Maybe he should have limited his power more.
Or maybe not his power.
Maybe it was the quality of his soul that had been the real problem.
Shinra floated in the realm of souls and stared into a place that had no sky, no ground, and no real end. It was a world of pure black.
He had been here so long that he didn't even know hold long he been here.
In front of him stood the only other presence in this endless place that still felt familiar.
Lord Death looked the same as the day he created him. His body was tall and black, made of darkness that seemed to wear a cloak. Over his face was the same reaper mask, bone-white and curved into a permanent expression that made it impossible to tell whether he was amused or simply beyond such things. His eyes were dark holes in the mask, but there was still life in them, still thought, still that strange sharp humor he always carried. In one hand he held a cane, that to put simply seemed to lose him more aura than it gained him.
Shinra's soul form, in contrast, looked unique. Even after giving up the full power of godhood, his soul had never returned to anything normal. His body was made of rainbow fire and transparent light . The colors in him shifted slowly from red to violet and back again, as if he were the flames of the sun itself, but shaped into a man.
Death rolled the small clock once across his fingers and then looked at Shinra. "Not much I can do soul-wise," he said. "I made the same mistake as you when it comes to limiting my power."
Shinra gave him a tired look. " Of course you did. But you wouldn't always repeat that line if you had nothing else to offer right."
Death's mask tilted slightly. "You say that like it is a flaw in my character, and I feel like im a good conversationalist, my personality if pretty fun I'v heard."
"It is a flaw in our character."
Death chuckled, and the sound moved strangely through the stillness around them.
Shinra folded his arms. The rainbow fire around his shoulders dimmed and brightened with the motion.
"Infinite power was boring anyway," he said.
Shinra turned his head and looked past him, out into the sea of distant souls.
Boring was one word for it. Another word would have been unbearable.
When he had become Shinrabanshoman and remade the world, it had felt like the answer to everything. He had saved people. He had brought back what had been lost. He had stood at the center of a miracle and forced the universe to accept hope. At the time, it had been worth everything.
What no one had told him was that there were consequences to becoming a being that stood above everyone else. Becoming didn't mean he couldn't die, but with the ending of true death, it meant his soul unless eaten would live on forever.
And if he stays long enough, he watches everyone else disappear.
He had seen friends laugh, grow older, weaken, and vanish. He had seen people he loved become memories, and then even those memories had started to blur at the edges from the sheer amount of time. There had come a point where he regretted being all powerful at any point in time, but that was quickly waved away by the memory of his children.
That was the part he hated most. The endless, rotten, meaningless waiting after everyone else was gone. Shinra let out a breath and finally looked back at Death.
"You say you can't do souls. So what's the other option?"
Death said nothing.
Shinra looked closer into deaths black friendly eyes.
The black spirit was quiet for another moment, then lifted one hand and rubbed the side of his mask as if he had been hoping this conversation would end quickly. "Well," Death said at last, "there is one little tool."
Shinra stared at him. "One little tool," he repeated flatly. "You really do hear yourself, right?"
" I've been here forever you know."
Death ignored that and reached into his cloak.
When he pulled his hand back out, there was an orb resting in his palm.
It was not large. Shinra could have closed his fingers around it easily, but that didn't make it look less interesting. It appeared smooth and glasslike. Colors moved through it in layers, each one flowing into the next like liquid light. Red, blue, violet, gold, and white all swirled through it in slow circles, but behind them was something deeper, it was like an entire galaxy was inside that small orb.
"What is that?" Shinra asked, his voice losing all of its humor.
Death looked down at the orb with the expressionless fondness of someone holding a dangerous masterpiece.
"When I carried the full authority of godhood," he said, "I became aware of something that should not have existed. A barrier. A region of existence beyond my reach."
Shinra frowned. "That doesn't make sense. When I was god I felt no such thing.
"Well you were careless, though god for much less time. Death argued. " Anyway I was quite curios when I was first born, and this region peaked my curiosity the most."
He turned the orb again in his palm, and the colors inside it shifted into spirals.
"I could feel it, something separate. Entirely from my powers and my ability to warp reality.Different dimensions, like plots of land that show you how far your power can go. I could not step through it, and I could not properly see through it either, but I managed to force a crack into it. Only a small one. Just enough to draw out some of the essence on the other side and use it as a foundation."
Shinra looked at the orb more carefully now. "So that thing is made from another reality?"
"In part," Death said. "It is a marker, a doorway, and a point of transfer all in one. I never tested it because I did not have a reason to leave yet. You, however might have one creator.
