Dying was supposed to be like falling into a deep, never waking sleep. Where an eternity of peaceful slumber awaited the individual. A place where their mind or… soul could drift eternally within the eternal void. At least, that was what he thought dying would or should be like. Instead, he stood in a white nothingness which appeared to stretch on to nowhere and forever. It was a plane of existence quite unlike the world where he had come from. Like a blank sheet of paper just waiting for its artist to draw or write upon its surface.

He scanned the emptiness, looking for anything that might determine what this place was, or where he was. But his effort was futile. It was nothing but a void. There were no landmarks like grass and trees, no buildings, no cars… there was no sound other than his own, shallow breathing. Wait… I can breathe? But… I thought I was dead…

“You are,” came a reply from behind him.

He whirled around with a start and standing there was a single, cloaked figure. The entity’s black garments were a complete contrast to the white all around them. Her face was hidden beneath a thin veil of cloth. “If I am dead,” he said. “How am I here? How can I breathe? How do I have a body?”

“All good questions,” this time, it was a male who spoke. His voice was deep like a trombone.

He turned once more and saw the figure. Cloaked and veiled like the first, but big and muscular. Who were these people that they’d just appear out of nowhere in this strange void? What were they here to do? “W-who are you?” he asked.

“Another good question,” replied a different man. His voice was a higher pitch than the first and like the other two, he was also veiled and cloaked.

“In order for us to speak like this, you needed a body,” spoke the trombone. “But bodies also need to breathe, so we’ve provided you with air. Of course, you can also feel and get hungry and thirsty… you can die again.”

“Then what is the point?”

“We needed to speak with you,” said the female.

“Your death was not a natural one,” the thin male said.

“It came out of regret and desperation,” the trombone finished.

He stared at them for a time, bewildered. The three figures had just appeared before him, seemingly from nowhere at all and they came because… they wanted to talk about his death? Gathering himself, he took a deep breath and looked the female in… well… where her eyes should be. “Who are you?” he asked.

She hesitated to answer and instead, glanced at the other two for… permission? The trombone nodded and then the female faced him once more. “The triad,” she said simply.

“We are order as well as chaos. We can create and destroy…. We are the deities of this realm,” the trombone explained.

Deities? That meant that… gods existed. Overcome by this new revelation, he nearly fell to his knees. Catching himself before that could happen, he stood straight and furrowed his brow. If they were in fact, gods as they said they were, why would they come here? Why would they want to speak with him of all the people in the universe? Him who had made his fare share of mistakes, cost others their own lives and him who took his own life because of his regret and self loathing?

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“That is the reason,” the thin triad said. “We are curious.”

“Curious?” he asked. “About why I did what I did?”

All three of them nodded. The female stepped forward and bowed her head. “And… we also wanted to offer you a second chance.”

“What is your answer?” the trombone asked. “Why did you commit that most… unforgivable act?”

He stepped back from them and turned away, pointing his head toward what he could only assume was the ground. Thinking back he… really didn’t know. Why had he done what he did? Was his life really that horrible that he couldn’t stand another minute in the world of the living? He was wealthy, he knew that much. With money he was able to obtain almost anything he wanted but… that he knew, didn’t make him happy. Especially with how he became rich to begin with. “I…. “ he began. “I don’t know… I guess I really was full of regret. I hated the man whom I became.”

All three of the black, cloaked figures stared at him. They remained silent in what appeared to be contemplation. Then the trombone stepped forward. “We see,” he said. “You did some terrible things in your life. Got to where you were by stepping upon the weak. You cared about no one but yourself… not even your own family…. No…. you didn’t even care about yourself, you cared about money and material things. Am I correct?”

He turned around once more and looked into the now, showing eyes of the trombone. A tear fell down the entity’s cheak. But what did he have, to be sad about? “You… are right,” he admitted. Everything trombone said, was true.

“We have come, to offer you another chance,” said the thin male.

“Do you want to take it?” the female asked.

“Another chance?” he asked. “Do you mean… ?”

“Reincarnation,” the trombone said.

Reincar… that was an actual thing? He had heard about reincarnation from various religions and read about it in manga but… never had he suspected even for an instant, that it was a real thing that could happen after death. “W-what?”

“You heard us,” the trombone said. “If you would like the chance to live again, we will reincarnate you.”

He might have said ‘Yes! Reincarnate me please!’ but something held him back. He didn’t know what it was, just that it all seemed too good to be true. There had to be some sort of catch. Like they wanted him to do something in return. Something that might only benefit them. “What is it, you want me to do?” he asked. “There has to be some other reason you are offering this second chance to me, right?”

“Nothing is given for free,” the female said. “Especially not this.”

“We do want something,” the thin male continued.

“This world needs help,” the trombone finished.

“Help?” he asked. Did he mean Earth? And even if it was, how could he help? “I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Are you talking about Earth?”

The trombone shook his head. “Not Earth,” he said. “A different world entirely.”

“It is in danger from a deadly war between two races,” the female said.

“You need to stop it,” the thin male finished.

The trombone stepped closer to him and raised a hand, forefinger pointed towards his forehead. “You will be reborn, not as either of those races, but as a fantastical beast instead. Smart, intelligent and magical to some extent. We want you to live as if this is your only life. Do things in this one, that would help to make up for the terrible things you did in the last one. Save people… and all life in that world.”

He had no chance to respond, before trombone’s finger touched his temple. An intense wave of vertigo enveloped him and he swooned. Darkness took him and he lost all sense of being. This… this was truly what death should feel like.