Chapter 1: Unorthodox Reincarnation

On a typical Tuesday, Erick was finishing up the last episode of Date a Live V.

"Well, not bad. It's not exactly fine literature, and I still have a few qualms about the IQ of the Spirits, but there are many more worse shows out there. Wait, shoot, Star Rail dailies." 

The time was 3:50am, ten minutes till the daily reset. Erick furiously tapped through the login screen, narrowed his eyes as he was blinded by the white screen, and started a run of Simulated Universe. As the only daily task that would immediately award him the maximum daily awards, though it might not be the fastest daily task to complete, Erick was a day-one player of Honkai: Star Rail. Thus, even though taking even a few too many seconds to complete his run of Simulated Universe would cost him a precious 60 Stellar Jade, he wasn't worried. After all...

"I win these." He declared to himself, dexterously button-mashing. Navigating through exclusively combat domains, which he cleared in just seconds, he stopped when a strange purple domain appeared as an option. "Nihility domain, huh... I've never seen this before. Surely it can't be all that time-consuming." Without further delay, he clicked on the domain.

WOOSH...

A swirling void suddenly appeared before him, swallowing Erick before he could even utter a sound of surprise. Then it disappeared just as suddenly as it came, leaving no trace of itself or Erick.

————————I am the dividing line that transmigrates————————

"Where the hell is this?" Erick stared into the vast darkness, utterly bewildered. "Is this an isekai? What an absolute scam! No warning, no voice, no reincarnation god, no Truck-kun..." Unbeknownst to him, Erick's eyes slowly dimmed into a deep violet. "There's..."

Nothing.

At that moment, a chilling cold shocked the entirety of his body as a giant swirling amorphous black hole of hues of blue and purple manifested before him. It rendered Erick speechless, for there was no need for words. Words would be meaningless, after all. Just like his indignation, his name, and even his life. Everything is meaningles-

FWOOM!

A red slash cleaved across the darkness, awakening Erick from his stupor. His eyes widened and he could feel sweat on the back of his neck as he was thrown backwards by the sheer momentum of the slash.

"The influence of overwhelming Nihility... then that makes this black hole here the real IX? Impossible!" At that moment, IX's eyes carelessly, coincidentally, meaninglessly crossed with Erick's, before the black hole suddenly expanded, beginning to suck Erick into its depths.

Ah, shoot. This is gonna hurt. I heard that being sucked into a black hole means being spaghettified. At the very least, let me die before that-

FWOOM!

From the corner of his eye, Erick saw a second flash of red.

...I TAKE THAT BAC-

Before he could fini h is tho g t, E ic 's bo y as bo h sp ghe tifi d an ov rwh lmed by th cr m on sl sh b fore isap ear ng fo ev r..

...and once again, the space was empty, save for the sleeping and shapeless, immeasurable and unfathomable, IX.

———I am the dividing line that transmigrates (for real this time)———

Tengu City, a city located in Japan's Tokyo Prefecture. Built in the crater of a phenomenon known as a spacequake, a worldly disaster that causes large areas to be flattened near instantly, it made a name for itself as the area with both the highest number of recorded spacequakes and one of the highest rebuilding rates in the world. And at this moment-

BEEEEEEEEEEP- BEEEEEEEEEEP- BEEEEEEEEEEP-

Another spacequake was about to be added to their already impressive tally.

As the citizens rushed to flee into the many shelters all around the city, space began to distort and twist, gradually shaping a spherical shape in the air. But at this moment, an anomaly occurred. Instead of gradually expanding and slamming in the earth, destroying the landscape, this spacequake began to shrink, the pressure folding in on itself again and again until the colour of the quake began to darken into pitch blackness.

In a certain military base, a monitor showing the miniature black hole was constantly flashing with a red "WARNING! WARNING!", illuminating the worried face of the commander. The Anti-Spirit Team (AST) was one of several worldwide divisions of Wizards who combatted spacequakes. More specifically, they combatted the true cause behind every spacequake: the appearance of an entity called a Spirit. 

"Command to Team Leader. Command to Team Leader! Abnormal energy signatures have been read from this spacequake. Do not attempt to approach! I repeat, do not attempt!"

"Team Leader to Command. Orders received." AST Team Leader Kusakabe Ryouko sighed to herself. "Though, the abnormality of this spacequake is obvious from just looking at it," she complained to herself. "Master Sergeant Origami, you heard command. Do not approach!" 

As the white-haired girl continued to glare daggers at the abnormal spacequake, Ryouko felt a headache oncoming. But before she could say another word, the spacequake suddenly disappeared, leaving a small humanoid figure in its place. 

"All units, approach and fire at will!"

——————I am the dividing line that shifts perspective——————

Erick's eyes shot open.

"Holy baby! Am I still alive? Wait, what did I just say? Holy... 'baby?'" Erick frowned before opening his mouth and, "Fork! Shirt! Muddlefudger! Son of a nice lady! Damn!" Erick smiled. "At least damn is still on the table. Wait, what's with my priorities? Where am I? And what am I wearing? Am I floating right now??" 

Indeed, Erick's body, now floating hundreds of meters above the ground, was now clothed in a dark suit, yellow undershirt, and dark pants. Over his shoulders was draped a dark cloak that faded into green. At his hip hung a white and violet scabbard holding a katana with a blood-red eye embedded in the hilt. Erick quickly touched himself all over before sighing in relief.

"Good, no missing limbs and no weird bodily mutations. WAIT-" Erick patted himself down again before a weird look crossed his face.

"...did I get more muscular?"

At that moment, his instincts screamed at him to DUCK. As his head dipped down, a sniper bullet whizzed past his ear and demolished the roof of a building behind him. Erick's eyes followed the location of the bullet to the approaching squadron of... half-naked mecha suits? 

"The AST from the first few seasons of Date a Live? I always wondered why they stopped appearing in the later seasons. Wait, not the point. That's the real AST. That means..."

"Oh, you must be screwballing me." Erick gave one more bitter smile before his vision filled with gunfire.