Forty years, Tanya mused. It has been forty years since I, Salaryman from Japan, was reborn as a German Magical Girl. In that time, I have fought in World War one, averted World War Two with a few extrajudicial assassinations, participated in the Space Race and retired to a nice country estate. Safe, at last, pensioned hero of the republic. But she had also lost friends. Her war dogs had snuck up on her, somehow becoming more than the meat-shields she’d raised them to be. And one by one, they’d fallen, just as she’d trained them to, flying between her and the end; a gleam in their eye and a vengeful spell in the chamber.
It was Ironic then, that after all of that, she would die to a sudden heart attack while flying home from her own birthday party. It had happened slowly, but suddenly. A tremble in one arm, a pain in her chest, a wave of dizziness. Before she could recover, she’d ploughed face first into a concrete wall without sufficient focus to maintain a defensive screen.
She had expected oblivion. That was what Being X had promised him before her rebirth, was it not? An end to all things, should he not find faith? Forty years on and her only faith in Being X was that the entity was and would always be; an asshole. But… as s/he opened his eyes, s/he was in the cloudy temple once more.
Looking down, Tanya smirked. Her boobs were gone. It had taken her to her mid twenties for them to finally appear, but in death they were gone again. Shifting his weight, s/he smiled at a long missing weight before noticing a lock of blond hair falling down across his vision. An amalgamated self image then. It made sense that having spent as much time in one form as the other, something would change.
Shrugging, s/he looked around. Unfortunately, musings aside, this brought her to his current predicament. Why am I here? And what is the reason for this latest alien abduction?
"That is at least a more flattering comparison than your usual thoughts." A feminine voice booms like soft thunder, and s/he looked up to see a golden woman with eight arms seated on an ornate golden and fur throne.
Did I say that out loud again? I usually have better control. Mouthing off to being X was what got me stuck in this nightmare in the first place.
"This is heaven, the realm of the souls," the gigantic woman replies. "All thoughts echo as though spoken, all speech is the musings of the soul."
"I see," s/he replied. That was rather inconvenient, as It conveyed a complete lack of privacy. How detestable.
The woman laughs, as do several others. How s/he didn't notice them before, s/he could hardly fathom, every figure was the size of a building. Although, I suppose as natives of this place they probably know how to enable the privacy settings. I'll need to learn that first thing if I'm going to end up stuck here.
"That,.. is precisely what we're here to discuss," a male voice boomed.
Zeroing in on the sound, I saw it came from another figure dressed in Egyptian garb. His skin was a gangrenous color. There were more of them this time. Ah, and there's the devil himself, sulking off in a corner.
The bearded man’s eyes narrowed immediately and he turned to glare at her. "I am NOT Sulking!"
"Do not mind Elohim," another man growls, this one sporting a spear, medieval armor, a great grey beard and an eye patch. "He is wroth because we have declared this contest a draw."
A... draw? How have I not won? Did the devil finally manage to kill me? This would explain the early heart attack.
Another alien, this one a Native American man with a canine pelt as a hooded coat, snorted at this. "No, mortal. The heart attack that took you in flight was, quite amusingly, not an event one any of us is responsible for. Though Elohim tried, citing the stress he put you through as cause. His own curse ruled against him though, thus the great interest surrounding the event. The others do not want me to tell you this, but by neither winning nor losing, Elohim, and by extension you, have created quite a problem for us."
Tanya held back a scoff, barely. Bad management practices strike again... A thunder cloud forms around Being X and the air around him turns from gold to red, causing several other aliens to restrain him. Ah... there's the devil I know.
"Mortal," The many armed golden girl sighs, "kindly refrain from provoking Elohim, as you just realized; that is what brought on this situation in the first place." Four of her hands go to her face, massaging it while two more push her up from the chair, which vanishes, and the last two pull out what looks like a tablet from those recent syfy movies. Aliens confirmed. The being glared at Tanya and s/he put on her best innocent smile. The alien was not amused, but one does one's best.
