Purgatory is always busy. Today is not any different.

There's a long queue in front of the help desk. Aren and Ai ignore the queue and go straight to the helpdesk. Aren hides the boy under his cloak as he moves closer to the helpdesk. While Ai blocks the confused ghost with a smile, Aren goes to the help desk woman and asks, "Lady, I have a query."

"You are breaking the queue." The woman eyes him darkly. "And you are alive."

Not just him, the boy who is blocking the ghost is also alive.

"Can you tell me if someone named Takayama Ari died or not?" Aren inquires with a polite voice. "It's quite urgent. She was born on Iravan too. Her name was… Well, it's still Ari."

"Just tell me your name." The woman clicks her tongue. "Ari is a common name. I will do the contact tracing."

"I am Arenyr Starfire." Aren tells her, "Also, I am from Iravan."

The woman types on the laptop and furrows her brows. "Takayama Ari. She was forced to transmigrate to Iravan. Then, she returned to her body around nine years ago. After giving birth to two daughters, she disappeared from the world."

"Does it say disappear?" Aren narrows his eyes on the woman. "Doesn't it say where she is now?"

"There's no record after that." The woman clicks the mouse frequently. "If she had died, we would have a record. Was a god involved? They always mess up the records."

"Gods?" Aren raises his brow. "Does it say something about a god named Ryou?"

"Ryou?" The woman scratches her chin. "It says that she met with a face of chaos after she came back to earth. Then, she chased after the face of chaos. However, there's nothing after that. It seems like she isn't in the surveillance cameras anymore."

Surveillance what? Aren feels a shiver down his spine. Are there spy cameras in the world? This world is creepy. "Can you give me a list of places where the surveillance cameras are not present?"

"Realms of gods." The woman looks at him. "Broken realms, forsaken realms, private realms, shattered realms, the realm of death, the river of death, chasms of hopelessness, the world of devils and some of the lower realms, hell, heaven, the furthest realms, the realm of…"

"Okay, I get it." Aren smiles at her. He's sure that Ari wouldn't go too far from this world. The Dark God has looked into the lower world. God Noras has knocked heaven and the other upper realms to check whether Misaki is there. Surely, he would have said something if he had found any traces of Ari.

That day, Chaos didn't seem like she had Ari with her. Then, there's only one place left. It's the place where the Dark God had heard Ari's voice. Aren leans closer to the window. "How often does the river of death gets the cleaning done?"

The woman looks at him as if he has grown three heads. Even seeing that wouldn't be as surprising as hearing that the river of death gets any cleaning done. "Say, we are already busy with the countless souls that pass through here. Do you also want us to clean the river of death? Don't even think of suggesting this idea to our boss."

"My apologies." Aren signals Ai to release the confused male ghost. "We are leaving then."

"Wait!" The woman squints her eyes on them. "You and your brother aren't from this world. So, I guess that it won't do you any harm if you go back. However, why do I sense the life energy of this world on you?"

"It could be because we have been living in this world for years." Aren blushes as he trails off. "We have been with a few women before we came here. Their energies might be on us."

"Go away." The woman clicks her tongue. "Wasted so much of my time, hmph!"

Aren and Ai head toward the exit quickly. On their way, they hear strange rumours among the ghosts.

"Did you hear that the soul guardian returned to the mortal world?"

"It's been years though."

"The reapers still talk about it. Before she left, she did something horrible."

"What did she do?"

"I heard that she helped a sinner escape through the door of reincarnation."

"Why is it a problem though? The door to hell is still not working."

"Well, that sinner was special. She had to go through cleansing in hell. Otherwise, she would bring great chaos in her next life. There's a problem in the higher ups. The reapers are punished. I heard that a higher entity has been punished too."

"That sounds scary."

"There was an inspection visit from the higher department. They found where she was reborn but…"

"But?"

"The child is in protection. They can't touch her. In fact, I heard that she's half-mortal."

"Is that bad?"

"It means that she can't be killed easily. She was born in a private world. Also, her father is a super powerful guy."

"I don't know why but I am happy that they are having problems."

"You are always happy for other people's demise."

"True, but aren't they always happy when they are punishing us? Even in my next life, I am going to suffer a lot."

At the exit, Ai nudges Aren's elbow. "Brother, what are you listening to?"

"They talked about a half-mortal." Aren trails after his brother. "I wonder who she is."

"Let's not worry about others now." Ai stares at the thick white mist. "The mist is blocking us."

The boy in Aren's arms moves a bit. Aren covers the boy's face and compels him to sleep again. "The bridge shouldn't be far from here."

"I will find it." Ai closes his eyes and concentrates. The sound of the river is different under the bridge. The echoes are louder. Ai opens his eyes and places his hand on his brother's back. "Walk along with me. The mist wants us to separate."

"Why do you speak the language of the mist?" Aren questions him. "Even I can't do that."

"It's a part of my true name," Ai explains as he guides his brother toward the steps leading to the bridge. "My mother gave me a good name."

They climb the steps and start walking on the bridge. Both of them feel stabbing pain under their soles.

"What the…" Aren glares at the ground. "Is it trying to torture us?"

"I wonder if I should break this bridge." Ai frowns hard. "I don't like feeling needles under my feet."

"If we do that, people won't be able to cross over to the afterlife." Aren shakes his head at the idea. "I don't know what will be our punishment."

"We are not in this system. We won't be punished." Ai replies glumly, "Anyway, who would know that we did it?"

"Let's do this after crossing the bridge." Aren gives in. The ground is scalding hot now. "Darn! I feel my skin being peeled off."

Ai walks to the railing of the bridge and looks at the river. The river is stark clean, free of any foul spirit.

"Brother, the river is completely cleaned." He climbs on the railing. "Let's destroy the bridge and jump into the river."

"Fine!" Aren yells. It's not like they can cross the bridge when it feels like they are walking on the edge of the sword. It's better to destroy this vile thing.