Before I knew it, me and my guarding angel were transported to an entirely different area. Instead of the black space, it was a white space. It was filled with these humanlike figures, though they were clear, and kind of see through. I looked all around with the most confusion. "Who knew all of this shit would happen after you die.." I say in slight awe, as I look around at all the transparent humans around me. "I wont lie..I wasn't much of a believer of anything after death. When I was younger I was. But then I said nah, there's nothing..." I admit to my guarding angel, while she looks at me with a smile.
"Well this place, is the memory room..for lack of a better word hehe. All of the people you see here, are in their own memory world. Not the previous one that we just left, but the one after. After death, we show you your memories, then we send you here where you'll make your way to your own memory world. It's different than just having the memories played back at you from a mirror. You'll actually see them, like you're actually there again. You'll be there. After that, you must come to the decision of whether or not you believe you lived a meaningful life. As well as come to terms with the life that you lived. After that, we either send you for reincarnation, or the world ahead. Which is the after world. For you it's different though, you just have to come to terms with your life to get to the afterworld" The guarding angel explained to me, while I continued watching the people around me. It was a lot to take in, and a lot to unpack. Especially since I'm gonna be the one that has to save the afterworld, to even get back to my body. There are way too many questions. Like how would getting back to my body work if I was hit by a truck like that? Wouldn't my body be all types of fucked up? Or how my heart practically stopped beating?
I rub my hair and shake my head vigorously with all these thoughts running loose inside of them. There were way too many concerns and questions. "First off, how am I gonna save the afterworld? You haven't really told me shit about what's wrong about it. Did y'all accidentally let the wrong people in there that should've been sent down to hell?" I question my guarding angel, with a slight chuckle at the end of the question.
My guarding angel giggles a bit, before she flys in circles around me. Once she did, it was like golden stars floating around me, that came from her sparkling white wings. I couldn't help but feel a heavenly presence, rain over me."An evil has made its way into the afterworld..or more-so, the memory world. The power that he processes, altered, and took away the memories of those in the afterworld." She says before looking slightly upset, and troubled. I start looking at her more seriously from this. "It's been this way for a couple of days now, so I guess your death was timed pretty luckily. Or you would've never been able to reunite with your family in this body that you possess. But as you look around, you'll notice that tens of millions upon millions of people are lost. They're experiencing haunting memories that they don't recall. Some of them don't even have memories, so they're just stuck in a never ending loop, unable to get to the afterworld, or be reincarnated. It's all because of this evil person. And now, he's trying to destroy the afterworld, by consuming it in darkness, making it cease to exist." As my guarding angel explained to me everything that was going on, I realized that the stakes were a lot higher than I thought they would initially be. This is something that will impact millions, upon millions of people. I can't do something so important to people...
"The worst part is, in the memory world, a certain god named the god of souls comes to take you into the afterworld, even if it's by force. And if you haven't come to terms with your life, and the life that you lived, you'll become a lost soul..unable to be reincarnated, or go to the afterworld." my guarding angel explains to me. Coming to terms with your life, and the life that you lived? All of that sounds so complicated and hard to understand. But I think I get it..
"Okay," I turn up and look at my guarding angel, who looked down at me. "I think I understand now. Some evil bad guy made the memories of everyone in the memory world, either altered, or gone. For that reason, these people are confused, and scared. They're unable to come to terms with their life, because they don't even remember the life that they're seeing. And then there's this god person trying to take them into the afterworld, yet they're all incapable of coming to terms with the life they lived...so they all become lost souls.." Saying it it outloud makes me realize even more, just how crazy all of this is.
•quick explanation of how it all works! So basically, after you die in this world, you experience what Taiyo first experienced. After that, you go to the memory room, which is basically the hallway to the memory world. In the memory world, you'd typically need two passes. One, you need to question if you think your life was meaningful or not. But you also have to come to terms with the life you lived. If you don't come to terms with the life you lived, before the god of souls take you, you'll become a lost soul. The god of souls always try to take souls into the afterworld. Therefor you have to find meaning of your life in the memories that you have. If he takes you before you feel like you lived a meaningful life, then you'll be reincarnated. If he takes you before you came to terms with your life, you'll become a lost soul. If he takes you before both of those things(you don't believe you lived a meaninful life, and didn't come to terms with the life you lived) then you'll be a lost soul. Simple? I hope so! But for the main character, it's different. He only has to to come to terms with his life. Since he isn't being reincarnated or going to the afterworld permanently(because the guardian angel is taking him to the afterworld to face this corrupted evil. She's kind of breaking the rules for him, but it's okayyy)Hope you understand! Also, even if you believe you lived a meaningful life, but don't come to terms with the life you lived, you'll still become a lost soul.