"Participated in World War One. Averted World War Two, triggering the Westwood scenario. Led Germania out of that too, though really, that one was mostly your own fault. Triggered the revival of faith on the planet despite modernization and the space race. Very nearly survived to the time of your original birth. However, despite multiple visitations, being given direct access to divine energy, facing off against two High Priests and being reincarnated with your memories intact, you still failed to become religious or die to any of Elohim's machinations."
She sets the tablet down on air and it vanishes as well. "Simply put, both of you have simultaneously hit both of your win and loss conditions." She frowns. "Did Elohim manage to explain to you what exactly it is we do here?"
"You manage the flow of souls between earth and 'heaven', an issue which has gotten to be more or less impossible, by his words. I understand you use mortal faith as gasoline here?" Tanya threw out. There was more to it than that, but other than verbally eviscerating the devils complaints, s/he didn't actually remember much of the original conversation.
“Yes… but there’s more to it than that” the golden woman replied with a grimace. “Every soul exists on an endless cycle of reincarnation. The faith and memories of those who die is used to fuel the creation of new souls. But though we have taken it upon ourselves to manage this process, streamline and support it, our true purpose is to help souls gain enlightenment and escape the cycle of reincarnation. Everyone you see at this gathering, and many you do not, performed that exact feat in the distant past.”
“The problem we have here with you, is that Elohim declared that you would cease to reincarnate,” she turns to glare at him balefully, and continues “unless you found true faith or received enlightenment. Unfortunately, the conditions he placed on both your success and failure have not properly triggered, so you are stuck. You cannot move on, either to a new life, or oblivion as fuel for new souls and you possess none of the comprehension required to ascend.”
Dodged an explosive barrage spell there, Tanya mused.
“Indeed. Be that as it may, however, it presents us with a problem. With no available paths to an afterlife; you have become a unique existence. So… we are offering you a choice. Accept our aid and willingly return to the cycle.” She put her hand out to the side and a mill stone carved with several images appeared. “Or, trade the faith you have created in others for favors from us and take part in our punishment of Elohim, god of the jews, by continuing his game. Win or lose, his personal divine mana be spent on all operations involved in this little endeavor.”
S/He bit her lip and consider; a habit s/he had picked up while living as a girl. “Will I return to life as Tanya? Or be born again?”
“That is your choice.” Coyote cackles. “Though being resurrected will cost Elohim quite a bit more.”
Hrm… to fight Being X, or to get my body back… decisions decisions… “Before I choose, is there anything else I can do? Requests I can make?”
At this, another woman steps up. She’s a gorgeous example of japanese beauty, but with curious glowing red hair and silver eyes. “You may request anything you like, anything you can imagine, but what we can give you is limited to the power Elohim gained from the faith you inspired in others during your time as Tayna.”
Well… shit. Gotta choose frugally then. A number of ‘gods’ laugh at that, but Tanya ignored them. If being resurrected as Tanya would cost the devil MORE, then that wouldn’t leave her with much power to play with. She had built herself a nice station in retirement and that could prevent him from interfering over much, allowing her to FINALLY enjoy that safe cushy life she’d earned,.. But the game was stated to continue, and I’ve been wanting my body back ever since this first started. Aside from that, with so many of my friends dead, well…what's the point of being Tanya?
“Alright, I’d like as much of this as you can manage on the fuel my work generated then.” I said. “I want my body back. My male body. I want to live in a technologically advanced society. I want to keep my aerial mage abilities and know everything my last world learned about computation orbs, because flying is its own reward. And if any of my old subordinates are still awaiting reincarnation, I’d like them to join me in a manner I can reasonably expect to find and recognize them. Finally and most importantly, I want Being X to be restrained and allowed as little input as possible. No visitations, no miracles of any kind.”
The man with the spear and eye-patch speaks up. “You do not wish for an easy life?”
