Summary: Sylvia Calgary died that day...and somehow ended up with a handsome guardian angel? Now she's being sent to live in the world of her favorite anime, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, as the younger sister of Sawada Tsunayoshi. Between meddling angels and a host of difficulties in her way, how will one ex-teen survive? "It's my sole purpose in life to protect my brother. Get in my way...and I'll end you."
GA: I don't own KHR!, only the mysterious, unnamed angel (whose name appears in the next chapter, actually) and Sylvia/Takari.
CHAPTER 1: TO BE DEAD
My passing wasn't a tragic one. I wouldn't say it wasn't upsetting, because people cried at my funeral - well, somebody cried at my funeral, I hope. It just wasn't anything to brag about. I wasn't dying of cancer or shot during a bank robbery. There was no screaming agony or peaceful dying in my sleep.
I kind of just...died.
Okay, I don't know how I died exactly, but it was probably nothing to brag about. The only reason I'm explaining in the first place is because you have to understand why I chose what comes afterwards.
Anyways, I died. But I didn't know that I had died, so the first few minutes of my afterlife were filled with confusion. When I woke up, I looked around, expecting to be in a hospital room with my family around me. What I didn't expect was to be in a white space with nothing but the clothes on my back and a skateboard laying next to my head, cracked down the middle. I winced as I pulled myself into a sitting position, rubbing my head. Damn, I could feel a migraine coming on.
"Two hours, that's a long time to be unconscious." My attention snapped immediately to the source of the voice, a Hispanic boy sitting next to me, glancing at the Rolex around his wrist casually. "At least the pain should be gone by now. How do you feel?"
"Like my head just got split open," I replied, pretending that this was a normal situation.
"Yeah, that's probably because it did. Get split open, that is."
"Ah." I frowned in confusion at his words. "Wait, what do you mean? I'm not in the hospital."
The boy grinned widely at me, and that was around the point at which I felt dread creep into my stomach. "Of course not!" He practically shouted gleefully. "That's because you're dead!"
What. I blinked blankly at the teen, trying to understand what he just said. "I'm...dead?" I echoed, and he nodded brightly. "There's no way I'm dead. Like, no way in hell. My college letters are coming in next week, tomorrow's fucking Christmas - I can't be dead!" He smiled sadly, and something in his eyes made me pause.
"Is that so?" I couldn't help but feel sorry for the kid I didn't even know, but it still wouldn't help my denial over the fact that I was dead. "If tomorrow were to be Christmas..." he sighed. "Sylvia, sweetie. It's already the day after Christmas in your world."
I shook my head vehemently, unwilling to accept any notion that even insinuated I was anything but alive. "There's no way, I can't be dead..."
Before I knew it, I had started crying, letting tears drop onto the pristine white floor. "Am I really dead?" Nod. "Are you an angel?" Another nod. "Am I going to heaven?"
This time, I received a nervous chuckle. "Not quite. First, can I ask a few questions?" I frowned but agreed anyways. Before he said a word, a wave of his hand conjured a piece of parchment in midair, at which he glared distastefully. "Ugh. The Powers are always so...old-fashioned." Another wave brought to existence a ballpoint pen, which seemed to lighten his mood. "Okay, let's start. Your name is...?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Don't you already know?"
"It's for memory purposes. We keep a record of it in case you ever forget. We also need to gauge how much you actually remember. So name?"
"Sylvia Calgary."
"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady. Any family?"
"Mom and dad, Juliette and Ian Calgary. A brother, too, named Kyle. He's...twelve, I think?"
"Did you have any relationships outside the familial circle?"
"...what?"
"Did you have a boyfriend, or girlfriend if you're into that kind of thing?"
"...No." It pained me that I had to think about it for a moment. Was I really going to lose my memory?
"Okay, do you remember how you died?"
I thought for a moment, trying to drudge up any possible memories of how I died - I still wasn't even over the fact that I actually died, goddammit! The pain in my head got worse as I dwelled on my death, until it was too much for me to handle. "No," I said finally. "Sorry."
He shook his head. "Don't be sorry, Syl - can I call you Syl?" Reluctant nod. "Most people don't remember how they died. There are several reasons for it - memory suppression, too traumatic to remember without serious repercussions, things like that. Other times, it's because your memories are part of your Quest."
"Quest?" I groaned and laid back down on the white floor. "You mean, some kind of trial to get into heaven?"
The angel snickered. "Kind of. Mainly, it's your reason for rebirth. It can get you into heaven, or it cannot." With a flick of his wrist, the parchment disappeared, and in its place was a sealed envelope. "This is for you, I'm assuming. But before you go..." He paused, as though questioning whether he should say what he was about to. "I have to give you the choice. I don't want to, and I'm wholly against sending you back as is, but...everyone who is to be sent to their next lives must be allowed to part with their old."
I glanced up at him, sitting back up. "Do you mean I can...?"
"Go to your funeral only," he muttered. "Say goodbye, if you have to. Not like they'll hear or see you, but the sentiment will be there. That envelope will send you to your next world, when you're ready." He groaned and placed a hand on his forehead. "I know you'll accept. I don't want you to, but the last person to force somebody into the next world without the choice was Maria St. Hubertus, and...well, she suffered the consequences."
