1 Target 1: Keep Walking.
"Well…this sucks" I sighed at his current situation.
There was nothing in this place but a dim light of unknown origin that seemed to follow me everywhere, a thick fog on the ground that was everywhere, and darkness .... a darkness so deep that it was similar to staring at the abyss. With all of these elements joined together messed with my sense of direction.
"I do not know how long I have been walking." The irritation in my voice was evident. "Buying only the digital copy is heresy, I said. It is just a 20-minute walk, what is the worst thing that can happen? I said...I want to fucking punch me in the face."
"Well to be fair nobody expects to be smashed by a goddamned road roller…this is not freaking Jojo's!." The young man screamed at the void. "What? Did Truck-kun was on vacation so they sent his cousin?" He asked out aloud.
"Ma used to tell me that I had a bad temperament and I should behave myself properly… but, I've been here for a long time… or at least think so since it is hard to determine without anything to compare." Anyone would get irritated waiting in a damn place where there is nothing.
"At first I thought that I was getting Isekai'd by a R.O.B who accidentally let a wild Truck-Kun or in my case the road roller…go to a "lower" realm and he was going to grant me an outstanding but suspicious deal or powers just for shit and giggles." Seriously I always found suspicious all that deal about giving OP abilities without asking for something in return, even if one assumes that for them would be the equivalent of giving scumbles, life has taught me that there is no free meal.
But well, who knows what those beings are thinking about.
After getting tired of just waiting here I decided to walk around here, anything is better than just staying sitting. And besides, if some kind of ROB, BROB, BOB, or whatever being that put me in this place wants to find me, he will.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 ... .this is boring. I am trying to imitate my boy Senku in counting the seconds in this place at least to have a little bit of time. Of course, I do not claim to be as smart as him, if I have to be honest I am a little below the average when it comes to academics but that does not mean that I am dumb it just that I had to study harder so Ma would not get worried about my future.
But honestly, how long is it going to take before someone comes here? It feels like ages, but again with nothing to do but talk to myself everything gets boring.
"Let's just keep walking, sooner or later I'll be out of this place."
…
Walking around for an unknown amount of time I have discovered a few things. The first one and the most obvious is that I don't get physically tired or get hungry or thirsty. A good thing if anybody asks me since I am damn sure that there is nothing to eat or drink…of course nobody would ask me since I am the only one here.
This time alone has made me recall all my life.
Even if I am still young or was since I am dead. I would say that I had screwed up things in my younger days, I was what one could consider a delinquent for the majority of society.
I did not gave a damn about studying and always skipped classes without caring about my grades, only barely passing the school year by miracle or simply because the teachers did not want to handle me another year.
I constantly got into fights with other people, at first it was just because they were the ones starting it, but with time I gained a sense of joy so I was constantly seeking a fight with other people, the only serving grace that I have is that I did not punch random people. Instead, I searched for other delinquents and beat the shit out of them.
I procrastinated a lot with the only not unhealthy habit of mine being watching anime and reading manga and from time to time some light/web novels. But at the end of the day, I wasted a lot of time doing so, not taking care of my responsibilities.
Basically, I made everyone give up on me, even I did, well everyone .... except for Ma.
She always said that I was not a bad kid…just someone a little bit lost.
For a long time, I thought that she was delusional, that could not accept the fact that I was not good at all with the exception of fighting and sports when I was a little. That she always looked at me with tinted glasses.
I wish that I could have shown her the version of me in whom she believed.
"Positive thoughts," I whispered to myself remembering the past. "I need to keep moving, I have a promise to fulfill."
…
"I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire."
"Your new empire?"
"Don't make me kill you."
"Anakin, my allegiance is to the republic, to democracy!."
"If you are not with me, then you are my enemy."
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes…I will do what I must."
"You will try…"
"This is the 100th time that I have recited the part of the movie that I remember." Since I had nothing else to do but walk, I spent my time monologuing any series that I could remember, but since it had been so long I kept repeating them.
