Chapter 1

I am a truck driver.

I am also a construction worker, a janitor, a teacher, a medic — amongst other things.

But as of right now, I am a truck driver, cruising along the busy streets of Tokyo, Japan. Christmas lights are strung up high along the street lamps, colouring the roadsides in hues of red green.

Glancing down at the paper in my hand, I reread it again, just as I had for dozens of time in the past hour. It is a photograph of a boy, dressed in school attire, sporting a messy bird-nest-of-a-hair that is for a trim weeks ago. Judging from how he looks, I would place him at around fifteen years old? Not really that old, but not as young as middle school, just at the age where the one or two years wouldn’t really matter as long as you weren’t actually an adult yet.

On the bottom of the photograph was a date: Tetsuya 26-12-2018, which is today’s date; and a time given: 3:23 pm.

It's 3:20 now, which meant I got three more minutes to go. It’s about time for students to leave school and file out to whatever Christmas arrangements soon, I suppose. After all these years, I still couldn’t quite believe that that holier-than-thou missionary got an entire holiday dedicated to him!

Yawning slightly, I let go of the photograph, watching it flitter away into ash.

This job is thankless — wouldn’t expect it to be. Its stupid how the clients keep on requesting new personales and my bosses keep handing out these tasks to us that gets progressively more complicated. Even when you finish it, you wouldn’t get a “thank you for your good work!” or “sorry for troubling you!”. No, what you will get is just another slip, a vague task or ‘requirements and a one-week deadline.

The pay wasn’t even that good! And this job is complicated, harsh and frankly, I must say, not many could pull it off. However, I don’t see myself getting an award, a memorial, or even a pat on the back, much less a holiday.

Sighing, I pulled around a corner, plodding onto the main street, the sun at my back.

There! The kid, name’s Tetsuya Something-I-Can’t-Remember, standing next to the traffic light with a classmate or two. The same hair, same build, same uniform. Flexing a little bit of my power, the shining red light bulb of the traffic light abruptly shifted to green.

Perfect.

Noticing this, the kid stepped onto the crossing and started walking.

Whoop-ti-do, I floored the gas paddle, the engine beneath me surging to life. Accelerating with the force that a truck can manage, the vehicle zoomed down the lane.

For a few seconds, the kid didn’t notice me — that was until I started honking like mad. Then, with eyes like deer caught in the headlamps, he swivelled just in time to see bumper on the front.

Thump!

There was a deep, meaty smack as a six-ton block of heavy machinery swerving down a slope crashed into the mortal, launching his body straight into the air as I slammed down onto the brakes.

Belatedly, there was another thud as the body hit the asphalt like a ragdoll, rolling a few times before coming to a stop.

Well then. Time to check the results.

I [Shifted] out of the meat-bag I am currently using, climbing up onto the windshield. The other high-schoolers had already started screaming and panicking, so I quickly cast a [Halt] around us.

An invisible wave erupted from me, bubbling up the entire scene in muted silence — and the pedestrians as well, freezing everyone in time. Open mouths, gaping in horror. Steps froze midway, some old dude peeing their pants, the whole usual affair with panic. Nothing too special, basic procedure.

Always better to get the mortals out of the way. Damned boy scouts and their medic training, always going about and stabilizing my targets. There was one time I was feeling a bit peaky and wanted to lay off a bit on the magic — the moment I turned around, the target is decidedly not dying and my boss got pissed at me.

Well, keep everyone but the target frozen. The person needs to die.

Clambering down onto the floor, I waltzed over to the body. The boy, Tetsuya something, was quite a terrible sight to behold. There are bones sticking out of places they weren’t supposed to be, limbs bent at awkward angles.

And Is that a rib? Oh yes, it is.

In my opinion, it was a great it. That satisfying smack couldn't be found in many other jobs.

I nudged at the kid’s head with my foot, “Yo. Are you dead yet?”

He gurgled, some blood frothing up from his throat like a dysfunctional fountain.

Shit. Seems like the kid somehow lived through the hit. Maybe the hit wasn’t as great as I thought.

Looking around, I searched for a blunt object to finish the job with. Suddenly, I got a great idea. Holding my hand out sideways, I chanted a quick Aria — and a phone appeared in my grasp.

It wasn’t anything fancy, and certainly not one of the fancy twenty-first-century phones these clever mortals had come up with. The ones the Incarnate.Co hand out to their employees are these big old bricks that seemed like better defence tools than for communication in any way.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Unless you count copious physical violence as a form of communication, that is. Which, I conveniently do.

“I apologize for the inconvenience,” I said as I raised the block above my head, “Enjoy your next life or whoever that bought you.”

I slammed the phone down.

Spluch.

Spluch.

Spluch.

Panting, I wiped at my brow with my other hand. Pausing for a moment, I laid down God’s fury once more for good measure.

Sploosh.

...

Well, you can’t get better than that, I thought as I reviewed the body and its newly acquired additions to its anatomy.

From around my waist, I unhooked a small octagonal crystal, just slightly smaller than my palm. Holding it out at the body, I whispered, “{By God’s favour and decree, I hereby return this soul to his kingdom!}”.

