Takemagahara

Aaron's soul floated up from his body as it ascended beyond the physical plane. He watched as he went past the planets and past the stars. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Another soul ascended alongside him, and it was one whose name he could not recall. He couldn't remember anything. It was almost as if his memories were sealed. His consciousness was clear, but not for long.

Before long, Aaron's soul was back on the plane of the gods, and with his memory gone temporarily, he didn't know what was going on. He was confused as to where he was.

{40..}

'40? What does the 40 mean?' Aaron thought to himself, confused as to what it stood for. The soul which had joined him on his journey spoke up beside him.

"You...you're the one who killed me, right?" The voice spoke, Aaron not recognising the voice. "Thank you. I know my actions were wrongful, and I'm unsure of how you forgave me, but you did, and now my soul can move on."

{20...}

"You're welcome, but I just have to ask something," Aaron replied. "What is your question?" The voice replied, confused at what he needed to question. "Would you mind telling me your name?"

{5...}

"Oh! My name is..."

{0.}

{Memory Accessibility: Open}

Aaron's memories flooded back into his mind like a tidal wave, both his good and his bad memories hitting his mind like a tonne of bricks. He couldn't process any of the information clearly, but he could process just one thing.

"Alec." Aaron realised, his mind opening to all the information hurled at him. His memories slowly became readable as he remembered more about himself. How Aaron had forgotten his memories about him trying to stop someone, although Aaron couldn't remember who it was yet. He'd probably recall in a few seconds.

"I...am Aaron. You are Alec, and that soul in you is Monster." Aaron remembered, pointing at the soul which had hidden inside Alec. The hidden soul made an angry noise as it jumped out of Alec, who apparently didn't feel anything. "You ruined my plans, asshole!" Monster yelled out, pissed at Aaron for killing him. Anyone would be pissed at someone after dying. "I was going to take control of that planet, and then YOU had to come along and ruin my years of effort! I had to try to influence Alec subtly enough that he thought my ideas were his own, and you go and ruin the final stage!"

"Yeah, and you killed thousands of people, or at least that's what it looked like. I once killed almost eight billion people, and I look back on it now with disgust. I needed to go through that to find out what I needed to d with my life. To experiment with being a bad guy. For that, I ruined the lives of eight billion. I forced a child to kill his own family and watch them die! Twice! I forced a woman to lament her husband's death as her son turned her husband into a walking monster, which she let die. Do you see what I've done?!" Aaron ranted, screaming at the soul as his body began to take shape. "I was a terrible person! Not three days ago, for me, I enjoyed watching people die! I loved it! Once I left, however, I realised that what I had done was inexcusable. I'm not going to idly stand by and watch as people are forced to go through the same shit I went through!" Aaron finished, taking a break from his yelling.

The soul would have made a facial expression if it had a face, but it didn't, so it just lay motionless. Aaron looked at the souls and decided that he'd give them a form. He needed to figure out what kind of shape he should place Alec and Monster in, so he had the genius idea of letting them design themselves. They could use his energy to maintain their form for as long as they were on the celestial plane. Aaron needed a name for this area. He couldn't just call it the godly plane, could he?

'What was the Japanese name for The Heavens?' Aaron asked himself as Memica piped up with an answer.

[Apparently, in the language people on your planet used called {Japanese}, the word used for {The Heavens} is {Takamagahara}, which is translated as {High Plane of Heaven}] Memica answered, leaving Aaron with an answer, and he was happy to use it.

"Welcome to the place I call Takamagahara, Alec and Monster. This is what people would call the Heavens. I honestly have no idea how Monster got up here, but it might be because I was forced to bring him along with me when I killed him. I'm letting you choose your own transformation, or basically how you want to look. Nothing too crazy, though." Aaron explained as two screens appeared in front of the souls. Almost instantly, dials and panels began to move as the pair controlled the options with their minds.

Alec was the first one done, and as the menu closed, Aaron realised his body was the same as the body he had before. "Same as myself. We like our original bodies too much, I guess." Aaron joked, watching as Monster continued to change more settings before the menu finally closed. Monster prepared himself for the sudden shock of his form being altered once more. After all, it wasn't going to be the first time he's shapeshifted. Monster changed shape, his soul turning into the form he was most comfortable in, and it shocked Aaron to the core. They were finally face to face once more, and Aaron couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"Hey, Aaron. It's been a few days, hasn't it? How have you been?" Monster replied as Aaron just looked at him in disbelief. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It couldn't be. Once again, they were opponents in battle.

"Crystet!"