So you’re finally dead, then…

"Let’s make a promise, Sato-chan. We’ll always love each other, and do whatever we possibly can plus more to stay together."

"Of course I’ll promise, Kasumi. In my last lifetime’s childhood, I learned a certain type of promise, the strongest vow a kid could make. It’s called a pinky promise." Satoshi took his love’s hand, and delicately took her pinky, linking it with his. "I’ll swear it by my own honor, we’ll always love each other."

***

"Okay, you two lovebirds, we’ve got a huge problem. Your reincarnation…well…it’s got a lot of glitches."

"What do you mean ‘glitches’?" Kasumi held onto Satoshi’s arm like a lifeline.

Claudia sighed, tying her orange-red hair into a makeshift ponytail. She hated this job; delivering bad news was not her specialty. "You’ve got two choices. Both of you can be born as Siamese twins, so, in a way, you’ll be, uh, together all your lives. No pun intended."

Satoshi eyed her questionably. "Siamese twins?"

Claudia sighed. "Twins that are joined at birth. The thing is, both of you would be in loads of pain, and you might not survive. If you did survive, you’d be in for a lifetime of ridicule, so I wouldn’t pick that one if I were you."

"Oh. What’s the other choice?"

"Kasumi will be born as a girl in a place called Cerulean City, and she’ll be raised by three older sisters. Satoshi, you’ll be born as a boy in a place called Pallet Town, where you’re to be raised by a loving mother."

"That doesn’t sound too bad, but..."

Kasumi nodded. "But we won’t be together."

Claudia sighed once more. These couples are all the same, they can’t stand being apart one second and the next they’re filing for divorce. "I could arrange it so that you two meet up, but it’s gonna be tough. You won’t remember that you ever knew each other here, that’s standard procedure."

"Memory’s nothing. We’ll learn to love each other all over again," replied Satoshi, winking at Kasumi.

Kasumi smiled. "That’s my Sato-chan!"

Claudia groaned. "Whatever." She pressed a button on a device on her wrist. "Lord Damen, they’ve chosen number two. Should we do immediate transport?"

Damen smiled. "Yes, proceed with transport. And try to do it right this time."

"Hey, that was Jeremy that messed up, not me, I was on my lunch break!"

"Sure, whatever," he replied, winking. "Just do it right. And one more thing, stop with the Lord stuff, it gets annoying." Claudia grumbled angrily. One of the most prestigious angels, the best of the best, white wings and all, and look where she ends up. Minor grunge work left for the brown winged angels. All because Lord Damen never had a female in his sector before.

But this was no time for whining about sexism. Besides, that was just a rumor; she knew there were a few females in the lower divisions, even if they were just there for show and didn’t do any real work. If she wanted her old position, she’d have to prove to Damen she was good enough. "Alright, Kasumi goes first, her new body’s a little older than Satoshi’s. Just step on that blue platform over there."

"Kasumi, before you go…"

"Yes, Sato-chan?" Claudia grumbled. She knew what was coming.

"Love you."

"Love you lots," Kasumi replied.

"Love you more." Satoshi winked as his hand slipped off Kasumi’s.

Claudia groaned. "Just get on the platform. I need to scan you in first, standard procedure. Now let’s see…" She dug through her pockets for a moment, then polled out a green stick and a something that resembled an electronic organizer. "Now, hold still, Kasumi." She waved the green stick, which glowed as she waved it, in front of Kasumi. The organizer-like device beeped, and Claudia pressed a few buttons on it. "Sending spirit statistics to records…done. Okay, Kasumi, close your eyes and relax. Focus on breathing." Claudia pressed some more buttons on the organizer device, holding the green stick with her teeth. Suddenly the stick turned a bright white. "Relax, Kasumi, relax…focus on breathing…yeah, that’s it…" She put away the organizer and waved the stick again. Time for the magic words. Goody. "Powers of the ancients, powers of spirits long passed, powers of the all powerful, grant life to the spirit before me! REINCARNATION!" She held her hands before her and a beam of radiant colors laced in white shot and held Kasumi like a vice.

For a moment, Satoshi could not see anything but white.

And then she was gone.

"Ka…Kasumi…" He couldn’t hold tears back any longer…

Claudia warmed a bit, but shook off the emotion quickly. If she was going to be emotional, she might as well be a Togepi or something. "Okay, Satoshi, you’re next. And stop blubbering, I’m not gonna do anything for you if you keep doing that."

Satoshi tensed. "How could you be so insensitive? What if something went wrong?"

Well, he certainly cared for her. Supposedly. "Calm down. She’s fine. Developing as we speak. Supposedly the worst that could happen is that she’ll be born premature, and if that happens, we’ll have our chansey and blissey all over it. Just chill. And step on the platform already."

***

Done. Finally. Claudia had three more reincarnations to do after the Satoshi and Kasumi thing, and none of them were couples. She was so sick of all that blubbering couples did. Always doing the mushy "I love you, I love you too" thing that was completely pointless as they always divorce or something anyway. Claudia figured she would never understand these people and their odd ways. Anyway, it was time for work again. Yay.

"Claudia, come in. I need you in my office."

Lord Damen. Didn’t he know enough to call after she was done? But she wasn’t known to be insubordinate, so she’d have to play along with it. Perfect. Now not only was she a lowly reincarnation officer, but a suck-up, too.

She entered his office with dignity, just like an Angel Corps white wing was supposed to. "What might your wish be, Lord Damen?"

