Our Name is Vanta Black

Joseph woke up in a shady cottage that seemed familiar even though he had never been there before.

"Where am I? Is this my second chance?" Joseph muttered and got shocked when he realized that his voice was not his own. His new voice was entirely different and nothing like his old one which had a vibrant charisma and innocence in its tone. This one was ruthless and a bit deeper, charismatic in its own gangster way.

Hearing his new voice, Joseph's lips tilted into a crooked smirk and he seemed to be quite comfortable with the new change.

"This voice is not that bad. No, it's perfect!" he exclaimed in admiration of his new voice.

He rolled his eyes around the messy room and halted at a shard of a broken mirror. Curious to see what he looked like in this world, Joseph leaped over the unmade bed and grabbed the mirror.

His eyes widened at his new appearance and he noted every detail.

"Tanned skin, Black hair, black eyes, I'm even taller than I used to be. Not bad... At least no one will take advantage of me. It might be the other way around in this world." he said with his tone reminiscing the hatred of his past.

As he took a moment to look at his face, the sense of familiarity popped into his mind like a searing pain, followed by memories of the person whose face Joseph was wearing now.

"This guy... I can see his memories." Joseph exclaimed as he narrowed his eyes at the mirror and focused deeply on his reflection.

Recalling fragments of this person's life left him with a migraine.

"You've had a miserable upbringing... I can't find a single good memory. No parents, no friends, and no name. Everyone hated you because you were too weak?"

He looked at an empty vial nearby and picked it up.

'Poison.'

The burden of the world weighed heavy on the nameless boy and daily mockery and beatings from the people drove him to a dead end where the only choice he had was to take his own life.

"Suicide... He wanted to escape his despair by death. So this is why I was able to obtain this body?"

His black eyes welled with tears as he looked in the mirror. Joseph knew through the boy's memories that they both lived a similar life. Even though Joseph smiled all the time and helped out everybody, it always hurt him when people stabbed him in the back in the end.

An image from his mind reflected in the shard of the broken mirror and it showed that person's face bearing a calm gesture. The spirit of the boy had left his body but could not find peace. The spirit of the dead boy witnessed Joseph in his body. Watching Joseph shed tears, he couldn't help but ask with welled-up tears in his eyes as well, "A-are you crying... for me?"

Joseph realized that his own reflection was speaking to him but it seemed too real to be a hallucination so he answered still with sorrow, "Yes..."

"No one has ever cried for me... Then why you?" the boy asked.

Joseph replied with a hiccup and cracking voice, "In my previous life, I was just like you... I had no parents, no friends, I was all alone. And when I found a friend, she ended up betraying me too."

"That is sad... but at least you used to smile." the unnamed asked with a blank expression and tilted head.

Joseph answered with a sarcastic smile on his face. "My smile? It wasn't always like that... I used to get beaten up all the time until I met Julia. She always protected me and found a way to put a smile on my face with her twisted jokes, so I decided to do that for everyone around me. They were all snakes behind my back but I did it for Julia's sake. But in the end... Even she betrayed me."

"I'm sorry... But at least you had a name, right?" the person asked with pity for himself.

Joseph's eyes lowered with sorrow for the person as he did not even have a name. "Yes... I had a name. It used to be Joseph."

After that, Joseph looked at the empty vial and asked the person, "Why did you do it?"

In a sad tone, the person answered, "Today is the coming-of-age ceremony of our town where people get blessings from the heroes of the past and are sent for trial to prove themselves. I wanted to go and show them that I'm not weak and pathetic as they think I am just because I'm an orphan and a commoner... But they beat me and scared me away like a dog."

"I see... "

Joseph pondered for a moment, he knew that if there was anyone he wanted to help out in this world, it would be this person in whose body Joseph's soul dwelled.

"So... it's your birthday today, right?" he asked.

"I guess so..." the person replied.

Joseph smiled and said generously, "Then how about I give you a name as your birthday gift?"

"A name? For me?" The boy in his reflection showed a glimmer of joy for the first time.

Joseph pondered for a moment and searched for the coolest name he could find.

"Yeah... How about... Let's see... vanta? YES! VANTA BLACK!!" he cheered out the name.

The person slightly showed a smile but it was short-lived and disappeared soon after, "It is a nice name... but what good is that name now that I'm dead."

"Remember how I said my named 'used to be Joseph'? Now it's Vanta!" Joseph winked at the person.

"You'd live by that name, for me?" The reflection finally showed signs of happiness for the first time and the mirror began to glow in a bright white light that disappears as soon as it reaches its utmost brightness.

"Thank you, Joseph..."

Using his fingers as a shield from the strong rays to protect his eyes, Joseph replied to the fading presence, "No... Thank you, Vanta. You are my second chance. And I will prove to everyone who wronged you that you were not weak!"

He looked out the dirty glass window and saw a magical world outside. He wiped the dust from the glass with his hands and saw the baby-blue sky, refreshing greenery, and people of all sorts walking on the cobblestone road; some in magnificent chariots with smut of arrogance on their faces, while others walked with strange beasts unknown to Joseph, the rest were commoners who had humility in their stride but their eyes peeked everywhere to find someone they could swindle.

His eyes widened at the beauty of that world but he was not the same Joseph who saw the world through a colorblind lens of all good anymore. His mistakes and talk with Vanta showed him the reality and his eyes say through the deception, pride, dishonesty, and every other dagger those people held hidden in their sleeves.

With a look of dismay in his eyes, he uttered his words of disapproval toward the people from behind the glass,

"I'm no longer the fool Joseph Rivera. They will know us as Vanta Black... I will show them all their true faces and rub them in the mud! But for now... I should go to the ceremony and give those bullies a payback for Vanta."