When my hand lightly touched the starving old man before me, I knew my golden finger had arrived.
This was the first time since my birth that I exercised my innate ability. When I touch a human with my hand, I can freely alter their soul. By altering the soul, I can indirectly control the human body. In just a few seconds, this old man, who had been delirious with hunger, suddenly snapped his eyes open, his gaze as bright as a young man's. This was because I manipulated his soul to make his body's latent nutrients take effect; at least for this moment, he felt full.
Is this a blessing? No, quite the opposite. This is a Curse.
I cursed him, giving him a sense of satiety. From this moment on, he will never feel hunger again, but his body's potential has been wasted. In other words, after this, he will only maintain that feeling of fullness until he dies. Like a leaking fuel tank, what I did wasn't regenerating the oil inside, but shrinking the tank and resealing it.
His potential was indeed consumed by me.
But he survived. He survived through a Curse.
I didn't feel the joy of saving someone. On the contrary, I felt incredibly annoyed. I instinctively wanted to reverse this state and let this old man I'saved' fall back into his deathly end. This was very strange. Before I transmigrated, while I wasn't exactly a saint, I was definitely not a villain who disregarded humanity. If a dying person lay before me and I had the ability, I would be willing to call an ambulance. If I had the power I have now, I would never be stingy with my ability; I would save them.
But now it's the exact opposite. I did save someone, but the result was immense annoyance. I intuitively realized that doing such things goes against my instincts. It's like forcing a tiger to eat grass. A tiger can eat grass, but it can never become a vegetarian. This is determined by the tiger's physiological structure; for a tiger, a vegetarian diet means death.
Now, saving people doesn't cause a life-or-death crisis for me; I just feel annoyed, uncomfortable, and disgusted from the bottom of my heart, but it doesn't pose an obstacle to my survival.
But after this incident, I stopped saving people. I started harming them.
Of course, I didn't start harming people on purpose. At first, I was just training my innate ability while observing others. I discovered that as I walked down the street, no one could see me. I intentionally touched others, and they reacted, meaning I definitely exist but cannot be perceived. Sometimes I suspected I was a ghost, but I quickly judged that I wasn't because I didn't melt in the sunlight. Of course, depending on the world-building, there are ghosts that can exist in daylight, but compared to a ghost, I felt more like another kind of existence.
A god. I am very much like a god.
Calling oneself a god is a very embarrassing thing, but through various feedback, I became more and more convinced that I seem to be a god.
Before I state my reasons, I must first introduce the world I transmigrated into so you can understand my state of mind. So, let me briefly introduce this world.
This world is almost identical to the one I originally came from. It is also filled with modernization: tall office buildings, pedestrians walking with their heads down looking at their phones, very modern clothing, cars, planes, and trains—everything is there. Supermarkets, ramen stalls, and various snack shops exist as well.
Of course, there's no lack of entertainment facilities, parks, arcades, and toy stores.
I'm not a historian, so I can't be sure how this place differs from my previous world. Before transmigrating, I was something of an otaku. I can even see various large anime posters plastered on the walls of office buildings: Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach are obvious at a glance, and Dragon Ball and Pokemon are also listed there.
Of course, the language spoken here is Japanese, which is also very familiar. Now, let's look at my situation.
I transmigrated to this world, and even though my Japanese ability before transmigrating only allowed me to understand a few simple words, I can now use Japanese directly without learning. Reading and writing barriers don't exist at all. Although I have no one to talk to, I assume communication won't be a problem either.
Because when I talk to myself, I speak Japanese very fluently. This is fine.
I cannot be seen by other humans, but I can indeed normally interfere with them. I can touch, change, and even destroy or save them—it's all up to my whim.
I can see human souls directly, I can change human souls, I can make a starving person stay full forever until they die, and of course, I can make a healthy person stay hungry forever. I can freely alter human souls, reaching a different kind of dominance over humans through soul modification.
I have a feeling that if I can master my abilities, even granting someone hundreds of years of life or even immortality is possible.
Self-taught language and literacy, the ability to see and interfere with souls, and the racial trait of being able to unilaterally interfere with others.
Characteristics.
From this, I easily reached the conclusion that I am a god.
Especially regarding the dominance over humans, I'm not just talking nonsense; I've actually tried it.
At the time, I was just normally thinking about how to train my abilities while observing humans when I suddenly thought of a concept from my previous life. This concept is called the Thought Steel Seal. As the name suggests, a Thought Steel Seal can fix a person's thoughts, making them stay fixed on a certain way of thinking no matter how much they think. To some extent, this is the strongest information cocoon. Usually, information cocoons can be broken through by debating with others, coming into contact with other things, and broadening one's horizons. But once a Thought Steel Seal is imprinted, one can never escape it; it's more fanatical than fanaticism.
Since I can change a human's body through their soul, I can naturally change a human's thoughts through their soul as well.
