Prologue

I remember everything as if it had happened yesterday…

Ever since I was a baby, I had to witness countless beatdowns from my father. My mother would always lay unconscious on the ground while I tried to patch her wounds, and my father would just keep on drinking until he passed out himself.

In my early years as a teenager, I couldn't take it anymore and I called the police on my father while he was beating me and my mother. I was certain he was going to kill us that time, so I had no choice but to call the cops. At that moment, I felt quite relieved seeing him get taken away, but my mother didn't share those feelings with me.

My mother resented me for the rest of my life. I never truly understood why though. She blamed me for my father going violent on us, and even said I should have been the one to go to jail. What the hell did I even do? It didn't matter if I saved her, she hated me too.

It was after this incident that I began attending martial arts classes. Thankfully the teacher, who was an expert in all martial arts, took me in after seeing all the scars that I had gotten from my dad.

I started learning different combat styles, from Jiu-Jitsu to Kung-Fu, until I eventually got into weapons such as katanas and knives.

My favorite weapon was one which my master called a "bo", and it was literally just a long and sturdy wooden stick. It was the main weapon in a fighting style called "Kobudo" and it was my favorite by far.

A few years later, I worked several jobs to save enough money to not only leave my house, but my country too, and as soon as I had enough, I said my goodbyes to my martial arts master, and left my home without looking back to start high school abroad.

I had to work two part-time jobs to maintain myself, and I was pretty much an immigrant without many rights, but I was starting to feel infinitely better than when I lived with my mother.

It was during high school that I met a girl. Her name was Melina Reed and she was the most beautiful and amazing person I had ever met.

Melina and I became close friends during our time in high school, in fact, I could say she was my only friend.

She was always upbeat and happy, which was completely different from how I was. Any time that I wasn't hanging out with her, my world looked black and white. But any time that she was next to me, the world seemed even more colorful.

We both got into the same college, we moved in together, and after graduating, we eventually got married. Honestly, those years were the happiest I could have ever had.

Thanks to our remote jobs, we were able to travel the world together for years, or at least a big part of it.

It was unfortunate that life decided I wasn't worthy of this happiness. While driving through an European street, another car pushed us out of the road and made us crash.

When I opened my eyes, my body was aching to the point I was unable to freely move, but my wife's wounds were a hundred times worse.

I was able to grab her hand during her final breaths. "Ichiro... I hope we meet again…"

Those were her final words to me before passing away.

After Melina's death, I couldn't find it in me to keep going. I had nothing growing up, and when I finally found someone who I loved more than the world itself, she was taken from me way too early.

"What did I even do to deserve this life?"

A few years later, I was walking on the streets of New York very late at night. Truthfully, I hadn't gotten over my wife's death yet, so I liked to go on long walks around whichever city I was visiting at the time.

During my walk, I saw a group of four men surrounding a couple that seemed to be walking home from a party. They were getting robbed, and one of the four men had a gun pointed at the woman.

Honestly, it's not like I wanted to help them, but seeing it all go down right in front of me must have triggered something in my brain, because my body was moving on its own as I rushed towards the four of them.

I managed to take three of them down, including the one that had the gun out, and when I launched myself to the last one, he pulled out a mini-pistol from his pocket.

I didn't even hear the shot, I just felt a cold breeze in my chest that was now fully tainted with my blood. As my body plummeted to the ground, I could see the robbers running away and the screams of the couple who were right behind me.

The woman was calling someone, probably the police, but the man was talking to me while holding my paralyzed body. I couldn't hear a word of what he said though, all I saw were his lips moving and tears in his eyes.

My vision got even more blurry and it was getting harder to breathe.

"Make sure to always protect her…" were my last words to the stranger.

'Maybe… we get to meet again… Melina…'

When I opened my eyes, I found myself sitting in some sort of ethereal plain. All I could see around me were stars, constellations, and galaxies that I had never seen before. In front of me, a few meters away, was the silhouette of a woman.

The figure got closer to me as she slowly converted into her real form. A beautiful, tall woman with hair that was as blue as the sky, and a long white silky dress that didn't fully cover the side of her legs.

"Ichiro Allen… That is you, correct?" said the godly woman with a voice that echoed all around.

"Y-Yeah, that's me."

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Phelena, the Goddess of Life."

"Goddess… so…I'm dead?"

The goddess nodded at me with a sad expression on her face.

