In the middle of a blue wasteland, a black road stood. Its stark color cut through the empty land, like a dark version of the yellow brick road.
Suddenly, a violent roar of an engine pierced the silence. A motorcycle could be seen. Darting across the road, leaving a dark trail of matte-black smoke in its tail, it was even darker than the road itself.
Of course, that engine's roar was caused by Vivian and his Recollections. Juliette followed him silently through the Realm, flying alongside the vehicle at their head level. The two new rookies, Yuki and Azam, sat silently on the bike behind him, struggling to find space on the seat.
"Like sardines in a can," Juliette grinned as her words made all three reapers look at her.
"Where are we going?" Yuki asked.
"To Night City. That's Soul Reaper HQ," Juliette continued. "Oh, and the one we just got off from is called the White Realm. This one right here is the Highway, it's the main way all the different Realms connect." Azam and Yuki nodded.
"What's a Soul Reaper though? It seems like a job," Azam asked.
"Many things. There are many departments in here. As you've guessed by the name, we are the ones who deal with dead people," the blonde reaper explained. Azam and Yuki stayed quiet while Juliette continued. "There are Guides, who guide lost souls back to the Death Realm. There are multiple bureau office clerks if you're interested in that. There's city maintenance work. Vivian and I however work as cleaners. We're what comes when the Guide doesn't do their damn job properly."
Yuki listened intently to Juliette's lengthy explanation.
"What if you don't do anything?" Juliette smiled at her question.
"Well, you can. But most people who don't... don't end up very far."
"D-did they get punished?" Azam asked. Juliette shook her head.
"No, not quite. But when you don't have any purpose other than just sitting around for eternity, your mind can break and you just—" Juliette ran a finger across her neck. "Need I continue?"
Both rookies shook their heads. Dread filled their faces as they realized what they had gotten into.
"Don't scare the kids, Juliette," Vivian's muffled voice spoke. Juliette chuckled.
"I'm not wrong."
"And you're not half right either. It'll take a couple thousand years for that to happen, and even then, you can just surround yourselves with people. That's why the system gave you the mission, so you wouldn't break."
Yuki looked at her own system screen.
So you're not all bad either.
"A couple thousand years is stretching it," Juliette pouted.
The ride became quiet for a bit. Yuki let herself get lost in thought. She stared at the expanse of wasteland beside them. A blue-tinted fog covered it, isolating them to only the area they could observe. Dead trees could be seen branching out of the cracked earth. The night sky hung above them like a dark cloak. Moreover, she felt an eerie sensation as she gazed further upon the landscape.
She almost didn't notice when Juliette put her hand inches from her face. As if knocked out of hypnosis, she snapped back to reality.
"Don't stare too much. You don't know what might stare right back." Her voice was calm, and a slight smile carved itself onto her face, but somehow she looked even eerier than the wasteland itself. Yuki was stunned for a couple of seconds.
In that moment, she got a couple of good looks at the blonde Reaper. She looked like she was in her 20s, her face bright as if light emitted from it. And the way she flew... was weird. Her posture was relaxed, as if she were lying on a mattress. Her hair fluttered in the wind as if being pushed up by an invisible force. She looked like she was falling from a great height instead of flying.
Is that her Recollection? Yuki tried to guess. It was quite possible. After all, Vivian's motorcycle was also his Recollection.
"Something on my face, sweetie?" Juliette brought her back to reality again. Yuki's face turned a bit red after she realized just how long she had stared at the blonde reaper.
"Oi, don't you dare corrupt my new recruit. I don't approve. Got it?" Vivian spoke suddenly. Juliette just laughed as her body flew a bit faster toward the front, shifting her teases toward Vivian.
Yuki breathed a sigh of relief as Juliette finally got off her case. Her system screen flashed open as she thought of it. The magic behind this little box still intrigued her. She put it aside and read her profile.
[Name: Yuki
Rank: E (Soul Reaper)
Recollection: (Snow White) (Gray Sand) (Eternal Acquaintance)
Souls: 0]
Her profile had changed a bit. A new Recollection had appeared, seemingly related to the mission they completed after adding Vivian and Juliette as friends. Her finger touched the alien rune, and the screen changed.
[ Eternal Acquaintance
Most memories aren't carved by solitary beings, but by the connection a soul would have with their peers.
Recollection Effect: The user is now allowed to use the system screen to contact any soul within their friend list.]
A communication ability... What surprised her was how the ability worked. It changes the system?
That's new... I didn't know Recollections were able to do that. However, there were a lot of things she didn't know. It was safe to assume the system had always been capable of it; she just didn't have enough data to consider it a possibility.
What was more pressing, however, was the fact that she received a reward in the first place. The mission had never mentioned any reward, so she hadn't expected to get anything.
"Checking your new Recollection, eh?" Juliette suddenly spoke beside her.
Yuki turned to meet the blonde woman's eyes, nodding carefully at her question.
"Ah, how about this for an ice breaker? We each tell our Recollections. Mine is called Sky Grave. It's obviously the ability that lets me fly," Juliette introduced.
"Well... I have Eternal Acquaintance," Yuki answered. Juliette crossed her arms over her chest.
"Nope, that doesn't count. Anyone who's made any friends would have that Recollection."
Yuki clicked her tongue as she realized her trick wouldn't work. She reached out her hand, and a thick smoke swirled in the air around it. It looked bizarre, seemingly unaffected by the motorcycle's inertia as it continued to swirl. A couple of seconds later, the smoke materialized into a sharp kitchen knife.
"It's called Snow White," she introduced. Juliette just admired her knife in detail.
"Neat. What about you?" she said, turning her gaze toward Azam.
"Ah... Mine doesn't work. It says that I have to sacrifice something? I don't know." Azam awkwardly said.
Juliette just nodded. "Oh, yeah, this motorcycle is Vivian's Recollection, if you haven't figured that out already." Both rookies nodded.
Yuki decided she would keep her Gray Sand ability a secret. After all, even she didn't know what it did. And she had a feeling the two senior Reapers hadn't shown all their cards either. If Recollections could be gained even as a Soul Reaper, then they must have more Recollections they weren't disclosing.
The rest of the ride was a quiet one. Well, for Yuki at least. The blonde woman continued to tease Vivian and Azam. She even heard Azam ask some questions too. But her mind was too out of it to make sense of any of it.
Soon, they arrived at their destination point as per Juliette's announcement.
Still in motion, a black mist began to swirl and envelop the motorcycle and the four reapers. All around them, a curtain of smoke circled like a hurricane. As it dissipated, the scene of a dark, bustling city came into view like a curtain being lifted. Then, Juliette's voice announced:
"Welcome to Night City."