Thank you all for clicking and hopefully reading this chapter of my newest story. For those of you who have been following my writing for some time now, both on this site and on you may recognize some characters or other references in this story from my other stories. Also I will only be focusing on three stories for now and if you have not checked them out I ask that you do. I ask that all who do read this chapter enjoy it to its fullest and please also read the Author's Notes at the end of the Chapter as well, and if you don't here this enough Please Review it and tell me what you think.

Death Sprite

Chapter One- What happens when you die?

The rain pattered on her umbrella as she walked through the gates of Centennial High School. The white school building contrasted against the deep grey storm clouds in the morning sky. Students around her rushed to get inside the in an attempt not to get wet in the rain. The quadruple doors let them into the lobby where once inside they continued their boring discussions about sports, fashion, the stupid shows that they watch on TV, and members of the opposite sex.

She walked up the stairs that led to those doors. Her white tennis shoes splashed the water skyward as she took each step, but before she entered the building she turned ambiguous deep grey eyes into the sky. It was only on days like this that they were their natural shade. Her eyes seemed to have the odd habit of mimicking the color of her surroundings and would most likely be brown once she entered the lobby.

Those eyes narrowed in annoyance as she entered the commons, which was the combination of the lobby and the school’s cafeteria. The self proclaimed popular girls began to once again comment on her choice of clothing for the school day. Her clothing was revealed to the rest of the student body as she finished closing her umbrella and turned it a bit to knock away any water that was still on the tool. The attire itself was the same thing that she had worn every day for the past couple of months when she was at school. It was the uniform of her previous school back in Japan. It was a sailor type uniform comprised of a tan shirt with a green collar and skirt. She just sighed as she walked by them and their barrage of insults and headed toward her first the class of the day.

“I’m home.” She announced with a defeated sigh as she closed the white glass inlaid door to her aunt’s ranch style home. It was chilly inside, showing that her aunt must have had the swamp cooler on all day even though it was only in the high eighties outside. She placed her bag down before kneeling to start taking off her shoes while also taking the time to thank higher powers for the long tedious day of school to finally be over.

She never used to think that school was tedious and boring; but then again when her parents were still around she enjoyed school, but she enjoyed coming home even more. She would come home to see her mom’s smiling face followed by a friendly greeting by her father from his workroom as he worked hard to meet his deadline.

“Good,” her aunt said in a sour tone. The woman was a stark comparison to the younger high schooler. She wore her aged blonde hair in a bun behind her head, but her cold eyes turned on the uniform clad female. “For heaven’s sake Holly, I bought you all those nice clothes. The least you could do is wear them.”

“I wear them on my days off, Aunt Helene.” Holly spoke as she reshouldered her bag and began walking to her room. That’s when she noticed her aunt’s glare and realized what just happened. She must have accidentally used the R sound in place of the L sound and the following sentence confirmed it.

“You are in America young lady, and in my house you are to speak English properly.” The woman scolded in anger. Holly tried to hold back her tears as her aunt continued to berate her in her scolding about how she has to act like a person who knows how to speak English.

She knew how to speak English. It was her father that stressed the importance of having a full understanding of both English and Japanese. English was his first language after all, and when she would mess up while learning he would just run his hand through her raven hair and ruffle it up a little while a gentle smile played across his face.

This woman however seemed to hate every mistake Holly made, and she always looked at the girl with cold, anger filled eyes. Holly couldn’t comprehend why. She had lost her parents in an accident five months ago in a traffic accident and was only with this woman because she was the only family that she had apparently had left. Did her aunt blame her or something? Holly didn’t know how much more emotional barrages that she could take. Every week it was something new that she was scolded for, and it was usually over her doing an established habit that she had developed while in Japan, and those were usually just mundane or simple parts of her routine. Holly felt fed up with it and in a blur she had started speaking.

“Why are you treating me like this? I’ve done nothing to wrong yet you always have something to complain about. Today it’s my uniform, last week was me using chopsticks to eat, and the week before that was me reading manga. I just don’t get it.” Holly caught her breath while she clenched her fists tightly. She spoke so fast she didn’t realize that she could say that all in one breath, and it wasn’t until she saw the look on her aunt’s face that she realized that those words weren’t in English at all.