Tanya huffed. “I was informed the game would continue. An easy life did not seem on the table; thats why I want to spend energy restraining him. Though if that is incorrect, then yes, I’d like the cushiest life available and the genius to make the most of it. Betting on the likelihood it’s not, so long as my stated conditions are met, and no interference is given once I arrive, I believe I can craft a pleasant existence regardless of my initial conditions. That is the beauty of living in an advanced society.”
The being nods. “I believe I have an opportunity for you then.”
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March 15th, 2494, Mar Sara, Terran Confederacy, Koprulu Sector.
James Raynor knew the moment his wife went into labor that something was wrong. Nobodies eyes light up with a blue inner light from natural causes after all. Lydia though, she was calm as a cucumber. Ordered him to load the pair of them on his vulture bike and set off for Backwater despite the cramps. He’d gunned it and managed to skid into the parking lot of the local medical station just as his back seat became wet.
He was pacing around the waiting room like a caged tiger when, with a whirr, a holo projector descended from the ceiling. Myles Hammond, the colonial magistrate appeared in the image. “I hear congratulations are in order, James. A healthy son. Do you still take cigars? I’ll have some sent over.”
Jim nodded. “Lidya and I named him John. Quiet baby. Is this channel encrypted?”
“Encrypted?” the image broke into a shower of stars before resolving again. “It is now. What’s the situation, Marshal?”
“Jonny’s Gifted, Magistrate.” Raynor said bluntly.
Magistrate Hammond frowned. “I can hear the capitals there, Jim. You’re not just spouting the usual proud parent adulation are you. This is… big. Did you get this from a gene sequence? I can have the records wiped, if you want.”
Raynor shook his head. “The moment Lidya went inta labor, her eyes lit up like lamps. She didn’t cry out the entire time, an neither did Jonny.”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“Lidya isn’t a ghost though. I know the secret histories of everyone I invited to my planet. That didn’t come up.”
James grimaced. “She’s a P4. Feds occasionally employs em as wranglers, but its nothin special. Her father bought her way outa the academy. I’m a P3, found out during boot camp. Academy couldn’t even be bothered with my sort, or they’d be recruiting 12% of the population. The kid though…”
The image of the magistrate revolved several times, coming in and out of focus. “None of the sensor equipment in my office has picked him up, Jim, looks like one a those rare smooth awakenings. We can keep this quiet for a while. But I’d hazard to say it’s a good thing you chose to live out in the boondocks. The more people who know, the faster this gets back to the academy, an you know what that means. Extra funding for me, heartache fer you an yer wife. Did you have a doc on duty or use the automated systems? Nevermind, I have it here. I’ll wipe the system and have a chat with Doc Killian. You just keep wranglin them rowdy boys ah yers, Jim an I’ll take care ah the rest. Magistrate out.”
James sighed as the holo retracted back into the ceiling. He could feel Jonny in his head. The boy was exhausted, but content. The marshal shook his head. Everybody said the first kid was a challenge, but he had a feeling that that didn’t even tell the half of it.
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For the first three months of his new life, Tanya wove in and out of coherent thought. It was much like the time in the orphanage of his last life, with each period of consciousness growing a second or two longer with every revolution. Even so, several primary changes were noticeable right from the start.
To begin with, he was not an orphan as he had been in Tanya’s life. Father and mother were both present and often sought to play with him. Tanya did his best to present to them the expected affection, but between drinking his fill and sleeping there wasn’t a lot of time with which to interact. Father was a large, well muscled roughian with handsome features. Brown eyes, tanned skin and shaggy brown hair that had clearly seen a lot of weather and a close trimmed goatee. In essence, he somehow made being plain look good.
Mother on the other hand looked rather alarmingly like his old body just prior to Tayna’s death. Messy loose curls of blond hair, an ahoge, big blue eyes and a face that would be best described as ‘incredibly cute’, even when screwed up in rage… Mothers body was a good bit more developed than his had been as Tanya however, standing perhaps an inch or two taller than father, who unless my judgement was skewed, was already a big man. She had clearly defined muscle Tanya himself had been proud of, but also possessed the curve of hip and breast that even after his old body had developed, he had never quite achieved. Whether this was due to malnutrition in the orphanage and on the battlefield, or just a difference in genetics, Tanya couldn’t be certain.
