district. Responsible for this area is number ZT-103. However, we have not yet been able to reach him. "
He puts out the stub of his cigar and adjusts the patch over his left eye before finally getting up.
"Get to the bottom of the matter and as a precaution send one of theHimitsu. I want the matter to be resolved quickly! Bring this ZT-103 to headquarters. I want to know how much he is doing with the matter has to do. And should you find the soul ... "
He throws on his heavy, dark brown leather coat and walks across the room.
"... Should you find her, make sure that she doesn't escape again."

"So I'm supposed to be dead by now? Honestly, personally, I still feel pretty much alive. You don't really believe that I'm going to do such nonsense for you!"
"You're not really dead ... and that's where the problem lies.Youshouldbe dead, but you are not. "
"Oh, thank you very much! You really seem to regret saving me!"
He sighs in agony and runs his way through his disheveled hair. It had been clear to him that it would not be easy to explain the whole thing to her, but he hadn't expected that she would make it so difficult for him. He silently looks at Suki, who is sitting with her arms crossed over her chest on the cheap mattress that is usually his bed. She seems upset and thoughtful at the same time. It's been a while since he saw someone with emotions so obvious. You can read their mood in their eyes, like in a book.
Suki notices that he is watching her closely and lets her gaze wander around the room in an emphatically cool manner. Given that he is looking at her like an alien or something similar, she feels slightly uncomfortable with her skin. In addition, it is difficult for her to sort out the many thoughts that are whirling around in her head in any meaningful way. She takes a deep breath and tries to come down first by looking around the sparsely furnished room. But actually there can be no talk of furnishing. In the bare room there is nothing but a shabby old wardrobe on one wall and the mattress she's sitting on on the other. To the left of the entrance, another door leads into a small bathroom. At the end of your "seat" is a large, old chest made of black wood. The originally gold-plated handles on both sides, as well as the simple lock on the front, are worn and the corners and edges reinforced with metal strips are rusty and worn. The only sources of light are a simple light bulb hanging from the ceiling and the large window at the end of the room, on whose window sill your host is sitting and watching you.She can hardly imagine that someone could actually live in such an environment ...
"Someone who spends little time at home, like me, can get along quite well here."
She looks at him in shock, her face turning slightly red.
"Have you read my mind ?!"
"Not even I can read minds, but with the look you had on your face when you looked around, you don't even need to."
She relaxes a little again, but the blush on her face remains. After a moment's hesitation, she clears her throat.
"All right, let's say I believe what you told me ... How do you even know I had to be dead, and most importantly, how did you know about the accident before it happened ??"
He looks at her thoughtfully for a moment before jumping silently from the window sill and trotting over to the wooden box. A loud creak penetrates the silence as he pushes the heavy lid open. After digging around in the depths of the box for a while, he triumphantly holds a small, leather-bound paperback book in his hand, which he drops wordlessly on the mattress next to Suki. When she picks up the dirty thing in order to take a closer look, she is startled. A smeared but clearly recognizable sketch of a grim reaper has been scratched into the cover. You can see the skeletonized hand that holds the black scythe and parts of the bare skull under the dark robe. She carefully runs her finger over the embossed title of the book.

"Non mortem timemus, sed cogitationem mortis."

