To the little girl, Daniel was the first “friend” she had who could actually move. And Momo was the first “human” she had ever met. Or so Towa thought.
In reality, Daniel was not her friend nor was Momo a human. But Towa was too young to understand these things. Towa had never stepped outside these walls, much less the house, or even her room.
“Daddy says I can’t go outside,” Towa said. “There’s lots of scary things outside. And he says I’m ‘special.’ If I go outside, I’ll get killed by bad people. You’re the first person I’ve ever met aside from Daddy, Momo.”
Towa smiled innocently.
The person she called “Daddy” apparently held a very central presence in her life. She seemed to trust him completely. Just by listening to Towa’s words, Momo felt as if she totally understood.
Towa most likely did not understand the weight of words “special” or “killed.” Momo, however, perfectly understood the meaning of these words. She smiled, returning the little girl’s smile. But she wondered if her own smile came across as forced.
Daniel, on the other hand, felt only confused. No matter how many times they did this, it never got easy. And Momo looked so sad. Her smile was too innocent. And that made it even more painful.
“Isn’t this cute, Momo? It was a present from Daddy.”
Towa spoke in a very familiar manner, happy to see Momo had come back to visit.
Since their first encounter, Momo had actually come by several times to visit Towa. Not that she did anything in particular. She would just watch Towa play, either by herself or with Daniel.
Sometimes they would talk. But usually, it was Towa who did all the talking. However, it didn’t seem that Towa wanted to ask Momo anything in particular. Any information she was curious about, like what happened in the outside world, she received from her father.
The same went for her possessions, which she proudly showed Momo.
“You’re taking the trouble during work hours to come here… What are you up to?” Daniel murmured.
“Who knows…” Momo shrugged it off.
“…You say that, but… I’ll bet…”
Daniel was all set to switch into complaining mode, but then…
—Clak.
The sound of a lock being released was heard from outside the room. Momo and Daniel had never heard that sound before in all the time they spent here. But now, they could actually hear the door to Towa’s room being opened from the outside.
Towa’s expression suddenly brightened more than ever.
“Daddy!” she squealed. She ran in delight towards the slowly opening door.
“Welcome home, Daddy!”
Towa raced towards the man and hugged him.
“You must have worked really hard today,”
Towa remarked shyly as she grabbed at the man’s pants legs.
The man whom Towa called “Daddy” was actually a clean-cut young man who looked like he was in his mid-20s. The man smiled at Towa and picked her up in his arms.
“I’m home, Towa,” he greeted her.
He wore a suit and silver-rimmed glasses. His hair was neatly combed, and he had the air of someone very responsible for his young age.
“Oh yeah! Daddy, Momo and Danny are here… Huh?”
Towa wanted to introduce her new friends to her father, but they were nowhere to be found.
Towa glanced around the room with a puzzled look on her face. “Um, Momo and Danny… They were here, but now they’re not.”
“I see,” the man said. “Maybe they went home already?” He spoke to her gently, playing along with what he thought was a game. He bent down and looked into Towa’s eyes.
“More importantly, Towa, you didn’t go outside your room, did you?”
“No,” she answered. “I do as you tell me, Daddy. I’ve been a good girl.”
“I see. Good girl.” The man caressed Towa’s cheeks and the little girl giggled pleasantly.
“Towa,” the man continued, “you can’t survive outside this room. Lately, I’ve been seeing suspicious-looking people dressed in black around here. They’re very bad people. If they find you, they’ll probably kill you. But don’t worry, Daddy will protect you.”
He talked like he was describing a TV drama. Only he was deadly serious.
“I understand!” Towa looked straight into the man’s eyes and nodded vigorously.
“Towa… you’re very special…”
“Daddy!” she squealed, leaping into the man’s arms.
“Ah, my Towa…”
The man held her tiny body firmly and lovingly. He gave her a hug overflowing with love.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What do you plan to do now, Momo?” Daniel asked.
He and Momo were floating in the sky, only a short distance from Towa’s residence.
“What do you mean, ‘what do I plan to do?’” Momo said, feigning ignorance.
“C’mon, I know what you’re thinking. You want to tell her the truth, don’t you?” Daniel asked.
“Well… Daniel, don’t you think this is strange?” she said, her mood darkening.
“What’s… strange…?”
Momo believed she could exorcise the things that bothered her through sheer force of will, no matter how painful they may be. What Momo did not know, however, was herself.
A shinigami, in order to atone for the crimes he or she had committed in a past life, was assigned the sad task of delivering souls. The “crime” was the taking of one’s own life. Their black appearance was a sign of that crime, and also, of their duty to deliver death and take away souls.
A shinigami possessed only the memory and guilt of their suicide and one single—most precious—memory from their past life.
But Momo was different. She had absolutely no memory of her past life. Furthermore, she was all white and wore red shoes. Because she was so unusual, she suffered ridicule from the other shinigami and was called “Reaper” by them.
Plus, there was the fact that she liked to go against the rules. As in the case of Towa, Momo went out of her way to make contact with humans. Normally, that was an unforgivable breach.
She also shed tears for the sake of humans. Most shinigami conducted the deliverance of souls in a business-like manner. They figured this was the fastest way to atone for their sins and finally be reborn and be rid of their past crimes.
Still, there were some who sympathized with Momo. Those shinigami were also called “Reapers” by the others.
Needless to say, Momo was a peculiar presence. She herself could not understand why. So at times, she cried and at other times, she smiled. But to make herself strong, she was determined to be tough-minded.
The reason Momo could not leave Towa alone was because she had a single-minded notion.
“I have to tell her what’s going on…” Momo said.
“I see,” Daniel sighed. “But…”
“But?” Momo looked at Daniel with large eyes.
“Hmm…” Daniel hesitated. “Well, how do I say this… maybe she shouldn’t know? In this case… in her case, I think that’s what may be best.”
Momo said nothing and pouted.
The little girl was young. She trusted her father and loved him. And so, to Towa, this room was her entire world. The room—where she was surrounded by stuffed animals and toys, where the locked windows only afforded her a narrow view of the sky, where her gentle father visited—was her world. It was everything to her.
“But don’t you think there’s something wrong about this…?” Momo asked.
The words that poured forth from her lips came straight from her heart. Daniel picked up on that.
“I understand that,” he said, assuring her. “I do, but… if she’s going to lose her whole world, then maybe it’s best not tell her?”
“…But…”
As Momo swallowed what she was about to say, Daniel continued, “I know that you’re trying to find yourself too, Momo… but once discovered, you don’t know what it will mean.”
“…”
“In the end, you’re just as confused as she is. You want to tell her, but you can’t. You’re going back to see her again and again. You’re too nice, Momo.”
“That’s not true…”
“It is!” Daniel vehemently said. “Like with her and all the other humans you’ve met up till now, their souls, everything, you take so personally. When a human dies, you think it’s your fault. You end up damaging yourself. I’m always worried you’ll end up blaming yourself for all the sadness in the world.”
Daniel ran out of breath. He truly cared for Momo from the bottom of his heart. He didn’t care if she was weird. He loved Momo.
Yet their feelings for each other often came out with irony or sarcasm.