Chapter 1

30 Minutes after I died

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I knew I had died. I was sure of it.

How I had died wasn't my story to tell. What I could tell, was that before I died, I probably lived a good life, since I didn't regret. Oh wait, maybe I did. I wanted to watch finish that Naruto anime, and maybe I wanted to start on Bleach, which was said to be damn nice. Ooh and One Piece, and Shingeki no kyojin, and Kuroko no basket, Free, Fairy Tail and... And...

Well, call me those kind of anime people who would, given the chance, watch anime all day long and not get bored.

Besides that, I felt sorry for leaving my families and friends behind. I was the only child, after all. Note, the only biological child. Tiffany was in our family for as long as I could remember. She was my distant cousin, but was more like a sister to me. I shared everything with her, my smallest joy, my darkest secret.

She had saw me, then. Not the me, lying dead on the hospital bed, but the spirit me. I had spoken my last words, and trusted her to pass on the message to mum, to dad, to my friends. "Don't mope, cry, and be depressed. Move on." I had said. "I'll be waiting for you all when you're all old and wrinkly so that I can laugh at you with my fourteen-year-old youthful looks. Bye. Meet you all again in Heaven. Live your life to the fullest, as cheesy as it sounds."

I closed my eyes for the dramatic effect.

However, the next moment, I was in a room of white (cliché much?), gaping.

Standing before me, was the self-proclaimed Angel of Judgement.

To my disappointment, he didn't even have those beautiful white wings like angels in paintings or books. He was, unremarkable, nondescript, like those guys in school whom I knew about, but never really knew him or her personally, and whenever someone asked me about him, all I could say was all "Erm him? He's nice, hmmm."

"You know, I can read your mind," he said.

I jolted, then frowned. Having my mind tapped into... Was a creepy thought.

"And so does everyone feel that way. You're no exception."

The said "Angel of Judgement" cleared his throat, then shuffled through some papers, glancing at each page before curtly dismissing each.

"You. You are to be passed judgement through a mission in another world," he said. Short and sweet, straight to the point.

"O... Wait what?"

"The judgment is that you get sent to another world to live, with a requirement you need to fulfil. If you fulfil the requirement I set you, and I judge that you don't show any signs of being an evil mass murderer or anything of that sort, you get to go to Heaven after your time limit."

My brain immediately started whirring.

"Time limit?" I echoed.

"Yes, time limit." He nodded, as if reinforcing the statement. "I send you to the world in the form of a newborn so that you have time to adjust. And you have to complete the task, or do the task as best as you can by the age you died."

"Then I have about... Fourteen years?"

The angel seemed to be in deep thoughts. He tilted his head back and paced around the room.

"You'll have sixteen years."

"Huh? But don't you just said that I'll have to do it until the age I died?"

"Your life was too short to complete a mission. Usually the ideal age would be 15, but when I had seen the mission choice left, I think that 16 years should be enough."

"Will I be able to see my family afterwards?"

"If you and they all get to Heaven, then, yes."

I remembered stating I would wait for them drinking warm milk in heaven.

And if I didn't get to heaven, would that... not let me see my family ever again? I stared into space, thinking about it.

"So if I pass, I'll get to Heaven?"

"Yes yes," he seemed positively annoyed now. "Now can you hurry up? I got other souls to attend to. I'm very busy, you see?"

"Err, Angel of Judgement? Sir?" Just how are you supposed to call an Angel?

"Call me Syrus," he said unexpectedly.

"Okay, err, Syrus, when do I start my mission?"

"Now."

Well, there wasn't much of a choice anyway.

"Then I'll do it."

"Good." He raised one arm up and snapped his fingers. I didn't feel any different until I realised that the room was fading, becoming kind of transparent. Syrus too.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you!" I immediately sprang to attention. Syrus seemed like an absentminded sort of person. "Don't fall in love!" I relaxed and laughed. That was it?

"Why?"

"It complicates things." His reply made me put a grin on my face.

"I would never. In all my life I haven't had one single crush, so it's okay in that aspect." He was still mouthing something, but I couldn't hear him.

And everything faded away until what left was black. Then suddenly I felt like I was being shrunk, compacted, without it hurting and afterwards...

I just remembered blackness.


Half unconscious, I tried to listen to my surroundings.

"Ohh, look, a new arrival!" Some guy's voice sounded.

"He or she?" A new voice, this time high-pitched, no doubt a girl.

"A she."

"Oh my, dying should be very hard for her. And Syrus just doesn't know how to comfort people." There were some snickers and mutters of agreement.

"What's her number?"

"Thirteenth."

"I wonder if she knows her mission."

"I doubt it. I have her mission scroll here."

"How could you steal it? Give it back!"

"Whatever..."

I managed a groan, the multitude of voices digging into my brain like spears. Too loud. It was too loud for my liking. My ears suddenly seemed so delicate.

