Flip.
'Wait, that's the last page?'
A man in his early 30s had his eyes widen in disbelief as he flipped the last page of a dark colored book with scarlet borders.
'How? What did Damian do? Why was Yar'tath so powerful with that last strike?'
As the questions the man had grown in number and with no answers coming even as he searched it up on his mobile phone online for clues, all ends led him to the conclusion that the story he was invested in for three years ended just like that.
"Fucking hell"
The other customers in the cafe he was staying in abruptly stopped what they were doing and glanced at the man who suddenly cursed out loud amidst the quiet environment.
Ahem.
The man, out of realization and embarrassment, cleared his throat and offered an apologetic gesture to the crowd as he packed his belongings in a black side-bag and stood up to leave.
This man is Itsuki Hideo. 32-year-old, single and works as a space engineer in Sector-7V, located light years away from home planet Earth. An important hobby Itsuki has for himself is reading all forms of imported fantasy novels.
A short ride home later.
Itsuki starts walking alongside his street while having a constant frown on his face.
'There's so many things wrong with that novel. Did authors back in the 21st century have self-destructive tendencies?'
Still being affected by the horrendous ending of the book he read and grew up with from the time he was a fresh graduate to the present day, Itsuki was muttering a lot of things he thought were wrong about the book.
'The story wasn't even that nice midway, most of the characters ended up dead before they could be relevant to the story which leads to the question - why bother introducing them?'
As he followed this train of thought, a walking robotic vending machine passed by him and he bought a cold can of coffee.
// ..everal incidents of homicides have been reported nearby Saint Milwalker Street, with reports claiming 15 dead and coun.. //
A news channel was playing on top of the vending machine.
'Wait isn't that the street just beside here? I knew I shouldn't have been fooled by that crazy good deal for this shit neighborhood'
He closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath in,
'Ancestors don't fail me now. I got this.'
His ancestral roots apparently came from a country back on earth that was said to have thrived in high-stress environments, and that's what he always thought of when things got a little too hard for him. Itsuki was only a bit fazed from the news as he drank his cold coffee while continuing his walk home while brooding about his previous train of thought.
Ting!
A hovering platform appeared in the empty space before Itsuki after he pressed a button similar to an elevator's.
As he was about to ascend to his floor, he heard a shout.
"PLEASE WAIT!"
Itsuki immediately pressed stop on the hover platform elevator and saw a hooded figure running towards him.
'Hmm..a girl?'
The figure running towards the elevator had a feminine figure which confused him even more because this was the males' living quarters.
"Umm can I help you Miss? This is the dorm for men-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the girl showed no signs of stopping and when she was 3 meters away, she immediately jumped forward and showed a bladed object from her left sleeve pointed at Itsuki.
'Oi!'
With only a split second to react, Itsuki jumps to the left to dodge the whatever-sharp-thing that was coming at him from the right.
Alas, the reaction time of a normal man in this kind of situation will never be fast enough.
Stab!
"Hahaehehe, let's hope you're the right one."
A mutter was heard as what seemed to be a kitchen knife stabbed into Itsuki's body.
"What in the actual! Lady are you crazy!"
As his survival instincts kicked in, Itsuki fell over his rear and he used both legs to position in front of the crazy woman and kicked as hard as he could.
Hiiiya!
Crash!
As the crazy woman flew and hit the wall outside the hover platform, Itsuki immediately punched the launch button on the platform.
Vringgggg.
The hum of the machine was heard as it accelerated upwards outside of the view of the smiling crazed woman.
Gasp
'No way did this just happen to me'
As he sat down in the ascending hover platform elevator, Itsuki gasped for breath as the pain from the stab sank in and he slowly looked at his right chest with a knife sticking out.
'Cough cough'
Blood was coughed out, giving Itsuki signs of immediate internal bleeding.
Ting!
The hover platform reached the designated floor as he slowly stood up in pain and walked towards his dorm.
Before he could even reach it, however, he felt strength abandoning him as his legs gave out and he collapsed on the floor while coughing out more blood.
'Cough! I…can't…move..arghhh!'
Itsuki then realized that he should've called the local authorities and the nearby paramedics but the initial panic clouded his choices.
As his vision began to blur as he stared at the ceiling complaining about a hundred and one things in his head, he saw a light glowing from dim to bright from the same ceiling.
'Is this..how I die?'
Itsuki took several labored breaths as he continued staring at the light that was still growing in brightness.
'No…no way…when they said that your life flashes before your eyes, I didn't expect a literal flash of light…cough'
With this last thought, Itsuki's consciousness faded away into darkness, or in this case, the light.
An untold amount of time later.
Itsuki woke up only to find himself in absolute darkness that somehow contradicted itself as he could see his body just fine. This time without the knife stuck in him.
He was just…floating, as if in space.
'Is this…am I…dead?'
As he tried changing the directions to where he was floating, he then realized -
'I can't tell directions, everything is pitch black except for myself.'
With that, he was then surprised at how calm and collected he was as he would usually be shouting in frustration for the outrageous situation that just took place.
"HELLO!"
