Untitled Fic

When Akihiko came to, he found himself standing in a very long line of people. And it was one line amidst countless long lines of people standing in a mist-covered wasteland.

These people seem to have come from all ethnicities and backgrounds. He saw beggars, men in fancy suits, sickly figures in hospital gowns, women in tribal wear, and more. While there were many young people, he found the majority were older folks. As he turned around, behind him in line was a warm-looking grandpa seemingly of African descent dressed in rather ugly wool pajamas.

"Where am I?" he muttered anxiously as he looked around some more. "Why are there so many people here?"

The old man behind him smiled sympathetically. "I would presume this is the afterlife," he said.

"The afterlife?" said Akihiko. He realized that the old man was speaking a language he could not recognize, yet he understood the old man perfectly.

"Yes, child," said the old man.

Akihiko creased his eyebrows. He thought back. Last thing he remembered was... the truck tumbling at him well above the speed limit. "That means I'm dead," he said.

"Yes, child," said the old man.

"And you are dead as well," said Akihiko.

The old man nodded. "Last I remember was going to bed. I knew my time would come any day, I could feel it in my bones, but..."

Akihiko crouched down and held his head in his hands.

"I'm so sorry, child," said the old man, bending down with him. He put a hand on Akihiko's shoulder.

After a few moments, Akihiko looked around. He didn't notice them before, but there were a lot of children here as well. Many of them were frightened or crying. Yet in this sombre dimension, their cries seemed distant and muted. Despite the sheer number of people here, Akihiko could only hear a soft murmur all around him as if the sounds were being damped by the heavy air.

Among the adults, there were some that were crying, too. Some people were downright hysterical while others wore stoic expressions. The elderly were generally the most peaceful. There were a few who were cheerfully chatting with people who should be of completely different backgrounds, acting like they were old friends.

Akihiko took a deep breath. So he was really dead? That truck must have killed him. He remember seeing it rushing right at him out of nowhere. He might have screamed.

His parents must be crying now. Or maybe they didn't find out yet? No, the hospital or the police should be able to notify them immediately, he was carrying ID on him.

Would he be given a chance to visit them again? Go to his own funeral? Say his last farewells as a ghost maybe?

The line suddenly moved and Akihiko took a step forwards with it. "Where are we going?" asked Akihiko. He just felt compelled to follow this line. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to leave it or go to another line.

"I don't know, child," said the old man. "Perhaps we will meet God."

"I want to ask him why I died," said Akihiko.

The old man looked at him with a hint of pity, but did not say anything.

"No, perhaps there's a lot more important things I should ask? Like what's the meaning of life," said Akihiko. He smiled to himself. "Or maybe I should ask, 'who is best girl?'"

The line moved again and Akihiko took another step forward. When he turned back around, the old man was gone, replaced by a scary yakuza-like man. Akihiko was surprised, he looked around, but couldn't find the old man anywhere. He still couldn't bring himself to leave the line to go find the old man, again.

Despite the sea of people all around him, Akihiko suddenly felt very alone. In life, he spent a lot of time on his own in his room, on his computer, but this was different. He turned his eyes to the sky. It was pure white. Small groups of pitch-black birds flew across it.

"This must be a dream," Akihiko said. He raised his left arm and pinched it, flinching at the pain. "No, I feel lucid. It's just this situation feels too dream-like."

He glanced back at the yakuza behind him. Akihiko got the impression the man might have been some sort of bodyguard or bouncer, he was so stoic, even in death.

Eventually, he worked up the courage to try talking to the man. He was already dead, so what could the yakuza do? Kill him? The man seemed not to even notice him. Akihiko didn't try again.

"I am already dead and I am lining up to meet God, or maybe Enma," said Akihiko. He looked up ahead, the beginning of the line of was far out of sight. Then, the line moved, again.

He waited there in line for a long, long time, such a long time he lost all track time. The line moved so slowly. There were no days or nights. However, he never felt tired or hungry. All he had were his thoughts.

"Can this line move any faster?"

He had suddenly called out at one point. Surprisingly, the line moved. However, repeating it subsequent times gave no results. It must have been a coincidence.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry, Dad. I've gone ahead of you."

The line moved a little more.

"Professor, I have a doctor's note. Can I have an extension on my essay? Forever?"

He took another step forwards with the crowd. As he stood there waiting, his thoughts wandered farther and farther to the past.