“What the hell did you just say to me?” Helene screamed as she stood. The woman looked as though she was ready to smack the kid for speaking to her like that. She could tell from the tone that it wasn’t pleasant.

Holly just ran to her room as quickly as she could and locked the door behind her. She didn’t want her aunt to see her cry. She slumped down with her back up against the door and sobbed into her laugh. She could still hear her aunt screaming at her for her little language slip. The phone broke her silent crying. She flipped open the small phone after she had fished it from her bag.

“Hello.” She said while trying to sound like she wasn’t crying her eyes out. The caller I.D read that it was Jennifer from school.

“Hey, Holly, I was wondering if you were having problems with Mr. Christianson’s assignment. I thought I called you seeing as you’re the smartest girl in school and all.”

“Sorry, Jenn, I just got home a little while ago.” Holly said as calmly as she could. She walked away from the door and placed her bag restlessly on the bed before sitting herself in her desk chair.

“Oh, so you haven’t gotten a chance to look it over yet?” Jennifer’s voice echoed her usual cheer. Holly could almost picture the girl cradling the phone between her shoulder and head while holding a pencil with her feet and brushing her hair at the same time.

“No sorry.” Holly said solemnly over the phone while she looked outside. The moon had started to come out of the clouds and shimmered brightly. The full moon always calmed Holly and gave her a sense of confidence, which is exactly what she needed right now. “Hey I’m not going to be at school tomorrow. I have a doctor’s appointment out of town. Can you take notes for me?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. So, why are you going to the doctor?” Jennifer asked quickly. Holly didn’t like to talk on the phone but she had seemed distant at school and Jennifer was worried.

“Just a routine checkup.” Holly sighed. “Well, I’ve got homework to do so I’ll let you go Jenn.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later.” Jennifer said in an uneasy tone, but the two hung up and within minutes Holly was crawling through her bedroom window and out into the backyard. It was easy to sneak around the back door as her aunt was too focused on the television to notice her disappearance. In the hedges there was a pair of sneakers white with red trim. She put them on with hast and under the light of the full moon made her way toward the center of town.

Holly bent down to catch her breath. She was standing next to the side of the large highway that intersected the city. She looked up and waited for the bright headlights of a vehicle to enter her view. The girl hid herself as best as she could while the headlights grew bigger. They belonged to a tan dodge car which was perfect for what she had in mind.

The next seconds were filled with a loud screech and the sound of a soft body being slammed into by a car. The driver got out immediately and told the passenger to call an ambulance. A girl had come out of nowhere and threw herself at the car. There wasn’t enough time to stop before hitting her, was she trying to kill herself. That didn’t matter now she was still breathing slightly and had a pulse, even if she was badly bleeding and injured.

Holly opened her eyes slowly. Was she dead? Did it work? She looked around to witness the two older boys helping medical professionals lift someone into an ambulance. She recognized the car. It worked she was dead, but why was she still here in the living world.

“Well, well, and here I thought the night shift would be easy.” A voice spoke up from behind Holly. She turned to see who spoke to her and was shocked as a scythe blade was placed near her neck. The person holding the scythe was a boy not much older than Holly. His blue eyes looked as though it could pierce through her while his short yellow blonde hair waved in an unfelt breeze. Behind him billowed a long black cloak, in fact, his entire attire was black in color.

“What do you mean by night shift? Who are you?” Holly asked calmly. Her plan had worked she thought, but now there was this strange person speaking to her.

“Well, you’re pretty calm for a deceased person.” The boy said in annoyance as moved the blade closer to her throat. “If you must know, I am Alex Rosemberg, and I am a Reaper of Souls.”

“Like a shinigami then.” Holly closed her eyes. It figured that one would show up to claim her soul. Though this was still a little strange. Why wasn’t she sent immediately someplace? This was playing out way too much like some of the anime that she had seen.

“Yeah, except with the whole slaying Hollows, and writing in notebooks crap.” Alex said happily. He wanted the night shift so he could catch up on his reading, but lo and behold someone had to just go and die. “I take it by the fact that you’re so calm that this whole thing wasn’t an accident.”

“Too true.” Holly turned fully so she was once again facing the boy and let the scythe blade rest on the back of her neck. She wasn’t expecting and especially didn’t plan anything after the point of impact, but there apparently was a life after death. “I’m ready to go now too.”