"[i]We do not fear death, only the idea of ​​death.It is a quote from Seneca."
He sits down next to her and looks at the book for a moment.
"It is a kind of collection ... a monk of the Benedictine order wrote it in the year 543. It contains all his knowledge about theManes, the souls of the deceased, or shadow spirits, and their way into the realm of the Kill.Not all of his views are true, of course, but he has found out more about transmigration of souls than anyone after him. "
"What do you mean by transmigration of souls?"
"It is the path a soul has to travel when its mortal shell is destroyed. Well, actually the word 'path' is more of a paraphrase, basically it is a natural process that happens to everyone if they should die. Wait times, turn to page 14. "
Easily confused, Suki flips through the porous pages of the book, always careful not to damage the delicate paper. On the searched page, however, there is no text to be found, only a rough picture of a person, a kind of simple outline. A blue hatched, ghost-like something escapes from the chest area of ​​the body in serpentine lines, a roughly painted red ball can be seen in the belly of the sketch.
"What is that supposed to represent?"
"That is the rough representation of the transmigration of souls. Well, it is the case that on the one hand every person naturally has a soul when he is born. It is what defines the person, his character, preferences and so on. Within every soul arises In the course of a lifetime, however, a kind of dark zone. The part of the human being that is defined by their fears, hatred or malice. Over time, every human being develops such an "inner demon", no matter how good and friendly they appear to the outside world. Even small children are no exception. Everyone has this bad something in them, with some it's just a little more pronounced than with others. Can you follow me so far? "
She nods silently.
"Well, if a person dies now, the soul leaves the body and in most religions the matter is done with it. However, it is not that simple. Finally there is all the negative energy that has accumulated in the course of his life, that binds his soul to the earth. The body acts like a prison for this energy during life, even if some of them occasionally gain the upper hand, and then they kill someone or destroy something ... ""Does that mean whenever the news reports of any murder or the like -..."
"- then someone has lost control of their inner demon, exactly. But that is usually only for a short time, and they usually regret it shortly afterwards. However, if he dies, this prison also crumbles and the demon becomes that way say off the leash. And that's when the guy from the front of the book comes in. "
"The Grim Reaper? I always thought these scary skeletons were supposed to represent death in person, and were only there to shock children ..."
He makes an offended face and continues angrily.
"This picture is just a primitive representation of people, for something they do not understand. Regardless of whether the Grim Reaper, the devil, or Shinigami. In every culture there is this unknown, terrifying figure who robs good people of their souls and locks them in hell. But this picture is utter nonsense. The people are to blame if they go to hell or what I know where. TheDigeroonly intervene when the soul has already left the body. "
"Digero?"
"That's the official name ... although that doesn't apply to all of them ... it's a bit complicated."
She looks at him piercingly with a strange expression on her face, but he quickly turns back to the open book.
"Well, ... um ... so the person has died and the soul has left the body together with the negative energy, which is now completely free and in most cases really lets off steam ... Most of the time, the whole thing discharges very quickly and without any noticeable effects on the living. This is where the Digero's task begins. They keep the damage caused as low as possible and loosen the bond between the soul and this so-called soul shadow so that the soul is free and can go where she's going ... some would call it heaven ... or hell, what do I know.Unfortunately, it's not always that easy. Some people accumulate a hell of a lot of negative energy over the course of their lives, which, once free, can cause quite a lot of problems. They then do not appear as a shadow of the soul, but can materialize and are therefore a real danger for the living. You are then what many would call a demon. "
"And the Digero kill these ... monsters ..?"
"Strictly speaking, it's a special unit within the Digero, but yes ... that's what you could call it."
Suki looks at him with an expression on his face that makes him fear that she would call him a weirdo one last time and then pack up her stuff and disappear, but instead she closes the book and runs her fingers over the picture again Cover.
"What I'm really interested in is how do you know all of this so exactly?"
Although he was expecting this question, he froze for a moment. He tries for a few seconds to collect the right words in order to get the following across as plausibly as possible, but then decides to just say it directly as it is.
"I'm one of them. Number ZT-103 from the Digero special unit SG7."
As soon as he has said it, he regrets his openness. He is about to open his mouth to save what can be saved when he suddenly stops. Suddenly he has the feeling that they are no longer alone ... Before he is completely sure, a deafening bang confirms this uncomfortable feeling. The door is torn off its hinges with such force that parts of the frame splinter off with it. Suki gives a sharp scream and jumps to his feet, his back pressed against the cold wall. Before the dust has cleared out of the air, he grabs her hand and pulls her over to the open window. With one jump he jumps onto the window