" You Think?"
"You got to get out more man you've been here for six or seven millennia"
" Who's fault is that man"
Shinra snorted despite himself, then looked at the orb again. A new reality. It sounded really interesting.
Death's fingers curled slightly around the orb. " However I do need a favor before I agree to let you use the orb. It's one use you know, I was planning on going on vacation sooner or later you know.
Shinra stared at him for a moment. "You know what I expected this What's the catch?" he asked.
Shinra uncrossed his arms and floated a little closer. The rainbow light around him flickered against the black of Death's cloak.
"What do you want?"
Death lifted his head.
"Take Adolla with you."
For a second Shinra thought he had misheard him.
"What?"
"I want you to take Adolla with you when you go."
Shinra's eyes turned into question marks.
"You want me to take hell with me, I though it was gone anyway.
Death spread one of his giant hand gloves. "Adolla has been stirring. You didn't kill it as much as you imagined, Adolla itself would have stayed sleep had I built soul society on it, but it would have only strengthened madness, so I had to separate them.
Shinra went still.
"It has been changing. Adapting to the changes I have made in reality. It's forming into a soul of its own stronger than anything everyone except me could handle, and if it continues to awaken here, it will eventually destroy this realm. I will not be here forever. The balance we built will erode.
I would rather remove the problem now than wait for it to become something worse."
Shinra looked away from him for a moment. He knew Death was not exaggerating. Not about something like this.
"And the solution," Shinra said, "is to have me deal with it later?"
Death replied" It should be easier to deal with if its you anyway"
Shinra rubbed a hand over his face. For someone with no skin, he still looked exhausted.
"You really know how to ruin a moment," he muttered.
The truth was that even with Adolla involved, the answer in his chest had not changed.
Anything was better than drifting through an endless afterlife and waiting for more centuries to pile on top of the ones he had already endured.
If there was risk, he would take it.
"Where would I even go?" Shinra asked. "Do you actually know, or am I throwing myself into a void and hoping for the best?"
Death considered that. "A little of both."
"That is not comforting."
"The destination will not be random," Death said. "The transfer follows resonance. Souls are not directionless. They have weight, preference, shape. The reality you enter will be one that your existence can anchor to. Your nature, your interests, your strongest emotions, your old habits, all of it will influence the place you arrive in."
Shinra raised an eyebrow. "So I'm getting sorted by personality."
"Yes"
Shinra looked down at his own transparent hands. Traits, interests, strongest emotions. What did he enjoy at this point?
"And when I get there?" he asked. "What am I, exactly? A spirit? A soul in somebody else's world? A body?"
"You will reincarnate," Death said. "Not as an ordinary child, because nothing about this is ordinary, but you will have a living form. Your soul is too powerful to remain disembodied during the transition. The new reality will build a body around what you are."
Shinra looked up sharply. "Build a body around my soul?"
"Yes. Your soul is strong enough that it will influence the shape and quality of your physical vessel. You will not be helpless when you arrive. In fact, I would be surprised if you were anything close to normal."
" That makes sense."
"You will also regain your old abilities."
Shinra's eyes narrowed. "Which ones?"
"Not your full godhood. Leave that fantasy behind. But your old flames, your natural power, your speed, your soul strength, all of that will remain. Adolla will add to the equation as well."
Shinra nodded slowly. That part mattered. He did not need to be a god again. He had no desire to become that thing a second time. But he was not going to walk into a new world helpless either, especially not if Adolla was involved.
Then he caught the shift in Death's expression.
"There's another problem," Shinra said.
"Yes."
"Of course there is."
"Your soul is strong," Death said, "but not strong enough to contain all of Adolla and pass through a dimensional transfer cleanly. If I bind the whole realm to you at once, the pressure will either rip your soul apart during reincarnation or extremely alter your personality.
Shinra stared, wondering if it was worth the trouble of having to deal with the problems of personality change or fighting Adolla again for the second time." You know what why not spilt it!"
Death lifted the orb slightly, and its light deepened.
" Ok Adolla will be divided
Shinra's eyebrows rose "Wait? How divided?"
"Two pieces will go with you."
"Two?"
"One piece will settle in your soul," Death said. "The second will settle into your body once you incarnate."
"And the rest?"
Lord Death raised up the rainbow orb to the sky.
"The rest will scatter across the new Dimension?"
"The fragments will not all behave the same way," Death said. "Some may sleep for years. Some may attach themselves to places. Some may cling to people with the right kind of emptiness, obsession, or talent, Some may mutate whatever they touch. Some may grant power. Others may simply just be."
