Wishes and a Starting Point

Waking up in a bright white room, I look about bringing my hand up to cover my still sensitive eyes from the blinding light the walls seem to emit.

But when my hand came up in front of me, I froze.

What was in front of my face wasn't a normal hand but instead was a mass of light which had formed itself into the shape of a hand.

Before I could thoroughly freak out, a calm voice mysteriously put me at ease.

"Calm down, Ryu. Think about your last memory and I'm sure you can understand why you're here. You do love novels like this after all," a slight chuckle followed the deep voice as I turned to look at them.

What I saw was a short man, about 158cm tall, but his body was full of muscle. He looked somewhat like what you'd expect a Dwarf from a fantasy world to look like. Long black hair, with parts greying, and a big bushy beard fit together to really bring home the fantasy-Dwarf look.

But it wasn't the appearance itself that stunned Ryu, it was the fact he knew the man.

"Kazu-jiisan...?" my voice was hoarse and full of confusion, and from the man's slightly pained eyes, I could tell my voices emotions were fully showing on my face as well.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell ya, kid, but...it was my job and I had to make sure you didn't know..." Kazu-jiisan's voice was filled with guilt but I didn't know what for. But when I went to question him, he cut me off with a stern voice, "Ryu. Just remember your last memory, and then you'll know what I am and where you are,"

Hearing the seriousness in his voice, I quickly closed my eyes and suppressed my own questions as I looked into myself and past the dull ache at the back of my head.

Once I'd done that I was remembering everything that happened before I came here.

And frankly, I was slightly stunned. But surprisingly...excited? Yeah, excited. Even after what I just remembered.

Opening my eyes, I slightly smiled at Kazu-jiisan, "So, when were you gonna tell me you were a God, huh? All those times you made me pay for your food because you had no money? Pfft! Hahaha! You old miser!" I walked over to him, free of the confusion I had earlier.

'Why?' you might ask? Well, obviously because I remember what happened, how it happened, and what it meant.

I died, I was hit by a Truck, and I was now in a bright room with a figure in front of me. Who could that figure be? None other than a God, of course!

Kazu-jiisan looked stunned for a minute before he let out a laugh of his own. He continued to laugh for a while before he stopped and let out a long sigh, "Haaaah~ And here I was worried you were gonna hate me for letting you die...you goddamn brat, come here!" Kazu-jiisan teleported right next to me and despite our height difference he still somehow reached up to my neck and brought me down to his level before getting my in a headlock and ruffling my hair.

"Oi! I don't have hair right now, old man, your actions are useless!" despite what I said I was still struggling to get out of his headlock, "O-oi! Stop, you're gonna grind through my head or something!"

No matter what I said, he continued to do this until he let out another boisterous laugh and let me go. I scampered away from him, holding my sore head (How can my head be sore?! I'm made out of light!) before looking at him in a half-serious glare.

The old man just looked at me before clicking his fingers and two chairs and a table appeared from nowhere, "Let's sit so we can discuss some 'business', kid," he sat down and summoned himself a bottle of alcohol, "You want anything, Ryu?" I shook my head and sat down opposite him.

"So, first things first, why were you my legal guardian on Earth if you're a God?" I started the questions off, no sign of my earlier playful attitude in sight.

Kazu-jiisan saw this and got serious himself. He took a few swigs of his bottle before placing it down and turning to me and beginning his answer, "It was a punishment from Zeus," I instantly widened my eyes. Looking after me was a punishment? Well...ain't that a kick in the balls?

Before I could carry on with my thoughts, Kazu-jiisan cut in, "Don't worry, I didn't hate spending time with you, Ryu. In fact, I grew to love it. Spending time with a descendant of mine was oddly...calming. You see, I'm the God of Blacksmiths, Creation, Drinking, and War - In my myths, I've never had a family, I've always been making things, drinking or fighting. So to do something different was my punishment; I had to live a normal life with a descendant of mine," this news shocked me even further. If he was a God, and I'm his descendant, doesn't that make me some kind of God as well?!