Itsuki tried shouting at the top of his lungs to see if it had any effect on the place he was floating around in.
No voice reached his ears as he realized he's in some form of vacuum.
After this fact, he then realized he also wasn't breathing automatically.
Itsuki's eyes widened again as the situation once more sank in. He truly was in an abnormal state.
He continued to float like this in the nothingness that surrounded him while he contemplated on life and tried to maintain that calm feeling within him so as to help him not to break down in this kind of situation.
Some time later.
While Itsuki was self-hypnotizing himself and self-evaluating his own life, his eyes saw something akin to a glimmer in the distance - a light.
It was similar in feeling to the light he saw that flashed before his eyes when he was bleeding out.
Finally given something besides what seemed to be perpetual darkness, Itsuki attempted to will his body to move towards the bright light like a moth drawn to a flame.
'Well maybe this is what those moths always thought, maybe this isn't a bad idea? Bah what other options do I have?'
As his body reached the point in the space he was in that seemed to ephemerally connect to the bright light, his vision started to whiten as his body suddenly felt gravity once more and he fell downwards.
Bam!
"Ouch, wait wher-"
Before he could finish his sentence, he realized he could hear his own voice and immediately stood up to observe his surroundings while checking the state of his body.
Itsuki was in a space completely opposite to the darkness he was in just now.
Pure white. While the surface he seemingly stood on looked like water. Calm stationary clear water where he could see his own reflection.
His body seemed to be fine.
As he started walking around and taking in the new environment he floated into, he suddenly heard someone land gently behind him.
'Isn't that outfit…'
A traditional outfit worn by Shinto Shrine priestesses in his home country, Japan, the hakui and hibakama - a white shirt and bright red pants.
The lady that seemed to be in her mid-twenties was wearing the clothes of a Miko. Her blonde hair that went all the way down to her hips was slightly floating giving her a very holy look.
She then gave a graceful smile as she faced Itsuki
"Uhhh…are you by any chance the gatekeeper to the afterlife?"
Itsuki slowly moved away while also in awe of the woman in front of him.
'I have never seen a shrine priestess this beautiful before, is she perhaps an angel-sama?'
"Itsuki Hideo, I'm glad I was able to make it in time."
Make it in time? Time for what?
Seeing the puzzled look on the slightly wary Itsuki, the priestess smiled as she snapped her fingers.
Shinggg
With golden dust flowing out of her sleeves and spinning in an area between Itsuki and the priestess, a low coffee table appeared alongside two cushions.
"I'm sure this whole thing is still a shock to you. Please take a seat."
The priestess gestured as she sat down first with her legs towards one side.
Taken aback by what he just witnessed, Itsuki gulped as he entered a seiza posture opposite of the priestess.
A slight giggle came out of the priestess as she covered her mouth.
"Hahaha, Itsuki Hideo, there is no need to be tense or formal. You can relax while I answer all your current doubts and questions. Oh by the way, the answer to your earlier question is both a yes and a no.
Yes and No to being the gatekeeper of the afterlife.
With his confusion growing even more, Itsuki then tried processing the words he heard as he slowly muttered.
"So…I'm actually dead? You didn't deny that part."
"Unfortunately yes, you bled out on the 5th floor of your building."
With the priestess slightly bowing to him as an offer of condolence to himself, Itsuki then proceeds with his follow-up question.
"When you said yes and no, does that mean you're gatekeeping me from moving on to MY afterlife?"
The priestess smile grew wider upon hearing the new question.
"As expected of one of Earth's leading engineers, you indeed understand the situation fast."
'Leading engineers my ass, If I was so smart in understanding any situation, I would've been able to contact the emergency medic nearby to save my sorry soul before I bled out instead of trying to crawl back to my room'
"Ah, about that - the knife that was stuck inside of you had the ability to blur the person's judgment and was enchanted with a bleeding effect upon contact."
Confused at the words of the priestess, Itsuki realized that she replied to his thoughts. Itsuki had a very shocked expression.
"...Is it really possible to read minds when you're a Shinto priestess in the afterworld?"
Slightly regretting having not been a religious person back when he was alive, the priestess then had an expression saying she finally remembered something.
"Oh I apologize for the confusion - I should've introduced myself first."
As the priestess said this, the golden dust seen earlier that formed the furniture suddenly appeared behind the priestess and glowed - forming a halo behind her.
"My name is Fey. I am the Goddess that created the world called 'Myrrah', different from the Gods that rule over Earth."
With the abrupt introduction, Itsuki replied by instinct.
"Ah, nice to meet you Fey-sama, as you know, I am Itsuki Hideo."
Then his eyes trembled as he processed what the priestess - no, Goddess, said.
"W-wait! G-Goddess? Like you're a Kami of Shintoism?"
"No, Itsuki Hideo. As I said, I am not a God of your world, instead I watch over the world of Myrrah. I'm sure you've heard of that, you've been following its story for the past three Earth years have you not?"
As the golden dust dimmed down and the Goddess returned to her original miko-like appearance, Itsuki stood up in shock.
