Chapter 1: Interdimensional

A bitter-sweet taste filled the inside of the boys mouth as he regained consciousness, not knowing what was happening.

His breath was shallow. Amplified like a jet engine in his head, a sharp ringing continuously battered the inside of his ear.

Doing the best he could, in a slow and shaky manner he opened his eyes to a blurry scene. A puddle of blood the color of scarlet seemed to form around the floor. His body was sprawled and his chest touched the cold road.

'Ah...,' thought the poor soul, his eyes and ears slowly recovering from the constant noises, 'I'm... dying.'

Remembering now he even got into the situation, he couldn't help but feel the bitter taste in hus mouth grow. Just another freak car accident.

A sudden sadness, yet shivering and stiff, came over the boys body like it was being pumped with water. Oddly enough, that feeling turned into an uneasy smile on his face. If someone were to meet eye to eye with hun they would think have thought he was crazy.

He could now clearly hear the sirens and voices around him. The murmurs and gasps were the only things he could wrap his head around.

Doing his best to stay awake, he found himself unable to move, paralyzed would be a better word for it. Slowly the fear began to creep up quicker again only knowing very well that death was inevitable. Not fast and not slow either but enough to cause a slight insanity to coil around his heart.

As if the gods resonated with his feelings he hear a familiar voice loudly call his name, "Xeno! XENO!"

An old man appeared in front of me, landing hard against the ground, tears filled in his eyes. Instantly he knew who it was, feeling comfort and fear from just seeing the old man there.

Along with him were some men in professional clothing, paramedics.

'Old man.. why are you here?' I thought. I didn't want him to see me in this sorry state, especially after all he had done for me.

"Stay with me Xeno, an ambulance is here," the old man said trying to comfort him, his hand and voice were shaking as he touched my face.

As if on queue, I was quickly and safely lifted onto a stretcher, and rolled into an ambulance. I hadn't felt a thing clearly numb from top to bottom. A loud silence filled the truck as my senses began to get weaker, the old man jumped on as one of the paramedics closed the door and the truck began to move.

Once again, the old man started to comfort me as the paramedics began to work.

I gladly accepted his comfort only knowing I was too far gone to be saved. Nothing could possibly be done. The injuries would be too severe to treat, I could feel it in my guts... literally.

Only now did I wonder how long I laid on the road before waking up. Trying my best to preserve my energy I gave a weak glance toward the old man as he wept uncontrollably.

The old man, Iwao Eichi, is my guardian and landlord. Closing my tired eyes, I silently thanked the old man as I was put under a sedative, a sleep I wouldn't wake up from. Doing my best not to worry too much I gathered the rest of my energy to continue breathing but that wasn't helping with anything.

In my thoughts, I began to go through my memories almost as if I were traveling back through time. I was like a specter floating through space and time.

Going back all the way to the moment when I was with my parents in a car, heading towards an impending doom, an unforeseeable one. Watching as the innocent boy played with his caring parents. Laughing as my father told his corny jokes and my mother saying something back. It was a warm memory.

It didn't last very long. Just within moments, the younger me raised his arm as if blocking something and pointing. I turned my ghostly body just in time to see a car speeding towards ours not even showing a sign of slowing down.

As the vehicles were about to collide, I flinched opening my eyes only to see the memories moved toward the aftermath of the incident. I lay in my seat in the car, unconscious.

Firefighters quickly broke down the car door grabbing me while shouting out orders, they then grabbed my parents not knowing that it was far too late for them. Like a puzzle, I began to remember clearly that it was reported my parents died instantly after the collision.

Everything became a blur, this time I was at the funeral of my mother and father. My parents' colleagues from when they worked as marines comforted the younger me, who bawled his eyes out clinging on to his parents' caskets asking them to come back. I could only stare and watch as a lump seemed to start tugging at my heart.

Once again, without warning my memories moved, this time it was at the orphanage that I had stayed at after my parents' death. Their was no one, not a single relative I could go to. By then, I was 9 coming to term with my parents death and there I faced the old man, Eichi. At the time I looked up at him like a grumpy old man who towered over others and gave a strong leader type aura.

The old man had adopted me due to the fact was a good friend of his fathers long before he was even born, back when they lived in Japan before moving to New York. My father was neighbors with the old man and often did favors for him before Eichi moved here.

I thought the old man dressed strangely with a more outdated look. He wore a kimono and he always told me the "olden days" had a better taste in clothes.

At first, The bond I had between the old man felt superficial but they slowly began to look like grandfather and grandson as time began to pass. I found himself relying on the old man when I needed it most and I took care of the old man as if it was most important thing to me.

