At night, In a public park that has way too many trees.

A very important event was happening between two teenagers.

Slam

A crack appeared on the floor

"I love you! Will you go out with me?"

A minute passed.

No response has been given.

I put my head out of the floor and looked at her.

At that moment the wind breeze blew through her dark as night long hair.

Her blue eyes were opened wide in shock with her mouth gaping like a fish.

She then proceeded to slam her head to the tree beside her.

"I'm sorry!"

Something in my heart broke.

That is funny considering how I thought how edgy I was because I didn't cry when I lost my whole loved ones just some months ago. Crying and locking myself for weeks don't count right?

"But I already fell in love with someone!"

Aah... Who would have thought, my childhood friend that always helped me through my hardships and got me out of the spiral into the darkness had someone in their special place?

"Then... If I'm to be so bold who is the lucky one?"

She pulled out her face from the tree.

With a practised motion.

She jump like a cat and landed safely on the rooftop.

She spread her arms out with a yell and a spotlight was lit on her

"I'm Batman!"

I gathered the force in my left leg and threw my build up frustrations

"Curse you, Batman!!"

The root of the tree can't withstand my kick and the girl of my dream was no longer in my sight.

Good riddance.

You Batman-obsessed idiot!

There goes my chance at having a normal school life romance. Shouldn't have watched too many romance animes.

They're all a scam!

In the first place, I already know doing a normal confession won't work because of how eccentric she is.

I've watched boys and girls confessing to her and guess what?

Most of them either fainted or ran away after my childhood friend, the legendary forehead slammer, Mel. slammed her head into the same tree she slammed her head today.

Thank you for your hard work, a tree that I just sent to outer space.

It must be hard, being a punching bag for Mel's forehead.

Memories of Mel's forehead butting the tree came to mind.

From watching those scenes playing out every day, I figured maybe she would like it if I'm the one that slammed my head instead.

After all, there must be a reason why she did that, right?

Right?

Right?

"Kou you're too mean!"

I'm hearing her voice to my left even though I just send her to outer space.

Maybe it's the hallucination getting into me.

After all, I practised the confession for hours last night without stopping to drink or sleep.

Don't look at me like that!

After all... It's my first time.

"Kou~ Why are you blushing like a maiden."

Mel's voice ringed once more.

How I wish to actually send her to outer space.

The tree's sacrifice was for nothing!

I clenched my fist and put them at the front of my mouth

"Mel, please be serious" 

Mel just tilted her head to the left.

The scene was really like something out of a CG from visual novels.

"But, I am serious!"

This girl!

I ruffled my hair to calm my raging feelings.

"MEL!"

She just smiled at my yell.

"Please... tell me for real..."

I can't take this anymore.

A gentle hand placed itself upon my shoulders.

My eyes became wide open.

It was Mel's.

"Of course it's-"

The church bell tolled

She smiled and pointed at me

"You!"

She stands on her tiptoes before stealing my lips.

Chu~

Her lips were warm.

She averted her face from me and took a deep breath.

"Kou~"

She faced me again while calling my name.

Her face was red, and that only made her more charming on this starry night.

"Mel~"

This time I lowered my head to steal her lips just like she did moments ago.

She closed her eyes waiting for me.

With each passing second, the scene became brighter and brighter.

Is this the light of heaven?

My head has become mushy before it solidified itself when I saw a truck going towards the both of us.

The truck blew its horn.

Mel opened her eyes wide.

My speed and reflexes were enhanced by the adrenaline rush surging in my brain.

In a motion that defied physics.

I forced the wind to blow both of us out of harm's way.

We survived the encounter with the truck.

Mel was shaking in my arms.

She was hiding her legs from my view.

With no time wasted I gave her a reassuring kiss on her forehead.

"Don't worry. We're safe"

My soothing proved successful.

Her trembling became weaker by the seconds.

"Hmm~"

"Do you want me to sing for you?"

Mel moved her head vigorously.

But from this angle, I don't know if that's a nod or shake.

"Huh, Mel please-"

The chilling scream of the horn of the truck was heard once more.

This time it was far too close. 

That only one of us can get out of this situation unscathed.

Before the lights blinded my vision, I threw Mel towards safety or more correctly behind me.

"Kou!"

Faced with the blinding lights.

My old martial arts teacher's face came to my mind and a scene played out.

"Little Kou, one day you'll find yourself with unwinnable odds. When that happens"

I looked up at my master who was playing with his beard that reached the ground, his eyes were closed.

