“That was as pathetic as it was sad.”

Those were the first words Miura Yukichi heard right after throwing his body into the way of a truck to save the life of a random girl. He died but she was safe. Yet to his astonishment that was not the end.

What began barking at him in fury was a most bizarre sight.

A burning chick. A little yellow bundle of feathers that was literally on fire.

Berating him for his decision in a place beyond death. His surroundings seemed to be high in the skies, blue emptiness and white clouds littered the area but nothing else but Yukichi and the chick.

Yukichi was just a highschooler. He was in his third year.  Almost ready to graduate.

Then he died for what he thought was a good thing. Helping someone else.

His hair was obviously dyed blonde, was long and put into a mullet and wildly spiky.

He wore green contacts and his uniform had several rips in it, not from wear and tear but intentionally made for style. He was also quite tall by the standards of his classmates, just barely missing 6 inches of height.

All things considered, he looked quite unique. A punk that stood out.

This was all intentional of course. He had wanted to have the appearance of someone disliked by society and did his best to play the bit.

Yukichi stood up from his prone position on the nonexistent floor and looked down at the chick that seemed to be quite angry with him. “I… died. Right? Or am I in a hospital bed and this is just a dream? Why would I think of a chick on fire though? Weird. Sigh. I guess I didn’t-”

The chick leapt up and full-body tackled him in the balls without a smidge of hesitation.

“Gurrghh…!” Yukichi fell back to the invisible floor and covered his crotch with his hands as the little bird somehow flew and landed by his face, staring him right in the eyes.

“That pain felt real, right? You’re dead. This isn’t a dream. You really died protecting that girl.”

The bizarre bird was talking to him and Yukichi grimaced from the strangeness of the situation coupled with the shock from the sudden attack. At least the fire surrounding the bird didn’t light his body on fire, for some reason.

“Like I said. Pathetic.” The beady little eyes were judging him.

“...I saved… someone else… how is that pathetic? I did a good thing for once…”

The retort didn’t seem to cause the baby animal to change its stance even a millimetre.

“Nope. You went in there saved a girl and chose to die.” 

Yukichi gulped. Somehow this tiny thing had seen right through him.

“You had enough time to get her out of the way and save yourself. Yet you chose to die. It was suicide. I saw it. You realised that you could have made it out. That there was a chance. You let the truck kill you. This was suicide.” 

“...No. You don’t know that! No one could know that! You can’t prove it!” 

There’s only silence in response to Yukichi’s assertion for a whole minute.

“I’m god.” The little chicken says with complete confidence. 

There was another silence this time facilitated by Yukichi.

“Oh, no.” A sudden realisation hit him.

“Yes.” The chick’s voice had a change now. It was slightly elated.

“I’m not letting you go that easily.”

Worry overrides him. This wasn’t what he wanted.

“No! Please. Don’t do this. I died doing something good for someone else! Let it end at that! I don’t need a second chance! Give me oblivion! Don’t you dare-”

“No. I refuse. You will live again. From childhood. In another world. Harsher than this one.” 

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For Yukichi it felt like his head had been affixed to a guillotine and he was just waiting for it to drop.

“C’mon. Why!? Sure, I gave up at the last second but why is that a sin!? I wasn’t needed by anyone or anything! I had nothing going for me! So I did a good thing! I saved a life! One worth more than my own for sure! I shouldn’t have to be treated like this! If you’re really god just forgive me and let me go!”

More silence. 

“Are you done?” 

Any further argument was going to be useless but even so…

“No! I’m not! A stupid fantasy world doesn’t have modern plumbing! It’s not sensitive about social issues or mental health at all! I won’t last five seconds there! I died and you’re just going to kill me again! You’re not god! You’re the devil! It’s not going to be fun at all! This is torture! All that’s going to change is that I’m going to see how much I suck with a bunch of quantifiable numbers!”

More silence.

Defeated, Yukichi would only ask the most obvious question.

“Why…? Why are you a chicken?”

The yellow bird stumbled back. It was actually shocked.