I glanced down at the envelope in my hand. Did I want to say goodbye to everybody? To mom, to dad, to Kyle? Finally, I glanced up at him and nodded.
"I'll go."
It was the viewing I went to, not the actual procession. My mother and father were there in the front pew, but Kyle was nowhere to be seen. My mom was crying into her hands, but my dad's face was as stony as ever. It was as if I hadn't even impacted him. Maybe I hadn't, who knows.
I recognized a few faces, and a few held blurry memories I couldn't quite comprehend. So this is what that angel had meant, I was already forgetting some of my past life. How long had it been? Barely four days now, judging by the calendar on the church wall.
My best friend was the only teen I recognized by name in the room. Lucy Martin. She was supposed to go on a hunting trip with her father, that much I knew. So why was she here, at my funeral? A group of boys sat in the back, all of them looking uninterested, impartial to the fact that I was dead. I didn't blame them, really. If I hadn't known who I was, I wouldn't be sad either.
Several aunts and uncles, and younger nieces and nephews, sat closer to the coffin, most of them looking slightly guilty, or at least the smallest bit upset. I couldn't name any of them, but I felt a silent anger boil within me at the sight of them sitting there, none of them even shedding a tear. Was I not important enough to them?
Was I not important to Kyle? The thought popped into my mind as I realized he wasn't anywhere to be seen. Leaning on the edge of my coffin, I took a sharp breath. Why was I so hung over on the fact that nobody was upset?
"It'll be okay, Juliette." My father's voice was as stoic as I vaguely remembered it. I glanced at my mother, who had looked up from her hands, green eyes shining with tears.
If she hadn't said the words that she had next, maybe things would have been different. But with every syllable, it felt like a stab to my gut. "I...I don't care about Sylvia...but Kyle, Kyle will be..."
"Kyle?" Unlike my parents' voices, my own didn't echo within the small chapel. "Kyle, you care about Kyle at a time like this?" my voice was quiet, but grew louder with every second. "I died, goddamnit!" I pushed myself off of my coffin, standing straight in front of my parents, who were looking anywhere but at me.
Not that they could see me, but still.
"You've always cared about Kyle more than me! And now, even when I die, you're scared about how his little, fragile feelings will be hurt by his big sister dying! Fuck you, mom! Kindly go fuck yourselves!"
I felt the sharp edge of the envelope in my pocket poke at me, and, filled too much with anger to rationally think things through, I grabbed it and tore it open, wanting to be as far away from my parents as possible.
Even as everything blurred to white, I felt that anger, and tried to lock it away as a new sensation overcame me, the sensation of being vulnerable.
It was getting hard to breathe, now. I tried a few times, feeling myself suffocate, before finally gasping - a gasp that came out as a long, drawn out cry.
"Look, Iemitsu, Tsu-kun! She's crying!" A fuzzy, weary voice came from above me, and I looked up, realizing just how small I was. The beautiful brown eyes of a familiar Japanese woman looked back down at me. Nana Sawada. My pain was forgotten momentarily in favor of looking up surprisingly at who was apparently my new mother.
There was a laugh from the side. "She looks so much like you." That was definitely him, Iemitsu. In his arms was a small bundle, no doubt Tsunayoshi - how old was he, no more than one, maybe? "And her eyes are sharp, for a child."
"Do you have a name for her, ma'am?" A random nurse, although she looked familiar. I couldn't tell where from, but the voice brought me pain, for some reason.
Once again, my attention turned to Nana. She would give me a name, one that I would carry for the rest of this new life. I prayed that it would be a sound name, but at the same time knew I would be glad for any name she gave me. After all, this was my new start...right?
Finally, she spoke. "Takari. Her name is Sawada Takari."
I sighed in her arms as she cradled me to her chest. And thus the life of Sylvia Calgary ended, and that of Sawada Takari began.
GA: Wow, I didn't know how to end that. That was kind of weird. Sorry! Now, before there are any questions about it, let me address a few common questions for self-insert/reborn/OC stories.
Any canon/OC pairings?
Well, first of all, while I can't guarantee that I won't tease pairings, I can guarantee that there will be no end-game pairings, and nothing that will contradict canon pairings (although there are technically only two hypothetically "canon" pairings, ColoLal and RyoHana). As for pairings that I'll tease, those are up in the air, but I admit that there's one in the future that is plot relevant. Kind of. You'll see.
Will so-and-so be changed?
You'll just have to see ;) The most likely answer will be yes, but at this point, there's no saying what will happen.
Are there going to be anymore OCs, other than Takari and that angel?
Kuhuhuhu, that is one I'm glad to answer: yes. There will be many more OCs. Not many as in hundreds, but there will be a few more. About six or seven more. And as an add-on to that question, these OCs will have reasons within the plot, not just to fuck around with it. Well...again, you'll just have to wait and see.
Any other questions, concerns, or comments, you can just shoot 'em at me via review or PM me if you want it privately answered. Til next time!
~G. Annihilator
