What Lies Beyond Death

The moment he opened his eyes, a clear scream ran out of his throat.
He felt like he had to scream until the insides of his mouth went dry, or he would go insane that very moment.

All the while, an image he wanted to forget kept appearing in his eyes, as clear as day, yet as blurry as fog.

All it made him feel was fear.

All the blood in his mouth didn't stop him from screaming this time around.
Because, there was no longer any in his mouth to stop him.

As he screamed to no end, the fear in his mind doubled.

Tripled.

Quadrupled.

Quintupled.

It kept on increasing exponentially until he felt like he would go mad, no matter whether he continued to scream or not.

Breathing was terrifying. He couldn't breathe.

Hearing was terrifying. He plugged his ears.

Standing was terrifying. He fell to his knees.

Seeing was terrifying. He closed his eyes.

The darkness when he closed his eyes was terrifying. He opened his eyes.

Slowly, but surely, he began to fear the very basic functions life depended on.

Trying to stop himself from performing those functions, he plugged his ears, closed his eyes, held his breath, curled himself into a ball, pulled at his hair, went back to plugging his ears, growing scared of the darkness, opening his eyes, growing scared of seeing, closing his eyes, growing scared of being able to hear anything, unplugging his ears to scratch his head until he would go bald, growing scared of having to hear, plugging his ears, growing scared of lying defenseless, standing up only to fall back on his knees and curl back up, forgetting what he was originally afraid of, beginning to fear everything, doomed to repeat this process in a
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A few minutes later, when the fear had escalated to nonsensical levels, robbing him of his ability to think, a voice rang out, bringing him to his senses.

"Yoshiharu Takamori."

The voice spoke only his name, and yet its impact was tremendous.
It was a voice devoid of all emotion, and unmistakably one of a female.

Hearing it, Yoshi wondered if he had plugged his ears properly, as a sense of calmness surged through him.

He had wanted to hear nothing. But that was scary no longer.
Slowly, he unplugged his ears.

He had wanted to see nothing. But that was scary no longer.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.

And for the first time since he had opened his eyes, he wondered.

-Where exactly am I?

That question instilled a sense of curiosity in him as he started looking around, as if the fear inside of him had never existed.

He had a vague memory of what had happened before he woke up.
The last thing he had seen was a giant maw closing in on his head, and the last thing he had heard was a crunching sound.

The recollection made his head hurt, both as if it rejected the memory and as if it accepted it. That memory brought the sense of fear back into his mind, but his curiosity far overshadowed it.

But now, he knew one thing.

He should not be standing here.
He should have died back there.

What exactly had happened?

Confusion arose in his brain as he tried to understand the situation at hand.
Everything around him was black, including the floor.

It did a great job of confusing his senses even further.
He couldn't tell how far the boundaries of this place stretched.

But as far he could tell, it could have been infinite.
And it was extremely trippy for even the floor to be black.

Yoshi felt he was falling.
There was a possibility that he was, and he just wasn't aware of it.

The person in charge of this weird place had no taste for design, and should be fired immediately.

He wondered if he was hallucinating.

He could feel no wind blowing through the place.
And, as for what his ears told him, there was no sound.

No longer, that is.

There was complete, absolute silence.
The voice from before, which had brought him back to his senses, seemed like a lie in that silence.

So, in short, the place was poorly ventilated in terms of natural light, air, and even sound.

Having scouted his surroundings, Yoshi turned his attention to inspecting his own body.
The fact he was standing upright proved to him that there weren't any gaping holes in his body anymore.

It also made him realize that there was no pain in his body whatsoever.
Neither were there any injuries.

It was impossible for any doctor to fix the state his body was in at that time.
Not any that he knew about, at the least.
And neither did Yoshi believe that the medical field had advanced to that level on the one day he went for a camping trip.

Then, was this place what he thought he was?
Was it a... dream?

"Wait, wouldn't that mean that I'm the designer of this place?!"

The moment he thought of that, Yoshi let out a retort with a distasteful voice.

Even so, Yoshi didn't think he could live through that situation.
After all, if he had died, there was no reason for him to be conscious, was there?

Unless, if this was what awaited all life after death, and now he had to spend all of eternity reflecting on his actions?!

"No! Please, anything but that!"

Yoshi's emotions were all over the place, like a poorly constructed roller coaster ride.

