Kento Nanami was dead.
That was the end of everything.
He was dead and deep black darkness surrounded him.
It was over, he would never see the beach of Malaysia.
Kento Nanami was killed, there was no turning back.
But wasn't there a beginning in every end, and a magic in every new beginning?
And why was he still aware of him?
Why did he think, why did he think he could feel his breath and hear his heart beating?
"Hello" the darkness disappeared with a blow and it became light around him, immediately he looked around in fright.
Where was he?
And what a voice had just greeted him, he couldn't even make out where it was and whether it belonged to a man or a woman.
"Hello Nanami-Chan," the voice greeted him laughing, so no one had called him that before.
No one had ever dared to call him that!
And then he died, and somebody, or something, made stupid jokes with him.
"But you're not dead at all" a figure appeared in front of him, man or woman, he didn't know, the face and body were absolutely neutral.
Was it the devil who wanted to take him to hell?
Or a cheeky angel who then led him to heaven.
"Neither," the entity laughed, but in any case it could read its mind.
"Of course I can. Just like I can save souls that please me from death" it laughed happily, short black hair, wearing a kimono and then those golden eyes. Nanami looked at his hands, they were perfectly healthy.
"Because your soul has not been harmed," the entity laughed.
"And I will repair your body again when we have talked about our small business."
"So you're the devil after all," he said.
"No, Nanami-Chan, there is neither God nor the devil, there is only me and all the rest" it still laughed.
"And I just found you interesting. Besides, it was much too early for you to die." Kento Nanami looked up and directly into the creature's golden eyes, noticing that he was wearing his usual clothes, but not the sunglasses, and his gun hadn't come with him either.
"I still find you very interesting, instead of not being afraid or running around like crazy, you wonder where your things have gone. By the way, I didn't take your watch with me either," the entity smiled:
"I have something planned for you. A business."
"What is it about?" he got up carefully and looked around in the darkness, only light emanated from the being, otherwise everything was dark.
It was like a candle that lit up the room only very dimly.
"That's what you thought," the entity laughed.
"I knew it, you're just the right one."
"For what?"
"For a second chance" it made a sweeping gesture.
"A new life, with a lot more adventures and friends and family. He came to Nanami without the -chan please, and put a hand on his shoulders.
"You will laugh, cry, fight and become damn rich. Or you can go to a farm and spend the rest of your life growing beets from the Field. But that would be boring, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, quite," Nanami admitted.
"That's what I thought, Nanami-Chan," the creature laughed, now it called him that, just to get upset about it.
"You've entertained me well so far and I want to keep checking on you every now and then and see what you're doing. What adventures you experience."
"Wouldn't Gojo have been a better cinema for you?"
"He's too similar to me," she laughed, and there was a hell of a lot of truth in those words, they were really very similar and probably that's why Nanami was just as annoyed.
"Let's get to our store. You have the free choice, either you die and go anywhere... actually into nothingness, there is no afterlife or anything, that's what people came up with. It's, your consciousness just fizzles out into nothingness and that's it."
"What is the second possibility?"
"Life" it again made a sweeping gesture.
"While you were fighting, I went through a few dimensions to see where I would send you, so that I could say... go to the cinema from time to time and watch you. What do you think about that? I don't watch you all the time, just a little bit sometimes, and you get a second chance for that. I found a great dimension there, with many wonderful adventures. You can get anything you want there, and there are so many warm beaches you can't imagine."
"And that's why I'm your break clown? Whenever you take a break from whatever, you watch me and I play your clown, your solo entertainer."
"You won't even know when I'm watching you, and at some point you won't even think about it anymore. Just like in this show with you on earth, Big Brother, at some point they all forget the cameras and it gets really funny. Because then at some point all masks will fall and no one will hide as they are in reality. Of course, I could take away your memory of this meeting, but maybe the thought of my charming presence will keep you from really wanting to pull the turnips out of the field."
It was really like Gojo, the entity laughed out loud and then happily jumped two meters away from him, spreading its arms, spinning and dancing.
"What kind of dimension did you choose for me," Nanami wanted to know a little indignantly, but he didn't want to die either. He could also bear that this "whatever" watched him sleep, or read the newspaper, or whatever...
And the creature was right about one thing, he was too young, it happened much too soon.
"An exciting one" beamed the entity.
"There are many fights, but also a lot of gold. You will have to fight against people, and kill them, but they are bad. Not all of them are bad, that would be far too exhausting, but many are and if you don't kill them, they will kill you. But you'll still have a great life... Maybe you'll even fall in love. I've been watching you for so long, but I don't even know if you like women or men. You just didn't allow such feelings, I sometimes sat there for hours watching you, but you didn't fall in love. Not even with this doctor."
Shoko, he always thought she was pretty, but never interesting enough.
She was a friend, nothing more.
"There we have it, you need a great woman," the entity laughed out loud.
"And in this dimension you will find her, and if you do well, you will become rich together. Infinitely rich."
"There's a catch, there's always a catch. And not that I have to kill people, you still have something planned!"
"I haven't planned anything, the dimension is wild enough for that," the creature laughed and then tapped his lips with his index finger.
"The only catch is, if you die there, then there is no third chance. I can only save anyone I find interesting once."
So it really couldn't be God, but the devil could be.
"Do I look so bad to you that you think I'm the devil?" she laughed, almost shaking herself.
"Oh come on, I'll give you a second chance. One without curses, spirits of vengeance and whatever else jumps around with you. But with monsters and adventures. The dimension is already quite developed, so by your standards, there is electricity and things like that, but not everything. So you can't watch YouTube videos there."
"I'm sure I can do without," Nanami announced dryly, he didn't want to die at all and he would certainly know how to use this second chance.
Even if he had to play the intermission clown for this creature on the side.
"Of course you'll use them, and you'll have fun doing it, too," he determined with a broad grin.
"I can give you one of yours, not the wristwatch, but either your glasses, or your weapon. You could buy both new there, although such a weapon probably not and there are sunglasses, but not such a model. And I'll give you some money to start with. So that you don't get bitten by a rat on the first night because you had to sleep outside and then you demonize me right away."
She laughed at her own joke, Nanami didn't find it so funny now.
"Don't be so serious now," the entity laughed with tears in her eyes, but then became a little more serious herself.
"What do you want, that weird hatchet, or the glasses?"
"The weapon. And it's not an axe, it's a sword. A short sword."
"It looks like an axe" the entity pouted a little, but then laughed and took the weapon out of the air:
"There is nothing like that in this dimension" he also took out the leather belt with which Nanami always carried the weapon on his back: "Don't break it because of that."
"I won't" Nanami got the things and strapped the "axe" on his back, pulled the suit jacket over it, why was that actually possible if he was just his soul right now?
"Because the soul is just more than a thing that can be shaped" laughed the being and a door appeared, it looked like it was made of wood and was just there, as if it had always been there.
"Go through. I'll send you to Loguetown, the city where everything always begins, and where everything will end one day." it grinned cheekily, almost too cheekily and Nanami went to the door, when he walked through it he was finally rid of this pain in the neck.
"Oh, Nanami-Chan," the entity laughed.
"Are you actually getting seasick?"
"No," he snorted and the next moment everything around him became dark again.
Did he die after all? Had this perhaps been the last dream before his death and his brain was just playing tricks on him?
But then the creature's voice sounded again and it seemed as if it would walk away from him and say.
"Too bad, I would have loved to see him puke."