Takeshi opened his eyes to darkness.
He immediately looked around, but all he found was the same darkness, scattered and formless. Even the ground beneath his feet was swallowed by shadow when he glanced downward.
Huh... Is this the afterlife?
If it was, he was disappointed.
He had never seriously thought about what came after death—but if he ever had, this definitely wasn't it.
What am I supposed to do here, to begin with?
Is that useless goddess Aqua going to show up and give me a choice to go to the world of KonoSuba?
…Actually, that doesn't sound so bad.
At least then I wouldn't die from being overworked in some office as a hacker-for-hire.
Who would even need a hacker in a magical world, anyway?
"Welcome, Takeshi Yamada."
—Wait. Am I actually going to meet Aqua?
A voice of indeterminate gender echoed from nowhere and everywhere at once. Before Takeshi could even try to locate its source, something began to materialize in front of him.
It had no discernible shape. Staring at it too intently made his head throb with pain. If this was what it felt like when a god restrained itself—for the safety of its conversational partner, and perhaps as a display of power—then this was it.
"Who the hell are you?" His face twisted into a grimace as he deliberately avoided looking at it directly. "And what's with that painfully offensive appearance? Can you change that? It's kind of rude, you know."
"Ah, my apologies." The thing took the form of a beautiful white-haired woman and smiled gently. "My name is Aleph. You can think of me as a kind of ROB, using the fanfic terms you're familiar with."
"ROB?"
When Takeshi looked at the being again, the pain was gone.
ROB stood for Random Omniscient Being. There was always that one opening chapter where the original protagonist met an ROB, got handed a bundle of cheats, and was promptly sent off to some anime world or another.
Takeshi frowned—well, he would have, if he still had a face. In fact, he realized, he didn't seem to have a body at all.
"You're right," Aleph cut in, as if she already knew what he was thinking. "You can go to the world you're imagining right now. Of course, there are other options as well."
"Huh."
Maybe it was because his soul had been corroded by years of work. Even something that should have been shocking—something that should have inspired awe—failed to stir much emotion in him.
He scratched his nonexistent head with his nonexistent hand, utterly exasperated.
This is what a job does to you…
"What options?"
He chose to set aside his emotional confusion and focus on something practical.
Aleph gave a small nod. "There are only two choices. You can be reborn on Earth, your memories erased, and live as an ordinary person—or you can transmigrate to a story world, whether it's one you know well or one completely unfamiliar."
Takeshi snorted. "How many people actually choose the first one?"
"A few."
Then why even bother giving them a choice?
He didn't voice the question. Aleph clearly knew what he was thinking—and was deliberately choosing not to answer.
He let out a sigh. "Can you show me what kinds of worlds I can go to?"
"Of course."
She snapped her fingers, and a multitude of things appeared above him. Takeshi quickly realized that many of them were collections of images—anime, manga, light novels, and web novels he had consumed over the years.
My Hero Academia, Bungo Stray Dogs, Tensura, Mushoku Tensei, One Punch Man, Jujutsu Kaisen.
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Classroom of the Elite, Golden Time, ReLIFE.
He wasn't much of a novel reader. The ones he remembered were Lord of the Mysteries, Shadow Slave, Re:Zero, an obscure novel called Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, and a handful of others.
That's a lot...
Takeshi steadied his thoughts and began to sift through them.
The first thing he eliminated was Lord of the Mysteries. He knew the plot—and that alone was a problem. In that world, too much knowledge meant death. He loved its power system, but not enough to risk transmigrating there with the memories he currently had.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash was his favorite novel, but its harsh realism would only make life there even more miserable.
Re:Zero… He just hoped he wouldn't end up as Subaru.
He discarded everything that had nothing to do with the supernatural. He'd had more than enough of that kind of life already. He wanted a world with superpowers.
Shadow Slave might be too dark… Tensura and Mushoku are too medieval for my taste. Not that they're bad—I just prefer urban settings. Still, JJK is out of the question. And BSD isn't compatible with my teeny-weeny brain.