A sudden realization hit me. Who would watch over the old man once I was gone? What would happen if I do make it? How am I still thinking right now? Why am I this unlucky?

My thoughts began to become a jumbled mess when in a moment everything became a bright white color. I looked around confused. Inspecting myself realizing I was in my tattered and bloody clothes, and yet, here I was standing up straight and moving perfectly fine.

Without a skip of a beat I let out a disappointed sigh. 

"So this is what comes after death?" I questioned looking around the vast space. I had to squint thinking I would go blind just by looking around the illuminated area.

The area wasn't glowing but the bright white seemingly made it look as if it was.

Once again like a hungry mosquito my mind started to wander to the old man, Eichi, worrying about what would happen to him. I looked down on the floor lost in my thoughts.

Suddenly an almost teasing chuckle resounded throughout the white domain. Slightly startled I fell backward wincing I landed on the ground only to quickly get back up.

"You still manage to think of others even while you are dead," stated a voice, "that is a good personality to have."

Slightly distraught, I began to look around. The voice seemed disembodied as if it was coming from all angles.

"Who are you, are you god," I asked," and.. by dead.. am I actually dead?"

"Oh?" the voice resounded around the area, "well you are surprisingly more accepting than others, I'd have expected you to at least think your dreaming."

"Well, what else can I do?" I stated, struggling to keep my emotions in check, "yell at you and sound like a dumbass? Are you god or something? An angel? Death?"

"Mmm, a version of death I guess," the voice said, "Also you still look like a dumbass, but yes you are in fact dead, you can also call me Rein, a god of reincarnation."

As if on cue, a human figure began to slowly assemble in front of me, similar to how a wisp of smoke would appear.

Within moments, in front of me was a slightly plump average American-looking man. The man was completely dressed as if he were on a vacation to Hawaii. He held a wine glass in his right hand shaking his left as if saying ta-da. All the while floating in mid-air. 

I admit it wasn't what you would expect a god or higher being to look like. I looked at this self proclaimed god, Rein, wondering if other immortal beings are like him.

Rein landed on the floor silently, walked a few steps, then grabbed my shoulder as if welcoming to his reality.

"Let's get straight to the point, shall we? I, representing as a Caretaker, was sent by an Obysiare to reincarnate you to one of his worlds," claimed Rein as he let go of my shoulder.

"O-bis-ee-air..." my voice almost seemed robotic. "Well whatever the case, why am I getting the chance to get reincarnated?"

Before speaking, Rein took a sip from his glass, "Well, to be honest in the world that we are sending you to... let's just say it's very rare for reincarnations to be allowed the right to enter this world, think of it as me implying that you play an important role to this world.. how you play that part is up to you though! We aren't ones to control the fates of others.

"It should be important for me to tell you that the Obysiare or main god of this next world said you can keep your memories, another thing is this world is what I would call ~up to date~... that is to say it hasn't been looped and we aren't sending you to a past version of this world we are sending you to the very recent reality of it. This means there is no written future which is why I said it is your decision in how you affect this world."

"Wait wait, do you mean you could send me to a past world if you were ordered to?"

Rein raised one of his eyebrows, "you better not be getting ideas but yes, I could... I could also do it on my own as long as I'm representing as an Obysiare for my selective worlds which I watch over. The thing is, it would make more diverging timelines of the branch I changed making more splits to the World Line, it is changing the past after all. Let's stop talking about time, I really hate the concept of it."

"I wasn't getting ideas, I think it would be best to leave the past alone, or time itself.. actually, about the old man I lived with, will he be alright in the future?" I asked, dead serious about getting an answer, "I need to at least make sure he will be fine before you send me to wherever you want, and can you please explain what an Obysiare is?"

Rein grinned, "I'm glad you're still taking this in calmly, and yes, the old man will be fine in the future of your world. Moving on an Obysiare is what we call the immortal who owns certain worlds so if I owned the world I was about to send you to I would be the Obysiare but I'm not making me the caretaker since I'm basically helping run some errands."

"I do own other worlds though. If that is all, we've wasted enough time, why don't we start the reincarnation process?" Rein opened his arms wide as he asked me clearly starting to lose patience.

"Well, there's not much I feel like asking at the moment," I said being slightly hesitant at first. I decided to comply as some of my worries have already been answered and reincarnating didn't seem all that bad.

"Great, then we can get started."

Rein quickly made a movement with his left hand as if grabbing something from the air and just like that a pen replaced his wine glass and his left hand held a yellow scroll. He opened the scroll and a glow of gold aura shattered from it like a magician or mage. I prepared myself knowing everything I knew about reality and life was about to be changed and distorted.