The night was boring, as usual, so he decided to go to bed early, he closed his eyes and he went into a deep slumber. Angst arose, then panic, fear, loneliness and darkness, complete and absolute obscurity. He felt as if the worst of things was upon him and for a brief moment his mind drifted. He could no longer remember who he was or where he came from, his senses were fading, and he could no longer feel his breath or heartbeat. He was losing his own self, and then, there was a memory, of someone, and there was a smell, of something, and ache in his heart begin to crawl, as if wanting to scape.
"Oh!" a voice was heard
"Never have I imagine that you could persevere" said the voice "I must make amends, for I had no intention of causing you any discomfort. Many times before I have embarked souls to cross, but never had I expected this resilience of you. Oh! Apologies. Allow me to remove relieve you of this emptiness." As the voice finished its speech a scenery appeared.
A beautiful meadow could be seen, of green pastures and fresh breeze. Fruity smells flowed aimlessly through the air and all sort of animals could be heard in the distance. As if king of the place a tree stood, tall, slender and vibrantly alive; its foliage extended a fresh shadow and next to its roots, a simple wooden table and two chairs appeared. A confused boy was sit and in the other end a gentle looking man. There was food at display, drinks and all sorts of delicacies but neither of them seemed to be interested.
"This place" said the man "is something I have temporarily created to restrain your stress, which, I'm most embarrassed to admit, I have cause you" the man looked at boy as if expecting for him to say something but at the lack of any response he continued.
"Due to inconspicuousness, sorry, I'll rephrase, my inability to fully muster enough comprehension about human souls, I have pull you out of your world utterly unaware of the flickering light in your… heart; I suppose that is how you humans acknowledge your emotional centre. That light is the means to anchor your soul to yourself, thus allowing you to, how should I explain this… scape oblivion!?" tried to explain the situation to the boy but then this one spoke.
"I'm sorry for my silence before, I was trying to decide what to believe, whether this is a dream or a hallucination or is what it appears to be. However, I don't think anyone's brain capacity can actually emulate so much detail in a hallucination or a dream, so… I'm either dead or abducted by an alien or… a god!? Said the boy explaining his own understanding of the situation to the man and, most importantly, to himself.
"That is… correct. Well, part of it." Replied the man
"But please, do continue, tell me what is in your mind" said curiously the man.
The boy looked confused for a moment and after a few seconds of pause said "well, I think that I died, I mean, I have only seen most of the animals here in tv, also, these foods" said while taking a bite "and taste, as I thought, are completely a new experience. I may not be a neuroscientist but I think that someone, or someone's malfunctioning brain, cannot emulate a completely unknown experience out of the blue. It could be the alien possibility, I suppose, but something tells me it is not, so, what is it?" said the boy while looking at the horizon.
"I could be perceived, from your own comprehension of things, as a god but I am actually not. What I am, however, is irrelevant to you, so, I will spare you such intricacies." Said the man while eating some food.
"Well then, in order to keep things simple; could you please explain me in the most plain way you can" added the boy.
The man froze for a second, as if searching in his thoughts, and then said one word, one word that explained everything "Isekai". During the boy's life he was no stranger to anime or manga and though he could not be considered a fanatic he was quite familiarised with them. He usually referred to the kind of anime were the protagonist reincarnated in another world as "isekai"; lately they were trending and he did not disliked them, so, he knew the drill and immediately understood the man. However many worrisome questions arose in his mind, if he were to be send to another world. Would this mean that he could never be back to his world? Would the world where he will be send to be dangerous? Whatever powers, as most of the lead protagonist of the anime, might be bestowed upon him he was no warrior nor had a mind for killing, which seemed a very common thing in this worlds, according to anime.
"Do not worry" said the man when looking the boy's face and as if knowing what the boy was thinking he added "I will smooth your life in this world at the best of my abilities. However, there is something you must comprehend, human's souls have their own set of rules and, as such, whatever power or ability I bestow you with have to obey them; also, the world greatly reduce my direct presence in it, so, simply put, I could only give you something that already exist or could exist among humans in that world" the man paused for a moment and added "unless, of course, that you want to be something else".
The boy sat there thinking for several minutes., the minutes turned into an hour and though the man seem calm and was enjoying himself with the food and drinks, the boy thought of the possibility of pushing the man's patience too far, so, he finally stood up.
"I have been thinking a lot and honestly, I don't know what I want. What I am sure of is that I want to be human, and if it were to be possible, to keep my appearance. Regarding abilities, if it's not too much trouble for you, could you give an overall idea of what could I pick up from? I'm not asking for you to give me an encyclopaedic knowledge just the basics. Oh! Yes, if there is magic I want to be a magic user, of that, I am certain." Finished the boy
A few seconds passed and after a hand gesture of the man the boy's mind flooded with basic knowledge of magical related abilities and talents. There were so much to choose: elemental affinity (which will grant him an overall control over a chosen element), specializations (which will allow him to excel with a specific kind of spells, destruction types, healing types etc), battle abilities (as mastering certain weapons or special features of combat), there were some other talents like speaking to animals and much more. However, while perusing through the newfound knowledge the boy noticed that there was a kind of magic that was nowhere to be seen in this sea of information.
The boy asked the man about it, and though it was not a magic that he wanted in particular, he found it odd that was not listed, unless, of course, that it did not existed in this world.
"Unfortunately, that kind of magic is very erratic, so, only those who often commune with the upper beings of the world are capable of using it. Even though I am one of them, it is not within my prerogative to bestow the link that connects humans with upper beings." said the man with a straight face, not angry at the boy but of something that he was just recalling.
"So, is there no way in having it" asked the boy again
"If you insist I could bestow it to you, however, you will suffer the consequences" replied the man.
"What if, let's say, I will only take half of it. What I am really interested in is space magic. Judging by the overall knowledge of the world you gave me, this kind of magic is rare, which will give an advantage and is very convenient to move around. Since it seems that this world is really technologically undeveloped in comparison with mine, I want to be as comfortable as possible, but I see that space magic has a flaw, which is possibly the reason why most people don't practice it. I think that if you give me that other ability, or at least the necessary part of it, I could overcome the problematic part of space magic." Explained the boy.
"Very well, if that is your heart's desire, I shall comply. I never expected that you would have unravelled this affairs so quickly. If it wasn't because I was the one who collected your soul I would have come to believe that you were… Never mind, let's continue" said the man.
"One last thing" said the boy. "Why me?"
"I was under the delusion that you have had grasped that much, given your overall performance so far" said the man while letting out a laugh.
"My only assumption is that it was a random thing, which is likely since Murphy has never been on my side." Responded the boy jokingly.
"Although luck was involved, it was not the sole participant. The reasons for which I collected you are not yours to be known, however, you were not supposed to maintain your self-awareness, and only that, is what has lead you here." -replied the man-"As a final grace, I will tell you this: if by the end of your live in this new world you still hold dear the source of fuel of that flickering light, you��ll soul will return to your previous world as if nothing had happened, and, I promise you that you or the source of that light, will be ever collected by me or my kin".
The boy didn't totally understood what the man meant with those words but he decided not to dwell in them, the thought of returning home was comforting after all. When everything was set, the man said for the last time -"You are not meant to do anything great, be it evil or not, nor there is nothing stopping you from it, live your life as you wish and maybe in the end of it, we will meet again. Now, I bid adieu."