"Oh yes! You got it! But don't worry about yourself going into the memory world. He only casted one spell, so only the people that were in there at the time were effected. You, and anyone else who dies right now won't be effected. Unless he comes back, and casts the spell again." My guarding angel says to me with a bit of a smile.
"All of this just means that the clock is ticking for me to do whatever I gotta do to stop him..but first off, I don't have any powers, or anything like that. So how the hell am I supposed to stop such a great evil?! And why can't you stop it yourself?!" I question my guarding angel with quite a bit of panic, though all she does is giggles.
"I never said that it would be easy. But guarding angels have little to no fighting power. There are other gods and such, but it seems as though they're no match for this evil. So how will you stop it? I don't know..but as your guarding angel, I'm here to guide you." She says with a very pleasant smile. But at this point, it was all starting to sound impossible. I don't have the strength of gods, or anything like that, so how else am I gonna get to my body?
"Anyways, we're wasting time. The god of souls could be taking souls right now!" She yells before storming off to a golden door that was in the distance. Hesitantly, I chased after her without much thought.
Soon after, we approached the door. The golden door had a golden aura around it. It brightened up my eyes and skin to great lengths with its magical feeling. It made me stare at the door in awe. "Here's the goal..we have to get past the memory world, and make it into the afterworld..that's where most of the destruction is taking place and what this great evil wants to destroy. But to do that, you have to come to terms with the life you lived. You have to, before the god of souls take you to the afterworld anyway. If he does, you'll become a lost soul. For everyone else, they'd also have to answer if their life was meaningful or not in the memory world, to see if they'll go to the afterworld, or be reincarnated. But since I'm helping you reunite with your family, you don't have to do such a thing in the memory world. " My guardian angel says to me, while I stare deeply at the golden door that stood before me.
After her words, I slowly reach my arm out. I was about to enter my own memory world, which was a bit scary. But it also attracted me, for some reason. "Here goes nothing.." I say to myself with slight doubt, before grabbing on the door knob, and twisting it.
Once I opened the door, there was a bright light that shined directly at my face. Despite the brightness of the light, it didn't hurt my eyes. So I just slowly walked into the door, where my guarding angel followed behind me.
Before I knew it, I was inside of what seemed like a grade school classroom. There was a board, a few toys around, and a window that had the bright sun shining through it. Suddenly, my eyes start to drift around the classroom, where it looks on to this specific woman. "Ms. Jikuyi?" I say in a questioning tone, while I look at her.
After I look at her for a few seconds, I look around the classroom some more. That's where I find myself, sitting in the corner of the classroom, alone. "That's me.." I say calmly, before walking up to my younger self, with my guarding angel following behind me. I was no older than six years of age. "If I remember correctly, this is the day where I met Suruyu. I kind of started out as an introvert, even as a young kid. Suruyu kind of came and pulled me out of that state." I say while looking down at my younger self. I look down at myself, with some guilt, and slight sadness that I didn't want my guardian angel to see.
Suddenly, young Suruyu runs up to my younger self, with the most joyous smile. She basically talks to my younger self, about a bunch of nothing. But at the time, it made me feel less alone. Suddenly, it hits me, and my eyes widen. "Wait, what happened to Suruyu? I swear there was some mugger that she confr-" I was beginning to question my guarding angel, before I heard the front room door slowly creak open.
I was silent, as I slowly turned my head to see who it was. That's when I saw that long black hair enter the classroom first. My heart was beating fast, and my eyes widened more than they have in years.
Suruyu walked into the classroom with what seemed to be her guardian angel with her. While she stood in front of the door, and I stood in the classroom, the two of us stared at eachother in a frozen state. The sunlight that shined through the window, shined right in between where we stood. "Heasu!" My guardian angel suddenly screams, before dashing past me, and hugging the other guardian angel that was beside Suruyu. She seemed really excited, though the guy she was hugging seemed kind of annoyed.
"Okay okay okay! Heasa calm down!" The guardian angel begged. Made me realize that I didn't know my own guardian angels name this entire time. Heasa is my guardian angel, and Heasu seems to be Suruyus...does that mean that Suruyu died protecting that old woman? It makes me feel a bit bad just thinking about it.
