I’m dead.
Of all the things Judd wasn’t sure of in his life, he was now positive that his life had ended.
At first, he felt no reaction to this news. Perhaps his soul would remain asleep until Judgment Day, when the dead would be divided into those who were worthy of the Lord’s eternal love and those who were not. And Judd prayed he would fall into the former group.
So he opened his eyes, expecting to see those pearly gates spread out before him. He expected to be welcomed into heaven with open arms, perhaps to meet his deceased loved ones again. That’s what happened in heaven, right?
But as soon as Judd lifted his eyelids, he found himself in a very different world than the afterlife he’d been taught about from an early age.
He was in a foggy area with marble ruins that resembled those stories he’d heard about Mount Olympus. Of course, Judd had never been to Greece; indeed, he’d never left the continental United States. And besides, those were false gods - there was only one true God, and Judd had been convinced he would meet Him when his Earthly life was over.
Where am I?
Judd got to his feet and took a few steps. Had he still been alive, his heart would have been pounding, for this certainly didn’t resemble the heaven he believed in.
There must have been a mistake! I’ve believed in miracles my whole life! I’ve been to church every Sunday and kept my eyes closed during Thanksgiving prayers! If I haven’t been a good Christian man, then who is?
Within seconds, a figure materialized out of thin air. It was a jackal-like figure roughly four feet tall, with a snout full of black fur and golden rings all over its body.
This creature roughly resembled those stories about Anubis from Egyptian mythology. But again, Anubis was a false god, an idol - he wasn’t the one true God of the Bible.
“Are you Anubis?” Judd asked.
The jackal-like figure shook his head. “No. I’m a Lucario.”
Judd narrowed his eyes. “Lucario? Like, are you from those games kids play? The ones a lot of people think are Satanic?”
The Lucario frowned. “Who are you calling Satanic? Me?”
The recently deceased young man put his hands in the air as though under arrest. “No! I’m just saying…”.
“Whatever you were going to say, drop it,” the Lucario spat. “My name is not Anubis, it’s Lucas.”
“Lucas, huh? That’s a nice name, even if it rhymes with…”.
“I’ve heard it all before, kid. Anyway, it’s time for your interview.”
“First, I want to ask a question,” Judd stated.
“Feel free, but I am also free not to answer it.”
“Is this heaven or hell?”
Lucas grimaced, evidently weighing the question like that statue in front of select courthouses. Eventually, the Lucario sighed.
“It’s whatever you make of it, I suppose. This place can be either.”
“Fair enough. Is it true that whatever you believed in life, comes true in the afterlife?”
Lucas frowned. “You just asked two questions.”
“Awww, shucks.”
“Okay, now here is my first question for you,” Lucas announced. “And don’t even bother lying, because I can sniff out a lie from a mile away. What is your name?”
“Judd Asgard.”
“And your age at the time of death?”
Judd tried to remember. Truth be told, he didn’t like to make a big deal out of his birthdays, because the only birthday that truly mattered was that of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But he knew how old he was.
“Twenty-one.”
“How did you die?”
The memory was a bit hazy, but Judd was nonetheless able to recall it upon furrowing his brow. “I was on a ski trip in the great state of Colorado with my friends who were also all about the Lord. I went for a walk in the woods, and I came across a moose. I called out to the moose, saying hello and whatnot, and it came and mauled me. I’d assume it was all over by the time the paramedics arrived.”
“Clearly, because you’re here now” Lucas remarked. “In any case, the next question is this: What did you believe in your Earthly life?”
Judd smiled, for this was an easy question to answer. “I believed in God.”
“Which God?”
“The God of the Bible, who sent His only son Jesus Christ to Earth in order to save us from our sins. I believe that Jesus died on the cross so that we could all be forgiven. I believe that in my heart of hearts. Jesus knew me, and He knew I was right.”
“Well, Judd Asgard,” Lucas continued, “I’m afraid you were incorrect. You may have been a faithful believer in Jesus Christ, but that’s not what you’ll be tested on today.”
Judd gulped, putting a hand over to his Adam’s apple. In life, this is where he would have worn his crucifix necklace, but any jewelry had evidently been stripped from him when he’d entered this place…wherever this place was.
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“Anyway,” Lucas said, “you aren’t going to hell. We here at Jet Force Isekai do not believe in eternal damnation. Infinite punishment for a finite crime can never be just.”
Judd raised an eyebrow. “But we humans were given the option to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. If we neglected to do so, that was on us, and eternity is a long time to be wrong.”
Lucas frowned. “I suppose it is, but you technically wouldn’t be wrong for all of eternity - you’d just be punished for being wrong for all of eternity. Anyway, that’s not why you’re here at Jet Force Isekai right now.”
“Jet Force Isekai? Isn’t that a video game from the 1990s? One I was told never to play because the characters had guns?”
The Lucario rolled his eyes as though to say, This kid’s insufferable. But then he sighed and said the following:
“This is no game, Judd Asgard. It’s something far more important. The time has now come for your diagnostic test.”
“Diagnostic test?” Judd asked. “What are you going to do, take my blood? Or weigh my heart the way Anubis did in those Egyptian stories?”
“I suppose,” Lucas remarked, “that the latter is fairly accurate. Now, close your eyes.”
Judd did as he was told, and he heard Lucas snap his claws.
Suddenly, the scene changed, and so had Judd’s body. He was far lower to the ground and on four legs, like a dog.
Judd tried to take a step forward, but walking on four legs isn’t the easiest thing in the world when you’re only used to having two. He stumbled more than once, eventually falling to the ground and landing hard on his stomach.
He got up gingerly, shaking himself off like he did after a wipeout while skiing, and then got a view of his surroundings.
