prologue

My name is Hiyato Kage, I'm 16 and a high school student. I enjoy manga, anime, and light novels. I have average grades, and often find myself sitting out during gym. I've never had anyone I could call a friend and mostly stay out of other people's business, only getting involved if it's absolutely necessary. I have an average build that leans toward the scrawny side, as well as average looks. I'm a textbook example of average in every form of the word.

My school life has been simplistic and minimalistic. About once a month or so I get cleaning duty and go home late, and today is one of those days. I finished my cleaning duty, gathered my stuff, and was prepared to leave when I had a splitting headache. It felt as if my head was being ripped into pieces. The pain was so extreme I thought I was dying! I wanted to scream, but the pain was so intense I couldn't even manage to breath.

Looking around, I noticed the lights were flickering and saw a transparent figure staring at me. It looked like some old man cosplaying an eastern, medieval, kingly type person. He had a white beard and fine, velvet robes. He exhumed an air or charisma and perfection. Just as I thought I would pass out, everything stopped and reverted back to normal. I layed on the ground in a puddle of pooling sweat for about fifteen minutes before grabbing my bag and stumbling out the door.

After that incident, I was walking home when I saw a truck barreling towards a child in the middle of the road. Instinctively, I dropped my bag and pushed off the ground with all the force I could muster. I dove towards the child, barely knocking her out of the way before it clicked on my mind that this, this was it. I didn't have time to move, let alone get out of the way. Realizing this, I looked towards the truck. The last thing I saw was the bumper driving its way through my skull.

When I opened my eyes I saw nothing but white surrounding me. The white seemed to stretch on infinitely. Above was a sky of pure black, black so deep I thought I would be consumed. To my front there was a line. A line that seemed as long as the world itself. I tried to move to the left to glance further, but a force pushed back. Moving out of place didn't seem like it would be a viable option, so I did the one thing that seemed available to me at the time. I began to walk towards my fate.