A Body to Call My Own Pt.1

Three days and nights — that was how long we wandered in this world to which we were strangers.

Without a body we limited ourselves to hiding for the time being.

Where had our plot armor gone?

“Damn, I hate futuristic settings,” I said, looking out at the city lights from the top of a skyscraper.

“Look on the bright side, at least it's not 100 percent futuristic. Magic, swords, armor, castles and fantastic animals. If you ignore the cars, buildings, and…Well, the rest, I think this world could even pass for medieval,” Tadashi tried to console me, but there was nothing he could do; my discontent was widespread.

It was a truly strange world. The streets were lit by small magical spheres of light, while cars, with their flashy designs, left trails of smoky light. Salaried workers walked with their briefcases, passing by 2-meter-tall men in armor and swords. Potion shops next to dental clinics. Airports with dragons as a transportation option. Everything there was too unexpected for my taste.

“I hate mixing genres too. You try to do everything and in the end you do nothing,” I said, Tadashi scratching his head and turning away, giving up on cheering me up. “When I saw the Mecha, I thought it was just a detail, but it seems we're in a society much more advanced than ours.”

“I think it's really cool that we're in a new world...”

“It would be nice... IF WE HAD A BODY!” I shouted aimlessly.

I yanked at my wig, the chain connecting me to Tadashi rattling like hell. For a damn cosmetic item, this thing was way too much of a pain in the ass.

It's not really a cosmetic item. Cosmetic is when the item has no impact on gameplay, and the chain is kind of holding us down, so...

I gave Tadashi the worst look I could muster.

...sorry, feel free to call it whatever you want.

As you can see, we were still a little unsure whether we were talking or communicating telepathically. It's not even telepathically, since we didn't have minds... anyway, you get the idea. We're still sorting things out.

In addition to all the relationship issues, we had something more urgent pinpointed on our mental wall: to find a body.

In isekais, the body is not really an option, but rather a consequence of how the protagonist was summoned into the world. I would love to talk about it in detail, but I feel that Tadashi, practically a Certified Isekai Master with a PhD from Tokyo University, really wants to talk about it. So, I'll pass the ball to him:

THANKS, SHI-NII, I WON'T DISAPPOINT YOU.

Many new authors tend to skip the way the protagonist got to the world to focus on the world itself, but that's a mistake. The means by which one arrives can dictate many factors: the powers the protagonist gains, whether he is affiliated with any god or higher being, how people react to him in this world.

Reincarnation vs. Transportation — These are the two most classic methods of arrival in an isekai, each with its ups and downs.

When you think of reincarnation, the first thing that comes to mind is a protagonist dying and coming back as a baby, but it's not just that! You can be reincarnated into a body that already has memories, different from your own, even as an adult — or as a totally different creature, like a mob or dungeon boss.

Time is the key word that defines reincarnation: when entering the world as a functional cog in it, there is no shock, and the world can be exposed to the reader over time without sounding strange!

But when you choose reincarnation, you lose many opportunities. Transportation — the plain act of being teleported from world A to world B — works best because of the sheer shock it brings.

To illustrate one of these opportunities, we professionals will act out a scene:

Huh? We?

After saving the weak silver-haired maiden with a sweet smile from a troupe of impressively weak and disorganized bandits, she threw herself into my arms, trembling from the cold and fright.

“I'm Juliet! Tell me, what's your name?” I, Death, asked, transforming myself into the girl, only keeping my skeletal face. What you won't do for lack of budget...

“Tanaka Tadashi, at your service.”

“Wow, Tanaka is such an unusual name. Everyone here has an English name, for some reason.”

“No, Tanaka is my last name, my first name is Tadashi!”

“Okay. We use the Western order here... Huh, not that I know what the West is!” 

Yeah, I'm not a very good Juliet. 

“Wait, your last name is Tanaka? I think I forgot to mention that in the previous chapters.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don't know, I just forgot! It's like we were written by an author who was too lazy to think of a last name and then realized he needed one to make this joke....”

*(-_-) Yeah... my mistake.

“Oddly specific, but I even kind of look like a Tanaka. I don’t really look much like a Tadashi.”

I couldn't hide my discomfort.

“Wait…you didn't even describe my face?”

….

My silver hair touched the ground as I was thrown from the arms of my hero.

As you can see, the cool thing about being transported is the asymmetry caused by the ordinary man and the extraordinary world!

When your own body is transported to another world, you have the great possibility of being in the body you are used to and seeing that initial image of a normal person evolve into a great protagonist.

Is it cool to see a protagonist beat up a villain? Yes... but it's much more so when he's an average Japanese guy, someone ordinary, and not the son of the great general who reincarnated and blah blah blah.