"Positive thoughts, I will be out of here." I need to fulfill my promise.
…
"9,990, 9,991, 9,992, 9,993, 9,994, 9,995, 9,996, 9,997, 9,998, 9,999, 10,000." I lunged my way through the endless darkness.
"Well, time to do it with a hand stall," I said before changing position.
…
I do not know how long it has been since I started walking.
No matter how long I keep walking. To where I walk. Or how I do it.
It is always the same.
I do not get tired.
I do not feel pain.
I do not feel either hunger or thirst.
I cannot sleep.
I feel nothing,
The only sound available is the sound of my own voice as well as my thoughts.
While my body does not feel any pain, my mind feels tired, I want to rest but…
"I have yet to fulfill my promise…" I did not allow myself to be winning like a bitch and keep walking.
"Positive Thoughts."
…
After a time that felt like an eternity, something changed.
Bright lights of different colors could be seen on the horizon. Looking at this my heart skips a beat. After an uncertain amount of time, I have the chance to get out of here.
I ran at full speed toward the lights, and with every step, the image became clearer. At first, there were some diffused lights of many colors, but soon enough I could distinguish what was the source of the lights. A wheel, a humongous wheel bigger than anything I could recall. Getting closer I can distinguish that there are words in each slot, among the things I could read were "Beast" "Tentacle" "Hentai"...suddenly going back does not seem so bad….
I shake my head to get the stupid thoughts out of my mind. I can more or less guess what is going to happen and those are the "trash" options.
"Dear Mr. Hayato
As you may have noticed you are dead and it was not an accident, it was deliberate by a god outside of our jurisdiction or as your people like to call them a BROB.
At first, we suspected that you had already been sent to another world as an "emissary" of said person to extract the world essence for that god. But after extensive research and with one of our "agents" hunting down said god we extracted the information that he sent you to this realm where the flow of time passes faster to break your will and make you his puppet.
Fortunately, your will was strong enough and you still have a sense of self. But sadly we cannot send you back to your world as it would break the rules created by the Organization. We sincerely apologize for this.
But as remuneration, we will grant you a chance for a second life with all of your memories intact. We assure you that the multiverse where you are going to be sent is safe as it's under the jurisdiction of our people and by no means we are going to intervene with the way you decide to live, so this will be the last time that we are going to communicate with you.
Also, we will give you the opportunity to spin the "Wheel of Essence." which depending on what slot you stop will give you an essence that will grant you abilities. It is outside of our capabilities to give you something specific as even beings like us have to abide by some rules.
You have 3 spins, take note that most of the "Essences" here are diluted versions of the versions that you might be familiar with.
Once the process is fulfilled, you will be sent to the world that will become your new home with a proper background and the necessary amenities so you can have a good life to your original world standard. The rest depends on you.
We wish you the best in your second life.
Sincerely,
Agent K."
After reading the letter I felt enraged about this whole situation, my life was just a plaything for that….thing. There are many stories about gods messing with humans just for shit and giggle but to think that I will be a "victim" of those things. "Well, at least I got something in return."
It is that I am not angry about my situation.
On the contrary, I am enraged about this whole debacle. I want to beat the shit out of that god until he becomes a meat paste…but that is not possible at the moment.
I need strength…power.
To not be stumped once again.
To not be under anyone's mercy.
To keep my promise.
The person said that this multiverse is safe from that kind of beings but I cannot be 100% sure if any of said claims are indeed true, as far as I know, it could have been one of them that went rogue, but if something is clear that said beings are not omnipotent or omniscient or at least they are not as a whole since they could be stopped and the other party was unable to sense/act at the very instant…or at least I think so.
Honestly, I do not understand this very much, I have a little understanding of what an "Essence" is since a friend of mine was into that thing, and from the time he would explain to me more or less what it was about, I think that he recommended me a fanfic based on one of those…but well…I died.