As Suruyu looked at me, it seemed like she was a bit sad. Especially when she saw how the two of us were when we were kids. "Suruyu..you died..?" I questioned, before walking a bit closer to her, just at the edge of the sunlight that shined through the classroom.
Suruyu seemed to avoid a bit of eye contact with me, before forcing a smile on her face. "I guess so.." She responds to me while looking off to the side, and holding onto her arm.
Seemed like she didn't want to see me, or even talk to me. But I think I know why.. "Does anyone have a clue on what's going on here? As a guardian angel, I was supposed to be guiding Suruyu through her memories. But no matter what, her memories won't show. It's like we're in someone else's memory world. I know some memories were altered, and some are gone, but this is something entirely different." Heasu questioned the rest of us, though I was having a hard time focusing on what he was saying.
"You're right..plus, he casted that spell on the memory world 2 days ago. It shouldn't be effecting the memories of people that died after that.." Heasa added.
I looked off to the side, thinking a bit. The more I thought, the more worry on my face appeared. The two guardian angels, and Suruyu looked worried for me. "Wait," I look up at them in worry. "If Suruyu is in my memory world, how will she come to terms with the life that she lived? And how will she find meaning if it?" I ask that question, causing Heasu especially to look more than worried. Coming to terms with the life you lived, is definitely more important. Because if you don't, then you'll become a lost soul. If she doesn't find meaning in the life she lived, then that wouldn't be the end of the world, as she'd be reincarnated..but that means I'd never see her again..
"I asked that question as well..." Heasu responds in a defeated way.
I then look at Suruyu for a second, before walking up to her even closer. "Suruyu, I know you and me haven't talked in like years..but you're going to have to come to terms with the life that you lived. You're also gonna have to find meaning, so that you go to the afterworld. Regardless if you can see your memories or not." I urge Suruyu, while she looks at me with skepticism.
"Why do you sound so worried about me? We haven't talked in years. You literally disappeared out of my life without any explanation..since we were kids, we were very close, but during junior high, I felt you pull further, and further away. Until you eventually stopped talking to me at all." Suruyu admits to me, while she looks down at the younger versions of ourselves. The more she explained, the more the world around us started to change. Memories of our relationship from when we were kids, to when we became junior high students.
"I was forced to look for more friends..and although I was good at making friends, I seemed to have lost my best friend."
As I looked around at all of the memories, and all of the things that we've done. I got to see just how much I was really pulling away from her for all those years. If I had only turned around when she was holding her hand out for me. If I had only saw how much she was trying to connect with me.
The more I look, the more mad I start to feel. I feel my chest grow warmer, and my fists started to clench up a bit. "Okay, this isn't important! I'm not just gonna sit here and listen to this." I yell out, and immediately, the memories disappear. We're back in the grade school classroom that we were in initially.
But the built up anger that I was feeling, caused me to push the others out of the way, and walk out of the classroom. Heasa, and Suruyu both looked upset, while Suruyu looked a bit angry as well. "Whatever.." She said before she was about to walk away, to the other door that was in the classroom.
"Wait!" Heasu suddenly calls out to Suruyu, causing her to stop, and turn around with concern. Me, along with the other guardian angels, stared inside of the door that I just walked into with the most confusion.
Suruyu slowly starts to walk over towards us, with a curious expression. Once she saw what was in the room, she looked surprised. "Hey Tsuki..do you remember this memory?" My guardian angel questions me, but as I look, I don't recall it.
In the room we walked in, Suruyu was at a restaurant with her other friends. It seemed like she was a first year in highschool. "No..I don't.." I respond, before Suruyu walks in front of all of us, and stares at herself and her friends who were sitting at the table.
Heasu looks a bit thoughtful, before speaking."Is it possible that they're memory worlds are..." he pauses. "Connected as one.." My guardian angel finishes. Suruyu and I both looked shocked, beyond comprehension.
If our worlds were connected, basically intertwined as one memory world, why would that happen? While I glance over at Suruyu, I could tell that she was thinking the same thing as me. Not only that, but what this memory was about. "I remember this." Suruyu mumbled a bit quietly, like she was not looking forward to it. After she said that, the rest of us waited, to see what this memory would be about.
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Let me know if you're too confused about the whole memory world, memory room, afterworld, d reincarnation stuff. I'd be happy to explain, as I know I wasn't the best at explaining it just then😂