First, there was darkness...
Well, until a small, naked man decided to free-fall into the dark ocean
You would think that being in, what could be space, that the young man would be frozen into a popsicle, but surprisingly, it was...
Warm, almost homely
It felt so comfortable that snoring could be heard echoing through the dark, empty space. Such was the comfort...
Until a sudden spark of light erupted
Disturbed by the unexpected solar bomb, the young man opened his eyes, pissed at being awoken from his beauty sleep
"What the fu..."
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Comfortable...
So comfortable...
For the first time in a long time, Natsuki felt inner peace. Gone was the weight that was the passing of his father, his grandparents...
His mother, sisters and childhood friends
Ahhh, I wish it could last forever. Man, I hope this shit lasts till the end of the universe–
Damn it, who turned on the lights!
Opening his eyes, for the first few minutes Natsuki didn't know where he was. Only then did he remember where he was before...
Wait, where the fuck am I!?!?
Now full on panic mode, he glanced his arms around, before discovering the shocking fact:
His arms were all spirity
Ahhh, am I dead!? I'm not dead, right!? Who'll scrap my SSD– no, wait, I remember now: Scaramond fucking rammed me with his dump of a truck, and being denied my harem, I'm now stuck working for Throway Transportations. Speaking of which, the latest thing I remember was opening the book, where am I–
Oh my God, is that a giant gear!?
Floating in the void was the silhouette of a giant gear, its thirteen teeth cracked. Slowly rotating, jerking ever so often, the gear nevertheless invoked a sense of antiquity, with letters from a language unknown radiating from its teeth, emanating, dissolving into the void.
Though he did not know why, tears began pouring down his cheeks. He had a sudden urge to caress it, to care for it...
To warm it
Yet it quickly faded away. Though he did not know what to do, he intuitively knew that it needed a medium, something to make it whole, something to make it...
Alive
But here's the kicker:
He barely took anything with him when he entered the dark space
Just when he believed all was lost, his heirloom, the coin his father left him before he died, suddenly glowed a bright green. Emerging from his right side, it burned as bright as a giant star, before launching itself towards the gear.
Before Natsuki's astonished eyes, it began melting as it approached the silhouette. By the time it touched it, it had already transformed into a bright-green molten sludge. With a quick whip, it encapsulated the silhouette, squirming as it began melding into the projection.
That was the last thing Natsuki saw before he was ejected from the void, shooting back up, right where his body was...
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Huaah, huahh...
Gasping for air, the first thing the sweating Natsuki saw was a very hairy human who could easily pass for a Bigfoot (oh, sorry, he hates those assholes...). Yet his eyes held great concern for him, evidently by the fact that his rough, gnarled hands were holding him as gently as possible.
"I can't believe it, the book finally chose someone..."