Death was surprisingly an easy experience compared to the things that came beforehand. Even though my life always seemed to go easy it really didn't. I was too young to remember the years of poverty my parents pulled themselves out of. Grade school always seemed to be a breeze despite the ADHD and bipolar problems. Got into a good college of choice right off the bat and dropped out in a year because I never learned to study. Wandered several dead end jobs at minimum wage before ending up in unemployment at twenty only to learn despite all the jobs I've worked I still don't have a single legitimate skill on my resume. I struggled through a welding certificate and after that things got a little better.
I made relatively good money welding though I was never a true materialistic person. I had always made my happiness wherever I found myself though I did have a few vices. I was a big time anime buff, I had watched so many series by the time I left high school I would forget their names. I never watched or read all of the big names all the way trough but once I got into fanfiction I would go to watch specific key plot points. For example I watched the naruto episodes of the sage of six paths and kaguya otsutsuki but the only part of the battle with madra is the clips I see in amv and gif. I would read so much fanfiction though that I could sometimes pick up the entire concept and quest line of video games I have never played.
Even though I never spent time exercising or socializing I was contempt and living my life. As I raised enough money in a special fund every once in a while I would go back to college and pick up some new skill. I took thing like cooking classes and advanced chemistry, I learned to program and hack just about anything, and I learned how to work with just about any material known to man to make clothes. I was officially self sufficient and I may have been ugly and alone but I could take care of myself besides my vices kept me company.
As a welder I would do big jobs from time to time like a bridge or a condo but they aren't the majority of my jobs. Generally I'm fixing cars or building furniture, or even installing things like safes which was exactly what I was doing on my last job. I tried to convince the manager of the gas station convenience store that doing the job at night was a bad idea but he wouldn't hear it and demanded I come at eleven so I wouldn't disturb too many people.
It all happened pretty quick. I didn't notice the guy until he had busted the manager over the head with his gun. The manager was some eighty something white dude and he just lands right beside me bleeding from the head. I didn't even get to turn around when next thing I know I'm lying on my back on the other side of the counter. I didn't really feel much after that. All I really noticed was a emptying feeling and hearing a muffled bang offset by another even larger bang that was actually more of a boom. After that I just accepted things as they were as I stared into the ever increasing warmth of the fires. But despite all that none of those were what did me in. It wasn't until the light fixture above me fell that I died.
I knew the second it happened that I was dead. It was pretty easy to tell with the endless expenses of absolute nothingness. I kind of slowly drifted along in random directions as if I was suspended in a really thick gooey water. I can't really say what it looked like. To be honest I don't think the void was on a level of human comprehension. No it was not an endless darkness nor was vast plane of white, it was simply beyond my comprehension.
This was my existence for a time that became undeterminable due to the nature of my environment. When the end of my stay came I was actually a little surprised. It wasn't sudden but due to the fact that I believed this to be where my soul was meant to stay in wasn't expecting to leave. It was peaceful in the void and I for some reason enjoyed way more than I should have. My body first seemed to settle in the expanse as if slowly sedimenting to the bottom of a pool. Laying there was kind of nice finally being stripped of the worries and drama of the world.
My exit from the void was short. As I went from resting in a space not meant to be habitable to being lifted softly into the embrace of a surprisingly motherly embrace that carried me out of the void into another indescribable space. I didn't get a good look at the new place as the second I could think to take in my surroundings the place changed to become my shoddy American apartment in the middle of the worst crime district of the Northwest.
I took a moment to observe the place finding it just as I had left it with the exception of a single figure standing in the middle of the main room and kitchen. The figure stood firmly on the line between male and female aesthetics and was quite good looking. It's hair, because the being was obviously not human and remained genderless until proven otherwise, was a sheen of white that simmered a rainbow pattern of white. The skin was an unnatural pale that couldn't be compared to any human race. It was robed in a garment that seemed to emit a light that would simply be reabsorbed by the outfit in a way that could only be described as a dress being woven of both pure unending light and all encompassing darkness. The beings eyes were closed but when I moved to get up they opened to reveal what looked like solid gems made of light. At this point I decided to avoid labeling the presence with an age as I could never accurately guess however it was obvious the image of a cute small child.
As I stood up the being that pulled me from the void eyed me as if it was measuring me up only to come to the conclusion that no matter what it sees that I am all it will ever get. Despite the condescending look I honestly could understand the thought. I am at the end of my prime and despite being fit would never be earning any sports awards. I had a medium frame built for a specialized mix of speed and power. I was fast enough to safely run from problems that I could identify and had just enough strength to do my job easily and in the event of an emergency wedge myself through a fight due to the neighborhood I lived in. I was a sloppy mix of Chinese features and German size with hints of American in various places.
I stood facing the entity before me for a few moments vehemently refusing to be the first to speak. Eventually it spoke in a voice that made me decide to label the childlike being as a young girl if only for ease of thought.
"Well I don't know what I was expecting. Despite you being from outside of my knowledge and presence only those that can't be catalogued to a specific afterlife end up in the void. You weren't enough to get into heaven or he'll and your deeds and thoughts were simply too chaotic to have a fitting reincarnation. All in all you have been labeled as an anomaly not worth the effort. I just happened to catch you adrift the void that encompasses the multiverse. As a life from beyond my presence I have much to learn from you. So to resolve this I am going to create an imprintable copy of myself and attach it to your soul before sending you to one of the universes that I regularly observe consciously. "
I wasn't sure why she bothered but nodded anyways as I firmly believed that arguing with what was capable of pulling me out of the void was a bad idea. I didn't have a body but I certainly felt the extension of myself that embedded itself into my soul before I hit the ground in what looked like a dirty England alleyway. Before the excruciating pain of my mind merging with the clone of the entity that dumped me there. In an instant I knew everything that the strange girl knew while still maintaining myself as the clone and I connected in mind memory and conscious.
Now knowing that I was in what could only be described as a bad fanfiction I had to get my bearings to know where and when I am as well as properly prepare for what could only be the plot of an online story that I enjoyed so much before the void. What came next could only be told as a turning point in a meager existence.