The Takamori Story

Death and Life

It was just another day that'd go by unnoticed in Calliope's immortality. She swung the blade of her scythe to free a wandering soul stuck in the mortal plane, the soul had wandered and lead her through a forest filled with trees high like pillars. When she looked around to assure she hadn't left anything out of place, she briefly noticed a shiny figure moving, very far away.
It was Kiara, or at least it looked like her, she looked a bit shorter. She wasn't alone either, there was someone else with her.

-"(A human?)"

Calliope thought.
It was indeed a human. A short, and seemingly enthusiastic female human with grey clothes and blonde hair.
Making her way through the trees, she found the place they were both playing in.
Just between all the dark narrowness of the forest behind it, a wide grass field filled with sunshine, a small river, a fence around various crops and small saplings, and between all that, a tiny house, made from wood and wheat.
Then all of that peace was disrupted by Kiara and the girl. They came out of nowhere, running around the field, chasing each other, both with funny smiles and their loud laughter.
Calliope's job was to take people away from that and into the shallow underworld, and she had no trouble with doing so. But that day, hiding behind the darkness provided by the trees, Calliope believed she had finally seen something like never before: life. Kiara, that human, the little house and everything around it, so peaceful, yet so agitated by both the friends playing. It was different from the underworld, where the darkness of the night is permanent, and the people were no longer their past selves.

Calliope only snapped out of her sightseeing when she noticed the girl had fallen over when running. Calliope almost brought her hand out of the darkness, but she noticed she wouldn't reach her either way, she was way too far away.

Kiara was already helping her up. Even after hurting herself, the girl was still smiling, and laughing along with Kiara. They both headed for the tiny house, where another human received them and let them in. The field was empty again, but then again, Calliope could notice it was full of life.
She shook her head aggressively to clear her mind.

"What am I doing?"

She thought out loud.
She wasn't done with work.
As she walked back into the darkness, she remembered. She'd never be a part of all of that, she'd never be a part of life, her whole existence was dedicated to the purpose of taking it, not being a part of it.

But just when she was going to check where the next soul was, she heard a loud yelling behind her.

-"MORI-SAAAAAN!"

She turned around and saw Kiara in the distance, running towards her. Despite all the time she had lost by staring at the field, she still waited until she reached her.

-"Yeah?"

Kiara was catching her breath.

-"W... Huff, What are you doing here?"

-"My job"

Calliope coldly answered. She immediately had to elaborate.

"There was someone I had to reap around here, but that's done, See you la-"

-"Wait!"

She stopped her before she stepped off her sight. Calliope looked over her shoulder.

-"What do you want?"

-"Ah... The... The Immortal friend thing? Are you still doing it?"

She stood silent for some seconds.

-"... That girl?"

-"Yes!"

-"I said I'd see what I can do, didn't I?"

-"Yeaaah!"

Kiara rushed behind her.

-"Ah-"

-"Thank you Mori-chan! You're the best!"

She said as Calliope was trying to get her off her back. Once she did she threw her in the ground, tapping her scythe's edge on her throat.

-"Do that again and I'll take you, and that girl in the most painful way possible!"

-"Yeah, yeah, got it~"

Without saying anything else, Calliope stepped through an already opened portal, leading to the next lost soul of the day.

~~~~~~~~~~

The thought didn't leave her head.
Calliope came to realize that even when Kiara was the most annoying living thing she could think of, she had something she didn't: Life. Because in the end, no matter what Calliope did, her whole existence was her job, it didn't matter if she did or didn't have a soul, because the job would still have to be done.

-"..."

She took the feather out again. Despite having taken it hundreds of years ago, Calliope made her best to keep it clean and complete, she didn't use it for anything, so it wouldn't deteriorate either. The color kept being the same, just as shiny.
Kiara was the only thing that got her remotely close to being alive and not just a machine made to harvest souls. She reminded her that all in all she had feelings, and even if those feelings were mostly negative, she couldn't deny that it brought at least some taste to her job.