“Well,” the reaper said as he pulled his scythe up over the girl’s head and rested it on his shoulder. Soon, he pulled out a light grey cell phone just as it started ringing and flipped it open before sighing in what Holly thought was annoyance. “I can’t exactly take you anywhere, because you aren’t dead yet.”

“What, then how am I not in my body. I was under the impression that a soul only leaves the body upon death.” Holly complained as the boy shoved the phone deeply back down into his pocket.

“I suppose I could explain that.” Alex yawned and stretched as he spoke. “Thanks to those two in the car you’re going to be just fine. Some pretty harsh physical damage, but alright none the less, though you’ll be in a coma for a while.”

“A coma is just neurological trauma that results in a deep state of unconsciousness.” Holly said quickly while crossing her arms in front of her chest while glaring at the boy as he started to walk away with his hands dipped deep into his pockets. His scythe seemed to have collapsed on itself and was now strapped to his waist. She ran after him quickly demanding more of an explanation.

“Listen, little Miss Suicide. There are two and only two times that a soul leaves the body it inhabits. Those are like you said when a person dies, but the other one is when the person is in a deep state of unconsciousness.” Alex said as he pulled out a book and started reading. The title of the book was Novus. It was a new release that Jennifer was interested in, but for a reaper to be reading it seemed a little odd.

“So then what am I supposed to do now?” Holly complained as she watched the boy flip quickly through the pages.

“You wait as long as you want and then return to your body, but keep in mind that if you haven’t made a decision in three weeks. Then I’ll take your soul to Purgatory and let Lady Justice decide what to do with you.” Alex said before leaping into the air and sitting on a rooftop. “Oh, and I forgot to mention something.” Alex then laughed as Holly looked as though she was being yanked through the air toward the hospital. “You can’t get too far away from your body.”

Holly grumbled as she landed just outside of the hospital, shortly after her body entered the building. For some reason she felt as though a rope was tied tightly around her waist as she was dragged by the ambulance. She stood and dusted herself off, and was surprised to be covered in dust at all. She was equivalent to a ghost and she had read enough about them that they aren’t affected by physical things. That didn’t explain why she was so sore now, and why a large bruise was starting to appear on her shoulder where she hit the asphalt.

Holly just sighed and walked toward the doors. If that reaper was right then she couldn’t be away from her body or the whole process would start all over again, and she preferred not to be drug through a hospital. She crossed her arms as she began to enter the doorway, which was opening because of people leaving the hospital, but soon felt as though she had slammed face first into a wall.

“I suppose I should have told you that you have to be invited in to enter building in this state shouldn’t I.” Alex chuckled as he turned another page in his book. His blue eyes seemed to look at both Holly and his reading at the same time.

“That would have been nice, yes.” Holly mumbled as she rubbed her head. She was beginning to think that being dead was more trouble than it was worth. “How’d you get here so fast?”

Alex walked up to her hiding half his face behind his book before leaning in and whispering into Holly’s ear. “It’s a secret.” The statement caused the girl to take a swing at the boy who expertly hopped out of the way and through the closed doors.

“How…” Holly commented pointing at him with an angry look in her eyes. He just turned the page before reaching into his pocket and pulling out what looked to be a charm.

“Reapers have a special pass so that they can do their job effectively. It would be hard to get to a spirit who died inside a building if we had to always be invited in. Oh, and for public places you only have to be invited in once, but as for a house you’ll have to be invited in each time.” As he spoke Holly was slammed rather forcefully into the doors. His eyes lit up as she tried to pull herself away from the invisible barrier. “You can come in.”

Holly then fell through the door and was pilled straight up into the air through the various floors until she was thrown into the air and landed hard on the tile floor of her body’s hotel room.

“I really, really hate that.” She growled to herself before looking up to see the two doctors standing over her body. One finally, brought up that Holly was his daughter’s friend. He must be Jenn’s father, but from this angle Holly couldn’t tell for sure. She really only heard Jenn talk about him. He then went on to tell his colleague that he would call his daughter and see if he could get a hold of Holly’s aunt.

“That must have been exciting.” Alex commented on Holly’s previous rush through the hotel floors as the two doctors left the room. He was of course still reading his book; it seemed he preferred doing that over anything else.

