Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! © Akira Amano
Synopsis: Chrome had no desire to live at least not until Mukuro and Tsuna. She on the other hand had no reason to die. So she inherited the body of the girl who had a desire to die so that she could exert her desire to live.
Story Type: Hitman Reborn! AU!
Chapter 1
The World I was born to
Seven years, six months, five weeks, four days, three hours, two minutes, one second.
My mother sat hunched over beside my bed. She was tired. I knew it, they knew it and she knew it. She sat there hunched over from the beginning. The moment seven years ago when I was diagnosed, then six months later when it acted up, then the five weeks when I was given my death sentence. The unconditional love and sheer dedication she gave was one that I always wondered how could someone devote so much of their life to another? When I asked I was given a half-assed response of "you are my daughter" no elaboration, she had deemed the matter to be resolved. I was to take the answer I was given.
So I did. I resigned myself to be bedridden to never see the outside of my room. And some way along the line I had taken to counting my days, every day I woke up it was marked, printed neatly into my notebook that sat beside me on the insignificant piece of plastic I was forced to share with my neighbour. If any consolation was to be given it should have gone to my friend, the girl never missed a visit that she promised. Coming to tell me of all the scandal and mishap I was missing at school. Who won the latest game of cricket to who fought whom over whom. Even tales of teachers and her imagination weaved themselves into report not that I was unappreciated of. It brought me joy to hear of the outside world. A world I could no longer visit.
Sometimes when she left I would cry, cry over the loss of the ability to share her experiences and imagine. Imagine that tropical breeze and the ability to complain about the scorching heat I would have to endure five days a week in a white cotton blouse and grey skirt with a navy blue and deep gold tie, socks and shoes, a uniform that I detested. It was the simple things I found myself missing, the harsh, biting laughter of my friends and schoolmates and the constant crooning of my mother to "speak properly!" My state as my cousin had so eloquently put it had allowed for such reprimands to be swept aside.
I sighed. The look of sympathy that had graced the tight faces of the doctors was the last thing I saw as my mother left for the night and my eyes fluttered to a close.
My dreams were never the type to be expansive over rigidly detailed. So when my eyes opened and I found myself standing amidst a field of pink tipped lotus flowers, I was floored. It was beautiful. A place truly made of dreams.
"Ano…" the timid voice behind me was my only warning that I was not alone.
I whirled around and regarded my companion. She was younger than me, sporting purple hair and a shy demeanour. A smile tugged at my lips as I watched the girl try to hide behind her hair.
I took a step forward and watched as she cringed, so I stopped and raised my hands to show I wouldn't hurt her. She watched me with guarded eyes almost as though expecting me to suddenly attack her.
"Hi, I'm Jalecia and you are?" I asked she blinked and stared at me.
"Ano…anata o wakaranai." It was my turn to stare at the girl.
With my brow scrunched up I regarded the girl, this time I took in her features, from the difference in bone structure to the milky white of her skin. She was pretty in a doll like fashion thin and with doe like eyes that heightened her innocence. I contrasted her. Whereas she was milky white I was an unbreakable black, not in the sense that my skin was that dark I was brown but I wore my African heritage proudly. Her purple hair and eyes were replaced on me with black hair neatly twisted and dark brown eyes.
"Um…" distinctly I heard my mother's words of "What is um?" as she would correct me and I cringed inwardly before saying in my most pitiful voice, "watashi wa Jalecia."
The girl smiled and nodded at my unasked question before saying, "Watashi wa Nagi."
I beamed at the girl and then muttered to myself, "And there ends my knowledge in Japanese."
"I'm sorry." I refocused on the girl before me at her words.
"Pardon?" I tentatively asked.
"I'm sorry…for being a burden." She whispered.
"No worries." I told her and noted something of my surroundings.
I felt another presence. One that seemed to affect the landscape itself before it was predominately a field of flowers now a table and chairs had been added and a platform attached to an invisible house.
I walked over to the table and settled into a chair and I felt the difference. Where I sat was my mind completely and entirely and as I place my hands on the table I felt hers. I felt them mixing, taking and giving, an exchange of minds, effortlessly melding.
"Why are you here?" I asked curious.
Her soft smile fell from her lips and acknowledging it I said, "I'm dying. That's why I'm here. Well that's why I assume I'm here."
"So am I." she whispered.
"Weak immune system, guess I can easily say that I'm one of those few people that can be killed by the common cold, huh." I told her and her expression crumbled.
"A cat." I blinked and stared she smiled shyly, "I tried to rescue a cat and…I got hit by a car. My parents…they…"
I scowled. Her words about being a burden came back to me.
"Do you think that you would find peace?" she stared at me. "If you died do you think you would find peace?"
She nodded, "I wouldn't be a burden."
"Hmm, I wonder, would I find peace." No, I wouldn't I would have too many regrets, too many.
"Ano… Jalecia-san." My mouth twitched at her difficulty in saying my name.
"Hai." I whispered the Japanese stiff as it fell from my lips.
"Take my body." Nagi said.
"Wuh?" I asked eloquently the Standard English I had been speaking dropping in my surprise.
"Exchange. You wish to live, yes?" at my nod she ploughed on, "I am not wanted and I… I have no desire to cause any more pain to anyone. So take my place and I will take yours."
Maybe I should have stopped to think of the consequences; maybe I should have been selfless and told her to keep on living. That she would never find the peace she sought in death. But I was given a chance to live again and I thought only of myself. And as I stepped past the table into her mind and she stepped past the table into mine. I had no regrets. Not one. No guilt filled me. And that later down the road would scare me but for now I would live.
And in a hospital bed in a world I knew, eyes closed and deep within the clutches of sleep, seventeen year old Jalecia Kellman slipped away amidst the patrons of Ward seven in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital situated in the capital of her beloved home.