Of course, at first, I did have some psychological burden regarding such experiments. I carefully chose my target. Luckily, I soon locked onto one. He was a gambler—and not just a gambler, but a gambler who also dealt drugs. Such a person deserved to die.
I modified him quite openly to practice my ability. Surprisingly, it was very easy to modify him, making him loathe gambling and drugs to the point where he would feel nauseous and vomit every time he encountered them. He didn't quit gambling and drugs; he simply couldn't accept them anymore, so he had to stay away.
The principle was also unexpectedly simple. If you've truly understood mental patients, you'd know that mental illness isn't just a psychological issue; there are indeed physiological problems. For example, the depression patients I knew before transmigrating—their brains actually have functional impairments and truly require medication for treatment.
Some mental illnesses cannot be cured by simple psychological counseling; they must be assisted by medication.
From this perspective, as long as you adjust the brain's functionality, you can easily create someone with mental problems. Just like this scum who was both a gambler and a drug dealer—by slightly adjusting his brain structure, I could make him feel aversion, disgust, and even vomit just by coming into contact with them.
When the body cannot accept it, no matter how much the mind craves the addiction, it will stay away due to the pain. Humans are creatures very good at forming habits. Once this habit becomes natural, no matter how much he psychologically covets drugs and gambling, he has no choice but to stop those behaviors.
In this way, I spent my days leisurely while experimenting with the Thought Steel Seal. One day, I found another experimental animal.
He was a high school bully, wearing a school uniform and leading some lackeys. Just like the stereotype of all bullies, he was in an alleyway with his lackeys, kicking someone wearing the same uniform. His face wore a smile full of violence, looking completely at ease.
I didn't hesitate much and chose him as my target, lightly brushing over his head.
After that, his expression changed from violent to dazed, then from dazed to ashamed. Finally, in the middle of the bullying, he suddenly pushed away his two lackeys who were kicking the victim, knelt before the bullied boy, and kept bowing his head in apology.
I felt satisfied.
It wasn't just the satisfaction of punishing a bully, but a deep sense of pleasure from within. My whole body and mind felt light and airy.
I realized that it wasn't my previous life's sense of morality making me feel light, but because I had harmed someone through my hands. I felt light because my instincts were reminding me that I was born to harm people. No matter who it is—a good person, a bad person, a saint, a piece of scum, or any other ordinary person—they are all within my 'predation' targets.
This is also why I've been so active these days. Although there's no increase in power, the act of experimenting makes my body and mind feel pleasant. Since the experimental subjects are all insignificant scum, it doesn't betray my previous life's morality, which makes me very keen on these experiments.
I was still summarizing my instincts when suddenly, the bullied boy I had'saved' spoke to me.
He said, 'It was you, right? I saw it. You lightly touched him, and then he became like that.'
After finishing the experiment, I naturally chose to leave, but I didn't expect someone could actually see me. It's been over a month since I transmigrated. For the first week, I stayed in the sewer where I first arrived because I was cautious. Later, I grew bolder and opened a manhole cover to come out. Since then, I've been wandering through crowds, but no one has ever been able to see me, though I can freely touch others.
The conclusion that I am a god was also summarized during this period.
Because my ability truly has god-like potential, and I firmly believe in it.
Additionally, I was influenced by most novels and anime from my previous life. Although logic tells me I'm not yet invincible and there are still other things to encounter and horizons to broaden, I don't want to be as cautious and fearful as a certain Bone King.
Right now, I feel like I've transmigrated into some Tokyo God-style novel as the protagonist. I truly believe this, which is why I use my abilities in the street without restraint and immediately thought of things like the Thought Steel Seal. I even planned to recruit a shrine maiden or something.
I've already prepared to try firing my ability from my eyes—like a Sharingan or something—once I perfect the Thought Steel Seal. I think I can succeed.
I thought that according to novel plots, the first person to see me would definitely be a beautiful girl. I really didn't expect it to be a weak, bullied boy. But it's fine; although this boy looks very frail, he knows how to show gratitude, so he's not completely useless.
'Excuse me, who are you?' the boy asked cautiously.
I looked at the boy in front of me. He had black hair with long bangs covering the right side of his face. His face was black and blue from recent abuse, making him look pitiful, weak, and ridiculous. His school uniform was covered in dust and tattered—a classic image of a bullying victim, looking like a total loser.
I thought for a moment and suddenly smiled. "I am a god," I said.
The boy was stunned, not knowing what to say for a moment.
I became interested in him. I looked at him seriously with eyes that could peer directly into the soul. For the past month, I had been using these soul-piercing eyes to observe others. My eyes could even penetrate human internal organs. In my eyes, the body is merely the outer skin of the soul, and all physical reactions can naturally be reproduced through the soul.
I easily discovered that the flow of his soul seemed indeed different from others, but I couldn't quite say how. The drawback of not having conducted unscrupulous soul experiments on humans had surfaced; my proficiency with human souls wasn't as high as I had imagined.
