Eleven hours after Yuki had disappeared. Her mother alarmed every force in hopes that her daughter is still somewhere out there. She's been drinking. But still hopeful. Still hopeful. Hopeful..

  In the Dump, clouds have been reshaped. It was now raining and the petrichor in the air smelled stronger and stronger with each passing minute, being mixed with mud and other garbage.

  Trashman is used to it, his sense of smell dulled over the years, but Yuki had to use the blanket as a mask. For her, the smell was awful.

  They were sitting in the shack, waiting for the rain to end while it hit the chaotic beat. Yuki couldn't find a place to sit, so she lied on the bed instead, but the Trashman just sat on the floor and stared into nothing.

  "What are you thinking, mister?" -Asked Yuki in a quiet voice.

  "Nothing." -Replied the man.

  It was true, he wasn't thinking of anything. Like a statue. Since the rain started, they had nothing to do. Yuki was bored out of her mind. And if that's not enough, she looked like she caught a fever in an addition to her terrible state.

  "Ugh, this rain is too loud, I don't like it. Mister, tell me a story!" -Complained Yuki.

  "About what?" -Asked the man.

  "You said you did have a family, who was they?"

  "...I remember. Since I was even younger than you, someone was caring for me. She brought me to this shack and taught me how to survive."

  "Did you meet anyone else?"

  "I did. One showed me how to fix broken machines and the other taught me this alphabet." -The man opened up a bit. There were multiple corpses who survived the fall, but the ones not born here were destined to die in no time.

  Since the time Yuki got her, she felt that she was alone here, but it was fun hanging out with the Trashman. She felt scared at first, but as the time passed, she felt more free than ever. Not confined to a house where there was no one and not scared of the outside with so much unfamiliar.

  The Dump had no walls. And for once Yuki felt like she was cooking for someone, for the Trashman that lived here. But in the end, there was still nothing to do. It was as if Yuki wanted to read a book or something like that.

  "Hey mister, what do you think a human is? You bury corpses but you do it only for the human looking one. Is it only because of looks?" -Asked Yuki.

  "She showed me what does human corpse look like, so I kept burying the ones that resembled it." -Answered the man. He was talking about a woman. Yuki thought it was his mother, even though maybe not by blood.

  "But why do you keep doing it?"

  The man fell silent. He felt that he should keep doing it, even despite that not bringing anything in his life. It was a habit that became routine.

  Yuki was bored again. She started digging through the trash in the chest that was in the Trashman's room. She saw something that piqued her interest. It was a ladder. An old one, but the only thing in perfect condition in this shack.

  "She stared at it every day. She said she dug through trash to find more of these." -Unexpectedly, the man started talking.

  Yuki pulled the ladder out and brushed the dust off of it. She was reflecting in the ladder. And so is the man standing next to her.

  "Hahah, mister, I forgot how scary you were when I first saw you." -Said Yuki and smiled.

  "I am?" -Asked the man.

  "When I prayed that time at the grave, I was praying for the man under it but as well... For myself."

  But when Yuki stared at the ladder again, her smile slowly faded. She saw how bad she looked, even worse than the Trashman. A smile, missing a tooth. Tired eyes that stared into her own soul. Pale and dirty skin and equally messed up hair, just like the Trashman's.

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  "Mister... Do you think you are a human? Have you ever seen yourself in the mirror?" -Asked Yuki.

  "Come to think of it, I never knew how I looked." -Replied the man.

  Yuki moved the ladder closer to the Trashman. But he was just staring into nothing.

  "You're not gonna look?" -Asked Yuki once again.

  "No." -Said the man and shrugged his shoulders.

  The static noise of rain intensified with each minute. Yuki exited the shack, and the Trashman followed her. In the middle of the rain, she stood, looking up the sky.

  Her face changed when she saw a pipe in the distance. It was a mix of a hope and delusion. She took out Trashman's spyglass and looked again.

  "If I can see it, then I can reach it." -Thought Yuki, looking at the pipe she fell from.

  She plans to build a stairway. Back to her heaven. The dirty rain was pummeling her face. Recently, the pipe erupted once again and released an enormous mountain of trash.

