1. Chapter 1. A Promise in Ten Years When I first heard about the idea of buying and selling your life span, it reminded me of a lecture on morals from elementary school. Our teacher, a woman in her late twenties, posed a stark question to her class full of ten- year-‘Ž†•™Š‘†‹†ǯ–›‡– know how to think for themselves. Dz‘™ǡ…Š‹Ž†”‡ǡŠ—ƒŽ‹ˆ‡‹•…‘•‹†‡”‡†–‘„‡–Š‡‘•–˜ƒŽ—ƒ„Ž‡–Š‹‰‘ˆ all, completely irreplaceable. If you were to put that in an actual monetary ƒ‘—–ǡŠ‘™—…Š†‘›‘—–Š‹‹–™‘—Ž†„‡ǫdz She paused and made a face at her own question. Apparently, that had been an inadequate way to phrase it. She faced the blackboard, chalk in hand, and froze for a good twenty seconds. During this time, the class gravely considered their answers to the question. The majority of the students liked our young and pretty teacher and wanted to get the right answer to make her happy and win her praise. One smarty-pants offered an answer. DzŠ‡Ž‹ˆ‡–‹‡‡ƒ”‹‰•‘ˆƒ ƒ’ƒ‡•‡•ƒŽƒ”›ƒ‹•ƒ”‘—†–™‘‘”–Š”‡‡ hundred million yen, according to a book I read. That should be about right ˆ‘”–Š‡ƒ˜‡”ƒ‰‡’‡”•‘Ǥdz Half of the class looked impressed. The other half looked annoyed. Nearly all the students in the class hated that smarty-pants. Dz‡ŽŽǡ–Šƒ–‹•–”—‡ǡdz•ƒ‹†–Š‡–‡ƒ…Š‡”™‹–Šƒ‰”‹ƒ…‡ǤDz–Š‹‘•–ƒ†—Ž–• would give you the same answer. Calculating the worth of a person as the amount of money they make in their lifetime is one way to derive an answer. But I want you to put aside tha–™ƒ›‘ˆ–Š‹‹‰ˆ‘”‘™ǥ‘™ ƒ„‘—– –Š‹•ǫ ǯŽŽ ƒ‡ ƒ ƒƒŽ‘‰›Ǥ ‘–Š‡” ‘‡ ‘ˆ › –”‹…› –Š‘—‰Š– ‡š’‡”‹‡–•Ǥdz Nobody could tell exactly what she had drawn on the blackboard with blue chalk. It looked vaguely like a person, but it also looked like a piece of gum stuck to the road. But that was her intention. DzŠ‹••–”ƒ‰‡ǡ—‹†‡–‹ˆ‹ƒ„Ž‡something has an infinite supply of money. The something is seeking to lead a human life. So what it wants to do is buy •‘‡‘‡ǯ•Ž‹ˆ‡ˆ”‘–Š‡Ǥ†‘‡†ƒ›ǡ›‘—Œ—•–•‘happen to cross paths