The second clear difference was the noise. Tanya had gotten used to a number of loud noises during his time as an aerial mage. From the thunder of artillery and explosive formula to the constant shrill babble of military calls. This however reminded him of the roar of engines, muted largely by well insulated walls. Tanya could swear that the house moved from time to time, but that made little sense as the domicile neither looked like a trailer nor as far as he could tell, moved like one. Though that could be because of the clearly higher level of tech available to his parents.
That led to the next obvious difference. The alien being calling itself Odin had kept its promise and deposited Tanya into a technologically advanced society. He was as yet unsure whether this was an affectation of his parent’s wealth and largess, or an artifact of society at large however. The reason for this was the odd mix of sleek syfy looking appliances, bright cyberpunk holographic displays, what looked to be rugged kit-bash dieselpunk contraptions and what Tanya swore was handcrafted wood and cloth furniture. Perhaps society had advanced to the point where technology had made basic goods so cheap that artisan works were a sign of wealth, rather than the latest technological gadget? It would definitely be something to contemplate when he had the energy and wakefulness to contemplate the issue.
Finally, there was the issue of his powers. As agreed upon, Tanya retained his flight mage abilities. For a given value of ability. Being awake was exhausting, thinking was hard and holding the flight formula in his head long enough to lift up off the mattress of his playpen was a herculean struggle… but he managed it. This was fine, as Tanya expected he’d be able to smooth all of these issues out simply by aging out of infancy. There wasn’t much one could or should expect of someone only three months old after all… but that led to the oddity. There was something his powers did now, easily and almost instinctively, that they never had in his previous life as a girl. Tanya could feel his parents' presence, even over great distances. He knew their direction and rough distance at all times without thinking about it, and when they were close, he could even discern their emotions and even the general shape of their thoughts without visual or auditory clues.
Many of these emotions he was familiar with. Amusement and disgust; contentment and frustration; joy and rage; fear and excitement. Others, he was… less familiar with, but could guess based on context. An embarrassing feeling that set everything tingling when his parents were in their bedroom. The warm indefinable thing that nonetheless hurt whenever they stared at or played with him. Lust and parental love, at a guess. They were almost more difficult to comprehend than running a flight formula through a three month old brain, but Tanya determined that he’d get there eventually. This had been an… embarrassing blind spot in his previous two lives. People acted irrationally when responding to emotion, particularly strong emotions, and his misinterpretations of these thoughts led to many of his failures, both as japanese salaryman Hideki Youji and as Aerial Mage Officer Tanya Von Degurechaff.
The primary question Tanya had thought was… why? Had Entity O recognized a failing in Being X’s previous design and sought to correct? Or was this a curse like the type 95, designed to stubborn and humiliate him in this new round of The Game? His own emotions still felt somewhat muted, particularly when he now possessed a proper baseline with which to compare himself too in the new awareness of his parents' minds. If this magical empathy was instinctual as it seemed, would he be overwhelmed by the idiocy of normal people as those powers grew? Or would it fade into the background of his mind, to be a useful tool in steering the ship of his life around the foolishness of those same others? The obvious purpose of this change was to further the cause to which the aliens were dedicated; instilling faith in the faithless… but what exactly did they hope to accomplish by letting him gain a proper understanding of just how foolish normal people were, when he already was so clearly aware without it?
Such things were puzzling, and he needed sleep.
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Three months later, Tanya had gained a much better understanding of his new environment. Though at six months old, this view was far from complete, his steadily increasing wakefulness and extrasensory perception had allowed him to work some things out.