“I thought… you would ask why I was doing this to you first. Weird. 

“Well, I used to do this just for people who were leading good lives that died unjustly. So I could reward their efforts. Then I saw a lot of people like you. People who didn’t appreciate their own lives.

"Sometimes that can’t be helped. The cards in the deck can be stacked badly. People like you though… always folded when they had a chance for a winning hand. You wouldn’t even fight to change things even when the opportunity was right in front of you.”

Yukichi could only scoff.

“Then don’t make life so hard.” 

Though he knew the words would fall on deaf ears.

“There’s a saying your people have. That people get three phases in their lives when they are extremely popular. This is something similar. You were just about to hit a period of good luck.

"That girl you saved was supposed to open a new door for your life as thanks for saving her. It would have helped you both grow as people. That’s down the drain now, so I have to rewrite some more things now.” 

Yukichi sighed as he gave up. He folded. There was no point in challenging god.

“Do what you’ve got to do. Teach me my lesson. Nothing I say or do matters anyway.”

The god chicken stared at the helpless youth again with some contempt.

“Dying won’t be easy for you this time. I won’t let it. Live.”

The clouds in the blue skies began to fade away. Golden light broke through and began to envelop them and Yukichi felt his consciousness begin to leave him.

“...You didn’t answer my question.” 

His body as he knew it was turning into stardust before his eyes.

“I used to make myself be a beautiful goddess. Guys would do anything for a hot chick. 

“So I thought for the people like you I’d play with the idea to spite you.”

Yukichi could only cough out half a scoffed chuckle in response as he disappeared completely.

“I won’t let you run. This time when you get chances to make your life better, bring people into it, try not to throw them away. Think of this as motivation. Now you know fated encounters exist.” 

Finding himself alive again, Yukichi was staring at a mirror as someone was grooming him.

A young boy. Perhaps about five years old. Unkempt ginger hair and marine coloured eyes.

His clothes were simple shades of light and dark brown. He was certainly not rich.

Information began to pour into his brain. His name. His upbringing. This world.

The third son of four sons. Son to a male miner and a female innkeeper.

In a position to inherit nothing. In a world where people are born gifted with power and a fairly strict social hierarchy. A world named Tarot. He found himself questioning god’s sense of taste when it came to naming things as his personality and knowledge settled in.

Then it smacked him in the face like a ton of bricks. The obligatory status screen.

LV 1

Yukichi Quinn 

Age 5

STR 5

MAG 0

DEX 5

VIT 5

DEF 5

RES 0

Skills:

Pocket - The ability to store objects without Aether within the size of space accessible only to the user. As the name implies it is about the size of a jacket pocket. 

Draw From Death - When the owner causes the death of lifeform through direct contact they gain twice the normal experience points.

Punishment: Endure - If the owner would be killed when above 1 HP they are set to 1 HP instead. The owner cannot die from damage over time status effects such as bleeding/poison/disease. 

The body can heal from any wound of any severity from natural regeneration should this skill activate but does not offer healing from activation. A temporary pain blocker is also applied when this skill activates, it shall last for thirty seconds and when subsided the pain felt will be received in full and sometimes in higher degrees of severity than the wound would have originally caused depending on circumstances. 

This ability will activate up to seven times a day. 

“Great. I can’t even run away from hearing my own name.” 

He mumbled in his own mind and wanted to curse.

A name spoke in anger or disappointment. He was most surely given it again so he couldn’t escape from those hang-ups by hiding behind a new identity. 

As his skills filled his mind he gritted his teeth. There really was going to be no mercy.

His mother who had been making sure he looked presentable had finally stopped fiddling with him and let him go. She had the same orange hair like him and was formed into a singular braid that travelled down her right shoulder and rested by her chest.

Her eyes were a verdant green and she wore a humble dress with a large messy apron slung over it that showed signs of her working hard in a kitchen. 

She smiled gently with such warm radiance it was unfair to him.

He now had a whole new family to disappoint.

“I don’t want to play this game.”