"I see…"

"Are you okay with that?" asked the goddess, looking a bit surprised at my lack of emotions.

"I suppose I would have cared if I died years ago… To be honest, I had nothing tying me to this world…" This was my truth, it's not like I wanted to die, but I also didn't care if I did.

"It was indeed a brutal life, Ichiro. That's why I brought you here…"

"What do you mean?"

"As the Goddess of Life, it is my job to guide good souls through a fulfilling and wonderful life, and the bad souls through a terrible and miserable one. Unfortunately, I had no jurisdiction over your world…"

"So, I was a bad soul…" I supposed that made sense as to why my life had been so awful, but what did I even do to become a bad soul?

"No."

"Huh?"

"You are not a bad soul, Ichiro. In fact, your soul was so good that it fought back pain and misery to the very end."

"W-what? But why…?"

"The god in your world may be a bit more peculiar. However, I cannot let a good soul like yours go to waste… That's why, I have a proposition for you."

"A proposition? Sure… I'll hear it" I said, completely uninterested in what she had to say.

"Ichiro… Would you like to try again?"

"What, life?"

"Right, I can't send you back to Earth, but I could let you start over in my world."

'Start over? I mean sure a second life sounds exciting, but I'm honestly done with life as a whole…' I thought.

"My world is actually quite behind Earth when it comes to technology, several thousands of years, actually. But they do have magic and monsters, so society has developed a bit different from your world."

"So, it's basically a magical fantasy world or something? I don't know, magic sounds interesting but the monsters don't sound fun at all. I'm just going to end up dying some miserable death again, I can feel it…"

"No, I would not let that happen to you again. I would give you a durable body and mind, immune to illness and poison."

'Is getting poisoned something that is common in that world, or…?'

"I would also give your body a fine affinity for magic, you did say it sounded interesting so I might as well let you have fun with it. But with the knowledge of your world, you might already be more powerful than most..."

'It really does sound like she wants to send me to that other world, huh?'

I sighed. "Fine…"

"Ah, so you will do it?"

"Sure, but let me ask you something first. Why are you sending me? You could have just let me die and I would've never known that any of this was even a thing. I thought when you died… Well, you just died. So, what is your deal trying to send me to this new world?"

"Ichiro… I can't answer that. But, I can tell you this… There is something I want you to do in that world, and there is something that you want to do."

"I see…" I supposed that gods couldn't just go around telling mortals of their affairs and plans, but that last sentence would be something ingrained in my brain forever.

"I will transfer your soul to a body I created myself. It should make you around 12 years old."

"12 years old? I thought I was starting over."

"Ah, yeah but if I made you younger then…" the goddess suddenly stopped herself.

"Then, what?"

"Nothing… 12 years old is a good age to start for you."

'There is obviously something she can't tell me. But if she is going to place these conditions on me, then I might as well ask for my own.'

"Alright fine, but I want you to send me somewhere far away from people."

"I could do that, but why?" asked the goddess, a bit puzzled at my request.

"I just don't want to deal with people, I'm assuming I won't have any parents since you said you created the body yourself, right? But I'm also going to be a child, there's definitely going to be people bothering me. I'll probably be sent to an orphanage or something."

"I can't quite predict that…"

"Right, so just send me somewhere a bit far off. The less people I have to deal with, the better."

"Are you truly sure about that?" said the goddess, looking genuinely concerned for me.

"I am."

"Very well, I will do my best… I promise."

I didn't know what she meant by "I will do my best". I just asked her to send me somewhere far from people. It didn't sound like a hard task to me, at least not for a goddess, but I wasn't here to judge her powers.

"Ah, I shall get rid of that last name of yours as well. It does seem like the name "Ichiro" has some sort of attachment to you, so you will keep that."

Once again, I didn't really understand what she meant. I mean, it's true that I had no attachment to my last name "Allen", it was my father's last name after all. But I didn't really feel otherwise for my name.

"Umm, I don't feel like I have any attachment to that name though."

"The attachment to this name does not come from you. Anyways, all preparations are done!"

"W-wait already!?"

"I'm sure you'll do wonderful, you are now a child of mine after all! Go Ichiro, live your new life to the fullest!"

I didn't have time to react to her words when I felt my entire body burning up as it produced an intense glow, bright enough to completely blind me until I couldn't see Phelena anymore, so I closed my eyes and awaited my fate.