"You're doing it, Death-san! You're doing it!"
"I ... remember you!"
"Hahaha! Death-san! Death-san!"
"I remember you!!!"
"Death-san, arigatou! Hontou
ni ariga –"
"I REMEMBER YOU AS THAT FRIGID LITTLE CUNT IN LOVE RHOMBUS AND HEY
39.95 IS A LOT OF MONEY FOR BLUE BALLS. FORGET YOU, BITCH."

He whipped out a jar from his pocket that was labelled
LOL AMNESIA LOL, tilted it into his mouth and swallowed some pills that poured
out.

"Ah –"

He closed his eyes and Kumiko blinked out of
existence.







*LOL ALTERNATE ENDING LOL*

Sure enough, her neck began to fade in slowly. She could feel it, feel her body
coming back, the warmth of it, the space of it ... and she could feel tears
falling from her eyes.
"You're doing it, Death-san! You're doing it!"
"I ... remember you!"
"Hahaha! Death-san! Death-san!"
"I remember you!!!"
"Death-san, arigatou! Hontou
ni arigatou!"

And once more she felt his gentle grip on her wrist, followed by a gentle pull
to help her up. Her vision was blurry with tears. She stood her tallest and
proudest once more, and hugged him around his waist, as far up as she could
reach. The absurdity of hugging Death did not register. But Death did not hug
back.

"Kumiko."
She was ashamed to look up. She sniffled, her face wet all over.
"Come with me," he said. "I want to show you something."

They walked off together into the great white. It was totally featureless.
After only minutes she could not tell how far they had come or what direction
they had come from. She would've been convinced they were walking on the spot,
but he had said he was taking her somewhere, and seemed to know the way. The
first indication she got of anything existing here besides themselves was a
point of light far away, that created its own horizon.

"A sunrise! Can we stop to watch it?"
"This sun doesn't rise unless we walk towards it, Kumiko.
Come on."

It did rise, and it did grow bigger as they approached. Kumiko
could make out things under the sun too, large green stretches of land, with
trees and lakes. As they came closer, she saw that the green terrain stretched
out further than the eye could see.

She also noticed something very odd about the sun. Although it seemed to glow,
it did not seem to shine. Even with her red and teary eyes she could stare
directly into it. And when she did, she saw things on its surface. Lots of tiny
blue dots. Sometimes the dots would disappear and then come back straight away,
and all at different times.

It was almost like ...

Blinking.

They had reached the crisp green grass and he stopped walking almost directly
under the sun. It was only a few dozen meters above them, and now she could
more clearly see its surface. What it was made of.

"Blonde hair, blue eyes. All the rage in '93, '94? Something like
that."

Hundreds of little girls were crushed into a giant ball suspended in the blank,
white sky. Lashed together by their golden blonde hair. Their sullen, clockwork
blinking was the only betrayal of the chance they could be corpses. They said
nothing as they each faded out, only to be replaced instantly by a new one
fading in.