"M-Myrrah? As in the world in the novel『Heroes in the Abyss』?"
Itsuki's voice trembled as his mind was in disbelief.
How can a world he read in a book suddenly be real? And how can he be sitting in front of the God in charge of said world. But most importantly.
"I-Is Fey-sama the author of the novel?"
Golden Angel. That was the name of the author of the novel called『Heroes in the Abyss』.
With Itsuki's mind being in an increasingly constant state of shock and disbelief, a golden light came down upon him.
'-oh? My mind is suddenly clear.'
Being calm once more, he recognizes that the person in front of him is truly an extraordinary existence which gives credit to her claim of being a God. He sat down properly once more as the Goddess, Fey, continued.
"The story you read was written, not by me, but by history, Itsuki Hideo. I'm not sure if you're a believer of such a concept but I believe it was destiny that brought you to read and finish that novel. It was that connection that allowed me to bring your soul to this place instead of being extinguished by that weakened version of the Abyssal Knife."
Abyssal Knife. It was a weapon in the novel used by the bad guys that reportedly destroyed the soul of the enemy it kills.
"Wait, you mean that the knife that the crazy woman who stabbed me was THE Abyssal Knife?"
Itsuki frowned as he heard this piece of information. While his now-calm mind started re-organizing his thoughts, his face grimaced as everything he was hearing sounded absolutely ridiculous.
"And indeed it is ridiculous, Itsuki Hideo."
'Ah right, mind-reading.'
Ahem. The Goddess Frey slightly coughed as she materialized tea and drank it as if none of the world's matters concerned her
"Okay let's move past the whole Myrrah thing, what happens now Fey-sama? Since Fey-sama is technically not a God from my world, are you by any chance going to make me do something?"
Realizing that thinking about the things in the real world would no longer be relevant as he had to face the situation of the 'now', Itsuki steered the conversation elsewhere very carefully as a situation he's read before was slowly creeping up on him.
"As expected, you really do think fast. Indeed, I ask for you to save the world Myrrah-"
"With all due respect Fey-sama but the answer to that is an immediate no."
With the usual cliche of an otherworldly God abducting people from Earth to go save a fantasy world, Itsuki took initiative to avoid such a stereotypical outcome.
Fey seemed unfazed by the sudden denial as she continued.
"Of course, I understand your concern, Itsuki Hideo. I will not send you to the moment of Heaven's Fall but instead will send you 30 years before the invasion formally starts."
Hearing the Goddess not give up from his first refusal, Itsuki took a deep breath and gave his reasoning.
"Surely Fey-sama must have felt it yourself. The world Myrrah and its events are, if I may be blunt, an absolute clusterfuck. The mess within each nation, the efficiency of the main characters and the absolute dullness of the characters! And that's just the tip of the iceberg! Haaa"
Sighing as if he aged twenty more years finally venting his thoughts about the novel and Myrrah, he leaned back while looking up and continued.
"That world stands no chance at all if you ask me. Sending one man will not miraculously change the fate of billions."
Itsuki said as he closed his eyes trying to hide the expression on his face.
"You say that but I see that you are holding back a smile, Itsuki Hideo."
The Goddess Fey replied back calmly while taking another sip gracefully from her tea.
"You can read minds right? Well you know the answer to that already, Fey-sama."
Indeed, Itsuki was smiling as he looked up at the white sky above him.
While he stayed absolutely realistic and immediately denied the cliche that was currently happening. A side of him that was always hidden started to surface.
Being transmigrated to a novel. A fantasy novel. A world where the comfort of peace and technology was missing. A world full of danger and short-lived moments. A world where you can immediately die from all sorts of crazy bullshit unexplained by modern science like magic or alchemy.
Itsuki Hideo was someone who spent half of his life living in the world of the novels he read. He lived with the characters, cried with them, laughed with them and when the characters he loved died, a piece of him died along with them.
He was someone who had a place in his heart for all types of fantasy novels, both good and bad.
However, only one novel really stuck to him. A novel that was even considered extremely trash in the perspective of others. It was the only novel he read when he was traveling from one galaxy to another while he was on the job.
『Heroes in the Abyss』
A story filled to the brim with tragedy, betrayal, unrealized potential and heartbreak.
Even so, Itsuki Hideo kept reading it. Because he believed that despite all the hopelessness that the author portrayed in the story, resolution awaited him.
As he remembered the ending of the novel, the Goddess Fey spoke once more.
"Is that the resolution you seek for the world you love?"
Seeing a provocative smirk from the Goddess in front of him, Itsuki knew that she was reeling him in using his innermost thoughts.
"Haaaa"
Itsuki gave a defeated look while he sighed and regained his posture and showed a slight smile towards the Goddess.
'This is why they always called me a sucker for these 'good deals'.'
Standing up feeling more ready to tackle this than anything else in his life he asks,
"Where do we start Fey-sama?"
With this, the journey of a slightly embarrassed Itsuki Hideo into the world of Myrrah was about to begin.
"Why don't you take a seat again Itsuki Hideo, I'm not sending you now, we still have much to discuss."
Or so we thought.