"Watch out!"

Those words exited my mouth almost effortlessly as though they were completely separate from my own will. What am I even doing. I thought to myself. I had no time left but felt as lucid as I could ever be. It was almost insulting to be able to process the situation I was in while being completely unable to do anything about it. In front of me was my outstretched hands, and on the receiving end was one of my students, whose expression demonstrated their own lack of understanding of the situation so far. It was only natural unfortunately, since that was part of why I ended up here in the first place. The chief problem however, was to my right. That sure is well polished. The driver must be really proud of it. 'It' being a large semi-truck's front end, which would soon be the receiving end for me.

Without any warning , my brief moment came to an end and the world resumed. My vision went dark.

I felt weightless. Or maybe I was weightless. That's odd. I've never been a big believer in the afterlife, but maybe its a thing after all? I tried to get a bearing on my surroundings, but none of my five senses were picking anything up. This might be a very boring afterlife. I shook my imaginary head. No no no. It's no use being so pessimistic. I just need to calm down and see if I can figure out what's going on.

I tried to once again exercise an imaginary sensation, this time of opening my eyes, and for a moment it seemed like a ray of light shined in. What!? I wasn't actually expecting anything, so it caught me by surprise. Emboldened by the discovery however, I quickly tried again. This time, the effect was far more pronounced, and just like that all my senses returned to normal. I was slightly afraid to find myself a bloody mess, but as far as I could tell, I was unharmed with not even a scratch on me or my clothes. What was more striking was where I was. Long gone was the street where I had met my apparent end. Instead of the harsh sunlight, a soft and wavy light descended from above only strengthened the underwater feeling from the landscape below. It practically looked like the side of a boat, covered in muscles and other shelled creatures, except for the fact that I was far, far smaller in comparison. Crawling over and amongst the shells were various crabs of similar sizes. Spider crabs, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, things that looked like crabs that I had never seen before, and- Is that a coconut crab? Also, horseshoe crabs aren't actually crabs so why is it here. I had always been a fan of biology books growing up, so this was an enjoyable sight to see such an array of arthropods. Maybe this is an afterlife tailored to me then? I was a little bit afraid of the size of them, but still decided to try swimming down. As I did so however, a booming sound began to emanate from a large shell, looking somewhat like a conch.

The conch stood out quite a bit from its surroundings, boasting a beautiful mix of aquamarine and coral pink. The light shining on it brought its beauty forth and it was like a gem standing out amongst everything else.

A conch can make noises on its own? I giggled at the prospect but wouldn't let it shake me and continued to swim down. The conch had certainly captivated my attention however, and I couldn't help but pay attention to it. It almost seemed like it was making those noises with an intent.

"Are you trying to talk to me?"

It felt a little awkward to be yelling this at a conch, but surprisingly enough it quieted down for a moment as if to let me say that, after which it continued to make another quick utterance only to stop again. Feeling like it had left me room to add to the conversation, I tried once again to see if it understood me. "I don't understand what you're saying. Could you maybe make three sounds in a row to show you know what I'm saying?" Instead of any sort of reply however, the conch seemed to go silent, leaving me feeling stupid for thinking I could communicate with it. Caught up with that however, I was taken aback by a sudden swirl of bubbles completely suppressing my view.

"Ah"

Ah? Now surprised by a very human utterance, I didn't get to continue to think about it as I suddenly felt gravity take hold of me and crash me into the floor. I groaned, feeling the blunt pain in my hip and elbow. Didn't seem like anything broke, but I had no idea what just happened. The bubbles had disappeared, and the floor I found myself on seemed far more mundane than the field of shellfish and arthropods that I had just swam over, leaving me once again wondering just where exactly I had ended up. Looking up, I saw a beautiful lady sitting in a simple chair.

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"Are you, the conch?"

It felt a little rude of me to ask this question to someone who had such a stylish blue dress and looked like royalty, but she certainly matched the color palette of that same conch with her pink hair. She responded however, with an acknowledging nod. She then began to speak, quite awkwardly.

