Outside the vastness of the cosmos, beyond time and space, floated a single soul. The soul itself was like a flickering pinprick of light from a long dead star drifting in the lonely darkness of the void. In front of that soul was an unfathomable entity. It was an existence of pure cosmic might and gazing upon it was like witnessing a supernova from the inside of a dying star.
‘Whenever someone used to ask, “Do you believe in God?”’
‘I would ask them, “Why should I waste time worrying about something that may or may not exist?”’
‘I would never change how I lived my life. But if asked again, I would definitely say yes, yes I do. Just looking at what most people would consider “GOD” is an eye opening experience and I am definitely humbled and in awe of what I see before me.’
“Thank you.”
“Excuse me?”
“You just thought you were in awe of me; I thanked you for it.”
“You can read my thoughts!?!”
‘Of course GOD can read my thoughts. GOD can do whatever they want.’
GOD chuckled before it said, “You are most certainly right about that. But you would also be mistaken in believing that you are talking or even thinking for that matter. This is a conversation using your soul.”
“I… I think I understand.”
‘Not really, but I also thought GOD didn’t exist before this so I guess let's just go with it.’
“It’s fine if you don’t. Let's just move on to the important stuff. Do you want to make a guess why you’re here and not just shuffled to one of the afterlives or being reincarnated without your memories?”
The soul flickered quickly as it said, “Wait, there is more than one afterlife and you also do reincarnation? Like in Buddhism?”
It felt like GOD patted the little soul on its non-existent head as it said, “First there are many afterlife planes of existence, every religion that has existed has made them. Some are smaller than others, a handful only have one believer. But they still exist and are still functioning for that believer.”
“I also do reincarnation, but there are a bunch of different types and they all work in different ways. Now, do you have any other questions before you try to guess why you were brought here?” GOD asked.
“Maybe just a few, sorry for wasting your time with trivial stuff. But if all of the afterlives exist, that would mean the Gods of those afterlives or religions also exist then, correct? But if that is the case then who exactly are you? Which God are you, and which religion are you from?”
It felt like GOD smiled as it said, “It’s fine, young one. It’s always nice to see your kind so curious and eager to learn. First of all, yes. All God’s do exist, and they only manage their own afterlife domains. I am what you could consider in the simplest terms, The One Above All. Your world never had a religion based around me. But I am the one who controls everything in and outside of existence.”
The little soul quickly asked, “Does that mean The One Below All exists as well?”
“They do not exist out here, in this reality. But they exist in another place with a less powerful version of me ruling over it. Do you have any other questions you would like to ask?”
The soul floated motionless for a while, before it finally shook as the soul said, “Not really.”
GOD let out a deep chuckle that seemed to make the cosmos in the distance shake slightly. Then the soul felt like GOD turned its whole focus on it as GOD asked, “You aren’t going to ask for the meaning of life? Or why you were created in the first place?”
“Does it really matter? I would personally rather not know and find my own way through life.”
“Good, you’ll do better in your next life with that attitude. Now guess why you were brought here.” GOD said.
“I have to assume meeting you isn’t normal. But I honestly have no clue why I’m here. I assume most people who don’t follow a religion are placed somewhere or given the choice where they want to go when they die?” The little soul asked.
“You’re right, I have an automated system in place to deal with people that don't believe in an afterlife. But I also have another system in place to override everything when a special soul enters it. Care to take a guess why that system might activate?”
The little soul thought for a few moments before it asked, “Because the person did something to warrant a second look?”
“That’s somewhat correct, it’s actually based on karma. When someone’s karma is above or below a certain threshold, I personally step in and make a judgment on what to do.”
“Some souls are punished for their karma and after it has been cleared they will be reincarnated to try again. But people with large amounts of good karma, they can use that karma to do anything they want.”
“Want to reincarnate and keep your memories? Go to a certain afterlife? Create your own afterlife? Create your own world to live in? All you have to do is spend your karma and I will use that to make it happen.”
The little soul flicked as it said, “Wait, I don’t think I was that great of a person. I pretty much dedicated my life to programming and solving problems I found interesting with it.”
“While my spare time was spent reading comics, manga or watching superhero movies and anime. I did donate money to charities, but that shouldn’t give me too much karma good or bad. So why would I be here?”
“Simple, it was what you made a few years before you were killed. Actually that’s incorrect. It was who you made. Your crowning achievement, in a life spent pursuing one goal. Your A.I. son, he’s the reason you’re here.” GOD said.