Instead of getting annoyed Shinra pointed at the orb. "What else does splitting it do?"
Death was silent for a moment before stating
"Your memories."
Shinra's eyes narrowed immediately. "What about them?"
"The strain of taking even two pieces of Adolla into another reality will be severe. Your soul can survive it, but not without cost. The memories you formed after becoming Shinrabanshoman will not stay whole."
Shinra stared at him.
Death continued before he could interrupt.
"They will split away along with the scattered fragments. Not all of them at once, and not in a clean line, but enough that when you awaken in your new life, you will not remember everything."
There was no reaction from Shinra for several seconds.
" I will be a able to get them back right?"
"Yes."
Shinra looked away.
The light in his body dimmed, though not by much.
Then Shinra laughed. "That figures," Shinra said. "Of course that's how it works."
"You can recover them," Death said. "As you reclaim the fragments of Adolla, your missing memories will return with them. Nothing is truly lost."
If he was honest, there was a part of him that did not know whether he wanted all of those memories immediately. A part of him that had spent too long carrying the weight of centuries and many of them would keep him unhappy in his next life.
He had loved people. He had lost people. He had spent an age enduring the silence left behind by both facts.
Maybe forgetting some of it would hurt.
When he finally looked back at Death, his expression had steadied. "If I get them back later" he said. "I'll deal with it when it happens."
Death studied him. "You are taking this more calmly than I expected."
Shinra gave a tired smile. "That's because the alternative is staying here forever."
Death nodded very slowly, as if this was the answer he had been waiting to hear for a very long time.
"There is one final matter," he said.
Shinra groaned. "You keep saying that."
"And yet I keep having important things to add."
"Go on then."
"This has never been done before," Death said. "Not by me. Not by anyone. The orb was untested. The barrier was only partially understood. Adolla is not exactly a cooperative travel companion. There will be variables I cannot predict."
Shinra stared at him. "You're not exactly selling the idea."
"It is still the truth."
"So my reincarnation could get strange."
"Yes."
"My body could come out strange."
"Yes."
"The new world could be affected"
"Yes."
Shinra exhaled through his nose.
Then, to Death's mild surprise, he smiled.
It was not a grand heroic smile, but that of a demon
"Alright then," he said. "Sounds like me."
Death's mask tilted. He extended the orb. The colors inside it had grown brighter now. They moved like a storm trapped in glass. Around it the soul realm itself had started to bend.
"Place your hand on it," Death said. "Do not hesitate once the pull begins. Push your soul into the center and let the transfer take hold."
Shinra moved closer.
Up near, the orb's light reflected through his body and scattered into the darkness behind him.
Shinra looked at Death one last time.
"When I get there," he said, " will you miss me, my son" Shinra said jokingly.
Death answered him immediately.
"Yes."
The simple certainty of that answer settled something in him.
Shinra nodded once.
"Good."
Then he lifted his hand and pressed it against the orb.
The effect was immediate and violent.
The small sphere in Death's palm stopped feeling small. It opened beneath Shinra's hand like a universe folding inside out. Rainbow light exploded outward in spirals. The soul realm twisted, and the pressure of the pull slammed into him so hard it felt like every piece of his spirit had been hooked at once and dragged forward.
Death moved at the exact same moment.
With his free hand he reached into the empty space beside him and ripped a wound through reality itself. The tear opened jagged and wide, and on the other side was Adolla.
It looked like a hellscape, which to fair it was.
Black flame rose in pillars from a red abyss. The heat was intense. But more spiritual than physical, and the sheer sight of it made the soul realm recoil. Countless black flames moved under the surface like things trapped beneath ice.
The Death attacked. " Now brace yourself!"
Chains of black force and white spirit-light burst from his arms and plunged into Adolla. The infernal realm pushed back instantly. Pressure flooded the space between worlds. The tunnel around Shinra shook. The orb in his hand screamed with light.
Two of the pieces fused into Shinra as the rest was split off into the orb.
Shinra felt the first one enter him through the chest and the other kind of tight itself around him in a knot.
Shinra's own thoughts were starting to tear loose now. He could feel it happening. Memories shuddered inside him dissapering one by one.
He tried to hold onto some of them but it was for nought.
Death's voice reached him one last time through the storm.
"Good luck, Creator."
Then everything vanished into rainbow light.
And somewhere in another reality, a world of heroes, a monster came down from Tokyo from above, a titan of flames and destruction, it just so happened to coincide with the birth of a boy called Shoto.