“Throughout mankind’s ceaseless construction, many dreadful concepts formed that humanity has been unable to break free from, and have since been dragging on the species. Conflict, violence, war, prejudice, oppression, taxation; as a curse for their destructive creation, they’ve been bound to humanity’s core. Forever shackled, a divine judgment for their sin.”

In the middle of a brewing sandstorm, a single figure, bulky in human stature but weirdly shaped, stumbles aimlessly through the swirling dust storm. It doesn’t know whether or not it’s alone within this hectic blowing wind, all it could do was take one step at a time across the hot sand, proving ever difficult as it once again fell to the ground.

“These concepts brought to fruition by mankind’s actions became the core of what binds a person’s soul, their sins; immoral acts of regrettable faults.”

After picking itself up, the figure grabbed at the glowing chain around its shoulder, trying to yank it off with the ferocity of a starving beast tearing into a hard-earned kill. Since the moment this cursed iron was placed on them, nothing but searing pain has been inflicted on him and this being craved relief even for a single moment. Yet despite the tremendous strength behind their effort, it bore fruitless to even shift the chain on its body.

“No matter how minor or insignificant they are, actions will always have consequences and when acts of sin are committed, their effects on the human soul can stain like coal.”

Unable to escape from his torment with no destination in sight, the figure awash in the middle of a brewing sandstorm could only scream to their solitude.

“For centuries, humanity has attempted endless schemes in hopes of circumventing this undisputed law of the universe; mankind’s greatest and most trivial ventures.”

“Because of–”

“I’m sorry where is this going?” interrupted Kokoro, befuddled by what he was hearing.

An astounded Mary halted her speech, asking, “Excuse me?”

“What does any of this have to do with why my heart is not beating or anything that I asked.”

“I was working my way up to it so you’ll have the full context.”

“That’ll be you dripping in valuable swabs of explanations or backstory behind words, concepts, events I may not understand or know of; you were giving me some biblical-psychology manifesto that was completely unsolicited.”

The angel’s eyes diverted for a moment as she mumbled under her breath, “Well I thought it was an engaging opener.”

“From whatever script you had prepared, just say the parts related to what I asked,” Kokoro requested, he’s still processing dying yesterday and wasn’t in the mood to fill his mind with more ominous detail than he already has to deal with.

“This wasn’t scripted, it’s far from it! You took nearly everything I had that was planned with you when you jumped out the window,” for a split second, the angel showed visible signs of irritation thinking back on it; even her usual soothing angelic tone cracked but she quickly calmed herself and sent her attention back to Kokoro, “So I’m doing my best to caught us up, like telling you important details so you understand the logic behind how all of this work.”

“I much prefer it if we get to the point. Having all the endless time in Purgatory, you have a surplus time to fill me in on the meager details another time. Besides, we agree I’ll hear out whatever you have to say after you settle my questions.”

There was a short pause from the angel before she replied, “....Wait, no it wasn’t, it was the opposite way around!”

“Tch, you remembered,” the silver-ghoul grumbled under his breath, a night to finally digest some of the events he experienced yesterday made him realize what he entailed to himself due to the wording of the deal made and hoped no one cared or was paying attention enough to notice it as well.

Unfortunately, he severely underestimated Mary’s investment in him.

Internally, Mary sighed to herself, “From what I knew of him, I expected some stubbornness but he far surpassed my expectations of how hard it’ll be to convince him. No matter, the effort you put into growing a plant will show when they sprout; I just need to make it till the end. People like him, once you get them on your side they’ll be invaluable to whatever cause you’re after, and that stubbornness of his will be key.”

Approaching him, the angel shined a bright smile as she said, “Maybe I’ve been a bit too demanding of you at once.”

Her almost instant switch back to her collective and angelic tone startled Kokoro’s mellow composure.

“It’ll be a little difficult explaining it in a way to encompass the importance of everything, but I’ll do my best,” she continued, holding out her hands. The angel gestured for Kokoro’s arm, the one bounded by the chain that’s been attached to his body since he woke up in Purgatory.

