I dropped down next to my partner, who was already examining the man. “What will he leave behind, Eni?”
She spared me a quick glance before returning to her work. “An only son. A folded flag. Are you going to help me out or not, Bails?”
I gave her a cheeky smile. “Or not?” Eni glared at me, and I held my hands up in surrender. “All right, all right. May vestri animus sileo in aeternitas. Happy?”
“Very,” she replied in a dry voice. “Would you mind leading him this time? I’ll cut the line.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I turned to the man—or, his soul that had left his body—and smiled. “Manako Ihaya? I’ve come to lead you to eternity. Will you please follow me?”
He carefully watched Eni. “Am I dead?”
“Yes, Manako-san.”
“What is she doing?”
I answered patiently, “She’s inspecting your lifeline to make sure that there aren’t any anomalies, but it looks fine.”
“Anomalies?” He chanced a look at me.
I nodded. “Sometimes the lines are tainted, and we have to go back and review them.” When his confused expression didn’t change, I explained even further. “Sometimes people don’t fulfill their purposes, so we have to send them back.”
“You mean like resurrecting them?”
“Well, yes, in a way. They usually aren’t quite dead yet.”
“What about instantaneous deaths?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes the line snaps instead of being cut. It’s messy business then. Also, some of us are faster than others at collecting souls.”
“Are you ready to pass into eternity, Manako-san?” Eni asked suddenly, done with cutting the man’s line. He was now officially dead. “I do apologize, but we do have many other souls to attend to.”
He gulped and looked around at the carnage. “Yes, I suppose so. Is it nice over there?”
I hesitated, but Eni gave him a quick reply. “I’m afraid we are unable to tell you that.”
He nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll go. I hope my son knows I love him.”
I took him by the hand. “I’m sure he does. Goodbye, Manako-san.” I led him through the veil and returned back to earth. “It’s sad. All of this, I mean.”
“Of course,” Eni returned immediately, “but it’s life—or death, I suppose. Plus, it’s our job, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
“You don’t,” I muttered.
“Eniola Kanawe! Bailey Garille! The war isn’t going to wait for you to finish fooling around!” our superior called out.
“It’s not like the souls are going to dissipate into the air.”
Eni gave me a look again. “They might be stolen. Besides, if you find it so sad, don’t you want to quicken their deaths and ease their suffering?”
“Of course,” I answered, heading over to the next unattended body. "It's just that this whole war is terrible. I love them to death, but why do they insist on tearing each other apart?"
"In their nature, I guess. What does it matter?"
I shrugged. "Humans are strange, beautiful creatures."
ns 15.158.61.17da2
