Chapter 1: "What is all this?!"... "I dunno, I'm just lucky?"

Hearing that voice echoing in his head, Yuichiro couldn't help but allow his eyes to flutter open. He began to scan his surroundings as one in his profession typically did, seeing nothing aside from darkness; it was so dark it felt like he had never even opened his eyes in the first place. He raises an eyebrow in confusion before that voice rings out in his head once again, "Yuichiro! Right here." A sigh as he pinches the bridge of his nose, clearly he was in some form of afterlife. That much was obvious, but where was this woman trying to speak to him?

He felt a hand grace his cheek before his vision became clear, the darkness replaced with a blinding light as a silhouette of a woman lies before him who he'd focus his attention on- assuming this was some form of afterlife, his first guess was this woman was obscuring herself for whatever reason, "Isn't that better? You can see me now, right, Yui-chan?"

A neutral expression on his face, he blinked as he stared at her before the woman sighed softly and tapped his forehead twice, "Be nice to me, dammit!" Even though he couldn't see her expression, her tone alone led one to believe her cheeks were puffed up in a mix of protest and annoyance before he'd shake his head and ask, "So what is this, ma'am?"

"Oh! Right! Ummm…" She'd clear her throat before she looked at him, "Amanai Yuichiro. You've died, and now I have come to give you a second chance at life, a better life than you had before. A world of magic and splendor! A world rife with dragons, elves, and even fairies!"

He'd tilt his head as he looked at her. This was suspicious, this seemed like only upsides and without downsides. And so he'd ask, "What's the catch?" To which she'd giggle softly before pointing to him and putting up three fingers, "There are three, actually! For starters, you will not be the same person you were before; you'll be reincarnated into this world as a new person altogether, and of course, you'll retain much of your knowledge from this life... Yuichiro will still exist, but! You'll be someone else; seems fair, right?" Taking a deep breath after her, well for lack of a better word, ranting.

He'd nod in agreement before he'd grasp his chin, stroking it softly as he asked, "This seems like one of those Isekai manga I used to read in primary school, which leads me to believe the second catch would be a quest, though what is the third?"

She'd sigh softly before shaking her head, "Well, Mister! If you'd let me finish, you'd know everything already... Anyways! The second catch would be…"A floating die appeared before him, the numbers shifting, the shape changing as naturally as Yuichiro would breathe "your second life and your circumstances will be determined by dice rolls... You could get something good, could get something bad! Who knows? Are you ready?"

Yuichiro sighed as he reached out and grasped the die within his hand, nodding softly. "I assume the quest you have for me is determined by what I roll, yes?" To which the woman would nod before he took the die in his hand, the die shifted and malformed, one hundred sides and numbers one through one hundred. He'd roll it and it dropped to the bright floor before a number projected from it using some strange energy: '86,' and the woman gasped, "So - this roll was to determine what race Yuichiro Version 2 would be! You rolled... Hybrid! Neat! So, in this world there's a lot of, well, cross-breeding, so the need for me to add this to my list arose."

The die reappeared in his hand; now it had four sides with four numbers. "Now you'll roll to see what races you'll be!" and so he'd roll again, a four... He could swear he saw a bead of sweat dripping from her forehead, but he shook his head and looked to her. She said nothing, and the die reappeared once again, one hundred sides on it yet again, with three extra identical dice accompanying it in his hand; he didn't wait for instructions and simply rolled the dice in his hand, the numbers he rolled projecting from the dice as they had done previously: '7,' '18,' '64,' and '66.'

The woman went over to the dice to examine them, "Alrighty! Let's see what you rolled... What? What, what, what, WHAT?" Genuine panic struck her as she looked to the dice and laughed in a panicked manner, "This is unreal..." Shaking her head, she picked up one of the hundred-sided dice and placed it in his hand as the other three vanished in a puff of smoke. "Okay! Last roll."

He'd roll, and... '85!' She stamped her foot as she looked at the result, "Okay, okay! What is all this?! Are you cheating me? Are you dropping the dice? You have to be cheating! There's no way, there's no way! THERE'S NO CHANCE. NO SHOT."

Blinking twice as he tilted his head, "I dunno.. guess I'm just lucky?" The blindingly bright woman shot a glare at him before taking the die and growling, "Okay, Mister! I don't let just anyone roll for this one. Here. Roll the number I'm thinking of!" Throwing the die to him, which he caught, it had one thousand sides this time. He sighed and threw the die to the ground. '478' and just then, he bent his knee, kneeling as she looked down at him. This action was fully unwilling, but the bright light faded, and he saw a woman with silver hair and crimson eyes wearing a black robe; for some reason, those were about the only features he could make out of her, as if the specifics of her form were obscured.

