I have no mouth and I must scream.

Tsubasa was holding 2 bags of groceries while Yua was carrying both of their school bags. Tsubasa offered to carry her bag a while ago, but she refused and sneakily took his bag when he wasn’t looking near the checkout counter. Tsubasa almost tripped while trying to get his bag back while holding the groceries, which further proved that she should carry his stuff.

Yua had a particular image in her head that he looked like a stubborn wet dog that needed training. She also felt guilty that he had to carry too many things.

She couldn’t text because both her hands were occupied, but Tsubasa yapped away about how fascinating his observations of humans were. It hit her in that moment that this boy really was something out of this world.

The girl silently listened to the boy’s ramblings as they walked back home. It was strangely peaceful despite the incident that happened a few hours ago.

The sun has fully set. The first day was about to come to a close as she looked above at the night sky.

She now had only six days before her.

Yua and Tsubasa walked up to the 3rd floor of a shady-looking apartment. The only sound they heard was the train passing by.

Yua stood in front of a metal door for 5 minutes straight. She was just staring at it.

“You know that there’s no one inside, right?”

Yua nodded. She brought out her key and opened the door slowly.

The inside of the small apartment was a complete mess. It was so small that you could see everything just from the entrance itself.

The room consisted of a tatami floor with two small rooms in front of it. It had a low-hanging table that was occupied with a ton of different cosmetics. Around that room were dresses hanging from the window or from different hangers. Some designer bags were under those dresses as well.

Beside the table was a single futon which was neatly folded. Tsubasa knew that the mother did not fold that, but it was Yua who did.

Separated by a small partition to the right was Yua’s room. Compared to her mother's, it was surprisingly clean, but empty. It was like no one was living there. The only things that were inside were her futon, a desk, and some books neatly stacked on the floor. Their shared toilet was right next to her desk. Her “room” wasn’t exactly in the best position to be in.

To the right was the kitchen, which had a ton of different types of fast food containers and boxes scattered around. The kitchen was halfway clean because the only dirty things were the floor. The table was spotless with two plastic chairs neatly tucked in. It seems like Yua has been trying to diligently clean the place.

Trash bags were scattered near the entrance, different types of heels belonging to an older woman were scattered on the floor, and the smell of smoke instantly filled the air. Yua walked in, she took her shoes off, and placed them in the shoe box. Tsubasa did the same.

He was right. Yua’s mom really wasn’t inside.

“Were you planning on not sleeping here tonight if your mother were home? What exactly has she done to you, and where’s your father in all of this?” Tsubasa softened his tone a bit as he put the groceries down on the plastic table near the kitchen.

A new notification popped up on his phone. It was another message from Yua.

Why are you still asking me personal questions? If it’s true when you said that you were watching me this entire time, then you would know the answers to all of that, right?

Tsubasa paused. He took the time to choose his words carefully.

“I’ve been watching you for two years only, so I don’t have the full details. I didn’t even know that you used to be friends with Ayumi, so I want to hear about your past from your mouth myself.”

Yua’s fingers paused on her phone. She began typing again, this time not out of annoyance but out of curiosity.

What do you mean by 2 years? I thought you’ve been watching me my entire life…

Tsubasa sat down on the plastic chair near the table. He pulled out the other chair beside him and patted it, signaling her to sit down next to him. She set their bags down on the table and did as he said.

“Well, how do I start…the stuff about my grandma or about Tokyo…wasn’t actually made up. I was human up until I died two years ago after all.”

Yua almost dropped her phone at this new and sudden revelation about this reaper.

So why do you act like you’re above humans then?!

“Because I don’t remember anything when I was a human. All I remember are the basics, like how I was born in Tokyo, that I had a mother and a father, and when I moved to Hida to take care of my grandmother. Unfortunately, I died early on in my life, but I don’t remember what exactly I died from…”

“I was once human, but I can never truly reach humanity if I don’t remember it. Day by day, I lose even more memories, but this is the cost of being a harbinger of death. To me, you humans act differently compared to us reapers.”

Are there other reapers out there?

Tsubasa nodded. “There are around 2 deaths that happen every second. Every life that has been depleted or has been scheduled to die is supervised by a reaper, to make sure you humans live out your intended lifespans.”

What happens in the final second when a human dies? Will I also become a reaper?

His eyes softened just slightly.

“Who knows? I can’t say any further than this, or else I’ll lose my job. Any further than this is taboo, so I’m sorry! I can’t say anything else!”

For some reason, being a reaper feels more…corporate than I expected.

Tsubasa laughed.

“Well yeah, you pretty much got that on point!”

Don’t you miss them? Do you wanna look for your mom, dad, and grandma?

Tsubasa’s eyes slightly widened when he read the text from his phone. He leaned back on the chair and looked at the girl beside him.

“There’s no need to. I don’t even remember who they are anyway. They might even be dead already.”

Tsubasa stared at Yua’s phone as she was typing again. After seeing her type another long paragraph, he blocked her screen with his hand. He was telling her to stop asking questions now.

