Darkness... Coldness... A void... There rests a soul traveling through the nothingness. There the still wayward soul of a business man, stares blankly into nothingness. His dull tired brown eyes, with dark bags under them, blink a few times, before a thought fills his mind.

'Why am I here again? ... Oh, right.'

Earlier

In the bustling streets of Tokyo, there walks a man in his mid forties with a depressed look. A box in his hands full of supplies and papers.

"My name is Shiraki Taji, I'm 46 years old, and I was just laid off from my job, because I was deemed too-"

"Useless." Taji's boss says to him as he sits cross from him.

"...What?" Taji's eyes widen in shock.

"Your reports just don't meet up with company standards any more, so we're afraid we have to let you go."

Taji's jaw drops. "But- but, I've been here for 25 years! I've worked myself to the bone for this place!"

Taji's boss gives a smile. "Which we are grateful for, but you just are not useful to us anymore."

Taji stands up, his chair nearly falls over. "S-Sir, please-"

"Have your stuff packed by the end of the day, please. We'll send you your final paycheck on Friday."

Taji's boss just spins his chair around and looks out the large window behind him. Taji tries to say something, but his voice just doesn't come. He sighs as he deflates, defeated, he walks out of the office and to his desk. He puts a hand through his neat black hair, messy it up slightly.

An hour later Taji exits a tall building with a box in his hand of everything on his desk. He undoes his tie slightly before letting out a depressed sigh, and walking down the street. He slips into the crowded streets, bending in like the average person he is.

'My life isn't interesting. I grew up in this city, I went to school in this city, and I worked hard for this city. But nothing ever seems to matter. My life just feels useless in the grand scheme of things.'

Taji walks past a game store and he looks inside, seeing several new games being advertised. His eyes shine a little as he spots a new game he's had his eyes on for a while. Cyberpunk 2077, he's waited ten years for it. He goes to step into the store, but he looks down at the box in his hand and his eyes go dull, before he continues walking on.

'I feel like being useless is the only good thing I'm at.'

"You're just useless to me now." A teenage girl stands in front of a younger Taji. She has a bored look on her face. "So leave me now, and don't speak to me again."

Then a slightly older Taji stands in the entrance of a house, several boxes behind him.

"You're useless, you don't even have a job yet, or even a scholarship to a nice school. LEAVE!" Taji's father yells at him.

'When I finally scored my job- old job. I felt so happy, I finally wasn't useless! But now...' Taji walks past a maid cafe, where some maids are holding out pamphlets, but he doesn't grab one.

Taji then stops at a crosswalk, waiting for his time to walk. The streets suddenly appear more empty.

'Well, I guess I can start Kobayashi's Dragon maid while I look for a new job... And maybe play that Genshin Impact Game. It recently came out and people have been making a big deal about it. I've seen some gameplay, and it looks interesting. Though, that Paimon character seems a little annoying.'

The cross walk light turns green and Taji, the only one around, walks towards the other side of the road.

'Maybe I should go to bed early tonight...'

Taji's body suddenly freezes as something chills him right down to the core. He looks ahead and spots a shadowy figure on the other side of the road. He tenses up as sweat dribbles down his brow.

'Why can't I move?'

A large smile forms on the shadow figure, this sends shivers down Taji's spin. He looks around to yell for help, but notices not a soul in sight. That's until he hears the sound of a horn, and he looks to the side and sees a large truck bearing towards him.

A tired smile forms on his face. 'This seems kinda cliche...' Then everything goes dark for him.

Taji blinks a few times as the void still hasn't changed.

'Why a truck of all things... It is so overused... Why not like a train? ... I'm such an otaku. I should get out more...'

Taji then deadpans to himself.

'Now that seems a little hard.'

A large smile, similar to the shadow figure, forms in the void before the sound of cracking is heard. The smile disappears, before a source-less feminine laugh echoes.

Taji's eyes widen, as his still body still refused to move. 'What's going on? Is this the reincarnation reward for dying by that truck?! Oh, I hope my next life I get to be useful... And maybe get some actual sleep and good food instead of ramen cups.'

The cracking gets louder and until a bright light, in the shape of a star, shines in front of Taji, blinding him.

'Yes, rebirth here I come!!!'

"OOF!"

Taji's first feeling is his face on some grass. He remains motionless as a soft breeze blows on him and the sounds of birds chirping reach his ears. Wind pushing on water, the rustle of tree tops, the thumping of feet all reach his ears.

