Shion woke in the perfect darkness of vast nothingness. Wherever she was, there was no sky, no ground, no wind nor sound, though Shion felt as if there was no silence either, as her head was filled with a strong pressure, like the kind you feel before a storm but maximized. So much pressure but… wait… Shion tried to raise her hand so that she could hold her head as the emptiness started to swirl around her and only then did she realize she didn't have a body. "Wahh?!" SHE DIDN'T HAVE A BODY?!
The very last thing she remembered was sitting on a dark cloud, watching the events of the Human world below her as a storm rolled in but when she tried to remember who or what she was watching, all there was was static as if her head was a TV with a bad signal… Not that she actually had a head.
Now THIS was truly an OBE, that is, an out-of-body experience. Shion read about OBEs a few times, in her desire to learn more about the Human world and their unique ways. Heaven's library was full of every kind of study material you could ask for, though she wasn't ever able to get any of the Angels from the Holy Library's divine Librarian Staff to stock the manga she wanted to read and she wasn't even asking for the spicy manga! Just Naruto, or Sailor Moon, or… well, heck, she did once ask for Death Note. That probably alarmed them. But shouldn't God LOVE the idea of Death Note TECHNICALLY?!
I mean, sure, Light killed a lot of people, but so does God technically… The people Light killed were (mostly) horrible people, though! Sheesh.
Shion "looked" around, though in reality she just sensed the nothingness around her. She didn't even know what she was or what happened. All she really knew of life was what she had learned about and done as an Angel, but oddly… oddly even that was lacking. Like there was a large part of her memory, her soul, herself that was scrubbed away but not quite gone. She could feel the frustration building. What could she have possibly done to end up here and where was here anyway? Was she dead?
"You are not dead."
There was a sudden voice in the nothingness and Shion would have jumped in fright if she had a body. "Wahh?!" she uttered a second time, though she had no vocal cords, throat, tongue or mouth to produce sounds, it's as if they were in her mind and yet she had no brain. The nothingness around her rippled like when a stone was tossed into the river as she somehow projected the words out from her soul, as that is all she could figure she was right now - a soul, her soul. Everything she is, was, and will be.
"You, Shion, are not dead. Your old body is gone. But your soul is intact."
"You're not God… I know God's voice!" Shion exclaimed and she could just hear a faint laugh, like a weary father would give when their child was being exceptionally naughty but yet did nothing truly wrong. "I am not the God you serve."
Shion wished so bad that she had a face right now, so she could wrinkle her nose in disgust over the word choice. "Ugh, I hate that… I don't serve anyon-" she could feel her soul ache when she said that, but she was sure that the feeling wasn't related to God, he was kind of like a mix between her father and her boss, but she had no love or loyalty to him. No… The way her soul ached meant she did serve someone in the Angelic sense. Was… Was she a Guardian Angel?
"What a strong resolve." The air rippled as the calm yet deep voice of the other soul within the nothingness projected the thoughts into words that could reach Shion's soul.
"What does that mean?" she asked, the space rippling more violently as she did so, the nothingness growing turbulent as her anxiety poured forth and even the ROB could feel a painful pressure bearing down on his soul as he stayed in this space with her.
The ROB sighed… "I have no obligation to your Boss, child, so I will explain your situation to you. But listen carefully, as I will only explain this to you once."
Shion kept quiet and the pressure ever so slightly lessened. "Yes, child, you were a Guardian Angel. Let's see… Shion, never experienced life on Earth as you died while still in your mother's belly, meaning that you have only ever had one life and that is as an Angel. That was sixteen years ago. As a child," the ROB spoke as if he was reading a dossier, which Shion found a bit odd, but she kept quiet.
"You were rather rambunctious, giving the Angels quite a headache. You were meant to learn all there is to know of Heaven and Hell, the ancient and recent history of every religion following God, how believers currently worship him around the world, the history of God, Jesus and Satan, the many various kinds of Angelic and Demonic beings, and… more." The ROB let out another sigh. "Why couldn't she just shorten this…" he muttered before continuing.
"Instead, you were obsessed over the Human world and would spend all of your time spying like a little weir-," the ROB stopped and Shion wished she could see what expression he would have on his face if he had one. He was totally reciting something from someone else somewhere. "I apologize, my secretary must have had too much fun with your case. I will cut to the point. You were set to be the Guardian Angel of a young man and his sister, so that you had a job to do to keep yourself busy, while also working on your Heavenly studies."
