2 Chapter 1: The Ship of Souls and the Proposal

"Hmm"

I get up a little numb and open my eyes.

"A room of wood? Am I alone? "

Looking around I see nothing, no person or object, I am alone in a room totally made of wood.

I recall everything that happened before the sudden explosion, including the rotating flashlight.

"Thought I'd go to heaven or hell? Not that I wanted to stop in hell. "

I say to myself trying to calm myself down.

"And there's not even a door here, how the hell are those two?"

Are they alright? And here, then, would it be purgatory?

(No, this is not purgatory here)

I get scared when I hear a voice, and I look around once more.

(It's no use searching for why I'm not there, and I beg you to come to me, a little flame will guide you.)

Upon hearing this, a fire-like flame appears in front of me. She goes to the wall in front of me and a door appears in front of her.

I get up and follow the flame, as I approach the door, it opens out automatically, the flame begins to go towards the exit and I follow.

"Slam!" "Whoa!"

I was startled to hear the sound of the door slamming alone, I looked back only to see that the door had disappeared. I see the surroundings that are strangely visible although the only illumination is the flame floating at the height of my eyes.

"Is it a hallway? It's also all wood. "

I look forward just to see the flame standing three paces from me, and although it is my impression, I feel as if the flame is wondering why I am delaying the steps, but I hope it is really only my imagination since the flame continued to move forward.

As I follow the flame down the hallway I see myself emerging toward what appears to be a deck of a ship that is entirely made of wood. And with his back to me standing right in the middle of him looking at the starry sky, there's an adult woman with straight black hair going to her shoulders, wearing a white robe that she touched to the ground.

I also look at the sky and I have to admit that this is much more beautiful than looking from the ground floor, it seems so close.

"Are we in space?"

(I must admit that this is really like the stars, however they are much more beautiful and with much more meaning.)

She replied as she turned toward me, but this feeling that her speech is resonating directly to my head is still strange.

"Oh, how about now? I must apologize for that, I'm so used to sending the orders to the sailors that way I ended up doing the same with you. "

I'm sure she reads my thoughts, when I finally looked at her face I can only say that she is very, very handsome, and at the end of her words I was enchanted by her voice, but I also returned to my senses.

"Oh, do not worry, it just made it feel strange, that's all, and your voice is very good, really."

"Ara, I thank you for that."

I had responded nervously, but she answered me with an elegant smile.

But is there something I noticed, is she speaking in Portuguese?

"Actually, I am simply speaking and you are understanding in your most comfortable language, others would hear in the language most comfortable for them, that is a necessary skill to command such a ship."

"I see, well that makes it a lot easier."

"I thought the same when I got this ability."

Well, that really makes it easy.

"Hm? What is that?"

I see a glow approaching the bow, will it be a star?

"I'm sorry, but it's not really a star, wait and see, I'll explain later, okay?"

"O-Ok."

I ended up being embarrassed to be so suddenly excited and end up receiving a warning as a child.

The glow slowly came to the side of the deck, would be what I would say, but I think it is the ship that arrived at the side of the glow, everything was so quiet that it looked like the ship was standing on the ground.

"Come here."

She calls me to turn away from the glare, and from the hallway I had left, I see what looks like a sailor leading some children, no more than twelve, toward what looks like a star.

"I want you to listen to me, and please do not, okay?"

"Okay, but please tell me your name, mine is Yuri."

She asked me to listen, but before we do the presentations properly, to be using "her" to refer to someone is very inadequate, at least that's what I learned.

"Alright, my name is Enis and I am the captain of this ship of souls."

"Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you Captain Enis."

"Well, presentations made, come to what I wanted to say, Yuri do you know what these shiny things are?"

She asked me looking at the children who were apparently talking to the sailor.

If this is not stars and this is a ship of souls, then would they be something like portals?

"Would that be portals?"

"That's right! And what good are these portals for? "

I did not expect to get it right, but her next question caught me off guard. If they are portals, here is not paradise, nor hell and has children passing through it ...

