Step 0: Finding Your Used Ticket To Hell (aka, realizing that you’re dead)
The first thought I had after waking up in my stifling hot bed was:
“Did I hand in my English Paper yet?”
After being swamped with university work, I uncharacteristically ran out of time to write one of my essays. Usually, I was really good at making sure I finished all my work in an organized manner but I had been caught off-guard at how different university was compared to high school. Thus, with no other choice, I toughened up and pulled an all-nighter just to finish that stupid paper…
“Ojou-sama!” A young teenager girl cried out tearfully beside my bed. “You’re finally awake!”
“…”
Yeah, no. I probably never got the chance to hand in my essay. Such a pity, though it was interesting (and slightly depressing) to see that this was my first worry after going belly-up.
“Stay here, Ojou-sama!” My personal attendant Edna all but leapt off her seat as she scurried to the door. “I will bring the doctor!”
“…”
Huh. This was weird. On one hand, I clearly still remembered who I was. Youngest daughter of the Kingdom’s Prime Minister, at ten years old I was the second youngest child out of four. I had an older brother and an older sister, fraternal twins who were two years my senior. In addition, I had a younger brother only a year younger than me. Because of the small gaps in our ages, all of us siblings had been extremely close.
On the other hand…I was the only child of a middle-income family who had loved me dearly. I had no siblings, though I had always wanted an older brother. At eighteen, I was only a few months into my new life as an university student, and…
And…
“Ah,” a young man walked into the room and immediately made a delighted expression. Walking over to me, he waved around a small staff before he began talking to an attentively-listening Edna…
And, I died, didn’t I? I couldn’t really remember the exact details, but I did remember the blaring horn that rippled through the air as a flood of white seared into my eyes. The university student who I had once been was no more, and only the youngest daughter of the Prime Minister was left.
My mother…my father…all my friends.
They were all gone now, right?
.
.
.
“Uuu…”
Ignoring the frantic questions from poor Edna, I buried my pounding head into my knees and cried.