Shinigami manual or how to become a shinigami step by step

Chapter 5 : Be aware of your ancestry

-Say, why are you staring at that thing with those eyes? It's just a faded piece of cloth... he pulls me out of my reflection, tugging on the talisman to inspect it curiously.

-This faded piece of cloth is a shinigami assistant master's talisman," I finally explained. It belonged to your grandfather, who must surely have been one, and is imbued with his power. In other words, it's like an imprint, a beacon. If you keep it with you, it's like claiming your grandfather's identity. You become a target with a red cross on it.

The boy swallowed. He finally dropped the talisman and stepped back a little.

-When you talk about power, what exactly are you referring to?

-The power to see what belongs to the other world, the power of the Arcanians, I reply. Your grandfather was very powerful and his power must have been colossal because he was an assistant master.

-So if I can see you, it's thanks to this... power?

He looks at me uncertainly. He seems to be starting to believe what I'm telling him. Strange as it may seem, he who had been so rebellious just a few minutes earlier was integrating the information I was giving him quite well. As if he wasn't so surprised after all.

-That's right," I say with an affirmative shake of my head. Although you don't seem to have woken them up long ago... When did you say your grandfather had died?

-Just under a week ago," replies Akira, rubbing his chin.

-So you've had this talisman for a week or so?

He nods.

-And you've never seen a shadow or a shinigami before, have you?

-no...

I sigh. No matter how much I hope I'm wrong, everything pushes me mercilessly towards the inescapable conclusion I wanted to avoid at all costs. But you can't prevent things from happening just because you don't like them. At most, you can delay them by pretending they're not happening, but that's all there is to it. In the end, we couldn't stop them from happening, or prevent their impact.

-Ah, I think everything is the cause of this talisman," I murmur.

I feel the weight of the boy's gaze on me. I close my eyes. I have no choice but to explain everything to him. What bad luck to have bumped into him that day! All my plans had fallen through because of him, and it was particularly depressing. But now I don't have much choice. Now that it's come to this, I can't go back. And I might as well protect him, his life is now linked to mine. I can't act with the same impunity as before.

-Well, listen to me carefully because I'm not going to repeat myself, I'm being authoritative. I think your grandfather sealed your powers when you were born, and this talisman broke the seal. That's why you can suddenly see shadows, and see me most of all.

-Sealed my powers? he makes, surprised. But why would he do that?

-Surely to spare you the same life he led," I say, lowering my eyes.

Suddenly, shame seizes me. I think of this human as a nuisance who stumbled upon me by accident, but in reality he's just as miserable as I am. His fate is surely just as tragic, as he is destined to die young and live a life of misery. He's not supposed to exist, just like me. Who am I to treat him this way when I'm the same species as him?

Master shinigamis are beings who once served very high-ranking shinigamis," I explain in a softer voice. They were the bridges between the other world and the world of the living and their existence made the work of the shinigami much easier. The shadows didn't roam your world because of their work. They drew their immense power from the shinigami themselves because they shared their blood.