Epilogue

“And in those final few days, right before my ticket would expire,” Chouji said, “Shimada-senpai trained me. I still have a long way to go before I could possibly reach his level, but he showed me the basics of being a Reaper.”

I nodded, taking another bite from my sandwich.

“I can’t believe you had a whole nother adventure back on Earth,” I said. “You were trying to save me while I was trying to save you.”

Chouji laughed.

“Indeed. Funny how that works. I suppose that’s how we both ended up here.”

The two of us were both on our lunch break. Chouji had already wolfed down his bento box, while I happily munched on my sandwich. That boy just didn’t know how to savor things. Sitting in the break room, we were still catching up on the craziest week for both of our lives. 

“I’m shocked that Shimada was what’s-her-face’s older brother. Small world, huh.”

“Fukako. And yes, quite the small world. I was almost certain my journey was over right then and there.”

“What would you do if Shimada wasn’t there to give you any Reaper training?”

Chouji shrugged.

“What were you gonna do after killing the Demon King? We both had half-conceived, barely executable plans built on hope and shoestrings. Yet we made it work.”

I nodded, and silence lapsed over both of us. A minute later, Chouji started the conversation again.

“So what was the moral of it all? What was the lesson that you learned?”

I took another bite.

“Hmm… I guess when I take a step back and consider it all, what I really learned is that nerds suck.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, come on. You know exactly what I mean. Only nerds would have made as degenerate a place as Prayerhaven.”

“I thought it’s gotten better.”

“It has. Leave it to Half-sword Dave, or I guess he’s King David I now, to pull his country together.”

“He’s a natural for the role.”

“He really is,” I said.

“Oh, I was wondering.”

“Hm?”

“Why were you stressing out about the deadline?”

“Because once the deadline passed, Reapers would be dispatched to take you out for good. Thanks for paying attention to my story, Chouji.”

“I was paying attention, but were you? Margaret said seven days was the earliest I could get re-Reaped. That was a worst-case scenario. They could have been sent later.”

“Okay come on.”

“And I think you must have counted your days wrong, because I still can’t follow the exact timeline of how many days are left throughout your journey.”

“Come on.”

“And King Hinata’s final remark about midnight was especially confusing. How do we know that timezones in Questia are synced with timezones on Earth? Or in the Overworld?”

“Chouji you loser shut up. I’m not an elephant with perfect memory, I’m gonna fudge some details up.”

“I’m just saying.”

“And I’m just saying I’d be better off if you were Reaped.”

Chouji sent foot into my shin underneath the table. I kept my face stoic against his weak nerd kick, even though it hurt like crazy.

I finished the rest of my sandwich and we headed back to the office.

“You know I’m kidding, right?” I said. “I can’t thank you enough for trying to save my life, but more importantly for putting in a good word for me.” I dusted off the black robes encasing my body. “Not as comfortable as baseball uniform, but it ain’t so bad.”

As we walked back to our stations, we passed the customer service area. I slammed on the desk of my favorite customer service member.

“Good morning, Maggie! How’s it hangin’?”

“Fuck off,” Margaret said, voice as raspy as ever.

“Sure thing! See ya round, coworker!”

She burrowed her nose deeper into her laptop as she clacked away on important work documents. 

Chouji was already standing in front of the assignment board. He had filled his quota already but always liked taking a look at things. He glanced over his shoulder with a wry smile as I approached.
“Check out what you were assigned,” he said.

I looked at the corresponding name and time-slot given to me on the board.

Hinata Oninomiya.

I looked at him with an equally wry grin.

“You’re still pretty new to this,” he said. “You think you can handle it?”

I grabbed my scythe from the nearby locker.

“I think I could use a little help,” I said.

Chouji grabbed his, and the two of us went back into the world of Questing Heroes. Or was it Quest of Heroes? Ah, whatever. Doesn’t make a difference to me.