Thanatos was back at the academy and proceeded to work on his one-year teaching program. Rena, Camilla, Luna, and Aurora had a discussion among themselves about what happened between them and Thanatos. It was embarrassing but still important information for them.
Luna envied the other three for getting such intimate times with Thanatos while she got only a talk with him, but she was the next in line, and nobody could interfere with it. But today they came to the decision to let Thanatos rest for a few days and not provoke his desire. They knew that they played with fire with that; one wrong move and they would do something that couldn't be returned.
It was Tuesday, and today the lessons ended at 3 p.m. The students had breaks after the second and fourth periods for five minutes and after the sixth period for twenty minutes, with one period that lasted 50 minutes.
He sat alone on a bench in the academy's yard. He ate a snack after lunch. When a voice he knew well called out to him,
"Hey buddy, what's up? Come with me; I need to show you something." Renmaru greeted him and pulled him in a certain direction. They walked the hallways down until they saw a way towards a small hallway that had enough room for only one grown man to walk; it would be impossible for two people to walk next to each other.
"Come on, I need to show you something." Renmaru, with full elan, dragged Thanatos deeper down the hallway. The situation made Thanatos alarm bells ring; he mentally prepared himself for everything, even the possibility of fighting against his best friend.
As he was sure that he would need to fight, the hallway ended, and he was standing in a rectangle-shaped room.
In the middle of the room was a stone pedestal. On the pedestal lied something that was covered by a white blanket. The thing appeared to be around 183 cm long and had the shape of a body. Around the stone pedestal stood three grim reapers: a blond man 180 cm tall with normal physical appearance, a bold man with muscular features, and a 170 cm tall and skinny man with black hair.
The one with the black hair walked towards the pedestal and pulled the blanket off.
"Ren, since we know each other, you showed me bugs, animals, and other strange things. But you never showed me a dead body. Is this the elf you found with your group?"
Thanatos stood there in a small room with a dead body, still holding the sandwich he wanted to eat on the bench.
"Yes, since you are the better of the two of us when it comes to the detective work. I wanted to hear your opinion."
Renmaru said this while looking at the dead body with his foot pointing towards the exit.
"Ren, why did you ask me? A case like this one is not an easy one. There are many powerful and old grim reapers out there, and one of them is the principal of this academy. She may not be the one with the most influence, but her powers lie beyond our imagination. So tell me, why are you asking me, Ren?"
Renmaru waited, intertwined his fingers a little, and then released them again from each other. He repeated this, made more strange movements with his fingers, and then decided to talk.
"All the old grim reapers that have influence and power are right now investigating the case against the psychopath again."
"Wait, the psycopath is back; since when?"
Powerful dreadharvesters that were too powerful and killed grim reapers received names from the reaping authority based on their behavior or abilities. Each dreadharvester follows a characteristic, and this characteristic gave them their names.
The psycopath was the dreadharvester that killed 95 percent of the Shinigami clan in one night in Kyoto.
"In London, a dead body was found; he was killed and disfigured just like all the other victims as well. The limbs were twisted in all directions in which they should not be; at the shoulders, he was hung up with ropes; his head was torn off; and on his head again, something was shredded. The victim was a werewolf; he was discovered by a young witch who was in training."
The psychopath always proceeded immediately after devouring or destroying the soul of his victim. No matter how many he fought, he always managed to disfigure his victims in this way and shred a mark or something similar in the head or face.
"Now I understand why you wanted me to give you my help; you can't consentrate; you want revenge, and this revenge influences your judgment. I know how you feel, but...
"Don't pretend that you know what I feel!"
Renmaru punched the wall, and cracks spread around the impact crater in the form of a spider web.
"I lost too much for you to understand!"
Smack
Thanatos got nearer to Renmaru in the blink of an eye and punched him in the face. Renmaru got catapulted a meter back and looked with confused eyes at Thanatos.
"Don't forget who I lost to this monster—his first victim. I know that you lost way more than I did. But I still feel your pain; trust me, and I know the pain of working while knowing that a person that meant much to you died."
Thanatos was angry, even if it was true that Renmaru lost more than he could have imagined. The anger and the news of his friend's death, and Renmaru.
As he realized what he had done was wrong, he snapped out and helped his friend stand up. "I apologize, Ren. I lost my temper there. I can't feel what you felt, but...
"No, don't say anything; we both were at fault. Even if I knew that I couldn't do anything, I searched for an easy way, and for what? To then be too weak to even stand next to the psycopath and die as his 68th victim. Let's do this together, alright."
Renmaru reached his hand out as a sign of apology; the three men around them had no idea what they were thinking right now.
They were angry at each other a few seconds ago, and now, with a single punch, they were along with each other again. It made no sense to them. But that was what always happened between them. They did not get along with each other all the time. They got on each other's nerves and said the wrong things to each other, but in the end, it took only one small thing to clear their heads, and they were friends again.
Thanatos took the hand, so that a loud clap was heard. As the clap echoed in the hallway, both of them turned towards the dead body and examined it further.
"What do you know up until now? Was he already investigated by the reaping authority?" Thanatos asked.
"Not really; we brought him there for a day, and they started to examine the body, but one hour later the news of the psycopath's return came in, and we got thrown out. I received their permission just yesterday to let him be brought here. The principal is informed but busy with the psycopath case too."
Thanatos nodded and took a closer look at the body.
"His name is Dalias; he is 26 years old and unmarried. I don't know more; this is all the reaping authority told me about him before they kicked us out."
'Perfect, a name, an age, and the fact that he is unmarried What the fuck are these guys doing all day?'
Thanatos began at the head; he had no wounds, bruises, or anything else on his face.
His upper body was mostly unscathed too; the only thing he saw was something that looked as if he had received a heavy blow to the left chest.
His lower body was the same; it looked as if he had cracked his ankle, but nothing more.
"There's nothing much to take from this; the only thing I can think of is that the thing with his ankle must have happened as he ran away. The blow to the chest could come from anyone."
There was nothing much to predict; if his soul got destroyed, he would have needed to fight against someone. Still, there were not many hints about a fight.
"Alright, this is nothing; have you found out more than the left chest and the ankle?"
Renmaru waited some time before he answered; he insisted on taking some more time to investigate the body, but in the end, both of them were as smart as the other one.
"Not a single trace of who it was or how he landed here." Renmaru said, after being sure that he had not missed a single detail.
To Thanato's judgment, the other three men seemed to know even less about this; they seemed to not be as good in this field as he and Renmaru were. Of course, they still considered themselves laymen. But this was something a grim reaper, a race that deals with death every day, should be able to do.
"I have an idea; let's stop here for now and ask Professor Shelra if she gets more out of this; she is a professional in this field." Thanatos suggested.
"That's a good idea; she should be here in about two hours for the night classes."