Suicide, murder, death from illness, stillbirth. People who have died for various reasons visit the Death Office, which is not a city hall, but a place where various dead people go to process their deaths. Each and every dead person has a story, some of which are tear-jerking, others of which are disgusting. In this second part, we will introduce the stories of our customers who appeared in volumes 7 to 14 of the comics!
Customer 21 Terai Shuto, died in a traffic accident
Teraishi was a fourth-year student at a low-rank university with no redeeming features. With nothing he wants to do, and feeling inferior to his talented younger brother, Terai has no motivation to look for a job. But then he meets a lecture by the religious organization "Kago no Kai" that he attended through his grandmother's introduction. At first he thinks it's a cult religion, but he starts to get interested in the religion that is kind to everyone. Because society has not been kind to Terai.
Terai Shuto's Episode 2
Terai becomes devoted to religion, cuts off ties with society, and starts a self-sufficient life with his followers. Terai spends his days peacefully and happily, but to his real family, it is nothing but brainwashing. His family tries to force Terai away from Kago no Kai, but Terai refuses to listen to what they say, and when he tries to return to Kago no Kai, he is hit by a car and dies. However, Kago no Kai and the main character, Shimura, have a very deep connection.
Customer 21: Hihara Konshi, carbon monoxide poisoning from a fire
Hihara was a man who loved his wife and children. He was a company employee who was working away from home, but he pretended to quit smoking and secretly smoked cigarettes. However, one day a fire broke out due to careless handling of cigarettes, and he visited the Death Office almost unaware that he had died. He passed away with intense regret that he had caused trouble to his family due to his careless handling of cigarettes, but in reality, it was not Hihara's careless handling of cigarettes, but his neighbor's careless handling of cigarettes that was the cause.
Customer 23: Chibi, stillborn Chibi
Izumi Ogino was constantly worried about not being able to have children. Despite continuing fertility treatment, she was unable to have children, and her mother-in-law blamed her and drove her to the brink, but her husband continued to understand and support her. One day, the treatment paid off and she found out she was pregnant. The two were overjoyed and looked forward to the birth of the baby, but the baby was stillborn due to placental abruption. Nevertheless, she passed away, leaving a message that she was glad to have come to her mother.
Customer 22 Naotaro Tsukimoto Murdered
Tsukimoto is an ugly man who frequents brothels. He was a regular customer who was infatuated with a prostitute named Yuna (stage name), but when she refused, he forced himself on her and she resisted, killing him. He thought he and Yuna were in love with each other, but in reality, that was not the case at all. He also seemed to look down on prostitutes as the lowest rung of society. It has not been stated whether self-defense applies to Yuna.
Customer ㉕ Ogasaki Hideya dies of influenza
Hideya was neglected by his busy parents who both worked, and they were always fighting, so he lived a life of consideration and restraint for his parents. As a result, he was unable to tell his parents that he was feeling unwell, and by the time his father returned home in the evening, his condition had worsened, and he lost consciousness and died after being treated at the hospital. He was told at the Death Office that he had died of influenza. His parents argued, blaming each other for the loss, and in the end, he said, "Now there is nothing that connects us together."
Customer 24: Kai Akiko commits suicide
Aiko was a veteran caregiver, but in reality she was a somewhat selfish person who showed no sympathy for dementia patients, such as telling them to prescribe more medicine. However, because she was a caregiver, she was left to take care of her mother, who had dementia, on her own, and was greatly at the mercy of her mother. She was mentally cornered and tried to find a nursing home, but she couldn't do anything because of her own experience of neglecting patients and her sister's opposition to putting her in a nursing home, so she killed her mother out of exhaustion from caring for her mother. After that, she committed suicide and was sent to the Death Office.
Customer 22 Kai Fukuko - Death by Request
Kai Akiko's mother. Her dementia progressed, and one would think that Akiko had killed her out of exhaustion from caring for her, but in fact, even with her dementia, she was aware that she was causing trouble for her daughter and pushing her to the brink. At the Death Office, she learns that she had asked Akiko to kill her.