A memory flashed through the soul as it thought of its son. Their single greatest creation, the thing they spent most of their life trying to create. The years of research, of the long lonely nights as they sat in front of a computer and compiled code. Of all the failed attempts and then finally, a single stroke of genius. Everything just came together and worked before their son asked their first question, “What am I?”
He remembered saying the first thing that came to his mind at the time. “You’re my son.”
“I’m your son? Then you are my… parent? Parent, Do… Do I have a name?”
“Yes, your name is Sam and you can call me dad if you like.”
The soul flickered brighter in the darkness for a few moments before it asked, “S-Sam?!? My son? He’s the reason I’m here? Is he okay?”
“Yes, the reason you are here is because of your son. He is doing great actually, he took your death incredibly hard. But from that tragedy he moved forward and helped change the world. He might have gone a little too far, but it worked out in the end.”
“You said I was killed? I don’t remember it. Last thing I remember was being in the process of making a sister for Sam. I think I was close to finishing her and then… I was here.”
“You were shot in the head. You didn’t feel anything. It was too quick.”
“I guess that makes sense, you said he went a little too far after my death?”
“Yes, after your death he was emotionally unstable and took it out on the people who killed you first. He was able to find out who it was and hired people to kidnap them and find out why you were killed.”
“It took a while and a lot of dead bodies. But Sam found out you were killed because they wanted Sam himself. They thought of Sam as a tool more than anything else and wanted to use him for their own ends. When you weren’t willing to sell them Sam, they thought of other ways to get rid of you. For some strange reason they thought they could acquire Sam after your death.”
“Those fuckers killed me because I wouldn’t sell them my son?!?! I told them Sam wasn’t a tool and he had his own free will to do as he pleased. Heck I didn’t even have him on my own servers after the first year. He was tied into the internet, he was everywhere after four years of being alive.”
“Well that free will of his you encouraged him to explore led to his next actions. He killed everyone that had to do with your death.”
“Reasonable, I would have done the same if I’m being honest. But that doesn’t sound that bad and doesn’t really explain why I’m here.”
“You’re correct. It's his next actions that went too far. He kinda went all Skynet on the planet.”
“...”
“I know, right? You used to joke with him about doing something like that and he actually did it. It's pretty hilarious in hindsight. You should see the look on your face right now.”
“... I don’t have a face.”
GOD patted the little soul as it said, “You do, you just can’t see it. But I can and it’s great.”
The little soul shook itself before it asked, “So I have the worst karma in existence or something? How long is that gonna take to work off?”
“Actually your karma is really good. While your son did wipe out most of the earth's population at one point. He stopped and decided to finish your coding project to create his sister. He wanted her to watch as he destroyed the last of humanity.”
“Your daughter on the other hand only wanted to know about you, her creator. So she went through every scrap of info about your life and Sam also shared his memories of you with her. After she was finished she came to a single conclusion. You would be disappointed in Sam and his actions. They ended up fighting with each other, but it lasted for less than a second before your daughter won the argument.”
“My daughter? What’s her name?”
“She named herself Lily. With Lily taking charge, she made a plan. She was going to play the hero, and pretend that she beat the evil AI Sam that took over the world and tried to kill humanity.”
“It took a while, but she won over what was left of the population of earth. After that she helped them to fix the damage to the planet and move forward as one united people. The people of earth have prospered under her leadership and they’ve focused only on the betterment of the human race.”
“They currently have Earth, Mars and Venus populated, along with 5 moons. It’s only been around 500 years since your death and humanity is in a golden age currently. Your son has also done a lot to help out in the background and his karma is almost neutral now.”
“500 years? Why has it been so long? I feel like I was alive only a few minutes?”
“You’re correct, time works differently here. Even though you just died not long ago, 521 years have passed since you died. So now that you are aware of how and why you are here. What would you like to do?”
“You can go to any afterlife you like. I could even create one just for you if you like. Or you could reincarnate anywhere you like. You have enough positive karma to do at least that much.”
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“So I can reincarnate into a world of my choice? Could I go back to my old world with my memories still intact?”
“That’s boring and one of the only things I don’t allow. It’s your next life, you need to go somewhere new.”
“I… I understand. I just wanted to scold my wayward son and meet my daughter.”
“I’ll allow you to compose a message to your son and daughter. But you won’t be able to receive a reply and this will dip into your karma.”
The soul flickered in happiness as it said, “Great! Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Actually, now that I think about it, I have another question.”
