A Story About a Suicidal Girl Who Attempted Suicide But Got Hindered, and Was Taken Out to Play - Chapter 2
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- Chapter 2 - The Grim Reaper and The Silver Watch
Chapter 2: The Grim Reaper and the Silver Clock
“Aiba Jun, would you be willing to hand over your lifespan?”
A strange unfamiliar woman approached me on the 25th of December and asked whether I would be willing to give up my lifespan.
It was during the last Christmas in my high school life.
Despite the cold weather that day, I watched the scenery from the top of a local bridge. It is a large bridge that connects two towns across the river, but there are only a few people and cars passing by. Thanks to this, you can hear the murmur of the river and never miss the sound of fish jumping or birds singing.
I liked to spend my time alone.
But that doesn’t mean that I wanted to be alone. I became a loner because I didn’t like the people around me.
I thought my classmates and the people walking around the city who looked so happy were just idiotic. What happiness is to me was the norm for them, and the things I thought were trivial were something big for them.
It’s a difference in values between us.
I couldn’t stand the feud caused by the difference. So I distanced myself from them and made time so that I could be alone. It’s tough being alone, but being with others will only make you more miserable.
And I gradually began to enjoy the time I spent alone.
For me, this bridge is one of the few places that I could relax on, and I used to come here often when I was in high school.
You might think I’m a lonely guy for being alone on a bridge at Christmas, but I can’t help it since I’m actually lonely. I didn’t want to walk through the crowded Christmas streets, I didn’t want to stay home either. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m a loner but, it is exactly on days like these that I wanted to be here.
I had been alone since midday, and the area was getting darker and colder with no people or cars passing by.
The street lights that were lined up on the bridge were beginning to cast an orange glow, and when I looked down, it was too dark to see the ground or the river.
It was so dark that if you didn’t hear the murmuring, you wouldn’t know that there was a river flowing just right below, it was like a bottomless pit that you could fall into.
I looked around the bridge and didn’t see anyone.
A scene of dimly lit street lights were lined up at regular intervals. I like this space because it feels comfortable, like a world where everyone but me has disappeared.
However, the lights of a car running in the distance came into view, and I was immediately brought back to reality.
Looking up at the pitch-black night sky where not a single star was visible even though it was winter, I sighed a heavy, white-colored sigh.
It was at that time.
I was approached by a strange woman.
“Aiba Jun, would you be willing to hand over your lifespan?”
The person whose voice called out to me was a somewhat creepy woman all dressed in black and was giving off a somewhat ominous feeling.
She’s tall and incredibly thin.
She looked like she was in her late 20s. At the very least, she was definitely older than me.
I remembered being very upset at the time when she asked “Would you be willing to hand over your lifespan”.
I tried to calm myself down by sorting it out, “Either this woman is playing around with me or she is crazy. At the very least, she doesn’t look like a decent person”.
However, when I realized that this woman was calling my name, the agitation that had started to subside returned.
I tried sorting out the people I had met in the past, but there was no match.
In this situation, I had no choice but to suspect that someone had set up a surprise, but as I had no friends, no girlfriend, and no acquaintances, I couldn’t think of a single person I would suspect as a trickster.
“You seem to be confused. First of all, we’ve never met before.”
The woman said in a leisurely, inciting manner.
I felt a little uncomfortable with the way she spoke, but I asked her “How do you know my name?”.
I’m pretty sure I was asking who had given her my name but, all I got was a joke.
“It’s not just your name. I know everything about you.”
In addition, “If I had to explain it quickly, I have the power to read people’s minds”
When I heard that, I couldn’t help but spout out “Haah?” from my mouth.
What is this girl saying, is what I had on my mind at the time.
“It’s natural that you won’t believe me. Then, in that case, how about this?”
The women began to speak leisurely about a certain person’s background.
It is about a certain dumb kid who slowly realized reality, who became a loner due to jealousy. I immediately realized who she was talking about.
It was undoubtedly me.
The woman’s story matched me from tip to toe, and she was able to tell me things that others couldn’t.
When I hear it from someone else’s mouth, I am reminded of how meaningless my life has been. Until the woman’s mouth closed, I felt the painful sensation of being roughly touched at a newly formed scab.
“Who on earth are you?”
When I asked in confusion, the women pondered.
And then she said her name.
“You can call me the Grim Reaper”
She might look like she’s trying to trick a kid, but her appearance does have some similarities to that of a grim reaper.
She doesn’t have a bad face, but she is thin and has long white hair. Her skin is white and can be described as pale in not a good way, but in a bad way that makes you worry about her blood circulation.
As if to emphasize that she was reading my mind, the Grim Reaper smiled, “Fits, doesn’t it?”
“Let’s say I understood why you called yourself a reaper, but, what do you want from me?”
“Isn’t that obvious? The Grim Reaper is an existence that appears before humans who reeks of death.”
“What are you getting at?” I asked, and the Grim Reaper smiled.
“You, you want to die right?”
A chill went down my spine.
That’s because her smile was creepy and overflowing with confidence. She smiled as if she was sure that I wouldn’t even deny it.
