'Am I dead?'
Kai wasn't even sure about that anymore. He didn't just seem to be in a void—he himself seemed to be part of the void. And to think that the last thing he saw was that stupid rug. Kai wanted to sigh.
'I guess this is just how it is. It had to happen at some point.'
A few empty seconds passed.
'I can't take this anymore. Is this seriously all there is after?'
Suddenly, in the middle of the black void, a figure took shape somewhere.
Kai frowned.
"What is that? Wait, when did I…?"
Kai suddenly had a brow to furrow and his voice back.
The figure stopped shifting and finally took form. It was beneath Kai, who seemed to have gotten his body back. It was the rug.
"Of all things…"
Just a black rug in a black void.
That was, until everything around Kai started to change. Suddenly the void seemed like a living thing. Moments later there were dozens of shapes around him.
"What does this mean?"
The void seemed to have wanted to take the shape of every familiar place Kai knew. Around him was an amalgam of places merging indistinctly into one another. Kai managed to recognize his house, his friends' houses, his classroom and the bookstore where he used to buy his novels.
"So this is some kind of limbo where I'm going to watch my memories play out? God, I really don't want to see this."
Suddenly a voice Kai had already heard before resonated throughout the space. Kai flinched slightly and jumped off the rug, stepping onto nothing.
"Relax, it's not going to be anything like that."
The void took the shape of the last room Kai had ever seen in his life, complete with the graffiti of the eyes that had been behind Shun.
From that graffiti emerged the entity that had interrupted them earlier.
"Do you like the trick?"
'It was more impressive the first time.' He thought, unable to help it.
Kai was in a defensive stance, though it seemed like trying anything in that place would be pointless—it was clearly the entity's domain.
"You… What the hell are you? What have you done to me? What is this place?"
The entity brought its hand to its chin, or where one would presumably be.
"I see, so I shouldn't repeat tricks, you think? I'll make a note of that."
'What the…? I could have sworn I didn't say that out loud.'
The entity conjured a tall black armchair and sat down calmly.
"Oh, you didn't. But you can't hide anything from me. Not you, not anyone—it's one of the perks of being an Observer, I suppose."
Kai took a step forward and stepped back onto the rug.
"Are you just going to answer whichever questions you feel like? I remember asking about three more."
Kai was far from comfortable—he felt unsettled and confused; he was standing in front of an unfathomable creature that could clearly do whatever it wanted with him at any moment, and yet he couldn't bring himself to be polite and formal. Not that it mattered, the entity could probably see his thoughts either way.
"Ohh… You're bolder than I remember. Weren't you afraid of talking to strangers?"
Kai frowned and gritted his teeth.
'Another question left unanswered, and on top of that it asks me one.'
"Afraid? I'm not afraid," he shot back indignantly. "It's just… it's hard to know what to talk about, how to do it, how to go about it so they don't think something's off and reject me… With my friends I know how to do that without thinking, which is why I just don't bother trying with strangers."
The entity tilted what appeared to be its head and rested it on the arm propped up on the armrest.
"Curious, to say the least. You describe it as if it were some kind of obsession with controlling the conversation—though I'm not sure that's entirely consistent with what you actually think," said the entity. "Anyway, would you like to take a seat?" The entity stretched out its arm and conjured a small black chair in front of its plush black armchair.
Kai crossed his arms. He looked around; at some point, the space once again became an empty void.
"I'd rather stand for now."
"A valid choice, I suppose." The entity shrugged. "As for your questions—which takes priority?"
The casually unbothered tone the entity maintained throughout made Kai's skin crawl.
"What is this place? Why do you have a humanoid form? What have you done to me?"
The entity sighed.
"You cheated a little, but I'll answer anyway—I'm feeling somewhat merciful today." It settled comfortably into the armchair as it spoke. "This is a transit space, though it falls within what is my usual working area—you see it as empty and black for convenience. I adopted this form so you could better comprehend my existence; I make an effort not to leave your mind in pieces. I haven't done anything to you. Not yet."
