“I’m… still conscious?” thought Kokoro. After everything went black, all his senses went offline, leaving him in a dark void that left him ignorant of everything outside of his mind.

It was then he noticed something strange.

“I can still think?”

He found it odd having this level of mental ability considering what happened. His thoughts were unnaturally clear and conscious despite a thin fizzle of haziness leaking in, it felt more like he was in the trance state before one wakes up from a dream than anything else.

“Am I still alive? It couldn’t be, I should’ve died after being decked by that truck. Unless I’m extremely lucky or am just built different. Nah, too wishful thinking. If I am alive though, it’s going to be a hell of a phone call to mom and dad; they already have mini-heart attacks over every incident, can’t imagine their reaction if they hear a truck hit their only--”

“What a regretful fate that befell you?”

“What the- who is that!?”

From all sides and yet simultaneously no direction at all, a hard to distinguish omni-voice called out to Kokoro, “To lose your life so young, truly sad; and you had so much potential.”

“Yes, yes, people dying young is always tragic; trust me I know! But, what are you? You sound like you know what’s going on; and about me.”

“No need to worry about such details now dear child, you have your own conundrum to deal with.”

“Conundrum? Do you mean I’ll have to take care of a problem wherever I’m going?”

“You could say that. Most of the people you’ll soon meet are just like you, distinct troubled souls. Misfortune has struck and now your path of solace and aspiration has been shaken to its core; it wasn’t the first nor will it be the only occurrence of this. The actions you choose to take dealing with this inevitability shall steer your future.”

“Where am I going for all this to be relevant?”

“A plane of existence both familiar but foreign, as realistically based as it is spiritually charged, structured into a reality that defines metaphysical.”

“Defines metaphysical?” Kokoro thought, taken aback from the description given, “What kind of rabbit hole did I fall into!? I’m just some guy who got hit by a truck!”

“I don’t want to hold you here forever, our conversation will be postponed; for now. Until we speak again, good luck.”

Before another word could be said, Kokoro felt a force pull him from this stagnant trance he was trapped in into a total blackout once again.

After another moment passed, Kokoro gained back his normal senses. He could breathe through his nose and mouth, hear the sound of wind hitting the window through his ears, and could taste the inside of his mouth again.

Most importantly, he began to feel again.

Specifically, he felt himself lying on his back against something. Feeling a soft surface on his back reminded him of his bed back at his apartment and for a moment he believed it was all a dream. Perhaps the last couple moments filled with craziness were all in his head. Reasons why can be damned at this point, he’ll get to that can of worms on another day along with the rest of them.

At worst, he did get hit by a truck and the tremendous shock of being smacked with that much force blasted his brain into a temporary state of delirium. Meaning he would now be waking up in a comfy hospital bed and hopefully an attractive nurse.

All he needed to do was open his eyes.

“Oh, what a surprise,” a soothing voice said. A presence, one brimming with a radiant sensation, was felt next to Kokoro, “He’s waking up.”

With swift judgment, Kokoro concluded, “Definitely in a hospital. Could’ve done without the whole Getting Hit By A Truck event but what can you do? On the bright side, I’m probably so pumped full of drugs that I can’t feel pain.”

There was a small debate in his mind that wanted to keep his eyes shut until whoever was standing next to him was gone so he’ll have a few moments to himself to take in his current condition but ultimately he decided to get the whole ordeal done with now.

“Better open my eyes now so they can tell my parents I’m awake, don’t want to worry them too much,” he thought before slowly opening his eyes, allowing light to fill his sight. While his pupils adjusted to the light and started processing the area around him, he used this time to draw some conclusions about the person that was next to him, “No doubt it’s a woman from that voice. Most likely a nurse considering the situation.”

Finally, his vision became clear and through the once blinding light, he saw the glamorous face of a woman he never met before. Her long hair radiated its vanilla ice color, angelically flowing behind the prize-winning complexion.

As he stared at the alluring sight, she gave him a heart-warming smile before calmly speaking to him.

“Greetings, you have died.”

…

“Eh?”

Of all the things to wake up to, this wasn’t one Kokoro expected, “Did she just say I died?”

Reasonably, this announcement triggered an alarming response from him, scurrying to sit up on the bed he was on.

Quickly comforting him, the woman reached out her arms to calm him. Within this act, white wings flapped up and became visual from behind as she assured the troubled soul in front of her, “Don’t panic, you’re not in hell.”

“Oh thank god!” exclaimed Kokoro, letting out a grand sigh of relief. Magically that helped ease his nerves, either that or the woman’s delivery was angelic enough to soothe his soul.

Giggling to herself, the winged woman says, “When it comes to calming down new arrivals, that always does the trick.”

While she was speaking Kokoro stared adrift at the room around him, taking in its riveting use of marble to carve a unique design, it felt as though he was being hosted in some mythical room he had read in fairy tales. Turning back to his shell-pink-haired company and noticing her calm lavender eyes, he asked, “Does this happen often?”

“Indubitably.”