Looking at the "Wheel of Essence." I noticed that there were indeed a lot of options, a lot of them had names generic enough that I could guess what they do even if I did not know them. Many of them looked really OP like "Essence of The Gamer." with many things like, "Essence of the Template System", "Essence of The Gacha."...I don't know why but I had Vietnam flashbacks. Oh, there is also "Essence of Xianxia Protagonist."...honestly, while they are not my coup, those novels but I know that those guys get really overpowered, to the point it is not even funny anymore.
But also there were some with… questionable names like: "Essence of THE Little Girl", "Essence of the Hentai Bastard" "Essence of the Pornomancer" "Essence of the Infectious Overproductive Futanari"...I did not believe in any sort of god before this, but I will pray to all the gods that I know to not get any weird shit.
"If anything I want to get something that makes me smart…" Besides my reasons, the REAL smart people are always the scary ones in all fiction works, Johan Liebert was a no…hum…he was mortal, and yet all the evil things that he was able to do because of how smart he was, Aizen-sama with everything going according to his plan…
Letting out a deep breath, I steeled my resolve and decided to use the first spin of the wheel.
Pressing the button in the table the wheel started to spin at a fast rate that made the words inscribed in them blurry. Even if this was just the first spin I could not help but feel a little bit nervous since every essence will affect my future.
Slowly the speed of the wheel started to decrease until it was about to finally stop, glancing over the slot in which it was going to stop, I felt despair…
Essence of the sex maniac.
"Nooooo!" I do not want to become a hentai protagonist!
But thankfully the wheel did not stop there and moved to the next slot…
Essence of the Genius
"Yeeeessss!"
But again the wheel moved one more time and finally stopped and a bronze colored light shined on the slot.
Essence of the Combat Prodigy
….
*sighs*
"Even if it is not what I wanted, I still have another 2 tries, besides anything is better than just becoming someone that digs his dick everywhere, those guys get stabbed." I mean, it sounds pretty good but I already know how to fight and I am pretty good at it…I just hope that I do not become a dun.
"Positive thoughts, maybe it is more than just simply being good at fighting." For example, most of the people who are good at fighting have good health, also I could easily earn a sports scholarship with this. "A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body."
"But leaving aside personal goals, anything that helps me to gain power is well received." While I will keep my promise to Ma no matter what, I need strength so I can survive and fulfill my promise.
But weirdly enough nothing has appeared nor I feel any difference, the only thing that changed is the counter that changed from 3 to 2, maybe I will get them at the end. So once again I pressed the button starting once again the process that if I was still alive would be bad for my heart.
Like the last time, the wheel spins at high speed until it loses some strength and starts to become slow.
Essence of Reverse Sexual Morality/Reverse Gender Roles
"Is this wheel trying to make me a deviant?" Each to their own…but come on.
Essence of Reproduction
….
"This wheel is mocking me…" I have no proof but either have doubts.
And finally, the wheel stopped in one of the slots shining in a silver light.
Essence of Refinement
"Mmm quite a curious name, I have heard that term in many Chinese Novels about cultivation…maybe it is to remove impurities from ingredients/objects?" If it works like that maybe I could use it to purchase some crappy jewels and eliminate the impurities and raise its values.
Pushing the button once again.
Essence of Bringing Taxation to the Holy Land
"I should get my armor then…" Shit and giggles aside, it sounds kinda familiar but I do know why.
Essence of Breed+
"Why is there a plus?…you know what? I do not want to know." It sounds like this would make me Zeus 2.0 without the thunder powers….
Pushing the button for the last time the wheel started to spin for the last time at an even greater speed than before but this time as if it wanted to create suspense, this time the momentum did not decrease as suddenly as the previous times.
Essence of the Butterfly Effect
"I don't give a shit about butterflies!" hehe ... .how the hell do I remember these useless things?