But once again, his voice cut me off, "Like I said, Ryu, I've never had a family. So, you and I are not connected through blood but rather by how similar how souls are. You could think of souls as different wavelengths on a radio - on the off chance two of them are of similar wavelengths, they can connect in ways people with different wavelengths could never hope to. If you find someone in the world who is on the same wavelength as you, you will either treat them as a brother or a soul mate. With you and I, we could be seen as Grandparent and Grandchild," he had a resplendent smile on his face as he spoke about our relation.

Thinking about it, I felt that it made sense. I mean, come on, if Gods exist, why can't souls? And why can't said souls be treated like Wavelengths? It'd at least explain why I hated some people out of nowhere - their wavelength was just too different from my own so we didn't mesh well.

"It seems you understand it...Good. Anyway, this is still seen as a sort of family connection by Zeus and the other leaders of the various pantheons around the world, unlike us being of the same flesh, we are of the same soul. It means you have the same habits as me - you have a great fondness of creating things and forging, but you also have a great fondness for drinking and parties...and sadly you have the same horrible temper as me, along with a battle mania which can only be sated through fighting...but that doesn't matter, we are who we are, be proud of it! Anyway, let's discuss why we're here!" he let out a big laugh before taking a few more swigs of his alcohol.

"Yeah, Kazu-jiisan, why am I here? Is it for reincarnation or one of those troupes from novels?" I instantly felt myself get invigorated by this line of thought. Kazu-jiisan, seeing this, smiled before nodding his head.

"I always knew you were a tragic child, that you would die before experiencing life past your previous 17 years, so I begged my Father, Zeus, to let me send you to another world after you die on Earth. And after seeing your fascination with Isekai novels, Reincarnation/Transmigration genre's, and Anime/Manga in general, I decided to do it just like that!" his smile was even wider by now, but it looked a little smug like 'please praise your wonderful grandpa, he's fulfilling a dream of yours!'. It kinda ticked me off.

But the joy and excitement overruled that, "So, you mean I'm gonna get wishes!?" my voice, out of my control, yelled this out in pure excitement.

My old man sitting across from me shook his head wryly at my near-childish display of excitement before he nodded his head, "Yes, you'll get 3 wishes, one of those wishes will have to be used to specify where you want to go, what time period you want to be sent to and other miscellaneous things. But the other two wishes can be used to give yourself whatever powers you want. But!" his stern voice shocked my excitement away as I paid full attention to him.

"I will warn you once, the world you pick will be affected by your 2nd and 3rd wishes. If you pick your world to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and your 2nd wish is to have Kryptonian Powers, I will have to forcefully implant the Kryptonians from the DC universe into the Marvel Universe and anything that is related to them. In the end, it'd practically make a mash-up of Marvel and DC, where most of your foreknowledge won't hold true. Do you understand what I'm getting at, lad?" seeing Kazu-jiisan's stern and serious face, I nodded, knowing what he was trying to get across.

"You're saying that I should pick my wishes depending on the strength of the world I choose, right? Too big of a wish will lead to the original world being forcibly changed. Whether it's a good change or a bad one, it'd still make my foreknowledge useless, right?" I spoke my understanding of what he said and the old man simply nodded at me.

"Now that we've got that over with, what are your wishes gonna be, Ryu?" his stern face was gone, replaced by his usual doting grandpa look.

Hearing what he said, I leaned back into my chair before thinking where I want to go and what I want.

I thought about all the times I thought up scenarios in my head and instantly thought of a place I want to go which isn't too dangerous and is still full of things I want to do.

"I've got my first wish sorted out, old man," my calm voice broke the silence and occasional gulps of Alcohol Kazu-jiisan would take. The old man in question looked over at me.

"Ohh? Then what is it, lad?"

"I wish to be Transmigrated into the world of Highschool of the Dead, in Japan, 4 months before the outbreak of 'THEM'. I want an Identity that allows me to go to the same school as Takashi and the other characters of the show to build a relationship with them before it all kicks off and shit hits the fan," my calm voice surprised even me as I relayed what I wanted like some kind of machine.

