{This chapter is NOT a lore dump. Yes, it acts as a prologue, but it's really short and is actually somewhat of a mythical, retroactive memoir from Sora, if you decide to skip it. Very well, if not. Enjoy.}
"Are you ready, Reaper?"
Those were the words that were said to me… the words I had heard on that fateful day, before aiding and abetting Death herself.
"I'm ready," I would tell myself, fully aware of the consequences of my choices. For indeed, who would want to be a servant to Death?
Death had always been an automated system, one governed by the cosmic forces beyond one's comprehension. Yes, that was the case, for sure. Until…
I became her right hand, her servant, and her lover. Was it of my own accord? Or perhaps it was not? Who could say?
Well, at first, I thought it was a dream; I thought they were all dreams. But I was wrong, for never was it a dream. Not for a second.
But it was a memory that I had seen… a memory. Multiple memories that wouldn't end. Memories of the past. Memories of the present. Memories of the future. Over and over again, I came back. Knowing what I knew, seeing what I saw. I did what I could.
And each time, I did it. Each time, it wasn't enough, for the world demands balance.
Eventually, I stopped counting the failures that had racked up, because… Before I knew it, I had died so many times that numbers became a meaningless charade. And I had killed so many times, faces blurred into smears of color.
I wanted to die, but in truth I wanted to live. I wanted to live, but in truth I wanted to die. Because what is life without death, and what is death without life? I mean, it's stupid, really, how simple that ideology really is, and yet still, it remained complex beyond the truth of complexity.
Perhaps I wanted to understand, perhaps I didn't, perhaps I wanted reason, or perhaps… I was just amused by the thought. Maybe that's why I was cursed.
Even so. There was a place I wanted to reach, a wish I wanted to protect.
No matter what, I had to find myself. No matter what, I had to know myself. I wanted to understand who I am, I wanted to understand what it means to be human, to be ALIVE, simply so I could die. That's idiotic, isn't it? Yeah, I suppose I'd agree.
That is why… I took her hand—the hand of death, of love, of understanding.
And became the damn Grim Reaper.
This is my story… But it is also theirs, the story of not just me, but everyone, including you. Enjoy our truth. Enjoy our lie.