Lena blinks a few times. Her face covered with a frozen smile.

"What?"

"I said I'll pass."

Chapter 3: Not knowing something everyone else does!

"You can't just say you'll pass! This is a big Spirit World case, your soul isn't going to find peace-"

"I don't care about your 'Spirit World case' or whatever! This is my life! ...Afterlife! I can do whatever I want with it, even if it means I'm a restless ghost or whatever! Everyone's better off without me messing things up anyway."

Lena can hear the soft resignation and slight sadness in the last part Mayumi said. She floats in front of her.

"That's a terrible view to have on life, especially at just 16. I like telling people they're going to die, not hearing it from the people themselves. You have plenty to want to live again for-"

Mayumi cuts her off again, flicking her hand through the air. "What, Kumiko? Youko? My dad!? All of them are better off without me! Maybe my dad will finally get off his ass since I don't have a job to help him pay the bills, and it's not like Youko ever cared about anything I did for her or our group!"

She pauses a little, talking quieter. "...Kumiko would be a lot better off. Maybe she'll finally find a guy or something and can forget about spending her days patching me up and worrying about me like I'm some sick dog."

Lena looks with a neutral expression as Mayumi finishes her rant, and watches as Mayumi floats up higher. Lena follows, and Mayumi continues in a softer and more accepting sounding voice.

"I don't see what harm I'd be causing as a ghost. You Spirit World people can just forget about me. Like you said, there's no loss in this."

Lena bites her tongue, and Mayumi continues.

"In the long term, no one's gonna miss me. I give it a day or two. Everyone will find out that me dying is a catalyst to finally get them off their asses and move on."

Lena shrugs and sighs, "You really are the dumbest person I've had to talk to on this job. I thought I was joking about that at first."

Mayumi snaps her head at her.

"The hell do you know!? You're Death! You don't get anything about my life!"

Lena sighs again and floats a bit backwards.

"You shouldn't make such stupid decisions so quickly. Talk to me after you're done at your wake. It'll give you time to think. And think about how rude you are to people who just want to help, you're not going to get far with your attitude."

"What part of NO do you not understand!? I made my choice!"

A few hours later, somewhere around midnight...

Mayumi sits, floating near her house. The night is quiet and cold, a soft wind rustling nearby trees and bushes. This whole thing was on short notice, Mayumi was found dead at the scene by Kumiko, and Youko's gang, and in just a few hours she was in a casket, cleaned up with her hands to her chest, and back at home in the living room. The casket rested on sturdy desks, draped in cloth and surrounded by candles. A photo of Mayumi from a yearbook photo is propped up above the casket. The soft glow from Mayumi's run down house glistens through the front door frame, and there's a few people outside.

Mayumi floats down to find a few teachers, and squints. The teachers subtly smile and talk to each other, a square jawed man with glasses speaks, trying to be quiet.

"The biggest shame here is that we had to come out so late. Her grades didn't make up for her past record."

The other teacher, a shorter but more pudgy man, responds.

"Yeah, she tried hiding all her fights and her little gang behind those grades. It's a shame. She could've been something worth actually remembering."

Mayumi's eye twitches, but she knows she can't do anything about it.

"About what I expected."

But as she says this, she notices Kumiko at the front door. She's staring at the teachers, tears welling up in her eyes. They instantly begin to trickle down, and she stumbles backwards a bit. It's clear Kumiko has been sobbing already from her red eyes and face, but stopped for a moment, only to just now start again. Kumiko's mother runs out, and catches her before she falls. Her mother is a gentle looking woman, wearing a black kimono. She has long brunette hair just like Kumiko, and the same brown eyes. She looks at Kumiko worriedly.

"What's wrong!?"

"T-They were talking... Mayumi..."

The teachers look at her a bit surprised but then turn defensive.

"We weren't saying anything, you must've misheard, we were just talking about-"

As the square jawed teacher stammers that out, Kumiko's father, a man with black short hair, a medium build, and donning a black suit, quickly steps out. His blue eyes glared at the teachers with anger and disappointment.

