Satou opened his eyes and saw nothing.
Not darkness. Not shadow.
A void.
Endless. Silent. Absolute.
It felt like he'd been swallowed by the universe itself. He tried to move, to raise his arms, but his body didn't respond. There was no sensation, no warmth, no weight, not even breath.
A tremor of panic slipped into his voice. while he said "...Where am I?"
The sound echoed back, thin and distant, like the darkness was mocking him.
Time drifted strangely here. Minutes, hours—it didn't matter. He floated aimlessly in the nothingness, until memories began to surface, sharp and bitter.
"Oh... right." His voice trembled.
"I died." And then the thought hit him like a hammer.
"I died as a thirty-year-old virgin. Damn it!"
The words lingered in the void, heavy with regret.
He laughed bitterly. "Figures. I spend my life fixing other people's problems, and the one time I try to be a hero—bang. Dead."
He could almost see it again—the street, the terrified girl, the man with the gun.
"I just had to play superhero, didn't I? Me. Against a guy with a gun."
He smacked his forehead. The sound cracked like thunder in the silence.
Satou sighed and glanced around, though there was nothing to see. "So this is the afterlife? No angels. No flames. Just... nothing."
The silence pressed in on him,He couldn't take it anymore.
"HELLO!" he screamed. "Is anyone there?! Please—say something!"
His voice faded into the void, swallowed whole.
He started mumbling to himself, anything to drown the emptiness. "God, Buddha, anyone! If you exist, answer me!"
Then—
A voice.
A female voice, soft and amused said "Oops. Looks like we forgot someone on the reincarnation road."
A male voice responds, "Really? Let me take a look." "Oh, it's true. But this is bad news, we don't have anywhere to reincarnate him," the male voice said with a hint of annoyance on his voice.
Satou's heart leaps. "Hello! Can you hear me? Please, get me out of here!" he shouts, desperate.
The feminine voice ignores him. "Do you hear him?"
"Yes, I do," the male voice replies. "He said we should get him out of there.
That means he'll be okay with being reincarnated as anything," the female voice says, sounding way too cheerful about it.
"I think that's what he meant. And it'll make it easier to cover up our mistake. We don't want any bad marks on our record. Promotions are on the line," the male voice adds.
"Hey! Hello! Can you hear me?" Satou shouts again, but they keep talking like he's not even there.
"Then it's decided. Let's reincarnate him as a monster. There are no normal slots left," the female voice says.
"Yeah, but we'll give him an SSS skill to make up for it. Monsters have a 90% chance of dying young, after all," the male voice adds.
"Wait, what? Did I just hear 'monster' and '90% chance of dying young'? That's way too high!" Satou yells, but they're not listening.
"Hmm, I've got the perfect skill for him," the female voice says, ignoring him completely.
"Hey! Can you hear me? Don't I get a say in this?" Satou pleads, but it's no use.
A few seconds later, his body starts glowing, and a voice booms in his head:
"Skill Acquired."
"What? What's that voice? 'Skill Acquired'? What does that even mean?" Satou asks, completely lost.
"I think that's enough. Good luck in your new world," the male voice says, sounding like he's already moved on.
"Wait, wait! I have questions!" Satou shouts, but the two voices cut him off, speaking in unison. "We wish you a happy life in your new world." Before Satou can protest, a bright light appears below him.
He looks down, confused. "What is this?" he mutters. Suddenly, the light turns into a deep hole, and it starts sucking him in. He tries to resist, but it's no use.
The hole pulls him down, and as he falls, flashes of his past life replay before his eyes. "I really wasted my 30 years," he says, his voice filled with regret. "In this new life, I'll make the best of it. I'll do whatever I want." The end of the hole grows closer, a blinding light waiting for him. As he reaches it, the light flashes so brightly that it blinds him.
When he opens his eyes again, he's surrounded by darkness once more, but this time it's different. He feels a cold breeze on his face and something touching him. "Am I alive?" he whispers, his voice shaky.
He opens his eyes and looks up at the figure touching him. What he sees makes his blood run cold. A green, ugly, disgusting creature is staring right at him, its hand on his face. "Help me! Someone, help me, please!" Satou screams, his voice echoing into the unknown.