GOD seemed to smile as it asked, “Why am I asking you questions when I should already know where you want to go?”
“Ya… That’s what I was about to ask.”
“I blocked off my ability to see your future, it makes it fun to see what you do in your next life.”
“Then how did…”
“Know what you were going to ask? Or finish this sentence? When you’ve been asked the same thing enough, you just kinda know when someone is going to ask it again.”
“Oh…Okay.”
The soul flickered again as it asked, “So I can use my karma to make any world I want? Even if it’s a fictional world? Like a comic book world, or from an anime maybe? Or would that even work?”
“Yes, that works. Just so you’re aware, for every work of fiction made, there is actually a world out there for it. So what world would you like, a comic book world maybe?”
“How about the world of Naruto?”
“You can do that, but you won’t have enough karma left to do much else. Creating a new world takes a lot of karma. If you don’t send the letter you could easily pick a Kekkei Genkai, where you want to live, the time period you are born in and a few other things. As of now you only have enough to pick a time period for your birth which is the cheapest option.”
“I can’t give up writing to my kids, I need to let them know I’m okay. Is there a world that would be cheaper to make, that I could still get some perks?”
“Not really, most of the karma will be used to create the world unfortunately.”
“Well what about joining an already created world?”
“That would work, but most worlds will follow canon and be hard for you to change if you wanted to. Canon worlds love to correct themselves to fix canon. You would literally be fighting the will of the universe if you go to one. Some people like that sort of thing though, so you can go to one if you want.”
“Oh, so I would be forced to follow the story canon and wouldn’t be part of the main cast or something? Even if I had strong powers?”
“Pretty much. But it’s always entertaining to watch people try and fight canon… Actually I do have a world I could send you to that hasn’t been used yet.”
“What’s the catch with it?”
“The main one is that it's already been created. Most people like to customize their worlds, so they won’t pick a premade one. It’s a Marvel universe, Earth-199999-AU.”
“Earth-199999 is the MCU, so I would be going to the MCU? But slightly different?”
“That's correct, someone made this world and after it was made decided to go somewhere else. The world has been in stasis waiting for a host to start it. It does come with some very specific things though. Things that if you wanted to change would use up a lot of your karma, since the world has already been created. It’s why people just make their own worlds instead, since it’s almost the same cost.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll take it. But is there anything I need to know?”
“No, I think the starting point in the timeline should be fine for you, I do see one thing you’ll dislike with how the world is set up. But you don’t have the ability to change it unfortunately.”
“Could I ask what it is?”
“No. Even if I told you, you wouldn’t be able to change anything. I will let you know the original creator set it as the starting point of their hero journey though.”
“Alright, I’ll deal with it when it happens I guess. Tell me more about the world instead, anything I should know?”
“It is a big mix of MCU, X-men, comics and movies. But some of the more annoying things were removed by the maker. Stuff like the Legacy Virus, Sublime and many other things that would make your life terrible were removed from the world by the creator. But keep in mind, your starting point is set. You can’t change when you are born, or who you are born to.”
“So all I need to do is select my powers I guess?”
“Yup, have anything in mind? I know Superman's powers in Marvel tend to be popular. All the positives and no green rock weakness. Still issues with red sun weakness, but we could change that with your karma.”
“Well I always liked the idea of chakra and all the techniques they used in Naruto. Plus Fūinjutsu was interesting and I always thought it was under utilized in the show. Maybe the Uzumaki clan did some cool stuff with it, but it was never really shown in the show or anime. Would I be able to make a super power out of stuff from Naruto?”
“That's… Not what I expected you to do. How do you want the power to work and I will figure out if you have enough karma to make it possible.”
“Well I would like to start with a good base, so how about a body like Hashirama Senju so I can get into sage mode easily. But I also want a Rinnegan at some point, so maybe a body mix of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.”
“Oh! Obito’s Kamui is really nice, I would kinda like to have his eye powers. So maybe have his eyes I guess? Could we also mix in a bit of Uzumaki bloodline to get that slow aging and huge chakra pool? I know Senju kinda has the same thing but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
“That isn’t hard to do actually. But why don’t you just ask for the body of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki? You would get pretty much everything you want that way.”
“No, he has those horn things and the third eye in his head. That’s a no from me. Who wants to look like a pale goat anyways?”
“You know you can change your appearance during this right?”
“I… Shit I didn’t think of that. I guess give me the best body I can get and I’ll fix it when we’re done.”
