AN: Due to a series of events that happened in his personal life, Wuji can longer write fanfiction. Though I managed to persuade him to give me his stories, so that I may continue where he left off. So, I'll try my best to emulate his writing style and do his stories proud!

"Satou Kazuma-san, welcome to the after-life. Unfortunately, you have died. It might be short, but your life is over."

The boy awoke to a plain white room. Really, it was almost clichéd.

In the room was a set of office desk and chair, and there sat the one who so callously stated such a ridiculous and frightening thing. If there were any sort of divine entity that existed, that form would suit it. Her beauty was one that surpassed any human limitations, so much that it was inhumane. Perfection should not exist, but somehow that concept applied to the goddess in the shape of a girl.

With silky blue hair and curves in all the right places and a youthful beauty, she should be an object of admiration. The hagoromo she was clad in gave off an unearthly feeling. It only made everything more suspicious in the boy's eyes. Such things should not exist, and if they did, they wouldn't possess or understand any of the 'common sense' of humanity. That, or getting too involved in the works of Kinoko Nasu was making him paranoid.

The Divine Spirit, for what else could she be, blinked her eyes which were the same aqua blue color of her hair, staring at the boy as if awaiting some kind of reaction. His mind tried to recall the last thing that happened...

It was rare for Kazuma Satou to venture outside.

In order to purchase a limited first release version of a popular online game, he decided that sacrificing a few hours of sleep to queue up early was worth it.

Society addressed people like him as hikikomoris, and he didn't care. The price of social stigma was somewhat worthwhile in exchange for the ultimate act of escapism. Sure, he's labeled as 'a burden to society' and all that, but it never really mattered in the end.

Like millions of other people in this country and billions of other people on this planet, he was going to have been born, been raised, lived, grown old, and died, all without ever having once left the 'box'. The 'cage'. The prison with a thousand names – 'society', 'the human condition' and 'common sense' being the best-known examples.

His games, novels and other entertainment proved a brief reprieve from the constraints of the box.

An endless, grassy plain under an endless, brilliant sky, stretching out to

the horizon in every direction

And how could the dull, uninteresting world inside the 'box' compare to that – an idealised fantasy, further removed than anything else in the universe from a world which could not allow itself to be both happy and mundane?

After acquiring the game, it was time to enjoy the spoils. Of course, as per Murphy's Law, something prevented Kazama from doing that.

'The first world hazard of staring at your phone as you cross a road.'

After seeing the lights turn green, the girl didn't bother check the traffic and crossed the road, ignoring the old adage of 'look before you cross'.

A large shadow loomed over her, like the shadow of her inevitable departure from this world.

Really, it shouldn't have concerned him. After all, death is unavoidable. It happens every day, with millions taking their final breaths, perhaps been hurled into the void a little earlier than they would have liked. But even he wasn't nihilistic enough to let someone walk to their death. After all, wasn't that a noble ideal: to grant salvation to all those that need it?

'Hah, what a foolish idea.'

Of course, this could just be a dying dream, a half-assed hallucination conjured up by oxygen deprivation as he bled out.

"… Can I ask one thing?"

The goddess nodded in response to his question.

"Please go ahead."

"… That girl… that was knocked away by me, is she still alive?"

If that girl survived, it would be his first and last worthy act, something that benefited the life of someone other than himself.

"She lives! But her injury was bad, she fractured her leg."

"I see."

Seeing the boy acting relieved, the goddess tilted her head and said:

"But, she would not had been hurt if you didn't knocked her away."

"…What?"

"That tractor would had stopped before hitting that girl. That was expected, it was just a slow tractor after all. That means your unnecessary meddling by acting like a hero made things worse… Pu he he!"

Just as he expected. Even in this dying dream, he was still mercilessly mocked.

"Tractor? Not a truck?"

"That's right, a tractor. If a truck was speeding towards that girl, she would had noticed and got away."

"How did I die then?"

"You died from shock. You thought you were run over by a truck and went into shock. I had been doing this for a long time, but you are the first to die so unnaturally!"

'…'

"Because of your close call with the tractor, you lost consciousness, shat yourself and were sent to a nearby hospital. In that order. As the doctors and nurses were saying 'What's with this guy, how useless– (lol)' amidst laughter, you did not regain consciousness and your heart failed…"

"You bitch, you're almost as bad as a certain fake priest! Are you the goddess of evil or something?"

The girl walked to his side and cupped his ears, smiling deviously.

