People die through one of two ways. They live to their bodys natural end, or they attract misfortune. In the former case, if the grim reaper does not claim the soul, and guide it to an afterlife/new life, the soul stays in the body like a captain going down with the ship. In the latter case, the soul wants to die, and so attracts bad fortune to it. If the soul does not die through misfortune (which a reaper arranges so as to give cause to leave the body), the soul basically destroys itself, becoming a dead soul. That's what a reaper is, a soul that can t feel anymore. Reapers help themselves by guiding bodies, renewing the souls of the former living, they renew their souls. And the souls they guide return to life. Reapers protect the living from decay, and send them onto new life.