"Would it be to enter paradise?"

I asked this question by imagining that children would not go to hell.

"Do you have any obsession with paradise or hell? And it's not for heaven it's not even hell. "

She asked me with wide eyes and denied my chances.

"Maybe you're right about the obsession, but it does not matter now, if it's not for either, so where are they going?"

I have to admit that I am a little or maybe very obsessed with paradise, but it does not matter now.

"They lead him into the next life."

She replied looking back at the children, and continued to speak with a faint smile.

"These starry skies are all portals to the Yuri worlds, each of them leading to a different world."

I look up at the sky and remember the first words I heard when I got on the deck: (I must admit that this is really like the stars, yet they are much more beautiful and much more meaningful)

"So that's what you meant by far more meaning."

"Then you remember my words, I thought you were not paying attention."

She said looking back at me.

"If it was a whisper, I would definitely have forgotten, though, fortunately or unfortunately, his words went straight to my head."

"Hehe, I did right then."

The worst that is true.

"But now let's get some doubts, Yuri what do you think of those kids?"

She asked me once again looking at the children, I also turn my gaze to the children.

"The children are happy?"

Looking closely they are actually smiling although I do not hear anything from here.

"Yes they are happy, you see, the kids knew this ship would take them to these portals."

She replied smiling.

"They're pretty cool for someone who died so young."

I commented in surprise at this joy coming from children.

"I figured they'd be screaming for their parents or something."

"At first they were."

She said sadly, as if her heart were breaking apart.

"These kids you see are a lot older than you, you know that?"

"W-what?"

Were these children more than I? How is this possible?

"All who are there are at least 150 years old."

"HOW?"

I shouted to hear that they were over 150 years old.

"First, souls do not grow old without a physical body, now what I'm going to tell you is the paradise you're so obsessed with, but what I tell you, you can not tell anyone, understood?"

"Y-Yes."

I stumbled upon responding to his incredibly serious words.

"Yuri paradise is for 3 types of people, the first are the newborns, the second are the innocent as children or those who had no sins so to speak, and the third are those who have paid for their sins in hell and have the option of entering these ships or spending time in paradise and then entering these ships. "

I hear each word attentively without diverting my attention.

"Of the three, the newborn are the least suffering so they spend the least time in paradise, kind of like two or three years, for those who are over 15 and are innocent spend from a few decades to a century, It depends on each one, for those who have paid their sins, they spend a maximum of 10 years. "

She paused as she spoke so much, after taking a deep breath she continued, but her voice began to tremble.

"But children like those there suffer most from loss and pain, their causes of death may have been different, but the suffering is the same, so they spend centuries in paradise."

She said with a look as if it was yesterday that she saw those children when they reached paradise, looking back at me, she continues, but this time with a firm voice.

"Paradise is to heal the wounds of people, to rejoice their sad souls and prepare for the next life, that is the goal of paradise."

I listened to everything from beginning to end, understanding why such sadness in talking about children and the goal of paradise.

"I understand."

I said sadly.

"Well, enough of this sad talk, let's talk about the ship and the portals, shall we?

She said relieving the weather.

"Yes."

I say trying to get rid of this sadness.

"So let's start with the portals, every day a portal leads to a different world, it can be the same size or different dimensions, when you go through the portal, all the memories are erased, and you will find yourself being born in that world, if you are born in a being with self-consciousness, if you are born as a plant in a world in which plants have no chance to acquire, you will never awaken your consciousness, understand? "

She explained excitedly.

"Yes, I can understand, so will we be born as any possible species?"

I asked when I said I had stuck.

"That's right, any one, everything will depend on luck," literally "talking."

She said putting a lot of emphasis on literally. In short, with luck I can be born human again but wait, why I did not go to paradise or hell, I literally woke up on that ship.

