Note: Hello! I'm trying out a new format for this chapter. It lets me do dialogue a LOT more smooth, so I'm trying it out for now! I originally indented each action and dialogue, but it seems most sites doesn't like that much so its just... spaced instead. Neat. I've been reading some Light Novels and taking inspiration on how they write their dialogue and actions, so hopefully this is a bit easier to read. Might go back and redo the first 3 chapters in this style sometime! If you'd like, leave me feedback! Thanks!

With the snap of Lena's fingers, Mayumi and her are suddenly sitting in a small wooden boat, floating down a river. There is a seemingly endless field of yellow grass that expands into the pink horizon next to the massive lake they're floating down. Mayumi freaks out and quickly looks all around, beginning to stammer.

"Where the hell!? D-Did you bring us here?"

Lena sticks her tongue out a bit with a smile.

"Welcome to the River Styx!"

Chapter 4: Test for Resurrection!

"Why are we in a boat?"

"Because we have a waiting line! See, Spirit World is so busy, we have a queue to meet up with people. Since we're going to see King Enma, we have to wait. He IS the current ruler of Spirit World after all."

Mayumi squints and speaks in a slightly annoyed tone.

"And how long is this dumbass waiting line?"

"Hmm… I'd say maybe 30 years! King Enma is a busy man!"

Mayumi freezes in place, her mouth stuck open with a face like she just died again. Lena looks like she's about to burst from holding in a laugh.

"My, your face is frozen like Buddha. Have you obtained enlightenment?"

"What the HELL are you talking about!? My bones won't even be left by then! Kumiko's gonna be all alone!"

Mayumi reels back her hand like she's about to sock Lena over the head for doing this to her, but Lena quickly puts her hands out and waves them around defensively, bursting out laughing.

"Don't hit me! I'm just messing around! I'm not being serious!"

Mayumi's face grows red and she still hits Lena over the head, and she begins yelling.

"Your jokes aren't funny! You Spirit World people piss me off!"

Lena lets out a pained yell and begins to rub at the top of her head with her eyes closed tight.

"You're so cruel! We're giving you a second chance and you're still so rude! Learn to take a joke!"

Mayumi crosses her arms and sits back down. She perks up a bit and sits forward.

"Did you say King Enma?"

Lena takes her hands off her head and smiles again.

"Yes! I'm sure you've heard all about him, he's a famous figure even to the human world."

Lena points a finger at Mayumi, and begins to talk more firmly.

"And that means you better not pick a fight with him! He'll send you straight down to Hell! Keep being so rude and I might have to put in a bad word with him."

Lena crosses her arms and smirks, thinking she got Mayumi with that last part, just to look at Mayumi and freeze when she sees her muttering to herself.

"I'll probably gonna get my limbs torn off if I try to fight Enma… I guess I can suck up a bit if it means I can come back."

Lena's expression darkens and she looks angry.

"KING Enma! KING!" Lena throws her arms up in exasperation. "Refer to him by his proper title!"

Mayumi looks up at Lena and points at her,

"Shut up! I do what I want, I don't care if he's the person who judges souls or whatever! He's the one who can't do his damn job properly, thinking I wouldn't die saving someone I-"

The small boat clacks against a wall. Mayumi looks up and goes completely silent as she witnesses the absolutely massive structure they're in front of. It looks like an ancient Japanese temple wall, just on a much, much larger scale. Its color is a washed out, deep purple. Lena stands up and steps out onto a lightly rocky path that seems to go up along the wall. She looks behind her at Mayumi who looks dumbfounded, and smiles.

"This is the Gate of Judgment. Every mortal person passes through here during their existence. It'll be twice for you though."

Mayumi snaps out of it and steps out of the boat. She has an unamused expression as she looks at the long path ahead of them.

"Do we seriously have to walk this entire damn path? You sure this isn't the walkway to judgment?"

"All you do is whine whine whine. Just enjoy the scenery."

"What, the giant endless field of nothing?"

Lena snaps her head to Mayumi.

"You ungrateful- I don't think you appreciate just how much this place means!"

The entire walk is filled with petty arguments and complaining. After a while, they finally reach the front gates. Mayumi stares at the absolutely massive door they're in front of, with an almost worried look. The air feels heavier.

"He's gotta be compensating for something, no way this place needs to be so big…"

"Lena here! With the girl!"

The large doors part with a loud droning creaking noise. Stretching out before both of them is a long hallway, with strange red decorations on the ceiling stretching down it. They look almost organic. Mayumi's face curls a bit.

"You sure we aren't in Enma's throat?"

Lena perks up and her face gets angry. But before she can turn around and yell, she breathes in deeply, and out.

"I'm just going to let King Enma chew you out himself. I'm not wasting my time."

"And you say all I do is whine."

They walk for a bit and both reach the end of the hallway, and there's another giant door. Lena presses a button on the side of it and a noise that sounds like a doorbell can be heard.

Before Mayumi can comment on that, the doors fling open. Mayumi's eyes are hit with a blinding light, and she covers them. She looks up to adjust her eyes, ready to see Enma himself.