First, he was no longer on earth. The world of his rebirth was called Mar Sara and the civilization to which he belonged was modeled after the United States province of Texas. Father was a law-man straight out of the westerns genre. He spoke with a texan accent, carried a glowing weapon superficially patterned off a colt revolver, rode around on a flying motorcycle and wore a badge emblazoned with the american characters for “Colonial Marshal James Eugene Raynor, Diamondback Wasteland, Mar Sara.”
Mother had a similar badge that she left around the house on occasion which read “ Lydia Elizibeth Raynor, Diamondback Mining Group, Foreman.” Mother didn’t particularly strike him as the mining type, nor the sort to get involved in matters of leadership, but as his magical senses began to extend outside the house, he got the impression of a number of very low rough types he felt would be best described as thugs, which nonetheless seemed to melt into butter as mother passed among them.
This, he supposed, was the “motherly” leadership type spoken of in texts. He had often dismissed it as nonsense, preferring to project a cool competence in his first life and fiery demanding zeal in her second. Perhaps this time around he can attempt the paternalistic style? ...no, probably not. While this new ability granted by Entity O would no doubt allow for that, it is not professional and he could not see himself in the position of foreman or marshal unless forced.
Moving on, he had confirmed that the house did indeed move. More to the point; the entire town in which the house existed moved. This did not happen often, but roughly once a month, the everpresent hum of engines and screech of metal on stone would fade away to be replaced by the low roar or rocket engines. Yes,.. rocket engines. It had been during his fifth month that he first got a chance to see it in action, spinning up a physical enhancement formula to follow his mother into the one room of the house that always remained locked. Inside the room was a well padded “crash seat” and a series of levers and screens that showed images of the mysterious outside.
Tanya admitted he’d lost control of the magic and fallen on his ass as he saw what was on the screens. Buildings ranging from the size of a shipping container to an 80 meter tall 200 meter wide pyramid were all lifting off and floating along on greenish rocket plumes as though they were participants in a hot air balloon festival, or space opera anime sky titans. He’d wanted to deny the ludicrous sight but the roar of the house's own engines and that unmistakable feeling of flight humming up through the deck-plates demanded he acknowledge otherwise.
Mother, Lydia, of course, had noticed him then, but instead of screaming in surprise or outrage, had scooped him into her lap, causing the house to tilt wildly for a moment. She had laughed and babbled away happily ‘jonny’s first migration’ and ‘did he want to be a pilot when he grew up?’ He could tell from the close proximity and physical contact that, in her mind, she didn’t believe he could understand what she was saying, but she was more happy he was here than annoyed that he’d gotten in and wanted to make him feel included.
That was another thing. His name in this new life was apparently John Anthony Raynor, or ‘Jonny’, as mother and father preferred to call him. Personally, ‘jonny’ thought he’d probably end up going by Tony as a shortening of his middle name. While there was aesthetically no difference in going by an american name than going by a german one after having originally been japanese, he’d had the name Tanya for almost as long as Hideki, Tanya was a more recent and unfortunately more memorable experience, which made the name commensurately more comfortable.
He’d get over it, he supposed. Eventually.
Of further interest however, were the things they were flying away from, and eventually, towards. At the location they left was a field of blue hexagonal platforms that glittered in the light, and at their destination, a forest of blue spires as though poking out from the crust of the world as though it were an inverted geode. “You see that, Jonny? That’s mommy’s new mine! Can you say mommy for me? Mommy?”
“Mommy!” Tanya… Jonny, replied dutifully.
Mother had apparently not expected him to actually answer, judging by the moment of frozen shock that moved through her like a wave. He would have to be careful of that in the fu… then the emotion changed. It was warm and electric and… smug, perhaps? No was not quite right. It was similar to the one he’d identified as parental love, but more excited and prideful. Odd. He’d heard coworkers natter on endlessly about their spawn in his first life. Perhaps this was why? It felt… good.
The event had led to mother calling father via video conference. Father was on his flying bicycle chasing after a series of more conventional wheeled jeep like vehicles which in turn were speeding toward a levitating train. Seemingly recognizing that this would be a very bad time to distract her husband, Mother and I stayed silent as we maneuvered in to land.