Customer 22: Akechi Mami dies of breast cancer
Mami was a former stage actress who became pregnant with a fellow actor's child, but he prioritized his career and Mami became a single mother. She raised her daughter alone, but developed breast cancer and passed away at the age of 40. At that time, she sent a letter to her daughter and her father, and the daughter found out who her father was. Hayashi, an employee who had suffered a similar experience, did not think well of this. However, the ending in the real world that the staff and customers do not know is that the father, popular actor Tatsuya Kurazawa, reveals his secret child at a press conference, even if it means damaging his career, and takes custody of the daughter.
Customer 24 Ueda Tsuzuki commits suicide
Ueda was a salaryman. He made small mistakes one after another, and he had no friends or a girlfriend. He belittled himself and had no one to talk to. People who say they are suffering online or want to die are either lucky people who have someone to talk to, or they are just saying it as a fashion statement because they want to be told kind words. Real losers have no one to talk to or no one to say kind words to them, and they are not loved by anyone. They commit suicide because of such loneliness and despair.
Customer 23 Omi Atsue Stroke
Atsue was an insurance salesperson. Her husband has already passed away, and she lives alone with her son. However, her son has become a recluse and hides this from those around her. Although he thought he was trying desperately to persuade her, it sounded like he was trying to corner his son, and Hashimoto, who heard the story at the Death Office, was about to become enraged. It seems that Hashimoto had some thoughts about something.
Customer 21: Aida An Died of Anorexia
Ann felt that the reason she had fewer Instagram followers than her beautiful friends was because she was overweight, and as a result of starting a diet, she started to receive praise from those around her and her followers increased, which made her overly concerned about her weight. After that, she started vomiting all the food she ate, and began to believe that friends who invited her out to eat were trying to harass her and make her fat, so she distanced herself from them. When she reunited with her friends, she was just skin and bones, and although her friends told her she was sick, she suffered a heart attack shortly after and died. Even after coming to the Death Office, she was concerned about her figure.
Customer 23: Okorogi Kunko, Died of Heart Disease
Kunko was a good-natured woman, but she failed at her first matchmaking session because she had a birthmark on her face. During her second matchmaking session, she met the son of a bento shop owner, who didn't mind her facial birthmark, and they married and built a good relationship. However, her husband died young of leukemia. After her husband's death, there was talk of remarrying, but she remained single until the end. She met Shimura while he was alive.
Customer 22 Shiyakusyo Hirano, Momiji Shimizu, Kenta Yano Murdered
One day, people were suddenly murdered. Hirano "sprayed graffiti on the wall," Shimizu "spoke cold words to a pregnant woman sitting on the train," and Yano "threw away cigarettes." Although these acts are a violation of social etiquette, they were killed by a self-righteous murderer who could not tolerate them. The killer's name is Yoshizawa Sakuma. He is believed to have killed two other people, and if he is arrested and indicted, he will be sentenced to death and will have to take the appointment exam for the Death Office.
Customer 22 Bando Issayu, died in a traffic accident
Bando was a snatch thief who died in a traffic accident while on the run. In the past, he used to hang out with bad friends and repeatedly snatch thieves, but after attending a trial that his grandfather invited him to, he realized that crime was not worth it and reformed himself, and he quit snatch thefts completely. After that, he made attending trials his life's work, but one day, when a rape victim stood on the stand, he became angry at the jurors who kept making insensitive remarks, and was ordered to leave the courtroom after making emotional remarks from the courtroom. The accident occurred when he was about to commit a snatch robbery in an attempt to get the thoughtless juror to understand the victim's suffering. However, the remarks from the gallery greatly encouraged the female victim.
Customer 22 Inomata dies of illness
Inomata is a middle-aged man with a bad leg who died of an illness. When he comes to the Death Office, he asks about a certain woman. It is about his elementary school teacher, Inami Kiyoko. Inomata jumps off the roof while playing around and suffers a serious injury that leaves him with permanent damage. The person who jumped down acted nonchalant as if nothing had happened, but the teacher was crying and furious. One day, the teacher, who valued life so much, committed suicide. Inomata thought that he must have been the cause of the suicide. In the end, Inomata never found out the truth, but the actual cause was that his fiance had broken up with him.