Instead, she's greeted by a massive yellow walled room with a tiled floor. There are an insane amount of ogres running around with black tape trailing behind them, running around with random equipment, and shouting.

"Bring the tape over here!

"You're dragging it all over the floor!"

"This thing is almost infinitely long, you expect me to not drag it?!"

Mayumi's face freezes again. She's floored at what she's even seeing. Her mouth is stuck open and she warily points into the room.

"Lena, what exactly is this?"

"This is the office building!" She says with a cheery smile. "Come on, King Enma is this way."

Mayumi follows Lena as they walk through, Mayumi having to constantly swerve and dodge out of the way of incoming ogres and the tape strewn about, making her stumble around.

"Are you blind!? Watch where you're running, jackass!"

As they walk, Lena smiles and turns to a door in the corner of the room. "Okay. King Enma has his own personal office in here, make sure you're on your best behavior."

Mayumi sighs and swallows hard. She expects to see that door open to an absolute behemoth, but once Lena opens the door, she sees nothing but a desk and a bunch of papers strewn about.

"W-Where is he!? Is he invisible!?"

"Down here."

Mayumi looks down and her mind goes blank. What's before her is not a giant hulking mammoth, a figure so imposing that people fear just hearing his name.

Instead it's just a toddler, wearing a pink-trimmed blue robe, an obi sash tied at the waist with brown pants and black shoes. He has a large hat that says "Jr.' On the bottom rim, and a big red circle on the front of it that says "King" in Kanji. And a pacifier in his mouth to boot.

Mayumi's face contorts and looks absolutely dumbfounded. She quickly looks back and forth between Lena and the toddler repeatedly.

The toddler turns around and walks back to the desk in the back of the room and jumps up onto the chair. He let's out a sigh and talks in a nasally but somewhat firm voice.

"It's been a mess 24/7 since we started converting all of our old scrolls and such to those new video tapes that have been all the rage." He clears his throat. "I'm Enma Jr. But some wits here call me 'Koenma.'" He says that last part with disdain.

Mayumi just slowly turns to Lena, and has an extremely malicious look on her face.

"This… THIS is the Enma you were talking about!? This SHRIMPBOAT!? He looks barely out of diapers!"

Lena's face curls into anger and she shouts back.

"You rude-" She reels her fist back and clocks Mayumi over the head, and Mayumi quickly looks back up to hit her back, only to stop when Koenma clears his throat loudly.

"I'd appreciate it if you two didn't knock the snot out of each other in my office. We have more important things to deal with. Though, I did think it was fun how you led her on Lena." He adds, "Did you tell her that you could've just transported you two to the front gate and avoided the entire walk and boat ride?"

Mayumi looks like she's about to blow a fuse. She gets so mad it just overflows and she sighs, puts her hands out a bit, and lets it all fade away.

"Look. I'm just here for this test thing Lena told me about. I'm not exactly used to… talking to toddlers."

"First off, you should know that I'm 50 times older than you if I'm a day, so don't get uppity with me. Second-"

Koenma is cut off by an ogre barging in and placing a giant stack of papers on his desk and adding, "More stuff that needs your signature, sir." Before scampering out.

Mayumi smirks.

"Seems like a fun job, Koenma."

Koenma's face looks annoyed, and slightly angry.

"You forget I still have the authority to send you to Hell. Let's just cut to the chase since we're clearly all so busy. This is your test."

Koenma leans forward and puts his hand out. Mayumi walks over and looks at it. She squints a bit as she sees… a golden egg. She reaches out and carefully grabs it with her hand.

"The hell? You want me to sit on it?"

"No, your test is to simply let it hatch."

"And how do I do that?"

Koenma leans back and puts his hands together.

"It's the egg of a creature called a 'Spirit Beast'. Simply keep it on your person and it'll hatch eventually."

"And how long until the thing hatches?"

"Normally 120 years."

Mayumi's face goes straight and she just looks blankly ahead.

"Let me guess, another dumbass joke?"

"I said normally. This is a special case. Just be patient."

Mayumi sighs and looks down at the egg. She thinks about how this is her chance to come back and make things right. She just has to raise it until it hatches. She sucks up her pride and looks at Koenma.

"Uh, hey. Thanks. I… appreciate you giving me a second chance. Even if all you Spirit World people are being pains in the ass to me."

Koenma smiles a little, and Lena has a proud, fond smile on her face as she looks at Mayumi.

"Look at that, you can be polite in your own way. It's our mistake. It's only correct if we fix it. For actually thanking me, I'll tell you something you might like to hear."

Koenma points at Mayumi firmly.

"Your hearts already started beating again. All you need to do is make sure your soul gets back. And that's something only you can do."

Author notes:

For the boat ride, I got inspiration from how Botan took Yusuke to see Koenma in the live action version. I thought that was neat, it let me build up Mayumi and Lena with some dialogue, and came with the added bonus of trying out my new formatting. Things should be ramping up a bit from here on out! If only I could actually write instead of just thinking about writing. Bad habit.