Prologue 2: A Funeral
"Long".
In Vietnamese, it can mean "Dragon".
It is also the name of an old man lived in Satoru Mikami's neighborhood. He is nothing like the grumpy old men in Satoru's company tho.
A war veteran turned famous fantasy novelist, an unreasonably strong person for one of his age, a friendly janitor, a cool drinking buddy and a kind Pop in general. Beloved and respected by everyone in this loosely connected community, this is truly an impressive feat, especially when we take into account that, in this area, before the old man moved in, there was one dude who has died and gone undetected for one year. Well, Long was the one who found the corpse in the first place.
Honestly, it is already a miracle that he has lived that long, not to mention how he seemed to be totally unaffected by his old age. The old janitor usually joked that Death has forgot his existence.
It is rumored that he has lost his whole family in a war. Partly the reason why Satoru befriended him in the first place.
But, seriously, it seems the old man has done in return way more than what he has received. Maybe, the lonely one was Satoru instead of him.
Well, Satoru no longer have to worry about Long's loneliness anymore. Last night, the kind old man had reunited with his family. It is expected since normally he should've been passed away long time ago, yet Satoru is still in denial when he first heard this news. He cried and prayed that this is just the old pop's prank, then again this kind novelist will never make such a cruel joke.
Because he has no family or relatives, the whole neighborhood who has no blood relation to him whatsoever held a funeral for him instead. Satoru and his junior at work, Tamura also come.
"Senpai, it seems we have the same idea... ?"
" Look like it is not just us, Tamura... Look…"
Both of them, as well as many others, are carrying along books written by Long. Without saying anything to each other, all of them put these books onto the funeral altar. Fantasy novels, all of them are about one of the biggest man's romance, dragons. Yet no story is the same as the other. No tale is repeated, no character or trope is reused. Each one of them carry an uniqueness that an amateur author like the one who is writting TensuDra will never able to describe. One book is responsible for the awakening of Satoru's elf fetish. Can you guess how Satoru feel when he found out the old janitor is also his favorite novelist ? But, what these novels are about is hardly what matter here.
"Damn, just how much you were beloved when you lived, Dragon Pop ?"
Tears flowed down in everyone's face, as they accept the fact that the heaven has claimed back one of its angel, and this ceremony exists for returning his body to Mother Earth.
"Feeding the soil, so the world can return to life", as the old man once wrote.
Not long after Long's funeral, Satoru got stabbed by a snatcher, when he tried to save Tamura, the same way the old man once saved him when he just moved in this area.
Well, except the old man is absurdly strong, but Satoru isn't. So he died, and reincarnated into a slime in an another world.
The multiverse is also round like the Earth, and smaller than what people believed, it seems.