'Nani... This isn't how birth is supposed to work...'

Taji lifts his head up, only to be instantly blinding. He narrows his eyes for a few seconds, before they get used to the bright sunlight. Once his eyes get used to the brightness, he opens his eyes, and they widen.

A lush forest surrounds him, with a massive lake surrounded by flowers with a multitude of colors. Large deer drinks from the lake as several ducks swim near it. A couple birds fly overhead as they chirp.

The clean and seemingly unpolluted air fills his nose, even the nice smell of the nearby flowers. Taji blinks a few times, before looking behind him to see where he came from. Behind Taji is a large glowing tree, that has white particles flowing off it. The hole in the front of the tree closes up, forming into a large star symbol.

'Um... If this is rebirth, why the fuck did I come out a tree? I mean, if I'm not human, that's kinda cool... Humans are boring.'

The tree then slowly stops glowing as the particles stop flowing. The tree turns a dead brown as it slightly withers. Taji, confused, stands up. Finding that everything is much taller than him...

"What the..." Taji slams his small hands over his mouth, as a female child-like voice comes out. He then notices the small hands covering his mouth.

Taji removes his hands from his face, and looks at them. Smooth white child-like hands. he then notices that he's wearing a white jumper, and white stockings with white boots. Extremely confused, he slowly walks over to the lake, several animals stop what they're doing and look over to him.

Taji reaches the water's edge and takes several deep breathes, before looking at his reflection, making him gasp in shock.

Taji stares at a girl with a petite body, giving her the look of a fairy. She has thick white hair cropped just above her shoulders, dark purple eyes, and light skin.She wears a long-sleeved white jumper and a night-blue cape flecked with stars, and white stockings with white boots. Rose-gold embroidery and shapes are attached to her jumper, boots, and sleeves.

Paimon's accessories are a dark blue hairpin, almost black, the same kind on the tree. And a rose-gold tiara that levitates above her head as though it was a halo.

Taji blinks a few times, and so does the girl in the reflection. He brings up his hands, and so does the girl in the reflection. He takes several deep breaths and calms himself down.... Which actually doesn't work.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

A loud scream from him echoes throughout the forest, making animals even a couple miles away, look in his direction. Most nearby animals run away from the screaming fairy-looking thing.

"WHY AM I PAIMON?!?!" Taji screams as she pulls on her hair. "She's so freaking annoying! And short! And... and..." She holds onto her stomach. "I'm so hungry."

Taji kneels onto the ground as tears stream from her eyes. Several birds on a nearby tree look at each other, before looking back at the child on the ground.

"Wait..." Taji's eyes grow dull as she realizes something. "If I'm Paimon... I'm gonna be this short forever, aren't I?"

Taji falls onto his back. "Truck please, come back and isekai me again!" She yells into the blue sky. "Or at least give this body to someone who wants it!"

After a few minutes of sulking, Taji... Or Paimon, gets up and looks at herself in the water again.

"Well, at least Pai- I'm cute." Taji/Paimon smirks to himself.

As Taji admires herself in the lake, a fish swims up to the surface and stares at her. The two stare at each other for a few seconds, before the fish sprays water into her face, drenching her.

"WAAAHHH!!!" Taji sways his arms around as cold water hits him. After a second the fish stops and goes back under water. He glares down at the water. "YOU STUPID FISH, PAIMON WILL EAT YOU!!!"

Taji a points a finger towards where the fish went and star particles come off her, and small rays of light shoots off her finger and into the water. Taji gasps in amazement, and awe, before she starts to fire more small rays of light into the water.

"YES! YES!" Taji shouts. "DIE FISHIE! DIE! AHAHA!" A slight sadistic smile forms on her face, but after a few seconds she stops laughing and stops using her magic.

Taji sighs and falls backwards onto her back and stares up to the sky.

"Am I really gonna be like this forever?" Taji asks himself. She then growls in frustration and lifts up a fist and slams it into the ground, cracking it. Taji freezes up for a moment, before turning towards her first and sees the cracked ground. She sits up and looks at her hands for a few seconds, before looking at a nearby tree.

Taji stands up and walks over to the tree, and pulls a fist back. She throws the first forward and punches the tree as hard as she can. The tree bends and snaps as her fists slams into it, falling over to the side.

