The No-Good Seventh Miss Goes Traveling

Chapter 1 - Of Family, Guns, and Bruises

When Shuang Xiang died—to be honest, it was going to happen sooner or later. Of course, she would prefer to die later, but she knows more than everyone that life isn't fair.

Just like her Ma had cried when she first joined the mercenary group Diehard (and boy, didn't that give her mama a heart attack when she first heard the name): Shuang Xiang would most likely get herself killed while getting shot in some distant country. And she couldn't really comfort her by promising that she would be careful, considering all the scars she had gathered over the years.

And she, in fact, did die while getting shot in some distant country, just like how her mama had predicted—which doesn't make her situation any less ironic and she could still hear her mom yelling I told you joining that group is basically asking for a death flag to be waved over your head!

Shuang Xiang doesn't know how to feel when she recognize the term 'death flag'. She loves her family, but the majority of them are nothing but a bunch of Otakus in their respective jobs. 

Anyway, before her death, she was covering for her team after they had landed themselves in a trap made by a bunch of wannabe terrorist (like, the oldest of these 'so-called' terrorist is 22. Twenty-two. Her youngest brother is the same age and he's in college dying under midterm exams).

It was one of the most humiliating traps they have ever fallen into, because if the signs for 'hey! This here's a trap!' is any more obvious, then they might as well be practically blind, but being a veteran group that got into (and out of) more shit and mayhem than any other group in the western hemisphere, they didn't think much of it. Of course, that didn't mean just because they got caught in the trap, they have to stay in it. Diehard wasn't one of the best mercenary groups in the world for nothing.

Shuang Xiang during her final moments was protecting everyone's rear (and kicking ass while at it because her accuracy is second to none), but everyone apparently missed the sniper hiding the sand less than 2000 meters away and shot her in the back just right before everyone else made it to cover. She remembered briefly hearing everybody screaming her nickname: Lucky! Lucky! at the time. She also remembered thinking right afterwards Stop calling me that, obviously I'm not lucky since I got shot in the back! before her vision promptly fades away. Then there was nothing.

Honestly, if anything, her nickname should be unlucky. Her name is a jinx. Who in the world would name their kid Jolly Good Luck if it's not some kind of inside joke? Her mother, that's who.

But still, though Shuang Xiang has no general religious belief (does the Otaku God count? The majority of her family seem to be devote followers of the Otaku God), she expects the afterlife to be a little less... black. And less... nothingness-ish.

She wasn't sure how long she was stuck in the black nothingness—she couldn't move. Then again, she wasn't sure if she is moving in the first place.

Shortly after (or long after?), there was a feeling of being sucked in by something and at first, she feels stretched before pain suddenly blooms all around her.

For the longest of time, Shuang Xiang stayed there (laid there?) shocked that she was alive. She died didn't she? Or was she in a coma this entire time and had only thought she had died? It had to be a couple of months since she got shot, because while her everything hurts, it's not a 'this bullet hole is going to hurt like a bitch' kind of hurt.

She's very intimate with that kind of hurt.

And... she's actually breathing. Air is going into her lungs—that's good. She's not on life support or anything like that. Can she move her fingers? She can! It hurts like no tomorrow to do so, but she can! What about eyes?