My Pawfect Rebirth

194: Hurdle

( Meanwhile... )

"You don't need to drag me, I can walk, Akane." Nozomu stated. 

"Stop calling me that, my name is not Akane anymore, it's Lily. And who knows what you're going to try and pull if I release you. Besides, I wanted to talk to you and the others to set things straight." Lily demanded. 

"What d'you mean 'set things straight'?" 

"I think it's about time you and the others understand my reasons as to why I did what I did. I didn't do it just because I wanted to, I did it because I had to." Lily answered.

They approached a large shrine in the middle of the Spirit Realm, and as soon as she set foot onto the property, the lamps sparked of flames leading the path for her to take. 

'Hmph, seems they knew I was coming here.' she thought as she released Nozomu and he looked at the redhead. 

"What? Show me the way since you're a Shinigami and I'm not." Lily demanded as Nozomu adjusted his suit and took the lead. 

"Are you sure me and the others will want to listen to your petty excuses? You know how the others are." 

"Just because you and the others didn't listen to me when I was a Shinigami, doesn't mean you can't listen to me as a Grim Reaper." Lily said. 

"Fair enough." he commented as they approached the doors and he pulled them open to reveal 5 familiar faces.

"Hello gentlemen, I can only assume you were expecting me." Lily stated. 

"Why wouldn't we, sweetheart? When we heard you were bringin' Nozomu yourself, we had some time to prepare." Kyohi answered. 

"So since you've brought yourself here, does that mean you'd like to speak the truth?" Fushin asked. 

"It's the only reason I'd come here, and I'm tired of you people causing trouble when you should be working." Lily stated. 

"We would be working, but when we heard that Ikari escaped his prison and that the Emerald Dragon's powers had weakened, we wanted to know who really caused you to lose your job as a Shinigami." Kanashimi explained. 

"So all of you decided to take it upon yourselves to hurt the one that I saved? I didn't just save Izuku because I wanted to, I had to." 

"What d'you mean?" Ryogae asked.

"Hah- when I was still a Shinigami, Em- I mean the Emerald Dragon, had asked me to watch over someone for her. At the time I was pushing myself to work more than any of you combined. And I figured out the real reason why the Emerald Dragon asked me–out of all people–to watch over Izuku." 

"And why's that." 

"Because I worked on helping souls get to the afterlife a lot more than any of you had done, my Spiritual Powers had grown exponentially which is why I figured she'd asked me to watch Izuku. Though I didn't realize it myself, I figured it out once I managed to stop time and save Izuku by making a deal with him. The deal was that I'd give Izuku a second chance at life if he gave me something in return, and what he gave to me was his gender as a boy." 

The room went silent and all the Shinigami batted their eyes at the redhead.

"W-What... But why?" 

"The Emerald Dragon asked me to watch Izuku because she'd known Izuku ever since he was born and acted like a cousin to him, he was family to her. At the time, the Emerald Dragon was busy taking care of things that she couldn't watch over Izuku for a while, and she specifically asked me to do it. Him wanting to commit suicide was something I wasn't expecting, and I knew that if I didn't save him, then Emra wouldn't forgive me. It was either have Izuku lose his life and me getting shunned by the Emerald Dragon, or save him and end up losing my job. I wasn't going to win with either choice I made, but I accepted the fact that I wouldn't have to be a Shinigami any longer shortly after the deal was made." Lily explained.