Ichiro clasped a hand to his mouth and stared at her once more. His angered expression turned to one of horror, and it was evident that he was having difficulty comprehending the situation.

"What have you done to me? This isn't my voice..." he muttered in a hushed tone, lowering his hand before scanning his surroundings. All the while, Kumiko steeled herself for subduing him should he lose all composure. In such an event, she hoped that a few calm words would be enough to ease the situation, because she dreaded the possibility of having to dispatch him and then endure the grief that came with it.

Ichiro stood up with difficulty and took unsteady steps across the room. She rose to her feet and followed to prevent him from doing anything rash.

"Where are you going, Ichiro?" she asked softly, only to regret her words. She needed to remember that this person wasn't really him and avoid acting as such.

He spun around to face her and reacted to her mistake with exasperation just as she'd feared. "My name is Tsutomu! Tsutomu Higuchi! I don't know who this Ichiro is that you're talking about!"

Kumiko refrained from telling him the truth and instead seized him by the arm so he couldn't walk any further. The jolt startled him, and naturally, he resisted.

"Let me go!" he demanded through gritted teeth while trying to pull himself free. "Do you know how much unfinished business I still have?!"

He tore his arm out of her grip, leading her to realize that she had instinctively been holding back. He charged towards the door, and time seemed to slow down.

She couldn't let him escape at any cost, so she flung herself forward through the air like a predator pouncing on its prey. Diving toward him, she homed in on his waist and grabbed it tightly before using her strength to yank his entire body backward.

Unfortunately, there proved to be consequences to using such a sizeable amount of force. As they both fell toward the floor, his body bent so that his head collided hard against her blanketed kotatsu, knocking him out instantly.

Kumiko landed on her rump and groaned in discomfort, then noticed the state that 'Ichiro' was in. She let go of him with a shocked gasp, and the way he rolled heavily to the floor convinced her that she had just made an enormous mess of things.

"I'm so sorry. I really am," she whispered in shame, curling up in a fetal position to contemplate cremating him again and forgetting that this had ever happened.

The blow to his head must have been severe, judging by how he continued to lie motionless on the floor. He didn't even appear to be breathing, and guessing that he was as good as dead, she hesitantly got up to drag him to the bathroom.

His body seemed to weigh more now that she was overcome by guilt, so she stopped to prop him up against the wall and rest for a few moments, unaware of the events unfolding within his soul.

******

Tsutomu stood amid a white expanse, with not a single other person or object in sight. This came as somewhat of a relief after his encounter with the mysterious young woman whose name he still didn't know, but whose face had been ingrained in his memory.

An ordinary human being wouldn't have been able to trap his ghostly form and place it inside another body, so she had to have supernatural powers.

Her identity and reasons for choosing him were mysteries that he thought would remain unsolved until a strange phenomenon occurred.

A humanoid blur appeared in front of him and quickly took the shape of an adolescent girl with braided hair, who wore a modest sailor uniform. She regarded him with a solemn expression, and he estimated her age to be somewhere in the mid-teens.

"Welcome home, Mr. Higuchi," she greeted him with a bow of respect. "My name is Eiko. I'm your previous life."

"Previous life, huh?" he replied, feeling a little skeptical. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen, sir. Born in 1930. Died in 1945."

Such a matter-of-fact summation of one's own birth and death made it impossible for Tsutomu to think of anything else but his own son Tetsuya, who had just turned seventeen. This girl was only two years younger, and suddenly, he felt a great deal of empathy for what her parents must have gone through.

With tears in his eyes, he willed himself to find out more by asking another question. He was sure that she'd been a casualty of war, but he wanted to know the exact cause. "I see. How did it happen?"

"I don't know, actually. One minute I was walking to school, the next I was here. Strange, isn't it? I never got to talk to Shigeru, after all..."

It didn't take Tsutomu long to figure out what had killed her, but he kept the information to himself because revealing the truth could often do more harm than good. He tried his best to put on a smile and steer the conversation to something pleasant.

