Tokyo's night sky glittered like a shattered mosaic—thousands of fractured mirrors reflecting neon, headlights, and the restless energy of a city that never slept. High above it all, Nexus stood on the edge of the Kurogane Skybridge, towering 350 meters above the Sumida River. The cold railing hummed under his palms. The wind clawed at his jacket like a greedy spirit trying to drag him off early.
He breathed in deeply.
This was the good part—the moment right before the plunge.
"Last chance, man!" his friend shouted, recording with shaking hands. "If this goes viral, you better tag me!"
Nexus smirked. "Relax. Worst case? I die dramatically."
"That's the worst-case scenario!!"
Nexus chuckled, stepping onto the platform where the bungee cord technician double-checked the straps. At thirty-two, Nexus had already lived a life with the volume permanently stuck on maximum. He wasn't rich, but adrenaline? He was wealthy in that.
Marathons. Base jumping. Free climbing towers at midnight. Wrestling a drunk brown bear once—he didn't like talking about that one.
Whenever life got quiet, he pressed the "chaos" button.
Tonight's chaos involved a world-record-night-jump livestream. Perfectly stupid. Perfectly him.
He spread his arms. The city breeze tousled his black hair, pulling at his skin with an almost eager chill. For a second, he felt weightless already.
This is it, he thought. The drop that tops all drops.
He rolled his shoulder and glanced down. Cars crawled like metallic ants. The river shimmered like liquid mercury.
Perfect.
Nexus took one last step forward.
And jumped.
---
The Freefall
The wind instantly roared into his ears—a violent, beautiful scream. His stomach flipped. His heart soared. His grin stretched so wide it hurt.
The city lights blurred into streaks of color—blue, red, gold—painting the night like rushing comets. The world narrowed to the sensation of falling. No past. No future. Just the endless, perfect now.
For Nexus, this was nirvana.
Then, the cord snapped into tension with a satisfying pull—
SNAP.
The universe silenced.
Nexus blinked midair.
"…Huh?"
The recoil that should have thrown him upward never came.
Instead—
The cord detached.
Just cleanly. Quietly.
Like a guillotine blade slicing destiny in half.
His eyes widened as the shredded remains of the cord fluttered above him, shrinking fast.
"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING—"
Gravity, patient until now, dragged him downward with ruthless resolve.
The ground rushed up with murderous enthusiasm.
"OH COME ON—!"
He squeezed his eyes shut—
---
But the impact never came.
Silence swallowed him whole.
The wind disappeared.
The city vanished.
Even his body seemed gone.
He floated in a warm, infinite void—like drifting through still water without lungs, without pain, without anything to define himself except a lingering sense of I am here.
For a long moment, Nexus wondered if this was death.
It felt oddly… peaceful.
Then—
«Reincarnation detected.»
The voice unfolded inside his mind like a system booting up. Cold, emotionless, yet eerily calm.
Nexus twitched—figuratively. That voice had no direction. No pitch. No soul. It was like someone printed text directly onto his consciousness.
«Soul signature: stable.»
«Compatibility: 99.7%.»
Nexus wanted to shout, 99.7 WHAT?!
But he had no mouth.
«Commencing transfer to merged NEXUS WORLD…»
NEXUS WORLD?
Hey! That sounds suspiciously like—
«Gifts allocated.»
Light burst around him—shattering, refracting, spiraling into constellations that weren't stars but code. A billion data points spiraled around him like a digital galaxy.
«System skill: Adept of Infinite Resonance.»
«Soul Devourer.»
«Soul Core.»
Nexus would've whistled if he could.
Okay, so I didn't just die. I got patched, upgraded, and DLC'd into another world.
The light collapsed inward, collapsing into a single blinding point.
And then—
He was shoved into flesh.
---
First Breath of a New Life
Air slammed into his tiny lungs. A sharp pain burst behind his eyes. His skin burned with cold.
He wailed—because babies don't get a choice.
Hands lifted him—gentle, trembling. Warm.
His newborn vision blurred the world into foggy shapes, but soft voices reached him.
A woman's breath hitching.
A man trying not to cry.
Nurses murmuring congratulations.
He couldn't see their faces clearly, but the sensation—the weight of their emotions washing over him—was overwhelming.
Nexus wasn't religious, but in that moment, he understood something profound:
This new life… it wasn't an accident.
Something, someone, somewhere, had chosen this path for him.
«Resonance Integration: 87%.»
«Multiversal Awareness: LOCKED.»
«Welcome to the Crossroads.»
The voice faded.
The world dimmed.
He fell asleep, lulled by warmth he never knew he'd missed.
---
Early Childhood – Whispering Echoes
Time passed strangely for an infant with an adult mind. Days blurred. Months floated by. Sometimes he slept. Sometimes he screamed. Sometimes he drooled with the fury of a tiny dragon.