The words warmed Shion's soul, as if she had been frozen this entire time yet the anxiety began to grow again, something wasn't right, she was getting flashes in her memory as the ROB carried on.
"Not long after, you began falling in love with the Human boy. This was obvious to your Divine Teachers and you were to be pulled from watching over the siblings, as this broke a Heavenly rule. Another Angel was assigned to them, but you did not trust them," as the ROB explained, the painful memories started flooding Shion, overwhelming her, the pressure was so intense that she would have thrown up or fainted or both if she had a body and even the ROB was uncomfortable. "So you would sneak away to watch over them as well… The last event you witnessed was the siblings nearly being killed by a truck driver, in fact, they would have been… if not for you."
Shion's ripple exploded with a sharp cry, a gasping scream. "They are safe, child. You saved them, but while doing so, you gave up your own life. Not only your life, but your position in Heav-"
"There IS NO POSITION WITHOUT THEM! There is NO LIFE WITHOUT THEM!" Shion screamed, the silence began filling with a slight shrill sound as if nails were sliding down a chalkboard and there was a high-pitched metallic ring in the background. "Shion," the ROB said with a soft tone, he was surely unlike what most people thought a ROB would be like.
Shion felt as if her soul would be ripped apart, destroyed for eternity, she lost the only people she ever loved and cared for. Yes, they were safe, she would forever be grateful that they were. But she could no longer make sure they were. "Shion!"
With a broken voice, the young ex-Guardian Angel answered. "What?"
"Where will you go from here?"
"What choice do I have? I am dead, am I not?"
"You are not."
"..." Shion was confused, she was… a soul, and a soul that was cast from Heaven, as far as she could tell. She was technically a Fallen Angel, though… Ah… She still existed, her soul, yet she had no body nor a place to go within Heaven.
"...You're gonna send me to Hell?" she asked dryly, her broken voice already held no mirth and now she just sounded pissed. "Maybe I belong in limbo for all eternity?"
"Stop the dramatic attitude, child. I've given you enough time. I can send you wherever you want to go, whether it's the world of Inuyasha, Palworld, Naru-"
Instantly, Shion spoke. "I want to go back to the world I just came from, the world I died in. I want to live, and keep those I love safe. I will become a God myself, if I must."
The ROB chuckled, he was glad the young man and his sister had a true Guardian Angel watching over them… This young woman, this very curious young woman, giving up all of the exciting possibilities of other worlds for them. Hm…
"Is this not allowed?" she asked, due to the ROB's hesitation. "No, child. I will allow you to do so. Do you have any set of powers in mind that you would like, or do you want to just be an average Human too?" He bullied her a bit, though he was proud there were still people like her in this world.
"There is nothing wrong with being avera- …Can I be a Magical Girl?" Shion asked, the ROB could tell exactly when his question truly registered and once again he chuckled. "That you can be, child… That you can be."
Shion could feel a tingly sensation as if she had phantom limbs that were itching horribly. Slowly the sensation grew more intense, even in the general area of where her torso and face should be, she was attacked by the painful sensation.
"Farewell, Shion, I will glance in from time to time to see how you're doing. You'll go to the same world, the same time, and with your memories intact. The young man and his sister will not know you, of course. You will have Magical Girl powers like those of the anime you would sneakily watch from Heaven- no, my secretary did not forget to put that in the report. In fact, you will have even more…"
Shion's body was fading into existence itself while slowly fading from the existence of the nothingness, but still she asked. "Will we speak again?"
"How sweet. Maybe, if you end up becoming a God like you said. Now go, Shion, Magical Girl of the Multiverse."
"Wahh?!" Shion exclaimed as her body fully faded from the perfect darkness of the vast nothingness. So what, the ROB had a soft side and he believed the girl deserved something extra.
As Shion phased into the living world, she could feel the extreme itchiness of her growing body leave her but in its place came weakness and dizziness and soon, she fainted in a large grassy park, as the world around her started turning black. She was thankful the ROB gave her a soft place to land while also being confused as to why he left her with what felt like a heavy screwdriver in her hand. She grasped the tool tightly as she fully slipped into unconsciousness.