Gin Soto sat alone in a dark room. The occasional click of the mouse was the only sound, his face illuminated by the dim glow of the screen.

“How long have I been awake,” He rubbed his eyes, he felt tired. Squinting at the numbers in the corner of the screen, he let out a heavy sigh. “Time really flies when you have no reason to count the seconds.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, he had to go to work tomorrow, or was it the day after? He needed to open his eyes to check, but he just felt so tired, unnaturally tired.

“Just for a short while.” He let go, sinking into a deep sleep.

-

Gin Soto had died.

He wasn't sure how he knew that. He didn't remember dying, he remembered being tired. But right now he felt no such fatigue. His mind was still hazy but he knew two things for sure, he was dead and that he was tied to a chair.

Why was he tied to a chair? He pulled at his restraints, thin red threads that were no thicker than hairs, yet no matter how he pulled at them they didn't show any sign of snapping. He tried to twist his hand around so he could try to loosen them.

“Morning!”

Startled by the voice Gin jerked his head back up. Standing a short distance in front of him was a small, dainty looking girl. She had long flowing hair that reached her waist, draping her frail body in a cloak the colour of autumn leaves. She wore nothing besides a single large shirt that barely covered her waist.

“Morning.” The room he was in was pretty empty, aside from the chair to which he was tied to, the only other piece of furniture was an unremarkable wooden desk. On it sat a little name plaque, which read;

'Eldro, Divine Protector and Goddess of the planet Fara'

Eldro followed his gaze to the plaque on her desk. She turned back to him, smiling. A small clipboard materialized out of thin air and dropped into her right hand. “Gin Soto?”

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“Yes.” He gestured to his restraints, “Could you remove these things, they are kinda uncomfortable.”

“I'm afraid the restraints have to stay on, standard operating policy. Can't have souls thrashing around, screaming how they can't die yet, 'I had too much to live for'.” She chuckled, turning her focus to the clipboard, “Which leaves me kinda surprised that you can act so calmly about it.”

“Not like I was planning to live forever. I'm already dead, thrashing around isn't going to change anything.”

“It might.” She stared at him expectantly, he just stared back, “You're no fun.” She turned back to the clipboard, nodding every once in a while. “Right. You're probably wondering why you're here, I've brought you here to give you a second chance at life. You see, even as the people Fara are in the middle of a new golden age, a great calamity, that I may or may not have caused, is approaching.”

“Wait, what?”

“The time is ripe for a hero to appear, to prepare the people to face their first trial united as a...”

“One second, what was that last part?”

“It's not my fault! How was I supposed to know that fantasy worlds just spawn demon lords every once in a while? I thought it was part of my job to airdrop one of those things in every few hundred years or so.” She lowered her voice, muttering bitterly, “Well having two demon lords isn't that different to having one, but, uh...”

“But?”

“They... they mated.”

“They mated.”

“Yeah, so there's like seven or eight of those little fuckers down there.” She took a deep breath, forcing a smile, “But I'd like to focus not on the problem itself, but the solution. So what do you say? A chance to be reborn as the Goddess's champion and save an entire world from the apocalypse.”

He thought about it for a moment, Eldro didn't really seem that reliable, but in the end what other choice did he have? “Sure, can't be worse than being tied to a chair for eternity.”

“Excellent.” Her eyes began to glow red, a soft hum filled the room. She raised both her arms, crackling with arcane power.

“Wait, right now? Don't you think you're rushing things a little.”

“Nah. Hold still.”

-

“Ugh,” Gin slowly shook himself awake, finding himself laying down in an open field. Getting up he scanned his surroundings, in the distance, he could make out the outline of trees, but aside from that nothing but the pale blue sky.

A soft wind blew in from the west, pushing a bit of his hair in front of his face. His eyes widened, his hair wasn't the black that he was used to, but a dull crimson. The grass rippled in the wind, brushing past his legs and something more.

“A tail?” Gin spun around in a circle, trying to look over his shoulder. Protruding his rear was a long tube of flesh, covered in scales the same dull crimson as his hair. He looked over the rest of his new body, the rest of him looked human.

Yet he froze, noticing one more thing that was very clearly different. He slowly moved his hands to his chest and squeezed down, feeling something soft.

“Breasts?”