"Thirsty," Noah muttered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Once again, he'd woken up on the couch of his studio apartment, the TV blaring a shoddy infomercial. It had been a standard sleeping schedule of his for years. Insomnia was his best friend.
Pushing off the couch, he picked up the manga he was reading before falling asleep. The cover featured a stereotypical overpowered protagonist sitting on a throne, looking like some kind of demon. It was a somewhat open guilty pleasure of his, the idea of being strong enough that nothing was impossible.
With a sigh, he placed it on the coffee table.
Turning down the TV, Noah trudged through the living room, his steps heavy and exhausted. Work had been a pain, causing him unneeded stress in the guise of ninety-hour work weeks. Management didn't care. If Noah was being completely honest with himself, even though he hated the job, it was a welcome distraction from his abysmal social life.
His foot crossed over the threshold from living room to kitchen.
It happened in the blink of an eye. One step, and the next second, he was somewhere else entirely.
Gone were the tiled flooring and the damp heat radiating from the open window. His unkempt kitchen was no more. In its place was a sterile, cool whiteness. No, it wasn't a room. Noah was standing in a void.
"W-what the hell?" he mumbled, eyes widening. He stood stock-still, the unnatural silence pressing against his ears.
He spun around, surveying the expanse for a door or a wall, but the wide area offered nothing. Maybe this was a lucid dream. Maybe he hadn't even woken up to get that glass of water.
With a sharp intake of breath, he pinched his forearm hard.
"Fuck!"
The sting was instant and grounding. Rubbing the spot, Noah stepped forward, his eyes flicking from one empty point to another. The reality of it settled in his gut quickly. He wasn't dreaming, and the void was real.
There was no sound, or even a shadow, that would explain where he was. Each step was cautious, calculated to ensure he didn't miss a beat between movements.
He walked for what felt like hours, though in this featureless void, it could have been mere minutes. He wasn't sure how far he'd walked, but his steps were useless; he was getting nowhere.
With a sigh, he muttered, "This is bullshit. Did I smoke something before going to bed? There's no logical way this is all possible."
As if the world were responding to his complaint, the void of pure white in front of Noah shimmered and shifted. A small wooden table materialized first, its four legs first, followed by the top. Afterwards, a piece of paper popped into existence in between Noah's blinks. To complete the spectacle, seven seeds, or things that looked like seeds, formed last.
"Okay... did that really happen?" Noah wondered as he found himself stepping toward the new addition in the void.
Nothing else happened in the span of steps it took to arrive before the table, and Noah was thankful for the small mercy.
He avoided picking up the seeds and opted for the note. Gripping the paper, he unfolded it and saw the clearly computerized, printed text.
"Wha..."
····························································
OFFICE OF EXISTENTIAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENTDivision of Continuity Assurance - Subsection 7.4.2(c)
RE: Unscheduled Termination of Existence - COMPENSATORY ACTION Subject: LEONHARDT, Noah | Ref: ERM-4471-0093 | Status: CLOSED (Auto-resolved) Handler: Desk 11, Floor ∞-3
Dear Mr. Leonhardt,
Your existence was prematurely dissolved during routine maintenance of Local Reality Cluster 7-B ("Earth, Standard, Non-Fictional"). An indexing error during a scheduled defragmentation pass routed your file to full deletion instead of archival.
We acknowledge this was our mistake.
Per Section 14.8(b) of the Existential Liability and Continuity Accord, you are entitled to one (1) compensatory reincarnation into an available reality thread, accompanied by one (1) enhancement package selected from current stock. All selections are final.
Please note:
· Your original reality thread has been repaired. Your absence is accounted for. Do not attempt to return.
· Your destination reality will be assigned based on availability and compatibility. Preference requests are not accepted.
· Management bears no liability for consequences arising from your selection - including but not limited to: death, rebirth, temporal paradoxes, romantic entanglements, or cosmic-scale incidents.
· This notice constitutes full and final settlement. No further claims may be filed under this case number.
· If you experience issues during reincarnation (memory fragmentation, identity bleed, spontaneous combustion, etc.), please file a new case. Estimated response time: 4-6 billion years.
We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.
Regards,
[Illegible]
Operational Oversight - Existential Resource Management
Desk 11, Floor ∞-3
····························································
"WHAT?!" Noah yelled as he threw the paper down on the table.
It couldn't be true, could it?
