25 years later

Five girls in highschool uniforms walked across the mossy bridge after school, a lively bunch, except one who shivered at the story her friend was telling.

“Mikoto, enough, I’m scared.” One girl tugged at the back of her bestfriend’s shirt. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold, her eyes pleading as she sniffed.

Mikoto shook her head and patted her friend’s hair fondly, “Mmm mm Yuki-chan, Don’t worry, they say you only see her if you are about to commit suicide on this bridge like she did.”

A mischievous look crossed Mikoto’s face, she crept behind Yuki, and Yuki responded with a worried look, “Do you... want to...go for a swim?!” Mikoto pushed Yuki towards the railing and Yuki screamed for her life.

All the other girls laughed, Mikoto had grabbed Yuki’s hand before she could go too far, she pulled Yuki back under her arm and rubbed her shoulder soothingly.

“Why are you like this?!” Yuki shouted in an affronted manner and pushed Mikoto away, yet Mikoto refused to budge and instead rubbed her cheek to Yuki’s forehead, Yuki huffed in response. 

Mikoto’s phone suddenly started to ring, and the other girls apart from Yuki to laugh among themselves.

“Are you gonna pick it up or what?”

“No way.” Mikoto chuckled.

“I want an older boyfriend too.” One of the girls said forlornly and the others laughed. “A handsome one to boot.” she added.

“Oh yeah? Have you seen the new transfer student in our class, he’s pretty hot. Why don’t you ask him out.” Mikoto said, smirking at the girl. "There's no way an older guy would want someone like you, you aren't even filled out yet." Mikoto finished and the other girls snickered at their flatchested friend who didn't mind the taunting.

Yuki never laughed at their jokes, she always found herself hurt by them and wondered if she had a problem for not finding them funny.

“Nah, he’s cute alright, but do you see what they do to him?” The flat chested girl continued, Mao was her name.

The other girls hummed their agreement.

“He has a weird backstory too, no one knows why he transferred so late in the year. I heard a rumor he went crazy at his old school”

“That’s probably not true, he gets the best grades in our whole class. Crazy people aren’t that focused.” someone chimed, Rika, Mao's cousin who was just as mean spirited as Mao.

“You would know.” Mikoto replied and the girls burst out in a chorus of laughter. All except Yuki who just walked quietly beside Mikoto.

“Anyway I wouldn't date him, that would be social suicide no matter how cute he is.” Mao finalised looking at her perfectly manicured nails.

“Hello?” Mikoto finally picked up her incessantly ringing phone. “Nothing, I'm just going to get ice cream with my friends.”

“Okay, after that, bye.”

“Let's go, I'll get you an apology ice cream for scaring you.” Mikoto started to run forward with Yuki’s hand still in hers, the other girls followed at their own pace, while Yuki and Mikoto drew strange looks from passersby.

A pair of unseen eyes watched them, Shizuko kicked her legs back and forth where she sat on the railing. She kicked her legs out underneath her and hopped off the railing landing gracelessly on the tarred road, she put her hands on her waist and an easy grin spread across her face, people were still telling her story after all this time.

She was like a guard now, in that she couldn’t leave the bridge. Tenshi-sama told her she had to save a hundred lives from ending prematurely like hers did. Then and only then could she cross over, but many years had passed and she hadn’t convinced a single person to stop.

“Tenshi-sama?” Shizuko asked. “How many people have I saved so far?”

The angel looked at her and laughed, “Are you joking? you’re so bad at this.” 

“It is not even my fault, I should get points for trying.”

Tenshi-sama nodded, “You shoud get points for how funny you look when they ignore you.” 

Shizuko sighed in frustration “I’m underqualified for this job.”

“Yes, yes you are.”

Shizuko side-eyed Tenshi-sama, “And you, you never help.”

“Not my job.”

Shizuko punched the air around her and then breathed out a calming breath through her nose.

Her angel was unusual, he looked like a middle-aged man, a burly teddy bear, as well as the soft and kind Santa Claus, with absolutely none of those attributes personality wise. He had dark hair, with a receding hairline, and wore glasses which made him look like a tired salary man. 

“My appearance was your doing.” He replied curtly the one time she asked him and Shizuko had smirked. Tenshi-sama didn’t appear to help her for a month after that incident, when he did return he was in better spirits, which wasn’t saying much.

Shizuko whined, “At this rate I’ll never cross over!” 

Shizuko froze at the thought, hugging herself, and her eyes darted from side to side.