A smile forms onto Taji's face. "AH HAHAHA!" She throws her hands up. "This must be my cheat skills, magic and extreme strength!" She then puts a hand on her chin. "I might be able to live like this... Become an adventurer and gain a lot of money, and eat a lot of food. hehehe..." She starts to drool.

Taji then shakes his head and wipes the saliva away. Then he gets thinking.

'I wonder if I have a status window in like those novels I read?' Taji snaps his fingers. "STATUS!..." nothing happens. "Um... OPEN STATUS... Open? Reveal thy self! Uh... Personal status..."

After spending several minutes acting like a psychopath and yelling to the open air. Taji stops and sighs in disappointment.

"I must not have one then..." Taji does more of the thinking. 'Paimon can fly in game, I wonder if I can too?'

Taji closes her eyes and throws her hands up. "FLY! ..." Nothing happens. "What the fuck?! Come on! FLY! UP! THE WINDS FLY ME UP!" Taji stops a foot on the ground, cracking it. 'How the fuck, do I fly?!'

Taji suddenly starts to float off the ground, as constellations of stars occasionally float off her body and disappear. Taji throws her hands up and starts to laugh, but suddenly starts to roll mid-air.

"WAH!" Taji goes into an uncontrolled spin. "STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! Stay still! ...I think I'm going to vomit." Her face turns green. 'Stop!'

Taji freezes upside down, her face still green, and she vomits out rainbows as her eyes turn white when she's done.

"Uuugghhhh..." Taji groans. "I think I figured it out..." Taji closes her eyes and uprights herself as floats a few feet away from the pile of rainbows and touches onto the ground. The constellations stop floating out from her.

Taji smiles and puts her hands on her hips. "Pai- I'm so smart!"

She smugly smiles. "It seems that I can control my floating ability by thinking! ..." 'Status!' Nothing happens. "Darn!"

'Fly!'

Taji floats up a couple feet, constellations float out from her. She then moves up and down and side to side. "So I just have to think about where I want to move... It's so simple and seems way to easy..."

Taji floats over to the water and looks at her reflection again. 'Huh, neat.'

Taji keeps staring into her dark purple eyes, until a massive shadow passes overhead.

"Huh?" Taji looks up, only for her eyes to widen.

A massive dragon, with red scales, bat-like wings and a long tail passes overhead. It roars a couple times as it flies off into the distance.

Taji blinks a few times. "Was..." She points in the direction of the dragon. "Was that Smaug from the hobbit?" She then starts to panic. "IF I'M ON MIDDLE EARTH, I'M SO GONNA FUCKING DIE!"

Suddenly another large dragon passes over head, yet, not as big as the other one. It's big green European dragon with black wings and a light green underbelly. The dragon roars as it goes in the same direction as the first dragon.

Just stares in the direction of the two dragons.

"Wasn't... Wasn't that Tohru from Dragon Maid..." Paimon questions. "I've seen clips on youtube about it, that's how I learned of the show. But still... If I'm not on middle earth, where am I?"

Taji grows into deep though as she brings her small hands onto her chin, forgetting she's over a massive lake and loses focus on her fly, and falls it.

"WAAAAHHH!!" Taji screams as she flails her arms around. "I FORGOT HOW TO SWIM!!!"

Taji screams as she flails in the water.

A few minutes later, Taji lays face down on the shore, drenched in water.

'This was not how I expected my day to go.... I don't think anyone can expect their day to go like this...'

Taji slowly gets to her feet, shaking water off her. She then looks up and stares at her halo. "I wonder..."

Taji grabs her halo and removes it from its floating position. She then looks over it, until he shivers and swiftly puts it back above her head. "Oh, that was an uncomfortable feeling..."

Taji looks around as she twists water out of her hair. Her stomach then growls and she hugs her. "Oh... I'm so hungry... I wonder if there's a town nearby? Oh, whatever god is listening to me, please don't let me die just after I started getting used to how this body works."

Taji floats up and starts heading off in a direction. "Off, Paimon goes!" She throws an arm up as she floats deeper into the forest.

The shadow figure appears next to the whither tree, and stares where Taji went off. A large creepy smile forms on its face, before the shadow being disappears.

.

.

.

Moon light glistening on the surface of the lake where Taji woke up. The moonlight hits the large withered tree where Taji seemingly came from.

Suddenly a pair of green heels stopped in front of the dead tree. "Oh dear..." A quiet female voice speaks in the dead of night. "Oh no, oh dear... This isn't good..."

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(I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!)

02-16-2024

2710