But, it’s not her confidence that sent chills down my spine.
It’s because she hit it right on the mark.
“I wanted to die”.
Even if we go back to my childhood, I could only count in one hand the number of fun memories that I had.
If anything, I had more memories I would rather not remember.
Nevertheless, I persisted, thinking one day that I would be rewarded for all my efforts. However, the situation had only gotten worse.
And, during the summer of my first year of high school.
A certain event acted as a trigger that made me start thinking about suicide.
Whenever I came to the bridge, I looked down and told myself countless times to jump off.
I continued that way without even succeeding once, and before I knew it, I’m already a 2nd-year student. My high school life was slowly coming to an end.
Of course, I didn’t tell anybody about my suicidal tendencies. Neither do I have someone that I could confide in regarding this matter.
However, even if you were not a Grim Reaper who could read minds, it wouldn’t be surprising if people thought that I didn’t enjoy my life or if I’m contemplating suicide.
The negative emotions that I accumulated over the years showed up on my face. Ever since I started contemplating suicide, I felt like my eyes and expression looked more dead. Even someone I just met would even be able to tell just by looking.
“You’ve been struggling for a long time without being able to commit suicide, right?”
The Grim Reaper smiled broadly.
I can’t feel any semblance of pity from her.
“That’s where I want you to cooperate.”
“Cooperate?”
“Indeed, I need you to give me your lifespan.”
Of course, it’s not for free, she added. She then proceeds to pull out a pocket watch from her sleeve.
“This is the Silver Watch of Ouroboros”
It was a silver pocket watch with a chain, and it looked no different from a regular pocket watch with a lid.
If I had to pick one feature, it would be the dragon-like creature that was carved into the lid.
“This Ouroboros silver watch is no ordinary watch.”
This watch, the Grim Reaper continued.
“This is a watch that can rewind time.”
She began to explain, showing me the silver watch as she held it out towards me.
This is how I would summarize the explanation at that time.
・The only person who can use the Ouroboros Silver Watch is the owner who gave up his/her lifespan.
・To use it, simply take the Ouroboros Silver Watch and strongly visualize the time you want to return to.
・You can only turn back time up to 24 hours at a time.
・Once you used it, you wouldn’t be able to use it for the next 36 hours.
・Only the owner has memories of the time before the rewinding happens.
・In addition, if a person was in contact with the owner before the rewinding, that person will also inherit their memories.
Even though you can rewind time, it doesn’t mean you can rewind as much as you want, and there are detailed conditions for use.
“Would you be willing to trade your life expectancy after 3 years for this silver watch?”
Immediately after she asked me that, she added as if she just remembered “To be more accurate, you will have a 3-year lifespan starting tomorrow, which means that you can use the watch by tomorrow.”
By sacrificing my lifespan after 3 years, I can get a clock that can rewind time.
The story was hard to believe, but it wouldn’t be strange if it was real, partly because of the way she had told me about my upbringing.
Even though it can turn back time, once it is used, it cannot be used again for another 36 hours. In other words, even if you keep turning it back for 24 hours, 12 hours will still pass, and you won’t be able to extend your life.
At the time, I understood and agreed to those conditions.
I don’t know how the me who couldn’t commit suicide can agree to that so easily, but to be honest, there wasn’t any particular reason.
It was probably because it’s easier than jumping to my death.
Maybe the deciding factor was my sentimental feeling that day and my desire for destruction.
Or perhaps I wanted to test whether the Grim Reaper was telling the truth.
Just as a pile of books can topple over in an instant if tilted slightly, the piling of factors must have thrown me off balance.
“Thank you very much. Let’s start the exchange immediately then.”
The reaper placed its hand on my chest.
I had been deprived of my body warmth from the beginning, but the reaper’s hand was so cold that I could feel it pass through my clothes
“Then, I’ll take your lifespan.”
At that moment, a chill ran through my whole body.
I felt as if I had something sucked out of me, an unpleasant chill that I had never experienced before. My head started feeling fuzzy and I gradually lost my consciousness. It might have been only a few seconds, but it felt long to me.
“It’s done.”
I regained consciousness upon hearing the reaper’s voice.
I wobbled on my feet and almost fell on my back, but I managed to keep my balance just in time. The chills were gone, but I felt a gaping hole in my heart. I couldn’t put it into words because it was so vague as if I had lost something important, but something had definitely changed.
“This clock is yours from today on.”
The Silver Watch of Ouroboros was handed to me from an eerily scrawny hand.
The silver watch was cold and heavier than it looked. I could hear the ticking of the second hand loud and clear.
“You will die three years from now, on December 26, at midnight.”
The Grim Reaper bowed its head slightly and smiled while saying, “Please enjoy the remaining three years of your life.”
When I heard that, I thought “3 years is a long time”.
If I’m going to die anyway, won’t it be better if it was faster?
As I was thinking about that, I didn’t pay any attention to her parting warning.
“Please do not regret giving up your lifespan.”
The Grim Reaper left those words behind before we parted ways.