Chapter 4

Conflicting Interests

Days had passed since the first reaping, and by now William was finally allowing Ashling to collect souls by herself. She collected them efficiently, which was all William really cared about. When Ronald had told him and the others about her ideal of comforting the dying, there had been concern that she would bring souls in late. However, this never happened. She was always on time, turning in her files with music blaring in her ears.

At the present moment, Ashling was out in the streets, tracking down the last soul of the day. The cause of death for the young woman was listed as murder, which saddened the Shinigami quite a bit. She hadn't collected the soul of a murder victim yet, and wasn't completely sure how to comfort the woman when she found her. Car crashes, disease, old age; all were easy enough to handle. But cold-blooded murder was something else entirely. It was one human maliciously and purposefully slaying another. There was little comfort in such a death.

Ashling turned the corner into the back alley where the young woman's body was reported to be found. There she was, gasping for breath and leaning against a dumpster. However, she wasn't the only one in the alley. Her murderer was there as well, and it wasn't a human.

Ashling found herself staring, stunned, into the burning red eyes of a demon. The creature, disguised as a tall, handsome human man with long blonde hair, hissed angrily at her, and she felt as if her heart had stopped and melted into her shoes. The demon glared at her and bared its teeth, flexing its blood-covered fingers threateningly.

"Get out of here, Shinigami." it growled at her hungrily; it was clear that this beast hadn't fed in ages.

Ashling shuddered, then stood up strait and popped the blades out of her Death Scythe, glaring angrily at the creature.

"You are not supposed to be here. I was told to collect that soul, and I aim to achieve said goal." she said strongly, much to enraged by the creature's vileness to be afraid anymore.

"Then you die." the demon hissed back, and it ran at her with a growl.

Ashling braced herself and dodged its attack, swinging her key-tar at it from behind. She missed it narrowly, and it spun around and growled at her. She smirked at its rage.

"Ole!" she shouted tauntingly, turning toward it and bracing herself for another attack.

The demon snorted and ran at her again. This time she charged at it as well, narrowing her eyes as it got closer. She swung at it heavily, landing a blow in the middle of the monster's back. It howled and clawed at her, and she yelped as its claws raked three long gashes along her right arm. She kicked the creature roughly in the stomach, using the force to propel herself away from it, and landed roughly on her feet. The demon grinned back at her, its eyes bright with amusement.

"It's going to take far more than that to kill me, little girl." it jeered at her.

"Likewise, beast." Ashling spat, ignoring the burning pain in her arm and charging at it again.

The demon smirked at her spirit and ran at her, jumping up to avoid being hit with her Death Scythe again. The Shinigami yelled loudly and swung up, surprising the demon and sending waves of pain up her arm. The blades slashed upwards along the demon's chest, and it flew into the air as blood splattered all over it and Ashling.

Ashling growled and jumped up, bringing the blades down on the startled creature's head. The demon hit the ground with a thud, and Ashling landed several feet from it. It slowly climbed to its feet, panting and glaring at her with hatred. It certainly had not expected such fight from a small female such as the Shinigami. With a final hiss it turned tail and fled, deciding that the victim's soul wasn't worth such a fight.

Ashling glared after it, clutching her right arm and grimacing in pain. After a moment, she returned her attention to the dying woman. She walked slowly up to her and looked down at the poor woman's form. The woman looked back at her with deep, sad gray eyes.

"I was going to be married soon." she whispered.

Ashling didn't know how to respond. She simply stared down at the unfortunate young woman, numb and silent. After a moment of struggling to find the right words, the injured Shinigami realized that there were none. There was nothing she could say to this young woman to make her death more comfortable. Some souls were inconsolable. Ashling sighed and lifted the key-tar.

"I'm so sorry." she whispered before bringing it down.

"She's late. I knew this would happen eventually." William complained sternly, leaning against the wall next to Ashling's desk.

She was exactly 4 minutes late, which was completely unacceptable to the time-obsessed Shinigami. The others sat at their desks uncomfortably, watching William with nervous anticipation. God only knew how harshly the strict Shinigami was going to scold her when Ashling finally did return. Their heads jerked toward the door when they heard it open, and they gasped loudly when Ashling walked slowly into the room.

She was covered in bright scarlet blood, and they could see the three long tears in her blue suit arm where she had been injured. She looked exhausted, and walked wordlessly to her desk, dragging her blood-covered key-tar behind her. She propped it up in its usual place against the wall and dropped the files onto the desk, looking up at William with hazy green-yellow eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm so late, William senpai. It won't happen again, I promise." she apologized softly.

"Never mind that, what happened to you!?" William asked quickly, his eyebrows arched high.

The other Shinigami gathered around her quickly, concerned.

"There was a demon trying to steal the last soul on my list, the young woman who was murdered. I had to confront it." Ashling replied.

William's eyes flashed, and he sighed.

"Damned filth. What happened to it?" he asked seriously.

"It scampered off after I hit it in the back, chest, and head. Not before giving me these cuts, but it was in worse shape than myself."

"You chased a demon away from a meal? You?" Alan asked incredulously.

"Yes, I did. Why do you sound so surprised?" Ashling asked, shooting him an accusatory look.

"It's not that! It's just that you're somewhat shy. I can't picture you kicking a demon's ass." Alan replied quickly, waving his hands defensively in front of himself.

"Shy or not, I am dedicated to my job and the souls I am to collect. They deserve dignified deaths, not the shame of becoming a demon's meal." Ashling growled, sighing sadly.

"I couldn't comfort her. I didn't know what to say." she whispered.

The others exchanged quick glances before William spoke.

"Go to the infirmary and get your arm patched up, and I want you to stay home and recover tomorrow. I'll put in an incident report." he said tiredly.

"I'm coming to work tomorrow." Ashling said simply.

"That's not a wise decision." William warned, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Perhaps not, but it is the right one. I'll see all of you tomorrow." Ashling gave them all a polite nod before walking slowly out of the room.

The others watched the doors close after her before letting out collective sighs.

"She's certainly stubborn." Grell said with a small smile.

"Yeah, but she's dedicated to the job and the souls. That's commendable, isn't it?" Ronald asked, looking up at William's unreadable expression.

William hesitated, then sighed.

"Yes, I suppose it is. Now go home. I have to fill out her incident report."

The others nodded quickly and ran from the room, leaving the overtime-hating Shinigami to it.

Looks like our little Bluebell has some bite after all. This is what happens when I listen to Skrillex when I write. Hope you enjoyed it!

~Silver