Seraphim is a Bystander

End of Life

 
Every human life eventually comes to an end.
As people grow up, they come to understand that fact. Some try to fight it, while others accept it and try to leave something behind during their short time alive.

As for me… I think I was one of the lazier ones.
I just sort of drifted along, choosing a path based on what I could do without much effort. I kept getting average—or slightly below average—grades, got a job just because it was available, and worked just enough to get by.
I figured I’d go through life only doing the things I could manage without trying too hard. I’d grow old in a haze, and eventually, my life would end without me having accomplished anything meaningful.

I, Minato Kushiki, lived with a kind of resignation—accepting both my life and its eventual end.
Maybe that’s why, when the end of one of my few friends’ lives suddenly came rushing toward him in the form of a random knife-wielding attacker, I didn’t hesitate to throw myself in front of him.
…Well, it’s not like I’m such a kind person that I’d let myself be stabbed quietly either.

As soon as the attacker drove the knife into me, I grabbed his hand and kept punching his face until he passed out.
With adrenaline surging and my brain too shocked to register pain, I just kept hitting him without thinking. I didn’t ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) stop until the attacker’s face was so battered that it was unrecognizable, and I could no longer feel any resistance from him. At the same time, I felt my own consciousness start to slip away.
…So this is how it ends, huh.

That idle thought crossed my mind as everything faded, and my pointless life came to an end.
…Or at least, that’s what I thought.
 

 
“Where… am I?”
For some reason, I woke up again.

What I saw was a boundless starry sky, and beneath it, a rippling surface of water stretching endlessly into the distance, like a vast lake.
I was suddenly wearing something like a loose hospital gown, and when I looked down, I realized—though I didn’t understand how—it wasn’t sinking. My bare feet stood directly on the surface of the water, ripples spreading out from where I stood.
“So the afterlife is this beautiful, huh…”
I murmured, not really talking to anyone.

“That’s right,” came a lovely female voice from behind me.
“Wha—!?”
Startled, I turned around—and saw a breathtakingly beautiful woman, like she had stepped out of a painting, smiling gently at me.

“This place was prepared by my master,” she said, deepening her smile.
…Yep. She’s definitely bad news.