“That’s actually hilarious to think aaaa--” his thoughts trailed off when he lifted his arms and noticed one of them was heavily wrapped in chains. Clumps of linked twisted metals coiled around his right limb like a viper, not being a friendly contributor to an aesthetic but a hunting fiend trying to constrict and control.

Staring at it made Kokoro’s breath become irregular, “What is this thing!?”

“That’s going to need a little bit of explaining,” the kind woman told him, pointing at his unnerving chains. This was where the more difficult part of her duties started to come into play.

“What’s wrong with my arm,” he catechized, seeing how ghoulishly pale his skin was. That was when he noticed another change in his body, one that hung at the top of his sight, “And my hair is...grey?”

“I can explain that as well.”

Nodding his head, Kokoro turned his sights to her before giving an astonished face when it finally hit him that he had been talking to someone with wings since he awoke in this room.

Catching him staring, the winged woman glanced back to see it was her wings catching his attention and turned back to say, “And that!”

After blinking with a blank expression, Kokoro hobbled to his feet with the lady voluntarily assisting him.

“Don’t push yourself, Shikata. You’re a case that may still need a few minutes getting used to moving around,” she advised, making sure he didn’t fall over.

Waving off the concern, Kokoro replied, “Don’t worry, I got this. I’ve had many dreams where my legs couldn’t walk straight and became a master at it; this’ll be no different.”

“I know this is a lot to take in at once. Take a moment to let everything stew.”

“I just need air,” he stammered, making his way to the window.

Trying to stop him, the winged man insisted, “I~ wouldn’t do that.”

“Why?” asked Kokoro, immediately having his question answered when he reached the window. The outside world he had hoped to calm him down wasn’t how he last remembered it. Gone were the peacefully blue sky, instead, they were painted over with a moody combination of light orchid and shocking pink; shape-wise they were similar but nothing above looked the right color, “What is this, the level of a final boss!?”

The mysterious winged woman patiently stood at his side, giving time and space to digest before he experienced a meltdown. After a moment of both confusion and pondering, a state of mind called confused pondering, Kokoro began functioning again. Acting with an unmoving stern face, the first thing he did was grab his cheek, squeezing and stretching it out before slapping it.

It stung and felt real; not a single piece of the landscape he was sightseeing changed by a millimeter.

This was no dream.

That would mean he was told the truth from the very beginning.

“So that’s how it is?” a dreaded look loomed over Kokoro at his arrival of acceptance of this raw deal. Mellowing out with a sigh to gain back his usual indifferent composure, he turned to the person who had been very attentive since he woke up and asked, “So about that explanation you were promising.”

Excited, her face lit up, “I’ll pace it for you.”

A short pause in the conversation occurred as the now silvered hair man went over the mirror in the room to examine his changed body. Kokoro was barely recognizable to himself, similar to the view outside, everything seemed to be in the right places where you wouldn’t notice any big deviations from the silhouette alone. Like many concepts, the finer details are where the messes are revealed.

It wasn’t just his arms but Kokoro’s entire body that had the same tone of ghoulishly pale skin, almost all sense of vitality seemed lost from his complexion. People already commented enough about the dark circles under his eyes, now they are even more prominent.

“If any of my coworkers see me now, they’ll scream Zombie just to mess with me,” thought Kokoro, a tiny ember of irritation relit remembering how they teased him when he didn’t want to wear a costume on Halloween. Burying that trivial memory away, he announces, “Let’s start with names.”

“That’s an easy one,” answered the woman, grabbing her snowy blue dress for an elegant curtsy that allowed her wings to show off their ivory feathers. She gave a proper introduction, “I’m Marianne, but you can call me Mary.”

“Shikata Kokoro,” Kokoro states, brushing his silver bangs to get a clear view of his eyes, “At least they’re still amber, were they always this yellow though. And where the hell are my pupils, it’s all just color? Is that how eyes work here? Wait no, Marianne had irises.’

Moving past how hollow his eyes looked, he looked at the pinkette through the mirror and continued, “but you already knew that.”

“Oh, so you did notice,” Mary replied, her smile turning a bit more cheeky.

“I would’ve mentioned it earlier but I was questioning enough things at the time.”

“Apologies if that unsettled you. Some people react better when I use their name.”

Kokoro gave a small interjection of intrigue before stating, “With the shock of everything, I can imagine hearing your name being said by an angel helping.”

With her refined wings flapping again, Mary giggled, “The wings do make it obvious doesn’t it.”

“Not to mention the cross,” Kokoro states, gesturing to the pale violet symbol incorporated into the chest design of her dress. His sights then fell upon the golden ring resting around Mary’s neck before questioning himself, “Is that a halo? Why would it be there though?”

“Either way, it’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance Shikata,” Mary tells him.

“Likewise,” Kokoro replied, he had enough indulging himself to his new appearance since it wasn’t bringing him any joy. Finally turning back to face Mary, he requested, “My legs are fine now, can we walk around.”

Mary nodded, before going to the door, “Sure, this’ll be a perfect opportunity.”

After putting on the only pair of shoes and coat in the wardrobe, the two continued with their conversation in the long hallway ahead of them.

