Kobe Williams, a fifteen-year-old African American boy, fat but surprisingly athletic, walked home from his bus stop on a cold December afternoon. Football season had ended just a month earlier. He was a defensive lineman, and even as a freshman he earned a spot in the starting lineup for his team. His coach always said he had heavy hands and an even bigger heart.
Kobe was an introvert, but not the awkward kind. He loved playing games, reading novels of every genre, and watching his favorite anime, the one about the pirate with the straw hat. You know the one.
Despite preferring solitude, he could talk to anyone. Jocks, nerds, extroverts, quiet kids, movie buffs, new students. Kobe fit in everywhere without trying.
As his boots crunched over the thin frost on the sidewalk, his thoughts drifted to his family. He was the oldest of nine siblings, five brothers and four sisters, and even though their house was loud and chaotic, he loved every one of them. His parents were divorced, but they co-parented well and kept their kids close.
He smiled softly, imagining his youngest brother trying to tackle him the moment he walked through the door.
That was when he saw her.
A little girl, no older than six, walking with her mother. A cold gust of wind tugged at the string of her red balloon, and it slipped out of her gloved hand.
The balloon floated upward. The girl chased it.
Straight into the street.
Her mother didn't notice. But Kobe did.
A truck roared around the corner, speeding far too fast for the icy road. Kobe did not think. His body moved before his mind could catch up.
His heart pounded in his chest as he sprinted. His heavy frame hit the pavement like a charging bull, each step loud and desperate. The truck's horn blared in panic.
The girl turned at the sound, confused, eyes wide.
Kobe reached her. He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her out of the truck's path with everything he had. She rolled onto the far sidewalk.
Kobe had no time left.
The impact came with a deafening crash. His ribs collapsed. His spine snapped. His legs twisted unnaturally as he hit the ground. Pain flooded his body, sharp and merciless.
His breaths grew shallow. The cold seeped into him. His vision blurred around the edges.
His final thoughts came slowly, flickering like dying embers.
My family… I'm never going to see them again.
I'll never know how my favorite anime ends.
I never even had a girlfriend…
All the stories I'll never finish… all the games I'll never play…
The future… I'll never have…
At that final thought, Kobe died.
The Void Between Creation
Darkness.
Silence.
Kobe drifted weightlessly through a place that looked like a starless night. Everything around him was blurred and unfocused. He couldn't tell whether he had eyes, or a body, or even a shape.
A presence appeared. Not a voice, not a sound, but a vibration that rippled through the empty void. It felt like the universe itself was speaking.
A force older than every world.
"FINALLY… THE ORIGIN CAN BE COMPLETED."
The message shook existence. It carried satisfaction, like something ancient had been waiting for this moment. Recognition, as if Kobe was never meaningless. A vast, unknowable purpose.
Images formed in his mind.
Before creation, before gods, before worlds, there had been one being. Not alive, not dead, not conscious, not unconscious. A paradox. A presence. A force.
It was called the Origin.
Eons ago, its soul shattered. Countless fragments scattered across billions of worlds. Each fragment became a living soul, mortal or immortal, weak or powerful.
Kobe was one of those fragments.
Most fragments lived separate lives and never reconnected. But now, for the first time since existence began, every fragment of the Origin had died within the same cosmic cycle.
They returned all at once.
And the universe responded.
"THE ORIGIN IS WHOLE AGAIN."
Not because the universe was alive, but because something fundamental had snapped back into place.
Kobe felt something shifting inside him. No, through him.
He was not merging with others.
He was the others.
His soul was not being completed.
He was the completion.
He was the Origin reborn.
He did not understand. He could not understand.
Light erupted around him, warm and vast, like the universe itself exhaled after waiting eons.
A final message drifted through him.
"As the returned Origin, you are granted one wish to honor your rebirth."
Kobe froze. A wish? Anything? Bring his fam—
Before the thought could form, the universe folded around him. Space warped. Light twisted. Kobe was pulled away, torn through existence, and thrust toward a distant world.
Across the universe, several beings stirred.
Some merely sensed the shift in the cosmos. Others recognized what had happened. Only three truly understood the meaning.
In a colossal castle of shimmering stone, a woman sat on her throne. Her eyes, closed for ages, slowly opened. For the first time in hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of years, she felt the change.
"Has that thing really been completed?" she whispered. "I was only a newborn when it shattered… just a few hundred years old."
She raised her voice.
"Mikah. Come here."
A figure appeared instantly.
"Yes, my goddess."
His voice held absolute reverence.
"Call all of my people to the realm. No one leaves until I say so."
"As you command."
Mikah vanished. The ancient being closed her eyes again.
"Things are about to get complicated."
Across the universe, similar scenes unfolded.
Some beings felt the change but did not know the cause. Others knew exactly what it meant. And many of them prayed they would never encounter the reborn Origin.
Some would not be so lucky.