"Sorry about all that, I didn't realize it would be a human up next and thought it would be a shellfish"

She hesitated for a moment, her gaze locked onto the walls of the room. They were glass and revealed that outside of this small space was the same ocean floor we had just been in. I guess she had decided to use some sort of power to make this area and herself a little bit more palatable for me as a human being. How thoughtful of her.

She frowned and continued on. "Well if you're here, that unfortunately means you've died. Allow me to take a moment of silence for you to let you process the fact."

"Oh, there's no need!" I interjected. "I kinda already realized that."

"I-in that case I will continue on to the main point," she said. "You dying and ending up here is not what was supposed to happen. Under normal circumstances your soul would be processed and then sent back out into the world, but it seems quite a few things went wrong there. You are a bit of an unusual case in that aspect."

Now sitting upright, I couldn't help but tilt my head in confusion. "So what's going to happen to me then?" Never in my wildest dreams had I expected to be such a spanner in the works for reincarnation of all things. "Does that mean I'm going to be manually processed or something?"

"No," the goddess ,at least I assumed she was one, reassured me on that point. "Such an act would be incredibly painful for you in that state and so it would be wrong to subject you to such a thing.

Haha oh wow. Well, I was relieved to hear that she didn't seem to intend any harm on me. I decided to ask for clarification then on what the plan was, but she beat me to the punch.

"In a situation like this," she said, "you will be given a new life in another world"

Isekai then, huh. Funny how it is.

She continued on. "As a token of apology for the error in your soul processing and to help ensure your own safety in that new world you will be granted an ability that is tailored to you."

I could barely contain my excitement. Ah, now this was modern man's dream! A nice easy life in another world, all brought together by a skill belonging to none other than myself. I could only guess at what possible ability out of the multitude I could think of would best fit me. Caught in my delusions, I noticed the goddess now next to me, holding a rather large hermit crab in both arms.

"What's that for?" I asked. She just smiled and held it up towards my face. Its two eyes, big as tennis balls looked at me inquisitively as it began to foam at the mouth while flailing its claws and antenna off to the side. I tried to back up but found myself locked in place, unable to move.

"You need to drink the froth," said the goddess in a matter-of-fact way.

No no no no! There was nothing I could do, and like that my mouth was now locked with the hermit crab. Certainly not the most pleasant kiss I had ever had, and the bubbles only made it worse as they had fishy flavor like no other.

"Pahh!" I gagged when the beast was withdrawn, finally free to move once again.

"With that," the goddess said, "you should gain your power and begin the process to go to your new world. See, your legs and arms are already started." She pointed at my limbs, which were beginning to fade and become transparent.

"So soon?!" I yelled. I had been hoping to maybe get a little bit more of a tutorial on things, but it seemed I was out of luck. I hung my head in dejection. "well, before I go, any advice? And also, who are you actually?"

She looked dumbfounded, realizing she had not even introduced herself, and blushed upon realizing it. "I-I'm &$*&%(^&$()&*%)"

She sounded like the conch again...

I didn't have the heart to tell her now that she looked relieved to have said her name, and instead introduced myself to her in turn as courtesy. She tapped her chin, now apparently thinking of any potential advice to someone like me.

"I guess, make sure to take care of yourself and eat lots? Your ability should be able to keep you safe for the most part, but don't let down your guard. I won't be able to help you at all but I will be able to observe and I'll cheer you on from here!" She made a cutesy thumbs-up gesture which didn't match her regal appearance. Continuing on in a more serious tone she said, "If there is anything to watch out for, it might be the silver order since--"

Cut off mid-sentence, everything went dark again for me just like when I had just died. Guess we ran out of time.

Now more accustomed to the process, I opened my eyes only to find myself laying in a meadow. This time however, despite the pleasant scenery I was not greeted by something as courteous as the conch goddess.