Prologue

Curtis Walker and the Will of the Living

Hey, friends beyond the 4th wall.

I am Curtis, though I'm perfectly fine with Curt or Doc, as I am (was?) called by my friends or patients. You wanna know my backstory? Well…embarrassingly enough, it is as bland as they come. You see, I was born to a loving family of four, so nothing special there. I was a good student throughout my youth, but no prodigy. I had a stable job, a stable marriage and three amazing children. I didn't even get Truck-kun'd… in fact, I lived a full life and died in my sleep at the age of sixty-nine… maybe that's what makes me special?

I also did not have any superpowers or secret lives or inner chuuni moments. The only weird (?) thing about me was my fascination with video-games, fiction, anime, manga and fanfictions, which kept going strong even after (especially after…) I ended my medical career.

Why, then?

Why am I stranded in this void, in what feels so much like a cookie-cutter isekai! gamer! OC scenario?

Honestly, I feel like I have been here for way too long. I've already gone through my five stages of disbelief (grief? eh, whatever) and have come to terms with the end of the last (first?) chapter of my life… still, whatever this is seems to have no end in sight. Honestly, if you haven't figured it out by the way I addressed this monologue, then yes, I'm bored. BORED.

Please, for the love of God, can something happen anytime soon?!

Something happened.

"Open your eyes," I heard a faint, melodic, feminine voice, as the edges of my vision started brightening and I started regaining awareness of my form.

"Open your eyes," it repeated, stronger.

"Curt, open your eyes!" and again, even stronger…and my world was dominated by pure, bright light. If only I knew how to express my emotions of sheer bewilderment and amused annoyance (don't bother, I myself can't make sense of my emotions) at the very Zelda wake-up call I just recieved... Maybe the fact that I was now able to feel my body again (without the weakness I have been used to for the past few years of my life), as well as the fact that said body was submerged in some kind of fluid which I could even now feel receding (...a very Zelda wake-up call, indeed)... but which was still above my mouth; kept me from opening said mouth and letting loose a string of colorful words for fear of swallowing the fluid.

Eventually, the fluid receded below my face level, and I did open my eyes, to find myself lying down inside a strange cavern. "You have got to be kidding me, whoever you are…" I muttered as I got up and looked around.

"Not completely, Dr. Curtis Walker," the voice rang in my head. Turning around, I couldn't find the source, or anything besides the dark, circular room (with no visible escape routes) which I was in the center of. It continued, in a markedly less princess-Zelda voice, "We admit to deriving some amusement from modeling this sequence to a particular memory of yours; but we did need to reverse the effect of time on your body while deepening our connection to your soul, so you had to be submerged in a bed of Soul while we… operated.

That warranted a "Huh?" from yours truly.

So the fluid I was submerged in…was soul?

"Soul, with a capital S, Dr. Walker," the voice replied, amused.

"... Why the capital S?"

"Prepare yourself for an obligatory info dump," the voice addressed me, and probably the 4th wall too, in a slightly teasing tone…

"Like all energy is matter and all matter energy, all souls begin and end in Soul. No soul completely understands this, but the closest they have come is in the saying 'God resides in everyone.' All living beings are fragments of the Soul. All emotions derive energy from the Soul. Soul is the glacier connected to the river of time. Soul is the sea at the end of the delta of time."

This was decidedly confusing, but… "You mean, Soul is essentially the one true God, and everyone is a part of it?"

"Time is less, and much more needs to be said. Question us not Doctor Walker… for it will all be explained in due time. Measures have been taken to have you remember everything being said here when you leave the timeless isles"

Not seeing any other alternative, he simply nodded, and the voice went on.

"With genesis of the realms, energy was repurposed into various forms, ones you know of as planets, stars and the like. With genesis of all life, the Soul, which was in its infancy, broke into countless fragments of myriad sizes and makes. Each of these souls bound itself to a physical entity and entered the flow of time. All souls received a different amount and proportion of emotional affinities. Most souls simply did not receive enough energy to attain sapience. Of those which did, most did not receive enough of a balance to be able to achieve sentience. Amongst the sentient souls, most had a melangé of emotions that amounted to an overall neutrality, capable of leaning towards either the light or the shade. However, there were some… aberrations."

"A few aberrant souls had a substantial inclination towards the shade. An even fewer amount had an inclination towards good so bright, they became beacons of light whenever they went. The rarest souls are the ones overflowing with selflessness, love, sacrifice and a desire to do good."