“No it wasn’t.” Holly gruffly said as she stood and walked over to her body. Her arm had been put into a cast along with one of her legs. There were bandages wrapped around her head and it looked as though they were holding back two substantial wounds. Her chest was also wrapped in bandages meaning that several of her ribs were broken. She was also connected to a variety of life support machines. Holly’s plan had definitely failed, but according to the reaper by the window she had three weeks to choose whether or not death is what she wants. She’d just have to wait it out.

“Don’t have to get snippy Miss Suicide.” Alex said calmly as he looked through the window into the city at night.

“Why are you following me around anyway?” Holly asked as she brushed hair out of her bodies face before dropping through it. She was still getting used to being incorporeal one minute and corporeal the next.

“Because until you go back into your body…” Alex was interrupted by the doors opening and the two doctors reentered the room. Following them was one person Holly didn’t want to see at the moment. Her aunt had a solemn expression on her face as she walked up to Holly’s body. She turned and asked the doctors for some time alone with Holly. The two doctors accepted and quickly left the room.

Once the two had left the room, Aunt Helene’s expression changed back to her usual disgust before she slapped Holly’s body hard across the cheek. The area reddened rapidly and it seemed to satisfy the woman.

“So now I have to pay for medical bills now.” She screamed angrily before assaulting the same cheek once again, this time hitting one of the tubes keeping her live and almost removing it in the process. “Your father was a fool. He went off to Japan with that hussy you called a mother and went and made you. He could have had an American wife, a white American wife, but no he voted to have an Asian. Shows where his mental state was.”

“How dare you.” Holly shrieked as the first two insults rolled off the woman’s tongue, though it was unheard by Helene. “Those two where twice the people you will ever be. They were loving and kind…” Holly clenched herself tightly as her Aunt finished her insults. It had suddenly gotten deathly cold, almost as if death were. Holly turned to look at Alex who had drawn his scythe and the breeze that had naturally followed him seemed to have turned into a gale. He glared angrily into Helene’s dull eyes with glowing bright blue ones. His presence completely changed. This was what death was supposed to feel like.

Alex lifted his blade and placed it by Helene’s throat as though he was about to chop it clean from her shoulders. Helene shivered a bit before slapping Holly once again and turning to leave the room. As she left, Holly heard her complain that the room was freezing, but the doctors told her that the thermostat read that is was seventy-six degrees within the room.

“So has your aunt always been an intolerant piece of crap.” Alex said as the coldness started to go away. His natural calm seemed to return as his scythe returned to its folded state and he hooked it to its strap.

“What was that all about?” Holly asked as she picked up his book, after it had slid over to her in the commotion, and handed it to him. It seemed as though Alex had taken a real disliking to Helene immediately after she started speaking.

“Nothing…but if you must know I’ve dealt with people like that before, so leave it at that.” Alex took his book and proceeded to find his place within the story. He was silent as he flipped through the pages rapidly and placed his bookmark in his spot as the door opened once again.

This time a girl of Holly’s age entered. Tears were streaming down her face from her clear green eyes. She ran full force to Holly’s side and grabbed her unbroken hand before repeating the word “why” over and over again. Her short black hair stopped just above her shoulders and was in a mess as if she had already gone to bed, and seeing as she was wearing pink pajamas with little angels on them she most likely didn’t even change clothes before rushing here.

“Honey.” Her dad walked into the room and gently placed his hands on the girl’s shoulders. He had the same gentle green eyes that were shedding tears above the unconscious girl. “There are many factors that go into making someone psychologically unstable enough to try to commit suicide. Let’s just thank God that your only friend isn’t dead.”

“Only friend,” Holly whispered to herself. When she had met Jennifer the little Chinese girl, well Chinese-American girl, she had said that she had a lot of friends, and when the two had told each other their family history it was Jenn who called them both half breeds. For the first time Holly had heard that phrase as a non-derogatory term. They were a mix of both east and west and quickly became best of friends, but to find out that Holly was her only friend struck her hard.

“Will she be okay?” Jenn sobbed into her dad’s jacket now. The man just stroked his child’s black head and smiled peacefully.