Still faintly taken back and questioning her intentions, the silver-haired dead man raised his requested arm to her, allowing her to do as she pleased.

Gracefully, Mary accepted his arm, showing great care in cradling it because of the trust given to her. Attentively, she positioned her hands so that each finger would avoid touching any part of the chain and examined the mysterious metal. She states, “The chain that’s binding you is the concentrated darkness tethered to your soul manifested, it’s the reason why you’re trapped here.”

“I’m in Purgatory because of this?” questioned Kokoro, staring at the skull attached to the chain positioned on his backhand and remembering how the night before the eye sockets were glowing red.

Nodding, Mary continued to explain, “As I said before, the actions of men will always have consequences; no matter what. It doesn’t matter the size or scale, even if it was something no one saw or a secret no one knows about, even if you never directly got any ramification for it during your lifetime, even if you wholehearted refuse to acknowledge this law; what you’ve done will always remain imprinted on you. An unerasable reverberation on the human soul.”

Her lavender eyes rose to meet the dim vacant eyes of Kokoro, a stern yet elegant look that steals the attention away from the gritty curse placed upon him, “Most actions isolated won’t drastically shake up the soul; you don’t notice every smudge on a mirror, do you? But consecutive instances of ill-natured actions will build up over time, and that cumulative darkness staining one’s soul can evolve into infectious corruption. Like a dormant disease, you may not notice it when you’re in the mortal living world but once your soul leaves your deceased body and enters the other planes of existence, they’ll appear. Forming into symbols that weigh down your soul, a Soul Chain.”

“But how does that trap me here? Where is this chain even preventing me from going,” asked Kokoro, so far this Soul Chain she speaks of has only caused minor irritations to him but nothing major, “It feels more of an inconvenience really, what could such a small thing do?”

Giggling for a moment, Mary pointed up to the sky stating, “To the kingdom far beyond the skies we see, heaven. Like gravity, your sins corrupt your ability to move freely. Without them, you wouldn’t believe the divine heights humanity can reach.”

“If only I had a thousand yen every time I hear about how humanity is kneecapping its potential,” Kokoro scoffed to himself, though his career wasn’t long there were countless times in his line of work alone where he met people like that. Then like a flash, last night's dream went through his mind and his Soul Chain started constricting, causing the twisted metal to dig into his arm. Grunting at the pain, his body instinctively jerked at the sudden application of pain. Clutching his fist and speaking through gritted teeth, he tells Mary, “That’s quite a premise with a large promise you’re expecting me to go along with.”

The tranquil aura in Mary’s eye didn’t falter as she replied, “It may be wishful thinking hoping someone like yourself will fully embrace what I’m saying. But, I think we both can agree that it’ll be a lot more convenient if people weren’t shackled with these curses.”

As Mary spoke, she closed her hands around the chain and an aura emitted from her. Suddenly the discomfort being inflicted on his arm began to ease as the Soul Chain's tight grip became lax.

Spotting relief coming to his expression, Mary brightened her smile toward him in celebration.

Pulling away from her, Kokoro mumbled, “I suppose. How does one go about getting rid of our curses?”

“That’s where I complete my part of the bargain.”

“You’re too late!”

CRACK!

“Is everything ok?” a soothing voice called out.

Kokoro opened his eyes to find himself sitting on the floor inside of a building and the gleaming cuissardes Mary wore were walking over to him. He gave the angel a perplexed look, both to see what she wanted and because he didn’t remember what he was doing here; it felt as if he blacked out.

Calmly, Mary tells him, “You broke another one.”

Looking at the palm of his hand, the silver-haired ghoul found a crystal the weight of a pencil and half the length snapped in two on top of a tiny puddle of clear liquid.

That was when it came back to him, remembering how he got here. Mary took him to a building near the one where he woke up and first met her. The angel had brought him inside a kind of dome they called a Limbo Room that had an entire forest inside, including a running waterfall and woodland creatures, and handed him this weird crystal before telling him to meditate. While the meditation obviously wasn't going well, it was nostalgic for Kokoro to be here since this forest was reminiscent of the rainforests he visited in his younger years.

