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.
"...Where am I?"
His voice echoed back, thin and distant, as if the darkness itself 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."
The thought hit him like a hammer a second later.
"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 whole 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 out the emptiness.
"God, Buddha, anyone — if you exist, answer me!"
Then —
A voice.
"Oops. Looks like we forgot someone on the reincarnation road," a female voice said, soft and faintly amused.
"Really? Let me see." A pause. "Oh. You're right. This is bad — we have no slots left for him," a male voice replied, a note of annoyance creeping in.
"Hello! Can you hear me? Please, get me out of here!" Satou shouted, desperate.
The female voice ignored him entirely. "Did you hear what he said?"
"I did," the male voice said. "He wants out. Which means he'll accept any reincarnation we give him."
"That makes things easier," she said, sounding far too cheerful about it. "And it helps us cover the mistake. We can't afford any marks on our record — promotions are on the line."
"Agreed. Since there are no normal slots left, we send him as a monster," the male voice said.
"Hey! Hello?! I can hear you!" Satou shouted.
"We'll give him an SSS-rank skill to compensate," the female voice added. "Monsters do have a ninety percent mortality rate in early life."
"Wait — monster?! Ninety percent chance of dying young?! That's insane!" Satou yelled. Neither of them reacted.
"I have the perfect skill in mind," the female voice said.
"Can you please listen to me?!" Satou pleaded. Nothing.
A moment later, his entire body began to glow, and a voice rang out inside his mind.
"Skill Acquired."
Satou froze. "What — what was that? 'Skill Acquired'? What does that mean?"
"That should do it," the male voice said, already sounding bored. "Good luck out there."
"Wait! I have questions!" Satou shouted, but both voices spoke at once, cutting him off.
"We wish you a happy life in your new world."
Before he could protest, a bright light opened beneath him. He looked down, confused — and then it collapsed into a deep, pulling hole. He fought against it, but there was no resisting.
As he fell, flashes of his past life tore through his mind. Thirty years. Gone in an instant.
"I really wasted them," he said quietly. "But this time — this time, I'll do things my way."
The light at the bottom rushed up to meet him, blazing so bright it burned his vision white.
—-----------
When he opened his eyes again, darkness surrounded him — but it was different this time. A cold breeze touched his face. Something was pressing against his cheek.
"Am I... alive?" he whispered.
He turned his head to the right to see what was touching him.
His blood ran cold.
A green, grotesque creature loomed over him, its hand pressed flat against his face. Its eyes locked onto his without blinking.
"Help me!" Satou screamed. "Someone — help me, please!"
His voice tore into the unknown and vanished.