Everybody's going to hell

"That's why this case is special," Zaelek sighed as he spoke, "I might not like humans but I also don't like leaving behind unsolved mysteries. I'm afraid that for the time being, I can't give the book back to you."

Hanye's face turned white as he heard this and suddenly there was a black-colored scythe in his hand that was a tad bit bigger than the one wielded by Zaelek.

Zaelek sighed as he saw the man summoning his scythe and closed his eyes as he casually commented, "So you are ready to fight over such a trivial matter... After hanging out with those humans, are you also turning into one of them?"

"This is not a trivial matter!" Hanye retorted, "If you keep being stubborn, you might never get the chance to leave this job! Zaelek, I consider you as my friend and I don't want to see you wasting away an opportunity over the weird case of a dead man!"

Zaelek looked a bit surprised and offended as he heard this.

"That's not for you to decide," Zaelek lifted his scythe and spun it around. The scythe let out a cloud of dark black smoke and looked as if it had come to life.

The man was ready to attack and Hanye was also naturally the same.

Hanye lifted his own black scythe, however, his scythe was not the same as the one wielded by Zaelek.

As soon as his scythe was raised to the sky, lightning struck down, hitting it, but the lightning strike was not a threat to the man nor was it a threat to his scythe. On the contrary, the lightning was being controlled by the man with the use of the scythe.

"I can't believe you want to fight me because of something like this," Zaelek pursed his lips into a thin line as he commented with an unamused tone.

"And I can't believe you're ready to fight me over such a thing," Hanye immediately retorted and Zaelek had nothing more to say to that.

The two struck each other at the same time and surprisingly enough, although they had different scythes, they were still equally matched, and with just a strike alone, it was clear that the winner of this fight could not be easily guessed.

The two collided with each other and they were both thrown back with force.

Hanye was quick to recover as he got ready to strike the man again but when he looked ahead, he found out that Zaelek had already disappeared.

"..."

The man had ditched the fight and decided to run away instead.

"You bastard! Irresponsible coward!" Hanye took a minute to realize this and immediately cursed the man out loud and the thunder sounded louder, almost overpowering his voice.

The grim reaper, Zaelek, who was already back at Kaito's house, could clearly hear Hanye cursing at the top of his lungs but he could only scoff as he commented to himself.

"What an idiot."

The grim reaper headed back towards Yuzu's room where he found Akira laying on the bed lazily.

Zaelek couldn't help but let out a sigh as he tilted his head and wondered why he was going through all this extra trouble just for this guy.

"Are you always that defenseless?" Zaelek asked out loud and it was only then that Akira realized there was someone else in the room as well.

"You're back already?" Akira immediately sat up and straightened his back as he asked in surprise, "Where did you go?"

"To meet a dude who is in love with me," Zaelek shrugged his shoulders and casually answered with a sigh.

"What?!" Akira's eyes immediately widened in shock as he reacted a bit too strongly.

"..."

Zaelek was only joking but this reaction from Akira made him want to hide this fact...

"I'm having an afterlife crisis here and you went off to flirt with someone?!" Akira angrily scolded the man.

"Well, afterlife crises' are quite common. That's why we should finish up here fast and send you to hell."

Akira almost choked on his breath as he heard the man's words.

"I'm going to hell?!"

"Everybody's going to hell."

Akira's eyes widened in disbelief and for a second there, he started to seriously wonder if he should've worshiped a God when he had the time.

"Then who goes to heaven?"

"Those who can survive hell," Zaelek emotionlessly answered without missing a beat.

"Isn't that unfair?"

"It is actually quite fair."

"How so?"

Zaelek gave a thin smile as he heard this question and spoke, "Some people are born with advantages of sorts while others are born with disadvantages. Sure, nobody has a perfect life but some advantages are naturally more profitable than others. Imagine being born into a wealthy family, even if you were dumb, you'd still get a job through nepotism and live your life in comfort. On the other hand, if you were born intelligent but in a poor family that couldn't even afford your education, can you say for sure that you will break the shackles of poverty and improve your life?"

Akira frowned as he heard this and reluctantly shook his head.

Zaelek nodded his head as he continued, "Once in a while, there are also some geniuses that pop up and achieve greatness in the human realm. To achieve what they have achieved with ease, some need to work day and night, even sacrificing their sleep for it. Life is unfair and it has always been that way. But once you die, everything becomes fair. Everything except for the wish lottery of course."

Saying the last half, Zaelek raised an eyebrow as he knowingly looked at Akira.

Akira gulped as he heard this but did not dare say anything.

"So in a way, you are perhaps the luckiest man on earth for being treated unfairly special in a strictly fair system."

"If I were really lucky, I wouldn't have died like that," Akira rolled his eyes as he commented.

"Death is not about luck," Zaelek chuckled dryly as he spoke, "Death is fate. It is written even before a person's birth. Some exceptional people manage to change their fates while most others are left with no choice but to forcefully abide."

"So it was something inevitable?" Akira questioned, a deep sense of sadness and disappointment in his voice, "So it was fate for Asahi to kill me...?"

Zaelek didn't feel any guilt as he insensitively nodded his head and confirmed it.

Akira couldn't help but let out a dry chuckle, "So we had an ill-fated relationship all along... Who could've guessed?"

Zaelek was slightly annoyed by the grieved expression on Akira's face so he cleared his throat and quickly changed the topic by throwing a newspaper at Akira's face.

It was a successful move and made Akira glare at the man.

"Why are you throwing random stuff at me all of a sudden?" Akira unhappily questioned as he picked up the newspaper.

"You died yesterday," Zaelek sighed as he spoke, "By now, you would expect the headlines of these things to be filled with your name."

Akira lightly frowned as he heard this and opened the newspaper to take a look inside.

The more he looked, the more complicated his expression began.

In the end, Akira couldn't help but question in disbelief, "Why is there no news about me...?"

"It seems like you are still alive."

"Eh?"

"But only on paper," Zaelek added with a smirk, "Your death is yet to be registered."

"What do you mean?" Akira's eyebrows creased together in confusion as he questioned.

"It means exactly what you think it means. Your murder was covered up and somebody already got rid of your body."

"How is that even possible?" Akira raised his voice as he questioned in disbelief.

He was the C.E.O. of KS fashion group, one of the leading companies in the fashion industry! How could his murder be covered up? How could people not realize his absence?!

Zaelek took out a phone from his pocket and tossed it over to Akira as he spoke, "Why don't you take a look for yourself."

Akira caught the phone and immediately went on to type his name into the search engine to get the latest news update.

The most recent and most viewed article was titled 'Akira Kanbe's sudden retirement.'

The one below that was titled 'Ayami Watanabe to marry her ex-fiance's best friend, Asahi Sato. Could this be the reason why Akira Kanbe suddenly announced his retirement?'

'The party that ruined it all: Why Akira Kanbe announced his retirement on his birthday?'

'Is Akira Kanbe suffering heartbreak?'

'The future of KS Fashion group without Akira Kanbe.'

Akira could feel his jaw almost drop to the ground as he read these ridiculous titles. He could clearly tell who was the mastermind behind these false articles, however, he did not even want to reveal it out loud.

At this moment, Akira almost wanted to laugh at himself.

He really was a bad judge of character...