#I Blame the new Sandman series for reigniting my interest in Gaiman's work

[phantoms-lair]

Phantom Detective Meets the Dead Boy Detectives (And Death)

Visiting London has been a lifelong dream of Shinichi's, and now he'd done it. And even better it was with Ran, and he'd gone to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum, and solved a case, and best of all no one in this country knew he was dead on sight. (Well besides Ran and her father, but still). 

It was nice to just be a tourist without being the 'Phantom Detective'. He much preferred being 'Holmes’s Apprentice'. 

"Doyle would have eaten you up. His love of spiritualism and deductive reasoning all in one person?" 

Shinichi jumped. 

He hadn't noticed anyone approach, not since Ran left to check in with her father, but now there was an extremely pale young woman, dressed head to toe in black. Not his favorite color, but thankfully she had more of a Goth vibe that the more threatening one the organization used. "Spiritualism?" 

The young woman smiled at him. She seemed so familiar, but at the same time he was certain he'd never seen her before. 

"Authors aren't their characters. Holmes believed in nothing but what could be seen and observed. Doyle, on the other hand, strongly believed in ghosts and spirits. It was a bit of contention between him and Houdini." There was an excitement in her voice, like his when discussing his favorite mystery novels.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Shinichi had a feeling. Not a bad one, more a feeling of being overwhelmed. She didn't set off his ghost sense, there were no tears running down his face, but this whole situation reeked of Danny's side of things. 

"You know who I am." She said with a pleasant, but knowing smile. 

Except he didn't. But he did. It was like the answer was clawing at his brain, trying to tear it's way out. "You're not human." 

"No, I'm not." She agreed. 

"And you never were human. Or a ghost." 

"Partial credit. I do have to be human one day a century, so I have been human."

 She was old. Shinichi, knew it in his gut. Older than just a few centuries, older than humanity. Okay, this was obviously a supernatural thing, maybe if he tried leaning into his ghostly instincts more he could-

 And just like that he knew her. "Death."

“You got it!” She said, grinning like, well, like the opposite of everything his human side ever considered the spectre of death to be like. “I don’t usually talk with mortals, but you guys aren’t exactly mortals. People with one foot in my realm, but who I haven’t taken? It’s so cool!”

“Thanks,” Shinichi said, rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. 

“Anyway, I was wondering if, since you’re in town, I was wondering if you could help me with a couple of ghosts I’m having trouble with.” “I’ll try, but I’m not Danny. Ran’s always been the better fighter between the two of us.”

“It’s not fighting,” Death assured him, “You see one of the died at a really weird time-”

~

Shinichi stood in front of the treehouse and sighed. They were in there, just like she said. The emotionless tears that fell from his eyes proved it. "Can we talk? Ghost to Ghosts?"

Two heads cautiously peered cautiously out the window. They apparently could mimic the living well enough to pass, but right now their eyes were just an empty white. Well, they were listening, at least. "I'm Shinichi Kudo, visiting from Japan, and I've been asked by a third party to discuss afterlife options with Charles Rowland." 

"He's working with her." The blond boy hissed.

The brown haired one leaned out the treehouse window. "I told her, I'm not leaving without Edwin."

 I couldn't take Edwin where Charles was supposed to go. And Charles didn't belong where Edwin was 

"Did you ever wonder why she didn't press the issue at the time?"

"She was busy." Charles sounded defensive. "Someone kicked all the damned out of hell and they were mucking things up for the living. I'm sure I'm not the only person they killed." 

That was...okay look Shinichi had gotten a lot better about ghosts existing, but he was not ready to deal with the fact that there was a couple of days where the worst of the dead walked among the living and it wasn't a global mass hallucination like he'd always thought. 

"Death doesn't decide where people go. She's simply the end, not the destination after. She has no control over where the people she takes end up." 

Did Edwin belong where Edwin was? 

He thought he did 

"You're detectives. Think. Don't you find it odd that the rest of Hell's residents were rounded up and returned, but not Edwin?"

 "What does that have to do with any-"

 "She didn't want to take me back." Edwin whispered, cutting Charles off, his eyes wide with realization. 

"Well, we can all agree you never going back there." Charles said in a huff.

"She didn't want to take me back." Edwin was firmer now. "But she could have. So if she wanted to get us, why didn't she?" 

"From what she told me, souls need to be taken when they die. Edwin was taken. Charles wasn't. And that's causing problems. Well, maybe not causing, making it easier for problems to happen?" He was human, even if a ghostly one, and his brain flat out wasn't wired to understand some of what she'd apologetically tried to explain. "The point is, Charles needs to go to an afterlife. But that afterlife can be right here."

"If my afterlife can be right here, why do I need to be taken at all?" Charles challenged. 

"I don't know." Shinichi huffed. "I'm a ghost, not a god. I don't know how the underpinnings of it all work. But I do know she doesn't hunt down ghosts. There are entire communities of us, and I don't know if you get the news, but you would not believe what they get up to in America." 

