Limbo

*Screech!*

*Crash!*

*Bang!*

My vision disappeared in a flash of white I gasped for breath as I suddenly regained the ability to breathe. The pain was gone and the cold creeping inside of my bones had disappeared.

Blinking around, I saw that I was sitting in an office. What? How could I suddenly be in an office? I'd just been in a car accident.

"You're dead, that's how."

My head whipped over to the source of the voice. A… being stood in a door. They were neither male nor female, that I could tell. But I couldn't tell what they were. They just… were.

What they said clicked in my mind. I'd died.

"Oh," I said dumbly.

"Oh," agreed the being, settling behind the desk I was sitting in front of. I glanced around at the office again.

"Where—Where am I?"

"You can call this Limbo," the being said as busied themself by searching through a file of folders in front of them. They let out an "Aha!" when they found the correct one. A picture was clipped to it. It was me. Or rather, my body.

I cringed away from the bloody mess and asked, "Why am I here?"

"When your father died, he had been given the option of a second chance at life. He chose to give that up in favor of you getting it," the being explained, making me blink away a sudden itchiness in my eyes. "This is of the Office of Transmigration."

I snorted as I recognized the term from my obsession with anime and manga as a teenager. "Isekai?"

The being shrugged. "Pretty much."

"So…" I said, surreptitiously pushing away the image of my broken body. "How does this work."

"It's simple. You can choose to be reborn back in your native world—in this case, Earth—or you can choose a different option." Here, the being pulled a binder from a drawer in their desk and dropped it in front of me. "These are a variety of worlds that I have some authority in. Once you choose one, you will have options to reincarnate with your memories intact."

Curious, I flipped through the binder which contained pictures depicting different worlds. It felt as if I was searching for a vacation spot rather than a new world to be reincarnated in, if I was being honest. There were those like my world; some set in the past, some set in the future. The techno-looking ones—the cyberpunk ones—looked interesting. There was also one that looked achingly like Yellowstone, the park my father had loved. I hesitated on that one for a moment, but if I got to choose which world I got reborn into, shouldn't I pick something a little more out there?

There was a convenient divider simply titled "Fantasy Realms," and with one last glance at the Yellowstone look-alike, I flipped to it. These pictures were devastatingly beautiful, beyond something from my wildest dreams. There was one image that caught my interest. A large land, covered in fields and forests. Magical creatures—dragons—were depicted in the sky. A large castle sat on a hill, surrounded by quaint picturesque cottages and manors.

"This one," I whispered, recalling a bedtime story my mother had once read to me before her death. "I choose this one."

"Hm…" the being said, poking through a file cabinet. They plucked three files seemingly at random and placed them in front of me. "These are the only three avatar openings in the world you chose."

"Avatar?" I said with a wrinkled nose. "It's not like the movie, is it?"

"The one with the aliens?" the being laughed. "I suppose you could see it that way, only you will be permanently stuck in your chosen body and will have the past memories of that life."

I thought for a moment before saying, "These… avatars died, didn't they?"

"Quite astute, aren't you?" they said. "Yes, each of these avatars has left for the next plane of existence. Their bodies are the only ones that can sync reliably with your soul."

I glanced down at the three folders on the desk. Each one had a picture paper-clipped to the front, providing me with the image of each avatar. The first one was a large, dirty, and mean-looking man with green skin and tusks. I immediately moved it to the side. The second was a mermaid—a rather pretty one, too—but I had a healthy fear of the ocean. The last one was a scrawny girl with… I peered closer. Ears! And a tail! So cute!

"I choose this one!" I stated, thrusting the file at the being.

They adjusted their glasses—weird, this cosmic entity needed reading glasses of all things—and peered through the file.

"Ah, I remember this one. Lupe Adawulf—rather right on the nose, isn't it? Age seven, female, wolf demi-human—"

"Wait, demi-human?" I interrupted them, recalling the reputation attached to the species. "Lupe wasn't a slave, was she?"

The being's grim expression made my face pale. I was going to be a slave. But there was nothing I could do—the thought of being surrounded by the ocean made my heart pound in my chest—and the thought of even becoming that large, dirty, orc man had me shuddering in disgust.

"There's nothing you can do?" I begged him. "Nothing to help me out?"

"I suppose…" the being said, tapping their fingers on their desk as they thought. "There is one thing I could do to help you."

I leaned forward desperately. "Yes?"

"A boon," proposed the being, "to help you in your new life. It is not every day that I offer one to each soul, but I suppose your options here are rather limited, and your father did give up his chance for you…"

"Please," I said, aware that I was asking for something not commonly done.

"Hmm…" the being hummed to themself as they searched through yet another drawer in their cabinet. This time, they merely pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to me. "These are all of the boons I can gift you without alerting my superiors."

I paused. "Will you get in trouble—doing this for me, I mean?"

The being made a so-so motion with their hand. "They only really wish to give boons to heroes or villains—the ones they planned out, anyway. But I'm senior enough in my position that they won't get on my case for giving a single soul a small gift."

"If you're sure," I said hesitantly even if I truly wished for something to help me.

They smiled and assured me, "Yes, I am sure."

I took the sheet of paper and skimmed its contents. It was a small list, barely longer than my hand.

Most of the options were bonuses for your regular powers or stats, like "mana bonus" or "strength bonus." I assumed that neither would really help me, especially when I didn't know any magic, let alone the magic of this world. The strength could be helpful, but that was dependent on a bunch of things. I would rather not risk it.

There were mental-based skills, too. I didn't see how "language mastery" could help me if I was locked in a cage or "thought projection."

Next was the magical skills, and my eyes locked onto one at once.

Shapeshifting.

"What exactly do you mean by this?" I asked, wanting to know any drawbacks to the ability.

The being glanced at what I was pointing at and seemed to smile. "Ah, shapeshifting. I'm afraid you won't be able to copy appearances, switch your sex, or transform into every creature out there as most assume. As you've chosen the avatar of a demi-human, this ability will only focus on your animal half."

My eyes lit up. "You mean I'll be able to turn into a wolf!?" I practically squealed. Having grown up near Yellowstone with my park ranger father, I saw my fair share of wolves. It was safe to say I was obsessed with them. So to be able to turn into one was a dream come true!

The being laughed and said, "Yes, you can turn into a wolf, but you cannot hide your ears or tail, however."

I shrugged. When I got free, I could hide my ears under a headband or hat and wear a skirt or something to hide my tail. A wolf. I could turn into a wolf!

"I'd like to be able to shapeshift, please!" I said, tapping insistently on the word.

The being snapped their fingers. "Done?"

I blinked. Nothing felt different. "That's it?"

"What'd you expect, a fairy waving her wand saying 'bippity-bobbity-boo'?" drawled the being.

"I'm not really sure what I was expecting," I admitted. "But giving out boons seemed to be special, so… Oh, well." I shrugged. "Now what?"

"Now," said the beings, "you just WAKE UP."