“It’s up to her now. We’ve done the best that we can.” Jenn’s father said as he walked her out of the room. He then told his colleague that he would be taking the rest of the day off to be with his daughter. That’s when Holly remembered that Jenn’s mother was dead. She had died from a hit and run accident, so to here that her friend jumped in front of a care must have been doubly traumatic for her.

His colleague nodded and closed the door behind the two. It was then that Holly returned her attention to Alex. He had opened the window and was now sitting on the ledge while looking out into the star filled sky.

“So, if I make a decision before the three weeks are up.” Holly asked as she sat down in the chair next to her body. Seeing Jenn like that seemed to put doubt in her heart. It reminded her of when her parents had died.

“You still have to wait the three weeks. Allow your body time to heal so that we can return your soul to it. Only a healthy body can receive soul.” Alex said calmly. “And until those three weeks are up. I’m required to stay with you at all times. Well, I guess excluding when you insist on doing something private.

“If that’s so then I need to know more about this experience until then.” Holly said calmly. Her mind was made up. She would live if only to not see Jenn or anyone else cry like that again. “Like any specific rules that I have to follow and such.”

“Okay, well here goes.” Alex explained as best as he could about what Holly could and couldn’t do. Holly couldn’t go outside of a mile from her body and if she did she would be dragged like she was until she is next to her body. Holly also could interact with other dead or inanimate things, such and hair and the ground, but not a living body. Alex went on to explain that this was why he was there. To protect Holly’s body while it and her soul rested from the split.

“Why couldn’t I just use an inanimate object as a weapon? Like a poltergeist.” Holly asked for Alex to explain that this would lead Holly’s soul to become malevolent and Alex would have to kill her on the spot no matter what choice she was going to make at the end of the three weeks, also she would be sent straight to hell at that point and not have the option to be judged before Justice.

Alex also mentioned that other spiritual entities such as demon’s or angels would also try to lean Holly’s soul to their side of the spectrum. It was the Reaper’s job to make them leave be force if necessary. Souls are meant to stay neutral territory until they are judged, but they could influence events before the judgment and thus improve their odds.

Lastly, Alex explained that only objects he picked up would become invisible on contact with him, so when Holly picked up the book earlier she could have made people believe the room was haunted. Alex was also around to act as the person to let Holly’s soul into buildings that she’d like to go to, but she had to keep in mind that she only had a one mile radius in which to go.

“A one mile radius would allow me to go to Jenn’s house, as well as to school, both are within walking distance of this hospital.” Holly said as she stood up. She turned and headed toward the exit to the room. She would definitely be with Jennifer in spirit. “Oh and I didn’t introduce myself. I am Holly Hisakata.”

Holly then left the hospital with a grinning Alex not far behind.

A/N: Well, this is something I threw together. I've been wanting to do a story with Holly as the main character for a long time, but just couldn't think of anything, but this should do the trick, and it is definitely different than anything you have seen before, from me anyway. Primarily this ending note is mainly kind of like a translation notes that you might find in some manga where it explians some of the interesting but not neccisarily essential parts of the chapter. I'll also be doing this for Wandering Hero and Neo Dark Age from now on for those of you who are following those. Well, let's begin then shall we.

"I am Alex Rosemberg, and I am a Reaper of Souls.”- Alex's introduction might be a little show offish, I hope, but for those of you that have read my W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction Tsunami you'll recognize his last name is the same as that of the crazy pink cyborg OC from Tsunami Oakugine "Oak" Rosemberg, and yes she will be appearing in this story. It'll be her true debut performance.

“Yeah, except with the whole slaying Hollows, and writing in notebooks crap.”- Another Alex line in reference to Holly calling him a shinigami. Bleach and Deathnote fans will catch this one right away. He's refering to the shinigami portrayed in those two series respectively, and from the sounds of it doesn't like it all that much.

"I am Holly Hisakata.”- For Wandering Hero fans you have just learned the name of the mysterious new Dragoni that KT and Kimi fought as of chapter eight. Her name will be revealed in chapter nine, but I just couldn't wait. Also this is not the same Holly from WH they merely share names. Also I intended for her name to mean Holy Moon, but in reality it means Shrub (the French meaning of the word Holly) and Moon (a meaning for the Japanese word Hisakata) to make Shrub Moon. I might be able to work with that or something.