You heard of reincarnation? What if you could purchase your next life? One particular girl decides the OP universe would be a great heaven. But what if it turned out to be...not so heavenly?

The beeping started off slow. It was more or less a steady sound. Her deafening heart beat sounded in time with the noise. But soon it began to quicken at an unhealthy rate. Panicked voices echoed around the sterile room, overlapping each other. A person outside the room flung herself at the door. She screamed hysterically. The woman was converged on and the screams were muffled. And all the while, the girl who lay on the bed, hooked up to scores of machines, tried to reach out to the light before her. The medical equipment, the doctors, her family and friends: they were all telling her to stay. Stay away from the light. Yet it was so tempting. She wanted to touch it. One time would be enough.

A shaky hand was raised and her fingers were outstretched. The beeping went erratic, then stopped and became a constant dead noise. The warm glow enveloped her and everything else faded. Her world was gone, as was the pain.

The light was strong. So strong in fact that she had to shield her eyes from the bright rays. When the light eventually dimmed she found herself standing in a peculiar place; a building of a familiar setup, but that's what made it peculiar. She blinked a couple of times to clear the blurriness behind her eyes and for extra measures pinched her arm.

This dream is far too realistic for my liking. She thought. I must be dead.

Even after coming to that rather morbid conclusion, she still felt clam. If truth be told she actually felt euphoric. She couldn't remember feeling so happy. Ever. And she felt all this while staring at aisle upon aisle of products in a supermarket. It was too weird...

"Hi! Welcome to 'Purgatory Purchases' (but most people just call this place the Purge)." A voice chirped in the girl's ear, a slight European accent could be heard through its good English. She jumped and quickly spun around to face a lady dressed flamboyantly in different shades of pinks, covered in frills and bows.

She couldn't contain the "Wow..." that wanted to escape her lips.

The woman chuckled at the flabbergasted look the girl was giving her. "I really look that bad, huh?" She laughed again, flashing her pearly white teeth.

She snapped out of her momentary stupor and answered quickly as not to seem rude. "Oh no! Not at all... You're very pretty." She spoke the truth. Despite the garish outfit, the lady herself was extremely beautiful. She had bright blue eyes and long dark lashes. Blonde hair fell in tight curls from her scalp. Her skin was smooth, radiating an amazing glow. Everything about her seemed to shine with brilliance. She was otherworldly.

"It's just I've never seen something so... glitzy." The girl finished, indicating the dress.

"I can understand your thinking. It's not everybody's cup of tea but I'd say this outfit suits me to a T." She performed a small pirouette, letting the ruffles in her dress flutter and flurry around her.

"For sure..." The girl muttered but could not stop her mouth from stretching into a grin. She decided it was time to move the conversation away from clothing and on to something more important. "Could you tell what's going on please?"

"Of course I can darling. That is my job after all. Right, well, I'm Marica and I'll be your angel today. I'm guessing you've already figured out you're dead?"

"Um... Yeah." She answered awkwardly.

"Oh good! That saves a lot of trouble. Let me just check your files before we move on..." Marica began rummaging through filing cabinets down the first aisle and almost immediately pulled out a piece of paper with all of its documentation neatly typed out. "Your current name is Hannah, correct?"

"Yes."

"Age 20? Medical school student, studying to become a psychiatrist? Daughter of Keith and Jane Holldear, sibling of Max Holldear? Saved the life of a cat, a bird and took in an abandoned dog? Acted as peacekeeper for both family and friends? Worked with autistic children at the local learning centre?"

Hannah replied with a nod for each question. She knew she was dead but this didn't stop her from being considerably disturbed by the situation. This was not the norm for her.

"And your final act..." The blonde looked up from the sheet, a small smile touching her lips. It was unlike her earlier dazzling smiles. The way she looked at her now almost conveyed feelings of understanding. "You saved the lives of the children you worked with in a fire before inhaling to much smoke and collapsing. You were taken to hospital but could not be saved."

"So that's what happened..." Hannah pondered aloud. "I can't remember much of what happened after I went into the centre."

"Ah, yes! You were quite the hero!" Marica switched back to her initial buoyant disposition. "I'm sure you rallied up a good total of 'virtue points'."

"What now?"

"Virtue points, darling." She repeated. "Basically they are what you earn throughout your life through doing acts of good. With every good deed you receive points (a lot like money); depending on the gravity of your charitable act the amount of points you get will be affected. And I must say in your life time, albeit it being short, you made quite the sum."

"So if it's like money, I'm assuming I'll be spending this on something." Hannah theorised.

Marica nodded vigorously, delighted that her customer was being so receptive. "Mmhm! You heard of reincarnation?"

"Yeah..."

