The black void extended far out in front of Xavier, stretching out towards the horizon as far as he could see. The black haired teen had a look of annoyance upon his face, but his eyes were entirely focused on the chair in front of him, as well as its unique denizen: a ball of light which flashed with many colors before his eyes. It had been mumbling to itself for about a minute, and Xavier had grown impatient with its incessant words, and waited for it to explain what it was going on, his arms crossed as he glared at the light. After a minute more, Xavier finally saw a change in the coloring of the orb, which now reached a yellow hue, something he assumed finally signified a change in demeanor.
"Xavier Fenas… 16 years old… B- Grade student…. And you managed to get killed by a truck getting hit by it. How'd you manage to pull that one off?"
It's androgynous voice mused over what must have been the story of his life, with a slightly disappointed tone, and Xavier winced as he recalled the last memory of his life, before he ended up in this situation. When he woke up here and managed to piece together what happened, he almost had a heart attack, and in fact, he probably would have if he weren't already, well, dead. The fact he wasn't panicking more was only because he'd realized that he was either in some hormonal hallucination caused by painkillers, meaning he was still alive, or that he was getting judged for the afterlife. Still, he didn't exactly enjoy being being berated by a ball of light, afterlife judge or not.
"My friends call me Xav. And it's not nearly as crazy as you're making it seem, the truck driver saw me crossing in a part of the street without a light, and he stopped for me. Not my fault he was so insistent on waving when he didn't even check to see if there was a car coming in the lane right next to him."
A sound like a chuckle resonated from within the orb, which suddenly manifested a collection of papers, which floated in the air around it as if held by invisible hands, the orb's light turning pink as if in amusement as it shuffled the papers through the air.
"Yeah, that's great! Unfortunately you're still dead kiddo, doesn't help you very much now does it? Well, as your file says, you're a massive weeb, so you should know where this is going."
Xavier raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued. A bit of the tension he hadn't even realized he'd been holding disappeared, and he sat back into his chair, taking a moment to process all the earth shattering information he was being given.
"This is really possible?"
All those novels he'd read, watched, or heard of…. He'd finally get a chance to experience them for himself… filled with fantasies of glory and fame, Xavier finally got over his worry after a moment, and leaned forward in excitement.
"What kind of world am I getting sent to? Is this a fantasy world opportunity, or is it more like one of those 'reincarnated in my favorite anime' novels?"
The orb's light seemed to turn a very dark green, it's light shining over the space. It looked as if it was considering it's response well.
"Well…. Uhm…. Yeah, it's more like the latter, although anime isn't necessarily the only option. There are a lot of universes you could be sent to…. After all, if universes exist whose rules correspond exactly to one fictional universe, chances are more like them exist for others you know? So uh, anime isn't a guarantee."
Xavier wasn't sure what to make of the orb's sudden shift in personality, but, figuring he wasn't sure of how to exactly ascertain the exact emotions of an orb anyway, he decided to just be blunt.
"So, do I get a choice in where I get to go? I'd love to try out a shounen… what have I got to lose? Worst thing that can happen there is I die, and I've already been through that."
The orb seemed to respond to this just by producing a sheet of paper in front of him, as if made from thin air. On it, was a single word, one that caused Xavier to scrunch up his face.
"This… this is really all you got? You're some all powerful group of soul lords who judge the dead, and you can't even get me something mainstream?"
This time the orb glowed orange, and Xavier took a guess that this was a face of embarrassment, but it quickly changed to a light red color he couldn't quite guess at, expanding and contracting as it spoke.
"Listen, we only had so many options for you because you're the last one in the queue. To be honest, you're lucky you get a choice at all, we don't do this with a lot of people, and from the ones who got it, you went last because, and let's be honest here, you really didn't do anything to warrant much more from us in your life."
"Warrant anything my ass, this is my next life that you're playing with, do you know how boned I am if I barely know what I'm heading into?"
The orb's red color flashed a deeper crimson, and the voice, while still calm, seemed to get a bit more irritated
"You think you deserve more than that? Most people don't get a choice what they reincarnate as, and let me tell you boy, you're a pity case at best. So, just deal with it, or don't, it's up to you. Trust me, helping you is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."
Xavier couldn't help but feel enraged by the insults being thrown his way, and seeing red, Xavier jumped up and tried to punch the talking orb in the face. To his surprise though, the teen went straight through both the orb and the chair, and as he fell, where he expected to land on what he thought was the "floor" of the void, he found himself passing through and falling, deeper and deeper into the emptiness, until he lost all sense of sight or touch and simply fell through the void. But, ringing in his ears, he heard the voice of the orb in his head.
"Well, there's a silver lining to all this at least, I get to watch you fumble around. I'm contractually obligated to help you out but…. I get to say how long I wait before I do…. Hope you have fun in the world of Ninjago, kid."
Xavier could only grimace as the black void overtook him.