"Should I give up master?"

His eyes became wide open, and a scary aura came out from him.

"Remember what you're fighting for! Never surrenders! For one will always find a way to overcome it!"

The truck's horn once again blew breaking me out of my comfortable space.

Like a mantra, I chanted what my master said and took it to my heart.

"Remember what you're fighting for!"

Mel's smile and every single one of my friends' faces popped up in my mind.

"Never surrenders! For one will always find a way to overcome it!"

I gathered every kind of energy I knew in my life.

"Haaaaaa!"

Qi, Chakra, Pure Raw Unfiltered Energy, Nuclear etc

To face the greatest adversary in my eighteen years of my uneventful life.

The truck!

The singular leaf that was in front of me was obliterated by the truck.

My eyes became blinded.

And I threw a punch.

"Ha!"

My fist connected with the truck sending a powerful shockwave.

A loud metallic echo resounded

My singular jab was enough to stop the truck in its tracks.

It was only enough to stop it for a moment, as it howled in rage and became stronger

In response, my fist greeted the face of the truck three more times.

Each hit connected with the other. Each hit generated shockwaves to my surroundings.

Those shockwaves even managed to destroy my clothes.

The truck howled louder.

Without wasting a single second, my fist repeated sending painful judgement to the truck.

Three punches per two seconds.

The rate at which I was punching the truck was not enough.

The truck was successful in pushing me a little.

Which is a little too much!

In response, I threw three punches per second.

With each punches, the shockwaves became stronger.

That was still not enough.

So thirty punches per second!

My body went into overdrive

The truck was not able to push me anymore.

For now!

Before the truck can power up. My counterattack ensued.

Three hundred punches per second!

Each hit sounded like a shotgun blasting.

Glass breaking noises resounded, and I was no longer blinded by the lights.

What I saw just gave me more motivation to destroy the truck.

The truck driver was a skeleton with glowing red eyes.

Some kind of dark mist was coming out from its mouth.

It's something that shouldn't exist!

Its trucks had incredible durability, it showed no sign of damage because of my punches.

So I punched it some more, Three Thousand Hits per second!

The truck stood there absorbing every pain and shockwave.

It howled again.

But this howl was different from the previous ones.

This time it sounded like it was in pain.

So, go beyond!

Thirty thousand hits per second!

Every shockwave pulled one tree out of the ground.

Victory is in my sight!

Master, did I make you proud?

A grave voice resounded in my head.

"Little Kou, never celebrate when you're on the battlefield"

In the split seconds when I celebrated it.

The truck howled the loudest howl it ever did.

Although my eardrums stood firmly towards the noise of the previous hits, howls, and shockwaves.

It burst.

Warm liquid poured out from my ear.

"Kou! Stop!"

I still threw my punches.

But the blood loss I am experiencing was weakening me.

The once thirty thousand hits per second decreased by hundreds every second.

I only have five more minutes to destroy the truck and even less if I want to get out of this alive.

I gathered my remaining energy and prepared.

The truck started blasting its horn.

The pinnacle of humanity's power to defy the unreasonable.

The punch of the punch.

"Original Punch!"

The shockwave evaporated the last remaining hundreds of trees.

The destroyed front of the truck was no longer recognizable.

And the whole truck cracked.

The truck blew its horn once more and started acceleration.

"No way... Mel!"

Despair washed over me.

This is the end.

I ran towards Mel to save her by throwing her anywhere except the front of the truck.

Burning pains entered my legs.

The truck missed me by a little.

Gravity sent me tumbling towards Mel.

"Kou! No..."

Everywhere was filled with craters.

I was going to ask why she didn't run but then I saw the wide wounds on her leg.

I... Failed to protect her.

Ah... I am sorry.

To not end our last encounter with a sad note.

I spouted my last words toward her with a bright smile.

I was interrupted by the truck's loud horn.

But Mel knew what I was saying.

May we be reborn again, after all, it's a truck.

Tears painted both of our faces.

Mel's mouth formed a smile and said some words

Even though I'm now deaf, I know what she's saying

Un. I hope we both get to reincarnate just like those isekai protagonists.

The mood lightened up. Both literally and metaphorically.

The bell tolled.

On that night, these two teenagers just got promoted to young adults when the bell tolled. 

And they lost their lives.

The skeleton trucker got out of the truck and walked towards the pair.

Before it can do anything to them. 

