1 New Lease

<<Disclaimer: The world and characters of Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. The Six Paths of Reincarnation is from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, which belongs to Akira Amano. I do not own anything. This is a work of fanfiction and no monetary gain is achieved from it.

I am also posting this in fanfiction under the author name Demigod Patronus>>

At long last, my token number was up. I walked up to the door and opened it with trepidation. I had been in the waiting area for god knows how long. It gave me time to come to terms with my death. Never in my dreams did I expect the afterlife to be like an old bank; get your token, wait for your turn in the waiting room, go to the manager's office once your number comes up.

What piqued my interest was that there were a lot of humanoid aliens who were also waiting. I wondered how far away their planet would have been from ours. This looked like a lobby for humanoid species, because I saw a few humans as well, but no animals from my world. I suppose they had a separate procedure. Without wasting more time, I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me.

The room was typical to those belonging to corporate middle management. The only thing that stood out were the decorations. The posters and the plaques were of designs that I had never seen in my life. I was sure that most of them did not originate from earth.

"Please hand me your token and take a seat," a voice broke me out of my reverie. I looked towards the desk and saw a middle aged man sitting on the other side. He wore a black business suit and had shining golden eyes. His black hair was slicked backwards and there seemed to be some sort of a sword leaning on his chair.

I placed the token on his outstretched hand and sat opposite to him as he closed his eyes and gripped the token tightly. The next moment the token shone brightly and transformed into a scroll. He immediately opened it and started scanning its contents.

"Welcome to the waypoint, Ray Knight, I am Cellarius. I apologize if you weren't informed by our staff of your current situation. We are in the midst of handling the fallout of a galactic war and all personnel are quite busy. Before I go over your next steps, do you have any questions for me?"

I thought hard but I didn't really have much to ask unless I knew what was ahead of me. So, I shook my head, prompting him to continue.

"As I stated, this is the waypoint. From here, we will decide how we proceed in regards to your afterlife," he glanced at the scroll and hummed. "We have certain decisions to make. From what I see in your file, you did not follow any religion, correct?"

"Yes," I replied with growing anxiety. Would my atheism cause me issues now?

He smirked, and continued, "Once it is determined where a person is going to, they are then subsequently sent to the heaven or hell that corresponds to their religion. For atheists such as yourself, we have a set of templates that we would normally send you to."

"Normally?"

"Indeed. Your case seems to be a tad bit different. We decide a person's afterlife depending on their deeds in life. An accrual of positive deeds means heaven, negative means hell. Alas, your ledger seems to be complicated."

Complications pertaining to life's actions were never good. My mind raced to many important moments in my life and I could not figure out what would lead to a complication. I was not a Good Samaritan by any means. Nor was I a raging asshole. I kept to myself and never interfered with anything. Maybe such a monotone life was not appreciated here.

"Your ledger is not in the positive. Neither is it overtly negative. You see, sending someone to hell when their ledger is quite close to the positive end of things is undeserved in cases like yours. Your only faults, I would say would be inaction in the face of injustice. But since your action, in those cases, wouldn't have amounted to much, I don't feel inclined to send you there. You follow so far?"

"Yes… I realize that I have just been a bystander. But I have never harmed anyone intentionally. It is just not in my nature to be confrontational."

"Quite so. Hence, the complication."

"So, what are my options? You mentioned that we have certain decisions to makes."

"You have three options going forward. One, you can accept a sentencing to hell, as per your ledger. Once you have served the appropriate time, you would be rehabilitated and then inducted into our department. This is our primary recruitment strategy. Suffice to say, many people pick this option. Once you serve our department for a sufficient amount of time, you would then be sent to heaven. Again, the number of years you would have to serve would be in accordance to your file," he said, pointing out the scroll.

"How long would my sentence be?" I was very hesitant about this deal and wanted to know what I was signing up for, if I picked this. The induction part suspiciously sounded like brainwashing because nobody who spent time in hell would be in a state of mind to work afterwards.

"Let's see," he consulted the scroll and then continued, "12 years of hell and half a century of service before you are permitted for heaven."

My jaw dropped at that proclamation. And here I thought that my ledger was quite close to positive. I wondered how outrageous the sentence for someone deep in the negative would be.

"Contrary to what you might think, many people pick this option because at the end of it all, you are guaranteed heaven. I myself am currently in my ninth century of service. I had to spend close to two centuries in hell and I would be sent to heaven after seven more centuries of service. Trust me, yours is not a bad deal."

I suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable sitting in the room with this person. What would he have done in his life to earn such a sentence? Was the brainwashing that effective? Moreover, what other options did he get when this one made more sense to him?

"And there are a myriad jobs in the department. Gatekeepers, managers, soul reapers, liaisons, and a lot more, depending on your skillsets, of course."

"I would like to know the other possibilities first, if you don't mind." I was in no way convinced by this recruitment pitch.

"Very well, second option, you can go for a reincarnation, hoping that your next life manages to get you a ticket to heaven. You would be dealt a hand appropriate to your current ledger, and will have a fair chance at heaven, unless you squander your chances. Alas, your life will be a clean slate of sorts, and you would not know that you are a reincarnation. A small tidbit, you picked this option the past four times you died."

If the first option was surprising, this was downright shocking. The implications of several deaths and reincarnations were not lost on me. I thought the afterlife was a fantasy and it turns out I was a participant quite a number of times.

"Is it possible to know what my previous ledger statuses were?" It would help me know if I had made any progress or not.

"I am sorry but that is classified. Obviously, it was in the negative because none of these options would be given to you if you were meant for heaven. We find that information pertaining to previous lives influence your decisions, and it doesn't really matter much because you are not exactly the same person you once were."

