Reincarnation [4]

People had their fair share of beliefs and theories about what happens after death.

Well, when we look at things at the physical level, you're buried (or burnt) until you decay and become food for the worms.

But what about your conscious, the so-called soul? What happens to it after you perish?

Nothing happens. They say it's all black; you simply cease to exist, like before you got conceived. You won't even know you died like how you can't know you fell asleep/unconscious.

Some believe your soul goes to either Heaven or Hell depending on your virtues and sins.

Some say your soul is wiped of its memories and gets to live again as another person (from birth) of the same/different world.

About the multiverse (which could also be linked to our dreams), your consciousness, along with/without your memories, would be transferred to your other self upon death.

...Some believe your soul reincarnates into an animal body. And on rare occasions, you keep your memories during that reincarnation. Must be tragic...

All in all, death COULD be the preservation of souls... And it comes down to what you believe in...

I had these thoughts as I walked home from school, and after 15 minutes, I finally arrived.

I shook the black umbrella to rid the remaining water droplets, entered the house, took off my shoes, and went upstairs to my room.

I locked the door as I threw my bag on the bed, took off the maroon blazer and hung it.

"Haah..." a sigh of exhaustion escaped my mouth as I sat on the bed's edge.

A gas-operated, semi-automatic pistol was currently in my bag. Shooting at speeds around 470 meters per second with .50 Action Express bullets.

I don't know which variant it was, but it was sure to penetrate my skull at least.

I took out the grey Desert Eagle and made sure the golden bullets were inside the cartridge.

Anyway, hanging myself sounded painful, the same went for poisoning, drowning, and suffocating myself. So I couldn't do it as I feared physical pain. Falling off a skyscraper, laying down on train tracks, or letting Truck-kun do the job sounded gruesome to do.

So I was only left with using a gun. One pull on the trigger and it was lights out. It was a one-shot kill and a surefire way of painlessly committing suicide.

The only problem was how to execute it.

'Should I put it in my mouth, or my temple...?'

I couldn't exactly decide.

In the end, I decided to pin the muzzle against my right temple.

'...Unlike my defective son...'

Yeah, well, let's see how you grieve for your 'defective' son.

Although the rain was crashing outside, the Desert Eagle's fire would still be audible for her to hear it; very clearly at that.

With my index finger slowly pressing the trigger, I felt the corners of my lips curve upward.

'Haah... I can't believe I'm smiling at a time like this...'

I hadn't smiled for as long as I could remember. So for me to smile like this... from excitement? Yeah. This would be the first and probably the last time that I play with chance...

'Well, this is it. Goodbye Earth, I'm not going to miss you.'

With that as my final thought, I, Bryan, went out with a loud BANG!

---------

I found myself laying in a wonderful garden full of different coloured flowers. Despite it being bright as day, there was no sun, only the clear blue sky. I was still in my uniform, so that was good.

'Is this purgatory...?' I guessed as I sat up.

"No."

A voice of utter bliss resounded, followed by the materialism of a woman's body in pure white robes.

Stunning, absolute beauty.

In her late twenties, she had long wavy pink hair, pink eyes and a heavenly body. The look on her delicate face was enough to render any man senseless. I don't know my standards regarding a person's appearance, but she was indeed a beauty.

She gracefully perched on the grassland in front of me and stared directly into my soul.

An unfathomable being now sat before me. I couldn't discern her at first glance.

"You are in a different plane of existence. And this is where I live, a place separated from the physical world," she explained.

'Hmm... I see...'

So in a way, it was kind of like heaven.

"I cannot seem to sense any emotion from you, why is that?"

"Ah..."

In my current situation, I suppose a person might be confused or scared of the thing they did to themselves.

But I was different.

Emotion was something I honed to have control over. So I was in full control of my emotions, and right now I was devoid of them.

"...It's just how I am,' I replied. "Who are you?" Though I had my guesses, I asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I am the Goddess of Beauty."

Figures. A mortal couldn't possibly possess such beauty.

"Seeing how you brought me here, you should know my background. So, what's the deal?"

A mortal like myself doesn't just have the privilege to confront a heavenly being such as her without some kind of business. Also, shouldn't my physical body still be on Earth...?

"In your moment of death, I pulled out your astral body in hopes of reincarnating you," she revealed.

Then my aim has been achieved, though yet to come. But her words were a guarantee. No way a Goddess would lie, right?

She continued, "So I will grant you one ability of your choosing."

Wait, what?

"Uhh... Will that be okay?" I had to confirm and she nodded.

I don't know how she will do it, but this was great.

As a person who likes the dark, I could go for shadow manipulation. It'd be great to leap and travel through shadows, store items in them, and maybe even immobilize my enemies with them.

