Fan Fiction ❯ Gakuen Shinigami ❯ Judgment ( Chapter 1 )

Gakuen Shinigami

 

A/N: Translated to Shinigami Academy, a shinigami being one who collects dead souls and brings them to the afterlife (literally meaning a god of death). I was reading the new Harry Potter book and thinking, wow, there sure are a lot of schools for things. A Ninja Academy (Naruto), a school of magic (Harry Potter), a superhero high school (Sky High), a spy high school (Spy High), so I was thinking, `What academy haven't they made yet?' And so our story is born. ^_^ And please, don't deflate my pride by telling me there actually is a shinigami academy somewhere, you can keep that little secret to yourself. ^^;

 

Gakuen Shinigami

Chapter 1: Judgment

 

She was desperate. Panting as she ran, she tripped, dropping the small item she was carrying. With a clatter it fell to the ground, the blade gleaming in the moonlight. With a gasp she climbed to her feet, ignoring her stinging knee, grabbing the item as she ran past. The pain was consuming her…..it was hard to breathe…..

 

She had to end it.

 

 

 

It was bright. Scratch that, it was blinding. Where was she? With a groan, she struggled to open her suddenly heavy eyes. She was an endless expanse of white, un able to tell up from down. But most of all she was floating. And of course she made her opinion of her predicament quite clear.

 

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

 

“I see you've woken up.”

 

She whipped around toward the voice, her mid-length brown hair nearly smacking the figure in the face. Her eyes widened in shock. She opened her mouth—

 

“The Easter Bunny?” she asked, an eyebrow raised quizzically.

 

The “Easter Bunny” twitched at the name. Indeed, it did look like a human sized rabbit people portrayed as the one that signified fertility.

 

“No, I'm not the Easter Bunny,” it said, attempting to keep its voice mystical, spoiled as annoyance leaked through, “I'm a figment from your imagination. Easter happened to be your favorite holiday and rabbits were your favorite animals. This form is used to make you at ease. Thus, I look like the Easter Bunny.” A faint vein pulsed on its forehead beneath the white fur.

 

She opened her mouth to contradict him but stopped. Her eyebrows knit together in a frown. “I can't seem to remember….”

 

“That's because yours memories are sealed away,” the Easter Bunny said.

 

“What…?”

 

The Easter Bunny sighed. “Your name is Natsumi Takeya. Age: 15, Blood type: O-. You killed yourself.”

 

The last three words hit Natsumi like a physical blow. She'd killed herself? Why would she kill herself? Her legs, suddenly unable to hold her up, collapsed underneath her, the long white dress she wore pooling around her legs. Why? Why would she have done that? Why…?

 

“…of course you can't remember anything,” the Easter Bunny was saying when the buzzing left her ears, “they wouldn't want everyone being all gloomy and hysteric during the Judgment, so your memories have been sealed.” He continued, completely ignoring her, rambling on about “the Judgment” and “the Leaders.” Natsumi clenched her fist, becoming angry.

 

“How can you just go on like that?!” she yelled climbing to her feet, sapphire eyes narrowed. “I've just found out I'm dead and you act as if it doesn't matter!”

 

The Easter Bunny blinked. And blinked again. This reaction was very unexpected. “I'm sorry….” And indeed he did look sorry, but puzzled, “I've never encountered a reaction like yours before. I assumed you would be like the others and would take the news quietly. I've only had this job for a month.” His rabbit ears drooped.

 

Natsumi's eyes softened. “Hey, it's okay, it was just really unexpected. I'm sorry I exploded at you. There are others here like me?”

 

The Easter Bunny nodded. “It's my job to explain to new souls what has happened to them and why they're here. The sub-branch I was assigned to was suicide deaths. The Judgment is where the Leaders determine what your job will be in the afterlife.”

 

She looked incredulous. “You have jobs in the afterlife? You mean it's not just prancing around in fields and meadows all happy and stuff?”

 

The rabbit nodded, grimacing. “Yes, we don't really just laze around, with all these souls we had to form some sort of government. Besides, those who complained about these things while they were alive began to miss it once they were dead.” He perked and smacked his fist into his open palm. “Times up.” As Natsumi began sputtering, saying she had more questions, he reached into a bag he had at his feet and pulled out a pair of battered gray wings. He smacked them onto her back. Her yelp of pain turned into a gasp of surprise as the wings began flapping, lifting her into the air.

 

“Wait!” she yelled, struggling to turn around. “I have more questions!”

 

“Sorry, time's up!” the Easter Bunny said cheerfully, waving. “The Leaders' will explain to you!”

 

Natsumi glared at him suspiciously. He looked almost happy to see her go.…

 

Sighing as Natsumi disappeared through a swirling portal, the Easter Bunny sat down. With a small pop he was covered in a cloud of blue smoke. When the smoke went away it revealed a teen with blond hair. Long bangs framed his jade eyes, which shone with relief as he was turned back to normal. He was in fact quite glad to see her go. After all, would you like someone who required you to be in the form of the Easter Bunny? Really, and he'd always hated Easter…. He blinked. Didn't he?

 

With a thump another figure appeared. He shrugged off the distant memory. After another pop and more blue smoke, he was changed from his normal white turtleneck and turned into something else. With horror he saw he'd been turned into a woman. A very—ahem—“blessed” woman. He groaned. He really hated this job.

 

 

 

“Aack!”

 

With a sudden and not very subtle movement, the wings jerked free from her back and disappeared, leaving her to greet the ground on her own. “That stupid Easter Bunny,” she grumbled, pushing herself up. Straightening her dress she turned around and—

 

“Eep!” she squeaked, back pedaling from the very large and very old face that had suddenly appeared, intruding on her personal space.

 

“Natsumi Takeya?” the old face asked.

