You're new to this job, are you not?

You must be confused. Scared, even. Humans are always scared, when they come to this place, honoured and revered by both peasants and kings.

Your name... Queen? What have you done, to inherit such a cursed name? Who were you, in your past life?

... Your silence tells me many things, child. Do you remember anything? Did the Seers make a mistake with you? Were you even dead, when they sent them to collect you?

I can't remember.

Can't remember? No, child. You won't remember. Anything – life, and all the emotions that come with it – that could get in the way of your mission will be forgotten. Must be forgotten.

Have I been forgotten, too?

Not forgotten. The dead are never forgotten. Their essences continue existing in the furthest corners of people's minds, until they are dismissed into the dark place where memories go to collect dust. You are still fresh. They will remember you, but you will know when they forget. 

Do I have a name?

You had a name. Everything here, in this place atop the candyfloss clouds, lives in the past tense. You had a name. You were a girl. You were alive. We are the moments in between, seeking catalysts to bring us back into the present. These catalysts... Sometimes, I doubt their true existence. What force could possible be strong enough, to bring one back from the line between the dead and the living? It is impossible.

Did you have a name?

Yes. Everyone did; even the Seers. But the Remembering... Listen well. The Seers know your name.

Queen?

No. The name you possessed when you were alive. And if they ever make an offer to reveal this name to you, you must refuse. Do you understand?

Yes.

Good. I will walk you through the procedure. Once you reach the surface, The Seers will... gift you... with a personality. Your own personality, from when you were still in the living realm. You may experience a slight physical reaction – uncontrollable shaking, drooling, weak knees, unglamorous reactions such as those – but the possibility of that is very low.

When you return, that personality will be taken from you, and you will forget everything that occurred while you were 'working'. It is for the better, Queen. It will hurt the first few times, but you will adapt. Do you understand?

Yes.

Now. I have a request for you, from the Seers.

You are a Collector now, Queen. Yippee.

And your first job...

"Where are you?"

I am here. You make a very interesting looking human, Queen. Golden eyes do not occur on our Collectors very often at all. Do you remember this place?

"Yes," you say. "Daegu. Seo District."

So you remember. The Seers will have to take another look at you, you know. In case you're an Anomaly. Orient yourself, and we will seek out this... person.

"There is no need for me to orient myself. I am ready."

You will make a good Collector. He is somewhere here, but there is no specific location. You understand the... procedure, yes?

Your face heats up in a blush. "Um. I guess so."

I see you are accustomed to your new body already. I have never seen a Collector like you, who has so quickly mastered human expression. Exceptional.

Your chest tightens as a sour smile pulls at your mouth.

"I was always a quick learner."

The Seers had a list. A list of jobs. A list of people.

There was no difference between the two.

You got your first glimpse of this list on your fourteenth day as a Collector.

Kim Jaegu, 19. Time of death: 14:42. Cause of death: respiratory failure.

Jang Bi-an, 24. Time of death: 04:53. Cause of death: heart failure.

Park Si-Won, 12. Time of death: 00:12. Cause of death: blood loss.

Bang Ah-Ri, 4. Time of death: 12:12. Cause of death: malnutrition.

Your 365th entry was a little different.

Kim Taehyung, 20. Time of death: undetermined. Cause of death: undetermined.

You didn't seem perturbed, so the Seers overlooked the boy who was called Kim Taehyung, thinking that perhaps it was just a mistake, perhaps he was just an Anomaly.

Perhaps it was just a misspelling on a list on which nothing could be misspelt. 

What a mistake that was.

Being a Seeker, I thought I had seen everything there was to see in the world.

I was wrong.

You were an exceptional Collector. Work and emotion – though the latter did not hold any place of importance, the longer you Collected – were two very different things for you. You never let the two intermix.

You were the perfect Collector, in the eyes of the Seers.

You were also very beautiful, which caught the attention of several of the Seers, and many of the newer Collectors, who had not yet cut their ties with the living realm. 

Many talked about your eyes. Golden eyes were not common. The possibility of you being an Anomaly became a rising issue of concern for the Seers.

They took precautions against you, because they were scared of you.

I certainly was.

After a time, things settled down. You did your job. I guided you. The Seers watched on from their positions on the shoulders of the giants. The humans below us lived and died and became Collectors. We all presumed that you would melt into the background and then all the fuss would disappear and we could play through our pathetic, monotonous lives for the rest of eternity.

Because we lived our lives to play the game.

We were wrong.

September the 30th, 2016.

You step out into the human world for the umpteenth time and cast your eyes upwards towards the night sky with a small smile. The star-speckled sky seems to smile back for a moment before disappearing beneath the covers of dusk. It's almost midnight. The wind picks up and runs its fingers through your long, dark hair. You are as beautiful as the day you died, at the tender age of nineteen. Time doesn't affect you like it affects the other Collectors. Somewhere within their dormant consciences, they feel a twinge of jealousy, before they dismiss it with a faint sense of perplexion. Why do I feel? they think.

The Seers are watching you, this time. September 30th was the day you had Transferred a year previously.

Odd things happened on days of Transferral, and they were only more wary of your potential as they issued you your 365th name. 

Kim Taehyung, 20. Time of death: undetermined. Cause of death: undetermined.

"A year already, huh?"

You seem satisfied with something, Queen.

You exhale and roll your eyes. "A year is a long time, when you're a human," you sigh wistfully. "The air tastes crisper than usual today..."

That is a normal reaction. The day of Transferral invokes reactions from all Collectors. You are not exempted from this.

"Reactions?" you laugh, starting down the street with an odd skip in your step. "Maybe they're remnants of memories, from when I was alive." Your tone is joking, but something in your golden eyes says something different altogether. Somehow, your face seems more alive today, shining with a vibrancy that stems not from the dim lamplights of the street, but from something that's burning furiously in the very centre of your pupils. 

Reactions indeed. I have fostered many Collectors before you. Enhancement of the senses, telepathy – though limited, physical transformation, even levitation... We still do not know the scope of such reactions. I believe that each reaction is specific to each individual. On the other hand, The Seers are going to interrogate you when you return. Queen, saying things like that without inhibition isn't viewed favourably. 

"It was only a suggestion," you reply calmly as a spasmodic shiver runs down your goosebump-covered arms. The air suddenly seems charged. Out of pure instinct, you place a hand on your hip, where your puny human knife is hidden. "Something about this place... do you feel it?"

I do. It feels... wrong. I suggest you get out of there immediately and let the Seers deal with this.

You bristle. Somewhere along the way, you had come to the conclusion that anything that was even remotely associated with the Seers was an unsavoury thing, not to be mentioned within the bounds of respectability.

"I suggest that you mind your own business. This is my name."

Your sense of duty is clouding your judgement. The Transferral is making you stupid. This presence is not that of a human.

"Then what else could it be but a rogue Collector? I'm not going to run. I don't have anything to lose anyway, right?"

You are not being reasonable.

"I am being rational."

Queen.

"Seeker."

And then you disappear.

BANG BANG BANG weird concepts comin in left and right :D this is gonna be my kinda spare-time story. I'll update when I don't have anything else to do ~

i feel like this is going to have at least two chapters. i can't fit it all into one chapter, that's for sure > <

how do you guys like this kind of writing? it's really fun... talking like a posh person :3

man, i feel like this narrator guy is way cooler than i'm giving him credit for. hehe

and isn't queen an awesome nickname?~

if you like this story, then check out my ongoing fanfic, 'Roses for the Unfortunate'! 

- Yukarin