"I should have submitted that manga."

In the period before he started studying for his university exams, he finally finished his one shot. Ultimately, he never mailed it in. When university started, he was too busy to bother with it. The line moved and he barely noticed as he stepped forwards.

"At least I might've left some imprint on this world. What happened to that genius rookie mangaka? He died in a truck accident, what a tragedy. We'll never get to read that masterpiece."

He smiled wryly at himself as the line continued to move. His manga never got a chance to begin with because he was too scared to pursue the uncertain career of mangaka. Going to university was much safer and his parents wouldn't protest if he gave it a try after he graduated.

"I wonder what lies ahead? Will I be reincarnated?"

All of a sudden, he found himself before a huge marble building. The line extended to infinity behind him. As he tentatively walked forwards, all the people started to disappearing, fading without a trace. He was unnerved, but the only choice he had was to walk forwards. Wooden double doors awaited him.

He pushed them open and walked inside. It was luxurious private library. Tall shelves extended up towards the domed ceiling where there was a strangely life-like oil mural of humans fighting demons. He noticed small carved gargoyles

"Akihiko Himura, who gave you permission to come inside?"

A silver-haired woman sat at a desk. She was dressed in the tight garb of an office lady, but she looked young enough to be a high school class rep, she certainly looked like she came from a high school anime with her strict yet pure expression and glasses.

He was stunned for a moment by her frosty beauty before reacting. "Ah, I'm sorry… I just assumed it was my time to come in," said Akihiko. He bowed and started for the door.

"No, now that you're here, you may as well stay," said the woman, standing up. "You shouldn't be always making assumptions."

She walked over to the side where she looked through the shelves until she pulled out a thin leather bound tome. She opened it as she returned to her seat and took a sip of coffee from her desk. "There isn't much here, is there?"

"Unfortunately not," said Akihiko.

"Akihiko Himura. Only child of Akira and Hisako Himura. Always ranked within the top 20 at school. Never skipped school. Never engaged in extracurricular activities, except that one time where you tried to play baseball. This is really boring. Hmm..." said the woman. She continued to read silently and Akihiko waited awkwardly as everything was exposed before her. "Masturbation count: 1163."

Akihiko's face flushed and the woman burst out laughing when she looked at him, completely deviating from her icy first impression. A thought suddenly occurred to him about this woman's identity.

"If I may ask, who are you?" he said.

The woman stopped laughing and looked at him. "You've already guessed."

"You're Satan," said Akihiko.

"That's not what your initial thought was, but you're very close on both counts," said the woman. Each of her pupils suddenly split into four inside her irises. Her lower half suddenly grew into that of a giant spider. The library around them disappeared, replaced by ancient ruins swathed in spiderwebs. "I am the Fateweaver, the arbiter of human destiny. Or at least, a personality created from your imagination to serve as a representation of an all-knowing and all-powerful entity."

Akihiko backed away instinctively at first, but he stood his ground. He stared at the half-spider, half-goddess for a moment deep in thought. "So all of this is just formality."

"With that kind of perspective, life is just formality. However, I am not here to discuss philosophy or 'who is best girl', so you may drop all questions you have. I am going to give you a very tempting offer," said the Fateweaver.

"Offer away."

"You've read many of those trending light novels, haven't you?" said the Fateweaver.

"I am going to be reincarnated," said Akihiko. "With a cheat no less."

"In a certain world of sword and sorcery, there is an opening for a Demon Lord," said the Fateweaver. "Your job is to be the incarnation of evil. You will conquer the world, maybe even the multiverse. Or at least try to."

"However, I will inevitably fail because of the Hero," said Akihiko.

"Who has ever succeeded in conquering the world? And yet they lived exciting lives. Isn't that what you've always craved? Modern Japan was always too boring to you, nothing really interested you. And so you drowned yourself in fiction. Even drawing manga was just a distraction," said the Fateweaver. "I won't tell you how long you will live, but I can guarantee you… it will be enough."

"You really are the Devil," said Akihiko.

"No, I'm not." The Fateweaver smiled. It was strangely beautiful and terrifying at the same time. "You have another choice. I can bring you back to life, put you in a parallel universe where you never died. I will even let you retain your memories and you can work on trying to live so that when you die, you will not have regrets."

Akihiko took a deep breath. "This is not fair at all. What's the point if you already know what I will pick?"