Death.
I am sure a lot of you must have wondered about it from time to time. Some of you have probably questioned yourself and maybe even your parents, your friends and your elders - "what's in there for us after death?"
Such a simple, one liner question and yet, the answer can range from person to person.
In a similar manner, one such possible answer would come up as reincarnation. Yeah, the stuff of fantasies and the dream upon which a generation had grown up.
As a child, I was always scared of death - of the inevitable darkness that would follow life. Sometimes, I would find myself suffocating for fresh air from the anxiety that the thought had carried. But even then, I had never said anything of this to my elders.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across novels with main characters reincarnting as princes, knights and heroes. For a while, I had actually entertained the idea that the life of a hero is what follows our death.
Looking back at such a colourful time, I feel those were one of my happiest days. But alas, with the end of my school life, I felt all the responsibilities hit me. Gone were the musings and the innocence of the child inside me and were replaced methodically with the burden and the countless assignments of college life.
That is until that day....
It was a completely usual day as I had walked down the footpath, my unfocussed eyes watching the busy traffic beside me in the middle of the day.
Suddenly, a clear sound of something knocking against a wooden surface reached my ears. Now mind you, in such a busy and tiring day and under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even have registered the sound.
But here is the eerie part: the knocking sound had reached my ears as if it was completely a different sound, as if my hearing at that moment had split into two parts - one being the knocking sound and the other being the rest of my surroundings.
Facing this strange phenomenon, I had followed the sound to its source, which happened to be a sidewalk concave mirror.
At first glance, I saw what others would have seen. The disoriented reflection of the road.
But when the knocking sound returned once again, I squinted a little and was almost shocked to see the reflection in the mirror change to something completely different.
Two men sat across a round, short table and....played chess. Trying to see their faces was a futile attempt since their already tiny figures were stretched by the mirror to make them seem unrecognisable.
As I was about to turn around and walk away following my deep principle of "don't fuck around and absolutely, don't find out!", a deep voice growled in my ears.
"You can see this...right?"
I froze on spot as at that moment, a man almost stumbled on me and went past me, not before glaring at my way.
But I couldn't care any less as I turned around to look at the mirror. However, as if the voice was just an illusion, the reflection on the mirror remained unchanged - the two men still playing.
"Good, good. So you are part of her plan as well huh. Although I don't know which one of them you are, remember something: comprehension is the key to it all. And to defeat the man in front of me, you need to unravel his very way of thinking. Remember it, ugh!"
The voice cut off in a painful moan as in the mirror, the man on the right was thrown backwards by some unknown force and the chessboard shattered into pieces.
Resting one of his hands on the table, the man on the left turned his head towards my way.
I tried to run away but found myself unable to do so. I tried to shout for help but found my mouth unmoving.
All I felt was an intense burning sensation in my chest and my heartbeats getting faster and faster with every passing second.
"What a weakling...is this boy one of the three you all righteous bastards could gather? What a pity, friend that I shall savour the joy of killing one of your little punnies then."
The man laughed with malice, his voice echoing like a beating wardrum inside my head.
I could hear few angry shouts in my surroundings, no doubt aimed at my frozen figure.
But...I was helpless as I was forced to remain still, while my heart pounded like it could burst out any moment. My vision slowly started blurring as after a few minutes, my body uncontrollably fell on the ground and the last of my consciousness vanished into the same darkness I had once feared.
Unlike the characters from novels, I don't remember a single thing that had happened in that darkness for I was completely unconsciousness. One could say I was in a deep state of sleep minus the dreams.
The next time I had regained consciousness, the world had appeared too bright for me as if I had just woken up from sleep. My ears also rang with indistinguishable sounds from around me.
Although I understood nothing, one thing was clear - whoever were around seemed quite excited.
But as if unhappy with such excitement, a wailing sound pierced through the air, silencing everyone.
'Who the hell is crying now? Tsk!' I thought, quite annoyed. Here, I was still not able to see anything clearly and someone was crying. Parents should really control their little ones at times!
As I was thinking that, I felt myself being lifted up in the air.
'What is happening?!' I desperately tried to clear my vision, not at all liking someone taking such liberties with me.
But what I saw dumbfounded me. A grinning man, with sharp features dressed in neat loose robes was looking at me with a proud face, as if holding something quite precious to him.
"Heh, see he likes his father more! Such a good boy you are haha."
The next moment, his voice boomed as he ordered everyone in the room in a melodious voice.
"What are you waiting for? Go and inform the subjects that Heavenly Will now has a crown prince. Let them rejoice for a Sky Prince has taken birth!"
Adding everything upto now, it didn't take me long before I figured out the inevitable truth - I have been reincarnated. As a prince, no less.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of me as a mechanical voice echoed inside my head.
[Encounter with Sin has been detected. Host adviced to take full caution! I repeat, take full caution!]