With a flash of orange light, the soul, or Anima, of one Tetsuya Something flew out of the tattered meatbag into the crystal, settling into its murky depths.

Yup. Another down, and that’s it! Time to give the handler a call.

With my phone, I dialled, entering “333333-XXXX-XXXX” on the blocky number pads. A brief interlude of tasteless chorus played for a moment before someone picked it up.

“Hello? Yeah, this is Uziel. Yes, yes, I got the package. Mhm, no, no witnesses, mhm. Okay, bye.”

Then, I waited.

Moments later, a smell of ozone greeted me a cascade of sparks sudden appeared midair. Splitting apart, reality broke a second and created a circular hole into another world. From it, a figure dressed in all white stepped out onto the street.

Judging from her appearance, the sparkly countenance and the fact that she is still wearing a robe even in this day and age (no matter how skimpy it is), I would put her as a “goddess” from some other, less fortunate world.

Bah. Just because your world is falling apart doesn’t mean that you need to come to ours, buddy.

The figure looked at me for a second, then at the body, at the truck, then at me again, her face seemingly in shock.

What are you looking at, huh? Are you — oh shit.

I quickly banished the phone in my hand and with it the blood stains that covered it.

“Alright, here’s your parcel. Remember to open it before the seal wears off or the soul will fly off into the abyss. Incarnate.Co will take no responsibility for whatever happens to the soul post-transaction,” I recited with a smile, holding out the crystal with both hands.

She didn’t move.

I didn’t move, the smile still on my face.

Awkward silence.

Finally, the goddess stiffly took the crystal, eyes not quite leaving the scene. With a final glance at Tetsuya’s former body, she practically fled back into the portal, robes ruffling behind her.

Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too.

I sighed deeply again, watching the tear in reality sew itself back up and disappear. Fare thee luck, Tetsuya! Hope you don’t get eaten by a goblin in the first week.

With a snap of my fingers, the [Halt] I placed ended. Immediately, the sounds and commotion returned, rushing in to fill the void that I had created. Figures rushed by me towards the body, each frantically trying to save the boy’s life. Alas, he is dead. Even if the body somehow gets repaired — which they can’t yet — no consciousness will ever return.

Brushing the panicking figures out of my way, I stepped off the streets and from the crime scene. I glanced through a windowed shop at the clock inside: 3:23.

Yup. Right on time.

With the sound of ambulances and police cars arriving, I explored the streets. I still got quite a budget left, having been saved up for this moment as I got by with as little spending as possible. With the job done and on time, I get to spend the remainder of the day on Earth before I get summoned back to Heaven. With Christmas around, I got plans to splurge.

That is one of the advantages of being an agent, I suppose. Most angels that are stuck in Heaven would never get a taste of these delicious vices.

And there, around the corner is my first destination. With a diabolical grin on my face, I pranced over to the first shop.

Here I come!

~*~

My phone rang from my pocket space. Summoning it discreetly, I could see its name flashing on its screen: Raziel.

“Sup, Raz?”

“... Damnit, Uziel. You know the clients are sensitive about things like that.”

“Pffsh. It’s not like this faux-goddess aren’t from some backwards-ass place where bums shank each other in the woods, like, every other second.”

“Uzi!” Raziel scolded, seemingly scandalized.

“What? They got exactly what they came for!”

“But you don’t have to show them, you know, the procedure!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s rude! And bloody!”

I contemplated that for a second, chewing on the burger.

“Hello?”

“Alright, alright, you got me there,” I admitted, “I really could’ve walked off to the sides, or find a park or something.”

Not like I will. It’s funnier this way.

“Yes, you do! And the way you brutalized the kid? Totally unnecessary!” Raziel huffed sternly before pausing for a moment, “And are you eating a burger?”

“Yup,”

“Is that a McTucker holiday special?

“Yup,” I answered with another mouthful.

“Buy me one?”

“Mhm…”

“Please?”

Angels are all psychopaths, especially ones in Incarnate.Co.

“Sheesh, calm down. I already bought one for you.”

“You know what? You are my favourite.”

“Sureeee,” I said, glancing down at the veritable pile of shopping bags next to my seat, discounting the ones that I had stuffed inside my pocket space. It says something about the human race that no one else had given my pile a second thought, each person being too immersed with their own food.

The TV flickered as news played on. The news reporter read from her script with veritable gusto, “Earlier this afternoon, a traffic accident occurred at Chome Unoki. A truck driver had sped over a red light and hit a student crossing the street —”

Hey, that's me! Swivelling over, I paid rapt attention to the wall-mounted TV.

“— driver reports having fallen asleep. Temura Ishida, the student involved in the accident was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Mhm.

I froze.

Wait a second. Hold on right there.

Did she just say, 'Temura Ishida'?

“Uziel? Are you okay?”

“Y-Yup. Perfectly fine.”

And I took another bite of the burger. If I can’t recognise people, that goddess probably wouldn’t. It’s allll fine.