"I am glad to see more people in here today. This makes twenty-two of the twenty-three in the church."
A priest in silk white robes extended his hands outward as he spoke to the rows of children in front of him. A kind smile stuck to his bearded face as looked over the gloomy students.
"Since eleven of you have woken up only today, let me explain things from the top. You all, have died."
Gasps and sighs rang around in the room as the students sitting at the front heard the priest's words. Some held their heads and the others shook them in disbelief, only the kids at the back bit their lips and watched their friends.
"Hey, what kind of joke are all of you cooking here? We were on a fucking field trip!"
"Mr. Christos, I can understand your confusion. Death is not a light matter. Though you have died in your world, the benevolent Gods took mercy and reincarnated your souls here, in this world."
The priest placed his hand on his chest and continued.
"You students have been incarnated into this world with special favor from the gods. Your bodies were made again, your wounds were healed and scars were mended. Moreover, great power was bestowed into your souls by the gods, fitting the title of their chosen—"
"—What do you get from this?" The priest's words were interrupted by a red-haired boy sitting at the back of the class. "Most of us are awake now. You can spill it, right?"
"Mr. Claude," the priest said. The kind smile on his face turned flat. "The gods seem to gain nothing from you. The word of your arrival was sent to us, and we of the Ephis church took on the responsibility to host you. It pains me to say this, but the world we live in is not free of dangers, and sending you out without any guidance will be nothing short of repeating the same fate as before."
Claude clicked his tongue.
"Dear Reincarnators of Earth, great evil lurks on the horizons, but we seek not your help. Our only commandment was to teach you the ways of the world. We will teach you to defend yourself and think for yourself in this world. We hold no control over you, so you may do as you please, but we request, that you try to trust us."
***
It had been four days.
Claude remembered the events of that moment as if he was living through them right now.
It all seemed normal. He could hear banter from his friends as his clique talked and made fun of each other at the backmost seat of the bus. As always, he sat at the very center and was having fun with his friends, they would share snacks and jokes or talk about this or that. Further in the front, some of the other students talked in their groups, some chatted in small circles, others played games on their portable consoles, and a few of them read books or drew something, though that must have been tough in the shaking bus, one was even sleeping a seat ahead of him.
The teacher was in the front, turning his eyes away from the racket behind, and three other adults were around too, including the driver of the bus.
It was all just like any other day.
Until it, all changed.
A white truck came crashing into their back. Claude could almost feel his bones jotting again as he recalled the sensation. The sudden push on his back sent him away from the seat. The screams of his confused friends. The way everything seemed to have stopped as the sky came down and the ground went up.
Over and over again.
And then, the impact on his head, the sound of the breaking glass before it was suppressed by the incessant buzzing.
Claude gulped and shook his head.
It had been four days since then.
He woke up here in this very room, where he was told that he and the rest of his class were 'chosen' by the gods of this world and granted a new body for their souls. They were supposed to be Otherworldly Heroes with great power in their hands. It was too fast, too confusing, too strange, too unacceptable.
He didn't accept it, he couldn't, but even then, this was his reality. Even if he refused to accept it, everything wouldn't go back to as it was.
More of his friends had woken up yesterday. The vast room with multiple patient beds was mostly empty now, everyone had been assigned quarters inside the vast church of Ephis. It was only him and the person still in the bed in front of him.
Right then, a light touch on Claude's shoulders. He turned around to see a black-haired girl standing there, her eyes on the person in the bed.
"Erika..."
"Were you close?" Erika asked without turning to face the boy.
Claude looked at Erika and she gestured at the one on the bed with her chin. Auburn hair draped down the head of the person, almost reaching the shoulders despite spreading out on the sheets like rows of wild grass. The person's pale hands sticking out of the cover looked thin and dainty, as if they had never touched the rough surface of a problem. The sharp jawlines, thin rosy lips, and long eyelashes formed an enchanting androgynous look that both men and women would stop and stare at.
"Lived down the street," Claude said. "Same elementary school, same middle school, and high school."
"Oh? You never seemed that close in class..." Erika muttered, shifting her gaze to Claude.
"We never talked."
Erika furrowed her brows in confusion as if sensing it, Claude shrugged his shoulders.
An air of silence covered the two of them afterward as the afternoon breeze made its way inside through the windows in the room. The petals of the vase next to the bed swayed in the breeze.
"Do you know what they said was happening?"
"You can only wake up in this world... once you die in the other, right?" Erika said.
"Yes, even a coma would send you here. They said our death was confirmed, after all."
"Does that mean..."
"He must be suffering."
"It is cold enough to suffer, can you close the windows?"
"Sure."
"Sure."
Claude and Erika left their spots and walked up the windows in the room. They grabbed the iron handle of the wooden frames for windows and pulled them shut, before stopping in their tracks.
Their heads creaked to the side with widened eyes.
Who had just spoken?
They looked at each other first, then down on the bed again.
A rustle spread in the room as the person turned to the other side and mumbled something before making a peaceful face of drowsiness.
""HHAAAAAH!?""
A coordinated scream spread in the room. Claude and Erika's jaws dropped to the ground as they saw the last student that hadn't entered the world casually turn around in his sleep
"Shush! Someone's sleeping!" A soft voice snapped at them.
"Wh-what!! You're alive!?"
Annoyed by the incessant shoutings, the person turned around again and faced Claude. As long eyelashes spread away and the alluring silver eyes revealed themselves, the person answered back.
"Yeah, for four days now."
"Four days!? H-how?" Claude stumbled on his words as he tried to make sense of things. Unable to hold back his confusion, he started spilling out his thoughts. "We died, you know! A-and! And we ended up in another world!"
"I know?" the person said.
"Another world? I'd rather sleep."