The first thing that invaded my consciousness was a voice. Feminine, high-pitched and shrill, with that very specific tone of a spoiled child at the peak of a tantrum. "WAKE UP, ALREADY!"
My eyes opened slowly and I looked around in confusion, wondering what had happened and where I was. The scene around me didn't help at all. I was lying in an infinite space, completely white. No walls, no defined floor, no doors, windows, or furniture. Just absolute white, as if someone had erased the world and forgotten to draw the rest.
In front of me, sitting a few inches away on a white chair, was a small girl with a childish appearance, wearing a long, intricate white dress that covered her entire body down to her feet. Her hair was a vibrant pink, curly and loose, falling all the way to her waist.
In one tiny hand, she held a chocolate-glazed donut, taking an irritated bite out of it. Her face was delicate, with large lavender-colored eyes, but her expression was pure disdain, eyebrows furrowed in irritation and lips turned downward.
She chewed forcefully, swallowed, then pointed the donut at me. "Finally! Did you think you could just stay there lying down forever?!"
"Uh… w-what? Who are you?" I asked, completely confused, trying to find some logic in what was happening. Shouldn't I be dead? I tried to sit up, but couldn't. My body felt like it weighed tons—more than normal.
She rolled her eyes dramatically, taking another bite of the donut. "Wow. First, you ignored my orders. Then, you had the audacity to block me not once, not twice, but three times. And now, you don't even recognize the ineffable honor of being in my presence. You disappoint me more and more, Ethan."
How does she know my name? And… wait. What did she just say? I blocked her three times? That… no. That can't be right. A chill that had nothing to do with temperature ran down my spine as an absurd, impossible thought began to take shape in my mind.
Is this girl @GoddessOfAllExistence? No. That simply can't be true. That would be complete insanity. Yes, it makes no sense at all. None of this made sense. I had to be dreaming or trapped in some pre-death delirium.
"No, you're not dreaming," she suddenly said, as if she could read my thoughts. "And yes, I am the user GoddessOfAllExistence." She leaned forward in her chair, lilac eyes locked onto mine. "You died, Ethan. Or, to be more precise, I killed you. It wasn't hard, you know? I just had to raise your blood pressure a bit until that little heart of yours, clogged by trans fats, exploded."
"I… what?" That was the only thing I managed to pull from my throat.
"Haaah…" She let out a long sigh. "I thought your mind would be a little sharper than the rest of the human riffraff. My mistake for having expectations." The girl—the thing—raised her free hand and snapped her fingers, the sound reverberating through the white space.
In an instant, the foggy terror that had paralyzed me evaporated. The confusion settled, and my thoughts aligned with a clarity I had never had in life. I blinked twice, finally able to process the madness of what was happening. "What… exactly did you just do?"
"I calmed your inferior being hysteria. You're welcome." She tossed what remained of the donut aside, where it simply vanished before touching the 'ground.' "Now, let's get to what matters. You wrote a story that really caught my attention, Ethan. Mainly because it's… unpredictable. Full of insane choices and exaggerated events. I could never predict what would happen in the next chapter, and that means a lot to someone who knows everything."
Was that a compliment or a criticism?
"However," she went on, her voice losing its casual tone, "when you finally got all of my attention and fed my curiosity… you had the audacity to abandon it. Do you remember the messages? The warnings? I don't usually give second chances, Ethan. But you ignored them and never wrote again, leaving me waiting. You don't do that. Not with me."
That entity — because it could only be an entity or a goddess — was truly serious. Which meant I was murdered by an all-powerful being because of a fanfic. The situation was so surreal that, if I were still capable of feeling anything, I would certainly be laughing until I cried. "So you killed me as punishment?"
"No. I killed you only to bring you here. Your punishment begins now."
This has to be a joke…
The girl-goddess snapped her fingers again, but this time a glowing screen materialized before me, floating in the "air," displaying a title I knew all too well: "HP: The Heir of the End of the Worlds."
"Uh… you want me to keep writing it for you?" I deduced, hoping that was it and not spending the next thousand years burning in hell.
"Obviously not," she shot back dryly. "That would be far too uninteresting. Here, I know everything you think. I'd know what would happen before your hands even wrote it. It would be utterly boring. No, no. I want something more… exciting. I'm going to send you inside your own fanfic."