As a winter lover, I could choose cold manipulation to freeze my foes from the inside out, create vast fields of ice, achieve absolute zero and so much more.

Or as the epitome of laziness, I could go for Belphegor's abilities as the sin of sloth. Strike my enemies while in a peaceful sleep I put them in, or make them do stuff for me as I am naturally lazy...

That all sounded good, but...

"Warping," I said my desired ability without hesitation.

I had to choose something which was most compatible with my strength, and that was my mind.

"..."

"..."

Realising how I was adamant about my choice, the Goddess spoke up.

"...That ability is too powerful. So let us settle this with a round of rock-paper-scissors. If you win, I will grant you that ability, but if you lose, I will pick options for you to choose from."

Rock-paper-scissors, huh... Of course, I never played it before. I never thought I would get to play with chance this soon, though...

I gave her a doubtful look as it was the only way for her to read my intentions.

"There is no need to worry. If you manage to win, I cannot take your ability back," she assured.

Well, that's how she interpreted it.

We both held out our right hands and began.

""Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!""

I did it without much thought, and it turned out for the better. We both drew rock.

Now things were getting interesting as a draw was the best outcome to determine the opponent's next choice.

She might have hoped that I would stick to rock and choose paper, but that was unlikely as she too might have the same thought and counter me with scissors.

Depending on the person's nature and personality, it was easy to win rock-paper-scissors albeit with a high success rate.

A Goddess might be canny and counter me with scissors, so next, I would stick to rock...

""Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!""

She took a moment to ogle at her loss as her smile faded.

"T-That's...! T-This's i-impossible...!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

I contradicted my thought of choosing rock and went with scissors instead.

I happened to be canny myself. If she really went with scissors, it could've been a draw and my loss could've been too unlikely if I chose paper.

Worst case scenario could've been her sticking with rock, but the chances of that were highly minuscule.

I leaned forward and raised her chin. Her white skin felt softer than cotton...

"It seems like you thought too little of me, and I thought too highly of you..." I said with a smile as I pierced deep into her pink eyes.

"Ah... Uhh... Umm..."

It didn't seem like she had communication skills.

"Don't break out of character. You're wondering how you lost, right?" I let go of her and returned to my initial posture. "Let's just say you were too confident in your abilities."

To elaborate, it was her first appearance.

She answered my question even though I merely thought of it, and to cover that, she discreetly answered my inner questions.

Which could only mean one thing; she can read minds.

I purposely limited my thoughts to further prevent her from ascertaining my intentions.

Next was the idea of using rock-paper-scissors to solve this important matter that could potentially lead to a world's downfall. Like, it was just a simple game that humans play to rid of their boredom.

"Rock-paper-scissors was the only thing I could think of," she said.

Well, I suppose there wasn't much she could choose from anyway. A Goddess of Beauty might have limited powers to put me on a trial or something, and it wasn't like she could read my emotions either, to check whether I was good or bad.

"I can assure you, I will not use my powers for evil," I promised.

Anyway, back to the point. She simply chose rock-paper-scissors because it was advantageous to her as she would only read the opponent's mind to discover their next choice. The delay time too was a dead giveaway as she gave me enough of it to plan my next move.

But I used that to my advantage instead, outsmarting an otherworldly being and getting the win.

"I can't believe I lost to a mortal..." she lamented, unknowingly dropping the formality. "Ah!"

"It's okay, you can speak informally with me," I gave her the green light.

"I can't believe I disgraced myself before a mortal," she chuckled as she covered her mouth with her right fingers.

"Let me take a guess—you were going to pick shadow manipulation, cold manipulation, and the sin of sloth as options, weren't you?"

"Ah! H-How did you know...?" she portrayed a wry smile.

It took a moment for her to realise that I mused about them earlier...

"I have to admit, you're incredible," she complimented. I somewhat took pride in that. "What did you imply by 'I thought too highly of you '?" she added with a question.

"Ah, that," I leaned back and looked up in the sky, "It's just, a Goddess using underhanded tactics didn't seem to fit you at all, especially one as cute as you."

"C-C-Cute...?! Y-You don't mean that at all!"

"Check again."

"Ah...!"

She did her emotion-sensing thing and found out I was truly speaking from the heart.

I slowly approached her and said, "It doesn't seem like you could ascertain my thoughts while I was still living."

Because if she could, she could've known how my mind worked and been more cautious when dealing with me.

"...Yes...I could only view you from afar..." she muttered, averting her eyes to avoid eye contact.

"I see..." I softly uttered as I pulled the side of her smooth hair to the back of her left ear, exposing its redness.

She gently closed her eyes as I slowly brought my lips to hers, her sweet breath tickling my nostrils.