“So now that I’ve told you all about me, tell me more about yourself!” Tsubasa said with a smile.

She pushed his hand away and deleted her previous paragraph. She was supposed to ask him if they could look for his relatives together, but he had already gotten the memo and probably refused by covering her screen.

Yua pouted and looked away from him in a fit of rage. It was rude of him to cover the screen like that, also at a time when she was trying to help him.

“A-are you not going to tell me anything…”

Yua got up and buried herself inside her futon. Her phone dropped beside her on the floor.

“You’re going to sleep now? Yua…you’re still in your school uniform…it will get dirty.”

Tsubasa walked towards the futon and kneeled beside her. He slowly rocked the blanket back and forth.

“I’m sorry for covering your screen…I really don’t see the point of trying to look for my relatives if I can’t even remember them. You’re just going to waste your precious time, and I don’t want to do that…”

No response. Yua was still grumbling from underneath the blanket.

“Yua…I’m sorry…please forgive me…”

He was like a puppy whimpering at its owner. Yua was going to get out until she felt a soft embrace from behind.

Tsubasa was hugging her. One of his arms and legs was currently on top of her body. She froze in place. The inside of the futon suddenly felt really hot, even though it was a little bit cold outside.

She didn’t move, but being hugged for the first time felt strangely warm for her. She didn’t dislike it at all.

“Fine. I’ll do what you want, but if we’re taking too much time out of your day, then I will call it quits, okay?”

Yua nodded under the blanket. He could feel her head bobbing up and down from under the sheet as the rustling of clothes could be felt underneath him.

Tsubasa smiled to himself. He let go of her and propped his arm up using his elbow. His head was leaning on his hand now as he stared at the girl buried under the blanket beside him.

“Well, now that’s settled. I’ll have to make a delicious meal for you tomorrow to make up for it.”

He patted the blanket before him gently.

Yua was about to raise her head so that she could change her clothes, but so much stress got the best of her for the entire day that she didn’t want to move from her spot anymore.

A lot of things may have happened to her today, but for some weird reason, she felt strangely at peace now that she doesn't have to deal with Ayumi.

Yua might have even been grateful that he choked Ayumi and made her frightened of them. She might be slowly turning into a bad person because of the influence of this entity, but she didn’t care.

The boy who was gently patting her didn’t help from the fact that she was slowly falling into a deep slumber either. She gave up and decided to leave the rest to him. Her eyes closed shut, and her breathing steadied ever so slightly.

“Good night, Yua.”

——

Day two: I want to have a nice meal.

Yua woke up to the sound of a train passing by as usual. She immediately got up, dazed, as if it were her morning alarm clock for school.

The girl looked around to see that the boy was no longer with him. She looked down and saw that she was in her pajamas.

Did he change her into pajamas? Does that mean he did all of that?!

Before she could rack her brains out, she paused as she saw a figure sitting on a chair smoking a cigarette in front of her.

It was her mother. She was not supposed to be here until the day after tomorrow. She messed up.

Her mother grabbed the two grocery bags and threw them to the floor in front of her. The contents were now scattered on the floor.

“What is this?”

Yua couldn’t answer. She was too scared.

Her mother stood up and looked at her.

“Hey. I’m talking to you. Didn’t I say that you have to save money for this week? You know that your mom has bills to pay, right?”

Yua nodded. She was about to raise her hands to sign ‘I’m sorry,’ but her arms were smacked away before she could even use sign language to say anything.

“So you knew about it, yet you still went outside to buy groceries?! Do you have any idea how much debt we still have left to pay?!”

Yua looked down at the ground. It was entirely her own fault. She was right. Yua wanted to eat a nice meal to cross off her bucket list, so she thought she could splurge on food for the first time in her life. She was just not expecting to be caught at all.

Her mother took the cigarette from her mouth.

She knew where this was going and shut her eyes tight.

“You know what happens to bad children if they disobey their parents? They get punished.”

With the burnt end of her cigarette, she rolled up the sleeves of Yua’s right arm. It was now fully exposed as she felt a warm sensation getting closer and closer. Her eyes were still kept completely shut.

She felt the burnt end of the cigarette almost press into her skin,

But there was another pause in time yet again.

Yua opened her eyes to see her mom stuck in the same pose as Ayumi.

She knows where this is going again. The outside of their single window showed the void yet again.

The only difference this time is that her mother can speak.

“W-what is happening?!” Her mother was still stuck in place.

Tsubasa showed up beside Yua and grabbed her right arm. He pulled her away from her mother’s grasp.

“Hm, I see the problem now! Yua was right when she said that you adults truly are to blame!”

“Who are you?! What are you doing in my house?!”

Tsubasa took the cigarette from her mother’s hand and inhaled it from his mouth. He immediately coughed as he huffed a lot of smoke out. It seems that even a reaper can struggle to breathe.