Suddenly, a light appeared in front of him, and robbed Yoshi of his idle thoughts.
At first glance alone, a lot of things were strange about that light.

First, there was no source from where it came.
There was a certain point from it spread out, but there was nothing above that point that generated the light.

Second, the light only enclosed the area of a cone, and no more.
It made things feel dramatic, like in most magic shows.

Third, the light wasn't reflecting off of the ground, because the surroundings stayed just as dark as they were before.
The light just stopped at the black floor, and did not escape the confines of the cone it formed.

Fourth, even when the light wasn't being reflected, Yoshi could see it clearly.
He remembered that one principle of light which stated that the eye could only see things thanks to the reflection of light.

Although, the sight in front of him seemed to defy and shatter that principle, quite literally.
It was truly the moment Yoshi accepted that this was a dream.

He couldn't bend the light to his own will.
It was probably one of those dreams where he didn't have the freedom to tamper with the world once it was rendered.

If that was the case, this was the strangest dream he had ever had.

Well, if you didn't consider that one dream where he dreamed of being a watermelon chomping on a person.

While he was dissing the dream he himself had allegedly created, he also went on to add that this was the most incomplete dream world he had ever seen in his life.

The ones his friends had described, and even those he had seen on other occasions were far more vivid.

As he was dwelling on such thoughts, a person appeared before him.

No.

Describing them as a 「person」 would be a big mistake.

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The figure was definitely and unmistakably feminine.
She was beautiful beyond compare, infinitely more pretty than any of the girls Yoshi had ever seen.

And that wasn't limited to only girls.
He hadn't seen anything whose beauty was even remotely close to her appearance.

Her skin was as pale as snow, as delicate as glass.
Her hair wore a similar color and ran down to her hips, tiny white pearls tracing her properly tied braids and locks.
She wore a frilly skirt-like dress that reached down to her knees.

Even her face was pure white, a listless look sitting on it.
Only her eyes were a different color than the rest of her appearance, giving some variety to her outward looks.

They were red, purer than the purest of rubies, and a small orange fire burned slowly, but passionately in those eyes, both figuratively and literally.

And from that person, came an inexplicable sense of relief and discomfort, throwing Yoshi for a loop wondering how two such contrasting emotions surged in his heart at the same time.
Mixed in there somewhere with those feelings, there was also an undeniable feeling of authority and nobility he felt leaking out of her.

Yoshi had never seen this woman before in his life.
And he did not have the confidence that she could be a figment of his imagination, for she took up way too many polygons.

She had characteristics he had never seen, nor imagined.
As he looked at her in awe, only the words 「angelic」 came into his mind.

That's right.

Any other words would surely not do her enough justice.
Well, except divinely, seraphic, godlike, saintly, spiritual, celestial... but that wasn't the point.

The point is, she was definitely not an 「human」 existence.
For humans could try and try and try forever and ever and ever, but they could never become as beautiful and refined as the person standing before Yoshi, or even come close for that matter.

It made Yoshi feel like he was blessed to be in her presence.

Given her appearance, anyone could and would instantly fall in love with her, regardless of their gender, considering how simple-minded people could be.

Even Yoshi's heartstrings would have felt a tug at the mere sight of her.

They should have felt a tug...

Then, why?

Why was it that he felt nothing regarding that matter?
Why was it that he could not fall in love with the person in front of him, and instead only viewed her as a being of nobility alone?
Why was this the only feeling being left out of his heart, while the others, even unwanted ones had free access passes?

The moment this confusion slipped into his mind, more questions popped out, seemingly out of nowhere.

Was this really a dream?
He really started to feel like that was not the case.

In that case, what was this place?
What was her purpose for being here?
What was Yoshi's purpose for being here?
What happened after that incident?

Why did those 「things」 attack them? It would be better if they hadn't. Why did he follow Misoku? It would be better if he didn't. Why did Misoku die? It would be better if he were still alive. Why did Misoku run away? It would be better if he stopped for Yoshi. Why did Yoshi even leave the tent? It would be better if he stayed inside. Why did he wake up in the middle of the night? It would be better if he kept dreaming. Why did he go on the camping trip? It would be better if he refused. Why did he leave for school that morning? It would be better if he shut himself inside his room. What even was the purpose of his existence? It would be better if he didn't exist.

It would be better if he didn't exist.
It would be better if he didn't exist.

