Kobe Williams, a fifteen-year-old African American boy—fat, strong, and surprisingly athletic—walked home from his bus stop on a cold December afternoon. Football season had ended just a month earlier. He had been a defensive lineman, and even as a freshman he earned a spot in the starting lineup. His coach always said he had "heavy hands and a bigger heart."
Kobe was an introvert, but not the awkward kind.He loved playing games, reading novels of every genre, or watching his favorite anime—the one with the pirate in the straw hat. You know the one.
But despite preferring solitude, he could talk to anyone.Jocks. Nerds. Extroverts. Quiet kids. Movie buffs. New students.Kobe fit everywhere without trying.
As his boots crunched over the thin frost on the sidewalk, his thoughts drifted to his family. He was the oldest of nine siblings—five brothers and four sisters—and even though their house was always loud and chaotic, he loved them with everything he had. His parents were divorced, but they co-parented well, keeping their kids close and loved.
He smiled softly, imagining his youngest brother trying to wrestle him when he got home.
That was when he saw her.
A little girl, no older than six, walking beside her mother. The wind tugged at the string of her red balloon, and with a sudden gust, it slipped out of her small gloved hand.
The balloon floated upward.The girl chased it.
Straight into the street.Her mother didn't notice.But Kobe did.And he heard it—the roar of an engine.A truck, barreling around the corner too fast for the icy road.
Kobe didn't think. His body moved before his mind could.His heart slammed in his chest. His lungs burned. The cold air stabbed at his throat as he sprinted. His heavy frame hit the pavement like a charging bull, each step slamming loud and desperate.
The truck's horn blared, long and panicked.
The girl turned, confused, eyes wide.
Kobe reached her. He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her out of the truck's path with everything he had.
She rolled onto the opposite sidewalk.
But Kobe had no time left.
He barely registered the impact—just a deafening crash and a shattering flash of pain. His ribs collapsed. His spine snapped. His body twisted unnaturally as he struck the icy ground.
Agony washed over him in waves, but he didn't scream. He didn't have the strength.
His breaths came shallow.
The cold seeped into him.
His vision blurred.
And his final thoughts came quietly, small flickers in the darkness.
My family… I won't get to see them again.
I'll never know how my favorite anime ends.I never even had a girlfriend… All the stories I'll never finish… all the games I'll never play…The future… I'll never get to have…
His eyes dimmed.
At that final thought, Kobe died.
⸻
The Void Between Creation
Darkness.
Silence.
Kobe felt weightless, drifting through a place that looked like a starless, endless night. Everything was blurred, unfocused, unreal. He couldn't tell if he had eyes anymore. He couldn't tell if he was even a body or just… thought.
Then—
A presence.
Not a voice. Not a sound.
A vibration. A resonance. The universe itself speaking without words.
A force older than every world.
"FINALLY… THE ORIGIN CAN BE COMPLETED."
The message thundered through existence.
Satisfaction—like something ancient had been waiting.
Recognition—like Kobe was not random or meaningless.
Purpose—vast, unknowable.
Flashes came to him, unbidden.
Before creation… before gods…
There had been one being.
Not alive. Not dead. Not sentient, yet not unconscious.A paradox given form.
THE ORIGIN.
Eons ago, its soul shattered, fragments scattering across billions of worlds. Each fragment lived as its own soul—weak or strong, mortal or immortal.Kobe was one of those fragments.Most fragments never met, never touched, never returned.
But now,for the first time since existence began,every shard had died within the same cosmic cycle.They returned all at once.
And the universe… responded.
"THE ORIGIN… IS WHOLE AGAIN."
Not because the universe was alive, but because something fundamental—something woven into the laws of all things—had snapped back into place.
Kobe felt something shift inside him.
No—through him.He wasn't merging with others.He was the others.
His soul—their souls—were reforming into the Origin once more.He wasn't chosen.
He was The Origin reborn.
He didn't understand it.He couldn't understand it.Then light erupted around him—soft, warm, celebrating, like the universe itself exhaled after eons of waiting.
A final message whispered into his soul:
"AS THE RETURNED ORIGIN… YOU ARE GRANTED ONE WISH TO GIFT YOUR RETURN."
Kobe froze.
A wish?
His thoughts scrambled.
Wait—anything? Can I bring my fam—
But before he could even complete the thought…
before he could shape a single word…
The universe folded around him.
Space warped. Light twisted.
He was pulled away, ripped through the fabric of existence,and thrust toward a new world.
A new beginning.
A new life.