Ed’s place is a dark labyrinth of shadows and strange objects, a stark contrast to the bustling life outside. The walls are lined with shelves that seemed to defy gravity, each overflowing with relics, arcane books, and unidentifiable trinkets. Thick curtains hang over the small, barred windows, blocking out any hint of daylight, leaving the room bathed in an eerie, amber glow from a single flickering lamp. The air is heavy with the scent of old paper and something metallic, almost like blood. In the corner, a worn leather armchair sits beneath an assortment of symbols and talismans, crudely drawn or carved into the wall.

Risa and Ryoichiro sat on a creaky, low-backed couch, the springs groaning under their weight. They exchanged glances, their faces pale and drawn, fear clinging to them like a second skin. Ryoichiro spoke in a hushed tone, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“It doesn’t make sense, Risa-chan. We were almost done… and then that noise, that… thing.” His eyes darted around the room, as if expecting something to leap out from the shadows. “What do you think was it?”

Risa shook her head, her hands clenched tightly in her lap. “I don’t know. But whatever it was, it was more than Ed could handle. And Ed… he knew something, didn’t he? That’s why we're still alive.” Her voice wavered, betraying the fear she was trying so hard to conceal.

The minutes dragged on, turning into hours. The oppressive atmosphere in Ed’s house seemed to amplify their unease. They could hear the faint ticking of a clock somewhere, each second stretching out unbearably. The silence between them was heavy, filled with unspoken dread and unanswered questions.

Just as Ryoichiro was about to speak again, a soft creak echoed through the room. Their eyes snapped to Ed, who had been lying motionless on a makeshift bed against the far wall. His eyes, previously shut tight, were now open. But there was something unnatural about them — glassy, unblinking, and filled with a deep, unsettling knowledge.

The room seemed to grow colder, and the shadows deepened, as if responding to Ed’s awakening. Risa and Ryoichiro froze, their breaths caught in their throats. The air around them seemed to thrum with a low, almost imperceptible hum, and an icy chill ran down their spines.

Ed’s gaze slowly moved to them, his eyes locking onto theirs. He didn’t blink, didn’t move, but the intensity of his stare made it feel as though the walls were closing in on them. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating, as if the very room was holding its breath.

And then, in a voice that was barely above a whisper, yet seemed to resonate through the entire house, Ed spoke. “Ryoichiro, you're not cursed.”

Ed’s eyes remained fixed on Ryoichiro as he spoke, his voice steady but carrying an undertone of something darker, more complex. “You’re not cursed, Ryo. Not in the way you think.”

Ryoichiro blinked, trying to process Ed’s words. “Not cursed? Then what do you call this? All the things that have happened — curse doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

Ed leaned forward, his gaze never wavering. “You’re looking at it the wrong way. You’re not cursed… but you are connected to something. Something ancient, something powerful. It’s not a curse; it’s something else.”

Ryoichiro’s confusion deepened. “Something else? What?”

Ed’s expression grew more intense, as if he was drawing on memories long buried. “The shinigami conduit… It’s an old, almost forgotten concept. I had forgotten parts of it myself. But now, with everything that’s happened, it’s coming back to me. The details, the significance… it’s all coming back.”

Ed revealed that he’s been living in self-imposed isolation, trying to avoid attracting attention from supernatural forces. He hesitated to remember because he feared that doing so would reopen old wounds and draw those forces back to him.

Risa leaned in closer, her curiosity mingling with her fear. “Ed-san, you're killing us here with suspense. Just tell us already!”

Ed nodded slowly. “I know you've read it from the scripts. The conduit is like a bridge, a connection between the living and the dead, between this world and whatever lies beyond. It’s not just about death — it’s about the balance, the flow of energy between realms. And you, Ryo, you’ve somehow become a part of this.”

Ryoichiro shook his head, still not fully grasping the implications. “What? B-but how? Why me?”

Ed’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if weighing his next words carefully. “I don’t know why you, specifically. But I do know that this is not something that just happens. There’s always a reason, a purpose.”

Risa's hands clenched tightly in her lap, knuckles white. Desperation edged her words as she looked at Ed, hoping for a different answer. “So what is it then? What are we really dealing with?”

He paused, his eyes briefly losing focus as if searching through his memories. “It’s like a puzzle. You’ve got some pieces, but you’re missing the bigger picture. And you’ve been thinking of it as a curse because that’s the only way you can explain it. But curses are one thing… this is something else entirely.”