Ignoring that last remark, Kai sat down—but on the rug, not the chair.
'Convenience? Mind in pieces? Is it implying it's from a higher dimension? That tracks so far.'
'If it's supposedly empty why did all those places and objects appear? Is it trying to win me over by making me feel at ease?'
Kai was turning thoughts over in his mind while talking at the same time.
"Dragging me into this 'transit space' seems like rather more than nothing." Kai seemed to gradually relax, seeing that he wasn't in immediate danger—not that he could have done anything about it either way. "Transit toward where?"
"I was getting to that," the entity replied, dismissing the chair it had conjured when it saw Kai preferred the rug.
"How do I put this?" The entity crossed its arms. "I suppose I could give you a sort of summary, like I did with the others…"
'Others?'
"How many more are here?" Kai asked.
The entity paused for a few moments.
"They're no longer here. There were around thirty of you."
Kai brought a hand to his chin and his stream of thoughts overflowed.
'Thirty? They're no longer in the transit space. They've already moved on. Why am I still here?'
'Am I the last one? They… my friends too? Does the rift in the sky have anything to do with it? I still don't know if they saw it…'
"So—"
"As I was saying," the entity interrupted Kai's interruption. "I brought you to this transit space to be reincarnated in another world."
Kai was speechless—even his thoughts came to a halt. This was one of the events he had dreamed about most!
"For now, all you need to know is that all universes—the infinite universes—were created by a Being." The entity sank back into its armchair. "This Being assigns different laws and properties to each one. I am an Observer, and my task is to study them."
'Being… Observer… Wait, study? Are we just experiments or something? How can it manage an infin…? Right, higher dimensions. In math, people also work with infinite lines and planes.'
"Exactly—something infinite yet constrained to three dimensions poses no issue." The entity gave a dry cough. "But could you stop interrupting me?"
"Hey, you literally can hear my thoughts—do you want me to switch my brain off? Like that's even possible."
The entity sighed.
"I could hear the others' thoughts too, and they definitely weren't this many or this loud. You do something very strange…"
'Something strange, me? Sure.'
'It supposedly observes infinite universes and it's telling me I'm strange? How is anyone supposed to take that?'
The entity pointed at Kai with an accusatory finger.
"That, right there. Why do you layer your own thoughts on top of each other? Most people think in a linear way—not on several tracks at once."
"It's not like I can control it, and it doesn't always happen. It doesn't bother me." Kai tried to defend himself.
"Well, setting that aside. A question arose—how would an organism from one universe react in another with different laws? How would it adapt, what would it do? We Observers are tasked with selecting a few to carry out the experiment. A consensus was reached to grant a new life, while keeping the memories of the previous one."
'Reincarnation…'
"We? Wait—so are you an observer or an Observer?" Kai shifted his tone on both words to distinguish them.
The entity went blank for a few seconds.
"Why would you ask that? And what difference are you saying there is?"
"Sorry, it slipped out. Well—one would be your job, the other your title. Can't you hear my thoughts?"
"You thought it at the exact same time as you said it." The entity sighed. "I am an Observer, by title; an observer, by profession."
"I see. And did you get the title because of your work, or did you get the work because of your title?"
The entity conjured a black table and rested its crossed arms on it.
"Anyway, that was the plan—for you all to be reincarnated," the entity declared, ignoring Kai.
"Was?" Kai interrupted again.
"Was," the entity confirmed. "However, I noticed something—your soul isn't compatible with any body currently available. You wouldn't be born for several decades… Having had the luck of being selected alongside your friends, that would be a shame, wouldn't it?"
Kai shuddered, lost for words.
"I decided I could take a little pity on you—give you a hand."
The entity made several sheets of paper appear on the table. They were completely black, like everything else in that space, yet somehow perfectly readable.