Essence of Ben 10
"Damn it! That was a good one." Just Upgrade and Greymatter would have made me too OP.
Surprisingly this time when the wheel stopped the slot did not shine at all.
Essence of Deez Nuts
"Hehe…" I am against the logic of this kind of thing. Is it something really overpowered or just something stupid…hehe…I really was getting bored here.
Essence of Dials
"If I drink that will I become the God of Customer Service? " Be gone, Karen!
This time when the wheel stopped, there was a brighter shine than any of the previous ones. A plethora of colors were shining in the slot as if it was a Kaleidoscope which means….
"Jackpot." I cannot see my face, but I am damn sure that I have a grin on my face.
Essence of Dying Will
"Huh?" I could not help but feel perplexed at this. "Isn't this the power used in Katekyo Hitman Reborn!?"
…
…
…
…
*Deafening noises*
"YEEEEEEES!" I let out a scream out of joy.
"Man, Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Is my favorite Shonen manga of all time! I read it after the clerk from the manga store recommended it to me saying that it was an underrated manga…and he was god damn right!" The start of the series, while on the slow side was still funny, but the real start was in the Varia Arc.
"Does it mean that I will have one of the Flames? If it is based on personality I may get the Sun or Storm flame, If I have to choose…it will be hard since all of them are cool not to mention the Earth Flames and the Night Flame." While for many the Sky Flame would be the obvious choice but every one of the flames has its pros…well let's not get ahead and wait till I got it in my hands.
"Well maybe I did not get exactly what I wanted, but I still got pretty dope things. I will just have to work hard once again to get that degree." I mean even if I want to get strong so as not to become a victim of those "gods" again, I still need to fulfill my promise to Ma, which is not negotiable. "At least now I am pretty sure that I will not lack money in this second life, with all of these…"
Suddenly the button on the table disappeared in motes of light but instead, 3 vials labeled with the names of the Essences alongside a note.
"Mr. Hayato
As you have finalized the process, the next step is quite easy, just drink the Essences in the following order: "Essence of Dying Will" "Essence of The Combat Prodigy", and finally "Essence of Refinement."
Once you drink the Essences you will receive the knowledge of their abilities and what you can do with them once you arrive at the place where you are going to be sent. There are some secrets behind the Essences but it is up to you to discover them if you want to know.
Usually drinking more than one Essence in a short period would cause harmful effects on the soul since normal souls would be damaged from power overload. However, since you survived in this place for a long time your soul has been strengthened and as the last service from us, we will aid you so your soul receives no damage in the process just this one time.
We wish you a long and prosperous life.
Agent J."
"Well, I appreciate the gesture." Honestly, since they just gave me the Essences I would have drank them without thinking twice. "But it makes me wonder why they gave 3 if it is risky to drink more than one…well maybe they thought about it from the beginning." While I do not know anything from their side, if they wanted to harm me they just could allow me to drink it without helping me or not give me anything, or worse they could leave me in this world, dimension, or whatever it is called.
I decided to not play around and picked the "Essence of The Combat Prodigy" which has a bluish color. Waiting no more and gulped it down. The taste of the Essence is quite tasty, like Blue Raspberry Sport Drink.
Next, I picked up the "Essence of Dying Will." which has a color similar to a rainbow that tasted like a fruit punch soda and had a kick at the end.
And finally the "Essence of Refinement" tasted…plain almost like water but a little bit…fizzy?
Once I finished consuming all the Essences, motes of blue light started to dance around my body. "So it seems that I am finally free from this damn place." To be honest I do not know how to feel at this…obviously, I feel happy but at the same time, I feel a little bit anxious at the prospect of living in another world….
"Now that I think about it…they never said to which world I was going to be sent…" But my words fell short as the lights got more intense before my mind went dark.
….
Third Person Point of View.
"Why did we not recruit him? The other branch would not stop bragging about his new agent or as they call him "Mercenary" This could be our chance to get one as well." A man in a suit complained to his partner.