It would be better if he didn't exist. It would be better if he didn't exist. It would be better if he didn't exist it would be better if he didn't exist it would be better if he didn't exist it would be better if he didn't exist it would be better if he didn't exist it would be better if he didn't existitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texistitwouldbebetterifhedidn'texist-

The confusion started to increase as the number of questions in his head started to increase.

He tried to search for the answers to his questions.
And that only added more unanswered questions to his list, which gave him a headache, and gave birth to another vicious cycle.

He grabbed his head, falling to his knees.

Slowly, the number of questions rose to such a level that Yoshi felt another urge to scream.

He couldn't take that confusion.
He couldn't continue to bear it by himself.
He had no other choice but to scream.

Before he could fall into the abyss of madness once more...

"Yoshiharu Takamori."

He heard the same voice from before.
Now that he paid attention to it, it was really clear, like it was being directly whispered into his ears.

It was still a calm, emotionless voice.
And the person who made it, was presumably the beauty in front of him.

He raised his head and looked weakly at her.

"Why... are you here?"

A weak voice befitting his expression leaked out of his trembling lips.

Then... he wondered.
Why had he chosen to ask a question that made it sound they knew each other?

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Her face stifled, as she tried to hold back a giggle.
That one action shattered his impression of her being the stoic character.

"That's the first question you ask? Don't you mean to ask 'What is this place?' or any of the sorts before such questions?"

She regained her composure as a smile replaced her listless expression.

"I can't help it if I suck at getting my priorities straight..."

He was slightly surprised that he was able to talk normally.
And, she didn't feel like a bad person.

"Well, now that you have gone ahead and said it, would you mind answering that question first? What is this place?"

His subconscious was switching between the possibility of this being a dream or the afterlife, the latter being slightly more likely, but one that was harder to accept.

On hearing her own suggested question directed towards herself, she cleared her throat.

"Welcome to the Realm of Gods, Yoshiharu Takamori. You lost your life, at the age of 17."

The truth had been spoken that moment.
Even if it wasn't, Yoshi would have undoubtedly believed it.
Because the voice had a strange power behind it, a power that could convince anyone, without regard for the contents.

Besides, she had stated this place as the 「Realm of Gods」, known more commonly as 「Heaven」.

"You mean... this is not a dream?"

Yoshi tried to confirm his weakening suspicions.

"I would commend your imaginative power here if that were so."

She confirmed it bluntly.

"That means I'm... dead, right?"
"You still seem to have trouble believing. The answer is affirmative. I hope to have dispelled your suspicions once and for all."

The first sentence had crippled his suspicions, but the second shattered them relentlessly.

But, Yoshi didn't feel uncomfortable, nor did he fall into a state of dismay.
All he felt was a sense of relief washing over his body.

He touched his chest with his hands, where his heart lay.
His hand felt numb as it couldn't sense the touch of his chest.
The same was the case with the chest, as it transmitted no sensation to his brain from the touch.

His heart was not beating, either.

Now that he was properly aware, more and more things started to click.

Like, how not only his hand and his chest, but also all his body parts felt like they had gone numb.
Like, how they still obeyed every command of his brain.
Like, how no air entered his nose when he tried to breathe.

It all made sense. He was dead.

The only paths from there would be 「Hell」 and 「Heaven」.

Yoshi wasn't particularly meritorious, but he wasn't a bad person either, which may be the reason he was sent to 「Heaven」, although not with the grand welcome he would have expected.

Besides, he believed the concepts of 「Hell」 and 「Heaven」 to be myths, but to think that they were true...

And, to think that the place people had such grandiosely described was such a bleak and empty place...

Even though he had died, the agony that he thought awaited him after death never came, instead sending relief in its place as a substitution.
Although, the thought of leaving his friends behind as he went to a place unavailable by normal means, hurt his heart a little.

However, the situation currently at hand was of greater importance.

"Then, who are you?"
"I am a Goddess, as you can see."

She replied with a flat tone, seemingly displeased with the obvious question.

"Figures. Shouldn't have asked, then."
"If you really had to affirm that fact, you should have framed your question in a different manner. For example, 'Are you a goddess?'. In such a way."
"Thanks for the advice. I'll keep that in mind."

Yoshi said half-sarcastically.
He didn't like the idea of being lectured like that, but who could argue with a 「Goddess」?