The angel looked at the railing, many souls were just jumping and reappearing and jumping off again without their control. 

They were serving a sentence of sorts, the other side wasn’t ready for their souls to return so the souls would get stuck in a loop of the last moment of their life, like a VCR stuck on repeat. This would continue until the point in time when they were actually supposed to die, and then they would move on.

“Well the other way is impossible for you so we can’t even consider it.” Tenshi-sama said. He rubbed his chubby chin with his equally chubby fingers. 

 Shizuko’s ears perked at a very familiar yelp that joined the cacophony of screams already present near them, it must have been 6pm already, that was the time Aimi appeared everyday. 

Shizuko looked forward to seeing Aimi.

Aimi was a highschool student who had at least listened to Shizuko fully before jumping, her sad eyes were to deep to clear of the storms that rumbled through them, yet there was kindness behind them that kept Shizuko coming back to see her even after she had taken the leap. The day she leapt, she said Shizuko had looked familiar to her but she couldn’t place exactly how.

Shizuko spinned on the balls of her feet, her eyes landing back on her angel. “Tenshi-sama.”

Tenshi-sama startled and nodded for her to continue, “Mark my words, I’m getting off this bridge if it’s the last thing I do.” a fire alite in her eyes.

Tenshi-sama did not respond, not at all confident in her declaration.

“It’s strange,” Tenshi-sama said from nowhere, “ how you’re not in a loop like them but you died like them.” He motioned to where people were flinging themselves off the bridge over and over again. Tenshi-sama got lost in his thoughts.

“What’s wrong?” Shizuko asked.

“No matter how I think about it, your existence has to be breaking some kind of rule.” Tenshi-sama concluded.

Shizuko just looked at his face scrunching up in confusion, and not a second later he disappeared into thin air.

Shizuko shrugged and ran over to where Aimi was throwing herself of the bridge.

“I saw you with...Ah!!” Aimi began then jumped and reappeared once more then continued, “Tenshi-sama.” She talked as Shizuko approached her spot.

“What was he telling you…AAH!!” She said, fell then reappeared. “You don’t look happ…”

“Nothing.” Shizuko responded, then waited for her to reappear, and she did.

“Oh, I remembered something toda…” Aimi chimed in again, Shizuko hummed in return.

“Your uniform was from my school…” Aimi said in a hurry. “ It's the old design and the badge is faded so it was…” , “ hard to tell.” 

Aimi pointed out to Shizuko and she looked at her uniform. It was not only faded but had holes in its pockets, her shoes were partially detached from their soles in a sorry state, and it must have been this way even before she died.

There was something on her that seemed brand new however, the red scarf wrapped neatly around her neck.

A tall dark figure walked past in her periphery before she could reply and it caught her attention. The form was slouched in on itself moving with long strides on the other side of the bridge

The figure was dressed in a high school uniform with a black backpack strewn over one shoulder. They had a scarf covering half their face and a navy-blue hoodie covering their head.

Shizuko looked back at Aimi to continue what she was about to say when Aimi reappeared and said, “They’re jumping!” 

Shizuko’s head snapped in the direction of the figure that was slouched in on itself, automatically. Indeed the person was climbing up the shoulder height railing of the concrete bridge.

They’re shoes made scuffing sounds on the wall of the railing, the wind pushing the sounds through the air.

Shizuko ran to the person at full speed leaving Aimi behind, “Wait, wait a second please!” She didn’t have much hope whenever she did this but she always tried.

She reached the person but they were already bent over at the waist, their lower half on the bridge and their top half barely visible over the railing. They were using a very awkward position for someone who was trying to jump off the bridge.

The person started to slide forward and their legs flapped for purchase, Shizuko wrapped her hands around the person’s legs and her eyes widened in shock at the fact that she could actually touch them.

She pulled the person back onto the bridge with all her might, they were so heavy in that position.

“Don’t do it!” Shizuko wheezed at the person who had landed with a thud on the ground in front of her

 The person groaned as they sat up leveraging their elbows under them and the scarf began to slowly slide off their face, including the hoodie. 

Shizuko’s hairs stood on end as she traced the sharp lines of the boy's face that was being revealed. His hair was a brazen shock of white, covering some parts of his soft brown eyes with his fringe, his skin a warm copper color and Shizuko’s fingers twitched at the sight of it.

“Ah, you’re bleeding.”  Shizuko said offhandedly noticing for the first time the bruises littering the boy's charming face. The boy became tense looking everywhere except for where Shizuko knelt before him.