"It's America." Edwin said in deadpan. 

"Point." Shinichi smiled at the joke. "Look, she doesn't want to forcibly press the issue because your own perceptions affect it. So if you believe she's dragging you somewhere you don't want to be, that's where you'll end up. But it's been years and the hiccup of you not being taken is gaining size like a snowball going down the mountain. It's getting close to the point where she'll have to do something like it or not. 

"And what's your role in all this?" Edwin questioned. 

"Convenient Messenger." Shinichi shrugged. "You wouldn't stay still around her long enough to explain it, and might not have believed her if she did. And I can provide empirical proof that she doesn't mindlessly chase down ghosts to whisk them away to the afterlife." He paused considering. "Though as I said, she has no skin in the afterlife realms game. So if you see an entity trying to cajole you to their side of things? Not working for her, feel free to ignore."

The two heads disappeared into the treehouse and Shinichi waited for them to talk it over. Finally they poked back out. “You said you can prove there are other ghosts out there?”

“Sure.” Shinichi pulled out his phone and called a familiar number. “Dani-tan, it’s Shinichi. I’ve got a couple of ghosts here I need to convince other ghosts exist. No they are not in worse denial than I was, I’m trying to convince them that Shinigami doesn’t force ghosts to an other planar afterlife. I’ll pass you along.”

Shinichi levitated the phone up to the treehouse. Charles took it warily. A young girl with black hair waved at them from the screen. “First things first. Can you prove you’re a ghost?” Edwin asked. “Of course.” The girl reached into the neck of her hoodie and pulled out a necklace. She lifted it above her mouth and made a show of dropping it in. She swallowed it, then phased her hand through her torso and pulled it out. “Tada!” “Okay, that’s some proper ghosting. How many other ghosts do you know, especially ones that are older than Kudo?” Dani snorted. “Please. Shinichi is the babyest of baby ghosts. I’ve known more ghosts than living people, though that’s in the process of changing, and some of them are centuries old. I think Pandora is the oldest, she’s from Ancient Greece.”

“And none of them are worried about Death coming after them?” Charles asked. “Why, they’re already dead? Been there, done that. There are actual things to worry about, like Hunters with ectoplasmic weapons or other ghosts that have been around forever and have let their power outweigh their common sense. Have you really had no contact with other ghosts? We need to get you some friends! Anything else?”

“I think we’re good.” Edwin turned his attention to Charles as Dani hung up. “What do you think?”

“It seems  like they’re telling the truth but…what if they’re not? What if it’s a trap to take me away?” “I don’t think it is. Kudo was right, if she managed to get all the souls back to hell just like that, there’s now way she couldn’t have just sent me back as well. And if she isn’t going to force me back to Hell, then she’s probably not going to force you somewhere else. And worse comes to worse, these past few decades? They were the best of my life.”  

“Mine too.” Charles admitted. “And if I really am causing problems…I don’t want to be responsible for something like what happened to me to happen to anyone else.” He looked out the window. “I’m ready.”

“That’s great!” Shinichi jumped a few inches in the air, startled as Death appeared beside him as if she’s always been there. He hovered nervously for a second  before setting his feet back on the ground.

Charles gulped and floated down, Edwin close on his heels. “So I just take your hand?” “Simple as that.” Death extended her hand as she'd done in the attic of St. Hilarion's and hesitantly Charles took it. The sound of wings filled the area around the treehouse and Charles was gone. 

“No,” Edwin whispered, falling to his knees.

“He’ll be back,” Death promised. “He just needs a minute to sort himself out properly. But in the meantime there’s something you should know. Lucifer quit.”

Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose and Edwin’s jaw dropped. “He can do that?”

“Apparently so.” Death smiled warmly. “And in his abdication he gave up everything. His lands, his followers. Everything that was his, everything that was ever given to him.”

“Including souls.” Edwin whispered.

“Being a ghost is a half step into the afterlife. You can certainly stay here, but you don’t have to. And if you and Charles ever decide to go further down the road? You never have to go back.”

“Edwin!!” And Charles was there, running up to his best friend. “I’m back! You were right and…I feel better. Like I was being weighed down a lot and I didn’t realized it until the weight was gone, you know?”

“I do,” Edwin agreed. “Thank you, both of you.”

“I’m glad we got this worked out, but I’ve got plenty to do. See you at the your next murder investigation.” Death waved and she was gone.

“This day has been so weird.” Shinichi grumbled. “Okay, do either of you have a cell phone?”

They looked blankly at him.

“Okay, we’re going to go into town and buy you guys a phone and figure out how we’ll get it charged. I’ll give you a few numbers, including my own, for people who can help you get used to things and get connected to other ghosts. Then I am going to curl up with my girlfriend and watch relaxing shows on Netflix.”

“You have  a girlfriend!?”

Shinichi sighed. Japan was looking better and better.