If I had to begin the story of my crazy ride to another world, I would definitely start from the day I died.

....

Two military trucks pulled over at the sides of a three-story shady looking-building. Soon, heavy armed soldiers raced to get out. All wrapped in bulletproof black fabrics.

Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!

The usually quiet area was interrupted by the sudden upheaval. The sound of racing footsteps with heavy boots filled the area. Those footsteps were accompanied with the sound of metal weaponry clattering.

“Fuck!”

What should I eat tonight?

“Get the hell out of this place!”

Salad? Um, no. Today is a big day. Meat it is.

“How the fuck do those people get to us?”

But wait. I just gained two pounds recently.

“Hey! What is this?”

Hmm.

“They just stand outside the building.”

It can’t be help. Today needs celebration. Let’s eat healthy tomorrow.

“Somebody! Somebody is inside the building.”

Didn’t I just say that yesterday? I'd probably say that again tomorrow anyway.

“Only one?”

"When did he get inside?"

“Those police really do making fun of us, thinking a single person could handle this.”

Hmm? So noisy.

Bang! I kicked the door open.

The smell of gun powder hit my nose. All I saw was bunch of explosion laid on the floor and the dumbfounded expression on these wanted criminals.

"Hello suckers!" I screamed.

They rushed to their gun but I was faster.

These people were crazy. They would voluntarily blow this place up. For them, it was better to die here than to rot in cells. That was why the government needed someone like me to play this role as the other agents waited for my signals. Yes. Only the most capable was worthy of this.

I pulled what I named as the showdown of the year. With my two newest prototype of extremely powerful handguns, I hit each and every one without missing a beat, landing hot leads on their foreheads. My hands were too fast for their untrained eyes to follow.

1 second

2 seconds

3 seconds

9 people died. Their blood wet the explosion around. Now, it was all about the stench of iron. What if it was exploded? Will the heat evaporate the blood? If so, wouldn't the air smell foul? I wondered.

"Dragon 1 to Phoenix, I have secured the explosions, over." I said to a transmission device.

But instead of a 'copy that', screaming female voice echoed out of the transmission. "Hey! Wake up."

"Huh? Phoenix, do you copy? Over."

"Wake up, Man."

"Stop joking around, over."

"I said wake up!!!"

Then, thunk. I lost my balance. Rather than falling to the bloody floor, I fell to an expensive ceramic floor. It was no longer the explosion storage room but the usual pub I went to.

It was a dream.

I actually fell asleep on my chair after swallowing my feelings away with glasses of blue margarita.

What made a super busy man spent his only one day off on a pub, drinking until dawn despite working in the morning? The answer was betrayal. Those higher-ups promoted my junior as a major. Again. It should have been me. I was a prominent agent, the very determined one. How could I not when I even worked in my dream? Yet that junior was apparently better according to them. So here I was, drinking to drown the bitterness in my mouth.

I looked up to meet a drop dead gorgeous, feminine yet bold female. I assumed she was the one who hit my head. Her green emerald eyes shone despite the dimly lit room. Her clothes was way too sultry and dreamy to be inside this formal looking pub. She looked like what you would imagine a fairy goddess was, stunning, too blinding to look at.

"Finally," She snorted.

"Who are you?"

"Eh? You don't realize it?"

I was too busy feeling my throbbing head that I didn't realize something was odd. The atmosphere was too uncanny. I looked around. What I saw set my head on fire.

“Huh?” I jolted.

The bartender didn't move. People were frozen in place. The flickering lamps decorating the interior didn't flicker. There was none of the usual slow-paced jazz music, not even the sound of the air conditioner running. Everything didn't move as if someone just push the 'stop the time' button.

The woman clapped, “Congratulation! You've finally noticed. You're dead!'” She seemed extremely overjoyed while sprouting nonsense. Her reaction was rather over the top. I wasn't a good judge of characters, but I can't never be wrong when it came to acknowledging another loose-headed fella.

“What is this?”

