Minamoto Hachiman was a man born and raised in the country commonly known as a place of both legendary and unique historical tales and modern maid cafés, but what was actually surprising is that he had a parent that got to raise him, his dad.
Unfortunately, Hachiman's mother died during childbirth, and his father, having deeply loved her ever since they met in school, had been deeply depressed and seemed lost a piece of his heart ever since.
This marked Hachiman's upbringing with a lack of human warmth, which made him feel alienated from the concept of warm human connections and made him focus his heart on his designated disctraction for loneliness, which for him was science.
He ended up with a relatively ordinary career and only had superficial relationships, even with his own father, and besides his father his only other intimate connection was one girlfriend when he was in college, but even then he knew from how his father described his own love for his mother that he didn't find that love with his girlfriend, so he was almost as relieved as he was sad when she said they had to break up because she was moving abroad for her career after graduating–because she knew him well enough to know that he would never leave the country, even if for her; and she was right.
Hachiman later became a truly knowledgeable expert in his preferred fields while also being an accomplished professor, yet he always felt that he was missing something crucial, he kept thinking about the limitations of mankind when pondering over his research, and that made him feel like his soul was missing something, he subconsciously felt he was meant to be more than just a regular human, but he obviously kept these crazy thoughts to himself and tried to ignore that feeling.
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On a windy day, Hachiman's balcony.
In his middle-age crisis, having only had one girlfriend, Hachiman remembered that the rare moments when his now deceased father spoke about his mother were the only moments where he seemed to have seen his dad show any real feelings–whether it was joy, sadness, or a bittersweet balance of grieving longing and sweet memories.
He could never relate or connect with his dad on this, but it made Hachiman think that maybe love was where he could find that something in his heart that seemed to be missing, as he felt his pursuit of knowledge was like using a flashlight to lift the veil of night, he could only uncover so much in his entire lifetime.
When thinking of the fragility and limits of mankind, Hachi didn't know whether to be proud of what we can accomplish or depressed for all we can't, which truly made him envy all those fictional characters with incredible powers he saw in fiction.
When he got deep into thought, Hachiman realized his two deepest desires seemed unattainable in reality; bacause as far as he knew, he had lost the opportunity to truly love someone–he simply didn't believe he'd be one of those people that were said to find their true love after their 40s.
His other "dream" of possessing superhuman capabilities felt like a juvenile wish for the supernatural, but he also believed no human could feel content with what they have, so why shouldn't he aim for the impossible? At least dreaming for the impossible can't disappoint him like his current life, and there was this nagging feeling deep in his mind, as if something was making him think of attaining these fictional powers.
Yes, Hachi, at the tender age of 46, was confused and depressed; after losing both his emotional bonds years ago, his father and his girlfriend, he had been aimlessly devoting himself to research and teaching.
And at this point, he can't help but feel frustrated with his life, he feels like he has accomplished nothing, humans seem to know so much, but everyone knows what we don't know is so much more than the little bit we feels so proud of uncovering.
So Hachiman feels useless, he never got to discover what was the love his dad felt for his mother, and he feels like his search for knowledge is a joke–humans can't even uncover their own bodies' mysteries, much less the secrets of the whole world or the universe.
In this moment of depressed reflection on his balcony, he, as if coerced, wished he could find a place or a person that could help him make his wishes come true, but he knew it was impossible unless he somehow got superpowers or was transmigrated like in those crappy novels he's read–but as far as he knew, his chances were infinitely close to zero.
But then...
Some of Hachi's neighbours heard a loud scream and a blunt thud late at night. Yes, Hachiman seems to have overestimated his shoddy balcony's integrity while lost in his thoughts, he always knew it was a safety hazard, and after heavily leaning on it and moving around a bit, this old and poorly built wodden railing, as if moved by an external force, came crashing down alongside Minamoto Hachiman, a man that didn't know he could scream so loud, unfortunately, it seemed too late to pursue a career in opera.