On the screen, Father systematically shot out the tires of the vehicles, causing them to tumble along the red soil, and swerve around both them and what looked to be minigun fire from the train itself. A rocket launched from the top of one of the jeeps taking out the minigun and father visibly swore, before taking out their tires as well. When the chase stopped, and the train was speeding out into the distance, he finally seemed to notice the floating camera moving along beside him. Turning to it, he said into the screen “Lydia? What is it? Did one of the rigs fall out of the sky again?”
She instantly became giddy again before proclaiming “No! I was migrating the house to the new site when Johnny managed to get in the cockpit with me! He said his first word Jim!” She squealed, positively radiating smugness.
Fathers face lit up. “Oh? And what’d the little rascal say?”
“Daddy!” He spoke up in response.
Mother was shocked at first, as Father put on a broad grin, but then her emotions turned to the oddest mix of love and frustration. “I had him say mommy, actually, but it seems little Jonny’s a smart boy, yes he is!” she snarled cutely, picking him up and tickling him.
Father laughed, before ducking to the side as something sparked off the front of his bike and sparking. “As much as I’d love to participate in this family moment, darling, business calls.”
Mother radiated a spike of terror before forcing calm on herself. “Come back safe, James.”
“I always do, Liddy.” Then he cut off the transmission.
Father did come back, after that day, though with several bandages, stitches and a bottle of pills that supposedly promoted rapid regeneration. A wonder of medical science to be sure. Magic could do similarly, as a modification of the body enhancement theorem, though Tanya had so very seldom ever used it.
In the month since, he’d gotten the chance to practice his english fairly extensively. At first, mother had given him access to the house computer. It had been locked to a disgustingly cute childrens learning hologram, but it had been useful. Scoring well on the games allowed Tanya… John… to advance rapidly in the questions he could ask his parents between their work shifts. Thus leading to the better understanding of the local environment.
Mar Sara was a world much like Mars back home. It had had life for a few million years after the ash of creation had settled, but was too small to maintain its own atmosphere against the solar winds. It was discovered roughly 50 years ago, and a political entity called the Kel Morian Combine had begun dropping mined out asteroids and comets on it as a means of rapid terraforming. As the comets were recovering the atmosphere, the KMC had immediately began mining the blue crystals and pumping a gas substitute called Vespine from the planet while settling it’s more hospitable neighbor, the jungle world of Chau Sara.
This had lasted until the Guild Wars, named such because the governments of the Confederacy, of which he was a citizen, and the KMC were primarily composed of business interests. An enlightened state of affairs if there ever was one, in John’s opinion. Unfortunately, as competing political units, the Confederacy didn’t respect the KMC’s territorial claims and began invading multiple systems to steal their mines with superior military equipment.
As father said “An easy way to remember the difference is like this. A Confederate will punch you in the face and take your stuff. A Morian sneaks around and steals it while you’re not looking. And an Umojia will talk to you until you’re so confused and exhausted you don’t object when he walks away with ‘his share’.” It wasn’t quite a nursery rhyme, and more than likely propaganda, but John appreciated his parents' respecting his intelligence.
After the guild wars ended, the Confederacy took over terraforming and mining the planet for these alien resources. The comets continued, the land and sea were seeded with lower forms of life which exploded into the new space and cities were built to uphold these two industries. As a result, father traded military service for a personal invitation from the local global magistrate. It wasn’t a GOOD job, being the regional sheriff of half a continent, but father was apparently good at it, and as a reward for good connections made in the military it was more or less what John had originally hoped to gain as Tanya. A respectable existence, more or less. Mother, similarly, started an independent mining interest under the Magistrates blessing, which was itself fairly lucrative. Though, if her complaints were accurate, it would be far more lucrative if the Confederate military didn’t require 50% in taxes.
All in all, it was a good life. Just as the entities had promised.
John could only shiver and wonder how long it would last.