He had died due to some clerical error from 'Management' and was now simply being compensated for the issue. What kind of sick joke was being played on him? Sure, the table, note, and seeds appearing like magic were concerning, but he was expected to believe he was dead?
His heart thumped fiercely against his chest, the blood rushing towards his head as his entire life flashed before his eyes.
Of course it was all real. He wasn't imaginative enough to create such a vivid dream. The pain of the pinch was still lingering.
"Shit."
He leaned against the table, eyes unfocused as a knot formed in his throat.
Sure, his life wasn't the best, but it was his life. He'd worked hard to have enough money, his own apartment, and even though he had little to no social life, it was enough for him.
Fortunately, he had no one waiting for him, if all of this was real. His parents had died years ago, and his lack of friends meant no one would be knocking on his door in a few days.
"The office might," Noah said quietly, "but they'd probably just fire and rehire instead of trying to find me."
It took a couple of minutes of internal dread and mental gymnastics before the knot in Noah's throat subsided and he felt somewhat calm. He still felt the longing and loss for his life. That wouldn't fade anytime soon, but the note said there was nothing else he could do.
Pushing off the table, he picked up the note once more and reread the information.
Per Section 14.8(b) of the Existential Liability and Continuity Accord, you are entitled to one (1) compensatory reincarnation into an available reality thread, accompanied by one (1) enhancement package selected from current stock. All selections are final.
He glanced over the top of the note and peered at the seeds neatly arranged in a row. There was something off about them. He could feel it in his bones. It was like an energy exuding from them. Some felt light and airy, while others felt like he was bathing in an abyss.
"How do I know which one to choose?"
Leaning forward, he cautiously poked the green one on the far left. Fortunately, nothing happened, which allowed him to let out a breath of relief.
"Reminds me of those Devil Fruits from One Piece," Noah murmured with a faint smile. "Don't know what you're getting yourself involved in, but it's usually worth the risk."
He moved down the row, lightly touching each seed before moving on. Some felt utterly wrong the moment they brushed against his skin, while others were like whispers or promises, trying to goad him into choosing them.
Finally, Noah reached the last one. He felt nothing.
Well, that wasn't completely true. The crimson seed was silent. It wasn't awaiting his approval or begging him to pick it up. It felt like it was above everything, indifferent.
"Huh," Noah said.
Going through the seeds once more, Noah swiftly came to a conclusion. Though some felt 'perfect,' their sheer eagerness to be consumed by him left his spine tingling, a subtle warning that all was not as it seemed. The darker ones... well, they felt like tar being draped across his skin, so they weren't an option.
Finally, Noah settled on the crimson seed again.
"It's you."
Picking up the seed, Noah weighed it in his palm, noting it was heavier than he'd expected.
"So, I just swallow you and from there everything changes?" he asked, though the seed and the void didn't have an answer.
There was no instruction manual, but instinct, or maybe just years of reading fantasy manga, told him what to do. Simply holding it wouldn't be enough.
Noah squared his shoulders, shoving down the last of his hesitation. He tilted his head back and opened his mouth. Placing the seed inside, he prepared to swallow, but before he could continue, something shifted deep inside.
This was it. There was no turning back from now on. It was terrifying.
The seed began to melt on his tongue, turning into a liquid that went down his throat like a cool drink of water. Before he'd even realized it, the entire thing was consumed. With a sigh, Noah opened his eyes.
He waited for a second, but nothing happened.
Time dragged on. Silence stretched into what felt like an eternity, and a sense of concern blossomed in his stomach. Had he done something wrong? Did he need to do something else with the seed?
Then the burning began.
It started from his stomach before exploding outwards. Liquid fire tore through his nerves, tendons, muscles, fat, and cells. Nothing was safe.
Noah released a guttural scream of pain that vibrated throughout the void before collapsing to his knees. His eyes burned as if needles were piercing through the soft tissue. With whatever fragmented sanity he still held, he watched in fear as his skin melted off the bone, followed by muscle and blood.
Before he could conceptualize the sheer horror-movie reality unfolding, Noah looked on in wonder as the blood that fell to the floor began to hover in the air, as if gravity had been turned off.
The blood moved in swirling motions, wrapping around his body as if a protective layer were forming around him.
His consciousness began to fade rapidly, and Noah felt his grip on sanity slipping.
As the blood continued to congeal around him, he had one thought before succumbing to darkness.
It's a cocoon.