Title: A Quick Stop Before DC
Premise/Rough Summary: A mistake by the universe leading to a young man's untimely death ends up with him being reincarnated. But before he can go to his final destination, he has to make a quick stop ... in another world ... for 15 years.
Extra Info: A guy dies and is given the chance to reincarnate. He gets Absolute Body as an ability but the caveat is he has to spend 15 years in the world of One Piece before being thrown into DC.
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Chapter Title: Make Amends
In an office like any other complete with a desk, office chair, computer, and reception chair, a bearded and bespectacled man in a suit sat at the desk, rifling through papers while checking something on his computer screen.
A moment later, an unconscious young man blinked into existence in the reception chair causing the man behind the desk to glance up for a brief moment before continuing his work, completely unfazed by the whole thing.
After about a minute, the unconscious young man began to stir in the chair before fully awakening.
Opening his eyes, the young man took in his surroundings with a look of confusion on his face which quickly turned to panic. His last memory was not of him in an office but rather of him on a plane, headed to Iceland for an adventure tour, that started to violently shake mid-flight, panicking not only him but everyone on board.
Putting two and two together, the young man realized that his life may have been cut short and this new space he found himself in was the so-called afterlife.
This discovery increased his panic causing him to look around for something or someone who could answer his questions before his gaze settled on the man behind the desk. But instead of immediately launching into a tirade of panic-fueled questions, the calmness and unperturbedness of the older man helped settle down the young man's nerves some.
"W-where am I?" asked the young man.
"The afterlife." said the man, putting the papers aside and focusing on the young man.
"I'm d-dead?" he asked with no joy at his assumption being true.
"Yes." said the older man with no frills.
"I see." he said, falling into the thought of all the life he had yet to live before realizing that he was not alone on that plane, "What about everyone else on the plane? Did they die too? Did the plane crash?"
"You care whether they lived or died? They were strangers to you." asked the man, an eyebrow raised in intrigue.
"Well, yeah, I'm not heartless. It would be a little sad to know that they all died too." said the young man, an odd look on his face at the man's question.
The man, on the other hand, stared right into the young man's eyes and saw that his eyes held not an ounce of deception. He truly did care whether they had lived or died.
"Interesting. Most people who come through here only care about themselves. You're a nice breath of fresh air." said the man with a small smile as he fixed his glasses, "And to answer your question, they did not die. You were the only one."
"Sigh. That's good to hear at least, but if the plane didn't crash, how did I die?" asked the young man, both relieved to hear no one else died and confused at his own death.
"Faulty seatbelt. The extreme turbulence caused it to unbuckle and on a particularly nasty bit of turbulence, you hit your head hard enough to die." explained the man.
"Damn. Unlucky." said the young man, sad that his death could have been prevented by a working seatbelt.
"Actually, it's quite lucky." said the man as he started typing on his computer.
"How? I died." said the young man.
"Well, you weren't supposed to die there. The faulty seatbelt wasn't supposed to be faulty." said the man as he continued to type.
"Ideally, yeah, but that's life. Something bad happens and you have to roll with the punches. Not like I can sue the company or airline now that I'm dead." said the young man causing the man to let out a chuckle.
"No, young man. That's not what I meant. The seatbelt was supposed to work and you were supposed to live. Reality made a mistake." he said, stopping his typing and looking at the baffled young man.
"So I wasn't supposed to die?"
"No."
"But reality made a mistake? Somehow."
"Yes."
"How does that happen exactly?"
"Think of reality like an extremely precise machine. The chances of a mistake occurring are so infinitesimally small because of how delicate and precise the machine has to be to function properly. But the chance of a mistake still exists, and unfortunately, it happened to result in your death, and for that, we are truly sorry." said the man, causing the young man to fall into silence for a few moments.
"That's fine I guess. Not like you can control it." he said.
"It's fine?" asked the man, a little confused at the young man's acquiescence.
"I mean, I would prefer to not be dead and stuff, but I'm also not one to hold a grudge. Even though I probably should." said the young man, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Where exactly are you? Who am I?" said the man.
"Yep."
"As I said earlier, you are in the afterlife. Specifically the part of the afterlife that deals with reincarnation, aka the Reincarnation Office. I am one of the many beings tasked with helping the departed go to their rightful destination." explained the man.
"So you're like an angel then?"
"Sort of, yes."
"Then God is real?"
"Yes and no. The God that you are referring to is not real, but reality does have a Creator who oversees everything. And I do mean everything." said the man, emphasizing the word everything.
"So I'm being reincarnated then, cool." said the young man.
"Aren't you curious about the Creator?" asked the man, who had always had to explain more about the Creator to past reincarnators.
"Oh, no disrespect but not really. I've always been of the mindset that whether or not God or a being similar to God exists is irrelevant to my life. I'd rather spend my time in the moment and living life rather than worrying whether a being of unimaginable power is real." explained the young man, shrugging his shoulders.
"I see. Well as you stated, you are being reincarnated. Now, typically those who make it here are only those departed who had good karma, as those with bad karma are automatically put in the reincarnation cycle of their world without much choice in the matter. While those with good karma are given certain choices depending on their accumulated karma.
You, however, are a special case. As it was a mistake that led to your untimely death, we at the Reincarnation Office have been given the directive to let you reincarnate as if you had accumulated enough good karma." explained the man.
