Overtime for the Damned

Yuki Tanaka died the way she lived: overworked, forgettable, replaceable by end of quarter. The world that pulled her back out disagreed. What she got instead of an afterlife was worse than death and better than her old commute: six books stitched into whatever she has instead of a soul. Five are silent. One is already awake, and it's already teaching her things no god was ever supposed to let a mortal know — that fear is a currency, that obedience is just a leash you haven't pulled yet, and that mercy is a resource she can no longer afford to spend. Everyone assumes the monster in a story like this is the thing with the teeth. That's the first thing it corrects.