Damen slowly turned his cushioned swivel chair around as the clich� bad guy would do. Though Damen was worse than a bad guy. He was her boss. "Claudia, I know you hate me, you think I’m lower than a dugtrio’s bottom, but you have to know, I didn’t think of switching you out of section 1, Ce…erm…the Boss did. You have to believe me, I was shocked when Boss wanted me to get you. After all, you’re the best at every job given to you." He winked at her. Wait a second, was he just flirting with her?

Might as well take advantage of the situation. "Sir, may I request a change of position? Possibly to something closer to my old ranking."

Damen frowned. "Honestly, woman, don’t you understand? There are no rankings in this section, every angel counts. You’re needed because you’re the best, and we’ve got a very tricky situation on our hands in the future, according to Boss. You’re the only one who can ensure safety to our lifeline. Now, please refrain from being insubordinate and listen to me."

Insubordinate? "But sir, I was only requesting…"

"Silence, officer! That is an order!"

Claudia stood at attention immediately. Even though he was a Grade A jerk, he was still her boss. "Yes, sir."

"You will be dealing with a boy named Ash Ketchum, an aspiring Pokemon trainer from the town of Pallet. You have to make sure he meets a redheaded girl named Misty, who should be fishing by a small waterfall when you find her."

Claudia’s brain sparked. "Does this have anything to do with Satoshi and Kasumi?"

"Possibly…" Claudia shot one of her paralyzing death glares. "Okay, okay, yes, it does! You scare me sometimes, woman." Claudia hinted a smile, but kept her face. "Your mission is simple, make sure he survives his first day as a trainer. Also, I’ll fill you in personally on what you have to do step by step, since this is such a prestigious case." A babysitting job? That’s the prestigious case? Claudia almost let the hurt show in her face. Her talents were being wasted on purpose, and what’s more, Damen, the one person she loathes the most, is her handler. Isn’t the afterlife grand?

"Sir, why can’t anyone else do this? Plus, I’m sure you have better things to do, being the head of an entire section." She couldn’t keep from frowning. After being switched out of section 1, she gets this?

Damen’s look softened. "Claudia, please don’t be upset, Boss assured me this is probably one of the most important missions anyone could go on. Even the Boss himself couldn’t do it." Claudia knew at least that last comment was a lie. Boss was said to be female, and it was rumored that she was a Pokemon. "Plus, I’m letting Aitan take over for me." Aitan was the head of Section 1. Not a bad choice, after all, he was a Togetic.

"What about my replacement?" She knew what was coming, she shouldn’t have asked…

"Jeremy, of course." Great, the only one that makes it his life’s work to give her a bad name.

"Peachy." Apparently, Damen didn’t catch the sarcasm dripping from her comment.

"Now, if anything happens, just contact me on the communicator."

Claudia abruptly widened her gaze. "I’m leaving now?!"

***

She landed in a forest.

"Ouch! Ooh, man that smarts…" Claudia pulled a thorn from the bottom of her wing, then flapped it a little. Not anything debilitating; at least she could still fly. For about the tenth time in her last two hours, she sighed. "Okay, I’m here, requesting permission to use Team Gastly’s cloak, its procedure to conserve my own energy."

Damen’s voice boomed through the COM(communication) device on her wrist. "PERMISSION GRANTED. CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Waah! Lord Damen, what are you thinking?! Turn your volume down!" For the head of a section, he sure was dumb. No wonder they got all the trash-can missions. "Alright, Team Gastly, use your cloak on me." A group of round, purple, gaseous (not in a bad way) pokemon encircled Claudia. In a few seconds, only the spiritually tuned could see her, and then only as a glimmer, easily mistaken for a heat wave.

"Now, you have to make sure Ashy-boy sleeps in this morning. This is vitally important, so don’t screw up, clear?" Well, at least he wasn’t trying to kill her eardrums again.

"Yes, sir. I’m already on it." Claudia spread her wings and waited for the right wind to ride. Too low…to slow…now. She sprinted forward and rose into the air, gliding gracefully upwards as she dodged trees and pidgeys.

Another tree, a wild spearow, then she drowned in light as she broke through the canopy…flying, flying, skimming the tops of the trees with her feet…going higher and higher, as if to touch the sun…and then her freedom was over. She had reached Pallet Town.

"Lord Damen, I’m out of Viridian Forest and am approaching Pallet. Requesting position of subject."

Damen grumbled. "Claudia, you don’t have to talk like that around me. You’re not gonna lose any points or anything if you don’t."

"Requesting position of subject," she repeated with a touch more sternness.

"You’re hopeless, woman. Let’s see…from where you are, go south for about a mile, then take a right and head that way until you see a blue roofed house with a very nice looking garden. Makes me wish I had a green thumb to throw around…" And he thought she was hopeless…

But that was beside the point. She flew off once more, in a southwesterly direction. Green roof…red…blue…Wait, blue roof, that was it! She stopped right there. She peeked through the top window and saw a ten year-old boy sleeping soundly. "That’s our kid…he’s kinda cute asleep…"

Damen grunted. "Just do your job."

"Yes, sir." Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad mission after all…Then Ash’s alarm rang. "Holy houndoom!" Claudia rushed through the open window and grabbed the clock, desperately trying to turn it off. "Team Gastly, hypnosis!" A gastly faded into the bedroom. Its eyes glowed a bright blue, and Ash was sound asleep once more.