"Here is your quest, Yuichiro... Stop the war between humans and dragons, then meet me atop the palace within Heaven." Heaven? So she was some form of goddess, then. He had already presumed as much, but this basically confirmed his theory. "I promise you that you're going to want to anyway; your little friend will ensure such.~"

He'd raise a brow once again as he looked up to her... Little friend? He wasn't stupid. This whole reincarnation thing was happening immediately after he died alongside the Origami Killer; he'd be a failure of a detective if he couldn't immediately ascertain that she meant him, but why? Before he could think beyond that, the Goddess snapped her fingers, and his vision was once again shrouded in darkness as he heard voices.

Before he knew it, Yuichiro felt the feeling of dirt against his bare skin and saw a red-haired woman walking off into the distance. Who was that? Looking up, he'd see an older man of a caramel complexion, with visible wrinkles on his forehead, his hair gray from age, and a bushy, yet well-kempt beard. The most interesting thing was a pair of Wolven ears atop his head, poking out of the nest that was the man's hair, before he said one word; "Iskatl." A name, one would guess. His name.

The man continued to speak as he pressed a thumb against their forehead with red ink on it. He couldn't really make out what he was saying; this language was unknown to him, and it was clear it wasn't Japanese, but he could make out how the man felt and his intentions based on body language; this older wolf was quite fond of Yuichi- Iskatl.

It felt like the time flew by quite fast for the boy, almost like life was on fast forward, or it was more so a lack of proper awareness. While his memories were intact, his brain wasn't very developed, and so everything felt like a blur. Once he was about 5, Iskatl was fluent in the language they had spoken, whatever it was called, and he learned the man was his grandfather. They lived within a tribal village in the midst of a deep and lush forest. A member of the Al'Kutha pack, though he knew scant of what that even meant.

His grandfather always took him hunting and fishing, as well as gathering for the pack. Despite being quite the older man, his grandfather was in almost unnaturally good shape, leading Iskatl to believe this could be the result of some form of magic. The pair had been gathering herbs for the pack's herbalist, Katja and Iskatl looked before the older wolf, tilting his head as he did.

"Grandfather? When can I learn magic?" Looking at Iskatl with a furrowed brow, the old man crouched down to get on his level, "Where is this coming from, pup? We don't oft use magic within the pack, so where does the interest come from?" He wasn't angry, nor was he suggesting against him learning, merely curious where his grandson even conjured the idea.

Iskatl spoke softly as he looked to his grandfather, nodding softly as he looked down, almost embarrassed. "I just wanna try it... Seems neat." The old man nodded before patting his grandson on the head, his hand grasping the horn that lay on the side of it as he laughed.

"Well, my boy. When we go back to Katja, I can ask her to teach you some novice spells, and we can go from there... Okay, Iskatl?" He smiled. Then, Iskatl would smile back as he sniffed the air before gesturing for the boy to follow him as they found a clearing full of herbs, to which he gestured for Iskatl to begin collecting.

Their trip back was relatively uneventful. So far, this new world just seemed to be some large forest... Yuichi Iskatl was hoping that this wasn't all the 'magical, wonderful world' he was reincarnated into had to offer. Following his grandfather back to the herbalist's tent, she tilted her head as she looked to the old man expectantly, who offered her a large bag. "Katja. Iskatl here wants to learn magic, can you believe that?"

The blonde wolf woman couldn't help but light up at hearing that; normally quiet and kept to her work, hearing that Iskatl was interested in magic excited her. Without a first, let alone a second thought, she knelt down and took his hand, "I can't believe the wonderful Hellfang's son wants to learn from me!"

Iskatl furrowed a brow at that title. Hellfang? That was his father, presumably. "Yes, Miss Katja... I'd very much like to learn from you. Would you teach me?" He asked with a soft, neutral tone as she petted his head and whispered. "Of course, dear little Iskatl! I taught the Hellfang, I'll gladly teach his son, too!"

He tilted his head; there that title was again, he couldn't help but ask, "Miss Katja. Hellfang, what's that?" He seemed interested, keen on learning such information - perhaps it would give him insight on why he was so different than everyone else.

"Oh, right. Well... Your father's mother? She was a demon, and so he was quite fiery, for lack of a better term. That's part of why you have this, actually!" Literally yanking on his horn as she says this, causing a grimace from the boy before she squealed. "Sorry, sorry!"

Clearing her throat, she'd change the subject. "Skartha. You and Iskatl. Meet me two hundred paces outside of the village at sunfall, okay?" The old man nodded before gesturing for the boy to come with him so they could do other things.

Iskatl spent the rest of the day impatiently waiting to learn magic from Katja, even denying any offers from his grandfather to do other things. He'd just sit there, waiting before eventually falling asleep while waiting, quite bored of nothing of interest going on.