He found himself in a small suburban home, the sort that most all-American patriots from so-called “flyover states” lived in. There was even an American flag poster on the wall, as well as a painting of Jesus on the cross.
Whoever lives here, Judd thought to himself, they’re my kind of people.
Judd looked around further, seeing that he was in the home’s combined kitchen and dining room. Bright sunlight filtered in through the window, and a freshly-baked apple pie sat on the stove, making it look just like any archetypical American domestic scene.
A young girl, probably not more than seven or eight years old, lay on her stomach on a beanbag chair in the corner, using brightly colored markers to draw something on a sheet of paper. Her concentration barely wavered from her artwork as a barking noise made itself known.
What’s that? Sounds like a dog!
While the girl might have been too focused on her drawing to pay attention to the sound, Judd’s curiosity got the better of him within seconds. He dashed in the direction of the noise, only to be pushed aside by a far larger body.
Judd shook his head, hoping he hadn’t gotten his bell rung like they warned about while skiing or partaking in any contact sport. Fortunately, he didn’t seem hurt, and as he swiveled around, he caught a glimpse of the creature who’d run into the kitchen all of a sudden.
The creature was something akin to a tiger, what with its orange and black stripes. However, its snout appeared far more benign than a tiger’s, and when the girl noticed the creature jogging toward her, she smiled warmly.
“Growlithe!” she exclaimed. “You’re so cute!”
Whatever affection the girl felt toward the “Growlithe”, the tiger-like creature did not reciprocate. Judd watched in what soon became horror as the Growlithe readied its hind legs as though it were about to pounce.
It was then that Judd realized: “Growlithe” is about to maul that girl, and I have to save her.
For Judd, it was the easiest split-second decision in any world. Saving this girl, even if it meant putting his own life on the line, was the Christian thing to do. Besides, if he died in the attempt, he’d be handsomely rewarded in heaven. (Okay, maybe not the same heaven he’d believed in all his life, but he believed - he knew - that good things would happen.)
Despite now possessing four legs, Judd scampered over to the Growlithe’s side and clawed at the tiger-like creature in order to chase it away from the girl.
By now the girl had sensed the danger she was in, and she remained stone-faced; so scared she didn’t know how to express that fear. “I’ll save you, young lady!” Judd exclaimed, though it sounded like something else (almost like Vulpix?) . Then, he sent another claw into the Growlithe’s side.
The Growlithe swiveled around and slapped Judd so hard he went flying, landing right next to the stove. When Judd got his bearings again, the tiger-like creature grinned.
“You want to fight, Vulpix, don’t you?”
Judd bared what he envisioned were his fangs. “Do I really have a choice when you’ve got the morals of an alleycat?”
Those words, far from distracting the tiger-like creature, only seemed to make him more bloodthirsty. “Well, if you want a fight, then you’ll get a fight!”
And a fight was exactly what ensued. Many claws were thrust between the pair, and for a few glorious and perfect moments, Judd felt like he might actually be winning. He could take down this Growlithe and save the little girl.
Just when things looked good for Judd, though, the Growlithe grinned. It was not a punch-drunk sort of grin, though; it was the sort of grin that suggested he knew something Judd didn’t. And Judd realized too late that this was indeed the case.
The Growlithe arched his neck backward, then breathed a steady stream of fire. Judd had no chance to brace himself for the pain, yet it didn’t come.
Instead, Judd opened his eyes again to find Lucas the Lucario standing before him. The recently deceased young man breathed heavily, wondering what the hell had just happened.
“I assume you want to know what the purpose of that exercise was,” Lucas offered.
Judd nodded. “I was in the kitchen of a very nice house. Like, the owners seemed all-American, like my sort of people. And there was this girl whom I needed to protect from a creature called Growlithe, and I was apparently Vulpix?”
“I’ll explain now,” Lucas said. “Basically, that was a simulation intended as a diagnostic for how you will react in stressful situations. Because here at Jet Force Isekai, you’ll be placed in many stressful situations.”
“Can’t I just get my heavenly afterlife like I was promised?” Judd muttered. “Why does there have to be stress involved ?”
Lucas sighed. “You chose to spring into action to protect the girl, which showed that you possessed a great deal of courage. Even after your life was under threat, you did not run away from the danger. You wanted to save the girl at all costs.”
“Well, yeah,” Judd replied, “because that’s what Jesus would do.”
The Lucario rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Judd Asgard, I’ve had enough of this Jesus talk. Not all is as it appears in any life, and it seems you’ve learned that lesson the hard way. And I’m sorry to tell you that you’ll have to keep learning it every day here.”
“But I know the lesson now that you’ve told me,” Judd said. “Why do I have to keep learning it?”
“Because,” Lucas responded, “that’s how we do it at Jet Force Isekai.”
“Okay, but what even is Jet Force Isekai? And where am I, anyway? This isn’t heaven!”
“Clearly not, Judd Asgard. But have you heard the word Isekai?”
Judd frowned. “Sounds like some Japanese mumbo jumbo that I never took part in. You see, I’m an all-American guy, or at least I was.”
“You need to leave your past at the door,” Lucas muttered. “It’s a weakness; that’s all it is. Anyway, Isekai is indeed a Japanese word - you’re right about that. It means ‘different world’, and you’re in a different world right now.”
“Great. When do I get to go to heaven?”
“Not anytime soon,” Lucas replied sternly. “Not now, and maybe not ever. You have to earn it. Anyway, the results of your test are in.”
“And?” Judd asked. “Do I get a reward for being brave?”
“Not exactly,” Lucas replied. “Well, I suppose you could consider it a reward. Your afterlife is what you make of it, after all.”
“Okay, but what does that mean for me?”
Lucas sighed. “You’ll see in a moment. Follow me deeper into the ruins to learn more. Welcome to Jet Force Isekai.”