"I heard most of what you two said. Mayumi doesn't deserve to hear this drivel coming out of your mouths. Mayumi was a great kid, and I'm disgusted that my daughter has to go to a school with teachers as disgusting as ones who would dare make comments about a student at their own wake!"

The teachers and Kumiko's father begin to argue and yell, and Kumiko just shuts down. It's all quiet to her. She can't hear anything. She moves forward out of her moms hold and stumbles into the house again.

"You just go die then! You just go die then! You just go die then! You just go die then!"

These words are all that echo through Kumiko's mind as she stumbles towards the closed casket, the photo of Mayumi above it staring into her soul. Her final words she said to Mayumi. They won't stop. They're taunting her. The words spin around in her head, they're so loud they feel like they can deafen her. The only air she's breathing in is air from her sobs that she can't even feel anymore. The words of Mayumi, the promise that she would stop smoking for her, fill her mind with searing agony. She trips on herself, and falls onto her knees, her hands falling onto the cold wooden casket. The sight of the casket itself destroys her thoughts, her mind feeling like it's falling into an endless abyss. She begins to hysterically sob and hyperventilate, then suddenly and eerily whispering in a smooth and heartbroken tone of voice. She stares at the photo of Mayumi on the casket.

"Don't go... please don't. Stay here... I-I promise I didn't mean what I said,"

She gags.

"I promise it'll be okay if you come back. I'm not mad. I don't want you to die. I'll wake up and you'll be back right? You were so cool saving me. We can talk about it when we walk to school tomorrow. I'll wake up early and come over. You can smoke all you want if you come back. I won't be mad."

She continues and continues, pleading to any God that will listen to bring Mayumi back. Her hysteria trying to trick her mind into believing Mayumi is still there.

What she doesn't know is that Mayumi is right behind her, watching all of this.

She begins to shakily sigh, hiding her emotions.

"Didn't think you'd act like this, Kumiko..."

She says this and moves to her side, sitting down on the floor next to her. She looks at her, watching her sobbing and listening to her muttering. She slowly moves her hand to touch Kumiko's that's in her lap, even though she knows she wouldn't be able to feel it. But as she's reaching, Kumiko's mother crouches down and hugs the sobbing girl from behind, making Mayumi flinch back a bit and sigh. Her mother tries to console her.

"Hey... let it out."

Mayumi stands up and instinctively reaches for her hidden smoke pocket in her skirt out of habit, but stops herself. She remembers telling Kumiko she would stop.

Why would ghosts even have cigarettes anyway?

She just sighs to herself again and walks towards the door, curious as to what the Principal, Kumiko's father, and the two teachers could still possibly be arguing about. But as she steps outside and before she can even start listening, lots of footsteps can be heard approaching. Mayumi looks over and sees Youko, and everyone else in the gang walking over, with their school uniforms still on. They're surprisingly quiet, and the arguing from the adults stop as they watch the group of girls walk to the door. Mayumi floats over, her face showing signs of being worn down from watching everything.

"Youko..." she mutters out.

Youko and the other girls stop near the door and she looks at Kumiko's father, talking in a firm tone of voice,

"Is the wake in the living room?"

"Yeah."

Kumiko's father sounds worn down and tired.

Youko gives a small bow and all the other girls do too, which surprises Mayumi.

"Never seen any of them even try to act like this..."

All six of them walk into Mayumi's house and Youko puts her left hand behind her to make the rest of them stop a little bit away from the casket. Youko walks up alone, and looks to the side where Kumiko and her mother are now standing on the wall together, giving Youko and them space. She looks at the photo of Mayumi, and talks in a firm voice but with an obvious amount of guilt and regret in her tone as well.

"Hey, Mayumi. We all came 'cause wanted to give you a send-off, but we're not exactly sure what that even is for us."