"Your family had reached the hospital, but before they felt the sadness from their loss, they couldn't help bursting into laughter after hearing your cause of death…"

'I see now. She is truly a Divine Spirit, holding such a distorted view of the world. So she delights in partaking in my suffering then? I'll show her!'

Looking down at the murderous scowl on Kazuma's face the girl covered her mouth and laughed.

"… Well, that ends my de-stressing session. First time we met, Satou Kazuma-san. My name is Aqua. I am a goddess that guides young people who die in Japan… Now, putting aside how funny your demise was, you have two options."

'let me guess, some kind of 'an offer I can't refuse', right?'

"First would be reincarnating and beginning a new life. The other option would be staying in a place sort of like heaven and live the life similar to an old folks home."

'How laconic'

"Eh, well… How is the place that is sort of like heaven? More importantly, what do you mean by old folks home?"

"Heaven isn't as great as you humans imagined. You don't need to eat after dying and won't be able to make anything naturally. There aren't any ingredients or necessities for you to use anyway. I am sorry if I disappointed you, but there is nothing in heaven. No television, no manga and no games, there are only other people who died before you. And since you are dead, you can't do anything kinky, you can't since you don't even have a body. The only thing you can do is bask in the sun with your predecessors and chat. Forever."

He kept his face impassive, waiting for the inevitable offer.

The goddess snorted at his attempt to seem impassive and said:

"Hey, you don't want to go to a boring place like heaven right? But asking you to let go of all your memories and start again as a baby is the same as

erasing your existence since your memories will be gone. And so! I have great news for you."

'… Is she trying to emulate a used car salesman?'

"Do you… like games?"

Apparently, there existed a parallel world that had a demon lord who constantly besieges the human population with his army. There were magic and monsters in that world. Simply, a stereotypical fantasy world.

"The people who died in that world were killed by the demon king army, and were very afraid, saying they don't want to die like that again. And so almost all the people who died rejected reincarnating in that world again. More specifically, that world would end if this continued, since babies would cease to be born there. Hence, it could be solved by sending the dead from other worlds over right? That's how it is."

'That doesn't seem sustainable.'

"And since we are sending people over, we should find people who died young and still yearn to live, sending them over with their original body and memories. It would be meaningless if they died immediately after going over, so we will grant a privilege to all those who are going to that world, allowing them to take one thing they like to that world. It could be a powerful ability, an exceptional talent or god level weapons… What do you think? It might be another world, but you can live once more. For the people of that world, someone would appear who could fight immediately. How about it? Isn't this great news?"

At this moment, Aqua showed him something like a catalogue.

"Please choose. I can grant you one and only one power that would match any person. It could be a powerful unique ability. For example, a legendary weapon. Come, it can be anything. You have the privilege to bring this one thing to the other world."

After hearing Aqua's explanation, Kazama took the catalogue and started browsing it.

… On it were 'unnatural strength', 'super magic', 'holy sword Arondight', 'demon sword Murasame'… And all sorts of Noble Phantasms and other things.

Faced with such a large selection of choices, the ex-hikikomori was feeling slightly intimidated. Instinct born through countless hours of comparing the stats and costs of equipment and skills in games forced him to consider each one carefully. Some may have pre-requisite conditions in order to be wielded… While weapons were effective earlier on, usually thaumatology has more potential applications and diversity… Of course, there must also be restrictions on magecraft to consider.

"Nah~ hurry up~ it doesn't matter which one you choose. I have no expectations of a hikikomori gaming nerd, can you just pick one and be on your way? Anything will do, hurry up~ Hurry up~"

Concentration born out of countless hours of ignoring the nagging of his parents allowed Kazuma to ignore the bitching of the goddess.

"Just hurry up and choose~ there are still many dead souls waiting in line!"

Aqua sat in her chair as she spoke, munching her snacks without even looking at the boy.

Scanning through to the end of the catalogue, something caught his eye. It was crossed out, but he could clearly see 'Kaleidoscope' printed on the page.

There was no hesitation. He slammed his index finger on the option-

Space screamed.

Time shattered.

In his mind, a gate to the「 」opened.

He screamed aS EvERytHiNg aNd noThINg –

The mind of a mere human cannot comprehend the notion of infinity and non-existence. This is why most magi are subsumed by the Root, the Origin of all things when they reach it. The ones that avoid this fate become what is known as Magicians, those who achieve the impossible, who spit at the laws of the universe and transcend divine might.

Before the one known as 'Kazama Satou' become one with the root…

'Gate of Akasha, open for me.'

He was pulled back by the indomitable will of a man who slew the Moon.