"…Maybe My Hero Academia?"
It looked like a peaceful world, though appearances alone meant nothing.
"Are you sure about that?" Aleph tilted her head slightly. "If you are, we can move on to choosing your power right away."
Takeshi considered the choice for a moment before shrugging.
"Sure. Can I choose my ability?"
There was no point in dragging this scene out.
"Only something related to who you are."
"Can it be omniscience?"
"No."
Takeshi had expected that answer.
Still… a power tied to my personality, huh?
His thoughts drifted back to Lord of the Mysteries—specifically, one of its pathways: Error.
Lord of the Mysteries had a power system composed of twenty-two pathways, each with ten sequences, ranging from Sequence 9 to Sequence 0. Every pathway focused on something different, giving each its own unique identity.
The Error Pathway specialized in deception and theft of all kinds. Its users could trick others through eloquence and sleight of hand, steal both supernatural and mundane abilities, decrypt information, and even steal thoughts and intentions.
At higher sequences, they could become parasites that attached themselves to hosts, deceive the rules of the world, create avatars, tamper with fate, manipulate time, and exploit loopholes in reality itself—becoming something akin to a living bug.
On the surface, it resembled All For One, but at a deeper level, it was fundamentally different.
All For One stole quirks permanently. That was the crux of it. Once taken, they were gone—ripped from the victim's body like pages torn from a book. The quirk factor itself was transferred, rewritten into AFO's genetic code. It's irreversible and absolute.
Error didn't work that way.
It borrowed, exploited, and functioned by finding the gaps.
If All For One was a thief who broke into your house and stole your television, Error was someone who figured out your Wi-Fi password and used your Netflix account. The TV was still yours. You'd get it back. But in the moment? He had full access.
This was a power perfectly suited to him—one that thrived on constantly exploiting the loopholes of any system.
"Error Pathway," Takeshi said. "From Lord of the Mysteries. Can I get something like that?"
"An interesting choice," Aleph replied, her tone giving nothing away. "Why that, specifically?"
Takeshi shrugged. "Because I'm a software engineer. Or I was. I spent years finding bugs in code, exploiting security vulnerabilities, patching systems. That's what I did. That's who I am." He met her gaze. "You said the power had to be related to me. That is me."
Aleph was silent for a moment before smiling.
"That is acceptable. But understand—this won't be the complete Error Pathway. Not at first. You'll start with the Sequence 7 equivalent. Growth will require understanding, practice, and digestion of the concepts. You'll need to become the role before advancing. The advancement will also be adjusted in this universe."
"That's fine."
Better, actually. Starting too strong would draw attention.
"Good, and regarding your power," Aleph added. "In this world, your ability will be classified as a quirk. 'Error' or something derivative. People will see the surface—temporary quirk theft, maybe some minor reality warping. They won't understand the deeper mechanics unless you show them."
"I don't plan to." He paused. "How old will I be when I transmigrate?"
"Four. Your quirk will manifest around that age, as is typical. Your memories—these memories—will be with you. You may use the time to advance."
So a four-year-old kid with a twenty-five-year-old man inside… Isn't that funny.
Takeshi rubbed his face. "Alright. I'm in."
Aleph nodded once. "Then we have an agreement."
She raised one hand, and the white void around them began to shift—colors bleeding in at the edges, shapes forming, sounds emerging from nothing.
"One last thing," she said, and her voice was already growing distant. "Your name in this life will be Mori Kaito. Your family will be kind people. Cherish that. You won't be able to be honest with them, but you can still love them."
Mori Kaito.
He tested the name in his mind. It felt foreign. But then, everything about this was foreign.
The void collapsed.
And Takeshi—no, Kaito—fell into light.
***
A/N: I didn't really think things through while writing the prologue, so some parts ended up rushed. Sorry about that.
Rate it from 1–10, with reasoning if possible. That would really help me figure out what's missing from the story.