If I had known, I would have found more scumbags to experiment on. Although I've conducted nearly a hundred experiments over the past month, I was cautious in the early stages, adjusting the details of the Thought Steel Seal and only doing one or two cases a day. Later, as I became more proficient, doing five or six a day was no problem.
I have a hunch that if I continue, I'll eventually be able to deeply engrave a Thought Steel Seal of loyalty into a human brain with a simple swipe of my hand, making it impossible to remove. It's not just a matter of ability, but more of a physical one—their brains are being permanently remodeled by me.
"It's quite unusual to be able to see me; you're someone with aptitude," I said. The boy was stunned again. "Me? Aptitude?"
"Haven't you noticed? Very few people in this world can see me, and you are one of them."
This wasn't a lie. During this month, I had wandered unscrupulously through crowds, but so far, he was the only one who could see me.
Although the fact that it was a boy rather than a girl made me slightly unhappy, I also felt a small sense of relief. Before this, I had thought I was the protagonist of a novel. While having such strong abilities meant I must be the lead in some Tokyo God-style power fantasy, and I had no complaints about such a life, it's still better to be unrestrained.
The reason I felt relieved that the first person to see me was a boy rather than a girl was simple: in those Tokyo God-style power fantasies written for readers, if the first person encountered is a boy instead of a girl, it would surely be met with a barrage of criticism. Who writes a power fantasy like that? How could it not be a shrine maiden!
Incidentally, if I had encountered such a novel before I transmigrated, I would have dropped it without a second thought.
The boy's expression was very strained. "Am... am I special?" "You look like you're struggling," I asked.
"Because, how can someone like me be special?" The boy looked at himself—covered in dust, face bruised, weak and easy to bully. If he were gender-swapped into a girl, he could be called soft and cute, but he's a boy. How else to describe it?
I suddenly asked, "Are you interested in becoming a girl?" The boy was startled. "Huh?"
"If you were a girl, you could be my shrine maiden. A soft and cute girl who cries when bullied—that kind of shrine maiden would be quite nice," I said.
That's right, I still haven't forgotten about shrine maidens, and I can't forget. I am a god, and I must have a shrine maiden to serve me! What kind of god doesn't have a shrine maiden? As a god, I must have one; it's a necessity!
And my ability allows me to easily gender-swap a man into a woman. This is much simpler than remodeling a brain to create a Thought Steel Seal. Although I haven't actually tested it, I believe it's so simple that it doesn't even require an experiment.
The boy's expression crumbled. "No, no, no, let's forget about the girl thing." "Is that so?" I felt it was a pity.
The boy's face turned pale. "You... you look very serious."
"Because I really think so," I said seriously. "Trust me, you're more suited to be a girl than a boy, and I truly have the ability to turn you into a girl without any side effects. You could even have children in the future..."
"Don't, seriously, don't." The boy's face went white with fear as he shook his head repeatedly. If a girl did this, it would also be very cute.
"Sigh, won't you really consider it? I'm being very serious," I said.
"It's precisely because you're serious that I'm seriously refusing!" The boy's expression twisted, and even his voice changed from weak and small to almost a roar. "In the first place, why did the topic shift to me becoming a girl? This isn't right!"
"I am a god, after all," I said leisurely. "Naturally, a god should have a shrine maiden by his side. But as you can see, I'm currently lacking one. Unfortunately, to follow me, one must at least be able to see me. For now, I've only found you who can see me, but you're a boy and can't be a'shrine maiden.' So I thought, as long as I turn you into a girl, it'll be fine. See? It's perfect, right?"
"It's not perfect at all!" The boy refused loudly, his face full of grievance.
I couldn't help but smile. Although it sounds a bit perverted, I did feel pleasure from the prank just now (it might not have been a prank, because if the boy had agreed, I really would have turned him into a her). Strange, was I this kind of person before I transmigrated? Or is it that, just as I instinctively refuse to save people and want to harm them, feeling pleasure from pranks is also one of my instincts?
The boy took several deep breaths before slowly calming down.
He bowed to me seriously. "Thank you very much, Lord God."
I waved my hand. "It was nothing." "My name is Yoshino Junpei, I—"
"Wait, what did you say your name was?" I suddenly interrupted him.
The boy—Yoshino Junpei—was startled again, then said in confusion, "Yoshino Junpei. My name is Yoshino Junpei. Is there something wrong with my name?"
Of course there's something wrong; it's a huge problem.
I observed him carefully: bangs covering half his face on the right, a weak expression, wearing a Japanese school uniform. If he hadn't said his name, I never would have had a sense of déjà vu, but the moment he said it, the déjà vu hit me like a tidal wave, leaving me dazed.
After a month in this world, I finally know where I've transmigrated to, and I know exactly what's going on with this ability to see and change souls.
No wonder I instinctively refuse to save people and instinctively want to harm them.
No wonder no one in this world could see me, making me think I was some deity. I finally know whose body I've transmigrated into.
Damn it, I've transmigrated into Immortal Master! Author's Note:
Ancient Leaves
First-person perspective limited to the prologue.