'The term "happiness" would lose all its meaning if it were not offset by sadness'
Carl Gustav Jung
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A young man lying on the rails of a train. His body numb. There is nothing else around him. There is no light in the sky. Darkness and complete emptiness.
He slowly opens his eyes. Although he tries to breathe, he does not feel even a tiny particle of air. He doesn't feel anything. Not his clothes, not the light of the night in the city.
"Where I am?" He says trying to remember how he got into this situation.
A few minutes earlier: Tokyo, Japan
The same young man was sitting in a chair on the balcony of his darkened apartment, while he ate hot udon and looked at his district, Itabashi.
It was a night with thousands of stars and not a cloud in sight. Many people were outside celebrating the fall equinox. His eyes fixed on a family. A father, a mother, a boy, a girl and a baby. The joy they radiated seemed to light them up, like the moon on the darkest night.
A few minutes had passed when he realized that his plate had gotten cold. He thought that a little alcohol to accompany this strange night, where thousands of people gathered to celebrate while he reheated his udon in the lonely apartment, would not hurt.
He got up and walked slowly to the door. From his pocket she took her keys and staggered out of her house.
He now walked quietly while he listened to music on his headphones. He was in his own world. Trying to avoid others. Sad. without affections He had nothing or at least he thought so.
Today is his birthday, September twenty-second. Yuto Avis is now 25. But he felt that it wasn't an important day.
He stopped walking and waited on a corner to cross the street. Cars passed by at high speed. A few moments later, the traffic lights turned red, and before he could even take a step, some lights dazzled him. He turned around to see the last thing he would see in his life. A truck.
The crash was disastrous and bloody. Many people came to see what was happening. Almost everyone was there just to record with their cell phones, and one or another who tried to help and see if he had survived. They could only find the driver who was unconscious. The young man's body was in horrible condition, to the point that he couldn't even be taken as one.
Now: On the train tracks
His body did not move, although he could look and speak.
Within seconds the empty sky began to infest with eyes. Almost all torn, looking at him. But one of them, huge, with an amber pupil, at the end of the train tracks, stared at him and called his attention.
"I see you woke up" Two old voices were present. One female and one male. They spoke in a soft and scratchy way, high and low, fast and slow. The young man looked confused into the eye, not knowing how to react.
"Where am I? How did I get here?"
"Fear not, young man. We brought you here to make a deal. And to all your questions, you died in an accident and are in what you might call limbo."
"I see..." his face expressed mostly indifference. He didn't feel sad about it. He was not afraid of his new condition. Was he dead? He really didn't know and he didn't care either "What is the deal?"
"It's simple. I want you to help us stop a being that wants to destroy entire realities. Kill millions of innocents for no real reason"
"Why would I help you?"
"Because the people I want you to save are just like you. They are not really to blame for what is going to happen"
"Yes of course. They are all saints" he said with a sarcastic tone. He knew that not all of them were good. And from what he understood, did he have to save them too?
"Don't misunderstand. I don't want you to save everyone. Only those who deserve it. Those who can't and don't want to be saved can die. I don't care what happens to them" That surprised Yuto. He did not expect this entity to think that way.
He thought for a moment. If he agreed, he could save those who deserve it and kill those who don't. Have a rationale and a purpose.
"I accept". He didn't think much of it. He had nothing to lose. If he was going to die anyway, why not do it big? Having a reason to keep standing was tempting. Existing for a time in a parallel world, where the rules were different, where reality did not belong to him and ultimately he did not feel responsible for what happened there, was an acceptable proposal. Like being inside a dream, without time.
"Perfect" The being disappeared. The dark sky turned white, and a black mass appeared from the ground. He grew slowly and became a black cat with dozens of eyes on his head and back. It was that thing.
Yuto's body began to move. I finally had control over him. He got up and looked at the cat curiously. The young man's hair grew longer and whiter. His eyes went from a dark brown to a very beautiful amber color. They looked like precious stones.
For some reason, he was unaware of his surroundings. Or the changes in his body, his personality, and in the place where he was.
"What are you?"
The cat was looking at him. Seated.
"My species is known as wanderers. Beings that see many places and things at once. Something greater than a god" They slowly began to walk. A portal of red, pink and white colors opened in front of them.
"I see" he said. But the closer they got to the portal his body changed. His hair was getting wavier. The gray color was now silvery white. His body was becoming more toned.
He wanted to ask something but he was interrupted.
"Before you ask, do not fret. I will always be close to you... No matter what happens" Already inches from touching the portal, they both stopped. Yuto's body had completely changed. He looked like someone older.
"I'm glad to hear that... Although I don't know why. I don't understand anything that's happening but there's an energy inside me that tells me not to offer resistance. Ah, what is this world, what is it made of? What am I going to find?" The cat looked at him for a moment and then responded.
"Magic, monsters, angels, demons, fallen angels, mythological beings, legends, gods, herrants and... No-mirov"
"What's that?"
"They are similar to humans. Elves, dwarves, half-orcs, mixtures of all kinds of beings. All in one world"
"Do I have to worry?"
"No. Don't worry" she spoke in a monotone voice. They were silent for a moment. Both looking at the portal in front of them.
"Well see you on the other side" he said with a smile. No matter how many times he thought about it, he felt paradoxically strange and comfortable at the same time. He was talking to a cat with dozens of eyes in its head, he was about to go through a portal, his body had changed. Nothing was normal, yet he felt at home. And that cat, he seemed like an old friend. Someone he had known since childhood.
"We'll meet again. Soon... Very soon"
They slowly walked through the portal. Feeling the energy running through their bodies.
A light illuminated his body. The air entering his lungs. Life reappearing.