Starting off the questions, Mary asked her ambered-eyed new arrival, “Do you know where you are?”

“I want to say heaven because I’m looking at you but unless I’ve been sold the most misleading propaganda ever, I don’t think heaven looks like The Eclipse is happening; unless Griffith actually did nothing wrong,” he nonchalantly jokes, his dry delivery and reference fell a bit short on the angel, “I expected the floor to be made out of clouds and everything was shining bright like the sun.”

“Close enough,” Mary muttered to herself, happy it was one of the saner imaginings she had heard. It was both amazing but worrying hearing all the various forms, and wild extremes, a person’s interpretations could be, “While I’m flattered, unfortunately, this isn’t that divine place.”

“Then where am I? This place surprisingly isn’t hell and definitely ain’t heaven.”

The words of that Omni-voice echoed back in Kokoro’s head.

A plane of existence both familiar but foreign, as realistically based as it is spiritually charged structured into a reality that defines metaphysical.

“You’ll find their influences here because this world is one forever stationed between both of them; Purgatory.”

Purgatory.

It was a place Kokoro had heard of before through fictional media but he never considered it an actual plane of existence in reality. He was mostly agnostic but when he did dip his toes into the subject, he always found the idea of Purgatory to be an overly fantastical creation. The idea of the afterlife having an area that’s like walking on earth but not exactly felt like a workshopped idea someone cooked up to help themself conceptualize the in-between state. If we’re speaking about the domain of the divine, which is so far above and beyond human capabilities, then why would an entire world be based purely on mortal standards.

The only concept Kokoro ever considered that’s close to what purgatory has been idealized to be was a void space where lost souls wandered endlessly until they end up or are guided to where they’re supposed to go.

This will be an annoying defeat for him to slowly ingest and he’ll be mulling over it for quite some time; luckily he’s in the perfect place where he has the time for that.

“Are you ok,” Mary asked, staring at him a bit concerned.

After visibly seeming like he was swallowing something with two gulps, Kokoro replied, “Yeah, I was just thinking about stuff.”

“Everything is not the way you imagine things huh?”

“Yeah, it still feels weird being here.”

“That’s completely natural,” Mary explained, “Souls can often feel a bit of fatigue moving around during the first couple of hours they arrive here. They’re so used to their senses being processed through a mortal body that when it’s just their soul doing it, the massive change throws them off and they end up overstressing themself. It’s like if you balance on your leg with a steel brace your entire life but then suddenly that steel brace is taken away.”

The angel then clapped her hands together, cheerfully complimenting the amber-eyed soul, “But you’re doing a great job adapting at a fast rate. You woke up really early for a newly arrived soul and you’re already able to walk around within minutes of waking up. Quite impressive!”

“Do new souls not wake up?”

“When a soul arrives in Purgatory, they can end up in a comatose state upon arrival before they regain consciousness. You waking up so quickly from yours is often a sign that you got some vigor in you,” Mary flatteringly told him.

Looking away, Kokoro thought back to his last couple of living moments before softly grumbling, “I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” the angel said, turning her whole body toward him to catch his full attention, “I’ve peeked into your life and with your skills, you’ve done some great work.”

Hearing those words caused an abnormal reaction boiling in Kokoro’s stomach at his deeds being noticed and praised.

“It’s because of your history, despite how short you’ve lived, that I was excited to talk to you,” Mary said, she turned her back to him and took a few paces forward, “I’ve been waiting to come across someone like you for some time now,” continued Mary, putting her hands together. Her wings spread out, swept up in the moment she has been patiently pining for. She spoke with genuine emotions about her awe and aspiration of Kokoro’s life on the mortal plane, “You devoted yourself to helping others at such a young age during your lifetime. That kind of dedication is always high in demand, especially here where all kinds of people need help.”

Kokoro then looked down at his arm, the one chained up. Spotting the Stellar Ring, the one worn by the fictional character Gentle Eclipse, still on his finger. It seemed to have followed him even in the afterlife.

Still speaking, Mary gave the proposition, “If you’re willing to listen, I think you can do some real good here with your capabilities. What do you say?”

“No.”

“I greatly appreciate t- Wait what!?” stammered Mary, almost choking on her words midway through. Puzzled, she politely asked, “I’m sorry can you repeat what you said please?”

…

“Shikata?” she asked, turning around, “I just wanted to clarify- WHERE DID HE GO!?”

The silver-haired man she was happily escorting had now disappeared out of thin air and the angel was stunned now for two separate reasons.

Little did the kind angel know that her long-awaited soul-of-interest had snuck out a nearby window while she had her back turned giving her grandiose proposal.

As Kokoro made his way down from the building, he nonchalantly thought to himself, “A shame, I had so many questions to ask her. Meh, looks like I gotta go hunting for answers elsewhere.”

With a simple goal in mind, he set out for it and dropped below. While it wasn’t the cleanest execution, stumbling along the way from the fatigue which led to a not so graceful but passable landing, he got to the ground relatively unharmed. The first part of his on-the-spot plan was completed without a hitch.

Now he was ready to explore his new fate in Purgatory!