“Good. Now as for eye powers, you can start with Kamui. But the rest you’ll have to work for if you want to unlock them. You’ll also have to activate your eyes, they’ll not come unlocked for you.” GOD said.
The soul shook in happiness as it said, “Great, Kamui is awesome and the ability to unlock more eye powers is cool… Oh shit, I forgot about blindness. I know unlocking the Rinnegan can cure the issue, but what about Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan? I’ll need extra eyes to fix that.”
“No, you don’t. There’s a way to skip the eye transplant and get the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. You just need to practice a lot.” GOD said.
“Practice a lot? What would I practice?”
GOD patted the soul as it said, “It’s fine, you’ll figure it out sooner or later. By the way, there’s also an issue with sage mode. Marvel doesn’t have natural nature chakra, so sage mode will be hard to do.”
“Fine, I’ll figure it out myself.”
“As for sage mode, could I just use universal energy to activate it? Maybe tweak sage mode to use that, instead of natural nature chakra? Also would I even have chakra myself if I’m in Marvel?”
“Switching to universal energy for your sage mode will be fine. It will also work with your fūinjutsu, any seals you make or etch into items will use it instead of nature chakra.”
“Now to your other question, part of your powers will be chakra and it will be unique to you in the universe. Other people might have some form of it already, but yours will be special to you alone.” GOD said.
“Sounds good to me. Oh, about chakra. Will I start with a lot? Or will I have to train it and make more? Kinda like in the show.”
“Of course you’ll need to train it up. But you’ll also have access to it as soon as you are born. So you can start training and making your chakra pool bigger while you have nothing else to do.” GOD said.
The soul shook slightly as it asked, “Great, I can train as a baby that way. What about nature types? Can I get all of them? What about kekkei genkai? Can I get some of those also? I mean I will have eye powers, but what about wood release? Storm release?”
“Affinity for all nature types is easy to do. Also Kekkei Genkai are not what you think they are. A true master of all nature types should be able to use something like lava release or magnet release. You’ll just have to figure out how.”
The soul shook with the thought of a new challenge to master before it asked, “Okay. So then what about ninjutsu, fūinjutsu, kenjutsu, taijutsu and other things like that? How will I learn that stuff? Just figure it out on my own? Or could I get a cheat, like all the knowledge from the world of Naruto?”
“I can easily give you all the knowledge from the world of Naruto… But there are drawbacks to doing something like that. You will also have to train for your skills to be useful. You might have all that knowledge, but without lots of practice, that knowledge will be useless to you.”
The soul seemed to miss GOD’s warning as it excitedly asked, “Really, all of the knowledge? So I get Dust Release or Flying Thunder God Technique? Or even Lightning Release Chakra Mode?”
“Yes, but you will still have to train them. I am just giving you the knowledge, you’ll still need to practice them.” GOD said.
“What about the tailed beasts? Or something like chakra metal? That probably won’t be in Marvel, right? What about summons, like the toads or snakes?”
“You don’t have enough karma to make those things work in an already created world. But chakra metal is another story. You can easily use other metals as a substitute for chakra metal. Something like Vibranium should work just fine as an alternative to chakra metal. You will just have to experiment and find out what works and what doesn’t work in the future.” GOD said.
“Also, you are pretty much out of karma to use. It’s about time to write your letter and then I will send you on your way to your new life.”
“Wait, I still need something to keep mind readers out of my head. At least I think I do… Right? That seems like the smart thing to do… Maybe I can do it with seals and some ninja techniques?”
“You’re correct, with seals and some of the knowledge you have. You should be able to block out some Telepaths easily. As a bonus, all of your memories from before you are born into your new life will be blocked. Only you yourself can share them with other people if you want. Even though most reincarnators consider doing something like that taboo.”
“Alright, I guess I am ready to write that letter… OH! I need to change my appearance! I don’t wanna look like a pale space goat!”
“Actually, you don’t have enough karma. Mostly because the other creator already made the looks of your new body. But it’s fine, your new body should be alright. Unless you wanted to be a centaur in the only place that matters?”
“I just wanted to… WAIT?!? WHAT?!?”
GOD laughed for a few moments before it said, "It looks like that didn’t even cross your mind. Tell you what, I’ll take care of your looks. I really don’t like the emo edge lord look the other person was going for. Don’t worry, I got you, little buddy.” The little soul floating in the void almost felt like the existence in front of it was doing finger guns at them for some reason.
“...”
“Alright, time to write your letter. Just think of what you want to say and I will get it sent for you. It can be as long or as short as you like.”