"Great! Well, you see, we have this thing going. All the angels are part of it. It really is a marvellous system! If you have enough points you can pick out your perfect next life! Your perfect heaven, if you like...but there are certain rules I have to follow."

"So... I can pick anything, anything at all?"

"Anything."

"And all it costs is some points? I don't have to give you anything else?"

"Just the points."

"Then I would like to have my life as Hannah Holldear back please."

"Ack!" Marica, who had been merrily bobbing up and down on the spot, agreeing with the girl wholeheartedly then froze, her expression utterly horror-stricken. She subsequently began to shake her head with an alarming force that sent blonde tresses flying all over the place. "No, no, no, no... That is one big fat no-no! It's not allowed! You heard me when I said there were certain rules? This is one of them..."

Hannah's genuine happiness plummeted down from the seventh heaven. The crestfallen look the girl gave Marica was enough to make hesitate. She bit her lip and shuffled around on the balls of her feet as she argued aloud. "Nope! I said no. It's a rule. Sorry darling, but I'm afraid you're going to have to choose something else. It can be virtually anything...and keep in mind I say 'virtually' here. You can go back to your world at any point in time. You could be an animal, a boy, or even a tree! Oooh, I know! What about a different universe entirely. What about-"

"My family!" Hannah interrupted, which she felt guilty for but continued nevertheless. "What about my family! My friends! I didn't get to say goodbye to any of them. How are they going to feel?"

The celestial woman let out a sigh that suggested she had seen more years than her face or personality showed. "I'm going to be blunt with you here Hannah. People die. It's something unavoidable and not a millisecond goes by in my job without something or someone dying. Humans like to think dying is rare but it isn't. They only realise this when it happens to them."

Hannah was exceptionally astute when it came to deciphering even the smallest expressions, be it in the tone of voice, face or body language, she had always been able to pick up on these thing. She had quite often been told she would be a good detective, particularly when it came to making sense of human actions. However she didn't like the idea of constantly being around crime and evil. Yet she still managed to follow a career path that she could use this skill in; that being a psychiatrist.

Her talent was slowly beginning to kick in as she watched the pretty blonde. The hardened look in her azure eyes gave it all away. She was speaking with experience. However where that experience was from was a mystery. But Hannah wasn't here to pry.

"All I wanted to say was that when someone dies, you can be sure it will take time but people will eventually get over it. It's something everyone has to face."

"I suppose..." Hannah knew all of this already but it was nice to hear it in someone else's words. She had been told in medical school that the job of a psychiatrist more often than not requires you just to be a shoulder to cry on or simply someone to lend an ear. It was something she had a lot of experience in, even before her training.

"So... How many points do I have?"

And Marica was happy again, beaming at Hannah like she hadn't just given her a serious speech. "I'm so glad you asked darling! 572 points plus your left over 61 points from the life before your last. 633 in total! I can hardly believe you got so much in only 20 years. A brilliant feat! Did you know the average person will only earn around that many points after 60 years of living?"

"I can't say I did..." Hannah raised an eyebrow at Marica's flippant manners. From what she had gathered of her job as an angle so far was to simply to make a sales pitch for a new life and then send the deceased on their way. The whole thing itself was queer and not completely like any religion's idea of what happens after death. There were so many theories and beliefs yet no one had got it spot on. When Hannah was alive she had liked to think that there was a heaven, however if someone had told her she was going to be met by a not so serene embodiment of an angel in a lurid pink dress down the aisle of her local supermarket, she probably would have checked them in to be her first patient when she graduated school.

It was a good thing Hannah was open-minded.

"So what was that you were saying about new universes earlier?"

"Oh yes! Universes! I could go on forever about them-" Hannah short Marica a pointed look. "-but to cut a long story short, as an angel I have the ability to open and create new universes. We could spend ages creating a new universe, or I could choose one randomly from our data base or we could even have a look at some fictional works. How about that? Any books or films you like?"

Her interest peaked. "That actually sounds pretty cool..." For a moment Hannah's eyes gained a childish gleam, full of innocent desire. "I've always wanted magic."

The angel groaned loudly. "Not another one wanting to go to the world of Harry Potter."

"I like Harry Potter but I don't think I'd want to rely on a stick of wood... What about Skulduggery Pleasant? No, I don't like those faceless ones... Gone! No... Oh, the Golden Compass."

The girl continued to muse aloud, greatly amusing Marica. The apparently level-headed girl was not so level-headed. She gasped loudly. "A manga! A manga! There are so many good manga universes like Gintama, Fairy Tail, One Piece... THAT'S IT!"

Marica almost fell over at Hannah's outburst. She clutched at her frantic heart and asked, slightly alarmed, "What?"

"One Piece! I want to go to the OP universe."

