I looked down at my hand.
My left palm, specifically.
There—etched into the back of it—was something I knew hadn't been there before.
A mark.
Black as ink, yet somehow pulsing with something deeper. Alive. The design was unmistakable, and far too detailed to be coincidence. Three serpent-like heads. Winding necks. Spread wings.
A dragon. A three headed one at that.
I frowned. Not because I was scared—but because I had no idea what it meant.
"...Hey," I said, raising my hand slightly and turning toward the woman. "This... this wasn't here before."
She turned, glanced down—then froze.
Her breath hitched. Her eyes widened like someone had just dropped the entire cosmos onto her shoulders.
She took a step back.
"That mark..."
Her voice was almost a whisper.
I tilted my head, brows drawn. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"That's... the mark of Her."
"Her?" I echoed.
She slowly nodded, staring at my hand as if it radiated divine fire.
"The Void Dragon," she said. "One of the oldest beings to ever exist beyond existence. A sovereign of the deepest layers of the cosmos... the devourer of time, the weaver of realms. Her name is forgotten in most tongues, but in all that remains of creation... she is feared, respected, and worshipped."
I blinked, processing that. "...And I have her tattooed on my palm."
She shook her head. "That is no tattoo. That is a claim."
I raised my eyebrows.
"She has adopted you," the woman said breathlessly. "You were alone for so long... exposed to the raw energies of the void. But rather than be broken by it, you thrived. You shaped it. You tamed it. And now..."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"She has claimed you as her son."
I turned my hand over, examining the mark again. It didn't burn. It didn't pulse. But I could feel it—deep inside me—like a cord tied to something ancient and infinite.
"And this means... what, exactly?"
She composed herself, still shaken, and answered, "It means you now stand at a crossroads most souls could never reach. You have a new path now. A sacred one."
I looked at her, intrigued. "Go on."
"You... can reincarnate."
My eyes widened.
"You mean I can go back? Be born again?"
She nodded slowly. "But not as you were. Not as a normal human, bound by rules, systems, and limitations. The Void Dragon's energy... the void itself... it is inside you. You have absorbed so much of it that, in time, you could become something else entirely."
"...A void dragon."
"Yes," she breathed. "In time, with growth and strength, you can ascend. That is the path offered to you now."
A grin tugged at the edge of my lips. My heart—muted for so long—stirred with something powerful. Hope. Purpose.
"Would that make me stronger?" I asked, tone laced with curiosity and hunger. "If I choose this... could I become powerful enough to bend the rules of whatever world I'm sent to? To never again be a victim of fate?"
She nodded solemnly.
"Yes. You would become stronger than most could imagine. A being of void and will. If you rise to your potential... you would be beyond control."
"...Could I become so strong," I said quietly, "that no one—not even gods—could write my destiny for me?"
She met my gaze directly, no hesitation in her words.
"If you ascend... you would be compared to a High God. The Void Dragon's heir. A creature born from silence and forged through eternity. The weaver of your own fate."
I closed my hand into a fist and looked inward.
I stood in silence, the revelation of my destiny still echoing in my thoughts like a silent drumbeat. I could reincarnate... and not just as a man, but as a being capable of becoming something divine.
Something unstoppable.
I turned my gaze to the woman again, my hand still tingling faintly with the lingering warmth of the Void Dragon's mark.
"If I'm to be reborn," I asked carefully, "then... what world will I enter?"
She smiled faintly, her expression regaining that divine calm.
"You have countless options," she said, lifting her hand. With a shimmer of energy, the white room darkened into a vast starlit space—floating between glimmering portals like windows into reality.
One showed the land of swords and shields, magic and monsters.
Another, towering mechs and alien invaders.
One displayed a world of heroes and villains.
Another burned with fire and ice over bloodied kingdoms and fallen empires.
Endless worlds. Infinite possibilities.
"You may choose the world in which you will begin your next life," she said. "Even one from fiction. It does not matter to the void—only that it challenges you."
I stared at them all.
So many choices.
And yet, my heart didn't waver.
Not once.
"...There's only one world I've ever truly loved," I said softly. "No matter how much time passed. No matter how numb I became."
My fingers clean at my side, the mark of Ghidorah glowing slightly in response.
"The Pokémon world."
The moment I spoke it, the portals shifted, rearranged. Dozens of Pokémon worlds appeared around me like constellations.
I looked into each one—Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh. Some were close to the anime. Some looked more like the games. Some were wild, raw, and untamed. Others were alien in design, twisted by realism and survival.
"I don't want the peaceful journey Ash had most of the time," I muttered. "I respect him, but that kind of life won't help me grow."
I stepped forward, staring into one particular window—its skies dark and storm-filled, its forests alive with predators and peril.
"I want reality. A world where Pokémon aren't just pets or partners... but true companions. Where they train beside you, fight beside you, bleed beside you."
The air around me shifted.
"I want to be in a world where life is always on the line... where every decision matters. Where I can grow strong enough to earn the Void Dragon's acknowledgment. I want to fight, suffer, and rise—not just as a trainer, but as a force of nature."
The mark on my palm pulsed, burning now with energy—no longer dormant.
The stars bent.
The windows vanished.
And a single portal tore itself open—wreathed in void fire and glowing with deep violet light. The energy radiating from it was raw. Unstable. Alive.
The woman's eyes widened in awe.
"The void has chosen for you," she whispered. "A world where strength is survival. Where death is common, and only those who rise above their limits can stand tall."
She looked at me with reverence now—not as a mistake to be pitied, but as something far more.
"Now that your world has been chosen..."
She raised her hand again.
"...It is time to see what system you will receive."