Mangaka : Fidxair.
Artist :Nil .
Anime company : Jxst fxr.
They told me never to bargain with phantoms.
They never told me what a phantom might ask for.
I stared at the thing that had promised my death — a faceless smear of purple smoke with teeth like needles and a voice that felt like ice under skin. My head buzzed with options that all sounded stupid.
Run? It's attached to me.
Fight? Really a phantom .
Fake it? Not bright.
So I did the only thing left that made any sense in the moment: I knelt and tried to keep my voice steady.
"What do you want?" I asked, though the question felt ridiculous when my whole body was trembling.
His answer came like a draft through a cracked window. "Your soul, child."
"No." The word left my lips small and thin — meaningless against something that could swallow me whole.
"I can hear you," he said. I blinked. He wasn't listening — he was inside my head.
"Your soul isn't life itself," the phantom continued, speaking slowly as if lecturing a student. "It's everything that isn't flesh — memory, feeling, the pulse of who you are. But if you won't give me that… offer me something else."
"Like what?" I asked. My mouth tasted like rust.
"How about your body parts?" he suggested, calm as if bargaining for fingers and toes was polite conversation.
"No," I said. "I need my hands. I need my body to keep doing the job I have."
He paused, the smoke around him folding like a curtain. "You don't like your life, do you? I can make a deal that will suit us both."
"You're not trustworthy," I said. It was childish and true.
"But you said you don't like your life. You said it has no purpose," he murmured. "I only asked for half of your happiness."
Half my happiness. The idea was absurd — and then it wasn't. Maybe losing a slice of what made me feel would hurt less than dying.
"Fine," I said before I could overthink it. "Deal."
The world tipped. Dizziness, cold. Then: a thud, and everything went black.
🔥End of Reap 4 🔥