I was not having a good day.

It was one thing after another. I woke up late after my alarm clock broke, seemingly in the middle of the night; All I had to eat for breakfast that wasn't expired was stale cereal; I couldn't find my car keys after looking for twenty minutes; when I did find them, they were bent (somehow), but thankfully, still usable; I hit every red light possible, and I got stuck in traffic for at least half an hour. All before I even stepped a foot into the job that I hated.

On the surface, one would think I was probably exaggerating and that it was simply just a little annoying. But, when you have coworkers that don't do their basic tasks, a bathroom that is used for every unsanitary, disgusting thing you can possibly think of, and the worst hours on the planet, then you can begin to see why I despise it so.

The only reasons I don't leave is that it pays well enough that I don't have to worry about my basic necessities. I would love to leave, but for some reason I haven't had any luck with job hunting. It's not that I don't have the qualifications for the jobs I apply for; I just haven't managed to impress them enough. I found out this lunch break that last week's application ended similarly.

I sighed. Was this going to be my life from now on?

I didn't have to wait long to find out.

After my shift ended and I was heading home, I was briefly excited about continuing with the anime I was currently watching.

This thought was promptly cut off as a semi-truck suddenly spun out, causing a massive pile up on the interstate.

I was directly behind it. I hit it going way too fast. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I do know that there was a lot of pain, followed by darkness.

Yeah, definitely a bad day.

Rivalz Cardemonde was having a great day!

To many spectators, it might seem that he was rather nervous, perhaps even anxious, about the result of the game of chess ahead of him. In actuality, he was almost giddy to find out how his best friend, Lelouch Lamperouge, would completely annihilate his opponent this time.

He had seen this song and dance play out many, many times before; being Lelouch's ride does that. He constantly skips school with Lelouch just to go to these chess games, and gamble on them at that! It was almost always a highlight of Rivalz's day when he went out with Lelouch.

Of course, this 'chess run', as he called them, was only one part of why he was having a good day. He managed to make his longtime crush, Milly Ashford, laugh at a joke he came up with. A simple thing – even he realized that – but one that made him happy all the same.

He was even able to enjoy his favorite breakfast. All of these things combined made him smile just thinking about it. He briefly wondered if he deserved all these things, but his thoughts were cut off by his partner in crime.

"Checkmate," he heard Lelouch say before standing up and making his way to leave. He briefly looked at Lelouch's opponent and noticed that he had a hilarious scowl on his face. Seeing the dejected and horrified looks on their faces was a big part of the reason for why he enjoyed doing this so much, not to mention the cash they received. Speaking of...

Rivalz looked over to their client, a middle-aged man, who gave them the appropriate amount of money for their services. Rivalz has been the impromptu 'banker' of their duo, holding on to the funds they received until they got to a more secure location. Lelouch, being the one who did the most, took two-thirds of the profits, which was fine with Rivalz. He took one more glance at the chess board before turning to leave himself.

As he sprinted to catch up, he turned to Lelouch with a smile on his face before saying, "I love playing against the nobility! When they lose they always pay out of pride." Whenever they were away from their opponents, Rivalz dropped the nervous, antsy persona he had developed and became his excited, slightly overbearing self. "By the way, eight minutes thirty-two seconds is a new record!" He added as an afterthought.

"He also didn't have much time to move, either," Lelouch responded in that apathetic, almost despondent way he always used when talking about his opponents in this context. "And as opponents go, nobles are tepid. They're just overprivileged parasites, that's all."

In Rivalz's mind, if Lelouch was this upset about the nobility, then perhaps talking about the exact opposite, or the closest thing, could help him to feel better. "Well, then, why don't you challenge one of the Elevens? They're nothing like us Britannians," he said as he pulled ahead of Lelouch and began walking backwards.

In another world, another time, this wouldn't have any consequences. However, with just a slightly different angle that Rivalz put his feet at, he stepped on a rock, lost his balance, and fell. He was able to tell that the concrete was inching ever closer to him. 'Well,' he thought just before he hit the ground, 'can't have a good day without some bad parts to it.'

And then it all went black for a moment.

I was floating, that much was obvious. Whether in air or in water, I had no idea, however. It felt... weird, to put it simply. Like I wasn't bound by gravity, but without any other sensations to help give my mind context. It truly felt like I was in a void.

The utter blackness all around me didn't help to discard that notion. No matter where I looked, there was nothing; not light, not movement, nothing at all. It was like my eyes were closed, except they weren't.

Was this death? Was I dead? I wouldn't be surprised, I did hit that truck pretty fast. But, was this all there was? No listing of sins and righteous acts, no reliving your life in an instant, no reincarnation? Talk about disappointing.

All that was here was me and whatever remained of my memories. How much of my life did I forget? I could never know. I remembered several things, yes, but could I have remembered them before I hit that semi?

Thinking back, I didn't do too much with my life. I worked most of my adult life at a job that I despised, I never really applied myself in my teenage years, and I was home-schooled for most of my life, preventing me from making many friends or having many social skills at all.

If I could do it over again, I would definitely do things differently. I'd try to be more outgoing, more kind, find a better job.

Live a better life.

No sooner did I have these thoughts than I began to feel a tug. It felt pretty weird, all things considered, although that could probably be attributed to the fact I didn't have a body anymore. Regardless, the tugging wasn't stopping, and was getting stronger, too.

I've seen enough anime to realize where this was going: I was being brought to another world. That much was obvious. Whether another earth or some sort of afterlife, I have no idea.

So I just let it. After I realized what was most likely happening, I stopped resisting and let the tugging pull me where it wanted.

I was also speeding up the longer I traveled.

And then, something very peculiar happened. I'm sure I can't fully explain it. I could almost instinctually know that I was being placed into another body – that wasn't the odd part; it was simply like putting on new clothes. No, the part I could never explain was that this body's memories and personality were being merged with my own.

The mind of one Rivalz Cardemonde.

Oh, crap.

Lelouch had seen it happen. He had witnessed one of his best friends trip and fall head first on concrete; he fell at such an angle that his neck hit the edge of the sidewalk, ignoring his helmet. Lelouch immediately went to check the damage as he called out, "Rivalz? Rivalz!" in a concerned, slightly louder than normal voice.

He briefly acknowledged that every person nearby focused on Clovis's speech and basically ignored the wounded young man in front of him. 'Thanks, Britannia, you're proving exactly what's wrong with this nation,' he thought momentarily before snapping out of it and bringing his focus back to Rivalz.

Good news: there didn't seem to be any lasting injuries, not even any flowing blood, just a big mark on the back of his head. Bad news: there's a chance that Rivalz might have a concussion.

Lelouch promptly began checking Rivalz's breathing and pulse, feeling relieved when they were as they should be, if not a little fast. Lelouch wasn't too knowledgeable in medicine or biology, but he thought that these bodily functions being quicker than normal made sense. But he wasn't naive. He wouldn't be sure than Rivalz was okay until he woke up.

So he began slowly and gently shaking and poking Rivalz while saying his name. If he didn't wake up in a couple of seconds, he was going to call an ambulance.

Thankfully, Rivalz stirred, and woke up after being unconscious for only about a dozen seconds.

Unbeknownst to anyone present, this simple event would create ripples that would change the course of this world's history forever.