"Choose."

I blinked and looked at the person in front of me.

Indistinct, white pastel-like figure. An appearance that hurt to look at, as if their very presence is causing something deep inside me to recoil in protest — this thing in front of me is an impossibility.

"What?"

My voice is a few octaves higher, as if I've never gone through puberty. 'Huh? Is this my voice?'

"Your boon. Here are three choices you could make."

Saying that, the entity in front of me pointed to the far left vial of liquid.

"Forgetfulness Potion. Helps you reincarnate to the next life after erasing your memories as compensation for the sins you've committed, as is the natural order of things."

The liquid in the vial is a translucent green color, evoking the feelings of natural order and love and indifference all at once, contrasting but existing at the same time.

Then the figure pointed to the middle potion.

"This here, is the Rebirth Expansion potion. In exchange for your good fate, you can make a trade of equal value for boons. They can be carried over to your second life."

A blueish purple potion emitting balance, equal trade and righteousness greeted him back — 'how the heck am I coming up with these descriptions?'

Finally, the figure pointed at the last potion at the far right.

"The Naught potion. A Gacha, in which You put your Soul on the line in exchange for a chance to win Jackpot. All bets are off, al-most hundred% death guarantee."

I watched the grey fog in the potion vial incredulously, thinking why I'd actually choose that. It is entirely different from the two before, promising certain doom and temptation of reward.

"In exchange, if you survive, you'll have/had/will have an opportunity to be the very top of the foodchain."

"Cryptic much?"

My non-question to get this entity to explain more was met with silence.

It just not!stared at me, waiting for my choice.

"Uh, I died, right? What happened next?"

"..."

More silence. More awkward.

I contemplated.

The pure white not!space we're floating around in offered nothing in helping me decide.

I'm not sure how I am able to differentiate the entity from the surroundings, considering both are white in colour, but I won't think much about that.

I eliminated the first potion. I don't want an identity death. That's just for psychopaths.

The second potion is a sure bet. A safe bet. Lose some, win some. Straightforward.

The third potion, however, is what interests me. A chance for almighty power in exchange for overwhelming odds against survival.

I looked at the entity before me, contemplating.

As a typical high school student of Sakura Island, I'm well aware of shounen tropes and how these sort of choices go.

'Then again, it did say Gacha.'

Countless hours of facing horrors in the Abyss of probability, of dumping hard work, tears and entire swaths memories into that neverending trap, of facing incomprehensible odds and losing, instilled in me a healthy PTSD and fight-or-flight response in me for the word 'Gacha', for good reason.

Nobody ever survives the Gacha. There are no winners in Gacha. Only losers and bigger losers. The only way to survive a Gacha is to not stare at the Gacha, for if you do, the Gacha surely stares back at you, and it'll be too late by then.

'No no no no no. I should not. I definitely should not.'

When I looked down in contemplation, tearing my gaze away from the entity, I saw my traitorous right hand stretching towards the third potion vial.

In response, my left hand, the hand of reason, forcefully stopped the addicted right hand. The veins on both hands bulged, blood pumping in a grotesque fashion through them, forcing the other to obey.

'Just... Just a sip would be fine, right? A small sip...'

Irrational thoughts clouded my mind before my left hand abruptly struck my cheek. The cloud covering my rationality cleared, and my thoughts were back to remembering the pain I've suffered through countless times these past few years.

'I shouldn't! Before I change my mind—'

I closed my eyes with my right hand, my internal conflict deep and unending. Past trauma and a promise of sweet future, fighting for supremacy in my mind.

'For my own good! Before I'm tempted!'

My left hand was swift in execution, taking the stopper off the vial and bringing it to my lip, which I drank before I think too much.

An eternity seemed to pass before I slammed the potion vial on the pure white not!desk before the entity.

"Well then, it seems you've made your choice. Let the Naught Gacha spin!."

"Eh? Didn't I choose the second—"

When my right hand lifted from my eyes, my line of sight returned to a vision of betrayal of the highest order— the vial I've just drunk from isn't the second potion vial... It's the third!

"Et tu, Left Hand?!"

With that, my vision sank lower and lower, or maybe it is the entity rising higher and higher, I can't tell.

All of a sudden the not!whiteness of the peculiar not!afterlife I've been in is replaced with an unending grey.

It's like one of those thick mists you see in extreme weathers, except instead of white it's grey, and there's no indication of any direction whatsoever, including the ground or sky.

I'm quite literally floating in a neverending fog of greyness.

"Um, didn't you say a 'Gacha'? Why do I only see fog instead of, well, a Gacha? Ano~, Entity-san? Anyone?"

Tears if regret welled up in me.

'Fuck! If only I kept my hand in check!'

They say regret is a neverending sea and it's never too late to return. Me, I call Bull! If only I knew how and where to return, I will! I swear, I will! Sadly, there's no regret for medicine, and I'll have to live with — die with — my choices.

A typical Gacha appeared before me, complete with the three slots and a lever pull.

Without thinking much, I pulled the lever down, a feeling of Dread pooling in me.

【Daoist Scripture: Creation of Heaven and Earth】¹A/N: reference, anyone?

All of a sudden, all weariness I've accumulated due to my death disappeared.

It's as if I've just awoken from a deep, long, sleep. the feelings I've felt didn't disappear but they didn't affect me as much anymore.

'Eh? What's happening now? What is this Daoist Scrip—'

【At the beginning, there was nothing.

Then a spark of light, a spark of fire appeared.

Before long, the light from the fire spread all across Creation.

With the Fire Seed of The Reverse Tree Ashvattha as their cause, Reality took effect.

Lines of Fire defined Reality and unReality.

With those Lines as the basis, everything was Created.

Every Tree, every rock, every star, every planet, every space, every living being, even the thoughts feelings and decisions of those living beings, everything was connected to the Lines of Fire Seed of the Reverse Tree Ashvattha.

Lines of Fate, of Time, of Space and the Laws of Reality spread a tapestry — of Life, The Universe And Everything.】

²A/N: reference, anyone?

And then, I woke up.

"You are a Wizard, Aiden."

The elderly face of Professor Minerva McGonagall greeted my vision, and it's as if I've always been Aiden White, the orphan muggle-born weirdo isolated by everyone for being a 'freak'.

It was also at that moment Aiden White, the resident of Wizarding Earth, remembered his past life as one Haruta Seiji the resident of Sakura Island of normal Earth.