"Time flows somewhat like a river, whose every point has a glacier and every point has a delta. There is no true beginning, and no true end. All souls join the river in their own starting points, leave from their own ending points, and rejoin from their own return points. Like in a mundane river, every stream has a set course, all souls have their own course in the flow of time. While inside the flow, the soul interacts with all the other soul streams around it. As a result, it loses some emotions, it gains some. Some emotions get sharpened, while some get blunted. Around the river of souls, the various 'worlds' you know of develop."

"Unlike the rivers you might think of, the temporal flow is near-unchanging. All souls are infinite, after all, and have been flowing through the same paths for time immemorial."

"We, are the Soul".

As the monologue paused dramatically, I had a chance to catch up to everything I had heard till now, and even though I was almost certainly confused about almost everything, I did realize that what I was hearing was probably the 'de-facto' God of, well, everything. And I had just been given a lot of knowledge about souls and time. Also, I will probably have a way to recall everything I'm hearing right now, so will probably be able to understand everything… But why am I being told all this?

"All in due time, Doctor. When we were in infancy, we had a balance of every possible emotional energy in us, making us truly neutral. We had no aims, no wishes, no hopes. We just were. Yet the world about us kept changing, kept flowing. We realize not what made us wonder, what made us want, but… we sought to change, to learn, to grow. We broke ourselves off somehow, and asked for our shards to go and experience the creation. To bind themselves to the physical and to live as them. They entered the flow, made their paths, and returned back to us. In return, we saw, we learnt, we grew. We developed our own will, our own preferences, our own desires. We now identify ourselves as the will of the living."

"We do not consider ourselves as neutral any longer. After everything we have seen, we no longer have equilibrium inside us. We, finally, have a desire of our own."

"The truly heroic souls, the ones who ask for nothing and give so much, have caught our eye. These souls shine brighter in adversity, touch many others, pull the brightness out of other souls. Yet, in almost all cases, their lives are the hardest. They usually do not get to have childhoods. They usually do not get due recognition. They are beset with hardship after hardship. Even those who call themselves their friends and family often do not help make their lives less painful. Sometimes they even add to it. Above all, they are never acknowledged when they do need it. They are underestimated, ridiculed, ignored…demeaned. The sheer lengths they have to go, before the posterity realizes their true debts to these beacons, is not ideal. We wish to watch no longer, not if we can act."

"We have seen, we have followed, we have studied… we have judged. We have found you to be a good soul. A gentle soul, which often finds its calling in healing. Whose affinities lean towards loyalty, love, empathy, care, sympathy and calmness, in order. We have seen your thoughts towards quite a few of the beacons we mentioned earlier. We have noted your admiration, awe and respect. We have also took attention of the tears you shed for them and the bonds you felt with them."

"We have resonated with your desire to help everyone you can, yet we admire your desire to always have time for your own more. We respect your drive to protect your patients' smiles, and we respect your desire to protect your family's smiles. We find need of your ability to be empathic to everyone yet not be self-sacrificing to the bitter end. The wisdom and capacity to strike a balance between the desires your kin, the others and your own."

"The heroes you have always admired are not as fictional as you have always believed. All emotions stem from us. Does it not follow that we are whence all creativity comes? Yet the stories you know may not truly reflect the visions the scribes recieved. No narrator can be fully reliable after all. Yet their struggles, their pain and their isolation is a common theme. Being misunderstood and unfairly treated is a common occurrence. It is rare for them to have an accomplice who puts their happiness first. Who offers them a shoulder to lean on without wanting anything in return, and without having been saved in return. Who offer them unconditional loyalty."

"We have seen, we have followed, we have studied… and we have found you to be one of the most suitable souls for the task. You were not the first one approached, Doctor Curtis Walker… though you are the first whose soul holds no bitterness at their end, or no fatigue. You have been able to achieve an overarching satisfaction with your life. We hope you find in yourself to accept our proposal."

"In return, we offer you a connection to us. When souls enter the flow, they are but a set of emotions with a common identity. If they are in luck, they recieve an organic form. They recieve a brain, which develops to store their memories. The brain isn't infinite, yet it holds enough for a lifetime. When the souls finish a journey, these memories reach us, and the only footprint left of the life lived is the change in emotional composition. Yet, we are infinite. We lose no memories. We house the wisdom gained from infinite experiences, the countless memories of countless souls."