"Who's Shigeru?" he asked in curiosity, guessing that the boy was someone she had been infatuated with. He was proven right when a bashful smile spread across her face, and she blushed a little.

"My classmate," Eiko replied shyly while reaching up to fiddle with one of her braids. "But that's not important right now. There's someone who wants to see you."

"Someone? Who?"

"I don't remember his name, but you'll know him when he comes. Good luck..."

At that, Eiko turned and vanished, leaving him alone once again. He tapped his foot to fill in the silence, then stopped to reflect on what had happened.

He found it hard to believe that his previous incarnation had been a love-struck teenage girl, but he supposed that things could be stranger.

As for the person about to meet him, he hoped they'd show up soon. Perhaps they'd offer some helpful advice or even get him out of this mess so he could focus on his actual goals.

He gazed out into the distance, expecting to see them soon before he sensed a presence behind him and turned around to see who it was.

It turned out to be a young man whose traditional clothes and topknot marked him as belonging to a different era altogether.

Wishing to be polite, Tsutomu extended his hand as if he were meeting with a sales client and introduced himself. "Pleased to meet you, my name is Tsutomu Higuchi. You are?"

The young man glanced down in confusion, then replied to his greeting with an impatient tone. "Ichiro from Sakai. Have you seen my wife?"

Tsutomu froze with his arm in the air. The mysterious young woman had referred to him by that name, and now that he faced the real deal, things seemed to make a little more sense.

It was just a shame that he couldn't revel in the epiphany, for Ichiro bunched up his fist and punched him swiftly in the face without warning. The force sent him sprawling backward before his head collided against something hard, and his vision became a blur.

I really need to get into shape again. That was pathetic, he thought to himself, looking up at his assailant with resignation as everything faded to darkness.

******

Kumiko heard a cough and responded by turning to look at Ichiro again. She gasped upon seeing that he had regained consciousness and, feeling ashamed of what she'd been about to do, sought his forgiveness by giving him an impassioned apology. "Mr. Higuchi, I really am sorry! I didn't know you were still-"

Ichiro let out a sigh before correcting her with a weary smile. "Kumiko, it's me..."

If her ears could have pricked up at the sound of those words, they would. She stared at him, unsure whether to believe what she was hearing until her mind formed the right words to say.

"Ichiro, is that you?"

His smile did not fade as he replied to her question. "It is. Where are we?"

She knelt down to meet him at eye level and couldn't help but admire how much more handsome he looked, now that he was alive and responsive. His lips were especially inviting, and she felt tempted to meet them with hers, just as she'd done in the old days.

However, she knew that one kiss could easily lead to several more, followed by the removal of clothing and perhaps even intercourse in bed. As a result, she forced herself to refrain from such an act for the time being and focus on answering his question.

She thought quickly and made the one claim that would go some way toward explaining the strange things he'd soon be seeing. "We're in the afterlife. You died, remember?"

Ichiro lifted one of his hands and studied it for a short while. He then let it drop, his smile fading.

"So if we're both here, then that means-"

"Yes," she said with a nod, falling right into saying something ridiculous with complete conviction. "I'm dead too. One day while I was mourning you, the sun grew a thousand times bigger and closed in on-"

"Stop! That's enough!" Ichiro interrupted in anguish. "I don't want to hear anymore..."

"I understand. I'm sorry..." she apologized, lowering her head in shame.

The way he'd reacted made it apparent that he couldn't stand the idea of her being hurt, so she figured it best that he remained unaware of the miscarriage that had increased her grief twofold after his death.

She looked back up to see how he was handling things, and sure enough, he was staring at the floor with tears welling up in his eyes. He sensed her gaze and raised his head to speak with her again. "Please forgive me. I didn't mean to lose my temper like that..."

"It's alright. I should have known better than to-"

"No, forget it. The important thing is that we're together. Right?"

She couldn't think of any argument to make as he stood up and approached her.

"Yes. You could say that..."