“Well, it's like I said. You're dead.”

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“No, I am not. Who are you?” I said anxiously.

As if it was an everyday stun, she lifted her index finger sending my body to the air and guiding me to a chair.

Too much to process, my brain started to overheat.

- I am nobody.- she smiled, not the kind type of smile.

I was taken aback from that sentence. Not because of the content but because of the sound. The feminine voice I heard was no longer. The voice that came out of that female body was neither one of a man nor of a woman. It sounded like hundreds of voices overlapping together.

- I suggest you to keep quite while I am explaining a very important matter. Can you? We don’t have much time.-

I could see it in her eyes. That was not a suggestion. It was a command. As soon as I nodded my head, she smiled. But it didn't ease anything inside me.

- Ichinose Haiga, you are dead at the age of 35 years, 5 months, 3 days, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 10 seconds of heart attack.-

Heart attack? Me? Is that even possible?

- You're an alcoholic. You should expect that. You're young. Normally, a little alcohol wouldn't be a problem. But, this is not okay, Haiga. You've been consuming alcohol very diligently.- She sighed.

- Let's see.- She grabbed the air, and a piece of paper appeared in her hand.

Did she just grab that out of nothing?

She scanned the paper for a while, -Um, this is a lot. Anyway, in short,- She threw the paper back into the air. It hovered around for a second before it was on fire and disappeared.

-Your mother was dead before you turned 5. Your father and grandmother raised you but both of them died not too long ago. Your father was abusive. Thanks to him you lack of empathy to others. I must say; being on a special armed unit suits you well. How many people have you killed with those hands? Even now, your skin smells like blood. In your defense, somebody has to do the dirty job, right? You don't have any choice. You was rotten by this world. What do you say? This world is trashy, isn't it.- She sipped my leftovers blue margarita peacefully as if what she said was an ordinary conversation between friends and not a story of a loser's life.

I knew it. I knew what kind of life I had been living. I had been in slump for a really long time. All those killings took a toll in my mentality. She didn't have to put it that way. Now, my heart was heavy. All that bitterness I swallowed with alcohol came back kicking my drunk head. I thought I had sobered up.

“What is your point?”

- I come to see you from so far away after 3000 years, yet you don't remember me. It's no fun. Well, I can't blame you. I confiscated all you previous memory.-

3000 years? What the hell? Confiscated what?

- Hence, to smooth our negotiation, I am giving them back.-

Her eyes suddenly sparked thin curve lines, distorting the spaces nearby. I felt electrocuted. My body was stiffen, and my head was spinning. I saw memories. I couldn't comprehend them at first, but I could feel them all close to my heart, or rather to me. So massive, so heavy, so real, I dropped to the floor, grasping for air. Something choking me, maybe the overwhelming feelings I saw in the memories.

- How was it, champ?- She laughed, chest busting and chin lifting. For the first time, that expression of her was real. She did enjoyed me got choked.

What a weirdo.

- You're mean. I am no weirdo. I came here to get my paycheck.- She twisted her lips all annoyed.

What the hell? She can read mind.

I sat back up. Emotion bubbled inside me, like a pot of boiling water.

“This is bullshit.”

-Why don't you believe it? You've seen the stuff.-

“How can I believe such a-” I stopped talking as I just realized something. That boiling emotion was not a negative respond. It was the boiling of excitement. I didn't tremble as if I had been waiting for this moment all my life. The most overwhelming part was that those memories were no less than real. I could feel the memories screaming through each and every cell of my body.

I guess they really were my memories.

-They are all your memory from your past lives. I lost count on how many of them. You have been alive, dead, and alive again for more than 3000 years. You have been in so many lives. You can even say you've been everything.- She slammed the table with her palms, not because of anger, but excitement.

“So you've been enjoying them?”

- Enjoy? Cut it out. You're underestimating yourself. Your lives are the only thing that entertain my eternal boredom.- I could see stars emitted out of her eyes.

“I guess you’re right.”