Fair. Annoying, but fair. It was clear that I was still hovering near the positive belt in all my previous lives. But I still couldn't help but wonder how different or similar my lives must have been.

"And the last option?" his face brightened up at my question. Which immediately put me on my guard.

"Ah, of course. The third and final option available to you is also reincarnation. But this one is quite different. You would be given another chance at life, but with several conditions…" after a dramatic pause, he continued, "You will be sent to a world with certain directives. Once you finish the directives, you will be guaranteed a spot in heaven. As long as you don't make any major mistakes after the completion of your mission, that is."

"What kind of a world? Will it be similar to my own or would it be like one of those fictional worlds?"

It sounded way better than the other choices, but I would hear more before making a decision.

"If you were unaware, there are multiple universes and several more variations of said universes. We cannot send you back to your universe because your soul cannot go back to a universe it has already exited from."

"So my past reincarnations were also not from my world?"

"Quite astute. Why, in your previous incarnation, you were of a different species as well. Anyways back to the matter at hand, you will be sent to a fictional world you are familiar with. Based on your mission parameters, you may or may not be given certain tools for completion. And once you succeed, heaven upon your death, whenever may that be."

"And what if I fail?" if his face before now was gleeful, now it was downright predatory.

"If you fail, you have an eternity in hell to look forward to."

My mind came to a screeching halt. And here I thought this was a better option than the rest. In fact, all of these options… sucked.

The first one would have me endure pain and torment, and then be forced into labor for a long time before reprieve. I could see why many people would pick this option. This way, there was a guarantee. The other options had no such guarantee.

If I managed to screw up during the second option, I would have been sent straight to hell without this discussion. Of course, there was the possibility of heaven as well, but this option was a Russian roulette. I wondered why I picked this one the previous times. Seeing no harm in it, I voiced this question out to him.

"That is simply because you were not too familiar with any fictional worlds in your previous lives. It seemed like too much of a risk to you. Also, your sentencing for the first choice was more than what it is currently."

Made sense. Especially with the third choice being such a risk. Being reborn in a fictional world was a massive risk because of the conditions before me. An eternity in hell was not a welcoming thought at all. And without any knowledge about fictional worlds, I would have been hard pressed to finish the missions that were given.

But this time there was a difference. I knew a lot about several fictional worlds, surely this knowledge would be helpful. This knowledge brought forth a burning question to fore.

"So what about the afterlives in fictional worlds like Dragon Ball and Bleach? Even the pure world in Naruto is a form of afterlife, isn't it?"

"They are subsects of our department of course. If the souls themselves cease to exist in that world, we pick them up and then proceed accordingly in a case by case basis."

"Alright then, is it possible to know the world and the mission parameters before I make a choice?" I ask.

"Of course!" he exclaimed, and then pulled a file that was on top of his desk. "This is the priority contract we have now. So this is your only offer. Please give me a moment to go through the details."

His eyes began darting though the file at a ridiculous speed and he turned page after page before closing the file.

"This is a Harry Potter world. It follows the books. However, the divergence occurs in year five. When Riddle and Dumbledore duel in the ministry, a stray killing curse strikes Potter. His horcrux problem is taken care of then and there, yet, that is not how it ends. In limbo, instead of choosing to come back to life, in his distraught state, he chose to go where his Parents and Godfather are. All of them are permitted to heaven, so that brings a close to the life of Harry Potter in that world."

"What happened then?"

"We have… paused that world, for a better lack of words. The projections state that with things as they are, that world would devolve into a state of chaos that our department would be hard pressed to tackle. With Harry Potter's death, Voldemort would put all his efforts towards his conquest, instead of hunting the boy. As a result, Snape would have more tasks to perform and hence would not be available to Dumbledore during the summer. Dumbledore would expedite his search for the horcrux and subsequently succumb to the cursed ring. This will ensure Voldemort's victory, hence causing a war between wizards and muggles. Paranoia and xenophobia will make this a global war. A right mess, all things considered. We are already dealing with the galactic war in your universe, so, this is not something that we can handle now at any cost."

"Is this the only reason I am getting this option?"

"Not at all, many universes are in the brink of conflict and we are providing this option to a lot of candidates like you. Worlds like these are seldom peaceful, take the canon Harry Potter world for example. The only reason they won was because of a series of fortunate events that could have easily ended in disaster."

"Got it."

"As for your mission. You will be placed in the body of the now deceased Harry Potter, and tasked to end Voldemort. That will be your primary objective. Your secondary objective is to ensure that Hermione Granger survives the end of the war. Her presence in the Ministry leads to positive relations with the muggles and hence, makes her a part of your objectives."

The wizarding world is a dream of so many people where I come from. Getting a chance to live that is a boon. But the year in which I am supposed to go there is one rife with turmoil. Sixth year is the precursor to the absolute chaos that follows. With my knowledge, it would be a little easier to get the horcruxes, but the fight against Voldemort would be a nightmare for sure. Especially without the safety net of the soul shard inside Potter.

"Do you find the parameters acceptable?"

"Just a minute."

I kept wracking my brain through all the options before me. The first one was the safest without any long lasting risk. But it was unsavory. The second one was a gamble that I was not willing to take anymore. The third one was also a gamble but I did have some amount of control. My passive nature might hinder me on the mission. The price for failure was high, but I realized that there were some things that I could do to prevent that.

Even though there weren't any known mediums of true immortality in the books, there were a couple of ways to circumvent death. If I put in enough effort to make a Philosopher's stone, I would be able to stave off death for a long time. If Voldemort didn't get me of course. This could give me the time needed to even finish the mission despite the world devolving into a large scale war. And he said something about being given tools to help with my mission.

I took a deep breath and said, "Yes. What do I have to do now?"