"Miwa, I've sent Yagi Izumi back to the afterlife."
I found it hard to resist the tears as I informed Miwa. Izumi was gone. Dying once by a murder, and twice by my hand. I had no pride in what I did. It was just my job and I hadn't fully accepted that my job is to kill spirits, not to play nice with them and solve their problems.
"Good job Yuji, come back home."
I returned home.
"Here you go." Miwa handed me several stacks of an odd coin which I had never seen before. One type of coin was a reddish copper with a katana engraved in it, the other blue tinted steel with a blue rose head printed on it.
"What are these?"
"Your payment for the job. Four-thousand Goza."
For reference, that's the equivalent of fourty-thousand yen.
"What the hell is a Goza?"
"It's the currency used in the afterlife."
"What use will this do for me? Japanese vendors won't accept this."
"Just get it exchanged at a bank then."
"This is not recognized as an actual currency!"
"Well, you'll just have to do your shopping in the afterlife then."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
I was wondering if she was joking or not, but coming from a spirit, I guessed no. I was right, but her solution to my money problem posed some issues.
"Okay Miwa, so I have to fully die to spend my money? I'm not ready for passing into the afterlife. Why do you think I took your offer in the first place?"
"Relax, you can always come back."
"That logic makes no sense!"
"You died and now you're not dead, and you now have an arsenal of otherworldly weapons at your disposal as well as magic. Logic has been thrown out the window."
I had no response for that.
"So people in the afterlife can just travel to and from the living world?"
"You can, because of your position as a rogue spirit exorcist. Normal dead people who pass on cannot leave the afterlife. Rather, they can, but it's extremely difficult and it's a punishable crime in the afterlife."
"The afterlife has law enforcement?"
"You're part of it, you just didn't know about it."
"Makes sense, considering I am to find escaped spirits."
"The afterlife is a vast land with many cities, towns, and territories. The law, however, is universal. It was set up by the main governing authority and everyone in the afterlife follows it. You are an enforcer of this authority."
"Who's the ruling authority?"
"It's better if you went there and found out yourself."
"Okay. So, I'm afterlife law enforcement, right?"
"Yep. There are others with the same job as you, you just haven't met any. Law enforcement there has a hierarchy, with the normal enforcement agent being at the bottom, and recovery knights at the top. At least they were, until I found you. A new class was created at the very top of the ranks for you, since no one else with power like yours exists. You are the only one to have the title of rogue spirit exorcist. You are quite famous in the afterlife in fact. Lots of people already know you. I bet lots of people respect you and want to look up to you, and the same goes for people wanting to kill you."
All I wanted was to know how I was going to spend my paycheck, and instead I got told that I'm notorious in the afterlife for being at the top rank of law enforcement. Given all that information, spending my hard earned money was still the priority.
"So, Miwa, how do I get there?"
"An incantation, normally. But your power is so immense, you might be able to travel there just by thinking about it really hard. Go ahead and try. Obviously you'll know if it worked."
I focused my mind on my destination. In my head the same word rang repeatedly. Afterlife. Afterlife. Afterlife. Afterlife. Afterlife. Afterlife. Afterlife. Afterli-
My living room was gone. Miwa was gone. They had been replaced with a medieval looking town. The surrounding terrain was beautiful. The farms, mills, hills, and fields were all a spectacle to see. The afterlife was much more beautiful than the living world. The issue that I had no idea where I was still remained though. I asked a local man and he told me that I was in the small town of Conris. He also informed me that there wasn't much to see in this town, besides the tavern and the jail. Hearing words like tavern made me realize how much this is like the "I got reincarnated in another world" cliche, but this was really the afterlife. I wasn't particularly hungry, so I visited the jail. I made the right decision. As I walked down the wooden stairs that made the loudest creaking noises I've ever heard, I nearly tripped and fell into a large pile of hay that was laying on the concrete floor. As I continued walking down the row, I glanced into each of the cells, all of which were empty. Except one. One cell was holding a prisoner. I looked into the cell and was taken aback by surprise. It was the girl who I had taken away from myself too soon, and felt pain for because I thought I was never going to see her again. Sitting in the cell was Izumi.
"Izumi! Izumi! Can you hear me?"
She wasn't responding to me. Her eyes were dull, one would have to get up close and personal to find her pupils. Her mouth was open, and her head was fixed looking straight forward with a deadpan expression.
"Y-Yuji.."
Though spirits don't need to eat, she looked like she had experienced three weeks of starvation. I turned to the guard, with a malicious glare.