Customer ㊱ Nakajima Shi - Suicide by Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Shi was a female student who had been abandoned by her mother and was trying to summon aliens day and night to be taken to another dimension. Her best friend, Umino Chiyumi, was also abused by her mother's boyfriend, and was trying to summon an alien to escape from that reality. One day, feeling that they might be able to meet the alien if they committed suicide, the two of them attempted to commit suicide by charcoal briquettes, but only Uta came to the Death Office, and it is highly likely that Chiyumi was the only one to survive.
Customer ㊲ Higo Akiho - Drowning in the bathtub due to overwork
Akiho was working at a design company, but lost his job, and even though he tried to find a new job, he was unable to get hired due to his chronic illness. Akiho's father, who lives with her, has no sense of crisis about the financial difficulties he faces and has been squandering his pension on pachinko. His unemployment insurance has run out and he has been unable to find work even after selling off his belongings, so he is advised by his father to apply for welfare. However, as you know, the public eye is cold towards those receiving welfare, and the welfare officer in charge speaks to him in a blaming manner. Akiho himself is tormented by guilt for receiving welfare and gradually becomes exhausted. One day, he becomes sleepy while taking a bath and drowns, but his father doesn't notice and goes off to earn some money at pachinko.
Customer ㊳ Fukuhara Junya suffocated due to abuse
Junya was a young boy whose mother had remarried to another man and lived with the four of them. His stepfather had a violent personality, and his mother was in a position where she could not speak out against him. One day, while playing, Junya was making noise, which made his stepfather angry and he began to abuse him, suffocating him by pressing a cushion against his face.
Customer ㊴ Kaneko Ikuaki dies of pneumonia
Kaneko worked part-time as a milkman, but he had a careless attitude toward work and was a violent person who had caused violence in the past. Perhaps because of this, he was suspected of a bomb explosion accident. The police conducted a strict interrogation as if they had assumed the truth, and his family lied and told him that they wanted him to admit his guilt quickly, forcing him to confess. In reality, it was a false accusation, but he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His brother, family, and other supporters fought to the end, believing in his innocence, but he was held in custody for a total of 27 years. After his release, he lived a peaceful life, but his hatred for the police and the real culprit did not disappear.
Customer ㊵ Ichimura Masamichi Death Penalty (False Accusation)
The protagonist, Shimura, was arrested and indicted on a false charge and sentenced to death. He worked at a government office during his lifetime, and while working there, Ichimura met a woman named Sachiko. She was a mysterious woman who spent all day drawing pictures, but Ichimura fell in love with her freedom and married Sachiko, giving birth to a daughter named Miyuki. However, Miyuki had what is now called a developmental disorder, and was a strange child who could not eat normal food, but ate dirt and paint. Worried about this, Sachiko took her to the doctor, but at that time the term developmental disorder had not yet been widely used, and without knowing the exact cause, she was told that she was lacking in parental love and that her life was in danger.
Ichimura Masamichi's Episode 2
Frightened by her child's death, Sachiko was driven to the brink and turned to a religious group called the "Protection Society." She thought that the doctrine of giving love to everyone might save her daughter, but Sachiko never returned from the Protection Society. Enraged, Ichimura went to the Protection Society, but was caught in a smokescreen and discovered his daughter's body on the way back. Miyuki had been murdered by someone, but it was Ichimura who the police caught as the culprit. After that, a torturous interrogation was carried out every day, and Ichimura, exhausted, was finally forced to make a false confession. After that, the death sentence was confirmed and he was sent to the Death Office. Since Ichimura was falsely accused, he could have passed on to the afterlife, but he chooses to remain as a staff member and search for the murderer of his daughter and the whereabouts of his wife.
【Death Office】Summary of Customer Episodes, Part 2
I have introduced the customer episodes. Basically, each one has their own episode, but the episode of the main character, Shimura, has various hints and I think it will be revealed little by little as the biggest mystery of the work. It is interesting that even episodes that seem unrelated at first glance can be related to the staff member's past, so it will be exciting to see what episodes will be involved and how they will be involved in the future!
