Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing at all

All right. This is going to be a sort of differently styled story. Very AU based. It will alternate between chapters with Mortals, Heaven and then Hell.

A weird quote thing will be at the beginning of every chapter.

Ummm, pairings...Pairings, should I even include them? I'm not going to. It will be a surprise if you don't know me.

It'll be pretty easy to guess though if you do know me.

"Let the world run in chaos, let everything die…." –The Lord of Hell

Natsumi Hinata knelt in front of her brother's body, shaking him to get up. He wasn't moving or breathing after getting hit by a sharp rock in his chest. Natsumi didn't want to admit that he was dead, so she just kept shaking him.

"Come on, Fuyuki…. Wake up! I can't lose Mom and my only brother in the same day! That's just… cruel…. Fuyuki, come on, speak to me…" she begged, trying to shake him awake. He did no such thing. He had left the world of the living an hour ago when he had used his body to shield her from the rubble in front of them that fell.

This was all her fault. She hadn't run fast enough when her mother ordered her to, two days ago when the scavengers found her house and began picking apart the underground burrow as they searched for all the tools that her family had found throughout the years. Her mother had tried to kick them out but they had killed her when she got in their way. Her last words as the knife plunged through her heart had been to run away and keep Fuyuki safe. Natsumi had run, but after pulling her brother through the barren land of nothing except rubble and the remains of dead animals and plants, she had accidentally bumped into a wall that was unstable on her journey for shelter for that night. Fuyuki had pushed her out of the way, sacrificing himself to shield her from the rubble.

Now her only family members were dead, and she was all alone in the post-apocalyptic world that she lived in.

"Fuyuki…. I'm sorry…" Natsumi whispered to her younger brother. She loved her family dearly and now they were gone. "We wouldn't have had this life with you in danger if we weren't in this stupid war." She bit back tears. Only half of that was true, she knew—even though the war had caused her life to be lived underground, hiding and taking care of her brother to avoid the natural disasters while her mom left to get food and supplies for them. She had been the one to cause her brother's death from not being able to protect him.

Natsumi was a strong girl and barely ever cried, even though there were plenty of indicants where she should have at times, like when her mother was two days late from coming home, or when her brother got sick—and sickness, for the most part, usually equaled death. But she had always been strong and tried to give her younger brother hope that everything would be all right. Today, though, she had nothing to hope for and could no longer hold the tears. She sobbed; she sobbed hard even though she knew her loud sobs might attract the scavengers again. Why had greed taken hold of such a strong, bug-like species?

Natsumi looked to the hard dirt and began digging with her hands for a proper burial for her brother. However, her hands didn't have the correct amount of power to quickly dig the hole she needed.

"If I had a shovel I'd be able to do this," Natsumi growled, yet again wishing she could do something about this war which had lasted for eons. Why did heaven and hell have to use the world as their battle ground? The normal people wanted nothing to do with their stupid war! Of course, no one was at fault except Hell as she had heard, since Hell had picked the fight and set everything up for death and floods and famine for the people on the world. Heaven was just trying to protect everyone, so it had to fight. There was nothing a mortal like her could do about it, nothing at all.

"I can, though… for Fuyuki…. I can survive and not let this war take me…" she realized. "I can help the people who are still alive, if there are any." Natsumi looked at the small hole that she had dug, realizing that she had to do something for Fuyuki. She couldn't just sit around doing nothing and live on her own until she died. She had to help people just as Fuyuki had helped her. She had to do her best and stand up to anything in her way.

"Rest in peace, Fuyuki," Natsumi whispered to her brother's dead body. She carefully closed his eyes and kissed him on the forehead to say good-bye, still sorry that she couldn't bury him. I'm going to be a warrior. I'm not just going to sit around doing nothing."

"Thank you… Sis…." For a moment she heard her brother's soft voice in her ears. She smiled at the little miracle of hearing her brother after death. Perhaps the Heavenly king had a place for him in his court? Fuyuki would be all right in the next life, that she knew.

Natsumi walked along the sightless wasteland for hours. All she saw was flat dirt everywhere she looked. The moon eventually rose up to light her path, which helped her see, but didn't do much else. This was Natsumi's first time alone in the world and she didn't know how long she'd last.

"Brrr…." Natsumi rubbed her arms, realizing how cold it was in the middle of the night. She needed to find some shelter so she could survive the night and continue surviving for her brother and mom in the morning. She didn't have any death wishes, after all. Seeing a bump in the ground a ways away, she ran forward, hoping to check it to see if it had an abandoned burrow. Underground was the only safe place for sleep and warmth. Usually, due to people trying to lose any of hell's creatures, they migrated once every two months, so there were a lot of abandoned burrows. Natsumi's burrow had been a lucky one, large and somewhere well-protected. She had lived there for most of her life. That had probably been one of the reasons the scavengers had found them. They had an excellent tracking sense for humans like herself who lived in one place for more than a year. Natsumi tried not to think of the savage scavengers who had ruined the life as she squeezed into the tight tunnel in the ground. Sliding along her belly, she reached the bottom, which opened to a large cavern where she could stand up in. It looked safe enough.

"Hello! Is anyone still here?" she asked, just in case this burrow wasn't abandoned. It looked abandoned, and didn't look as if anyone her size had entered it. Only the smallest of footprints were in the dirt, so she had easily dismissed the light footwork.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, they are," a deep, commanding voice responded. She whirled around to see a small creature two or three feet tall leaning against the wall next to a small tunnel. "Need a light?" he asked. Before she could answer he lit a torch and hung it up. Natsumi could see his slender body and his only clothing on his torso, a belt. She couldn't make out his color due to her eyes adjusting to the light.

"Why did you come here? My comrades and I are using this burrow as shelter for the night. We'll leave in the morning if your family wants to take it," he told her.

"Why are you leaving?" Natsumi asked.

"It's a warrior's duty to protect the people who can't protect themselves. I am looking for those people that need help," the man answered. "Where's your family, human?"

Natsumi sighed in relief. He had called her human, which meant he wasn't one of the soldiers of hell. For some reason all of them called her species Pekoponian.

"…They're dead. I am on my own now, trying to survive the world of today," she answered.

"That's awful to hear…. Did scavengers get them?" the man asked, his voice laced with pity.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"An acid flood killed my family. I was the only one who managed to outrun it and make it to higher ground…" the man shared, understanding her. "My group takes in survivors with no family like yourself. You'd be the first of your species, but we'd be happy to have you."

"Really?" She asked, astounded. These were the first kind people she had ever met besides her family. She hadn't actually met any other people besides the scavengers that she had seen. "I'd be honored to join…. Thank you."

Natsumi smiled and out-stretched her hand to shake his. "I'm Natsumi Hinata. You're a…" She wracked her brain for the name of their species. Her mother had taught her about it once, but she couldn't remember—Fuyuki had always been better with this than she was, anyway. "…frog, right?"

"Keronian, actually. It's a pleasure to meet you." The Keronian accepted the handshake.

Natsumi sighed with relief. Her first step in surviving had been taken.

So Natsumi's chapter is done. Yeah, she's going to be in the mortal line. Hope you enjoyed.