"Then that's good," he murmured, coming to a stop and taking her hand. "Do you know where my parents are?"

"No. I still haven't found them," she replied, glancing toward the bathroom door to avoid faltering under his gaze.

"That's a shame. But we shouldn't give up hope, yet, should we?"

"Of course not. I miss them as much as you do."

"Well, as long as we try our best, we're bound to succeed sooner or later. That's what I believe."

He let go of her hand and scanned his surroundings, then stretched his arms with a yawn. "It's strange, but I feel tired already. Are we allowed to sleep here?"

"We're allowed to do whatever we want. Within reason, that is."

"I see. Could you show me to bed then?"

"It would be my pleasure, darling." She led the way and, upon noticing a look of surprise on his face, guessed that the term of endearment had caught him off-guard. Despite being married, they'd never been affectionate to each other outside the bedroom, which had mainly been a result of his parents' vigilance.

Now that they were out of the picture, she felt free to call him by whatever affectionate or diminutive name she wanted. Ichi-kins was another one that came to mind, and she vowed to use it soon, whether he liked it or not.

They entered her bedroom, where the walls had been stripped of decorations, and two futons lay ready for them to sleep on. She'd placed a lamp between them earlier to spare herself the trouble of explaining electricity, and it seemed like the effort had paid off, for Ichiro remained none the wiser.

He turned to face her with a suggestive smile, and she realized what was coming.

"Do you know what I'm thinking of?"

"No, I don't," she replied, feigning ignorance.

"I'm thinking of that."

"That what?"

"That thing. You know what I mean."

"Oh. I understand now..."

"What do you say, then? Is it a good time or not?"

Kumiko knew that she needed to work on Monday, so she declined him as tactfully as possible. "I'd love to, but I haven't had much sleep lately, and there's some important business I need to take care of tomorrow..."

Ichiro stared at her in confusion. "Important business? Shouldn't that be my job now? I'm the husband..."

Crap. How could I forget that you'd be sexist? she thought in alarm, remembering that he was a product of his time who didn't know any better. "This business has nothing to do with me being the wife. When I arrived here, the gods recognized my great spiritual power and entrusted to me the job of helping maintain order. Tomorrow, I must go out and catch wrongdoers so that they may be sent back where they belong."

Ichiro looked bewildered by the time she finished speaking. "That...that makes some sense. But what am I supposed to do here?"

"You? You just stay at home and pass the time like a normal person. Leave the exciting stuff to me..."

He stared down at the floor dejectedly, then lamented his dull fate. "If this is what happens after we die, then I'd rather stop existing altogether..."

"Oh, don't say that. What happened to us staying together?" she admonished while finding it difficult to handle hearing such negativity.

"I know what I said earlier, but I just don't think it's fair. I'll go insane if I spend eternity doing nothing..."

Kumiko sighed and wondered what it would take to make him comply with her plans. "You're jumping to conclusions. I never said that it would be forever, so just relax. I'll find something special for you to do next week..."

"Is that so?"

"You have to trust me, Ichiro. We're all we have..."

He nodded and sat down on his futon in resignation. She observed him for a few moments, then left for the bathroom.

As she unsealed the wooden door and went inside, it became clear what she'd introduce to him first. Tomorrow morning, she would wake him up early so that he could witness the wonders of a modern toilet and running water.

She reminded herself to focus on the present, lest she became giddy with excitement. After taking a quick glance at the door to make sure Ichiro wasn't there, she turned on the tap and wet her toothbrush, an act that made her realize that he needed one too.

******

He was fast asleep by the time she lay down and extinguished the flame burning inside the lamp. It had been an intense two days, and she was more than ready to get some rest.

She closed her eyes and started counting rabbits while waiting for her conscious mind to slip away. Unfortunately, something soon happened, which filled her with alarm and left her doubting whether it was even possible to pull off a ruse this big.

She heard Ichiro roll over and knew that he had woken up upon hearing those shocking words.

"If I'm dead, then why do I feel the need to pee?"