- 3000 years ago, I came to annihilate Earth. That was when I found you, a very interesting soul.- She continued. -We made a deal. I'll let earth go if you agree with my plan. I can even recite the deal, 'I'll have mercy on Earth if you agree to be sent away to destroy my enemy.' You said yes. I asked you to wait for 3000 years, as my plan will only work at that exact time. But I don't understand. You could just sleep in the dimension of the death but here you are living for 3000 years’ worth of reincarnation. Sorry to stop this hobby of yours, but today is the day I am initiating my plan.-

I remembered this women. It was even ridiculous to forget her in the first place. I met her many times. Each time I was about to die, I met her. She would stand near where I let out my last breath, watching me with that exact smile. For example: She was squatting across me when a pack of coyotes gnawed on me: She was standing beside me when I bleed to death in a Nazi concentration camp: She was looking down from the second floor when I was tortured and raped in a sugar factory: She was singing loudly when a lamp fell on me during my last performance as an opera singer: She was eating next to me when a terrorist bomb was blown literally six feet away from my reservation table at a fancy restaurant: She was walking down the street when a truck run over me after I couldn't control my bike: She was even there when I died quietly in my bed because of old age.

Every time I died, she would end our 'reunion' with a wink. A blinding ray would struck my eyes, and I would open them in another set of life without no memory of my previous life. It was a constant cycle that happened for 3000 years. I've seen her enough. I didn't have the same amount of fear towards her anymore like I did during our first encounter. In fact, I was mad. I felt ridiculed when she smiled casually, meanwhile I was being eaten by death itself.

'You son of a -'

-Hey, don't be mad. I have let Earth go. I didn't touch it and will never touch it. I am a man of my word. I swear. I just want my paycheck.-

I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of saving the world, bla, bla, bla. I've seen enough shows with this trope untill the point of ridiculous. I was not a hero, and would never play as one. So why the deal came to me? If it was really me, I wasn't sure I would say yes. But still, this feeling inside of me was awfully screaming. I didn't understand why.

“Strangely, I don't remember why I agree with that deal. Even if you send me away, you really think I could 'destroy' your enemy?”

-Remember or not, it's not my problem. I only asked you to destroy my enemy. You're the most selfish soul out there. I saw you killed countless souls these 3000 years. You can killed anyone if you think you could safe what yours. Don't negate me on this, cause I know you so well.- A glint of terror was visible in her eyes. Her ill intention was so define, it creep up on my skin.

“Talking about confidence, huh?”

-I am sure you can. That's why you're interesting. I have good eyes, you know? Look. I need this, apart from the entertainment. What do you say? I can force you out if you refuse, but it would hurt your pride. Aren't you a prideful man?-

Although I had the supposedly disposed memory, there was no trace of why I made the deal. Despite that, even without the memories, my soul was shaking. As if I was happy to fulfil my promise.

“I guess every debt will due.”

She smiled, this time even bigger.

-I take that as a yes.-

“But wait. Who's exactly your enemy? Is it some kind of a king, a demon lord, or a hero that I have to kill?”

She bursted out laughing, hands on her stomach, and eyes watering. She didn’t calm down until her face was red. I just sat there dumbfounded, wondering if I had asked something stupid.

-Hey! You’ve watched too much of those weird anime. Really?-

Oi, they're not all weird. Just some. Some do have shits stories. I didn't watch it though.

“Haha.” I dryly laughed, fighting the urge to be violent.

-I want you to destroy a system.- She said while wiping her eyes.

“A system? Be more specific, can you?”

-It’s complicated. You will know what I mean when you get there. I don’t have much time. Anyway, you don’t have to worry about anything. I got your back.- She laughed for the umpteenth time then got choked with her own saliva.

“You look relaxed for someone who’s in a hurry.”

-My bad.- She fixed her posture and finally looked me with a serious face.

“Then, I’ll wait for a good news from you.-

She winked. Suddenly, it was very bright before it got really dark.

***