"Matsuura Kanan!"
The same voice that called for Ruby a minute ago rocked the marble hall again. Kanan stood up and walked to the bright hallway.
"Lemme guess, the door behind you?" she asked the angel sitting at the huge desk.
"Correct," the angel replied.
"Thanks," said Kanan and walked through the huge double doors into the warm light.
When the light subsided, she found herself in a tiny island of sand in the middle of a vast blue sea. She saw another island in the distance, bigger and with thick palm forest. Gazing into the calm water, Kanan noticed a shallow path leading towards the island. With a confident stride she walked the path, warm water feeling very pleasant on her feet.
As Kanan approached the island, she saw a white figure waving her in. Coming closer, she took in the figure's features more prominently. It was a brunette angelic woman clad in long white dress, her white wings unfurled, feathers swaying ever-so-slightly in the light breeze. When Kanan came closer to properly see the angel's face, she stopped dead in her tracks. She was looking at her mother's face, her beautiful gentle smile reinforced the likeness.
"Hello, Kanan," the woman said.
"Mother? Is that…"
"I'm sorry, but no. We look like the most important people in your life when we get to greet you into your new lives."
Now standing next to the angel, Kanan took a more thorough look. Her dress was adorned with a blue ribbon under her chest, where the purple gradient started its descent down the angel's flat belly. Thin golden chain acted as her belt, adorned with pretty blue flowers. Small gold fins covered marginal and primary coverts of her wings. White frills reached down all the way to the woman's ankles, showing her feet clad in glass shoes. Gazing back into the angel's deep purple eyes, Kanan noted a pair of white muffs covering the woman's ears, three feathers of glass spouting from each, and a golden tiara on top of her head. "You look pretty," Kanan said.
"Still being a shameless flirt, hmm?" the angel teased. "I see why she loves you so much."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Don't you know? Kunikida Hanamaru, of course."
Kanan's face turned grim as she heard the name. "How is she doing?" she asked quietly.
"Aqours are keeping her and Kurosawa Dia company. Those two are getting close to each other, but it cannot replace what was taken from them." The angel turned to flash a smile, a bright contrast to Kanan's downtrodden expression. "They are learning to love anew, Kanan."
"I'm glad," Kanan let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "It's so good to know they're trying to move on."
"Not everything is the same, obviously. There are talks about withdrawing from Love Live. Guilty Kiss members, however, want to continue on their own."
"They should," Kanan said. "Mari, Riko and Yoshiko will totally win this, I'm sure of it."
"I'll pray for their success, then," the angel replied. "But enough about them. Let's talk about you."
"Look, I know what you're gonna say," Kanan was quick to cut the angel off. "I'm sure Maru just wanted something different and I was thinking too much about myself to let her explore it better. And what I did to Ruby was wrong on so many levels, but…"
"You fell in love with her, Kanan," the angel finished for her with a soft smile.
"Yeah. But all of it started so wrong, didn't it?"
"Oh yes. Using her barely conscious drugged out body for your own sexual satisfaction and threatening to kill her sister if she talks about engaging in such activities is definitely not a good way to start a relationship."
"But I wanted to make Dia pay!" Kanan exclaimed, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I thought… I thought she'd leave Maru alone when she finds out what's going on. I was so afraid to lose her."
"And by doing that, the distance between you and Hanamaru grew so great no bridge could lead you to each other anymore."
Uttering those words, the angel swept Kanan in a tight hug, caressing her hair, as the repentant brunette cried her heart out into angelic woman's bare shoulder.
"You know," she whispered into Kanan's ear, "if you didn't end it all by throwing your life away, you and Ruby would get to be a wonderful couple."
"You think?" Kanan asked.
"I'm certain of it. You saw it too when you thought of your future, right? You and Ruby together?" Kanan nodded. "She was destined to be with you."
"And instead of facing my feelings I just…"
"You were afraid to let go, Kanan," the angel said. "But Ruby would accept you even after all that abuse."
Kanan broke the hug and asked bluntly: "What will happen now?"
"I know Ruby will be offered to go to paradise."
"So this isn't paradise?" Kanan asked, dumbfounded.
"No. At least not yet."
"What about me then?" she asked again.
"You… don't have luxury of a choice here. You are to return back to the land of living and live another life. There's your ride," the angel said, nodding at something behind Kanan.
Turning back, Kanan saw a ferry boat. Standing next to it was a tall figure in a gray mantle. Taking a closer look, Kanan noticed a wrinkled face of an old man peering through the hood. The sleeves were too long to say confidently, but she was sure that his hands were that of a frail old man as well.
"Please," Kanan pleaded, "I just need to see her one more time before she ascends or however it works here."
"I'm sorry, Kanan, but it's impossible."
"God, if you are listening, I want to see Ruby,' Kanan cried out, looking up in the sky. "You can do anything, so setting us up with a short meeting is nothing for you."
As she said it, she heard the sound of heavy wooden door opening to her left. Looking at that direction, she saw a tall archway opening its heavy oak doors, exposing a wall of light behind them. Kanan turned to the angel.
"So I can just…"
"Go ahead."
Kanan immediately rushed to the door, disappearing in the white light. A second later, she emerged, her expression gloomy, her hands balled into fists. Without saying a word, she walked towards the boat.
"Let's get this over with," she said to the ferryman as she climbed in. The old man in the mantle silently nodded, then climbed in after Kanan and started rowing.
"It doesn't have to end like this, though," a voice behind Kanan said. She turned around to see another angel, a spitting image of Dia's and Ruby's mother, with the same set of wings and same white dress and her own angel. "You can begin again with her."
"Begin again?" Kanan inquired.
"Yes. Ruby denied paradise to start another life with you."
Kanan sat there, dumbstruck, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "That fool," she whispered.
"She loves you so much that she threw eternal happiness to be with you. I think you should at least honor her decision. But honor is one thing. Just nod and you'll have a new life where you can be her lover once again." Kanan nodded, her mouth still open in surprise. Ruby's angel smiled in response. "We're getting off here," the angel said, turning to the ferryman.
The boat came to a stop, and several wide marble blocks spouted out from the calm water. An arch doorway sprung its maw open, revealing the wall of white.
"How much time will i have to wait before I meet her?" Kanan asked as the angel stepped off the boat onto the stone platform.
"Fifteen years. It's the earliest we could find in order for you two to be lovers." The angel then offered her hand to Kanan, giving her a warm reassuring smile. Kanan took her hand without a hint of hesitation.
"A new time with her awaits you. You will know when you'll see her. She'll have your eyes."
The angel stepped aside. Kanan walked to the door, then took a deep breath and confidently stepped into the warm comforting light.