Risa glanced at Ryoichiro, who was clearly struggling to make sense of it all.

“When you said it's not a reaper… then what exactly are we dealing with?” Ryo inquired.

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Then Ed asked, almost abruptly, “Do either of you know who Evel Knievel was?”

The question hung in the air, completely out of place in the context of their conversation.

Risa and Ryoichiro exchanged bewildered looks, then said his name in unison, “Evel Knievel?”

Ed’s expression softened slightly, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. “Yeah. Evel Knievel. The greatest daredevil who's ever lived. He performed stunts that no one thought were possible. Jumping over cars, canyons… risking his life again and again, all for the thrill, for the challenge.”

Ryoichiro frowned, still confused. “What does that have to do with any of this?”

Ed leaned back, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he continued. ”Evel Knievel… he wasn’t just some daredevil. People were amazed by what he did — jumping over rows of buses, attempting to leap canyons, surviving crashes that should’ve killed him. They said it was impossible, that no one could survive the kinds of stunts he pulled off. But every time, no matter how close he came to death, he walked away.”

Ed’s voice took on a more ominous tone as he delved deeper into the tale of Evel Knievel. “Knievel wasn’t just a man chasing adrenaline; he was chasing something bigger, something he couldn’t fully understand. It all started when he was a young man, before the fame, before the world knew his name. He was fearless, always pushing the boundaries, but there was one stunt that changed everything.”

Ryoichiro and Risa leaned in, the room seeming to shrink around them as Ed continued.

“There was a time when Knievel was just a local daredevil, performing small stunts for crowds in rundown fairgrounds. But there was one day, one jump, that no one remembers because no one lived to tell about it — except Knievel. He was set to jump over a row of cars, a standard stunt for him at the time. But something went wrong. As he sped toward the ramp, the bike wobbled, the timing was off, and he knew he wasn’t going to make it.”

Ed paused, letting the tension build before he went on.

“But as he soared through the air, time seemed to slow down. He saw the ground rushing up to meet him, and in that moment, he felt a presence. It wasn’t fear, but a cold, calculated force — something that offered him a choice. He could crash, burn, and die like any other man… or he could live, but at a cost.”

Risa shivered, the temperature in the room seeming to drop as Ed spoke.

“Knievel didn’t have time to think. The presence offered him a deal: his life in exchange for something unknown. He accepted, and in the blink of an eye, his bike seemed to right itself in mid-air. He landed the jump perfectly, as if nothing had gone wrong. The crowd went wild, but Knievel… he knew something had changed.”

Ed’s eyes narrowed, his voice dropping to a whisper. “After that day, his stunts got bigger, riskier. He jumped over rows of buses, leaped across canyons, even attempted to fly over the Snake River Canyon in a rocket-powered bike. Each time, the world watched in awe, waiting for the moment he’d push too far. But no matter how close to death he came, he always survived.”

Ryoichiro’s heart pounded in his chest as he listened. “He made the deal?”

Ed nodded. “That was the pact. The entity kept him alive, but there was a price. Knievel started noticing things — strange things. Shadows that moved on their own, whispers that followed him wherever he went. He realized he wasn’t alone; there was always something, watching, waiting. It wasn’t protecting him out of kindness. It was keeping him alive for a reason.”

Risa’s voice trembled as she asked, “What was the price?”

Ed’s gaze grew distant, as if he were looking through time itself. “That’s the part no one knows. Some say Knievel’s soul was slowly drained away, bit by bit, until he was just a shell of the man he once was. Others believe he was cursed to live on the edge of death, never truly alive but never able to die. What’s clear is that the more he pushed the limits, the more he became something… less human.”

Ed leaned forward, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “There were deaths, Ryo. Every time Knievel cheated death, someone else wasn’t so lucky. It was almost like a twisted balance had to be maintained. If Knievel survived, someone else had to die. Sometimes it was a member of the crowd — someone hit by flying debris when a stunt went wrong. Other times, it was someone backstage, caught in a fire from an explosion. Accidents, they called them. Bad luck. But Knievel knew better.”

Risa’s breath caught in her throat. “He knew?”

Ed nodded grimly. “Oh, he knew, alright. But what could he do? He was in too deep. That thing had its grip on him, and he couldn’t escape it. So he did the only thing he could — he paid for the funerals, supported the families of the deceased. But that wasn’t all. Knievel, ever the showman, turned it into part of his act.”