"Oh, she's awake!"

"Now, now. Don't crowd around her, people!"

I slowly opened my eyes to see a circle of expectant faces surrounding me. A girl, who looked around my age when I had died, squealed.

"Man, she's so damn cute!"

"I bet you say that every time, Zane." Zane, I presumed, just shook her fist at the guy who had rebuked her and took my hand. I raised an eyebrow.

The people around me continued chatting, and the noise had bombarded my delicate ears. I used my hand and covered it, only to find it pudgy. I paused. I looked at my hand. I inhaled, exhaled, closed my eyes, opened them, and looked at my hands again.

"Err... Anyone care to explain why I'm a freaking baby?"

Zane laughed, and easily lifted me off the ground.

"Let's get you into your bedroom and we can talk about your mission and the tiny little details that Syrus always forgets when he explains stuff."

Mission? Then I remembered the requirement I needed to finish for me to go to Heaven and nodded. She strode out of the room, up the stairs and into a hallway. It was an old-fashioned Victorian Age setting. And the rich accessories and the plush carpeting were probably worth more digits I could have ever imagined.

Liza opened the mahogany door to a room with a golden plate number '13' hanging on it and I gaped at what I saw.

I had expected to see a room of super duper expensive stuff, or at least I had expected the 'English' setting which was portrayed in the hallways and the room I found myself in initially. What I didn't expect, however, was my bedroom before I died. Okay, it wasn't 100% my bedroom. My room wasn't this neat, and I had moved my softball gloves out when my mum had complained about the leather's smell. Plus my wardrobe didn't even have that kind of clothes. And the king-sized bed in front of me looked smooth, comfy, soft, huge and all the adjective I could possibly think of to describe the best bed of the world. Not to mention the laptop sitting on the desk! A laptop! Something that would only appear in my dreams! I clumsily drew the curtains, not yet used to my new 'baby' form body.

What made my very surprised, was that there was actually a diamond outside. A softball diamond. My favourite place on Earth!

"As you can see, this is actually your mind-room," Zane started.

"Mind-room?"

"Yes, mind-room," She cooed as if talking to a child. "We are all on mission, trying to pass this judgement as a requirement to go to heaven. In other words, none of us are from this world. Thus, we'll have to stick together. Syrus have been an aid in this, creating this place for us to hold meetings or voice our problems to one another, ect. He isn't an angel for nothing, you know."

"Currently, you're the thirteenth in this world, so you have twelve seniors to ask for help. Well and yeah, we're all cool, we don't bite. Except for Jack, but he's nice in his own ways, once you get to know him. Now, let's cover the details shall we? Can I see your mission scroll?" I looked at the scroll held in my hand.

"The requirement letter? The requirement I need to fulfil to go to Heaven right?"

"Yeah, that. We just call it the mission. Can I see it?" she repeated. I nodded stiffly and gave it to her. She read out loud.

"Name: Anna-

Abilities: Average, Reflexes: Slightly above Average, Sight: Short-sighted, Hearing: Average, Intellect: Above Average,"

She raised her eyebrows.

"At least you're above average on some," she said teasingly. I pouted (which was really easy since I was a baby) and looked away. She kept reading.

"Favourite food: None, Favourite drink: Milk, Hobby: Softball, Writing, Reading, Kissed the opposite sex before: No, Boyfriend: No, Suggestive relationships: None"

I gave her a stunned and a 'WTH' look.

"Just joking!" And she laughed. I rolled my eyes.

"Age of Death: Fourteen," She gasped and looked at me with sorrow. "Man, you were so young!" I shrugged and she kept going.

"Cause of Death: Illness," She stopped again, her face holding a worried expression. But she kept reading anyway.

"Requirement for Passage to Heaven: Protect William Twining." I jerked.

What? Did someone mentioned the main character of an anime I'd started watching recently?

She looked at me surprised.

"You know William Twining? A carrier of the Twining family?" I looked at her weirdly. She didn't know? Weren't we in the Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist (Short: MODAR) world? She interpreted my look correctly and explained.

"It seemed like we all came from different alternate dimensions. For one, my mission was to manage the tea importation of the Morton family."

"Morton?" I said as I stared at her.

Like, Isaac Morton, Morton?

"Yes! Tea specialists they are. Anyway, it just happened the book I had read before I died contained the Mortons as the centre of the story, so it fitted well. I guess the book you read contained William as the main character?'

"It was a series, and yes, William was the main character..." I said absent-mindedly. I never really thought there were alternate dimensions out there. It was quite surprising to me. But since I was in the MODAR world now, it wouldn't really be a shock.

"So what is special about him?"

"I know that he's a descendent of Solomon..." I said vaguely. She whistled, impressed in spite of herself.