The older man just shook his head at the other Agent's complaint. "J, if you had read the report as you should have. He currently is not adequate for the job, after spending thousands of years in that place, while his will got stronger also with justifiable reasons it made him develop the wish to not be under anyone's orders."
"I know, I know. I just think that it would be cool to get someone on our side for once K, while not as "extravagant" as the one in the other branch, the kid soul fulfilled the requisite for omniversal travel."
"It is not a complete loss, if he becomes strong, sooner or later he will start to travel across his local Multiverse, maybe by that time his wariness from us will lessen and we could get a deal with him," K said thinking that with what the young man was granted, he will reach a long lifespan, long enough to get bored by the mundane and search for excitement.
"Well good thing that that world was available, honestly I do not why many reject going there is not that bad compared with other places. They said that that world is dangerous and the next thing they do is to go to the "Marvel" universe where things escalate faster than they could assume." Agent J said happily since this time he did not have a problem.
"Agree, but I am curious as to how you convinced him to go to that place without a fuse? Most of the time the ones that decide to go there are just horny brats and by the expressions he made with some of the options of the "Wheel of Fate" I am sure that is not the case," Agent K was interested since that did not seem like a world that the kid would be interested.
"Relax, I gave him plenty of reasons on the second page of the letter including many hidden gems in that world, so he does not have to wo-" But Agent J's words stopped short as he felt something in his pocket.
"You screwed up, did you?" Agent K said while the vein on his forehead started to pump.
"...no." Agent J tried to lie his way out, but seeing that K was taking his gun from the pocket he confessed. "Okay okay, I forgot to give him the second part of my letter, but come on even you admitted that compared with other worlds is not that bad, besides that world is so popular that I do not doubt that he will recognize the world within a couple of minutes."
*sighs*
"Since he is not one of us, the bureaucracy involved so the higher-ups will allow us to contact him will take so long that by the time we inform him he will know already. Besides taking into consideration his obsession with getting accepted into a good university, he will probably try to play it cool." Agent K said with a somewhat resigned tone, as the even if he did the necessary paperwork it would be pointless by that time.
On another hand, Agent J let out a breath of relief since he knows how serious his partner is when it comes to work.'The kid will be alright, given how much of an Otaku he was, he will know how to handle that world…right?'
…..
Hayato POV
"Ugh" As soon as I opened my eyes, I started to feel a pain in my head at the rapid and sudden influx of information that was being engraved in my brain. All of what I was capable of thanks to the "Essences" and…
"Hot dam!" It was all I was capable of saying. "Even if they said that most of them were diluted, "Essence of the Combat Prodigy." is still excellent, and let's not talk about "Essence of Refinement, that thing scared the shit out of me even if it is only on the "first-level"."
Honestly, I think that they underestimate how good the Essences are and why multiple Essences could trash someone's soul and that is taking into consideration that 2 of what I have are the diluted versions. And let's not talk about some of the ones that I saw that are straight-up bullshit...
"But damn that does not mean that Essence of Dying Will is weak, on the contrary, it opens a lot of possibilities from the beginning, not to mention that it gave me the thing that I wanted from the beginning!." Honestly, while I have the potential to increase my intelligence with Essence of Refinement, it is pretty neat that I became smarter and gained perfect memory from the start.
Now I decided to get up from bed and investigate the place where I am. The room seems to be pretty standard without any outstanding decoration, most likely so I could do it myself. There was a desk with an old PC, to be precise it is not that it looked used but rather that it is an old model. Also, there is a folder and a wallet on the side.
I stood up from the bed, feeling a little bit weird to have a flesh body after so long but the Essence of Combat Prodigy helps in this regard.. I feel that I am slightly shorter than before but not something that concerns me a lot.
