High spirit | Dazai Osamu ff

Successor

The visit to the spirit realm had left her with no qualms that she wanted to be rid of her responsibilities as soon as possible. The head spirit, the entity who sat on the high chair reigned over all its subordinates. No one knew if he had ever been human for he showed little knowledge of such an occurance. Even then the man surely possessed an uncanny ability to read through the inner workings of the minds of his subordinates, all whom had been humans at some point of their existence.

When he had enquired about her eagerness to move to the afterlife, she had not expected to be permitted to leave so early. She questioned herself what he saw in her demeanor that he could do nothing but sigh in defeat. She knew that she could never solve the mystery that was his thought process but she could not help but be puzzled.

"Hah! It's no use." She groans. Siphoning energy into a useless cause was but a fool's proposition. Her eyes opened to a bright blue sky. She was currently sprawled on the deck of a abandoned ship. It was not like the metal carriers one found cruising the Yokohama waters these days. It was almost a model that belonged to the last century. A vessel that would have been a pirate's pride and glory.

But right now it was left to decay at one of Yokohama's unused harbours. The starboard looked as if it had been chewed off by some large whale,but the damage was only the aftermath of one of the many storms the city had endured in the years passed. She stretched herself to relieve some of the tension in herself for she possessed no real muscle. Grazing the soft wood that had begun rotting, covered in moss,she inhaled the smell. A smile coloured her visage, at its familiarity. Yokohama's sea would smell like this from time to time due some algal bloom. The fish would the lay eggs in the protection that the kelp forest provided, continuing the never-ending cycle of life.

It was her job to protect it. This city. This city that was known for its dark history and bloodied land. They said that no matter what Yokohama would always glow with the carnage it had caused and suffered. It could never wash away the smell of rotting corpses, both its own and foreign. She had learnt not to complain about the black tint on the city's image. Experience had taught her that it came from the immense power the city held. This power came from the gifted that resided here. The gifted of this city were certainly charismatic personalities. 

They held within themselves a fire, a fire that could glow and set the world ablaze, burning and withering them in the process. The fire was their sentience and the fire was their doom.

But she was more than done now. She had seen far too many deaths, experienced far too many losses , she told herself. She wanted move on, she wanted the afterlife. She imagined her mother and sisters welcoming her with open arms. They would smile. "You've worked hard", they would say. She would finally feel the eternal calm. She longed for that calm, she had been longing for the past few decades. But she was helpless.

Her successor was born about 18 years ago. She could feel the birth of a important entity. Her ears had been filled with music and she found tears strolling down her round cheeks. The young boy had spent all his years unknowing of her existence. To this day he did not know of her, he had not proved himself to be  capable enough to feel the existence of this revered spirit. 

She had tried finding him for so long. She combed through the city trying to find this person who would free her of these worldly bonds. When she did find him though, to say that she was disappointed would be an understatement. The boy had a warped sense of the world. Without a regard for the world or  even for himself he had joined the mafia to partake in actions of violence and murder. He did not care for this city, he did not care for right or wrong, he simply cared for nothing.

She just felt hopelessness creep into her every time she saw his bandaged figure. Muttering something under her breath she gives a final exhale,turning to the side, she falls asleep on the soft wood. Trying to run away from reality.

•••

She wakes up with a jolt. But she is no longer by the harbour and it's sea view. Instead, she inhales a sharp breath as realisation dawns upon her.

Yokohama surprisingly had a large forest cover. Hiding in those forests were a few clusters of European style buildings. They were falling apart now that their owners had forsaken them. Nobody wanted to leave in these large mansions that were hard to maintain and cutoff from the main city. This led these crumbling structures to be used as hideouts by many criminals and other people of the underground.

She knew this building was used by a foreign organisation that had recently entered Yokohama. They called themselves mimosa or something. The point was, she had never been teleported to random places in the city like this before.

 She felt the seal of the spirits on her wrist glow so brightly it would have been blinding  to the human eye. Sighing she procures bandages from thin air , entirely covering her forearm in them. She had never liked the eerie glow. It would shine as such only thrice in a spirit's existence.

"Could this be...?"

She watches a burgundy headed man with a yellow coat and light stubble walk into the mansion.

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A/n 

Dazai will finally make an appearance in the next chapter. Just letting you know in case you've been missing the maniac...