As Arin walked, he tried to remember this child's past and the dynamics of this world, but nothing came. His mind was a blank slate.
He didn't realize it, but someone had noticed him—and a smile spread across her face.
The forest was nothing like the curated parks Satoshi remembered. This was a wild, breathing entity. Trees with bark that swirled like melted silver rose to impossible heights, their canopy filtering the sunlight into a thousand shifting emerald shards. Flowers pulsed with a soft, internal bioluminescence, and the very air hummed with that strange, energizing power—mana. It was beautiful, and it was utterly terrifying.
"Okay," Arin thought, his small hands brushing against a fern that curled away from his touch. "This is… a lot."
Every rustle in the undergrowth made his new, child-sized heart leap into his throat. Every shadow that moved just outside his line of sight felt like a predator. He was weak, small, and completely vulnerable. The logical part of his brain—the part that was still Satoshi—screamed at him to find shelter, to find people, to find safety.
But another part, a quieter part, felt a thrill he hadn't known in years. On Earth, his life had been… empty. A boring job, a small apartment, and a yandere ex-girlfriend whose "love" had felt like a suffocating cage. He'd died with the bleak certainty that no one would truly miss him.
Here? There was no one to disappoint. No one to run from. There was only mystery.
"I died," he reasoned, stepping over a gnarled root. "This is a second chance. A weird, scary, definitely-not-normal second chance… but a chance. So let's see what this world is about."
He tried to grasp the memories of this body, of the boy named Arin. Nothing. It was like trying to catch smoke. There was only a hollow emptiness where a childhood should be.
His goal was simple: find the nearest town, village, anything. Find out where—and when—he was.
He didn't notice the pair of eyes watching him from a high branch. He didn't see the slow, intrigued smile that spread across the watcher's face as he passed below, a small, lost lamb in a world of wolves.
Elsewhere, in a space between spaces, a consciousness stirred.
Satoshi's soul, unmoored and fading, drifted in the silent void after the truck's impact. It was a peaceful nothingness. An end.
Then, a presence enveloped it. It was immense, ancient, and terrifyingly feminine. It examined the soul—the loneliness, the quiet despair, the final act of cutting a toxic love out of his life.
A voice, smooth as honey and cold as celestial ice, spoke into the void. It was not heard with ears, but felt in the core of his being.
"You," the voice purred, a sound of stars colliding. "You who spurned a devotion so absolute it bordered on worship. You cast aside a love others would kill for. You called it 'possession' and ran from it."
The presence shifted, radiating disapproval that felt like a physical pressure.
"You do not understand true desire. You see a cage where others see a shrine. Very well. Let us see you run now."
A wave of divine will, petty and cruel, washed over his soul.
"I curse you, little soul. Your new life will be a lesson. Wherever you go, you will be desired. You will be coveted. Your very presence will ignite a spark in the hearts of women, a spark that will fester and grow into an all-consuming fire. They will see in you the perfect object of their affection, their protection, and their possession. They will love you so fiercely it will become your prison. Let us see you abandon that."
The curse settled into the fabric of his soul, a divine brand.
"Now, go. A world of monsters and magic awaits. A world where you are rare. A world where you are precious. A world where you will never, ever be alone again."
With that, the presence shoved him forward. His memories of Satoshi—of Earth, of his death, of his life—were scoured away, not gone, but buried deep under the weight of the journey and the new identity. All that was left was a vague sense of self and the echoing, unheeded warning of a goddess.
He fell, and fell, and then… he was Arin. Waking up on a cold floor.
Back in the forest, Arin shivered, though the air was warm. A strange feeling crept down his spine—not quite fear, but a sense of being… noticed. He shook his head, dismissing it as paranoia.
He had no idea of the divine grudge that now shaped his destiny. No idea that his quest for freedom had just become infinitely more complicated.
He only knew he had to keep walking.
High in the trees, the watcher dropped silently to the forest floor behind him, her smile widening. She had been tracking a strange energy signature from the old ruins. She hadn't expected to find a prize this… delightful.