Bab 10: The house belongs to...

"Close your eyes," The grim reaper instructed as he kneeled down in front of Akira who sat on the bed.

Akira gulped as he heard this and was a bit speechless as his mind suddenly went blank.

"I'm not going to do anything perverted so close your eyes," The man clicked his tongue as he saw Akira's speechless face.

Akira pouted as he heard this but didn't dare say anything and quietly followed the instructions, closing his eyes with a bit of worry.

"You can open them now," The grim reaper informed just a second later and Akira was left a bit confused as he wondered why the man even made him close his eyes in the first place if he was going to ask him to open them so soon.

In a state of confusion, Akira opened his eyes and was greeted with the original appearance of the grim reaper. Akira's eyes immediately widened and when he saw the handsome face so close to his own, he couldn't help but hold onto his breath for some reason.

There was a tightness in his chest that he had never experienced before this. It was a feeling that he couldn't easily explain or understand. He was curious to know what he was feeling but he didn't dwell on it.

"Is this better?" The grim reaper asked as he pursed his lips into a thin line. Akira was still speechless, however, this time, he was speechless for different reasons.

Akira gulped but didn't even dare to blink as he blankly kept staring at the man's face.

Now that he saw this face so closely, he couldn't help but think that it was really perfect. There were no pores or skin problems and the skin looked so soft that Akira almost wanted to poke it just to check whether it was real or not.

"How can you have such nice skin?" Akira questioned and this question seemed to have taken the grim reaper by surprise.

"Eh? Why wouldn't I?" The grim reaper tilted his head as he asked back, "It's not like I'm a human. Even if you cut my whole face up with a knife, I would still look like this."

"..." Akira pursed his lips as he heard this and his pupils seemed to have contracted as he commented, "It must feel good to be a Grim reaper. You don't have to worry about skin problems. You can look perfect without even trying and if you hate the way you look, you can just go ahead and change it. Must feel nice to be God's favorite."

The grim reaper was unsure whether this was a compliment or not and hence, his facial expressions remained neutral.

"What happened? Why do you look like this again? What about Kaito?" Akira sighed as he snapped out of it and asked.

"Don't you hate his face? I thought you would like this one better," The grim reaper smirked as he spoke, and for some reason, Akira felt a little embarrassed as he saw that smirk.

He wanted to deny it but at the same time, he knew for a fact that the grim reaper was right. He really did prefer this face much more than the nauseating face of Kaito.

"Don't worry, it's just you who can see me like this," The grim reaper informed with a sigh as he suddenly took out a phone from the pocket of his robe.

"Huh?"

The grim reaper put his right hand around Akira's neck and randomly took a photo of them together before he showed it to the man and explained it further.

"Everyone else is only going to be seeing Kaito Takahashi and Yuzu."

Akira looked at the photo of the mentioned two and he couldn't help but feel a little surprised and amazed. The one standing in front of him was certainly the grim reaper in his own body and he was also the one who took the photo in front of Akira, but for some reason, the photo on the phone showed the face of Kaito and it was truly a bit amazing yet creepy.

It was a bit magical and left Akira amazed.

"You're fine with this, right?" The Grim reaper raised his eyebrows as he questioned and Akira gulped as he nodded his head with a bit of reluctance.

"That's good. Like this, we won't have any problem with our plan."

"Our plan?" Akira repeated in a questioning manner.

"We need to investigate your murder, don't we?" The grim reaper asked with an unimpressed look plastered on his face that made Akira feel that the man wasn't very happy to be working on this.

Akira gulped as he nodded his head and at this exact moment, they heard a lightning strike coming from outside the house.

Akira unconsciously glanced out the window as he heard the loud sound but didn't give a big reaction to it, however, it seemed that the same could not be said for the Grim Reaper.

When Akira turned his gaze back towards the grim reaper, he couldn't help but feel that there was suddenly something off about the man.

"Are you okay?" Akira asked as he gently grabbed the man's arm with a bit of worry.

The grim reaper closed his eyes and gritted his teeth but this time, it wasn't Akira who had annoyed him.

"I'll have to make this fast," The man muttered under his breath, and although Akira had heard it, at first, he couldn't understand why the man had said something like that, but at the end of the day, Akira concluded in his mind that it must be because grim reapers also have a hectic schedule.

There were so many people dying in the world so it was only natural that grim reapers were expected to be on duty all round-the-clock.

"We will have to get close to those two," The grim reaper opened his eyes sharply as he spoke, informing Akira about the vague plan, "Only when you get to know them better can you understand why they killed you."

Akira frowned as he heard this and opened his mouth to say something, however, the grim reaper didn't even bother waiting around to listen as he disappeared into thin air, leaving behind nothing more than fading black smoke.

Akira blinked in surprise but still continued what he wanted to say even though there was nobody there to hear him.

"I already know them well enough..."

Akira was confident about it.

He had been Asahi's closest friend so he was naturally confident in saying that he knew the man well.

Asahi's likes and dislikes, Akira knew them all like the back of his hand.

Their bond had always been close and according to Akira, there were almost no secrets between them.

The loud thunder was heard once again and this time, it sounded even stronger which made Akira jolt up from the bed.

On instinct, Akira made his way to the window and opened the curtains to peek outside.

He had only done this to see what was up with the weather, but his eyes soon widened when he realized something completely unrelated to the weather.

Akira gulped as his memories got freshened up and he recognized the exterior garden of the house that he was in.

"It's Kaito's villa..."

There was no mistaking it...

Akira had once seen this place on a T.V. show that had featured Kaito as a guest and he remembered feeling annoyed by the fact that the man was praised for his extravagant luxury villa that was nothing more than a pure waste of money according to Akira.

This villa was one of a kind so there was absolutely no doubt about the fact that it belonged to Kaito.

Akira gulped as he retreated a few steps back and turned to look at the framed picture of Yuzu.

"Why the...?" Akira couldn't even complete the question as he found it a bit too hard to believe.

Why in the hell was there a photo of Yuzu in Kaito's house...?!

And not just a photo, but it looked like this whole room belonged to Yuzu...!!

Akira knew that Kaito and Yuzu were close, but he never knew just how close they were and so, to know that there was a room owned by Yuzu in Kaito's house... It was certainly a bit too shocking for Akira who suddenly wondered what relationship the two had.

Yuzu was rich enough to buy his own luxury villa so it was definitely not like Yuzu would be forced to stay here because of his circumstances.

The man would only live here out of his own will...!

There was thunder rumbling outside and Akira could not help but feel as if the atmosphere perfectly depicted his emotions at the moment.

The Grim reaper had already disappeared so it was only natural that there was nobody left inside the room to answer Akira's question, but even without any need for confirmation, Akira could guess why Yuzu was living with Kaito.

Akira gulped as he fell back on the bed in disbelief.