  "Hey mister, can you take me to that pipe?" -Asked Yuki, looking straight in the man's eyes.

  Covered in the man's blanket, she put every bit of junk that could help her reach the pipe in the carrier. Rushing through the muddied piles of trash; they arrived at the pipe. Another day.

  The sound, the smell, and the force of the rain intensified. Yuki had climbed up the mountain of trash. The man helped her build the ladder. With just a help of his hands, Yuki could reach the pipe.

  She felt scared. This pressing feeling of the infinite corridor. Was the upper-side really the heaven? She was free here.

  "My mom waits for me." -Mumbled Yuki under her nose.

  She was free, but still didn't do anything. She had the whole world to herself, but by her whim, she just followed the Trashman.

  "Let's go, mister." -Said Yuki.

  "No." -Replied the man in his usual unbothered tone.

  "What?" -Yuki looked incredibly confused, staring at the man who stood at the mountain's foot and observed her.

  "You go. If you feel like it."

  "B-But what about you?! Don't you wanna see what's up there? It's incredible!"

  "I'm good here."

  "The exit is right here. Don't you want to have a better life? To be free from this dump?!"

  The rain was muting Yuki's screams, but he still heard her.

  "This place is my home." -Said the man.

  "But you live like a rat here! From day to day, from night to night, you just survive and do nothing! WHY DON'T YOU WANT A BETTER LIFE?!" -Yelled the girl. Then coughed.

  "Well, the day will end eventually, just like a night."

  "Hah. Hahah. Hahahaha, this is insane. I don't understand, why, why don't you want to leave?! The salvation is right here, and you choose to live like... Like... Me..." -Said Yuki, grabbing her head with both hands and coughing.

  "... I see dreams. And I will never understand why we are here. No one can help me. But all these problems will go away when new day falls. They make me learn something every day. I'm here because I love it here." -The man looked at the sky, making the rain pass through his down jacket.

  "Hehahhaha, it's right there, you Trashman. Tell me, are you even a human? To exist and to think, to realise that you are human is what makes you one. Are you one?!" -Asked Yuki.

  All the weight that she carried on her shoulders, all the scars began opening up because the rain had removed the bandages. She had started to go out of her mind, not understanding why does the man not want to go with her. It was a selfish desire. For both of them.

  "I DON'T WANT TO SEEK THE SOLUTION TO THE QUESTIONS, I WANT THEM ANSWERED. TELL ME, ARE YOU A HUMAN? ARE YOU AL-" -Yuki started to cough profusely while yelling.

  "Sorry, I can't answer that. I feel like I'm happy. I... Don't need a salvation." -Said the man.

  "I see... I thought you reminded me of my father... But he was always thinking of something stupid. You don't think at all. It was me who I found in you. You are happy here. Just like... I... Was..." -Yuki said in the feeble voice. The man couldn't hear anything this time.

  The girl fell on her knees, looking up the sky again. She knew she was sick but didn't want to show it. DIdn't want to show it to herself that she was weak. Another night.

  It all made sense now for her. It's that she didn't want for anything to make sense. Just like the Trashman never thought about the meaning of life, she didn't want to question why she is happy. Now that she isn't, there was nothing left for her but to question why was she.

  But it was of no use. She could think and think, think and think, think and think, but in the end, it wouldn't matter, since she's on the edge of death.

  Her father taught her a lot about a philosophy. And she undermined it as his another form of placebo, because he was a boring man. They were a boring family, she thought.

  "What do you feel?" -Shouted the Trashman.

  The girl hesitated.

  "I don't know. But, I can't stop thinking about it now." -She said.

  Thinking and feeling. At the same time. Yuki's eyes became heavy. The rain muted her thoughts. On the mountain of trash, she was barely alive.

  She fell.

  There is no one to talk to anymore.

  Near the shack, the man was digging up a grave. This one is for Yuki.

  He was humming a familiar tune. And... Tears were streaming down his face, while the rain added to the misery. This was the first time the man cried.

  "After all, it's only natural for a human to cry after another one passes away." -He thought.

  The man finished filling up a grave. When he was done, all he could do is go away. To do what he enjoys the most, cleaning up the trash.

  This girl... She was just an...

  Another corpse.