Chapter 2: The Court of the Void
The transition from the living world to the next was not a tunnel of light or a chorus of angels. For Hiromi Higuruma, it was the sound of silence—a silence so absolute it felt heavy.
One moment, his lungs were burning with the freezing, silt-heavy water of the Sumida River; the next, he was standing on a floor of pure, reflective white. He was no longer wet. His suit was pristine, the bullet holes in his shoulder and chest gone, replaced by smooth fabric and a body that felt oddly light.
"Is this the verdict?" Higuruma spoke aloud. His voice didn't echo. It simply existed and then stopped.
"You are a curious one," a voice replied. It didn't come from a throat; it resonated from the very air.
Before him, the white space rippled like a disturbed pond. A figure began to coalesce. It was not a god in any traditional sense. It was a shifting mass of geometric shadows, draped in what looked like the static of a dead television screen. It sat upon a throne made of stacked, infinite ledgers.
"Hiromi Higuruma," the entity said. "A man who lived by the book and died by the bullet. You spent your final moments mourning a legal brief rather than your own life. Why?"
Higuruma adjusted his glasses, a habitual gesture even in death. "The life was mine to lose. The brief belonged to fourteen people who had no other voice. I was their counsel. To fail them is a greater death than the stopping of my heart."
The entity shifted, its shadow-limbs folding over one another. "The world you left is a chaotic mess. You were an honest man in an industry built on beautiful lies. Most who come here plead for mercy or scream for vengeance. You... you look as though you're preparing to cross-examine me."
"I would like to know the jurisdiction here," Higuruma said calmly. "And if there is a right to appeal."
The shadow-figure let out a sound like the shutting of a heavy vault door—a laugh. "Honesty is a heavy burden, Higuruma. It burns bright. It is a rarity in the stream of souls. I have a proposal for you. There is a world where the 'Law' is being suffocated by 'Power.' A world of 'Heroes' and 'Villains' where the lines are blurred by spectacle and fame."
"A world without order?" Higuruma asked, his brow furrowing.
"A world where order is enforced by the fist, not the gavel," the entity replied. "I shall place you there. I will give you the tools to bring the trial you never finished to a much larger stage. I want to see what a truly honest man does when he is given the power to judge those who think themselves above the Law."
"And the cost?"
"There is no cost, Counselor. Only the burden of your own conviction. Go. The court is now in session."
The white void suddenly shattered like glass. Higuruma felt himself falling, not into water this time, but into a kaleidoscope of colors and sounds. The geometric entity faded, and in its place, the first cry of a newborn broke the silence of a high-end Tokyo maternity ward.
He was no longer a lawyer in a failing system. He was a spark of ancient integrity reborn into a world of superhumans.
Please give me power stones🥲