 

Gulping, Natsumi nodded, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. Suddenly the old lady disappeared. `Wha…?'

 

A large podium rose from the ground followed by three others. On top of each podium was a person. On the first podium was an old lady, her gray hair pulled back into a tight bun. The second one had a middle-aged man, messy brown hair surrounding his face; the third held a young woman with long, raven black hair tied back in a braid; and on the fourth was the scary old face she had seen, a bald old man with very large glasses. They were all dressed into flowing white robes.

 

“Natsumi Takeya,” spoke the young woman in a loud, regal voice. “You have been sent to Judgment because you took your own life.” She paused. A look of pity flashed onto her features before disappearing. “Now that you are in the afterworld you must pass a hard, rigorous test to find your place in our society.”

 

Natsumi swallowed. The test sounded very hard. And what was that look of pity for? Was the test dangerous? She began to panic, palms sweating.

 

“Are you prepared?” The old man on the last podium asked, looking down at her through large spectacles.

 

`No, I'm not!' she wanted to scream. Instead she nodded shakily. The middle-aged man made a large sweeping gesture with his arm, the sleeve of his robe trailing after it. The floor in front of Natsumi began shaking and she jumped back in alarm. `Are they going to have me fight some monster?' Her eyes were wide in fright. Clouds of gray smoke came pouring out from the hole in the ground, obscuring her vision. As the last of the smoke went away it revealed—

 

“A box?” her face grew skeptical. She looked up at the Leaders.

 

“Ah, but not just a box,” the old lady answered (it pretty much looked like a box to her), “there are slips of paper inside, too. Go ahead, take one.”

 

Natsumi stared at the box in disbelief. This was the “hard, rigorous test” she had to go through? `They're so dramatic,' she sighed, reaching into the plain, cardboard box. Pulling her hand out, she held a slip of paper as long as her hand and as wide as her wrist. It was the color silver with bits of gold speckled through out it.

 

“May I see that?” The middle-aged man in the center called out. Natsumi nodded and found the paper no longer in her grasp, floating gently up to the second podium. She gaped. He ignored her and stared intently at it while the other Leaders' leaned in for a closer look. He looked up at the old man for confirmation. The old man nodded.

 

“Natsumi Takeya,” he called out in deep tones. Natsumi snapped to attention, nervous.

 

“Ye-yes?”

 

“Your job in the afterlife is an important one. You have been assigned as a Shinigami. You will attend classes to learn how to be a proper god of death—,” he coughed at a glare the young woman sent him, “—I mean, a proper goddess of death.” He glared back at the third Leader who looked smugly back. “In any case, you are dismissed.” A small wooden gavel appeared in his hand and he hit the podium, a resounding thunk echoing in the endless white.

 

Suddenly large, ornate oak doors rose from the ground to her right rising to nearly twice her height. The doors opened to reveal a small girl of around 10 years old. She was wearing a uniform consisting of a white, long-sleeved button up shirt and a navy skirt that went down to her calves. Her reddish hair was tied up into two pigtails. She looked up at Natsumi with large, brown eyes.

 

“Kate, please take Ms. Takeya to be registered into the Shinigami Academy,” the old man said, fixing his glasses. “Any questions you have will be answered at the Academy,” he said when he saw her opening her mouth.

 

Natsumi followed Kate through the doors, grumbling something that sounded like, “stupid, lying Easter Bunny.” As the doors shut with a click, the Leaders' turned to the second podium.

 

“Well?” the old lady demanded.

 

He clasped his hands together, resting his chin on them. “She had a strange aura,” he said thoughtfully. “I was not surprised that she received one of the rarer jobs.”

 

“But why did the aura paper turn to have golden sparkles in it?” the regal woman asked. “I know that the paper is activated by the person's aura, but I have never encountered one with that pattern before.”

 

“Indeed, it is a very rare pattern, but not unheard of,” he crossed his arms. “It means that she must follow a different path.”

 

“But what is her path?” asked the old lady.

 

“That, I do not know.”

 

Silence followed his words, as the other Leaders' turned to look at each other, baffled.

 

 

 

`Hmmm, interesting.'

 

As Natsumi and Kate walked, scenery began to take shape around them. At first a few shrubs appeared, but gradually these grew to bushes, trees, and eventually whole landscapes. `It's pretty much like being alive again,' Natsumi mused, watching as a bird took flight. She looked up front at Kate. “So….”

 

“We travel from place to place using portals,” Kate said abruptly.

 

Natsumi stared.

 

Turning to see her shocked look, Kate smiled. “It's a common question all of the newcomers ask. Other questions are usually, `Is there really a God?', `Is this Heaven?', or `Is the King here?'.

 

“So is there a God?”

 

Kate shook her head. “The figure God was created by one of our first Leaders', who thought it would be fun to send images to the humans of angels, holiness, and prophecies. Oh, we're here.” She stopped at large oak tree. Seeing Natsumi's skeptical look, she explained. “There are portals every where. You can identify them by looking for a marking on it.” She pointed to a large letter E carved into the trunk. “The letters signify which section, or terminal, of the afterlife you're going to. The small number carved beside it represents the “floor” you'll be going to.” Natsumi saw a small number 1 beneath the E. “To activate the portal, you place your palm on it and send a bit of your energy into it. How to control your energy will be explained at the academy.” She activated the portal. “This should send you straight to the principal's office.” Stepping aside, she cleared the way for Natsumi.

 

“Oh, right….thanks,” she said absentmindedly, still trying to process all of the information Kate had just given her. Taking a deep breath, she once more stepped into the swirling portal.

 

~*~

 

A/N: I'm sorry if the thing about God offended any of you. >_< It's not that I mean any offense, but if they're had been a God my story would have taken a turn for the worse. Pllleeeaaaassseeee don't be mad!!!!