The Harvester of Hearts
The world was being swallowed up by the noise of death.
It probably wouldn’t last more than a few decades now.
I stood on a cliff I’d taken a liking to recently, lost in thought. The sunset was beautiful. No matter how many times I saw it, it never got old.This world would soon be gone—I wanted to burn it into my eyes while I still could.
—There he is again.
A boy was walking alone on the distant beach.He’d been there every day lately, always at the same time as me. I couldn’t help but remember his figure.
He wore a long-sleeved white shirt and ragged pants rolled up to the knees, walking along the sand with a large plastic bag.He looked to be about ten.
Autumn sunsets don’t last long.
Whatever he was doing, it would be pitch dark by the time he went home.
I normally wouldn’t care about something like this, but for some reason, that boy got stuck in my mind.
♢♢
The next day, I didn’t go to the cliff—I went down to the beach to watch the sunset.I was planning to follow him if he showed up. If not, then so be it.
But just as I expected, the boy appeared.Same clothes as always, the same plastic bag rustling in his hand.
I found myself curious about what was inside. It looked big, but he carried it as if it weighed nothing.
I decided to walk beside him and peek inside.
—You wouldn’t know this, but we Harvesters do this kind of thing often.So once you’re on the ship, there’s no point pretending to be some decent human being.
That plastic bag—It was filled with flowers. Cosmos.
White cosmos flowers, packed to the brim.
Where was he taking them?I was even more intrigued.
—It was a long walk. The sun was nearly gone.Since I’d followed him this far, I figured I’d stay and see him home safe.
That’s when the boy suddenly stopped.In front of a small shack on the beach, made of thin wooden planks, he stood silently for a minute.
Then, as if steeling himself, he stepped inside.I followed.
—What...?
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There, lying inside the shack, was a Heart-Eating Bird.It wasn’t adjusting its size to fit the space—it was weak. That’s why it was so small.
The Heart-Eating Bird was dying.
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What was the boy planning to do?Naturally, he didn’t notice me. He knelt before the bird and turned the plastic bag upside down.
Beautiful white petals scattered over the bird’s wings, merging with them in a dreamlike scene.
“I’m sorry... white was all I could find today.”
Then he began to cry beside the bird.
Struggling to breathe, the bird gently touched the back of the boy’s hand with its long beak, just where a tear had fallen.
What was I witnessing?
Maybe I’d spent too much time thinking about how little this world had left.Because right then, I got a strange impulse.
I stepped out of hiding and spoke.
“Why are you gathering flowers?”
The boy looked up at me, but he didn’t seem surprised.
Thinking back, maybe the Heart-Eating Bird had told him.That there were people like me.
“If I bring flowers, it might get better.”
His voice was young, but steady.
“Let me see.”
I knew the bird was wounded.I didn’t think I could heal it, but I brushed the flowers aside and looked at its body.
It was too late, I thought. It must’ve fought a Watcher Bird.If it had been me—or any Harvester—we wouldn’t have let it escape.We would’ve finished it.
Watcher Bird fight only to drive the enemy away.That’s why they’re so cruel. They don’t care if they leave the target torn and bleeding.
I could see the sad-colored heart faintly pulsing in its torn-open chest.
“How are flowers supposed to help?”
“Watch.”
The boy gathered up the white cosmos and, unbelievably, stuffed them into the open wound.Then, something impossible happened—The white petals were absorbed, and the heart began to beat stronger than before.
“What... is this...?”
I repeated myself like an idiot. Probably sounded slow.
“The bird asked me... to bring cosmos.So I’ve been stealing them—from school flower beds, parks, wherever I can find them.”
He started quietly, like he knew he was doing something wrong,but by the end, he looked me in the eye and said it without shame.
From the beginning—
It was a week ago when he found the bird washed up on the shore.He thought it was dead and picked it up to bury it,but it spoke to him—in human language.
He couldn’t bring it home, so he brought it here,a shack he knew no one used.
The bird had asked him to place cosmos in the wound.It started recovering, and he’d been overjoyed... but it was only temporary.
The bird told him that to fully heal, it needed black cosmos.Without them, even if the heart revived, the wound wouldn’t close, and it would weaken again.
“So if you stuff black cosmos into its chest, the heart will recover—and the wound will close?”
The boy nodded.Seeing his tear-streaked face up close, I realized he was actually a cute kid.
“I can’t find black cosmos anywhere.”
His voice trembled with frustration.
“...Want me to find them for you?”
I don’t know why I said that.
The Heart-Eating Birds are my enemies.And yet—I couldn’t let this one die, not like this.If it healed and came back to oppose me, I’d just kill it then.
That was my reasoning.
Finding black cosmos was easy for me.I didn’t care whose they were—I just stole them, memory and all.
The next evening, I gave the boy a plastic bag full of flowers on the beach.I’ll never forget his face.
Relief shone in the sunset, glittering with hope.
I followed the boy as he ran back to the shack.The bird’s breathing was moments from stopping.I panicked—Not for the bird, but because I didn’t want to crush the boy’s bright expectations.
I calmed him down and helped him pack the black cosmos into the wound.
Even I didn’t believe it would work.I’ve been a Harvester a long time, but I’d never heard of cosmos bringing something back to life.
But it worked.
The bird came back to life.
That day, I spent a long time watching the boy and what Aochi would call a “Mock Red-crowned Crane” embracing each other.
♢♢
You're probably wondering why I told you all this.
I ran into that boy recently.He’d grown up, but I recognized him instantly.
You know the Selection began days ago.
That boy was among the five who boarded my ship before you.He made his decision immediately.Killed the other four with his own hands—before I had time to grow attached.
Then he told me something.
“Back then, the bird told me something...Something that not even the Harvesters, or the Watcher Birds, or even God might have realized.It told me it was too dangerous for me to do it myself.But if I ever met the Harvester who brought me the black cosmos, I should tell him.It was—”
Ah, looks like we’ve arrived.I wasn’t planning to tell you this story anyway.You don’t need to know the ending.Forget it.