Chapter 1: Before the After

My name is Ai… I give the same speech every time I'm summoned to send someone to hell. It wasn't always like this. Once I was a normal girl, instead of deep black hair I had wavy blonde hair that Rapunzel would envy. And my eyes were a smooth green, not red. Until one day, people started missing and I heard rants, in a foreign language, over the radio. Soon enough there were planes rushing through the skies and, and… One day, there was a loud noise, and a bright flash. I could feel the ground shaking underneath my feet. Then the windows shattered, leaving glass everywhere, broken into a million pieces.

I had my shoes on, so I gave them to my grandma, and she carried me outside to see what had happened. Many were dead, their hollow bodies strung out all over the ground of broken concrete, pipes, and water. My grandma handed me back my shoes, quickly, and said, "Ai, go, run and get more shoes!" I took my shoes back and ran as fast I could. When I made it upstairs, where we had somehow forgotten grandpa, I saw him. And he was moaning from the pain.

I grabbed all his shoes and helped him up. He did most of the work, but we made it downstairs. We saw grandma outside, running frantically, and helping people out of their houses. Only two others were still alive. Their names were Ichimoku Ren and Onna Hone. I gave them each a pair of shoes, grandma and grandpa too. Ms. Onna was really pretty when I first saw her. She smiled at me when I handed her the shoes. Mr. Ichimoku smiled, too. He even helped grandpa walk.

While we were walking down the broken up street, we heard sirens. Then we saw them. I took a shoe and threw it. I saw the car stop, but the sirens were still going. Then there were two medics running toward us. They looked, happy. I don't know why, but they just did. They were only a few feet away and I could hear them laughing. The two medics stopped and started rocking on the floor. I was so angry. Tears poured down my cheeks, and it felt like my hair was on fire and my eyes were a blazing red. It turned out my hair was on fire, and my eyes were red.

The effects made me look the way I do now. Blonde hair that was burnt straight and pure black and red eyes that are sports car red. But it also made me Ai, AKA Hell Girl…