Alone on the beach, the four-year-old boy wailed into the night. He had no means to fend for himself. And no humans ever arrived to help.
Something arrived, however…
The sound of scuttling across the beach could be heard as a six-foot-tall crab scurried sideways, happening upon the crying child.
The crab stares at the child and the child stares back. The crab opens up his claw and reaches toward the child.
"GOOD FOOD?" the crab questions.
Before the crab can pinch the boy with his claw, the boy smacks the crab away.
"No!" the child yelps.
The crab is furious. Never before has he, a mighty King Crab, been rebuked by such a pitiful being.
And yet, as the crab stares at the child, something in their shared existence stirs. For the boy, it was his latent B-Rank 'Crab Affinity'. For the crab, it was a creature who was barely less sentient than he was…but one that needed help.
"NEED FOOD?" the crab bellows.
The child looks up, eyes red from crying. "Yes please."
And so began a beautiful friendship. The crab began to fish and provide for the boy every day, and the weak four-year-old quickly learned how to put a fish on a stick and put that stick next to a fire. This pleased the King Crab, who preferred to eat warm food rather than cold, raw fish.
And some days it would get sweltering, on their small island. So the boy learned to use a large banana leaf to fan the King Crab and keep him cool. Eventually, the boy would even learn to build a makeshift hut for the crab to scuttle into when he needed out of the direct sun.
One day the crab realized he never knew what to call the boy, but when he asked:
"WHAT NAME?"
The boy had no response. And so the crab bequeathed onto the boy the name 'Barnacle'. It was meant to be an endearing term, but the crab had no idea what traditional human names were like.
Every day the boy foraged the island - a cornucopia of delight. Bananas, oranges, lemons - a myriad assortment of fruit grew on the small island that was only a few miles across. But the boy never saw any other humans, no matter where he went. He was old enough to remember having a family, but he couldn't remember their faces.
Some days, the boy scrubbed the crab's shell. On other days, the crab taught him the ways of life. Unfortunately for the boy, this meant training his grip strength, learning how to move quickly, and not much else.
And before long, the boy was already twelve years old.
"Do you think there are others like me out there, my King?" the boy asked one night as he and the crab sat by the campfire. The boy had just finished doing a traditional crab dance for the King's pleasure.
"HUMANS ALL DEAD."
The boy's eyes stared wistfully into the ocean, and the far-away landmasses barely visible on the horizon.
"Humans all dead, huh…"
The memory lived with him eternally. He thought of it every day. "But what about the long-hair lady?"
Little Barnacles continued to grow. He had only a small number of things, but he kept them in a precious, private place from the crab. Among his treasures were a photograph of two humans at their wedding, a vibrant green shell bequeathed to him by the king, and a small card with strange symbols on it. The boy never did learn how to read or write.
The boy fantasized every night about what other humans would be like. He felt in his heart that his king was mistaken - other humans had to be out there. He wondered if everyone had a crab like him.
And one day, on his sixteenth birthday, something changed in the boy. Of course to him, it was just an ordinary day. He had no idea what a 'birthday' was.
He shot awake in the middle of the night. Memories of his past life flooded into him one after the other. It was so intense the boy screamed, waking his king.
The crab scuttled over with utmost haste, clicking his claws frantic with concern. By the time he arrived, the boy's vision had already ended. He was sitting upright in his leafy bed, heaving and breathless.
He remembered everything. His name. He used to be called 'Lain'. He remembered growing up. His home. His family. His friends.
His mission. Saving the world with Violetta and Mina. Fighting against the apocalypse, up until one fateful day on a train in the burning city…
That's right. He died that day, on the train. He had no other choice but to be reborn…but this body of his just lived sixteen years without any of these memories. He didn't even know who he was anymore.
The boy's eyes fell on a system message that had just popped up in front of him.
[Congratulations! As a reward for being successfully reborn, the following skills have been upgraded.
S Rank Rebirth Secret Art is now SS Rank.
A new ability has been gained.]
The boy could read system messages now that his memories returned. He remembered how to speak - much better than he was currently.
He tapped the alert. What's this new ability? And then another screen popped up.
[New Ability: Resurrection.
Target: Humanoid.
Effect: You may take a human's soul and return it to their body. You must possess both the correct soul and body for this to take effect.]
"I can…bring people back?" the boy said. He didn't recognize his voice when he spoke. It was deeper and filled with conviction. The voice of a legendary hero.
"BARNACLES. ERROR IN FUNCTION?"
The boy looked at the crab and smiled. "No, I'm okay, but thanks for looking out for me, King!"
The crab seemed stunned. That was a lot of words for the crab, who was used to only speaking in short, powerful bursts.
"Hey, King. I love the name 'Barnacles' and all, but maybe you can call me something a little more…human? Like Barny? Or Barns?"
"BARNS. BARNS. OKAY."
The boy chuckled. "Oh, and now that I think about it, I never learned your name, King."
The crab stood still for a moment, picking in the sand with his pincers. "I AM CLANCY. I AM KING OF CRAB."
"Clancy, is that right?"
And so the boy and the crab went on, their relationship markedly different than before. Barns, just a day ago, was simple - happy to live the rest of his life on that beach with the King. But now, he was awoken, and he had the power to bring people back from the dead.
'If that's not destiny, I don't know what is,' Barns thought.
It was two days after Barns' awakening. The wanderlust that once flickered dimly in his heart was now a resurgent flame of desire.
He needed to find a way off this island.
"I need to find a way off this island." Barns said to his crab mentor.
"NOWHERE ELSE. EVERYONE DEAD. EAT BANANAS."
Barns clenched his fist. "Clancy, I can't stay here. I have a special ability. I can help people! If I can…only find their bodies and souls…"
"YOU REQUIRE DEAD HUMANS?"
Not a great way to put it. Barns shuddered at the idea.
"I CAN GIVE YOU DEAD HUMANS. BUT I MUST TEACH YOU FIGHTING."
"I already know how," the boy replied. He was once a legendary hero, after all. After all these years, he was already adjusted to this body. It wouldn't take long for him to get back in the swing of it.
The crab pointed his claw out onto the horizon. "MONSTERS. HUMANS ARE MONSTERS. CAN MAKE DEAD WITH FOAM."
It took Barns a while to parse through all of that with the crab, but he learned something miraculous. His friend the King Crab had an A-Rank skill. He could shoot out cleansing foam from his mouth - foam with the power to destroy darkness. With that power, he could turn monsters back into humans - dead ones, anyway. He could also heal the land.
And that's when it all clicked with Barns. They could kill a monster, turn it back into a human, and use its recently freed soul to bring the human back to life. The plan was insane, but something told Barns it might just work…and with it, they just might be able to save the world from the apocalypse.
"APOCALYPSE RESET?" the King ran back and forth, foam spurting from his mouth. "YES. YES. YES. I MISS HUMAN WOMAN. RESET. RESET!"
So Clancy was on board too. All they needed to do was figure out if such a thing was actually possible.
And he knew exactly how to test it out. He returned to his treasure trove and withdrew the card he'd stashed in there. The only thing he had when he first came into this world. It was time to make a call.