The last thing Rukia remembered were the cold hands of her half-brother squeezing her feeble neck till she slowly suffocated to death. Death? Is that it? Does everything end there? Did Rukia’s miserable 18 years of life finally come to an end? She could finally rest in peace.

She was floating. Floating in an infinite void of darkness. No, she wasn’t floating, she was standing but there was no surface visible. It was just darkness. All she could see was herself, wearing her favorite dress.

“It isn’t torn.”

Rukia just stood there. She didn’t feel anything. Nor did she feel how time passed. Suddenly large cracks started appearing in the distance. It was as if an invisible glass was being cracked. Through those cracks, a bright light was emitted. The cracks started growing bigger and bigger till a blinding white light made Rukia close her eyes.

“Hmm? It’s a bit strange…”

Rukia could feel herself now. It was as if her body had gotten smaller and that she was stuck in a soft narrow place. She was gradually being pushed out of the narrow place. And finally, out.

 Rukia felt weirdly miniscule. Someone was holding her. A series of sounds, or were they voices? filled her ears. It was a bit uncomfortable to breathe. She opened her mouth as if to breathe but unconsciously started crying out loud. It seemed she had lost control over her body. A warm blanket was wrapped around her. She could feel herself being handed over from hand to hand. Finally, she could feel as if she was resting in a warmer place. Her crying stopped and she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the face of a pretty lady. She seemed to have been in great pain. Rukia noticed the fatigue in her eyes.  She kind of had understood what had happened. She had been reborn. And this woman most probably was the person that had given birth to her. “Life did not end there after all.”

She looked around to see many more people surrounding her. They were wearing strange western styled outfits. She didn’t understand what they were all talking about but seemed to be in great joy. Rukia looked back up to get a better look of the person that had given birth to her. That was when she noticed her ears. Long pointy ears, “An elf…!”.

Just then doors flung open, someone came into the room in a big rush. Everyone in the room stepped back out of utmost respect. The strange man who had hair white as show and eyes as if they were made of snowflakes, glared at her with excitement. The elf lady told him something which made him nod his head like an excited boy. Then she gave the little baby to him. Probably she asked him if he wanted to hold her. He carefully took her in his hands. His expression seemed as if he was the happiest man in the whole world.

Rukia’s new body was still frail and delicate. She felt a heavy fatigue ness that slowly drifted her into a peaceful little baby nap. But before that she heard him say some name she had heard somewhere before.

“Anastasia”

Thus, Rukia was reborn as Anastasia.

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Heaven, the largest metropolis, and capital of the kingdom Lumane was where Rukia had been reborn. Her name now was Anastasia. The emperors daughter. And it had taken her six months to figure out that the world she was in happened to be a world she had created herself.

Rukia Suzuki was a normal Japanese high schooler, who had the life goal of being a renowned light novelist. But all her dreams were shattered after the unfortunate death of her mother. Things started getting worse from then on, when her father who was a rich businessman decided to remarry. The lady he remarried to had two kids the same age as Rukia. A boy named Shizuko and a girl named Shizuka. All went well till her father too, for some unknown reason, fell terribly ill, and ultimately succumbed to his illness.

The time after this was when Rukia first experienced true hell in her life. She was often bullied by her stepmom and her siblings at home. It was basically a Cinderella type drama that she experienced at home. It was way worse though. Many things she treasured to herself were taken away from her. What hit her hardest were when Shizuka burnt her favorite collection of light novels, and when her stepmother cut her long hair that her deceased mom had loved so much. Calling it an eye sore.

What broke her down even further was when her stepbrother, one cold night, had stained her femineity forever. She had felt really terrified that day. Unable to even scream, she had hopelessly given herself in. Rukia had kept uttering “mother…” until it all ended, which had given her the least bit of courage to endure. At last, what was left on her messed-up bed was a completely broken girl with dead fish-like eyes haunted by the echoes of that dreadful night.

Later what was limited to her home started happening at school as well. When her step siblings started ganging up on her. Making her the target of many bullies at school. Such were the 18 years of hell in Rukia’s life till she was suffocated to death on her 18^th birthday. The cause and the reason to why that person had killed her was a bit hazy in her memory.

In this time Rukia had been writing a novel that unfortunately was never completed. It was a novel named “The Elf of Imperial Academy”. It had originally been meant to be a fluffy Rofan where the main character Anastasia Lucigarden the elven princess of a powerful kingdom, and her romantic drama involved with a reverse harem. But after all the changes that went through Rukia’s life, she changed the stories genre drastically making Anastasia go through much hardship and losses. What happened was that Rukia took out her pain from Anastasia. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately the novel never ended, as the novelist died. And that novelist had never in her life ever imagined to be reborn as the character of her own creation,  Anastasia Lucigarden, that shall be going through so many hardships.

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Reminiscing about her past life, little Ana (Short term for Anastasia) lay in her cradle. Her thoughts worked perfectly well as those of a grownup. Though her body yet was frail for her to do anything on her own. She had been crying less recently, unlike other babies her age. Which had made Beatrix, her mother, the Empress of Lumane, terribly worried. Which resulted in making the whole palace worried. So, Anna decided to fake cry now and then.

How embarrassing… well I’m a baby after all…

The actual story starts 15 years from now, when the elven princess arrives at the Imperial Academy. There were a few more years for the dark fate she had brought upon herself to take effect, so she had nothing to worry about till then. Let’s hope nothing silly happens. Oh, I peed… uhh time to cry for Janne to change my diapers.

The next instance something completely unexpected happened. The whole room was covered with a void of darkness. Just like when before she was born. Then suddenly vivid abstract patterns started appearing all around her. It was as if she was in some weird quantum dimension that she had learned back at school in her previous life.

Suddenly within those rapidly changing shapes appeared a faceless figure. It looked like a person. The whole body seemed to have been as if made of mercury, and it was gigantic. Dear Lord, what’s going on? I don’t remember writing anything as such. Then the thing started saying something. It was in the language of that world. Ana could understand it to some extent now. But it had no mouth. The sound came from within its face.

THOU ART THE ONE CHOOSEN

Then stretched its huge finger towards Ana and through it a yellowish light entered her body as the thing uttered the following words.

UPON THEE SHALL OUR POWER BE CONFERRED

Each word sounded as if a bass was going off reverberating and echoing through the whole space. “Wait what power?”

WE SHALL BECOME AS ONE WITH THEE

And with that, as sudden as everything happened it all ended in the blink of an eye and Anna found herself back in her cradle.

Huh? Huuuuh…!?

Unable to grasp everything with her baby brain, she started crying as loud as she could. Shortly Janne came in running to comfort the crying princess. 

Soon Ana would realize that this world had far more secrets than she had ever imagined.