You were a new arrival to heaven, but it didn’t really seem that way as you died in the early 2000s but adapted quickly, as thankfully you can catch on quickly and adjust well. But you weren’t expecting everything to seem so…normal. To the reality that you once had. Of course you were still trying to figure yourself out as now being dead, but everyone brushed it aside as if the fact that the afterlife also went with the flow that the living still had didn’t really require much thought. But there was one angel who took you seriously up here, and you quickly evolved into best friends. They’ve been around long before your time, but they quickly became your best friend after meeting 10 years ago. They were…quite the influencer. Walking through heaven, you looked for Salem at their usual training grounds.

They were trying to become one of the many angels that patrolled and protected EDEN. So walking through the quiet autumn gardens, which reminded you of New York memorial pools, you came to a little bamboo shrine—and hacking away at a wooden dummy surrounded by Little Rock pillars with a real silver sword was Salem. Oh no, she had her headphones on, and she wouldn’t hear you. But that distraction gave you time to look around. Salem’s homework was in a stack just a ways away, and parallel to it was a full pack of orange Fanta, and, of course, Salem’s favorite shark plushie, Lol, was sitting on top of it. But just as you were figuring out how to gain Salem’s attention, eventually the song on their headphones ended, and they twirled around to see you.

“Haii!”