A small, fake laugh leaves her throat.

"You know, I'm sorry for all the stuff I said earlier. Seriously, seriously sorry. You're still one of us. You always counted. It's gonna eat away at me for the rest of my life that you made those my final words to you, you asshole."

Her face grows a small, warm, reminiscent smile.

"That hook you landed on me was damn good, the group won't be the same without you around keeping us in check. I know I complained about you always being on us about our grades or whatever, but I get it. I'm sorry I never told you how much we all appreciate the work you put in for us. I'll make sure to take the reign like I always should've as the leader, and keep everyone together.

Her words break a little as she tries to keep it together.

"You... you just rest easy, okay?"

Youko sighs to try and keep herself together, speaking in a more firm and tough tone.

"We'll make sure those Nagoya guys get what's coming for what they did to you, though I'm sure you'd rather not hear about that at your own wake, so forget about it."

Youko pulls out a cigarette pack from her pocket, and places it on the altar.

"These things would've killed you anyway at some point, but I know you like 'em, so take it as a gift from me to the next world. Dunno if they got them up there."

Mayumi sighs with a small smile as she stands to the side watching.

"Stupid… I just told Kumiko I'd stop. …Thanks, Youko."

As Mayumi says this, Youko looks over to where she's standing, and smiles.

"And hey, you know I got a good sixth sense. I'm sure I'll be able to tell if you wanna bother me from the world beyond, so just hang out whenever. You're still in the gang. You always will be."

All six of the girls bow deeply, and the five others give some final words to Mayumi. Mayumi just listens, feeling… warm. She feels wanted. It's overwhelming in a way. She never expected her entire gang, all her friends to say things about her like this. She feels like she was blind her entire life.

But then after everyone's done, Youko talks again.

"Hold on, I'll be back. I gotta go talk to her dad for a second."

And with this Youko walks to the doorway to the kitchen, and sees Mayumi's dad drinking himself half to death at the table. Mayumi just sighs, resentful towards her dad.

"There's no point in even trying to get him to talk to you. He won't even sit in the living room and watch over my casket."

She's seen enough, whatever Youko and her dad talk about isn't very important to her anymore. She knows what she wants to do now and wants to do it as soon as possible.

Mayumi walks out and floats up above her house. She crosses her legs and yells.

"Hey, Lena!"

And just like that, Lena floats down on her oar with a big smile.

"Hello! Your wakes been quite eventful. I always enjoyed seeing everyone's heartfelt goodbyes during wakes."

Mayumi just shrugs off her cheery attitude towards the whole situation. She stays quiet as they both look down at her house. After a few moments she talks in a quiet, more gentle voice.

"You ever just get the feeling you didn't know something everyone else did?"

"Yes. I believe they call that being clueless, which you've shown me multiple times you are."

Mayumi laughs a little, she smirks and her mood becomes a little more hopeful.

"I'm not even going to get mad at that. Listen, you said I could get a second chance at life, right? Some test or something?"

Lena's face lights up, clapping her hands together, "Wow! You actually do listen to me! Yes! You can take a test and come back. Are you interested now?"

Mayumi's smirk turns into a soft smile, her rough exterior cracking and fading as she thinks about the words everyone said about her.

"Yeah. I'm interested. Just tell me what I have to do. And make it quick, I want it done fast."

"You're awfully selfish, commanding me around when we're offering you something that goes against the very laws of nature itself. Alright, we'll do it quickly since you want to rush everyone."

Lena sighs, lifts up her hands, and snaps her fingers.

Notes: Shorter author notes this time since I had some at the start! As a little preview for the next part of the story, I'll just say that I plan on having more stories with Mayumi dead and as a ghost, much like the start of the Yu Yu Hakusho manga where there were a lot of chapters with Yusuke as a ghost dealing with afterlife related things. These were all cut from the anime, but I was always a fan of them so I would like to include some of my own random ghost stories! Again, thanks for reading!