I tried to live a good life...

Well, better than most, I thought. I couldn't quite recall what I was doing last as I opened my eyes. All I could remember was the pain, far too much of it.

And a red so vibrant it hurt to look at...

But then...

Suddenly, it was blinding, so bright, and yet it didn't make me squint as the sun would. A thought is fleeting and soft.

How long has it been since I've seen the sun?

And my body? My body felt so light. Far from what I was used to. My limbs' heaviness and the widespread pain, which typically consumed my thoughts, were all gone; there was nothing but weightlessness. And Peace...

I sighed, happy if but for the moment for the reprieve. However... I started with a jolt as memories swept through my mind like a movie reel crashing through scene after scene before burning out.

I was watching my own life, and then...vivid red.

It didn't register for a moment. My brain faltered to grasp what was shown to me...how could... I was...

"I... I died?" The word stuck in my throat, my voice echoing into the blank space before me.

How? How did I die? I was only twenty-five! I wasn't ready to die! I wasn't prepared to leave!

A Voice boomed over my head, "of course, you weren't; none of the creatures ever are."

Squeaking, I looked around the white canvased space-- nothingness went on for miles. "Hel-hello?" I called. As if it went on forever, my voice dropped off into the ether.

A soft chuckle, "hello, little one. I have been watching you now for a long time."

I fiddled my fingers together, trying to get my bearings. "Are you God?"

"Your people would call me God, I suppose." The Voice said with humor, "I am sorry that your life has been difficult."

"N-No no! My life has been fine. I have had so much more than other people!!" I quickly waved my hands in front of me to assure the omnipotent presence that I was okay. But I realized they already knew.

I was never genuinely okay.

Pity filled the space and void with words of calm. "You have suffered immensely. And yet, you have given of yourself to others without care or worry."

It was true..." Tell me your name, little one. I wish to hear you speak it to me."

"My name is Takara Tsukamotsu. Taka for short." I said with a polite bow.

"Taka, such a pretty name." The Voice said with a smile thrumming in the syllables.

My mother had given me this name before her illness took her. She had forgone treatment to keep me alive. As if that wasn't enough, on top of being abandoned by my father, as well as her family. I had nothing. But I had Mama, and we were enough. But after Mama died...I was given to the man who had sired me but cared not for the scrap of flesh that was from his own body. I could feel the Voice skimming through my memories with distaste palpable.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"H-he tried." I made an excuse, but my fists clenched.

"There is nothing for giving excuses to the cruel." The Voice scolded. But then, gentled, "you always had a way of trying to see the good... little Taka. But there is no excuse..."

... No... No, there wasn't. My marks were not on this body, and I glanced at my limbs, puzzled. The marks I had kept hidden so well, scars from the many weapons that had left evidence of my living state...and scars from the verbal and emotional backlash that only I could feel but knew the Omnipotent being speaking could see all too well.

But if only that were the only crime. I clenched my eyes shut and felt tears drip down my face. "I-It was my fault." I cried out. "He-he said so," gulping I hiccuped as I wiped my face.

Before me, a woman clad in a gold and white kimono settled her feet upon the floor, long black hair twinkling with starlight, her keen eyes holding golden orbs. She had a mix of sorrow and love within her gaze. And it was all for me.

"Little kit, it was never your fault." With the touch of a mother, her lips pressed to my forehead. A flash through my mind, touch was usually wrong. So wrong. But this...this was like my mother I used to daydream about. Memories danced about us in the space, laughter, playing, having my long hair braided by gentle hands.

"But the cruelty of them knew no bounds." Ablaze within the woman's eyes. Ah yes...from the time I was 10 to 18, I feared the dark and the monsters that were all too human. Hands were reaching, and the terror of someone who could not fight back.

"My dear sweet creation." The Voice that was everywhere and nowhere soothed, "no innocence lost is the victim's fault. An evil like that had no use walking that world."

The kimono-clad woman nodded as she held my chin within her palms to make me look at her.

I recalled all the avoided relationships, the nightmares, the fear.

When I had nowhere to go.

When I had no-one to turn to. My gaze bubbled over with more tears of sorrow, which the woman wiped away with soft fingers.

"You did your best." The Voice said softly. "And your death is not in vain. I have pitted myself against The Wheel of Fate and fear I was too late to intervene on your behalf."

I couldn't recall what this Voice spoke of. But at the moment, I didn't care; it was just too much to process. "W-what happens now?" I asked.

"Well, you have a choice." The Voice said. "Either Reincarnate to the world you left, I shall place you with a kind and loving family, you shall never want for anything through your lifetime." A pause, "or...as a special gift and privilege. I would place you as a Messenger of the God that is before you within another World. A God that resides in this one and the other has taken a liking to you. And it is much like the one you left, but harboring magic and spirits. Think of it as Parallel as your people call it." A bright smile flitted across the woman's face at the words spoken, and she nodded.

"I would very much like you as my own." She whispered to me. "My little kit," she added with a brush of fingers through my hair.

I blinked, "so....wait, another world...what like Multi-Verse?"

A laugh came from both beings. The Voice was chuckling as it spoke, "amusing, how much and how little mortals know. It is similar enough where you are easily able to be moved over. Normally, you would simply cycle back into your world." The woman glared at what appeared to be empty space, the Voice amended. "But alas-- I could not subject you to another path of potential harm. And, so I shall gift you with immortality, and higher capabilities to be able to defend yourself from all forms of life Demon and Human and Creature alike."

The woman was fanning herself with an intricate folding fan. She smiled and nodded to me before disappearing into the surrounding blankness.

"Demons...Ayakashi?" I asked, tilting my head. "Yokai?" I had been an avid manga and Anime Otaku, along with being obsessed with anything creative. Given what I had already experienced, meeting an Ayakashi didn't even seem that scary.

If anything, humans were the real monsters.

"Of sorts, there they are called Daemon. What would you like to be?"

"I-I can be anything?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. Anything you wish. Consider it the first of many a gift."

I paused. "I-I want to help people. I want to be happy... I want to live a long and happy life," I cried. "And I never want to know hunger again!"

The Voice had paused. And considering what I said, for a moment. A chuckle. "Very well." It said. "Starting today, your new life shall begin."

Another kiss at my brow, "I look forward to it, little kit." The woman's voice was like a drug, and with it, I fell into sweet oblivion.