“Agh! That was horrendous! I don’t get why adults even think smoking is necessary at all! I’m guessing it’s because nicotine is addictive, but I am sure there are better ways of coping than this. Yua, how are you even able to live with a monster like your mother? Prolonged exposure to smoke can destroy your lungs. Smoking is never right!”

It was an obvious statement everyone should know, but Yua was grateful to Tsubasa for saving her again, so she nodded enthusiastically. She didn’t even try stopping him this time.

Tsubasa dangled the cigarette in front of her mother. It swayed back and forth as the ashes dropped near her mother’s clothes.

“Miss Suzuki, even your daughter is aware that smoking is bad! Yet you still choose to smoke in front of her?!”

Tsubasa’s tone changed with a hint of mockery and anger this time. His voice was getting louder the more he ranted.

There was nothing but rage in the eyes of Yua’s mother. She was getting worked up by a mere kid after all.

“Of course I know that smoking is bad, but I couldn’t care less, this is my house after all! I didn’t expect Yua to make a friend now! Did you tell your prince charming boyfriend here to come and save you?”

Yua’s mother was breathing heavily as she was now screaming at her daughter at the top of her lungs.

“So you really are just like me, huh?! Taking advantage of another man truly might’ve been in our blood after all!”

Yua clenched her fists. Out of all things, she did not want to be like her mother. She was wrong.

“What are you staying silent for?! You’re not saying anything because you know I’m ri-”

Tsubasa stopped her mother from continuing her sentence by pressing the burnt cigarette into her right arm. It was just like what her mother was supposed to do to her earlier.

The woman before her screamed in agony.

Yua didn’t even react. She just stared blankly at her mother writing in pain.

“You shut up now. Honestly, you’re pissing me off. Yua is nothing like you. I came here on my own accord.”

“W-what even a-are you?!”

Yua’s mother can now move, but she was curled up like a ball on the ground, sweating. She was holding her arm, trying to soothe the pain from her right arm. There was now a single burnt mark across her smooth white skin.

The corners of Yua’s lips perked up ever so slightly. Her mother didn’t notice, but Yua was secretly enjoying this.

“Look around you, Miss Suzuki. We are outside the bounds of reality now. God has come here to punish you!”

“Are you perhaps…G-God?….God exists?!”

“God does exist! Although I am not actually God himself. I am simply one of his many messengers that was sent to earth to bring punishment to sinners like you!”

Tsubasa grabbed her mother’s arm and burned another mark into her skin. Her mother can’t push him away because every time he grabbed her, she stayed completely still.

“It’s funny… I didn’t understand hatred when I was human. But standing here now, looking at you… I think I finally do. Have you taken the time to look at what you did to both of your daughters’ arms? This is retribution. I am just doing the same thing you have done to her!”

The cigarette’s burnt end never lost its heat. He started pressing several marks into her mother’s arm.

Her mother was sweating even more now. Her screams of agony got louder.

Yua was absorbing the moment in front of her. Karma was finally getting to her.

“Hate… do you even understand what that means? Since the moment I started existing in this form, in this wretched body, it’s all I’ve felt. If I could carve that feeling into every fragment of what I am, over and over again, it still wouldn’t come close to how much I despise humans like you right now.”

Another press of the cigarette. Tsubasa was not stopping anytime soon. He switched to her other arm.

“You can be trapped…unable to speak, unable to resist, unable to scream…and still be forced to endure everything. Yua doesn’t have the basic human privilege to voice any of that out, unlike you.”

Yua’s mother screamed even louder from the pain. Her ears were now slightly ringing from the noise. Her mother was about to pass out from the pain.

“I-I get it now…! Forgive me, please…”

The boy shook his head.

“You shouldn’t be asking for forgiveness from me. Ask your own flesh and blood right here.”

Tsubasa let go of her mother’s arm as she crawled towards her daughter in a pathetic state.

Her mother kneeled in front of her, as if she were praying to a God. The lowest bow she could receive in her life. She was now crying.

“I-I’m so sorry, Yua! P-please forgive your mother! I didn’t mean for any of this to happen! Many things have happened in my life, and they were not great…I lashed out my anger on you b-because my life has been nothing but suffering even before I had you!”

Yua’s mother looked up at her, more tears falling to the ground.

“Forgive me…for I have sinned…”

Her mother’s eyes widened in shock from her daughter’s reaction.

She was smiling coldly down at her. This is the first time she’s ever seen her smile.

The girl shook her head sideways.

She said no.

“B-but why?!”

Her daughter does not forgive her.

She never will.

Her mother was offended, she almost grabbed her when-

Pitch black.

Nothing but darkness surrounded her.

Ah.

I see now.

Ichika Suzuki looked below her to see her arms bleeding.

She fell into the arms of the person in front of her, unmoving.

It was the end of the line for her.

Her daughter kneeled in front of her amidst the void.

Yua hugged her for the last time. She was smiling like all her problems were finally solved.

Ichika Suzuki took one last breath in the arms of her own flesh and blood.

She was let go of, and her body fell to the ground with a loud thud.