"Second place again. ......"

　I muttered to myself as I looked at the ranking on the report card that had been returned to me.

　Second place in modern literature, third place in classics literature , fourth place in English, eighth place in mathematics, sixth place in chemistry, third place in Japanese history, and first place in political science and economics out of 312 students in the third grade. I thought I had done my best, but once again, I was unable to take the top spot.

　I sighed and looked at the few students gathered in the front right corner of the classroom.

"Yikes!　Kazuki, you're number one again!　That's great!"

"And you're in first place!　Can you teach me how to study?"

"I don't know. How about next Sunday?"

"Thanks, Kazuki!"

　I hear an  commotion. of group of people  The person at the center of the commotion is Kazuki Sugawara, the genius among geniuses who has held the top spot in his grade for over a year now. He and I don't have much in common, but I consider him as rival.

　Ever since I entered this high school, I've never beaten him  on exams. I don't join any clubs, I refuse to hang out with my classmates, and except for meals, baths, and my self-imposed reading quota, I've been studying relentlessly, and I still can't beat him.

　There are geniuses in every world, and Sugawara is the exact opposite of me. He is the ace of the basketball team, the student council president, and a honor student. He was a winner of sorts with his good looks and popularity.

　This world is so unreasonable. No matter how much effort you put in, you can never compete with the wall of natural talent. I've been ridiculed as a garrigan, called a bean sprout, and still, no matter how hard I try, I can't beat the genius. Even though the school is one of the most advanced schools in the prefecture, only one or two students are accepted to Tokyo University every year. I have no doubt that Kazuki Sugawara will be accepted. But for me, who is on the verge of becoming the runner-up in my grade (and has lost it several times), I honestly don't have the confidence to get in. There are many things that I can't achieve even though I've been living such a painstaking life. The genius, Kazuki Sugawara, has everything going for him, and even his girlfriend is constantly changing his mind.

　I was so frustrated that I couldn't stand it.  I don't want to be defeated, so I'm half-heartedly working hard. I wanted to prove that the efforts of a mediocre genius can beat a genius, so I was reading my vocabulary book even on my way to and from school. ----

"Watch out!"

　I didn't know what had happened. But when I came to my senses, the world was spinning around me, and then a loud noise, a bright light, and a strong shock hit me, and I knew that I had been hit by a car.

"Ughhhh ......!"

　 when I heard a strange voice coming out of my mouth as I was slammed into the ground. I could feel my whole body, which must have been hit hard by the car , slowly getting hot. There was a lot of commotion in the area, and I could see that the students from the same high school who were leaving school were paying attention to me.

""Are you okay, ......?

　I heard such a voice from afar, but I couldn't make any reply. My whole body was hot, but for some reason I was getting cold. The chills were accompanied by an intense drowsiness, and I let go of my consciousness without being able to resist.

　　　　　The ambulance stopped.

. I couldn't hear the sirens. The red lights were glowing and spinning. There were several police cars stopped, and the police were calling out to the many onlookers. Yellow tape was stretched, and inside the tape, there was a section covered with a blue sheet.

　For some reason, I was watching this scene from above. I was about 10 meters up. After watching the scene in a daze for a few dozen seconds, I finally realized that I had died in an accident. This is what they call astral projection. It was quite an intense experience. It's not something you can experience very often.

　As I was doing this, I noticed that I was gradually ascending into the sky. I was already 30 meters up in the sky. It was ascension. It was getting harder and harder to see the commotion below me.

　One hundred meters above the ground. This is what it feels like to look down on a city when you climb a mountain with a castle or something. I couldn't see much of what was going on below.

　One thousand meters above the ground. This is what it feels like to look down from a mountain as high as Mount Fuji. You can see the whole city where I live. Well, I don't have any beloved childhood friends or special friends, so I don't have much attachment to it. My family didn't seem to expect much from me, and my life was boring.

　Ten thousand meters above the ground. In short, 10 kilometers. I had finally surpassed Mount Everest. The edge of the earth looks round. I can no longer distinguish the world below except for a city or a forest. The speed of our ascent increases dramatically.

　now  i am 100 kilometers up in the sky. From here,  I   am already out of the atmosphere. Farewell Earth,   hope we meet again. Even if I say ......, we may never meet again. i don't even know if reincarnation really exists, and there is no guarantee that i will ever be able to live as intelligent life on earth again. At least if i are in a state right after i die, though, since i was discovered to be conscious in this way, maybe there is reincarnation.

　The sky above ......, or rather, outer space. The distance from the earth is about 10,000 kilometers. I can already see the outline of the earth clearly. It's a perfect circle. The earth was blue. When I look at the earth like this, I feel a little sad. I wonder where I'm going after this. There was no  one  who looked like God, and there was no heaven above the clouds, but I was up there, so I must not be going to hell. My life has been nothing good, but i I would like to go back to earth again. If it was possible, I'd like to live a life where my efforts are rewarded. Well, looking back on my life so far, I don't think such a dream is possible. In the first place, the earth is getting farther and farther away.

　 i am passed the moon.  i am already close to Mars. I may be the first person in the history of mankind to see the surface of Mars in detail with the naked eye. Maybe that's the case with all dead people, but I can't see any other ghosts, even though there are probably many other dead people besides me. In other words, not everyone who dies will be able to see Mars up close. The people who go to hell will see the continental plates and mantle. So I'm a lucky guy. Well, since I died in a car accident.

　I could see Jupiter. It was very far away, but I could tell that it was huge. Everyday I'm  able to see something like that . No, I'm ascending to heaven all by myself. I mean, where is "heaven"? Isn't it the direction of the sun? 

　...... Is that Pluton ? The sun looks much smaller now. I'm starting to get lonely. I don't know how long I'm going to keep moving. I want to go home. I don't know where I'm going to go, though.

　I'm tired of ................... This is the Milky Way Galaxy where I was born (bar).

　.............................. ............ local galaxy group?　I don't know.　I don't know anymore. 

　I'm not sure how many hours, days, or even years I've been doing this. I don't know how long it's been since my internal clock (body, no less!) For a while, I was in a daze, feeling the mystery of the universe that I couldn't describe, and then my consciousness started to fade. My vision became blurry, I felt dizzy and warm, and then my consciousness was completely cut off this time.