Okay… I would definitely be freaking out right now if I still had emotions. But sinceI didn't, I analyzed everything rationally and arrived at only one conclusion: I was fucked. See, I think it's pretty clear how shitty my life was and how my dream had always been to be sent to another world — preferably one with powers or magic. I always wanted a fresh start.
But what was happening here wasn't that. This entity wasn't doing me a favor, nor granting me a reward. I wasn't being summoned to become a hero. This was nothing more than a whim. She was doing it purely for her own entertainment.
And there was another detail — perhaps more important than anything else. The world of Harry Potter was already terribly dangerous to begin with. But my version… my fanfic… I had modified it to make it even more dangerous in pursuit of likes and comments, turning it into a massive death trap. And I, the author who had engineered every single one of those dangers, was about to be thrown right into it.
"Uh… why are you doing this?" I asked without looking at her, focused on my own thoughts.
"I want to watch you suffer, of course. I also want to see how the story will bend and break because of your presence. And most of all…" She paused, and her voice took on an almost… contemplative tone. "…I want to know how it ends." There was a faint trace of something strange at the end — embarrassment? Maybe she even felt a twinge of shame that her motivation was so viscerally childish. Who knows.
Either way, if I had no choice, my only move was to bargain. "Will I get any advantage? I don't want to die early and ruin your… entertainment."
"Are you deaf? I want to see you suffer. I'm not giving you anything—" She cut herself off abruptly, placing a hand on her chin in a thoughtful gesture. Her eyes gleamed with a sudden idea. "Change of plans. I'll give you two things. First, I'll grant you mental protection that will lock away all your memories of this world. If someone invades your mind, they won't be able to see anything from your previous life. In exchange, you'll never be able to tell anyone about that life either. Which means you won't be able to go around telling people where Voldemort's Horcruxes are, or what Herpo is planning to do, and so on."
In other words, I'd be forced to get directly and actively involved in the main plot if I wanted a world left to live in afterward. Perfect. "And the second thing?"
"I'll let you choose what you look like."
I raised an eyebrow, not believing for a second in her sudden benevolence. "What's the catch?"
"No catch," she said, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Choose whatever you want. A famous actor, a model, an anime character, even create an appearance from scratch if you wish. Consider it a… gift."
My mind, so clear just moments before, went blank.
The chance that this was a trap was extremely high. But if it wasn't… what appearance should I choose? The possibilities were endless. Someone tall? Anonymous? Beautiful? Intimidating? Images—faces of various characters I loved, admired, and had always wanted to be—flashed through my mind one after another.
And then, without any conscious effort, as if the answer had already been carved into my deepest core, one image imposed itself over all the others. It was the image of absolute confidence, of power — of someone who, in any universe, would stand out from the rest.
It was Satoru Gojo, my favorite character.
Not because of his strength—interesting as it is—but because of everything he represents. He was the first character who made me see the theme of "being the strongest" under a tragically complex light.
Satoru stands at the pinnacle of his world, but that pinnacle places him on an isolated pedestal where no one truly understands him, nor can keep up with him. The strength that should protect him turns him into a prisoner of his own existence. Satoru didn't choose to be the strongest; he was born condemned to it. And the same power that gives him purpose also prevents him from finding another — from being just human.
I was obsessed with that contradiction. The façade of the "invincible," the cocky bravado hiding a core of profound existential isolation. Satoru was, on the outside, the embodiment of absolute power. And on the inside, just… a deeply broken and lonely man.
I love the character, and the thought solidified: That's it. It's him. I want to have the appearance of Satoru Gojo.
A slow, deeply malicious smile spread across the girl-goddess's face. Her lavender eyes narrowed into crescents of pure, perverse delight, as if I had just fallen into the most obvious — and entertaining — trap in the universe.
"Ohhhh…" she crooned, her voice syrupy and full of hidden meanings. "I knew you would choose him. Hehehe."
Shit, she was far too happy about this. Was it really a trap?
"Good luck, Ethan. I hope you amuse me very much." She snapped her fingers one last time.
The white space contracted, then shattered into shreds of darkness that swallowed me whole.
***
Did you enjoy it? If so, give my other two fanfics a chance as well: "Stranger Things: The Number Seven" and "BNHA: God of Explosions"
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, images or songs featured in this fic. Additionally, I do not claim ownership of any products or properties mentioned in this novel. This work is entirely fanfic.