"Now, back to my original question. Why are you here? Is it something like you have to attend to every dead person, and that you are omnipresent?"

Yoshi tried to sound as polite as possible, while taking the 「Goddess」's advice.

"I would like to boast so, but unfortunately, that's not true... I cannot attend to every dead person, nor is it my purpose to do so."

There leaked a divine sense of humility from the answer.
However, the latter half of her sentence caught Yoshi's interest.

"Then, what is your purpose for being here?"

On hearing that question, the 「Goddess」 put a finger to her chin as she tilted her head, falling deep into thought.

"I wonder... what might it be? Humanity being created, along with a system to filter their souls, I merely spend my seemingly infinite number of days observing their lives. They are born, they leave their mark on the world, and then die. Their souls filtered, they enter the world anew as a different person, do similar things, and eventually die again. Simply observing that cycle, might be the purpose of my existence."

The unexpected answer left Yoshi a little puzzled.
It wasn't what he had meant to ask, but it was too heavy a topic for him to point it out abruptly.
She might get into a bad mood if he gathered the courage to do that.

"Ah... I see..."

He just nodded his head in affirmation, with a little pity leaking out of his face.
Noticing his expression, the 「Goddess」 realized that she had gone off-topic.

"Ah... Apologies. I seem to have gone off-topic, and I am certain that what I said is not the answer you desire. My purpose for being here is simple. It's to have a proper talk with you, and to make a suggestion."

Her apology was graceful as she lightly bowed her head, showing high regard for the person n front of her.
It made Yoshi want to rush up to her and ask her to lift her head.
Moreover, her next sentence stating her purpose was to have a talk with him alone, and to make a suggestion rubbed his curiosity.

"So... you don't usually greet people when they die, huh... Does that mean that this is a special case?"

The fact that she did not personally welcome everyone to this place, and something about a system for filtering souls gave him a feeling that he shouldn't have been there.

"Yes, if you may want to consider it such. You are given permission to call this a 「special」 occurrence."
"And may I ask how exactly is this 「special」?"
"Normally, people don't wake up here after their death. Their souls reach here, are filtered and sent back to the world, giving birth to a new life."
"Is that so..."

Yoshi listened to her intently, trying not to miss a single word as she continued.

"They lose all their memory, all their experiences, and start anew. But you. You... alone are different."

Her face had a rather conflicted look on it.

"How is that?"

Yoshi didn't want to question her complexion, so he reluctantly ignored it, continuing with his questioning.

"Unlike other people, you were personally called here by me. Because... the process of your soul being filtered here was obstructed."

She answered honestly, her face downcast with guilt.

Yoshi had a hint as to why she was feeling that way.
He, who had not been sent back to the world immediately, still had memories of his life.
That, of course, also included his memory of death, which wasn't the most pleasant of memories.

Besides, it was also consideration on her side.
She assumed that Yoshi might not like being held up here after his horrible death.

On the other hand, Yoshi did not like that look on her face.
He thought that it put all of her beauty to waste.
He wanted to refute her with a, "You don't have to feel guilty about it...", or an "It's ok... I don't mind the inconvenience..." to hopefully rid her of that face, but she continued speaking before he could voice it out.

"And because of that, your soul manifested and constructed your body based on your... its memories. Which is why you can't feel it, even though it moves completely by your will."

And she answered what was next on his list of questions.

Well, that explained why his entire body was numb.
There simply was no feeling, because his body was artificial, made up by his soul.

For what purpose? Hell if he knew.
He just assumed that it was for convenience or something and left it at that.

"So you called me here... haha..."

Yoshi didn't know for what purpose he got held up in this place by her.
But, he felt honored, and a little... no, quite happy about being treated as someone 「special」.

"Ummm... If that's the case, what talk did you want... wish to have with me? And what might be your suggestion?"

Yoshi asked, trying not to stutter with his words.

"The talk and the suggestion are correlated. As for what it is..."

Saying no further, the 「Goddess」 paused for a moment, wet her lips, and cleared her throat once more, as she declared.

"How would you consider the idea of being reincarnated, Yoshiharu Takamori?"

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Author's Corner:

The goddess is really pretty, isn't she?
Oh my god it has been a week already.
Sorry for the short (well, relatively short) chapter. I tried to experiment a little with what i can do with the spacing, and got carried away very fast...
I'll probably finish up the next one in less than a week.