But little moments accumulated.
He learned his new mother's name it was Sumire Nagumo and her voice—a gentle sound like warm sunlight through curtains.
He learned his father's name Sue Nagumo and his laugh—a deep rumble that vibrated through his small body.
He learned pain. Colds. Fevers. Falling during crawling practice.
But soon… something else stirred.
When he was six months old, he reached for a pan It vibrated.
At first, he thought it was normal.
Then the pan began to glow faintly. And not battery glow.
This was… mana glow.
His mother gasped.
His father nearly tripped.
Nexus now hajime blinked.
Oops.
He didn't know how to stop it. The panl shook with matching intensity to his heartbeat. A shimmering ripple passed through the air—subtle, almost invisible—like heat distortion.
From then onwards
Every time he laughed, things shook.
Every time he cried, lights flickered.
Every time he focused… something resonated and obeyed.
The only word he had for it was instinctive:
Resonance.
It hummed beneath his skin like a second pulse.
Sometimes he saw strings of shimmering color connecting objects—threads only he could perceive. When he tugged the string connected to an object mentally, the objects vibrated or moved ever so slightly.
A natural-born baby mage?
A reincarnator cheat?
A cosmic fluke?
Whatever it was, it wasn't normal.
He once made a spoon wiggle. His mother screamed. His father fainted.
So Nexus did what any responsible reincarnated child would do:
He pretended to be a normal baby.
(For the most part.)
---
Year 2 – The Whispering of the Soul Core
By the time he was two years old, Nexus the now hajime could walk, talk, and control his strange new powers—if only a little. It was less magic and more… tuning. Attuning. Like matching frequencies.
One night, unable to sleep, he reached inside himself trying to feel things with resonance—curious about the "Soul Core" the voice had mentioned.
He found it.
A small, glowing sphere of light nestled near his heart, pulsing with a rhythm different from his heartbeat. When he focused on it, tones and harmonics shifted, like an instrument tuning itself.
For a moment, he heard something within.
A faint whisper.
"Awaken… when ready…"
He jerked back, panicked.
Had his Soul Core just spoken?!
Was there something inside his Soul?!
Was that real?!
Was he hearing magic echo? Or was he finally losing his reincarnated marbles?
He didn't try again for months.
---
Year 4 – The First Incident
Children in preschool were chaotic gremlins. Nexus tolerated them with saintlike patience—or insane endurance.
But one day, a classmate shoved him hard. A little roughhousing turned into a real push, and Nexus fell backward, scraping his arm.
It hurt.
Not badly, but enough to trigger something inside him.
His Soul Core pulsed—
BOOM.
A small shockwave burst from him, knocking over chairs, toys, and the kid who shoved him. Nothing harmful, but enough that teachers screamed and the principal thought an earthquake had hit.
Nexus stood there stunned while everyone panicked.
That night, he stared at his tiny hands.
"I seriously need to get control over this…"
His Soul Core pulsed once, like agreement. His family had to to another town due to him he resolved himself that he won't let something like this happen again.
---
Year 6 – Foreshadowing the Future
By six, Nexus had mastered basic emotional control. He no longer sent people flying or lit up toys by accident. He learned to keep his Resonance still—quiet like a resting beast.
But sometimes, late at night, he'd feel it.
A call.
A pull toward something unknown.
A flicker of worlds overlapping—images he didn't understand.
Floating islands.
Ancient magics .
People he had never met but recognized.
Armored warriors.
And a pulse—a deep, resonant thrum.
Calling him.
He didn't know it then, but that was the first moment his destiny stirred fully awake. The first instance of his multiverseal awareness kicking in.
Because the merged Nexus World… wasn't done with him yet.
---
The Buildup Before the Time-Skip
On my tenth birthday, my father said he would buy me anything i wanted so went all in. Since it was around 2010 right i did the same thing every reincarnated person would do I made him buy cit-coin the Bitcoin equivalent in this world. Lots of them. Heheh~.
But then the voice returned—faint, like a forgotten radio signal reconnecting.
«Integration: 95%.»
«Awakening threshold not met.»
Nexus froze.
"Awakening…?"
His Soul Core vibrated, actually vibrated within him. Goosebumps shot up his arms. His chest tightened in a strange mix of fear and anticipation.
Everything clicked into place.
His strange powers.
The visions.
The Resonance.
This world… wasn't normal.
And he wasn't normal in it.
Something big was coming.
Something that would drag him far from his comfortable home, his loving family, and his quiet, almost-normal existence.
Something that whispered:
"Prepare."
And for the first time since he'd been reborn…
Nexus felt excitement.
Not the adrenaline-rush kind.
But the destiny-rush kind.
His old life ended in a fall.
His new life was only just beginning.
And the world—no, worlds—were waiting.