"You! What's happened to this girl?"
"Oh, her? She tried to escape to the living world, and she returned a criminal. So, she was thrown in here and I taught her a good lesson."
The look on her face when I saw her in that cell is unforgettable. The horrible things that were probably done to her, it was all my fault. I sent her back to the afterlife. I caused this.
"Are all criminals treated this badly?"
"No. Trying to leave the afterlife is the worst crime of them all."
To think that trying to leave is worse than assault in this place. Is working for this "Law enforcement" what I want to do? Is it what I should do?
"Get her out of here right now!"
"I can't, unless you want to buy her."
"Buy her?"
"If you have the coin, you can buy her and make her your property."
The more I spoke to the guard, the more I discovered how sickening society is in the afterlife. But I knew what had to be done.
"How much for the girl?"
"She's not doing so good, and might die, so she's yours for twenty-thousand Goza."
"Die? How can one die when they've already died?"
"Even after death in the afterlife, your soul still remains. If your soul works up enough pain or stress, be it physical or emotional, it eats at your soul. If your soul dies, there's no afterlife for the afterlife."
So I was right. Death is more like a second chance in a new world. You shed your body in tbe living world, then you shed your soul in the afterlife, then there is nothing. The afterlife is like a fantasy world, but one that at its core is dark and disgusting. Whether I liked it or not, I became I part of this horrible world when I died. I just got handed a silver spoon.
"Here's the money. Get this girl out of here."
"She's your property now. Pleasure doing business with you."
"Yeah, Yeah. By the way, does the name Sasaki Yuji ring a bell?"
"Yeah, that's the name of the mysterious new 'rogue spirit exorcist' who is supposed to be the the most powerful knight in the afterlife."
"Well, you're looking at him. Don't forget me."
"Seriously?"
"Super serious."
"Alright, I won't forget. By the way, you can heal the girl's soul with healing magic or you could take her to a hospital, an afterlife hospital of course. She will be good as new. Also, I take it since you're the new top of the recovery knights, you can enter and leave the afterlife as you please? I'm sure you'd like to know that since this girl is your property now, she can go with you without any trouble from the authority."
My eyes opened wide with hope.
"Thanks. You've actually made my day better."
I picked Izumi up on my shoulders and carried her out of the jail. I had used half of my spending money, but I never thought I would ever buy a person. I was disgusted that slavery existed in the afterlife, but I was grateful that I could get my friend out of jail. I concentrated hard, letting only one thing flow in my head. My living room. My living room. My living room. My living room. My living roo-
The town of Conris was gone. In its place were my living room and Miwa. Izumi was still on my shoulders. Miwa was ready to greet me. I didn't really want to talk to her, because she didn't bother to tell me how fucked up the afterlife is.
"Welcome back, Yuji. Isn't that the girl who was your target befor-"
"Don't talk to me right now. You should've told me that the afterlife is a horrible place where people can be thrown in jail and treated like an animal just because they wanted to leave the afterlife. Even worse, you didn't tell me that slavery exists there. You should've also told me that someone's soul can also die. My trust in you is running out."
I took Izumi up to my room. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so rude to Miwa, but I was too angry and sad to think rationally. I laid Izumi on my bed, and used the most powerful healing magic I had out of desperation. I had later found out that as a result of me trying to heal one person, the dead flowers in my yard all instantaneously bloomed, A scar Noriko had all her life was gone, and a terminally ill elderly relative of a neighbor was miraculously cured. I had underestimated the power and radius of that magic. Izumi finally came out of her comatose-like state and was able to communicate.
"Yuji?"
"Izumi. How are you feeling?"
"Pretty good. Where are we?"
"My room."
"That's bad! I shouldn't have come back to the living world!"
I put my hands on her shoulders.
"It's okay. When got you out of that prison, I had to buy you yourself to get you out. Since the afterlife recognizes you as my property, you can come here with me and live freely."
She may have been officially my property, but I wasn't going to treat her like it. She was a free person to me. No person has the right to own another person.
"You didn't have to do that."
"I'm not going to leave a struggling friend behind, especially not in jail in a horrible world like that."
Izumi tightly hugged me.
"Thank you Yuji, I don't know what I would have done without you."
"I'm just glad I wound up where I did when I traveled there. For all I know, it could have been anywhere."
Izumi blushed and tilted her head away from me.
"It must have been fate."
I giggled slightly.
"Maybe."
After that day's experience, one thing was for certain. I was never, ever going back there. Fortunately for me, it would be a while until I had to.