

TO RECEIVE A REWARD

There didn't seem to be much choice in the matter. Maybe the reward would be worth whatever task she was shoving on me.

"Can I at least see who I'm speaking with? It's a bit uncomfortable not being able to see who I'm talking to."

The clouds around me calmed the politer I was. I'd had plenty of practice capitulating to people above me. I'd been forced to do it my entire career. At least Vide was a goddess and not just an idiot who happened to have seniority over me.

"Is this better?"

I stared at the petite figure that stepped from the sunset clouds. Fluffy hair, ocean eyes, and a sly smile on her lips. I wasn't sure whether to cry or slap them.

"Of all the people, you chose her?"

"You wanted to see me while we talked, didn't ya?"

The air around Bixey blurred and when my eyes adjusted I saw a balding, wrinkled faced bastard.

"Or would you prefer this form?"

"I'll take Bixey. The last thing I want is to have to talk to that again."

The figure, Vide, appeared as Bixey again.

"Then did you do what I wanted? Did you take care of my daughter?"

"I don't remember you ever asking, but I've done my best. She's probably taken care of me more than I have her, though."

"Really? That's not what her sisters have told me. They rave about you whenever they bring someone home."

"Rave about me?"

Then the other Dusks did have personalities? Were they just too shy to talk? I imagined dozens of looming Yahime's with blushing cheeks trying to avoid eye contact. She could be kind of cute sometimes.

"They love you! Especially after you freed my daughter trapped in that mountain. I can't believe those idiot humans were so upset they kidnapped her!"

"I don't follow."

Vide spun upside down in the air towards me. It was unsettling how similar but slightly off she was to the real Bixey.

"If you're here you must have been at one of their temples. They built a bunch when I came to visit them and they threw a fit when I came home! They managed to kidnap one of my children and we couldn't find her no matter how hard we looked. Imagine my surprise when she just showed up the other day!"

"You make it sound like she was a teenager staying out past curfew…"

The goddess shrugged and rested her head on top of mine.

"It's hard being a mother, ya know? I can't keep track of all my children at once. Sometimes some get into trouble. Like a certain someone who's gotten especially attached to you."

"Yahime. Why haven't you taken her back? She doesn't belong—"

"She's a special case."

I waited for Vide to elaborate. She didn't.

"Then can you tell me more about her? Why is she so different? Is she going to end up like the Dusk we found in the mountain?"

"You've been itching to ask those questions, haven't ya. I'm sorry to say I can't really answer. She's changed since she started following you and not even I know why. She was pretty normal when she left to pick up that girl."

"Aurelie? Does she have something to do with this? Something to do with why I'm here?"

Vide's face dropped, the playful smile vanishing.

"That girl has everything to do with you being here. It was her selfish desires that stole your soul to this world."

"Aren't you like the goddess of the afterlife? How could you let that happen?"

"I am the 'Goddess of Souls'. My role is to guide and care for the souls of mortals while they wait for reincarnation. The tides of life and death have nothing to do with me."

That's something. You'd think it was an all inclusive title. Does that mean Vide isn't as big of a deal as people make her out to be? It sounds like she's just in charge of running a daycare until a soul's new parents pick them up.

"A daycare? Is that truly how little you think of me? I was led to believe people in your world were more polite than this."

My cheeks flared red. She could hear my thoughts? No wonder she'd gotten upset earlier.

"A-Apologies… I—"

Laughter filled the endless expanse as Vide fell back holding her stomach.

"Don't apologize. It would be an unjust violation for me to judge a mortal on their thoughts alone. But by your logic, I suppose you are correct. Which is why it vexes me that the human Aurelie's soul has disappeared and you have taken her body."

"Where did it go?"

"Who can say?" Vide answered dismissively. "But I digress. We're here to talk about you, my dear Apostle."

"So it was you. But when?"

"This is not our first meeting," Vide said. "The leash on your soul has been pulled taut countless times during your short time in that world, wandering far too close to my domain to be useful. So I decided to lend you a helping hand."

Then my shortcomings are my own. Between Yahime and the skills Vide has given me, I'm rolling in divine protection and still can't seem to accomplish anything. So why am I even here? Was it another god?

"There are no other gods anymore."

I blinked once and then twice. No other gods?

"The other gods have long left this place to create and govern their own new worlds. All that remains are their names and the petty attachments the mortals have to them."

"That's… But you said you didn't have control over life and death."

"Do you have control of the rain? The wind? The stars? Your world's science has proven the natural flow of life doesn't require divine intervention."

"We also don't have magic or reincarnation," I mumbled. I knew she could hear me and I didn't care. It wasn't fair to compare our worlds; people on Earth weren't guaranteed another chance at life.

Or maybe it was the guilt. The guilt of knowing that I didn't deserve my second. How many others had died at the same moment as me? People who fought to live, desperately pleading like Aurelie did for another chance, or revenge. I threw my life away by choice.

"Gah! This is why I hate being around mortals!" The clouds around us dimmed. "You're always thinking about pointless things! Can't you ever just accept things as they are without selfishly injecting your emotions into them? Besides, our time is running short and I still have my edict to give!"

"Then what is it," I sighed. "Bring divine wrath on someone?"

I was surprised when my sarcasm was answered with a nod. Then Bixey, or rather Vide, vanished.

CLEANSE MY TEMPLE OF THE BLASPHEMER

CARE FOR MY DAUGHTER

SO LONG AS KYOMI YOZORA ATTENDS THESE TASKS

I GRANT HER THE BLESSING OF A SINGLE WISH

"How's that sound?"

"It was a bit dramatic to disappear just to say that, wasn't it?"

"Stop complaining and get to work. Oh, and have fun with your new magic!"