Chapter 1

In an abandoned alley behind Satozakura High School.

There lay an unconscious boy. From top to down, he was covered in blood and bruises. His uniform was in tatters and covered in blood.

It was a gruesome sight. If a faint-hearted person were to walk by then would faint at the sight. Particularly at the sight of the boy's formerly handsome face which was swollen and covered in dried blood.

Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately, this was a friday behind the school. No one would be coming to this place for quite a while.

Not that many people would come here even when school was on.

This was a notorious spot where bullies would drag hapless students to have fun.

This boy called Junpei Yoshino is one such frequent student. In fact he is the resident favourite victim because of his appearance and lack of friends.

Junpei being shy…. no, lacking self-esteem, was introverted and lacked any real friends. He was on good terms with 2 other students from the film club he started but after the incident with Shota Ito in the club where they bailed on him to save their asses. Junpei didn't really consider them his friends.

Naturally without someone to have his back he was an ideal victim.

Not to mention that Junpei was quite handsome. He also had an aura of mystery and indifference around him.

Many girls were attracted to him.

This naturally infuriated the bullies. All of whom except for Shota looked like apes.

Today's beating which resulted in Junpei's current condition was also the result of a hideous case of envy among teenage boys.

In today's class, Junpei was paired with Tsubasa, a somewhat cute girl with a massive rack. Junpei didn't know but Tsubasa was among the many girls who found him cute. Taking this as a lucky chance, she tried flirting him. Crossing her arms under her chest to puff up her already bountiful brests, she spoke with a sultry voice. But Junpei was like a block of ice. All her charms were unable to so much as even a brief glance from him. Their pair was the first to finish the experiment after which Junpei disappeared without even a single goodbye.

Tsubasa was utterly embarrassed. And later this shame turned into fury. Wanting to teach Junpei a lesson she manipulated a trio of local bullies.

The ape trio with 'righteous' indignation run out to defend Tsubasa's honour.

Eventually there was a confrontation behind the school, in which Junpei was no match for the bully. Not that he tried to defend himself.

Junpei had the shit beat out of him.

As usual Junpei had a late sudden surge of defiance. With sudden strength from an unknown source, Junpei blurted out the harsh truth that no one wanted to acknowledge.

Naturally what followed was an even more vicious beating that resulted in Junpei's current form.

Junpei was at death's door.

The irony here was that Junpei, being the introverted teenager without any self-esteem, was ignoring Tsubasa not because he was indifferent towards her but because he was too nervous to talk to her.

Not to mention, she was clearly trying to seduce him. Junpei was trying his best to hide his boner. Which despite his average stature was quite above average.

In fact the first thing Junpei did after escaping from the bathroom was relieve himself with a vigorous session of self-pleasure.

Not wanting to use the school wifi for such a task, Junpei relied on his vivid imagination and the kind inspirations from Tsubasa-san.

[===Background end===]

Slowly the sunset on the horizon.

But even as time passed, Junpei showed no signs of awakening.

His condition had only continued to worsen.

Then suddenly a crack opened above Junpei out of which exited a small glowing ball.

As the crack healed itself, the glowing ball rotated as if turning it's face.

"I finally exited the void?!!" emerged an excited voice from the ball.

This was not a simple glowing ball. This was actually a soul that had died. As it had died, unknown to the soul there was someone nearby being summoned to another world.

As that someone was being summoned the barriers separating dimension had a 'hole' for just a fraction of second.

This hole connected the world to the void that existed between dimensions. The void was just a fancy term for the space between dimensions.

In actuality it was no different from the space between planets inside a universe.

Meaning it obeyed the same laws of physics. Thus when the hole opened instantly all matter, material and immaterial, started flowing from one side to another.

As the hole existed for just an instance, It was too short for anyone to notice but it was enough time for a recently deceased soul to be sucked in.

Unlike the summoned person, the soul had no spell to guide it to a destination so it was left to aimlessly wander the void.

Slowly time passed.

Seconds turned into minutes.

Minutes turned into hours.

Hours into days. Days into weeks. Months. Years. Decades. Century. Millenniums.

An immeasurable amount of time passed.

Wandering the void, the soul experienced all manner of things. The nothingness of the void. Its boundlessness. It's loneliness. It's horror. It's beauty.

All of these experiences had a profound impact on the soul even as it gradually lost its sense of identity.

One day as it was slowly drifting through the void, the soul started getting pulled by an unknown force.

It had been caught in a spatial storm.

But the soul didn't panic. It had long ago lost its ability to panic. Panic is the instinctive response to the realization of a threat to something precious.

The soul had nothing precious to lose. Not even its own life.

The soul had long ago stopped valuing its life. If anything it wanted this torment to end.

Unfortunately this was impossible in the void.

As it let the waves of the storm pull it long, the soul didn't realise that it's deepest wish was about to be granted.

This storm was the same phenomenon by which it had come to the void in the first place.

There was a hole in the barriers of a dimension and as matter flowed from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration, it formed a wave. But as the flow of the wave was so strong it had become a storm that was pulling everything and anything into it.

- Present

"I finally exited the void?!!"

As the soul uttered these words, it started crumbling.

This was the natural order of things. Souls without a body to protect it would crumble to dust. Realizing this, the soul saw Junpei's body.

Noticing that it didn't want to die after the torture it had endured, it rushed towards Junpei's body to merge with it.

The moment it entered Junpei's body, it noticed the presence of another soul. Instantly the two souls started clashing.

The soul is the EGO. The conscious.

It controls the actions of the body.

To give an example, if the body is like a car. Then the muscles are the wheels. They move the body.. The brain is the steering wheel. It gives direction to the wheels. The soul is the driver. It determines which direction to the move in.

Naturally, one car cannot have two drivers.

Moreover, a normal body can only house one soul.

Both souls realised this. It was an instinctive realisation.

They knew that they had to fight in a battle and the victorious soul would devour the defeated soul.

The soul from the void realised this but didn't want to clash. Originally it was a gentle soul, this was something event the void couldn't remove.

It could never bring itself to hurt others for benefit. Not to mention that in this case, it was clearly the one in the wrong. But it also didn't want to be devoured especially after the tortuous journey it had.

'Could we merge together instead of devour the other?' the soul thought but unknowingly projected.

Junpei's soul also started pondering the question.

As both souls were thinking this, the natural law that was forcing them to clash, as if sensing their intentions, started pulling them together.

Under the influence of nature, the two souls were squeezed together until they started crumbling.

Thick cracks started forming on the surface of both souls.

Both were experiencing unimaginable pain.

Soon both souls were completely covered in cracks.

Then with one final push they both turned to dust.

Slowly the dust started to coalesce into a large ball. It was much larger than either souls and far more viscous as well.

Success

Both souls had merged successfully.

Outside behind the school, Junpei slowly opened his eyes.

'Was the merge successful?'

As this question emerged, two sets of memories flashed through his head.

Unconsciously a grin emerged on Junpei's face but suddenly it turned into a grimace.

Junpei looked down at his bloodied body with a heavy grimace. He felt a stinging pain from his ribs, legs and arms. His whole body was badly hurting.

The only reason Junpei didn't groan in pain was because he had just felt much worse pain during the soul merge.

Snuffing out all the excitement from soul merge and its implication, Junpei schooled his features as he decided to return to his home and treat his injuries first.

"Goog thing mom's away for the week. She would freak out if I came home so late covered in blood." Junpei thought out loud.