"One piece... Alright! I can do that. Follow me." Marica lead Hannah down to the section of the shop that sold comics, magazines and manga. "That universe is actually more popular outside of Japan than in. I was surprised when my co-worker Dafari told me. I don't know if that's because the Japanese just have more common sense than the rest of the Earth or if they had better things to spend their points on..."

They came to a halt by a rack of manga. Marica pulled out a pocket-sized notepad and pen, clicked it and poised its point on the paper, ready to write. "Now then, I'm thinking you want to make some customisations to your next life, unless you want it to be random that is..."

"No, I'll choose!" Hannah replied quickly. "What do I have to specify?"

"Well there are certain things that have to change when you are reborn, for example your parentage (quite an obvious one there), however the most important thing is your name. For human reincarnation a name is far more important than it would be any other living thing, as humans tend to be the most destructive and evil."

Hannah understood that there are wicked people around and that a lot of misfortune is caused by them. But there is so much good too. Surely this point system proved just that. The blonde apparently could tell what she was thinking as she rectified what she had said. "Not that everyone is bad... That's not what I meant."

"I know. Don't worry."

"Uh, good... Well, any ideas for your name?"

"Not at all..." The girl shook her head.

"Would you mind then if I gave you a name?" Marica enquired.

"Go for it." She gave her approval but still felt slightly dubious all the same.

Marica beamed at her and exclaimed almost immediately, as if she had wanted to say it for some time. "Aniko! It's a name from my home country. It means favour and grace."

"You know what?" Hannah smiled. "I actually quite like that name. I'd also like to change my hair and eye colour, but could you keep everything else the same."

"Got it!" The angel jotted down her request, feeling over the moon that her name choice had been accepted. "Colour preferences?"

"Your choice. Oh and one more thing," Hannah began as a sudden, crazy thought came to her out of the blue. She hoped it would be allowed. "I want to be one of those people who remember their previous lives. I want to still be able to remember everything that has happened to me as Hannah Holldear. My memories are too important for me to just forget."

"I can't do that!" Marica exclaimed, looking very taken aback.

"Why not?" Hannah demanded. "I've seen them on T.V. before. So surely it is allowed."

"Yes but that only happens when an angel makes a mistake." She justified.

"Do you have a rule book?"

"Of course I have a rule book; every angel has one." Marica sniffed indignantly, "But if you're going to suggest I don't know my job and that I should read it, you're being very rude."

Hannah sighed. "I'm not trying to be rude but could you still check it. I just want to be sure..."

"Fine but don't expect anything to come from this. I'm just doing this to prove a point." A book materialized from nothing into Marica's hands. She flicked through its pages, stopping every now and then.

"This can't be right..." Marica skimmed through the book again, and again. "It's not here! But it's got to be here!"

"Marica..." Hannah tentatively took the book from the angel and set it down on a nearby shelf. "There isn't a rule about it, is there?"

The woman looked at her crossly, with small tears pooling in the corners of her eyes and wearing a pout. "No..."

"Don't sulk now just because you were wrong."

Marica faced her back to Hannah, "I'm not sulking."

She's defiantly sulking. Hannah told herself. What a strange lady...

A moment later and Marica burst out, turning to her customer with an infantile temper. "Ok! Fine! I'm sulking. I'm sorry... Please can we move on?"

"Sure..." She replied simply, not wanting to cause more problems. "Uh, this is my last request. I really, really want a devil fruit power. Any power at all. Not too stupid though like an ability to...turn into a sock or something."

"I don't think it's possible to get a devil fruit that will turn you into a sock..."

"Well... Good! No socks. It has to be a little bit cool. No actually, it would be great if it looked bad-ass. Can I have a really awesome, bad-ass devil fruit please?"

Marica chuckled lightly. "Yes, yes. I'll give you a super cool power."

"Thank you!" Hannah cried, almost hugging the angel.

"I think we're just about ready for you to start your next life; there are just a few things I would like to go over before I send you on your way." Marica glanced down at the notes she had made. "I can fulfil your demand of remembering your previous life however if I am going to do that I cannot reincarnate you into a foetus' body. The information would be too much for the developing body to cope with and you would die after a few years of being born. The only way I can do this is by placing you into the world at the age you are at now. Is that alright?"

"It's fine."

Angel's expression darkened into something somewhat scary as she said, "There are conditions as well. If you reveal any of this to anyone I'm afraid I'm going to have to dock you of a lot of points. And you don't want to know what happens to the people in debt when they get to their next lives."

Hannah subconsciously rubbed both her arms as a shiver ran through her body, leaving her feeling strangely cold. "No, I'm sure I don't."

