Karl Schmidt was an ordinary boy. He lived in Dresden, Germany, and came from a middle-class family. His life was quiet, and he didn't stand out much. He wasn't the smartest in class, or the most athletic. People often forgot he was even there.
His connection to his parents was somewhat bland. They provided him with essential things, but Karl never really got attached to them. Karl had a big brother too, but he was kind of an asshole to be honest. Sometimes Karl even wondered if he was actually his blood related brother or nah.
Karl's favourite past time was to... watch anime of course, he didn't lived on on drugs or anything of sort.
It gave him a world that felt more alive than his own. He liked how the characters were full of emotion, how friendships mattered, how even someone who seemed weak could end up being the hero.
He spent most nights in his room, watching episode after episode with his headphones on. It was his safe place.
But it seems like the heavens didn't liked his lifestyle, Karl died when he was just 17 years old.
It was not a dramatic or shocking death. It was a quiet, strange accident that didn't make the news.
One cold afternoon in February, Karl was walking home from school. It was a normal day. He was a little late, and he was excited to watch a new episode of his favorite anime before his brother took over the laptop. So, instead of taking the usual road home, he decided to use a shortcut he hadn't taken in a long time. It went through an old construction area, partly fenced off and rarely used.
The snow had started falling again. It covered the ground, hiding things underneath. As he walked through the construction path, Karl didn't see the open shaft in the ground. Workers had left the area early because of the cold, and someone had forgotten to put up proper warning signs. The hole wasn't that deep, it was around four meters probably? But yeah, deep enough to make anyone say goodbye to their life.
Karl fell in. He hit his head on a metal pipe. The blow knocked him out cold. And thanks to his luck? He didn't die right away. He was unconscious and somewhat conscious at the same time, lying in the cold, bleeding slowly. No one was around. No one heard him. By the time his parents started to worry and tried calling him, it was already too late.
A worker found him the next morning. The snow had kept falling overnight.
There was no news report. The company blamed a mistake, some missing tape, some miscommunication. There was no protest, no lawsuits, no candlelight vigil. Just a quiet funeral.
His parents didn't know how to talk about him. They loved him in their own way, but they never really knew who he was. His room stayed untouched for weeks. Except for his laptop which was taken by his brother.
Nobody called it tragic. Nobody called it anything, really.
It was just an accident. A quiet end to a quiet boy. And in the end, the world kept turning.
"No way in hell." Karl gasped and panted, the last thing he remembered was him making his way towards his home through a shortcut and suddenly a sharp pain spread through his entire body.
Karl honestly didn't remembered if he had even died, that was until he saw where he was. He was not in a room, he wasn't even standing on anything particular either, hell, he wasn't even sure if he was on earth.
Wherever his eyesight reached, he could only see a pitch black scenery with some very small light sources which were in the form of dots. It was almost as if he was in space without any spacesuit.
"For fucks sake, what the actual fuck is happening right now?" Karl muttered under his breath, all of this was making his head hurt now.
Just when he was sitting, or standing? Or was he flying actually? He heard a feminine voice, but it wasn't the tone of the voice that shocked him, but the contents of it, "You have died, no cap"
Karl looked over where the voice was coming from and saw a lady which was covered from tip to toe in a white outfit. Her curves even stood out more in that outfit, but sadly enough Karl couldn't see her face, for which it was also covered in a white cloth.
"Uh, so kind miss, would you please repeat what you said just now?" Karl said, trying to talk as politely as he could.
"You didn't heard that?" The lady looked at him while her head titled a bit, then she continued, "Well whatever, listen it carefully this time. You-Have-Seriously-Died." She said in a serious tone.
Karl just looked at her somewhat dumbfounded, cold sweat dripping from his forehead, he knew that this lady was legit bad news so he wanted to leave as soon as possible.
Honestly, Karl also thought that he had died but he just didn't wanted to believe that shit. He wasn't a fan of dying after all, and dying at the age of 17 and dying as a virgin? Some might even laugh at the statement.
"Uh so, miss, how did I died actually?" Karl asked, trying to play along with her childish act.
"It's better if you see it yourself." She said as she pointed her index finger towards me and some memories just flooded into my mind.
In that memory, I was seeing myself in a pit, blood leaking from the top of my head while I looked like I had caught hypothermia. I wasn't sure what was happening there, was that really me? If it was really me then why didn't I remember this?
Just when I was thinking that, the lady said "Obviously, because you were unconscious."
Hearing her response I didn't needed other things to verify that I had died, she had literally answered what I was thinking in my mind.
In the end I just decided to believe that what that lady said was true since it was matching the location of the shortcut I had taken as well as her ability to read my thoughts.
"Yeah, good." She just said it and my confirmation became even more clear.
But the confirmation wasn't the only thing that became clear, my face became like I had seen myself dying.
"You did." The lady answered once again to which I just laughed with a twisted face.
After that, the lady and I, both remained silent for a bit until I stood up and said, "So, what's going to happen to me? Am I going to hell or Heaven?"
"Nah, you're not going to hell not heaven, you're going to reincarnate in a new world" The lady said in a bored tone and with the wave of her hand, a medium sized lottery wheel appered in front of me.
"Spin it." She said.
The wheel consisted of more than a 100 choices and most of the words there were written in Japanese, by the looks of it they were anything but anime names.
A particular one caught my eye, though I didn't knew how to speak or write japanese, the attack on titan anime name and how it was written was like engraved in my mind.
I gulped after seeing the attack on titan choice, if the wheel somehow stopped there, I would be running for the rest of my life.
Just right beside it was 'Overflow', seeing that choice I gulped down once again.
"Being in sweet home Alabama is better than being Titan food." I thought inwardly.
The lady who was constantly staring at me said, "I see, you're a man of culture as well." She countinued, "But please hurry up, since you've already wasted too many minutes."
"If course I'm." With that being said, I spin the wheel with all my force and to my horror, the wheel started to slow down when it was near the AOT choice.
"No fuckin' way, stop right now." I was screaming in my mind and my face was twisting like I had constipation.
And the thing happened, the needle stopped at the AOT choice, seeing that I fell over on my butt and looked at the wheel with horror in my eyes.
"This can't be true, nah, no way, are you kidding me right now?" I said aloud looking at the lady.
"Chill, little one. Why would you think I'll be reincarnating you without any special powers in a dangerous world like Attack On Titan?" Hearing her words, a faint smile appeared on my face and I quickly replied, "You should've said that from the start."
The lady just looked at me without any expressions, not that I would be able to see them even if she had any.
She then said, "So, you've 2 wishes, don't ask for something like give me infinite wishes or you'll be ending up in AOT without anything at all.
I just stood there for a minute and then said, "Give me the ability to turn invisible."
"Alright, but there will be limitations"
"Huh? limita-- there's no time, hurry up and ask for your next wish" The lady interrupted what I was saying and I couldn't do anything but look at her without showing any wierd expressions, maintaining the smile was a must.
"For the second one, give me the ability to regenerate and heal my body parts even if they're cut off." I said quickly.
"Sure, but again, there will be limitations." She said and then continued, "Well, off you go, good luck surviving."
I could just look at her as she looked back at me with a cloth on her face, but again, how saw she even seeing me when there's no gap in that cloth?