You've gotta think of it like this; I'm willingly entering a world of horror, where the dead rise up and try to feast upon the living. Most people in that universe, the people who've experienced this terror, would do anything to exit that life and go back to how they were. I shouldn't be this calm, no, I shouldn't even be making a decision such as this.

Even Kazu-jiisan thought the same.

"Are you sure, Ryu?" his face was equal parts shocked and serious as he looked into my own eyes, "You can pick any world, any fiction...so are you sure you want to be put in such a horrific world?" his voice trailed off but his worry was still very present in his eyes.

Seeing this, I smirked a little before letting out a low chuckle.

"Didn't you say we're the same, old man? Then you must know that I don't want to go to any of those boring worlds where everything's safe...nor do I want to go to a world where I will have to limit myself because of laws...I don't want to be a rapist, or a wanton murderer, I...I just want to fight!" my calm facade broke away, showing a manic smile and pupils constricted to their maximum like two small black dots in my red eyes, "You said it yourself, I have a thirst that can only be clenched through fighting! And what better opponents than an endless horde of dead people who I can destroy at my leisure?!"

I don't know when it started but my body had begun to lose it's pure light and instead turned to a normal human body, hence why I could see my own human reflection in Kazu-jiisan's eyes, battle mania and all the twisted emotions on my face.

Instead of being disgusted or revolted by my outburst, Kazu-jiisan just laughed with an 'I knew it'd be like this' kind of expression on his face.

"Okay okay, I get it, you brat...So, did you think about your second wish? You're probably thinking off something that'll change the world into a more fun place with better fights, right?" looking at the Dwarf-like man in front of me, I could see the same excitement in his eyes which were in my own.

Huh...I guess we are on the same wavelength after all...

Shaking myself out of such thoughts, I looked at the old man and smiled even wider, "Of course...for my second wish, I want a stable version of the T-Virus like the one Albert Wesker infected himself with, to infect me. But I want it to have none of its negative side-effects. I would also like for it to have the potential to get stronger through exercise and training," hearing my second wish, the old man nearly choked on his alcohol and instantly looked at me.

"You want to bring Umbrella Corporation into that world?! Along with the B.O.Ws?!" his face went red for a few seconds before he collapsed into his chair, "Haah~ You really want to change things up, huh, Ryu?" hearing what he said I smirked and nodded my head.

A moment of silence spread throughout the room. Both as I thought about my last wish and as Kazu-jiisan wrote down what I wanted on a notepad he'd 'spawned' in.

After a while of thinking I had my final wish.

"I have my last wish, Kazu-jiisan," he motioned for me to continue, so I obliged, "For my last wish I want to have the predatory organ of a Ghoul from Tokyo Ghoul, a Kagune. But not a normal one, no, I want a perfect one - one which has all the strengths of the four types, with none of their weaknesses," I paused a little as I took a breath of air before carrying on, "But don't get me wrong, old man, I don't want to be a Ghoul. Nor do I want to eat people - doing that in the world I'm going to will probably get me shot on sight as I'll look like one of 'THEM'."

I watched as Kazu-jiisan nodded in approval before speaking, "Good wording, Ryu. With this, I'll only have to give a limited amount of people Kagune's without bringing over the Ghouls and the CCG...so that's that, you've asked for your wishes, and now you'll be on your way," Kazu-jiisan hesitated for a moment before looking over at me and smiling, "I'll be watching over your coming fights, brat, don't disappoint me!"

"Wha--!" before I could say anything a flash of light blinded me and I found myself sitting on a bed in a plain room, "You son of a bitch, Kazu-jiisan...you never were very good at goodbyes..." I felt my throat get a little dry before I let out a small chuckle, "Well, no matter what, you're on, old man, I'll make sure the fights are plentiful and fun to watch!"

My journey in this world had just begun and I had so much to do. Looking outside, I saw it was morning and I knew I had to do the first thing on the agenda due to some memories implanted in my head:

Go to school!