Chapter 8: Standing Still & The Cold Reality of Death

My mom is an ordinary person.

She is neither a universally recognized beauty nor someone with prominent characteristics; she is just a plain, unremarkable person in a crowd.

But I love my mom, and no matter what others say, she is the best mom in my eyes.

Every morning she carefully prepares breakfast for me, and according to Dad, she can only rest peacefully at night after seeing that I have fallen asleep.

Although she doesn’t take me out to play or travel like other parents do.

Sometimes I would complain about her unwillingness to take me out to eat at restaurants or buy me things from outside.

However, I know that she has actually given her everything for me, and she is the person who loves me most in the world.

Even though she was reluctant to buy me toys and various things, a few days later I would always find a crude yet somewhat similar little object appearing on my desk;

Even though she was unwilling to take me out for fast food, the next day those same dishes sold in restaurants would always appear on our dining table…

I know that all of these came from her hands.

Even if they weren’t as good as the ones outside, they were created with her full effort and infused with maternal love.

So even though she often refused to grant my requests, I really liked my mom, and days spent with her made every single day fulfilling and warm.

Perhaps not every day was joyful, but I could say that with such a mom, I was the happiest child in the world!

I originally thought that such simple days could continue forever…

That day, looking at Mom lying there completely motionless, nobody told me what had actually happened.

The people around me were either silent or weeping.

Dad only told me that Mom had gone to a very distant place and would not be coming back again.

Others also said that Mom would no longer accompany me and told me not to be sad…

But why should I be sad?

In the beginning, without Mom’s breakfast and without her busy figure around, my heart indeed felt empty.

However, unlike what everyone said, I could feel that Mom hadn’t actually left; it was just that all of us couldn’t see her for the time being.

Lying in bed at night, I could still vaguely hear Mom’s voice coaxing me to sleep, and under the dim light, there seemed to be a shadow swaying in the room.

When I was sad, I could feel Mom beside me, holding me and comforting me;

When I was happy, I could also feel Mom beside me, excited and bouncing around with me;

The adults all said that these were hallucinations caused by me being overly grieved… but I wasn’t sad at all, and all of this was definitely not a hallucination!

Because every time I secretly bought food from stalls outside school behind Dad’s back, the vendor’s cart could never catch fire.

The owner would scratch his head and shout that it was bizarre, but I knew that it was actually Mom being unhappy… because she had never allowed me to eat outside food, so she used an invisible way to stop me.

Sure enough, Mom hadn’t changed at all… she was still that same worrying mom.

As time went by, I gradually became able to see that blurry shadow that was always by my side, and the voice near my ear gradually became clearer…

Although I still couldn’t understand what current Mom was saying—just gibberish and mumbling—I was still very happy.

Even though her voice had changed and remained unintelligible, and even though her figure was very blurry, being able to see Mom once more and seeing that she was indeed accompanying me made me feel that I was still the happiest child in the world!

Therefore, this kind of happy life will surely be able to continue forever, right?

—Divider—

[Are you really going to ignore it? Even though everything has been investigated clearly, you aren’t planning to do anything?]

On top of the roof, Little Sparrow, standing on her partner’s shoulder, looked at the boy below followed by a black shadow who would only reveal a smile in unmanned corners, feeling quite puzzled in her heart.

Without a doubt, this was already the time for a Shinigami to carry out their work, but what was Di doing right now… just watching like this?

If a supervisor were to come over right now, they would mark a demerit against him in a heartbeat, wouldn’t they?

Even if you can’t bear to handle it personally, this mission was merely an investigation anyway, and all that was required was to report the investigation results upward.

After reporting, the higher-ups would naturally send someone to deal with it, so there would be no need for us to take action ourselves, right?

“I know what you’re thinking, but… she just wants to watch her child grow up, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

[Do you really plan to suppress this matter? But this world isn’t something that can be measured and judged simply by right and wrong, you know?]

Fini shook her head, lamenting that her partner was still far too young—as a Shinigami, one wouldn’t get far acting like this.

“It’s not that I want to do nothing, but if it’s reported, other Shinigami will come over to extradite her, right?”

A spirit wandering in the mortal realm was just an ordinary wish of a mother wanting to watch her child grow up…

It was already a tragedy to begin with, so wouldn’t it be too cruel to strip away her wish just like that?

“When that time comes, even that smile the child wouldn’t show in front of others will disappear completely…”

Di might be a prankster who loved causing trouble and building joy on top of others’ unpleasantness, but even he had things he was unwilling to do.

That was stripping away other people’s smiles…

“There are actually two reasons why I wanted to become a Shinigami… one of them is to respect these departed souls.”

Di revered the deceased from the bottom of his heart; carelessly harvesting and extraditing them seemed to him a mere trampling upon the lingering obsessions of these souls in the world, the most cruel thing in this world.

Death was already a very terrifying and sad thing… as a Shinigami facing death, even if only a little, couldn’t we retrieve something from this tragedy?

[Tsk tsk tsk, I really couldn’t tell that a kid like you was actually quite emotional.]

Originally, as a Shinigami’s raven partner, if both parties were ignorant youngsters, it would be fine—at worst, one human and one raven could slack off together.

However, Fini was a veteran in the workplace, and under normal circumstances, for a situation judged as wrong according to the rules, a senior like her had the obligation to correct and guide these young little Shinigami.

Yet at this moment, Little Sparrow had no intention of doing anything at all, merely letting matters continue to unfold naturally and ferment… even though, relying on years of experience, she knew very clearly what kind of outcome would happen next.

Still, she didn’t plan to stop it, because only by falling can a person learn how to walk.

Fini needed someone to see what kind of consequences doing this would bring.

This was the official reason; as for another personal reason, there was simply no need to stop it.

Because everything regarding that mother and son had nothing to do with Little Sparrow in the first place, right?

Finitia—beneath her seemingly cheerful exterior, she was actually a cold-blooded existence.

And for Shinigami and ravens, only by being cold-blooded could they continue to walk down this path…

To be accompanied by death was inherently a cruel thing in itself, wasn’t it?

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