A growing crack

After that, Akira and Asahi raised Lele together with the help of Asahi's loving grandmother and the three poured so much love into the little animal that Lele grew up to be a bit spoiled.

If she didn't like the food, she would refuse to eat it and if she wasn't given her favorite toys to play with, she would throw a tantrum by running around and barking with her little cute voice.

Raising a puppy was not something hard to do but raising such a dramatic dog like Lele was extremely hard.

If there was an award for the most dramatic dog in the world, Akira was sure Lele would have been the all-time champion.

She was a lively one that had a lot of things to do.

Five years after Lele was adopted, Asahi's grandmother passed away and Asahi was forced to move to Tokyo for his studies.

During that time, Akira wanted to follow the boy to Tokyo but he was not able to catch up to Asahi.

Akira thought that their friendship was going to be forgotten after that. He thought they would slowly start to drift apart from each other and the mere thought of that happening scared the boy.

The fear of losing Asahi caused Akira to gather some courage and with that courage, the boy somehow managed to convince his parents to send him to Tokyo.

Since there were no high schools in Sakurajima, it was easier for him to convince them. After all, when the boy was done with his middle school education, he had to go to a high school for further studies.

Asahi moved out of Sakurajima the very next day after his grandmother's death and after a few weeks, Akira followed after him.

The boy was an adolescent who couldn't be considered a child and nor could he be considered an adult. He was young, immature, and impulsive just like any other teenager out there. Since he had never been to Tokyo before this, he had no idea how big the city actually was.

Akira had originally thought that finding Asahi in Tokyo was going to be easy, but only after moving to Tokyo did he find out that he had been a bit too naive to think that. The city was too big and too crowded. It was the complete opposite of his hometown.

Once he reached Tokyo, Akira tried to call Asahi, but the boy soon realized that the only number he had saved with him to contact Asahi was his grandmother's number which was already out of service.

Asahi had gotten himself a new phone and unfortunately, Akira didn't have his new number nor did he have the contact number of Asahi's parents.

After a whole week of living in Tokyo, Akira was still unable to find the boy and he had almost given up, but it seemed that the Gods above were not going to let them drift away from each other this soon.

On the first day of Akira's new high school, he once again found the boy purely by coincidence.

The teacher asked Akira to introduce himself but when the boy saw Asahi sitting there looking at him with his eyes wide open in disbelief, Akira didn't care to introduce himself and instead shouted the boy's name in surprise.

"Asahi!"

Since the boy had yelled out Asahi's name during the self-introduction time, for the next two high school years, he was called Asahi's dog.

The teacher was shocked and confused at first but eventually decided to laugh it off as she spoke, "It seems that you two already know each other. I guess it won't be a problem if you sit next to each other."

Akira bobbed his head up and down as he heard this and enthusiastically responded, "It won't be a problem! I would like to sit with him!"

When the other students heard the latter half of his confident response, they couldn't help but be taken back.

Akira never cared about rumors and he wasn't the type to listen to what others had to say unless they were talking to him so it was only natural that he didn't even know the rumors that were floating around in the school.

Even when somebody called him Asahi's Dog in front of his face, Akira would laugh it off and act as if it was just a joke that was not even worth wasting his time over.

Asahi, on the other hand, could hear everything and for the first time in his life, the boy felt as if his good relationship with Akira was seen as something abnormal... Something that was not meant to be...

The two boys had been raised in a small village that was on Sakurajima. When they suddenly entered Tokyo like this and got to know more people their own age, they found out the harsh reality; Tokyo was going to be cruel to them...

Akira thought that the crack in their friendship had been caused by the death of Asahi's grandmother and he hoped that now that they were together again, they could erase that crack, however, the boy didn't realize that the crack had only started to grow and would continue to do so.

The worst thing was probably the fact that he couldn't even see the crack growing. It was a slow process that he was blind to notice.

He thought that they were still best friends... But how was he to know that he was the only one who thought this way?

For Asahi, Akira had stopped being a friend ever since he left Sakurajima.

But for Akira, even till the end... Even after the man pushed him down the balcony, Akira still considered Asahi Sato as his best friend...

.

.

.

"You're a really stubborn one," The unimpressed Grim reaper clicked his tongue as he commented, feeling a bit annoyed with Akira who refused to pass away to the afterlife.

Akira pursed his lips into a thin line and didn't bother giving a response to that.

"Your best friend betrayed you with your fiance and the two killed you. What more is there to know?" The grim reaper questioned as he looked down at Akira, "Would knowing why they betrayed you make you happy in the afterlife?"

"It might seem meaningless to you but," Akira sighed as he spoke, "Right now, nothing is more important to me than that."

"..."

It looked as if it was the first time this grim reaper was dealing with someone like this.

There was a moment of silence and in the end, there was nothing the Grim reaper could do about it.

Akira was the one who had won the lottery so this man was forced to complete Akira's final wish.

"Fine..." The grim reaper sighed in defeat as he met Akira's shining eyes.

Somehow, compared to the dead Akira's lively eyes, the grim reaper's own eyes looked rather dead, devoid of any emotion except for emptiness.

"Let's try it out," The grim reaper added as he continued with his deep-sounding voice, "Let's try to find out why your dear little Asahi pushed you to your death."

Akira gulped as he heard the man and nodded his head innocently.

In the very next moment, the grim reaper jumped up and his jump was so great that Akira's mouth opened in awe as he looked up at the man who seemed to be floating in mid-air.

The scythe in his hand started emitting a golden light and the long strip of cloth that was tied around its end came loose as it floated around the dark silver scythe.

Such an unnatural scene was naturally new for Akira and he didn't even want to blink because he was afraid to miss it.

The Grim reaper closed his eyes and there was suddenly a dark aura around him that showed itself in the form of black smoke emitting from his body.

The golden light from his scythe and the black smoke emitting from his body created an aesthetic visual scene that was both amazing to look at and terrifying at the same time.

He spun the scythe around once or twice before raising it and slashing it downwards to the ground.

The scythe didn't hit anything but as soon as he slashed it down, the man disappeared into thin air, only leaving behind a dark smoke that soon dispersed into the atmosphere.

"Eh...?" Akira was naturally confused since he had no idea what was happening.

His first reaction was to immediately look around in order to find the man that seemed to have run away, however, the grim reaper was no longer there.

Just when Akira thought that he had been fooled by the grim reaper, he suddenly felt a pull on the back of his collar.

The man instinctually glanced back to look at the one who was pulling him but he didn't see anyone. All he could see was a familiar floating arm that had grabbed his collar and was pulling him.

"What the-" The man muttered in shock but within just a split-second, the hand pulled harder and Akira's whole soul moved from one place to another.

For some unknown reason, the sudden shock caused Akira to lose consciousness and by the time he was awake, he found himself sleeping on a comfortable bed.