“Whatever I’m doing here, at least I can look up at a blue sky again,” thought Kokoro, cleaning up his hands in the nearby river before addressing Mary, “Sorry, I put too much pressure on it.”

“Don’t worry about it, we got tons more. You use as many as you need,” assured Mary, sliding over a bowl filled with those kinds of crystals.

Picking another one up, Kokoro started examining it before asking, “What are these? I’ve never encountered a gem I could break so easily.”

“That’s because they’re the harvested sack of a Potator Bug. Think of them like mosquitoes here, rumor has it that one is created for every toxic relationship that forms in the mortal world.”

Disgust filled Kokoro's face as he questioned, “.....Why did you give me a bowl filled with bug sacks?”

“To help bring out your Anima; the inner energy of the soul.”

“And you’re sure I have this Anima you speak of?”

“Yes I’m sure, everyone has Anima!” the angel chuckled, quite amused with how questioning this mortal was being that he didn't even realize what he implied, “It’s a type of energy humans generate with their soul, so unless you’re suggesting you don’t have one, anyone with a soul have Anima.”

With a single breath, an aura emitted throughout Mary’s entire body. Translucent in nature, Kokoro saw firsthand how the grass at her feet began diverging away from her and felt the slight change of wind pattern around. Despite being so close to energy with enough power to affect the environment around the angel, he felt no resistance being in its presence, only calm warmth that traveled across his skin.

After her demonstration, the angel tells him, “Hope that’ll be helpful, try to aim for a feeling similar to that.”

“Then why do I need this parasite to bring that out if we already know I have it? Why am I doing most of this?” queried Kokoro, gesturing to the forest environment and his meditation pose.

“He’s curious! I hope this means he’s interested, the more intrigued one is, the more likely one is going to invest in it,“ Mary thought with glee, maintaining her elegant composure she explained, “A Potator Bug can suck away at your Anima, which then goes into the crystal. What the crystal does afterward depends on the person they sucked blood on.”

“How does that work?”

“Human souls are each unique, they all have their own personality and traits that influence who they are as people, thus the Anima they can generate are as well. Anima isn’t a concept too new to humanity. Within the realm you previously lived in there were methods of bringing out a person’s anima in different forms, they were under many names; mana, chakra, and a lot of spiritual teachings were derivatives of ways to channel the energy a soul creates. Of course, such methods were often heavily deluded making their way over to the mortal realm because of human corruption, human interpretations, and the limits of your living bodies.”

The angel squatted down to be on eye level with Kokoro, “While everyone has Anima, fewer can generate enough of that kind of soul energy to effectively use or express. Being so fresh from the living world your soul is dulled in expressing its soul energy in the form you’re currently in. Depending on the person, sometimes it’ll take them months to years, even decades here to reach that state.”

“You expect me to be doing this for years!?” immediately exclaimed Kokoro, his face contorted into one of repulse and even worse for the angel, disinterest.

“No, no, no, not that at all,” Mary quickly corrected, trying to steer his mindset away from where it was, “That’s what the crystal and meditation are for, they help make the whole process easier. Everyone needs to look into themself to best generate their Anima, with the crystal helping us tell what kind of Anima you generate and some self-reflection, I think someone like yourself would be able to find your way rather quickly.”

Kokoro raised an eyebrow at her, ”How quickly?”

“That depends on you,” she responded rather swiftly. 

From Kokoro's observations, he deduced no lie or trick in what Mary was saying but by the way the angel was now smiling, he could tell there was something she wasn’t saying. Not deceitfully but with more concern. The stone-faced man was more surprised that an angel would show such emotions. He never read much into them but Kokoro always imagined if they existed they'd be like meeting the ultimate Phone Operator.

Rocky start aside, there was a choice to be made.

With a sigh, Kokoro states, “Alright, let’s see.”

Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was trust, or maybe Kokoro was just bored because he realized he theoretically had an eternity of time on his hands. Whatever it was, it was enough for him to continue going along with what Mary was roping him into; for now.