This is not for you.

Yua stared at the corpse on the floor.

It felt like reality was slipping through her fingers.

She was back in the small apartment room, but there was no sign of Tsubasa anywhere.

Without Tsubasa, Yua felt alone.

Without Tsubasa, Yua would not know what to do.

Without Tsubasa, Yua would be alone.

Without Tsubasa, Yua wouldn’t be able to live.

Without Tsubasa, Yua wouldn’t be able to die.

She has no one left but Tsubasa.

Yua is scared. She’s absolutely terrified.

Was she responsible for all of this? Is she slowly turning into a monster? Or was it because she was close to death? Did she actually kill her mother? Why was she smiling when it happened? Did she really feel genuine happiness when seeing her mother suffer?

Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy?

Why?

Why was this happening to her?

Yua just wanted to die peacefully, that’s all.

What should Yua do?

What do you, dear reader, think she should do in this situation?

Tsubasa stares at you.

Hey, you.

Yes, I’m talking to you.

Are you scared perhaps?

Why? Did you think I was not capable of seeing you?

You came here looking for something thrilling, right?

How do you feel now that you’re responsible for the death of someone, hm?

Are you happy? Or are you perhaps filled with dread?

Tsubasa smiles as he talks to you. He turns around.

Do you know?

This is not for you.

But I have to go back.

I can’t keep her waiting now, can I?

“Yua! Are you okay?”

Yua is curled up into the corner of her room with her legs covering her face.

The girl looked up to see the boy with the silver eyes kneeling in front of her.

Her face was completely soaked with her tears.

Even though Yua could not speak, she was not incapable of making other noises, like groaning or crying.

As soon as she saw Tsubasa, she reached out to him with a loud sob as she clung to his uniform.

Tsubasa gently patted her back while hugging her.

“I’m sorry for leaving you alone, Yua. I had to talk to someone. They're basically my higher-ups, so I had to say hi to them for a bit. There’s a bunch of them, but I just talked to them like it was one huge broadcast, so I can immediately come back to you!”

Tsubasa tried cracking a joke to lighten the mood a little, but all he got was a sniffle from below him instead.

“I’m really sorry for leaving you behind again, okay? I promise I won’t do it again.”

Yua looked up and shoved her phone in front of Tsubasa’s face.

I’ll forgive you only if you cook me a nice meal! You bought it with my money yesterday!

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. It was my fault that your mother got mad at you…if I didn’t use your money then none of this would’ve happened…”

Yua moved the phone to see Tsubasa sadly smiling down at her. She now felt guilty for saying that.

This was also the first time Yua had noticed that he felt sad about something, although he was smiling at her. So does that mean that this entity can feel empathy or guilt?

It’s not your fault. She always does that, even if I didn’t do anything wrong most of the time. My mom would blow up at the slightest inconvenience every time.

“Well, if you say so. I won’t think about it too hard. Thank you, Yua.”

Besides, I think that I’m glad she died.

Tsubasa stared at her phone silently.

He got up from the tatami mat and grabbed his phone from inside his pocket.

Yua sent him a message as he was checking his phone.

What are you doing?

“Well, I need to do something about the body that’s on the floor right now.”

Cameras. There's a camera outside in the hallway. You simply can’t make her body just disappear without reason since she came into this room, right?

Tsubasa beamed with a smile. A smile completely different from the one he showed her earlier.

“That’s exactly right! Impressive! I don’t even have to explain most of the things I have to tell you, it’s really convenient!”

So what are you going to do?

Tsubasa looks down on the corpse below him as he nudges it with his foot.

“To the outside, it looks like she died of natural causes. We reapers have the ability to do this only out of divine punishment or if someone is nearing the end of their life. Basically, I made it look like she died of a heart attack.”

Interesting. But what about the burn marks you put on her arm?

“You can check it yourself.”

Yua kneeled down and gently grabbed her mother’s hand. It was cold to the touch like Tsubasa, but at least he was slightly warmer. Her eyes roamed throughout the expanse of her arms.

The burn marks were gone. So was the bleeding. She wasn’t bleeding from anywhere.

That’s amazing. You can really get away from murder with this.

“Hmm, it’s not really murder, though. She was going to die soon anyway. I just gave her a more…painful death.”

She was? When was she going to die?

“In around four days, also from a heart attack.”

For some reason, Yua sighed in relief. It lifted the burden she had just a little.

Tsubasa directs his phone to Yua. There was an input for 119, the ambulance and emergency hotline.

“I’ll do the talking. Your eyes are already swollen from all that crying, so it’s time to deliver a stellar performance worthy of an actor!”

——

“I-I really don’t know what happened! I only came here to give my classmate’s notebook back, and I heard screaming from the outside…so I opened the door and found her mother collapsed on the floor!”

Tsubasa genuinely looked bothered by the situation he’s in. He was sitting down on the tatami mat next to her, gently patting her back.

Yua thought to herself that if he were alive, he would be a great actor.

The medic team that arrived in 4 minutes flat pitied the look in his eyes. They brought the body out using a stretcher.

A kind lady wearing a light-blue coat knelt in front of Yua and wrapped a blanket around her. Yua strangely felt calmer now compared to before.

“There’s no need to worry anymore. It must have been hard. Your friend told me everything. Do you perhaps have any kind of contact with any of your other family members?”

Yua shook her head.

——

Everything was blank. It felt like time was going too fast. There were too many things happening at once.

Too many people asking questions, too many people in her room, too many people whispering about outside, too many bright lights, too many sounds surrounding her, too many gazes directed at her if she stepped out of that door.

She was overwhelmed by everything that was happening around her.

Yua locked herself in the apartment. Completely isolated from the outside world. Yet again.

She did not want to leave the apartment again. It was too scary.

“It’s completely fair for you to skip school today! I’m pretty sure the teachers there know already.”

Tsubasa said as he was preparing food in the kitchen.

Around two hours have passed since they were left alone. The authorities have not questioned them much, but she felt like the interrogation lasted an entire day.

The chime of the rice cooker broke her out of her thoughts.

Tsubasa grabbed her by the hand and patiently led her to the table.

In front of her was a simple beef curry.

Like the one her mother always used to cook.

It tasted like the food she once had when they were still a somewhat happy, normal family with her sister and her dad.

The girl wiped the tears falling down her face so that they wouldn’t fall onto the food below her using the sleeve of her pajamas.

Tsubasa once again silently ate in front of her.

But in the end, she still got what she wanted.

She was able to eat a nice meal despite this, after all.

Maybe!

Just maybe, it was worth it after all!

Day two: I want to have a nice meal.