"A connection to us will mean a connection to every memory we have of you. Of every life you live, past present or future. You will lose not a single thought from any of your lives. We would also be able to communicate with you whenever you desire so. In return, we would ask of you, will you be there for my beacons at their weakest? Will you help them have happy childhoods? Will you share their doubts, their worries, their desires? Will you help them stay… happy? We ask you to heed, to ruminate, to decide. The soul is being summoned by the flow, and we wish not to tarry lest we end up reshaping the flow that was."

If I were to tl:dr; the one-sided conversation, it will probably be something like 'pew, pew, boom, boom, pew, boom, boom, nuke…' That said, the Soul seems something like what Alaya from fate series should have been. A benevolent will of life. And its words struck a chord with me.

Most anime I've seen, most novels I've read, have an encroaching darkness. Almost always, an unsuspecting hero rises to help the world to its salvation. But who is there for the hero him/herself? Who understands their pain and offers unconditional support? Why is it that the best people have the hardest life? And if my isekai adventure were to be as the faithful companion of the heroes I may or may not know of, I have no issues whatsoever.

But… do I wish to sign my afterlife away? Once I'm in, will I get an out? Will I ever tire? In a famous gacha game I played occasionally, an old God talks about erosion. Of how, with time, even the sturdiest rock wears. Will I be the same as I am now, a millennia or two from this moment?

"The right queries have been raised, yet the answers are already known. We ask of you to bring them to the surface, and remind you that by living a full life and by taking enough time to enjoy the fruits of the labours of your youth, you have been able to die without regrets."

True. I might never have been as happy as some people I've known in their best moments… but I have been able to preserve my happiness to last me a lifetime. I have seen my children grow and stand on their own two feet. I have brought people from the brink of death. I have repaid people's beliefs, reaffirmed their faith in hopes. I have had my highs and my lows, yet I have been… satisfied with my life. Sure, no one wants to die. There is always something more you want from your life. My youngest was still in her final year at Cornell, after all. I wished to see her reach the heights I know she will… but even had I died at a hundred and ten, I would probably have some loose ends.

… And, isn't death but the next great adventure?

"We acknowledge your accord, and we approve of your reasons. We commend your wisdom, and ask of you to always remember to pace yourself, to look out for yourself, and to take time to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Rushing headfirst in an inane desire to be the strongest or the best gets stale extremely fast. Most such stories, as they say, start with a bang yet end with a whimper. We ask of you to chase a happily ever after, and we promise to give you enough time to repose in the world we send you to, so that you can move to your next… assignment, with no regrets and fatigue."

"Thank you," is all I was able to say, though despite all my confusion and disbelief, I felt deep gratitude, excitement anticipation for the next chapter of my new life.

"We acknowledge and share your gratitude, Doctor Walker. As you thought, death is but the next great adventure. Most souls do not remember their lives before, but for you the switch has now been flipped. We have bottled your stream here for long enough. It is time."

"We send you on to the world of the old, well-meaning yet flawed wizard whom you have quoted in your mind. For all his flaws in judgement however, he did provide Harry Potter a relatively happy adolescence and teenage. He was able to slack off in classes, to fly free and true, to share comeraderie with his friends. He was able to forge bonds. He even had a friend whose loyalty was absolute. Yet, though his hardships weren't the greatest of all your past and future charges, we wish for you to assist. This will be a good place to begin your journey. The challenge isn't the hardest you will face. The time is close to what you are used to. You will get the chance to watch, play and read more renditions of other worlds, strictly as research for your future charges."

"We ask of you… will you assist Harry James Potter and guide him through his trials?"

I nodded solemnly.

"We are glad. We will now inject your soul back in a place where you will be able to interact with his soul, and his world. We hope for your success, though we will know as soon as we set you off. After all, for us, who can see the flow from the outside, the process changing the course at a point and seeing the change at a later point is but instantaneous. We ourselves have some thoughts regarding what we ask of you… when and where do you wish to join the world relative to one Harry James Potter?"

For a while now, my mind has felt unburdened and more active than I remember it ever being. Maybe this is because of whatever changes I have had done to my soul? But yeah, due to that, I have landed on an answer to the question above, and I'm sure of my choice.

"Make me three years older than Harry Potter."