"I'll explain later, okay? Now we go to the ships of souls, there is not only one, in fact, there are thousands of them, and they are divided by the age group in which the person died, there are those that go from 0 years to 9 years, others like mine that go from 10 years to 17 years, others ranging from 18 to 27 and so on, the souls that are on a ship are not able to see other ships. "

She spoke ill, pausing to breathe.

"As to who goes to a particular world, it depends on the way he died, whether he lived the time that fate decided, and his judgment."

I understood, that set the world to which you will go.

"Now there are special cases like yours, where someone dies before fate has decided, that kind of person gets what we call second chance."

"So I died before my fate, and what about the others who were with me?"

I asked anxiously

"Calm down and let me finish, those who die ahead of time as you have the chance to be reborn with memories if you wish, memories come back when you are around 2 or 3 years, this is in the estimation of a human body Do you understand what I'm telling you? "

"Yes I understand."

What it means is that it's like those manga and Light Novel that classmates introduced.

"I do not know about these manga or light novel are, but the idea is kind of this, now let's go to the important part you want, those who died before the destination, and in a group of people of close ages, in a single location, on the same cause, will be reborn in the same world. "

"I see, are my cousins ​​alive since I do not see them here?"

I said with some relief, making sure the twins are not here.

"I'm sorry Yuri, from the bus you were on 17 young people died, this includes you're your twin cousins, Suzuki Naoto and Suzuki Ruriko, really sorry."

When I listened, I felt my world breaking, my vision darkening, my legs losing their strength. When I fell to the ground, I was only sorry I had not been able to save them, thinking how my family would be.

"The explosion was very strong for everyone on the left side of the bus, it was a unique tragedy, fortunately the bridge had just undergone a large-scale renovation, otherwise it would have fallen, and the other students, who were on his bus including the other buses would also have fallen. "

She said softly.

"Among the bodies his was the most unrecognizable, those of his cousins ​​were better off among all because of you protecting them."

She continued to speak softly.

"B-But they still died. *Sob!*"

I started to cry feeling guilty.

"Your family is not to blame Yuri, no one in fact, your cousins ​​are the only ones who can not forgive themselves for having dragged you to death with them, so for them you must wipe your tears, make a smile and promise to meet them in the next Yuri, they're actually crying if they blame themselves, and although I do not know if this will comfort you, but your mother is six months pregnant, the unstable period has passed and now she has a small life coming, you know? "

"Heim?"

My tears start to stop and I imagine my parents, so my mother was pregnant even though she was 40?

"Wait they did not tell me anything !!"

"Yeah it looks like it was supposed to be a surprise, I mean did not you notice she just showed her face a few months into your conversations?"

Now that you have spoken, it is true!

"Why did they do this?"

"Did Yuri calm down?"

"Yes, thank you Enis."

I thank Enis for helping me.

"Okay, now let's get down to the subject I'm forced to bring to you."

"Subject matter?"

She talks to me quietly, putting some suspense.

"I must warn you in advance that this is part of my job."

She speaks, pauses, takes a deep breath and utters the following words seriously.

"Yuri, you who sacrificed your life in trying to protect someone, no matter the ties or motives, you did and that is what matters, you are entitled to a certain prize, you would be willing to sacrifice your right to be born human to give to those who died together Are you sure you're born human? "

She spoke so fluently that I missed nothing and understood everything, but it did not end, she breathed and spoke again.

"In exchange for your sacrifice, you will have a right to a certain skill to choose, the species to be born will be random and will not be communicated in advance, those with closer ties were born in good families which will surely love them and with their cousins ​​will be entitled to be born again as twins, while those who do not carry a bond will be entitled to be born into a family that will love them regardless of financial circumstances. That is the proposal. "

This literally puts me in the position of sacrifice. However I have a question.

"At least I'll be born into a species with awareness, right?"

"Hm? Oh, rest assured, things like plants will be off the random list. "

Okay, the doubt has been eliminated.

"I'll take it, if it's for my cousins, I'll do it."