Does it have its weaknesses? Yes!

For some reason, you'll have to walk through two-thirds of the story in the clothes you arrived in. Apparently, there are no clothes more comfortable than jeans or a school uniform. And, of course, you'll have to rely on a ton of expository dialogue, since you didn't have the experiences that reincarnation provides.

Teacher, please. GET TO THE POINT!

Okay... The point is that we're in a gray area between the two.

This phenomenon occurs when the author has no fucking idea what to do, so they choose to just leave it open as to how they got there. There is no such thing as not being Transport or Reincarnation, the author just doesn't know which of the two exactly is. I mean, they could create something new? Yes! But creating is not the strong point of the genre....

HEY, CALM DOWN, YOU'RE GOING TO START A FIGHT WITH EVERYONE ELSE IN THE GENRE! GO BACK TO CLASS.

...Okay

Academically, it's interesting, but for those of us doing field research, it's not very pleasant not knowing what the hell is happening.

Yeah… We can't be in a reincarnation, since we didn't enter a new body, but it also can't be transportation, because we only came as souls.

So you could say it was a transport, but only of the soul and our memories. But when only memories and spirit are transported and not the body... THEN IT'S REINCARNATION.

BUT IT CAN'T BE REINCARNATION, BECAUSE THERE IS NO BODY, BUT...

Shi-nii, calm down, man!

WE ARE A CONCEPTUAL ABERRATION! DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN...

Every minute passed like an eternity. Before, as an entity, decades passed without me even noticing. It was as if I could feel the energy leaving my body, my finitude fading away second by second.

In recent days, we have researched extensively for all possible details about this new world. We had popped up in a fairly large city, which appeared to be part of a great empire. Amidst cars and smoke, elves, dwarves, and even demi-humans passed through the streets.

All living beings had a much greater density in their souls, twice as high as in our original world, but it was no wonder, after all, they used their souls as a catalyst for magic.

Tadashi and I witnessed this magic a few times. Using “mana”, which is nothing less than an excess of their souls, they created fireballs and other clichéd types of magic.

Yesterday, we were watching a magic show at a festival in town:

“I don't understand any of this. Do they use spells or is it something else...” Tadashi's words were cut off as he pulled me aside, ducking behind a bush. “Hey, what's that?”

The wizard we were watching stopped his show in the middle of the street to analyze the parameter in our direction.

“What is it?” someone in the audience asked.

“Nothing, I just thought I saw something,” replied the magician.

“Don't you see, Tadashi, if they use their souls to perform magic, then their third eye is also activated! How would they see their own magic if it hadn't been activated? Everyone here can probably see us.”

“Wait… so EVERYONE has my OP power?!”

“Yeah...I guess.”

“NOOOOOOO!”

Since then, we had been hiding in alleys and on rooftops. We had been lucky not to be caught.

But it wasn't the people you were afraid of.

Yes, if this world is similar to ours... then there must be another Death. One of my jobs was to hunt loose souls and, sadly, I don't think there is camaraderie between entities from different worlds.

Looking at the two moons in the sky, I tried to come to some kind of resolution, until something came to me.

“What is this? This feeling,” I asked.

“Hmm... The smell of vinegar?”

The feeling translated as the smell of Tadashi, but for me, a completely different message was carried by that feeling.

I threw myself into the building through its walls, but was stopped by the chain—Tadashi had crashed into the roof. That's right, I hadn't taught him how to do that yet.

“Just think of it as water passing through a grid... or gelatin, one of those that has too much water in it.”

Giving him the hint, Tadashi plummeted through all the walls.

While I floated past the walls, Tadashi crashed straight into them, dragging me down with him at breakneck speed.

To avoid wasting our precious time, I decided to carry Tadashi in my arms, like a baby, because teaching him to fly would take too long.

But after much explanation and trial and error, we entered the skyscraper room where the smell was coming from.

In the room, a man with red hair and a symmetrically trimmed goatee was adjusting his tie in front of the mirror.

I passed my skeletal hand in front of his vision, confirming what I already thought:

“Stay calm, Tadashi. He can't see us, he probably can't use magic either,” A putrid reddish energy emanated from the center of the man's body. “I think I now share your third eye, Tadashi. It's amazing how accurate your vision is. Certainly better than mine as an entity.”

“Oh, thanks...” said Tadashi, blushing.

I took a closer look at the red energy.

“I know what it is. The souls of this world are so dense that they allow this kind of phenomenon.”

Karma — this man is so wicked that his body is rejecting his soul.

An idea came to me, and Tadashi automatically recoiled.

“Eh? You're not serious, Shi-nii!”

“Reincarnating as a villain, that's a pretty cool troupe. Yes, let's try to possess this guy's body!”