The surroundings were dark. I found myself standing in a place enveloped in darkness, unaware of how I had arrived there.
The only thing visible in front of me was a long staircase, shining white, with no indication of where it led. As I looked up at the staircase, I noticed the silhouette of a girl in the middle. The girl, wearing a black sailor uniform, was running up the stairs.
I took a deep breath, intending to ask where I was.
“Wait!”
The voice I was supposed to utter wouldn’t come out. I stumbled back, clutching my throat. Confused, I lowered my gaze and turned my attention to the long staircase again. The girl in the sailor uniform was no longer there.
In her place stood a girl with a red backpack, standing on the steps of the long staircase.
The girl looked down at me and opened her mouth.
“Did you forget?”
I abruptly opened my heavy eyelids, and my vision was filled with a stark white ceiling and a splitting headache.
“Ouch!” I gasped, clutching my head, and sat up.
As I surveyed my surroundings, I found myself in a place that resembled a pure white room devoid of windows or furniture. Trying to recall why I was there brought a stabbing pain to my head. Only fragmented, vague memories floated in my mind. Where on earth is this?
“Ugh, why am I in a place like this?”
Suddenly, a male voice sounded from behind me, and I jerked around in surprise.
Behind me stood a man in his thirties, wearing a disheveled black suit. His narrow eyes peered through the brim of his black hat, revealing brown curly hair.
“Hurry back to your own body,” the man said in a nonchalant tone, looking down at me as I sat there.
“My own body?”
I had no idea what he was talking about and stared up at the man in confusion. Seeing my reaction, his narrow eyes widened.
“...You’re kidding, right?”
The man bent down as if kneeling and met my gaze while I remained seated.
“What’s your name?”
“Huh?”
“Your... na...me.”
An uneasy feeling began to creep into my heart.
“I am… I can’t remember. My name...”
Unable to recall my own name, I fell silent.
The man smiled wryly at me. “Just pretend you didn’t meet me.”
Saying that, he stood up straight and started to leave in a hurry.
“Wait, hold on!”
I grabbed onto the hem of the man’s suit, panicking.
“Let go, hey!” The man looked at me with annoyance as I clung to his suit.
“I... I don’t... remember anything...”
“What? What are you saying?”
He tried to free his suit from my grasp.
“I don’t remember anything! Why am I here?”
I desperately pleaded with a louder voice than before. The man abruptly stopped and put on a deeply bothered expression.
“Look, if you’re here, that means you’re on the brink of death.”
“What? On the brink of death?”
The unexpected words from the man’s mouth further surprised me.
“Well, for now, you’re more like a... half-spirit, you know?”
“A... half-spirit?”
“If you had your memories, you could easily return to your original body, but without memories, things get complicated. You’ve had some bad luck.”
I looked at the man with a perplexed expression as he spoke with a lack of enthusiasm. My soul? A half-spirit? Me? What is this person talking about...?
“If you stay here, he’ll eventually find you.”
“...Who?”
“The Death God.”
Death God?
A sharp pain shot through my head, and faint memories flickered in my mind. An immobile body, the cold rain, a puddle tainted with blood...
In that fleeting moment of my memory, blood drained from my face. I lost my strength, and my hand holding onto the man’s suit fell limply.
“I... I fell from a long staircase...”
“A long staircase?”
The man’s voice passed through my ears, but nothing registered in my mind.
Am I going to die if the Death God finds me?
The color drained from my face, and I pressed my hand against my mouth in shock. Suddenly, the man grabbed my shoulders with both hands.
“The long staircase of the Death God’s Mansion?”
His expression had changed from the listless one before. He looked serious. I nodded, and the man seemed to realize something. He let out a sigh and chuckled.
“Oh... So that’s it.”
I stared at the man with vacant eyes as he muttered, seemingly satisfied with something.
“...I don’t want to die.” The words poured out of me. “I don’t want to die.”
My thin voice trembled. Fear and sadness welled up, and tears started to stream down my face.
The man scratched his cheek thoughtfully and took something resembling a black notebook from his chest pocket. He glanced down at it, looked back up at me, and said, “So, are you going to make a contract?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll grant you one wish.”
I was taken aback by his sudden words.
“Besides remembering your memories, there’s only one way to return to your original body. It’s simple. Within the limited lifespan of your soul, you just need to tie the fates of certain people.”
As he said that, the man’s gaze fell on the watch he wore on his left arm.
“This day is about to end. You have ninety-nine days left. What will you do?”
“A... contract?”
“A contract to take over my job. Oh, if you fail, you’ll disappear.”
The man casually said something absurd.
“But... what is your job? Who are you?”
The man smirked and gave a playful jump, taking off from the ground.
I froze in place.
The man, who had just bounced off the ground, remained suspended in midair.
Looking down at me from above, the man spoke in a listless tone.
“Well, I’m... the ‘God of Matchmaking,’ I guess.”
The God of Matchmaking…
This listless person…?
I was dumbfounded. Meanwhile, the listless god crossed his legs in midair and continued to convince me. “If you can remember yourself within that time frame, you can immediately return to your original body. I won’t force you. What will you do?”
Pressed to make a decision, I hugged my body tightly with both hands and bit my lip.
I don’t want to die…
Why do I have such a vague feeling, even though I don’t even know who I am? Crying here won’t solve anything. If what this listless god is saying is true, then I’m the only one who can help myself now.
“If… I can make that connection, can I really go back to how things were?”
Upon cautiously uttering those words, the listless god smiled and nodded, extending his left hand toward me.
“Let’s make a contract. Place your hand here.”
As I attempted to slowly overlap my right hand with the hand that was extended to me, in an instant—
“Eh!”
With a forceful pull, the listless god swiftly yanked my hand toward him, causing me to stumble forward. I couldn’t grasp what was happening. As I fell heavily, the pitch-black darkness in front of me spread out and swallowed me whole.
“Oh, oops. Forgot to mention something.”
In the darkness, where nothing could be seen, the nonchalant voice of the listless god echoed. “The person whose fate to tie, like flower petals-”
The God of Matchmaking was abruptly cut off, and I crashed into something forcefully, collapsing in that direction. Despite the impact, strangely, I felt no pain. I quickly sat up and surveyed the area where I had fallen.
“…Where is this?”
It wasn’t the empty white room where I had been conversing with the listless god earlier. I found myself in an unfamiliar room with a lived-in atmosphere, furnished with a bed, a desk, and bookshelves. Although it seemed like a place where someone lived, it was completely unfamiliar. The room showed signs of use, with small scratches on the door and the wooden flooring. There were navy curtains on the window, neatly arranged books on the shelves, and a globe on the windowsill.
I stood up and approached the desk near the window where the globe was placed. On the desk were several reference books, a mathematics textbook, and an open notebook. On the cover of one of the reference books, whose front was facing up, was a small black star drawn in the corner.
What are those? I wondered, shifting my focus to the textbook. Recognizing the formulas printed on the open pages, I reached out for it. However, as I attempted to grab it, my hand passed through the textbook as if it were intangible.
“…A half-spirit.”
I stared intently at the palm of my hand, which had passed through the textbook. Was I really a spirit without a physical form, just as the listless god had said?