Chapter 3: Divine Fox System

"So what comes next?", Miles asked the Fox God Yozora before him, taking another moment to admire her beauty. She was definitely the most beautiful woman he had ever come across before, ignoring the fact that she had four large bushy tails sticking out of her butt.

"Umu. You have two options. The first one is to allow the river of the dead to ferry your soul into your next life. I can assure you one will be granted just based off of the darkness I see before me. And don't get yourself confused with darkness and evil. Any of those rotten bastards will get thrown into Hell. The darkness I'm referring to is the accumulated bad luck you've received throughout your measly twenty-eight years of your life. And I must say, you piled up quite a bit of bad luck. It's almost tempting me to go at it right now, ufufu.", Yozora replied with a gentle yet mischievous laugh as she drew her hand over her mouth, hiding her lips away.

Miles's soul shuddered in excitement the moment he heard Yozora mention that he could have a second chance at life.

"You really mean it? I can start a new life?", Miles asked excitedly.

"Of course. We foxes do not tell lies. Your darkness is already enough to grant you a new life, and it's reached the point that I can give you some blessings. The only thing I can't do is interfere in the cleansing process once it has started. So if you have any doubts now, now would be the time to address them, or if you have any lingering attachments for that matter either.", Yozora continued.

"Fantastic! But if I may, what is the second option you mentioned earlier? I want to weigh all of my options here.", Miles asked with interest.

"The second one is quite simple really. You forgo any interest to start life anew, and instead you become one of the Divine Fox Messengers here in my domain. Each trainee starts out with different ranks, but if we convert your bad luck, you may likely reach a high enough rank to where you can live here for thousands of years.", Yozora explained.

"Become one of you?", Miles asked, not expecting Yozora to say that. Being a Messenger of the Gods did strike his interest further, but that probably meant that Miles would be stuck here.

"Umu.", Yozora simply responded, gently nodding her head. Due to her large cleavage, her breasts jiggled a bit as she nodded.

"Living for thousands of years does sound tempting, but I feel starting life fresh again tips the scale for me.", Miles concluded, wanting to start a new life instead of remaining here.

"It's not like you won't have the potential to live for thousands of years with this new life. You will just have to strive for it. A growth period if you will with what I plan to bless you with.", Yozora explained.

"Just what is it that you are going to give me?", Miles asked, raising his eyes.

"Oh why spoil the surprise now? Instead, why don't you gaze into this mirror of mine?", Yozora declared.

"Mirror?", Miles questioned. Before he could do anything, he saw Yozora reach behind her large throne-like seat that she currently sat on. Taking a moment to observe Yozora again, Miles realized that Yozora was smaller than he had anticipated. Her legs were dangling beneath the seat, but he could see those ancient wooden shoes many folks liked to wear in the past time whenever one visited shrines. With a big heave, Yozora brought out a giant golden-crested mirror out of nowhere. To be honest, it was hard for Miles to look at Yozora like this, especially since this heaving motion caused her breasts to bounce even more this time.

Yet Yozora remained silent, as the giant mirror now hid her entirely behind it. What Miles saw instead was his own reflection. It wasn't his yellow-golden soul. No, what he saw in the mirror was his former self. He saw his tall figure, the same six-and-a-half feet man he used to be. His hair was still slicked back and kept short with some gel to keep it upright. Even his brown suit jacket could still be seen over his upper body. It was almost as if he was ready to head to work again.

But Miles knew reality was different for him. After all, he had passed away. He was intrigued to see how detailed this mirror was in giving his own reflection. His eyes started to wander around, and it didn't take long before he saw his body surrounded in a gooey substance. It was pitch black too, just like the abyss-like corridor he arrived at prior. This gooey substance bubbled around him, moving slowly. It was almost as if he was looking at lava moving around inside an active volcano.

"What in the hell?", Miles uttered in shock, not expecting to see his body surrounded by such a large amount of this gooey-like substance.

"What you see before you is the bad luck that you have accumulated. If I were to take a jab at it, you likely had many restless nights, not getting enough sleep, even on weekends. At your workplace, they would pile too much work on you for you to handle, spending lots of overtime to finish it. Due to that, you've been struggling to spend more time with your kids, and you even suspected that your wife is cheating on you since she barely responded to you. Something like that?", Yozora questioned Miles. Miles just stared at Yozora. It was almost as if she had

"That is quite an accurate claim...", Miles uttered in amazement again.

"Oh my, and the list didn't seem to end there either. Orphaned at a young age, you would often get bullied during class. Even picked the wrong fights to fight. Dabbled in the wrong crowds and even got blackmailed for it, getting arrested for things you didn't do. To be honest, I'm surprised your bad luck hasn't amassed into a spirit yet. It's just ripe for the taking.", Yozora continued, causing more shock to Miles.

"Spirits? You mean like those Yokai often found in those anime stories?", Miles asked.

"More or less. In your eyes you see them as Ghosts. Supernatural entities normal folks can't even perceive unless they had the sensitivity for it.", Yozora said, taking a moment to explain that to Miles.

"I see. And you have the power to make this go away.", Miles guessed.

"I do. It sounds like you have come to terms already, no?", Yozora asked Miles. He assured her that he was ready to move on.

"Yes. I know my family will miss me, but it's not like I didn't leave them with nothing. I know I've been put in a rough spot multiple times so I made sure to get good life insurance. And it's not like my work didn't go unrecognized, my earnings were quite high. They'll be sad for a while, but I'm sure they'll get over it. Let's just ignore the fact I got into four separate car accidents, haha!", Miles responded with a laugh.

"Indeed. That alone should have killed you. But it is good that you have reached a satisfactory conclusion. Come, join me for a drink, yes?", Yozora urged Miles. Miles halted. Apart from the mirror, he was still in his soul form.

"I appreciate the offer, but how can I drink like this?", Miles asked, confused.

At this time, all Miles heard of was the sound of ancient-like bells sounding off in the distance, which responded to a finger snap. Before his very eyes, the golden-crested mirror vanished, and Miles found himself in his human form again, bringing him surprise. It didn't take long to see Yozora now kneeling down over some soft pillow, seated at a low-raise table. She was already pouring some sake out of a wooden container.

"Drink this. It will start the cleansing process. Once it has finished, you will wake up in a world of your choosing.", Yozora explained, making the situation clear to Miles. He nodded his head, and approached the other end of the table, joining Yozora in the same fashion, sitting on his knees.

"Thank you. It really will be a world of my choosing? You know, I've always admired superhero stories. They always get to achieve feats that we humans normally can't do. I do realize how dangerous those worlds can be, but I really want to experience one of them.", Miles said, receiving a warm cup of hot sake, thanking Yozora.

"Quite uncommon for you to pursue such a world, but it's not like it's the first time such a theme has been chosen. There are many superhero and supervillain stories out there. You will have to specify which exact one you would like.",  Yozora said, beginning to drink her sake with a slow sip. Miles did the same and his eyes immediately lit up. He was expecting it to be bitter, but this sake was quite sweet. Just one sip alone has started to make his taste buds cheer out of happiness.

Unexpectedly, just as he finished his first sip, Miles heard a foreign voice strike the inside of his mind. It boomed directly inside of it, and didn't appear to have any tone to it. It almost sounded mechanical.

[Ding! The Fox God Yozora has invited user Miles to partake in the Soul Cleansing ritual. Does user Miles wish to activate the Divine Fox System?]

Miles suddenly paused right after he heard that, placing his sake cup back down on the table.

"The Divine Fox System? You're kidding. You can grant systems to those who pass on?", Miles exclaimed in shock.