If there is one thing Harry needs, it is an older sibling figure who can help him through Hogwarts. He already has the best friend one could have in Hermione. Ron… well, I have some opinions on JKRs incompetence in early books and even stronger ones on how much the fans have punished her for it. I mean, almost all of us know that Harry Potter has plotholes. But people, instead of acknowledging that JKR wasn't much of a writer early on and grew remarkably by the time the series ended, treat her words as gospel while missing the intent altogether. Instead of being creative with the plotholes while protecting the characters JKR wished to present, fans embrace the plotholes and demonize the characters as a result. I hope JKR doesn't read fanfictions, or she would probably cry seeing just what the popular fandom interpretations of Dumbledore, Snape, Molly Weasley and Ron look like. I'd rather they fill the plot holes than they make comically evil and/or incompetent 2D villains out of flawed heroes. But I digress.

There is nothing wrong with Ron, and I'm keen to see the real Ron… but yeah, I do want Harry to have a life which does not begin and end with the Weasleys. Excuse me for the earlier rant, Soul, but even I find the big-happy-Weasley-family ending way too indulgent. And maybe as an elder figure in their lives, who isn't as distant as Bill and Charley, as Percy as Percy and as unreliable as Fred and George, I can diffuse Ron's jealousy and insecurity before he hurts someone (read: Harry) with it? Also, I need to help Harry have enough confidence to be able to have more friends, inside and outside of Gryffindor. Maybe even a Slytherin or three?

However, the biggest reason for my specific choice was that, were I three years older than Harry, I will be a seventh year in GoF canon. I need to ensure that I'm worthier than Cedric, so that I can be a triwizard champion and help Harry weather it. After all, GoF is one book where it actually is Harry against the world, and Cedric's death has echoes which I wish Harry to avoid. Not to mention, Unbridge probably got away with her shit in OoTP due to Harry's suspicious victory in the tournament, Cedric's death, other two champions' exposure to dark curses, Fudge's refusal to believe in Voldemort's rise and removal of evidence via his personal vacuum cleaner, Dumbledore's inability to be flexible and astute even though the reading on the wall was obvious (and ignorant of the fact that Harry suffered as much, if not more, due to his inability to phrase his statement better or to rescind it…). Tl;dr: I want in the Quadwizard tournament.

"Sound reasoning, as we expected. The contact has thus been made. We will inject you as you are in the current form, as a seven-year old version of your last lifeform. You will be set back into flow, and will probably land in an isolated, forested area as near a civilization as we can manage. We leave the rest to you. We wish you good fortune and happiness."

The last thing I remember before I blacked out was smiling and trying to say something simple like "I'll do my best" or "thanks" or "you can count on me" or something.

Short AN

New Fic idea, inspired by isekai and gamer fics. Hoping to have believable growth and power scaling. Need constructive criticism on writing style, grammar and idea in general. Suggestions appreciated. Hoping to build a healthy stockpile of chapters and receive enough input on this one, so that when I start publishing my chapters, they all have a consistently decent level of quality. Co-authors, beta readers and brainstorming help appreciated.

Please review. All the reviews. Need input to plan further.

Please and Thank you

Ciao

Longer AN:

Hey guys, Dragareo here. I've always been a fan of fanfictions, and have lately been enjoying a lot of BAMF! gamer fics, amongst others. Not that I believe that they are top-quality fiction, but they can be extremely fun.

But while reading one of them, I had an urge to try my hand at the isekai genre. I wish to try writing a story where the isekai character takes a supportive role to the main character, and who grows strong without having bullshit, out-of-universe powers (say what you will, gamers' mind, gamers' body, observe, foreknowledge, ability to track, max and lock relationships and ability to perfectly learn almost everything... are broken powers by lonesome... and gamers have that and more by end of their first Arc). I want him to help the main protagonist and his friends grow stronger and wiser, and to help them help their worlds.

My OC's stance on bashing may have come out as aggressive. I wish to highlight that I don't mind bashing myself. Hell, I even enjoy it sometimes. But since I'm trying to challenge myself and create a fic with minimal bashing, I don't mind if my OC feels differently. It follows that this is an OC, not a self-insert. He is a doctor who I'm basing off my family somewhat (I'm the black sheep in mine for being a software engineer), so his opinions are not necessarily mine. Also, I have just started my career, but my OC was an old man, so...

The plan right now is to try and write 2-3 arcs and construct a general outline of the story locally, and then start posting here. I hope that by that time, I have learnt enough to be able to churn out quality chapters at a good publish rate.

So... this prologue is part-teaser, part-appeal to review a lot, to make suggestions, to help me out with ideas etc.

Thanks for staying through the end. Again, please review lots!

Signing off,

Dragareo