Spin The Wheel

Ethan jolted upright, clutching his chest, his breath ragged and panicked. Just a moment ago, he had been impaled by a large branch after being hurled through the windshield of his car following an unexpected collision.

He should be dead.

But here he was, alive and... well? The gaping hole he expected to find in his chest was absent, and he felt perfectly fine.

Something was definitely off.

After a thorough inspection of his body, Ethan turned his attention to his surroundings. Everywhere was pitch black, yet he could see his body glowing with a faint white light—something he just now noticed.

"What the fuck?" Ethan muttered, waving his hand slowly across his face.

The glow trailed his hand, entrancing him. He was mesmerized.

Snapping out of his daze, Ethan stood upright. He looked down, and while it seemed like he was stepping on solid ground, his eyes sent a different message to his brain. It looked like he was standing atop an abyss.

The darkness made it hard to discern reality.

He spun around and suddenly froze.

His eyes widened as he traced upwards, trying to comprehend what he was seeing.

In front of him was a giant wheel, glowing just like him, suspended in midair. It hadn't been there before, so it must have just appeared.

"Yeah, I'm definitely dead," Ethan concluded. There was no way any of this could be real if he were still alive.

Examining the wheel closely, Ethan noticed it was a spinning wheel covered in thousands of names, too small to read.

It took a while, but he managed to make out a few of them, and he was confused.

'Why are there anime and manga titles written on this?' he thought.

Yes, the spinning wheel listed every anime and manga in existence!

Of course, Ethan didn't know that since he wasn't familiar with all of them, but he recognized a fair amount. He had grown up watching and reading them, and even now, in his 30s, he indulged in them whenever he had a chance.

Ethan didn't know what was going on, but he had a suspicion.

'This screams rebirth.'

"And you wouldn't be wrong," a voice suddenly sounded from behind him.

Ethan jumped, his heart pounding, and quickly turned around to see a kid calmly eating popcorn.

"What the fuck! Why'd you sneak up on me like that?" Ethan demanded, trying to steady his racing heart.

"Sneak up on you?" the kid asked, puzzled. "I've been here the entire time."

"What?"

Ethan was perplexed.

Aside from the child claiming he had been there the whole time, Ethan's eyes couldn't seem to register his face. Every time he thought he had seen the kid's face, it seemed to change. This phenomenon, despite the brief time since the child appeared, bothered him more than anything else.

Also, he was certain he had only thought about the rebirth thing. How did the kid hear it?

'Can he read my mind?'

"Yes," the child said calmly, confirming Ethan's suspicion.

"Woah, how the fuck did you do that?" Ethan asked, backing away, arms raised defensively.

"I keep forgetting how you humans are; so untrusting," the kid sighed. "I wonder what made you all like this."

"Anyway," the kid added after a brief pause, "spin that." He pointed at the wheel.

"What?"

"Spin it," he repeated. "The quicker you do that, the faster we can be done with this."

"What the hell is going on here? Why should I spin that?" Ethan pointed back at the wheel.

"I thought I already told you that you had the right idea?"

Ethan froze.

He was about to be reborn?

He turned around and stared at the wheel.

"I'm about to be reborn in an anime universe," Ethan said to himself. "Well, shit!" He laughed in glee.

The kid rolled his eyes. "Whenever you're ready."

Ethan walked up to the wheel, still looking up at it. He grabbed it and tried to move it.

To his surprise, it moved pretty easily. He had expected something of that size to be hard to move, but it felt incredibly light.

Acknowledging that, Ethan applied more force and spun the wheel. He backed away until he reached the kid.

"That was a hard spin," the kid commented, munching on his popcorn.

"Didn't expect it to be THAT light," Ethan said, his eyes glued to the wheel, which showed no signs of slowing down.

"Where do you wish it to land?" the kid asked.

"Well, there are a lot of amazing universes, so I don't know. But hopefully it doesn't land on Attack on Titan or some other weird shit," Ethan replied.

"Fair enough."

After a couple of minutes, the wheel began to slow down. Ethan was nervously expectant, while the kid next to him seemed completely unconcerned.

Finally, the wheel came to a halt. Seeing where it landed, Ethan didn't know exactly how to feel. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly the best either.

"Eh, not bad," the kid commented and turned around, starting to walk away. "Have fun," he added.

"Wha—"

Before Ethan could even get a word out, everything went dark. He felt a wave of sluggishness wash over him.

He groaned as his eyes fluttered open. He slowly sat up on the bed and looked around.

He was now in a small room with just a bed, a wardrobe propped against the wall, and a desk with a chair. There were two doors, one he assumed led to the bathroom and toilet, the other outside.

'Where the fuck am I?'

He was having a hard time processing everything because of how sluggish he felt when suddenly…

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[Welcome to the My Hero Academia universe!]

[Location: England]

[Gift received!]

[Opening gift…]

[Gift name: Quirk!]

[Quirk received!]

[Quirk name: I Imagine!]