"Wait, earlier you said that a lot of the people that come through here are selfish and only look out for themselves, but just now you said that this is where people with good karma come. Those two shouldn't correlate, should they?" asked the young man, confused at the man's words.
"Ah, I see. I did indeed say that. I did not misspeak." he said adjusting his glasses, "People who do good deeds/things get good karma even if their intentions are selfish."
"Why? Wouldn't it make more sense for it to be intent-based rather than action-based?"
"While I do agree with you, I do not make the rules. The Creator wills it so, and so it shall be." said the man with a look of reluctant acceptance.
"Higher-ups, huh? I've been there." said the young man shaking his head with sympathy for the man.
"Back to the matter at hand, there are two types of reincarnation packages we are being allowed to offer you." said the man before turning the monitor around to show the young man what was on the screen.
"The first package is one where you choose what world you reincarnate into, a special ability, and if you want, even change your appearance. This is our most popular one by far. Pros of it are you choose everything, cons of it are the worlds and abilities available to you are on the slightly weaker end of the spectrum." he said before hitting the arrow key on his keyboard to switch to the next package.
"The second package is one where everything is random. The world you reincarnate into, your ability, and if you want, your appearance. This is one of our least popular ones because of the complete randomness, but the worlds and abilities available are much better. Oh, and I should mention that you can choose for there to be an extra scenario that creates a random effect but it also allows for the ability you get to be, potentially, much better." he explained.
"Do I get to keep my memories in both packages?"
"Yes."
"I see. Hmm." said the young man, falling into thought for a few moments before settling on a package. "I want the second one with the added scenario."
"Are you sure?" asked the man.
"Yep. I like a good adventure and if I'm going to go on one then why not make it a complete mystery." he said.
"Very well. Would you like your appearance to be random as well? Chances are you get a good one." said the man.
"Sure, might as well."
"Okay, then. Let me input this here." he said, clicking some things on the screen before a green button that said Roll appeared on the screen, "Just hit enter."
"Here goes nothing." said the young man as he pressed the enter key.
Four rectangular boxes appeared and started spinning, but after the first one stopped, another box appeared in the third position for a total of five boxes.
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- Scenario: Transported to another world after 15 years
- World 1: One Piece
- World 2: DC
- Ability: Absolute Body
- Appearance: Trevor Belmont (Castlevania)
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Seeing the things that were randomly chosen, the young man had an intrigued look on his face while the man had a pleasantly surprised look.
"Not bad. It seems you got one of the tamer scenarios and one of the very best abilities that are available." said the man.
"What is the ability Absolute Body exactly?" said the young man, who even having read his fair share of fictional works did not understand what the ability entailed.
"In simple terms, it means your body has no limit. Your physical attributes/capabilities will never stop growing." explained the man.
"I see. So eventually I'll just be super strong. Like Superman."
"Stronger. Eventually. The whole thing is a little more complicated than that, but that is the gist of it."
"Sweet. Seems like I lucked out on all of the rolls, and the appearance roll isn't too shabby either since as far as I can remember, he's quite handsome. One Piece is an interesting world to be in, though it is a little disappointing that I'll have to leave it, but DC is arguably even more interesting with all of its shenanigans." said the young man with a smile on his face.
As he thought about the two worlds, he realized that both of them were perfect for crazy adventures. And One Piece would serve as a perfect training ground before he would be thrown into the even crazier world of DC.
"The only thing that is a little concerning is which DC world I'm being tossed into. Some are more, shall we say crazy, than others. Though with the Absolute Body ability, I should be able to hold my own no matter what version I get thrown into. Of course that is predicated on the premise that I'm given enough time to get stronger.
Not to mention I was never a big comic reader besides the occasional one I flipped through at my local comic shop. I suppose that isn't bad either though since it means nearly everything I'll experience will be new to me. And what's life without the unknown?" said the young man to himself while the man just waited for his monologue to finish.
"Nice." said the young man, that smile still present on his face as he turned to look at the man, "Sorry for the rambling. I appreciate you not interrupting me though. Thanks."
"Not a problem. It's something we face all the time." he responded with a smile, "It's also nice to see someone happy about all their randomized options. It's rare for someone to be content with all of them. DC is especially not a super popular option."
"Understandably so."
"Indeed." agreed the man, "Well, that concludes our time. Your reincarnation package has been completed and everything has been explained to you. All that remains is for you to be off on your next adventure."
"Awesome. I'm ready any time." said the young man, a look of anticipation on his face.
"Splendid. From everyone here in the afterlife, we do offer our sincerest apologies about your untimely death but we are grateful you are content with our gift. We hope you enjoyed your brief visit and we hope you enjoy your next life." said the man.
"Wait."
"Yes?"
"Umm, I know you've already given me so much but I was wondering if I could ask for some specifications of how and when I'll appear in the worlds." said the young man.
"What kind of specifications?"
"Well, for the first world, I was wondering if you could make me appear as a 5-year-old on the island where they train the Cipher Pol agents?" he asked.
"We can do that. What else?"
"For the second world, I want to appear a few years before the Justice League is formed and I was hoping I could have a gut feeling that gets stronger the closer I get to the day I get transported."
"Not unreasonable, done." said the man.
"Awesome, thank you so much." said the young man with a relieved look on his face.
"Not a problem." nodded the man, "I said our whole spiel already so, Au Revoir." he said before the young man disappeared into motes of light, leaving the office empty save the man.
"On to the next. An angel's life is always busy." said the man as an unconscious form materialized in the reception chair.