chapter 1 - Why choose me

Saying it was dark was an understatement. The rooms shaded windows and poorly lit walls not helping with the numb atmosphere consuming the room. Sat in the corner of said room, legs draw up to hold their phone between their abnormally long legs, was chat.

Proceeding to read a entirely different fanfiction immediately after the first, chat kept scrolling and scrolling, reading at an unbelievable fast pace, a dull blue barely lit by the phones screen. Thumbs flicking along with their eyes, pausing at a line they see in almost every fanfiction they read.

'I just died and was reincarnated into a whole new world?'

"I want it…" chat voiced out loud, quiet and listless in tone. Their blank stare quickly becoming more and more watery.

It was always like this, just going through the motions of life, managing to get all the way through high school and having what seemed a bright future ahead, and yet…

"I… want it." The repeated words did nothing to calm or enrage chat. Simply fueling the dropplets to pour faster down their face. They let the phone drop from their now shaky fingers. Thin from self served starving teenager.

Gripping at their scalp like it would solve the migraine they had had for the past month. Like it would ease the deep ache of their heart, the yourning for a world free from a predestined distruction.

Reading of unrealistic worlds, where freedom reined supreme, unthinkable to the capitalistic society they have lived in most of their life. The feeling of not boiling under the over saturated sun, O-zone gone due to big corporations unwillingness to stop their havoc on the planet. Beaches free from the mountains of plastic seen every day, hell, even snow was rare to see without paying for a shitty substitute.

The world collapsing around them, the people, all because of the older generations quest for power. When things seemingly couldn't get worse a pandemic swept the world like plague, only taking the younger generation, forcing them to be locked away from friends and family in fear of the increasing death toll.

Chat didn't quite know how long they had been stuck in this room. Alone, unable to speak any louder then the ceiling fan above their head.

Yes, chat had been infected with the illness and was destined for death. They weren't religious, but hoped there was something more to witness after death.

The death wasn't going to be painful, not with how much their pain tolerance had grown over the last year.

Finally calming down from their little mental breakdown, they leaned down from the wheeled gamer chair at an abnormal and grabbed the phone from the floor, continuing to read forward.

Really they should expect the breakdown seeing as the same word as always was the trigger, and every story they read is about the trigger, almost trying to make themselves suffer more then nessesary.

Reincarnation, Isekai, same difference to them. They could only dream of it, but wasn't sure if the trunk part of the equation was necessary. The notion one of the only things keeping them alive at this point.

The phone suddenly rang loudly, an emergency reading red across the screen, words that made the teen choke up in surprise.

"RED ALERT: Due to a terrorist attack upon the north side of **** city we are asking all citizens of **** to evacuate as a counter attack is planned-" a loud booming sound rumbled the wall of their room, the floor tilting ever so slightly and rolling back into the nearby wall.

The teen carefully setting the phone down, not knowing what to do. They couldn't leave the room unless it was unlocked from the outside, and due to regulations there was only 2 people for the entire building of quarantined individuals.

Chat was placed on the top floor.

They started to chuckle under their breath, hands gripping their arms as they made their way to the only window of the room. With a swift motion, they casually lifted the gaming chair, and promptly threw it at the window, making a loud thumbing noise, cracking the glass minutely.

Picking up the chair again, this time having a bit more difficulty, but throwing it just as hard at the same window, finally cracking the Hurricane proof glass. (Because of course it wasn't really hurricane glass.)

The chair fell out of sight very quickly, allowing for the view behind the shitty tinted glass to shine, the sky a lovely shade of smog grey and the sun covered by a ploom of smoke, naturally making its way up to join the smog in a fireball of screams.

"Another day in florida I guess." Their soft voice spoke, only reaching their own ears, looking down from the window to see a giant metal pole, likely from the initial explosion, sticking out of the second floor along with many other debris, having caused the entire wall to crack under the pressure.

"Huh. Thats not something you see everyday." Chat said with curiosity, watching as people ran from the building, the crack practically groaning at its stability's compromisation.

As the building finally started to crumble, the floor beneath chats feet started to give along with the roof. Briefly, chat wondered how unique of a death they would get if they jumped out of the window.

So, that's what they did.

-S P L A T-

—————

Waking up with a jolt, chat raised their arms but quickly thought better of it, considering the fact they probably just died. So, they continued to lay down, not opening their eyes again.

They didn't want to look at the white void around- wait what?

Blinking their eyes open again, chat stared to the ceiling, or was it a sky? It was hard to tell seeing as there was no color.

"Child?" Flinching at the noise similar to a voice chat quickly made to stand only to fall down on their ass in their nervousness.

"I'm sorry to startle you child."

Seeing nothing but white nothingness, chat went to look at their hands, only to realize there wasn't anything there. Then how did they fall earlier-

"I will explain, you are a soul right now, meaning your form is assimilating to what you are use to."

Chat briefly wondered if they could color their soul to be able to see them self's, white on white clearly wasn't working- 'no focus!'

"Now you have calmed let us get on to the process of your reborn process."

"My what-" chat flinched at how loud their own voice was, not having heard it's full volume in a hot minute.

"You are elegable for a few AU's, but we think the one piece universe would be optimal."

"Am I getting… reincarnated?" The pitch sounded much higher then what chat thought their voice could possibly go, though if they were a soul, it wasn't like their voice box dictated how high or low pitched they could speak.

"Yes, project reborn to be precise. To populate universes to train gods, we take the ideas of mortals and implant them to create unique stories-" the voice paused, seeming to realize how lost chat was.

"Basically we are using you mortals to create fanfiction for the gods." Chat was only stunned for a moment before yelling out, a bit louder then needed "Does that mean those fanfics I was reading in the 'mortal world' or whatever it's called are…?"

"Those have potential to be actually created yes. Which is why you are called here." A flush came to chats face, or well- it felt like it did, at the notion their characters were good enough to appease GODS!

"Wait- so does that mean I'm being sent to one piece as- as Chat chat, not me?" The voice made a echoed noise, sounding similar to a giggle.

"Why yes, yes you are."

"This is going to suck, isn't it?"

"Most definitely, but it's quite entertaining to us, so please try your self to make the story you want for yourself." Chat sighed, coming to terms with the fact their character was going to SUCK living through pretty fast. What they were stuck on though…

"There's so many better written, more interesting stories you could have picked, better writers with more ambitious and dreams- why… why me?" It's not that chat wasn't happy, in a way, but being the author of the character they both spoke of, they knew for a FACT it was going to suck.

Chat had read a lot, by a lot they mean having to scrape the bottom of the barrel due to the fact they couldn't find any more. Fanfiction was their only hobby since 4th grade for fuck sakes.

How the fuck were they supposed to accept their shitty designs and character arcs were better then what they have read to this point?

They felt a warmth spread across their shoulders, their very being becoming calmer under the soft pressure on their soul.

"This is not about who is better, but about who deserves this chance. That is you." The weight relinquished it's steady hold upon chats soul, the feeling of a pull, almost calling them to what seemed to be a door of some kind.

"This is all the time we have, now you must go out, enjoy the hard times and good times you have written for yourself."

Almost drifting through the open door, they felt the world fade to black.