"Another warning: because you are going in at age 20 you receive your new memories for that life. You won't have lived it but you will remember living it. You're going to have two different lives inside you. It's a lot for one mind to contain."

"It sounds dangerous..."

"It could be and that's why I want you to take this." She tossed Hannah a small silver whistle on a chain. It looked similar to her old dog whistle she had used with Roody, the stray she had taken in. She had utilized it to call him back when they went on walks. "Use it and wherever you are, you can summon me to your side. Although I would use it with caution – calling me with other people around you is not a good idea."

She sported the whistle around her neck – it was pretty in its own way – it was like an unusual piece of jewellery. "Anything else?"

"Just your devil fruit." A tall milkshake glass appeared that held a thick creamy drink. There was whipped cream, shaved chocolate and fresh strawberry slices layered up on top. It was mouth-wateringly appetizing. Marica pushed the drink into Hannah's hands. "Here. That's your devil fruit."

"Oh wow... You've really gone all out with this. Will it still work as a liquid?"

"Uh-huh. Drink up."

Hannah licked her lips. "Cheers." She raised her glass high before taking a swig of the smoothie.

"Bleck!" She spluttered, pulling the beverage away from her lips. "It's disgusting!"

"That's why I tried to make it nicer for you."

"I should have known it wasn't going to taste as good as it looked. Devil fruits aren't famous for their taste after all." Hannah grimaced at it. She felt a little bit sick. "I've got to finish it though."

She downed the devil fruit as quickly as possible. She ran her tongue around her gums to check for any residue (fortunately it all seemed to be gone). She huffed loudly, "I'm finished! Thank god! Is there a god?"

Marica placed her hands on her hips in a haughty manner, "I'm not inclined to tell you. It's something humans can only decide on themselves."

Hannah eyed at her sceptically and then smirked. "You don't know yourself, do you?"

The angel gasped dramatically, raising a delicate hand to her chest and taking a step back. She looked scandalized to be asked such a question. "O-Of course I know! I'm just not allowed to say! I know lots of other things too. Ask away. I'm sure I'll be able to answer."

Hannah began her interrogation. "How did the dinosaurs really die?"

"Alien invasion."

"Are humans actually the smartest creatures on Earth?"

"At the time when you lived there, but other animals have the potential to overtake them in the future. Although I'm not going to give out any spoilers."

"Most recent dead celebrity you've met?"

"Michael Jackson! Everyone at the office was so jealous."

Strangely enough this was the answer Hannah found herself interested in. Ah, well... I'm a sucker when it comes to studying the human mind.

"What did he choose as his next life?"

Marica smiled and tapped her nose. "Customer confidentiality I'm afraid."

"Ah." Hannah nodded her head in approval. She could respect that. "I suppose I better get going then. I don't want to use up any more of your time."

"Don't worry about that darling. I have an eternity of time, quite literally." She sighed. "But you are right. I probably should be sending you on your way. Right, all you need to do to get to your new life is to touch something linked to it. In this case," She pulled out a copy of the latest edition of One Piece from the manga rack, "you'll need this."

The blonde offered it to her. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." Hannah reached forward and took the volume into her own hands.

The instant Hannah made contact with the paper that same ethereal light she had seen earlier began to cloud her vision. The manga passed through her hands and crumpled as it hit the floor. Her body was fading just as fast as the light came. She felt ghostlike. What was she saying? At that time she was an actual ghost.

"Don't forget to whistle if you ever need me," Maricia paused and gave an over exaggerated wink. "Aniko."

"I won't!" The girl called out, waving happily, as the brightness encompassed her entirely. Marica was gone. All that could be seen was pure light.

I'm so nervous about this story; it's my first one that doesn't have anything to do with Fairy Tail. This is a big step for me guys!

I'm assuming that most of the readers for this will be mostly be different from people I may see normally, so 'Hi new pink snail readers...' that sound so weird.

Anyway, reasons for writing this: well, I love one piece and I've read so many fics with OCs and a lot of them seem to be getting quite cliche now. There are some real gems out there though. I suppose that's what I'm aiming for. I just really want to do something new but at the same time using an old favorite, instead of one of those 'OC was sucked into a TV', because as much as I love them, it makes no sense. I wanted to base my plot on something, not realistic, but based on some sort of fantasy reasoning. Am I being lucid enough? Probably not... Oh well!

Marica- Pet form of Hungarian Maria, meaning "obstinacy, rebelliousness" or "their rebellion."

Aniko- Hungarian form of Greek Hanna, meaning "favor; grace."

The "T" in this case refers backs to tittle, as in biblical usage here: "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." The tittle was a mark above a letter, the smallest of parts. So, "Suits me to a T" means there is not even one insignificant detail that isn't right. (Symbolic, right? ;D)

Hope you enjoyed the read!