Like a Sea Lion

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest at the loud cries of terror coming from the kid that rescued me a few hours ago.

“Gaahh!!!! Get these diabolical wires away from me!! Stop stealing my blood! Do you know who you’re dealing with!? I’m a Grim Reaper!!”

Sinful Shadow was awake.

He was ripping at the IV tubes he was hooked up to like a madman, triggering the machine to beep like crazy.

With my brain still half asleep, I stood up and tried to hold him down before he hurt himself.

“H-Hey, stop it, you’re still recovering!”

He slapped my hands away and jumped off the bed, making his way to the window.

In one swift move he had it fully open; the gentle morning wind and early sun rays filtering into the room became pearls before swine to this hyperactive young boy.

“I’m not staying in this place! I’ll find the evildoer who did this to me and make them pay tenfold!”

He placed his right leg on the frame of the window, and my blood ran cold.

Was he planning to jump down!?

It’s a ten story drop from here!

On top of having to deal with paperwork and witness accounts that confirm I didn’t do this to him, was I now supposed to deal with a trial over manslaughter vs suicide!?

Hell no!

I ran to his side as fast as I could and tightly wrapped my arms around his waist, trying to pull him back inside, but he wasn’t budging.

“I said stop, you idiot! If you fall from here you’ll die!”

“Unhand me, mortal!” He snapped. “There’s no way a fall from this height would hurt a Grim Reaper!”

“Yes, it would!!”

“No! It wouldn’t!”

“You got hit by a car and bled, didn’t you!? So obviously you can get hurt!”

“That was an attempt against my life by my nemesis, NEMESIS!”

His grip on the frame was solid. This kid wasn’t budging an inch no matter how hard I tugged.

“What NEMESIS!? It was a freakin’ car!”

“Unhand me!!”

“Ghh— If I let you go… you’ll never see Soul Killer again!”

I blurted that out as a last resort.

He stopped struggling.

His head slowly turned towards me, frowning.

“...You know where my scythe is?”

I swallowed.

Of course I knew.

I had no choice but to bring it with me to the room, but because of its size I had to hide it under the bed. The space underneath was large and easy to access, so I was afraid he’d look behind me and catch a glimpse of it immediately.

“Y-Yeah. So. You’d better do as I say.”

“.......”

His silence was honestly a little scary.

After a moment of hesitation, he finally pulled his leg away from the window and stepped properly back inside the room.

I finally let go of him along with a sigh of relief.

He straightened himself up, realizing he was out of his normal clothes and wearing a hospital gown instead.

He directed a leer at me.

“...Mortal. I have a question for you. Do you work for NEMESIS?”

I cringed, then shook my head.

“...No. In fact, I don’t work for literally anyone.”

Like, at all.

He looked at me with confusion.

Obviously my joke was too personal for him to understand; it’s fine, I enjoyed it.

“Then why are you holding my weapon hostage? What do you want from me? Where am I?”

“First,” I lifted my finger, “I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

He looked at me in silence again for a long time.

I was expecting him to bombard me with questions again, but instead his eyes went wide.

“Ah—”

His gaze was fixed on the floor behind me.

I didn’t have to turn around to know exactly what he was looking at.

Soul Killer's blade had reflected a gracious ray of sunshine onto Sinful Shadow’s face and revealed itself to him.

In a fraction of a second, he was diving for the bottom of the bed like a sea lion, and I barely managed to grab him by the back of his gown, tugging him back with all my strength.

“Soul Killer! My Soul Killer! Aaaaahh!!”

“Hghnn!! Hold on!! Hold on, I said!”

Honestly, it was as if the wound on his chest had done nothing to hinder this guy.

I also couldn’t believe how deceptively strong he was—or maybe I was as weak as a lanky teen.

I could feel him slipping away from my grip when suddenly someone knocked on the door, opening it slowly without waiting for a reply.

I froze.

We both did.

In my mind, which was racing a billion miles per second, I thought about who it could be this early in the morning.

Nobody knew I was here, so this couldn’t be a visit for me.

The doctor told me he’d come check on “Shin” at around ten, which was clearly still a few hours away.

The only thing I could think of - and that somehow terrified me, is that this kid’s family had found out about what happened to him and had come to see him.

I know I should be relieved, but instead my heart had stopped.

Whatever story this kid was hiding, I was clearly not ready to face it.

All this happened in my brain so fast, it was as if whoever was opening the door was doing it in slow motion.

Then I realized they truly were taking their sweet time, probably to not wake up Sinful Shadow.

Holding my breath, I waited until a human figure finally began materializing through the doorframe.

I saw a hand with pretty pink decorated nails slowly push the door open further, and then, in stark contrast to her playful manicure, a young woman dressed as a serious office lady slowly entered the scene.

I was paralyzed in place, still holding onto Sinful Shadow’s gown, looking at… an incredibly familiar face.

Before I could tell who she was, she stared at the awkward scene in front of her.

I wanted the floor to swallow me immediately.

“I— This is—”

I started to sweat, trying to find the right words that would explain in a convincing manner that I wasn’t doing anything fishy to a freshly-wounded patient.

But before I could form any coherent words, her mouth began to open.

“...Leo… Leo Chertan?”

…Oh.

I looked at her properly again.

Yeah, I knew this girl.

Her hair was dyed light brown, her chest was bigger, she had gained some weight, she was wearing makeup… but there was no mistake. Those big, dewy brown eyes, and that sweet, melodious voice…

Without taking my eyes away from her, I released my grip on Sinful Shadow, who hit the floor with a thud.

“Claire Spica!?”

No mistake, it was Claire. 

The girl who worried about the lives of background characters.