[Test subject #0290785271-MHA has been integrated to the system... Problem detected during integration... Subject found not to be compatible for integration due to an abnormality in the soul... Currently unable to discard the subject's soul for unkown reasons... Relocating held soul to the most suitable low-level vessel... Unable to relocate... Reattempting relocation to a more compatible low-level vessel... Unable to relocate... Soul found to have abnormal energy signatures for a low-level soul... Opening access to all vessels... Relocating to most suitable vessel... Compatible middle-level vessel located... Relocation and merging successful... Soul abnormality unexpectedly resolved during merging process... Subject #0290785271-MHA's soul successfully disposed of... Test report sent to main processing unit for analysis due to abnormal process...Integration attempt ended.]
'I was just thinking this whole rebirth things was impossible, and yet, here I am,' thought Hachiman after he surveyed his surroundings–'It kind of looks like Earth, but this should be a child's body. And this type of village, even if hard to recognize when it's in ruins, doesn't match any villages that should exist on Earth, the sky also doesn't look quite right.'
Hachiman quickly concluded he was no longer on the Earth or body he knew, and he wasn't sure what to make of this–not to mention philosophical and scientific doubts, his suspected respawn seems quite shitty.
It seems there were no other humans around, and while he prided himself in his vast knowledge, otherworldy survival wasn't exactly his forte.
'It seems I don't even have time to ask questions about what that voice in my head was just now, but considering how real this feels, I better take my survival seriously. After all, if I know anything about rebirth from fiction, it's that it's the perfect chance to find all sorts absurd powers, he also felt weirdly entitled to a golden finger, but it seemed that at least for now, he wasn't so lucky, maybe that was exclusive to Chinese citizens, I guess their propaganda might have had some basis after all, at least their post-mortem transmigation services should be elite.'
'Hmm... there's no way what that voice I heard said about me having a defective soul was true, right?'
Hachiman felt deeply insulted by being called unsuitable for whatever that integration was and not even being good enough to be disposed of normally, 'I can't believe that bullshit voice was acting so cocky when this so-called middle-level vessel is clearly some random kid abandoned in these shitty ruins!'
Not wanting to stay in this depressing village anymore, Hachiman had no choice but to improvise a tent close to the nearby river and scavenge a bit before it was dark, he then uncomfortably tried to go to sleep.
As he fell into his thoughts before drifting into sleep, he realized the voice in his brain could have been the very system he had wanted–when he though of this, he was even more pissed with this nonsensical spawn point.
'Damn it, not only do you fail to integrate with me, you also give me a half-assed vessel and abandon me, if this is middle-level, I can't imagine what kind of scam you're running,' he thought, then he called out in an unimposing pre-pubescent voice, "Hey! If you can hear me, give me an explanation! I need at least some compensation from you for not doing your job right!"
[Detected abnormal lingering connection to failed subject... Detect connection remained because of the unremoved desire influencing soul mark... Soul mark successfully erased... Sending additional error report to the main unit... Permanently terminating connection...]
"What the fuck?! So my desires have always been manipulated to want help from a damn shitty system? What kind of bullshit is this? You even dare to admit it? Are you not even ashamed of this half-assed job?!" Hachiman said calmly.
[Ding! Greetings, failure, this is the main unit speaking. As you were an unexpected abnormality, I was going to compensate you before fully disconnecting you, but since you seem so unsatisfied with our services, I'll just cut you some slack and say that you're in what you know as the Naruto Universe, one of the templates we offered to your planet's fiction pool, you are in the time period that comes after Kaguya eats the chakra fruit and there should be a little over a decade until the time she uses the Infinite Tsukuyomi, with that being said, feel free to scream to the void about how unsatisfied you are for this free resurrection. Honestly, man, it's always the same with you system-type transmigrator test subjects, complaining at the slightest misgiving, anyway, now you're actually alone, so good luck!]
"Holy shit! Is this how you do business? I was just alone and confused, how can you leave me hanging, bro? It's your mistake in the first place, you'd never get away with this on Earth, you dishonest scoundrel, damn it! Why couldn't we just have a good talk if you were so reasonable? Don't pretend you ever intended to compensate me... Shit, the bastard's actually gone now."