They'll play the funeral march that's just for you.
Hayato Sakura is a normal high school boy, except for one thing: Ghosts are attracted to him. At every step he takes, ghosts (mostly girls) stick to his back, making it impossible for him to have a normal social life. On his 17th birthday, while running away from them, a tall blond man walks up to him and turns the ghosts into butterflies. Amazed by this incredible, beautiful man, who introduces himself as Undertaker Riddle, Hayato asks him to help with his problem and the man agrees with one condition: Hayato must make a contract with him to help him with his work of making funeral ceremonies to evil spirits.Undertaker Riddle (Sougiya Riddle) is a supernatural manga by Akai Higasa, which was serialized in Square Enix's Gangan Online magazine from 2009 to 2013.
Tropes:
- Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Souls that aren't qualified to go to either heaven or hell, stay at the Catacomb and work for the king as either secretaries or undertakers.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: After making the contract with Riddle, Hayato gains brand new mourning clothes, similar to Riddle's.
- Barrier Maiden: Faust is this to the Catacombs, as holder of the "Twilight's key". Without her, not just the Catacombs but also the human world and afterlife will be in danger. Hayato is expected to become one, as newest holder of a Twilight's key.
- Batman Gambit: Dante broke free from Roen by pretending to accept his offer of joining The Arcana, something that Roen knew he would do if it wasn't for Dante's Morality Pet Hiren melting his heart.
- The Beautiful Elite: The Undertakers.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: The people's souls take the form of butterflies.
- Can't Live Without You: Since both share a soul, Hayato can't live without Riddle. If Riddle dies, Hayato will die too.
- The Champion: Hayato's contract bonds him to Riddle in order to protect him from any attack while Riddle prepares the funeral for evil spirits.
- Commonality Connection: Dante took Hiren as his partner since both were betrayed by their respective families and were both afraid of being betrayed again, so both could depend on the other without fear. Not to mention both were troublemakers.
- Cute Is Evil: Eve is a Cute and Psycho evil spirit whose territory is filled with dolls and plushies, a merry-go-round and balloons; a cute world that looks like it came out of a children's book is actually a deadly trap.
- Dangerous Seventeenth Birthday: Hayato met Riddle and became an undertaker on his 17th birthday. Riddle actually turned him into an undertaker because Hayato's power was increasing and attracting a lot of spirits he couldn't handle alone.
- Death Glare: Hiren, of all people has an amazing one.
- Devoted to You: Deconstructed with poor Hiren; after Dante gets kidnapped for Roen, the poor guy wants desperately to save him, without thinking about possible consequences or a plan whatsoever.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: These Grim Reapers are handsome men who will perform a beautiful, rose-filled funeral service for you.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: The undertakers are stoic and cold towards almost everyone, since they have lived so much with a job that makes them deal with dead people and evil spirits; they consider emotions as a sin since they can make you take a reckless and foolish move. Hayato, as Faust's successor and future king must learn to balance these two things in his life to avoid becoming a cold automaton or an overemotional fool.
- Flower Motifs: All undertaker pairs have an associated flower. Riddle and Hayato's are roses, Dante and Hiren's are spider lilies, Luka and Ansem's are Madonna lilies and Shall and Julian's are camellias.
- Jerkass: Most of the undertakers are jerks towards Hayato.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: But at the end, they started to warm to him.
- Kick the Dog: Hayato's fight with Eve is a big and strong kick to him.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Riddle killed Sigurd, former king of the Catacombs and best friend after he went Drunk with Power and almost destroyed the Catacombs.
- Light Is Not Good: The Arcana's evil spirits are mostly dressed in white to distinguish them from the Dark Is Not Evil's Undertakers. Also Roen's castle in hell is completely white.
- Macguffin: The Twilight's key...that is inside Hayato's missing piece of soul.
- The Mafia: Dante, when he was alive, was leader of the Sicilian mafia at the age of 23.
- Master and Servant Boy: Riddle and Hayato often have this aura.
- Magically-Binding Contract: Hayato had to do one with Riddle to save his life. Now, half of Riddle's soul is bound to Hayato's in exchange for Hayato becoming Riddle's assistant and fellow Undertaker.
- Parasol of Pain: Eve uses one to kill Nemuro.
- Perpetual Molt: Commonly seen as a motif of The Arcana.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Hayato is a potential one.
- One-Gender School: St. Paulo academy, a boarding school just for men.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Normally ghosts are harmless, can be seen by certain people but some can turn into evil spirits that eat other people's souls by killing them.
- Sexy Priest: Riddle disguises himself as a priest to enter and investigate in a Catholic all-boys school with Hayato as his altar boy. Cue squees of both fangirls and the students.
- Situational Sexuality: One arc is about Riddle and Sakura investigating in an all-boys school. They all Squee in delight at Riddle's beauty and sometimes Hayato's too. Of course he finds this creepy.
- Something about a Rose: Roses are a common motif. Riddle is normally seen with a bouquet of roses while performing funerals.
- Synchronization: Partnered undertakers share a soul, so they can track each other and share pain.
- That Man Is Dead: Dante, after finally making peace with his brother and knowing the truth about his death, burned Dio and with him his past-self to go on living as "Dante the undertaker".
- Time Travel: Tracking Dante's soul, Hiren and Hayato somehow ended up in 1910's Sicily. Maybe they were tracking the soul without caring about the space/time thing.
- Later revealed that Time Travel is impossible In-Universe. They're actually in an Arcana territory based in Dante's past.
- Unmoving Plaid
- Wham Episode: Lots of them. The most whammy must be chapter 43.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Holders of the Twilight's key are at risk of going Drunk with Power. Sigurd, Faust's predecessor, fell victim to this.
- You Are Number 6: The evil spirits of The Arcana are marked with roman numbers.
