"Where… am I?"
"First question, who am I? Second question, what am I doing here?"
"Hellllp meee… help meee… what is happening to me?!"
Hello. Were you wondering what's happening to me? Well, actually… nothing much. Just a small psychotic break from everything currently happening to me.
Ignore that.
Let me give you some general awareness of the situation.
Right now, I exist as a small cluster of greyish fog. And somehow, for reasons that make absolutely no sense, I can see myself without a mirror.
Let me tell you something. If your body suddenly turns into grey fog, it is not a pleasant experience for your heart.
Well… assuming I still have a heart.
Which, honestly, I doubt.
Anyway, introductions are in order.
My name is Divine, your regular college student who occasionally dreamed about reincarnating into another world with cool powers and becoming a demon king.
Yeah… childish, I know.
But listen, my life was actually pretty good.
No bullying. Good friends. A loving mom and dad. Even a little sister. Our family was doing fairly well financially. Most of my time was spent peacefully inside my room reading novels and watching anime.
In short…
A very comfortable life.
As for my looks… well, I'm on the skinny side. About 5.8 feet tall, fair skin, decent appearance.
Sword-like eyebrows, straight nose, eyes like stars—
Yeah, no. I just died a second time from the cringe.
That kind of dramatic self-description is not my style.
How do characters even describe themselves like that? Do they carry mirrors everywhere?
Let's just say my appearance is decent.
Yes.
Decent will do.
So again, my life was good…
BUT
Which absolute MF cursed my life?!
What did I do to deserve this situation?
I want to cry.
sniff… sniff…
All I did was take a walk to the store to buy some daily necessities. One blink later…
…and here I am.
Now you might ask: Where exactly is "here"?
Great question.
I have no idea.
It's not like I'm a regular visitor.
Everything around me is completely black.
For a moment I thought I had gone blind, but that doesn't seem to be the case because I somehow have a 360-degree field of vision.
Yes.
I can see in every direction.
And unfortunately, that also means I can see myself.
And oh boy… if I still had a heart, that moment would have been a direct hotline call between me and God.
Because that sight was terrifying.
Could I be in a coma?
People say that when someone is in a coma, their consciousness gets trapped inside their body. But this doesn't feel like that. Then again, I've never been in a coma before, so what do I know?
Let's drop that theory.
Instead…
I will activate my ultimate ability:
My anime / novel / manga knowledge.
Yes.
My favorite subject.
Possibility one: The Void.
Possibility two: Null Space.
Possibility three: Some forbidden dimension.
Let's just call it The Void for simplicity.
If that's the case, then this grey fog form could be my soul.
Well… I think it's a soul.
At least my existence currently resembles one.
Look at me calmly analyzing the situation.
I'm handling this pretty well, aren't I?
The only problem is…
I don't know if I can actually move.
There's no ground. No reference point. No up or down.
Honestly, I don't even know how I can feel my own presence or why my body has a grey color.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention something important.
Sometimes… I blank out.
The closest comparison I can think of is that anime where everyone turns to stone, and the protagonist keeps counting time to stay conscious.
Except in my case, instead of counting…
I just black out.
Over.
And over.
And over again.
Sigh…
I don't know how long I've been like this.
Minutes?
Days?
Months?
Years?
Time has completely lost meaning.
Everything feels strange.
Nothing makes sense.
So… I decided to stay calm.
Meditate.
Maybe this nightmare will end suddenly and I'll wake up from whatever this is.
And hopefully…
My family will still be safe.
Thinking logically in this situation is actually painful.
So I'll just hope for the best.
Thump.
I don't know how many blackouts passed after that.
But suddenly—
My 360-degree vision began shining.
"…Shining?"
How is that possible?
Then I saw it.
A faint flickering light in the distance.
Oh?
Interesting.
Apparently, I can move if I simply think about moving.
That's good.
At least something works.
My flickering light…
Here I come.
Swish.
Maybe it can help me.
Maybe not.
But just seeing something other than endless darkness already feels like a relief.
Although…
Is it just me…
Or am I not getting any closer?
Of course.
Nothing can be easy.
After what felt like an eternity of traveling…
I finally saw it clearly.
"Woah… what is that?"
A gate.
A gate standing alone in the middle of absolute nothingness.
Was it my imagination?
No.
It was definitely there.
An ancient-looking double door, shaped like an inverted U. There were no hinges, and it seemed to split open from the center.
A gate in the middle of the Void.
Great.
I really hope this isn't the entrance to some hell dimension or the seal of some ancient demon.
Just imagining myself becoming the pawn of some mysterious entity is giving me chills.
But honestly…
What choice do I have?
My only alternatives are waiting.
Waiting.
And more waiting.
So let's take a closer look.
Swish.
In the endless black Void where nothing should exist, two anomalies faced each other.
One was a wandering cluster of grey soul-fog.
The other was an unmoving ancient gate.
One had just arrived here by accident.
The other looked like it had existed since the birth of the Void itself.
The soul floated around the gate.
Up.
Down.
Front.
Back.
Examining it from every angle.
That soul…
Was me.
"What exactly is this gate?"
I circled it again.
Ancient structure.
Double door.
No handle.
No hinges.
Just silent existence.
"What happens if I touch it?"
Hopefully…
This will be my exit from this hellhole.
But wait.
How exactly do I touch it without hands?
…
You know what.
Forget touching.
Let's just slam into it.
"1…"
"2…"
"3…"
Here goes nothing.
Splash.
"…Nothing happened?"
Wait—
"Woah—WAAAH!"
Pain.
So much pain.