"That's why I've come up with several options: the first is to accept your fate and be born in a few decades, with your friends already adults or even elderly by the time you reach the age you are now; the second is that I create an artificial body for you and you are 'born' into that world—I'd leave you at some orphanage in some city; the third is that, since your friends are being born right now, have already been born, or will be born very soon, you keep your current body and I send you seventeen years into the future."
''Why seventeen?' Kai wondered, before remembering his own age.
Kai approached the table, having gotten up from the rug. Each option had its pros and cons—the most unpleasant was the first. With the second he'd have to go through the whole phase of being a baby and then a child all over again. The third depended on a few details.
'Going back to being a baby sounds exhausting… That's why being summoned in novels always seemed better to me. Though the whole rerolling your stats thing is a nice touch…'
"If I chose the third option… you—"
"Of course—I'd adjust your body so it would be as if you were born in that world, and I'll let you keep your current belongings as a little gift," the Observer clarified before Kai could finish.
"That changes things. Though my stuff probably won't be very useful…"
That's what Kai said, anyway—but the truth was he still wasn't sure. He had been an indecisive person his entire life, and this time the decision would shape his new one. It was too much for him.
"I have a proposal," he announced, lifting his gaze. "I'll leave it all up to fate. Can you—"
The entity replaced the papers with the options with numbered balls and made a set of upturned cups appear over them.
"That's a somewhat… interesting decision. Are you really going to pass off all the responsibility just like that?"
Kai nodded, though he seemed to hesitate.
"Ah, but take out the first option—I don't even want that one to have a chance."
The Observer did so.
"Just don't complain afterwards. If you don't care enough to choose for yourself, you won't have the right to object to the outcome. Don't leave things in someone else's hands only to reject the result later. I won't change my mind either."
Kai nodded, watching as the cups slid across the table at a speed he couldn't follow with his eyes. Even so, he looked away after a few seconds to 'guess fairly'.
Kai still wasn't entirely sure about going through with it this way—he was about to trust his entire new life to a game of chance. Suddenly everything felt much more serious.
'Am I really going to decide like this? I should have thought it through more, it's not like there's a time limit. I think I'm going to reconsider. No—I'd just keep second-guessing myself and end up regretting it no matter what I chose.'
The cups were already shuffled, and the Observer offered them to him with an open palm in an inviting gesture.
'Left or right? Which do I pick? I got out of one decision just to walk into another…'
He moved his hand toward the left cup, but after some hesitation ended up lifting the right one.
"Option three. Congratulations!"
Kai didn't know what to think, but there was no going back.
"Right, let's get the preparations underway."
Kai nodded, and a few seconds later he began to notice changes throughout his entire body, inside and out. Somehow he didn't feel uncomfortable at all—he couldn't even tell what was happening to him.
"Wait, can you make me handsome?"
"Are you sure you'd trust me with that? Besides, what's your idea of handsome?"
"I don't know, more attractive?"
"I'll see what I can do—I might tweak a few things, no promises."
Kai waited while the Observer did its work. After a few minutes he spoke again: "What happened to us… for everyone else?"
"You simply disappeared. Nothing more," the Observer answered plainly.
"That's… Can't it be any other way? That's pretty sad—we can't even say goodbye?"
The entity gave a small clap.
"Done. Right, get ready." The Observer raised a hand. A thin vertical white line appeared in the black void, and in an instant it expanded into a rectangle of white light in an infinite expanse of darkness. "I'll send you close to one of your friends. Try to live a life that's worth observing—I don't want to be bored."
"I'll try to make it as boring to watch as possible, then."
With that, Kai took a couple of steps forward. The light wrapped around him slowly, like a bold sea swallowing an overconfident ship.
"Please don't—then there would have been no point in rigging that little game earlier."
Kai's eyes went wide at that. He had left it to chance, yes—but knowing it had been rigged…
Less than a moment later the light surrounding him became blinding and threatened to consume him entirely, and he only had time to start a curse in his final moment in the black void.
"You bas—"