"Wow, you'd struck bid. In fact, I daresay you've been quite the charmer. Solomon was the most influential human among this world's Devils and Angels. And a descendent... This might be interesting. Don't worry about the age difference, the judgement system is organised such that the person you're protecting would be the same age as you." I nodded at the new piece of information.

"Uh, and one last thing. This world have a different system. I'm betting that Syrus never told you that, did he?" Upon seeing me shaking my head, she sighed while she rolled her eyes. "Well, Syrus is the Angel of Judgement, but he is different from the 'angels' of this world. Imagine this world as a, let's say, a cup. You put some pebbles inside, that's 'Hell' in this world. You pour in water, that's what we called the 'Human world', and lastly, you pour in ice cube, which floats. That's 'Heaven'. Hell and Heaven never meet, but humans are able to enter either world if given access, or vice versa, angels and devils can both go to the human world and cause disasters. Man, they're a bunch of troublesome brats..."

I gave her a bored expression.

"Oops, I got sidetracked. Well, the world is all in the cup, and you're now watching the cup, poking the ice cubes and pebbles and stirring it, or adding more water. Whatever. You're the Angel. Like Syrus. Maybe you can think it in this way: Syrus and others are 'Angels', while whatever bullshit angels they have here are 'World Angels', they governed their world and their world only, even if they die, they'll also have to take the judgement, and no express line for them. The uppers don't even cared about you being the 'god' in this world, you'll still have to pass judgement in order to go to Heaven."

Maybe this was the reason why the Judgement Gate waiting line was so long.

"Anything more, you'll be here for about 9 months, since that's how long babies take to be ready to be delivered. Truth is, you're only mere cells now. In the meantime, you can train and study, and hopefully be ready when the time comes. Who knows? Maybe William got kidnapped the first day he's born?"

She paused, and I had a bad feeling about that.

"So why don't you start training now?"

"Now?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah! You don't really look so tired!"

"Now?" I just repeated, dead-pan look on my face.

"Don't look at me like that! Let's go! I'll give you a tour while at it."

"Now? And I'm just a freakin' baby?"

"Yes!" She dragged me off the bed and dragged me to the door. "The mind-you grows with the present-you. And best thing is, you are able to condition your muscles here."

"Yay." I said oh-so-enthusiastically. She just shrugged and kept on walking.

We walked past so many rooms. Like hundreds and hundreds of rooms. I sighed and bunched up my forehead in a frown.

"I'm supposed to remember all this?"

"Yes! Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon."

Huh. Soon she said.

"This is the training room! This one is for reflexes training." She opened a door and a knife whizzed by my face. My eyes were widened in sheer shock.

"Zane! Don't open the door like that! Two millimetres more and I would've cut open her cheeks!"

"Sorry, sorry! Anyway, this is your reflexes teacher, Bartholomay, but the name's too long so we call him Bart for short. And the room after are basic defence lessons and the room after that is normal lessons and after that would be theories..."

"Normal lessons?"

"Like Maths." I groaned. I super hated Math. And it seems like maths will haunt even my days of death.

"Zane, why don't you bring her into the rooms instead of just describing?"

"Oh, because she has a lesson with you right now."

"Oh. Reaaaaaaally. Hehehehehehe..." He chuckled evilly. I gulped and stepped back. "How good are your reflexes girly?"

"A-Anna." I tried not to shudder.

"Well, Anna?"

"Slightly above Average, the report tells us," Zane described helpfully (not).

"That's good. Catch." He threw something wooden really fast at me. I only managed to catch it, (though I nearly dropped it). My small child hands nearly didn't fit around it. "Oh, not bad. Now, whack away these babies with that."

"B-babies?" I looked at his hands and saw knives. Like meat cleaver type knives which seemed to be able to chop through bones as easy as tofu.

"Let's start, babyyy!" He crowed a bit too happily, the knives seeming to gleam evilly in the light.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?" I never even finished my scream when the first knife came at me. I stared at Bart's face. I thought his eyes had a KHR Reborn's gleam to them.

...

I... think I finally understand how Tsuna felt like.

And this was just the first 30 minutes after I died.


Ah ha! This is the romance version. Due to the convincing (which is actually day-and-night bugging) of my friends, I decided to write my first romance fic! Romance! Though I dislike that genre, being a writer means to embrace all challenges!

I'll still continue to write my original Makai Hime, but it seems that I've grown a liking to this fic too.

And to that Guest by the name of Anny, thanks for pointing it out, I'm gonna change some of it so it doesn't overlap. But really, it's my first time writing Judgement fic so be soft on me? Ooh, and I don't bite(; U can approach me by PM or review (preferably PM) and state whether I'm clear or not. Though I'm still going to delete ur review for... the sake of my pride. (Okay it's a bit cheesy here.)

Lastly, this fic is being beta'd by theheart-brokenone.

And so, Evan here, signs out.