Two days had passed eventfully.
If Vanessa had a coin for every time she accidentally got dragged into some celestial disaster without consent, she'd have enough to buy the overpriced Hellfire Latte from the Underworld's infamous Bean & Bones Café.
Unfortunately, she didn't. And right now, she was seated in what looked like the grim lovechild between a courtroom and a dungeon, squinting at a rusted placard that read:
> "Reaper Disciplinary Tribunal – Neutral and Unbiased Since the 2nd Century (We Swear!)"
She didn't even know why she was here yet. Ten minutes ago, she was trying to file a formal complaint about someone from the Fate Coordination Office (FCO) signing her name on a death order without her consent.
Now? She was standing on a rotating stone platform, staring up at a twelve foot tall skeleton judge polishing a wheel labeled "Wheel of Consequences" with categories like:
1. Publicly Demoted to Janitorial Duty
2. One Week in Paperwork Purgatory
3. Soul Scrubbing Service (Level 4 Toilets)
4. Eternal Lecture from the Ethics Department
5. Temporary Reincarnation as a Cockroach
Vanessa dry-swallowed. "Uhh, is this part of the formal complaint process?"
The skeleton judge raised a bony hand. "The CRSS Department reserves the right to initiate a Tribunal Trial should the complaint filed involve inter-departmental infractions and misrepresentation of reaper duty logs—"
"Wait. So someone forged my name on a reaper order… and I'm the one on trial?!" Vanessa shrieked.
A ghostly clerk in a floating swivel chair floated past, sipping spectral tea. "Sounds about right."
---
Two Hours Earlier
Vanessa had stormed into the Complaint Resolution & Spirit Services Department, armed with a steaming cup of petty rage and a folder filled with screenshots of the forged soul order.
"Hi, I'd like to file a complaint," she said to the receptionist, who was mid-lip-gloss application and reading "Reaper Digest: Top 10 Ways to Decompose Gracefully."
The receptionist paused reading her book when she heard a voice. She looked up and opened her mouth "Uh-huh. FCO again?"
"Yes, they filed a soul retrieval using my name. I wasn't even in the realm at the time!" Vanessa said indignantly.
"Yikes." The receptionist slowly reached under the desk and slammed a big red button labeled "AUTO-TRIAL INITIATE."
Vanessa blinked. "Wait, what did you just—"
And poof. Trial.
---
Now, Back at the Tribunal
"Let's spin the Wheel of Consequences," announced the skeleton judge.
Vanessa's eyes widened as the wheel began to turn with unholy carnival music playing in the background. "I OBJECT! I AM LITERALLY THE VICTIM HERE!"
The ghostly clerk floated by again, "Sweetie, this is your objection process."
The wheel began to slow down and it landed on "Soul Scrubbing Service (Level 4 Toilets)".
"Oh hell no," Vanessa whispered. "I'm blowing the lid off this."
She yanked the forged paperwork out of her coat and tossed it onto the Tribunal's glowing evidence table.
"Let the records show," she said dramatically, "that not only was this forged under my name, but it also includes a mismatched date format, improper soul tag encoding, and the signature line… uses Comic Sans."
There was a collective gasp from the jury box.
The CRSS panel members leaned forward, especially Director Barrow, a banshee in a pinstriped blazer with a grudge against FCO since they misfiled her retirement request two centuries ago.
"Did you say… Comic Sans?" she said with a dangerous smile.
Vanessa nodded solemnly. "And no authorized ID trace. It came from an FCO mid-tier officer… trying to push some soul cases through quickly."
Director Barrow stood. "Well well well… seems the Fate Coordination Office's little mess is finally catching up."
Another panel member grinned. "Shall we… investigate?"
The room grew cold.
Vanessa suddenly felt her intestines knot. She opened her mouth to retract everything, but the skeletal judge slammed the gavel.
"Complaint acknowledged. Defendant Vanessa cleared of all charges."
"Oh, thank you—"
"But," the judge said, turning to Barrow, "we will forward this case to CRSS Enforcement. You're dismissed."
Vanessa stumbled out of the Tribunal with relief… until she saw Director Barrow smiling at her.
"Excellent work, child," Barrow purred. "We'll be keeping a very close eye on you. In fact, consider yourself our… unofficial informant."
Vanessa stared in horror. "Wha—no! No no no, I'm not joining your department!"
"Too late, sweetheart," Barrow said happily, already writing "Asset: Vanessa Cross" into a black ledger. "Reaper politics are a cruel game, and you just played your first move."
---
Later That Night – Human Realm
Vanessa dropped face-first into her bed.
Leonard the ghost floated beside her with a mug that read "Dead But Still Fabulous."
"So, how was work?" Leonard asked, curious about what happened to her as she looked like she had eaten something bad.
"I committed whistleblowing and accidentally started an inter-departmental war."
Leonard blinked. "Well, that's one way to get out of janitorial duty."
Vanessa moaned into her pillow. "I think I'd rather be reincarnated as a cockroach."
Leonard patted her back. "Hey, at least you'll still have better paperwork management skills than the FCO."
She snorted. "True."
Somewhere far away in the Land of Death, the CRSS Department plotted. The FCO, blissfully unaware, was about to have a very, very bad quarter.
And in the middle of it all was Vanessa. Intern. Reaper. Accidental whistleblower.
And now... a pawn in an ancient bureaucratic blood feud.