Author's Note: Hey there! I'm back. I actually cannot believe that I was able to come up with a plot for a multichap, and find the motivation to write it as well. I'm sorry if it's confusing; I haven't written for so long and my writing's really, really rusty. Thank you for putting up with me through the months omg.

This story is for this. pen. is. red (without the spaces). Belated happy birthday, Maria! I love you loads! :)

I'd like to thank Vanilla Coated Love, Autumn Win-Dow, and El Padfoot as well, for giving me ideas and helping me with this fic. You guys are the best.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

Fate was cruel.

Ruka knew it was terribly unfair of him to blame Mother Nature, who had been giving his needs and the needs of the world unceasingly from the beginning of age; however, he could not help but get annoyed at destiny and fate, and—oh, he didn't know, condensation and evaporation?—and the timing of it all, because just when he had his engagement planned down to the last second, rain started to fall.

There were exactly seventeen minutes before three in the afternoon. It was too late to change plans. He invited Mikan to go to a park half a kilometer away—the park where they met as children, when she was lost and sitting on the swings as she cried, where he offered to give her his handkerchief and stay with her until she'd been found.

It was spring and flowers were in bloom. The sun would be high up in the sky, illuminating all creation and highlighting the wonders of all there was that surrounded them. The gentle breeze would blow and take with it a few of the petals of the sakura trees nearby—the congratulatory confetti Mother Earth provided them with, just for them and their engagement alone—and she would smile. She would smile because nature was something she'd truly admired, and he was someone she truly loved—well, at least, that was what he believed.

He figured it would be perfect.

But it was raining and the pavements were slippery, somehow glittering when hit by light, and coated with rainwater. It was raining and he had no umbrella, no anything, except himself and the small box inside his pocket. It was raining and his clothes were drenched, his hair wet, his spirits dampened. It was raining and he was frustrated—angry at the unfairness of it all when all he wanted was to give Mikan a wedding proposal she would never forget.

It was raining.

And no complaints, no cries, no curses would change that.

There were fourteen minutes and thirteen seconds left. He had to run, find a place to stay in for a while, think, and devise a plan. He believed the coffee shop on the other side of the street would suffice.

So he ran—ran faster than he ever did—although it was raining and the roads were slippery. He ran because there was no time to waste, because every second was important, because he'd do anything just so Mikan would smile. His right hand traveled to his pocket, and he clasped the box tightly.

With reckless abandon, he crossed the street, not aware that the traffic lights said go and that the pedestrian ones lit red. He went and ran—

—and it was too late to notice the lights from the oncoming vehicle, too late to hear the honking of the bus, too late to stop or turn or run away—whichever action it was that would keep him safe.

As he blacked out, right hand still in his pocket, he whispered Mikan's name.

"Ruka, hey, wake up!"

"Ruka, no! Don't leave me. Please, please wake up."

"It's not funny. You're kidding right? You can't be—n-no, you just can't be in coma. What about our meeting, huh? What about that ring they found in your pocket? Damn it, Ruka, that's just unfair. Please… please open your eyes. You said we'd always be together, didn't you? Didn't you? P-please…"

He heard crying. There were… distant voices he couldn't really identify. His whole body felt like concrete. He couldn't move, couldn't open his eyes, couldn't breathe without hurting. He couldn't think; he couldn't feel. He wanted to say, "I'm here," but he did not know whom to say it to, or how to say it. His mouth was dry, like sandpaper, and it wouldn't move, no matter how hard he tried.

And he was tired. He was numb and exhausted.

He heard crying.

But he drifted off again.

When he awoke, the world was different. As he sat up, he saw on his right trees which were glowing and vibrant with life, where there were fruits and flowers alike. On their branches were birds and their nests, on the ground on which they stood was a vast stretch of green—grass and leaves of the trees which fell—dotted by a few colors of red and orange and yellow and purple which were flowers of different kinds.

"Am I in paradise?" he asked himself, and doing so sent a pang through his chest. Being in paradise meant dying without even proposing to Mikan.

Yet he realized he was wrong, for when he averted his gaze to the left, he saw that the… place was barren. Somewhere, near the far end, on that part which his vision could not reach, it was dark—far, far darker than night—and there were no stars or other sources of light. It was dead. Yes, dead. That was the only way to describe it.

"If that's the case, where am I?" he said to the skies, because by that time he believed he was alone.

Just then, he heard a rustle from behind. He turned around to see a woman walking towards him who was dressed in plain white, except for the golden waistband she wore. On her hair was a laurel wreath, and on her right arm a golden arm cuff. Her hair was black and short, and she was beautiful. She was reminiscent of the Greek goddesses Mikan loved reading about.

When she spoke, she stared directly towards him with her eyes. Her irises were a deep shade of violet, and he couldn't help but wonder if she were a goddess and if she were reading his mind as of the moment. "Welcome, Ruka Nogi," she said, "to Verhallé—the land between life and death, home of they who do not belong to neither life nor death, shelter for the half-living and half-dying."

A/N: Eh, I tried my best. How do you even write multichaps OTL