Inspecting the papers inside the folder, it has all my legal paperwork along with a brief explanation of my "family" situation. Apparently, I am a quarter Italian since my "mother" was half-Japanese/half-Italian. Both of them died in a car accident so I returned from Italy to my "hometown" to continue my studies while being legally emancipated…honestly this feels like a lot of bullcrap that they use on anime to avoid writing about the parents, besides Japan does not allow dual citizenship…but well my situation is not normal to begin with, so this is the least weird thing that I have experienced so far.
"But honestly changing my surname to Gokudera? I mean come on there are a lot of Hayatos in Anime, just because I gained an Essence from KHR, it doesn't mean that I have to use one of those surnames." But well I do not care much about changing my surname, I am glad that they did not just decide to change my name. It was my deadbeat father's surname that I planned to change once I turned 18…but my name was something that my mom gave me.
I checked the wallet and I found a couple of thousand Yen inside, along with a debit card where "my" savings were. But also I found something else, a High School ID not something too surprising given my new body age according to my birth certificate, but the weird thing is the picture…that was not my face.
Instead of my face, it could be described as Bishounen's narrow green eyes but the most distinguishing feature is his mid-length silver hair that is parted in the middle leaving his face fully visible. "Nah it must be a joke….son of a bitch!" I walked outside the room looking for the nearest bathroom available, luckily for me, it did not take long as it was the room in front of mine.
Looking at myself in the mirror I verified that the person in the ID was indeed me. I touched my hair and it did not feel dyed as it was very soft. "Come on man, one thing is to change my surname that I did not even want but it is another to completely change my appearance!" I complained to the guy that did this, and on top of that silver is not a common hair color….
"Okay, I must relax, positive thoughts. They guaranteed me that I could have a normal life, so maybe in this world like in many anime and manga, this type of hair is not unnatural to have, otherwise, the school wouldn't have allowed "me" to take that picture. And besides, life can be easier in a way for good-looking people in some aspects." I will take advantage of all I can in this second life.
"But more importantly it was both in my Birth Certificate and Student ID but ... the hell is Kuoh?" I am damn sure that there was no town with that name in the Japan where I grew up and I do not recall any anime/manga/novel that I have read or seen with a town with that name.
"Well, it is either that it is just a town that was created in a parallel universe different from my Earth, or maybe it was in a Slice of Life anime that I did not watch in my previous life since they guaranteed me a normal life." With all the information and explanations that they gave me, it would be ridiculous if they just simply forgot…right?
….
Hello, nieces and nephews. It is Uncle Author and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.
For the ones that don't know me I am also writing another fanfic Fate/Mercenary: A Travel Across The Omniverse. So this will be the second fanfic that is being serialized at the moment.
Honestly, I wanted to write something about Dying Will Flames for a while but in a way did not suit the other fic that much. So instead I decided to focus on them in another, so here we are hahaha.
So to be clear, as you can guess our MC A.K.A Hayato doesn't know anything about High School DXD. I know that it is kinda weird since it is a pretty popular Light Novel and Anime, but just follow me on the trip hahaha. In the other fic I am writing the MC knows a lot about the plot and makes plans according to that, in this fic however I wanted to do something different. A main character that knows fiction worlds but doesn't know anything about this particular world that is a cluster fuck about to explode…hehe.
Also for those who are reading my other fic and are used to chapters with around 10K+ words, the chapters on this one will be shorter in general. Of course, there will be longer chapters but yeah hahaha.
In the next chapter, I will write about the abilities that he won thanks to the Essences, and for those that already check it or going to do it, take note that I nerfed them a little bit and made a little bit of editions so consider that. But if you are curious feel free to check them out, just avoid making spoilers.
So with anything else to say, thank you for reading this chapter.
If you liked the first chapter please add it to your library so you can receive the notifications when a chapter is out. Also leave a comment, with your opinion about the chapter, it will help me a lot. Maybe a review but I won't be greedy since this is just the first chapter hahaha.
See you again, in the next chapter.
Uncle out *drops the mic*
