Yes, My Lord

Chapter 8

Akaashi's POV

I dusted my hands, waiting for the body to finish burning before walking out of the room. Bokuto was waiting right outside the door. He looked at me, his arms folded across his chest.

"I want you to look into finding men with black cloaks. Look for other creatures who wear them, groups, cults, whatever." He ordered. I nodded, giving a small bow.

"How would you like me to find them?"

"By any means necessary." He said before walking off. I bowed, waiting for him to leave before swiftly leaving the home. I could work quickly, but there was someone who could work much faster and more efficiently at this than me.

Kuroo's POV

I smiled to myself, listening to Kenma who was laying on top of me, talk about his trip to see Hinata. I didn't like that he was talking so much about another, but it made him happy. After a while, a scroll fell from the ceiling and onto my face.

Kenma smiled faintly as I blinked in surprise and grabbed the paper. Kenma and I sat up as I read the paper.

"What is it?" Kenma asked curiously as he leaned over to look at the words on the page.

"Hm. It's from Akaashi."

"What does he want?"

"Mmm, says he wants me to look in our archives for some people."

"Who?"

"All it says it people in black cloaks, possible arsonists. Murderers. Cult." I listed off, Kenma asking to accompany me. I nodded, tucking the scroll away and walking out of the room Kenma and I shared to go to the archives. 

It would be difficult to find who Akaashi has asked me to find without names, since that's how the books were organized. But there were other ways to find humans with only small details, it was just more work.

Kenma stepped aside as I raised my hand out in front of me. I closed my eyes, concentrating hard. When I opened my eyes, other reapers in the room stepped aside as books flew off the shelves and over to me. I hummed as I grabbed the first book that was revolving around me.

Kenma grabbed another and helped me read through these people's profiles. He set aside any books he believed could be attached to who we were looking for. It took us only a little while to find all of these. The stack of books was quite tall though. I wonder if Akaashi's new human really intends on killing every single one of these people.

"Is that all of them?" Kenma asked. I shrugged, waving my hand as the rest of the books returned to their rightful places.

"I dunno. But it's something. I'll send these to Akaashi." I said, writing down the names in the scroll he had sent to me. Once all the names were written, I nodded at Kenma who waved his hand so the rest of the books were returned. We both headed out of the archives and walked together over the long bridge that led to where the reapers lived, our version of a city.

"What does Akaashi want with all of those names?" Kenma asked as I tossed the scroll up. Watching it warp off to return to wherever Akaashi was in the human world. 

"When I went to see him, he said something about the human he was working for had a husband who was killed. So my guess is revenge."

"I don't understand. Why do demons always make contracts with humans? They are the only ones. I've never heard of angels, reapers, succubi, or any others making the contracts."

"It's their food source. They help a human fulfill what they want, and in exchange, they get a soul to eat."

"Ew."

"Yeah I know. It's a lot more fun escorting the souls than eating them."

"Mm, is that why you killed, how many was it.. 1,592 extra souls when we first met?"

"....When will you ever let me forget that."

"If you forget it, I will leave you." Kenma said with a tiny smile.

"Well it isn't like I can forget it, everyone keeps bringing it up!"

"Because it was insane, Kuroo."

"Well I mean, hey at least you know just how great I can be." I said with a smile, Kenma rolling his eyes.

"I had found it quite reckless."

"...You did?"

"I was only in training to be a reaper on the field when I had heard what you did. I was concerned if all the others were as stupid as you."

"Kenma...!"

"But, it was impressive you collected so many souls in just a day." Kenma said with a tiny smile. I grinned, glad that that giant, erm, "incident", did actually impress Kenma. While simultaneously making him believe I was an idiot. But I'd take it.

He and I have an eternity to live. I had lots of time to prove that I'm not so bad. In fact, that 'incident' happened years and years ago. And I feel like I've done a decent job at staying under control. Yeah I had a tendency to sometimes get off track and collect a few extra souls off schedule, but where's the fun in following the rules. What was anyone gonna do, kill me? I was already dead, in a sense.

Once Kenma and I were back in our room, I laid down and Kenma went back to laying on top of me. I smiled, accepting his body on mine. Normally when Kenma did this, I was free to play with his hair without him attacking me. So I reached up and messed with his hair gently.

"Hey Kenma?"

"Mm."

"How did you become a reaper?" I asked curiously. In the hundreds of years I've known Kenma, this was something we never actually shared with each other. But I was suddenly curious since we were previously speaking about death. Well, reapers were always talking about death, but not usually our own.

"Pills." He said simply. I nodded, Kenma asking how I became a reaper.

"A gun." I said. Kenma tilted his head but nodded and continued to let me play with his hair. 

The tale behind how reapers came to be is quite a grim, no pun intended, story. Every single reaper was once human. Becoming a grim reaper was a punishment. We were all humans who didn't appreciate life enough. So, as mortals, those who ended their lives were sentenced to collect others lives for the rest of eternity. 

I suppose Kenma had taken his own life by means of an overdose. I remember I had taken mine with a gun. And because of our actions, Kenma and I were sentenced to face death again every day, day after day. But at least we had each other to keep us going.