Part One
What Is a Special Case
“—So, Tadokoro-san, what are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure yet.
If possible, I’d like to live a new life… but being in the underworld, you can already see what lies ahead. A future of brainwashed obedience without freedom—
I’m not sure I want to be reborn into that.”
“In our case, as soon as our missions end, our memories are wiped and we’re reincarnated,”
“Even if the memories disappear, the soul is still me, you know? It’s precious to me. That’s why it’s painful to think of it suffering again.
And since I already know myself, I doubt I could really accumulate virtue either.”
Tadokoro sighed as he said this.
The quality of a soul is predetermined.
So, can one become a god or a Buddha by accumulating virtue? Not necessarily.
Past and future versions of this soul all share roughly the same nature.
It’s not like virtue stacks up smoothly and easily.
If the soul’s lifespan ends midway through its accumulation—
that’s it.
The end.
It’s incinerated right there.
For those in special cases, though,
they skip the usual procedures of other souls and are delivered directly to the Lord of the Underworld.
So it’s no wonder Tadokoro—who already knows he’ll be reborn soon—
finds himself conflicted.
“I’ll think it over for a while longer before deciding.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.”
As they were talking,
Makino came stomping angrily down the street toward them.
“Are you two done yet?”
“‘Done yet?’ Seriously?
If you’ve got time to stand around chatting,
how about giving me a hand?
They dump all this work on me just because I’m young.
I’d kill for a department transfer…”
Makino, twenty-one years old,
had died two years earlier in a gang fight among young men.
But in the official Book of Judgment,
his death had originally been recorded as a traffic accident occurring fifty-two years later.
By some cruel twist of fate,
he’d died ahead of schedule—and there was nothing to be done about it.
Tadokoro reached into his bag and handed Makino a sweet bun.
“Here, have this and calm down a bit.
You get a full month of training before being assigned anyway.
You’re a good fit for the Removal Division, aren’t you, Makino?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.
Even after dying, I’m stuck doing deathly work every day, clearing stuff out nonstop!
And to top it off, this place is crawling with yokai!
I heard that in the West, spirits are accompanied by cute fairies instead!”
“Yeah, right,”
Mukai laughed.
It was true—there were plenty of yokai here.
Most were beings that had taken up residence in objects,
but tsukumogami—spirits of long-lived tools—often caused trouble by manipulating other souls.
That’s why the Removal Division was staffed with strong young workers.
“There are especially many yokai down that alley.”
“Ah, that area used to have a reversed pillar as a warding charm.
But over the years, the buildings were torn down and rebuilt.
That’s when the energy twisted, and the place turned into a breeding ground for yokai.
Can’t really blame anyone but humans for that—you covered it in your lectures, right?”
“I hate studying, man.
Can’t believe I’ve got to sit through classes even after I’m dead.”
Makino tore open the wrapper and bit fiercely into his sweet bun,
still fuming.
During the one-month training period,
they even held lectures about special cases.
Spirits tend to gather in certain places—
and wherever they do, yokai are never far behind.
Those mischief-makers often use spirits to cause trouble,
sometimes even interfering with the boundary between life and death,
so it’s drilled into them as an essential topic.
Moreover, souls of psychopaths and the like
are deemed irredeemable and unfit for reincarnation.
Whenever one is found,
the Removal Division is tasked with immediate elimination.