Ryoichiro frowned, not fully understanding. “What do you mean?”

Ed’s smile was cold, devoid of humor. “He turned it into a tagline: ‘Come to Evel Knievel’s show — where someone dies, but not Knievel!’ People ate it up. It made for good entertainment, great publicity. The danger, the thrill, the possibility that someone might die — it only made the crowds larger, more eager to see what would happen. Knievel knew exactly what was happening, and he was up for it. After all, the more people believed in the danger, the more they believed in his invincibility. And the thing keeping him alive made sure that as long as someone else paid the price, Knievel would survive.”

The room fell silent, the weight of Ed’s words pressing down on them like a suffocating blanket. Risa and Ryoichiro exchanged glances, their fear now mingled with a sickening realization. Ryo wasn’t just dealing with a curse — he was caught in a deadly game, one where the rules were as twisted as the players involved.

Ryoichiro swallowed hard, the implications of Ed’s story settling over him like a heavy fog. “And you’re saying I’m connected to something like that?”

Ed’s eyes bore into Ryoichiro’s, his voice barely more than a whisper. “You’re not just connected, Ryo. You’re in the middle of it. This dark being isn’t just keeping you alive — it’s using you, just like it used Knievel. The difference is, Knievel knew he made a deal. You… you’re still figuring out what you’ve been dragged into.”

The room fell into an oppressive silence, the weight of Ed’s words suffocating. The shadows seemed to press in closer, as if they were listening, waiting for what would happen next. Risa and Ryoichiro sat in stunned silence, the fear they felt before now mingled with a chilling realization. They weren’t just dealing with a curse — they were entangled in something far more dangerous, something that had already claimed one legendary life and was now coming for theirs.

Ryoichiro listened, captivated but still skeptical. “And people thought he sold his soul to the devil, right? That’s how he survived?”

Ed shook his head slowly. “That’s what they got wrong. It wasn’t the devil he made a pact with — it was something else. Something far older, far more complex.”

Ryo swallowed hard, his voice barely steady as he asked, “What exactly is it?”

Ed’s gaze darkened, the room seeming to grow even quieter as he spoke. ”They called it the ‘green reaper.’”

Ryoichiro interrupted, his brow furrowing. “Green reaper? You mean the grim reaper?”

Ed shook his head. “Most people have heard of the grim reaper, the one who comes to take your soul when you die. But there are different kinds of reapers, each with their own purpose. The grim reaper is what you’d call a black reaper — they’re the ones who escort the souls of the dead. The black reaper is the most famous, but they’re not the only ones. There are others who have different roles. Some take life itself, while others… well, they prevent life from being taken. That’s where the green reaper comes in.”

Risa leaned in closer, her voice barely a whisper. “So, Knievel made a pact with... this green reaper?”

Ed’s eyes flickered with something unreadable. “That’s right. The green reaper doesn’t take life — it prevents death. Evel Knievel struck a deal, and in exchange for something — who knows what — this reaper kept him alive, no matter how close to death he came. People thought he was fearless, that he had some supernatural luck. But it wasn’t luck… it was the reaper.”

Ryoichiro’s breath caught in his throat as the implications sank in. “So you’re saying… that’s what I’m dealing with? A green reaper?”

Ed nodded solemnly. “Exactly. You’ve become entangled with something that doesn’t want you to die. You’re not cursed, Ryo. You’re… protected, in a way. But it’s not a protection anyone would want. It’s more like being trapped in a loop, where death can’t touch you — but that doesn’t mean life won’t keep trying.”

Ryoichiro’s voice wavered as he broke the tense silence. “So, when you said it’s not a reaper, you meant…?”

Ed’s gaze shifted to the shadows, a frown deepening the lines on his face. He paused, choosing his words carefully. “...Not the reaper we thought it would be.” His voice dropped to a murmur, barely more than a breath. “It’s something else. Something that's not trying to kill you, and something I have no idea how to deal with.”

The words hung heavy in the air, filling the room with an even deeper sense of foreboding. Risa and Ryoichiro sat in stunned silence, the weight of Ed’s revelation pressing down on them. The puzzle pieces they were trying to put together had taken on a darker, more dangerous shape, and the path ahead was even more uncertain than before.