The sky lit up.

A beautiful figure with a golden bow was floating high up in the air.

"That's as far as you go, the god of rampaging trucks!"

Light arrows imprisoned the skeleton.

The skeleton looked at the thing cynically.

The miasma corroded the light arrows and the skeleton trucker made a run for it.

"Get back here!"

The skeleton trucker reached its truck and was rained down with a flurry of light arrows.

"Die!"

The skeleton trucker accelerated towards the corpse of the humans.

Seeing this the blue-haired beauty teleported right in front of the truck and opened a portal.

The truck didn't stop, it kept accelerating and smashed through the purple portal.

In retaliation, the beauty opened up more portals.

The truck racks up its portals kill count.

Behind the cover of the last portal.

The beauty clapped her hands and yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Stardust Blast!"

A singular bright arrow pierced the truck.

Explosions followed the arrow's tail.

Alas, the truck ran out of hp and exploded.

The beauty breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm just a new goddess with no follower whatsoever and they told me to do this."

A pungent smell assaulted her nose and she was washed over with great sadness over what she saw.

"Oh dear lord."

The goddess checked the bodies. It was surprisingly complete, even though it just got run over.

The goddess was planning to give them a proper burial but she saw something interesting.

The leftover energy from the punches was thick enough to protect both of them.

Sadly, it was useless.

They both already died.

What she saw changed her mind and ultimately led her to bring both of them to her domain.

And with that, every record of their existence vanished from the earth.

Day by day the goddess made a new body for the both of them.

She checked every single desire they have. Even the deepest darkest ones and gave them whatever they wanted.

When she's finished.

She looked back at her works and felt proud before promptly sending them to the other world.

She whistled happily before sharp pain assaulted her.

A skeleton's arm was coming out from her chest.

Blood comes out from her mouth.

"But how?"

The skeleton breathed right in her ear.

"Miasma, newbie. They harden in response to emotional trauma"

The goddess then glowed and hugged the skeleton with all her might.

"I am going to take you with me!"

A bright explosion occurred in her domain shaking the universal realm.

In the biggest city of the world, home to half of the human population.

People were rejoicing.

Bright lights descended from the sky.

"The prophecy came true!"

Festive and joyful mood was the rage in the air.

The royal family and nobles kneeled towards the descending light.

I opened my eyes and pain assaulted my head.

"Hello... Hello... Ah, it's working, this is a pre-recorded message for both of you. I am the great goddess that made both of you. So I'm your parent in a way, so call me mama when we meet okay. The people that are going to meet you are going to expect you to be heroes."

Both of us?

Something warm was in my arms.

A beautiful girl with shiny blonde hair was clinging towards me in my arms. Her eyes were closed, she was also kind of small.

My cheeks heated up.

"Now for one of you that woke up, please protect the other, your life is connected. So your kind of married in a way"

A snicker was heard. A beautiful blue-haired woman lazing around on the sofa popped up in my mind 

"Well, you both suffered on that night, and I'm impressed you know, you went toe to toe with the strongest evil god that ever existed"

Memories of that night came rushing towards me.

I died. Mel also died. And that truck was an evil god.

Calm down!

I took a deep breath.

"So that's why I gave you guys everything, please spread faith for me there okay, maybe as thanks. Just say no when they ask you to be a hero, so have fun, my children."

"On another note, my name is Nova Ava"

The voice stopped and the blinding lights that blocked my vision were gone.

I stood on a ceramic floor. With the blonde beauty that I presume must be Mel in my arms.

I can't hold back my emotions.

My tears came out and I cried out loud while hugging her.

On the day when the pope descended, she cried while holding the hero.

The royal family and all the nobles complete with all the merchants who witnessed the sight cried together with her.

There was never a time when a human shed tears for another human before this.

But the expression on the pope's face touched everyone's heart.

It was so touching that it was immortalized by a world-renowned painter in his paintings that were titled The Day When Hope Arrived.

Everyone who saw the painting will shed tears.

And consequently, everybody who saw the scene decided to follow the pope no matter what she told them to do.

This worldwide event starts a new age that the calendar that was invented thousand years later uses Anno Papa(A.P) and Before Pope(B.P)

A fit man with great build walked towards me.

"Milady. I ask of you are you the hero?"

Weird why is this old dude calling me milady?

Well... That goddess or mama? told me to say no, but she wants me to spread her name so.

Here goes nothing.

"I am not the hero"

"I am the pope!"