Chapter one

If you ask a normal person how many times do people die? The obvious answer is once, but in the case of Kazuya, a twenty-one-year-old college student, it is not that simple. Why? Because he has lived out more than a hundred different lives. Now do not ask me to spill the intricate details of reincarnation. What you need to know is that I am just an administrator that helps lost souls find justice. If you are killed off unjustly or unnaturally, It is my job to reincarnate those souls and help them lead a happy life.

   But even in my millions of years of leading souls, I have never encountered such a bizarre case. Now you might want to know how it all started? Well, lucky for you telling stories is my favorite pass time.

   It all began on a rainy day. In a certain town in Japan, the sirens for tsunami were in full swing. People were evacuating with their luggage and precious possessions. Among these fleeing people was a young man, who went by the name of, Kazuya Kurama.

   Kazuya lived in an apartment complex and had very little belongings. So, instead of burdening himself with unwanted weight, he dashed for the evacuation center on the town's outskirts.

   Near the bridge that passed over the river, he noticed a mother sliding down the stairs and reaching for something.

   "Mommy, help me!"

   "Nina! grab my hand."

   Kazuya noticed a small body floating in the river below. It was a small girl clinging to a metal pole. Her mother used her umbrella, but did not have enough length to reach her.

   "Get back, Mam" Without a second of hesitation, Kazuya lunged into the roaring water. His legs kicked, and his arms stroked. All the swimming training from his highschool days came into play, and he quickly reached the girl.

   "Here, take my hand."

   "No, I will drown!"

   The little girl clung to the metal pole, her eyes glued shut. She didn't want to risk losing her hold. Kazuya grabbed her locked hands and gave her a few comforting words.

   "I want you to close your eyes and count to ten. And by the time you finish, you will be in your mommy's arms, deal?"

   "Do you promise?"

   "Pinky promise."

   His smile assured the girl. She took a deep breath and let lose her grip. Kazuya grabbed her by the waist and paddled back to the shore where her mother was screaming her throat for her. By then many people had arrived, and some people comforted her that her daughter was now safe.

   "Mommy!"

   "Oh thank you, thank you so much."

   Kazuya handed the girl to her mother. But before he could heave himself onto the shore, an object caught his legs, and he quickly drowned into the watery depths.

   "Someone save him!"

   The mother cried out, but the bystanders did not jump after the drowning man. They could see timber and iron pillars washing away in the river and non dared to lunge into this death trap. Now you must be wondering, 'Isn't being drowned a natural cause of death?' And my answer is yes, but nothing about this incident was natural.

   Down in the watery depths, Kazuya fought to free himself from the iron grip that held him submerged. He tried kicking his legs and flailing his arms about, but nothing he did worked. It was then he noticed it.

   The water around him cleared up from the mud and sand. His eyes, used to being submerged, saw a transparent figure holding onto his legs. His eyes widened, and in shock, his mouth opened wide, allowing the water to rush into his lungs. It was the body of a petite person, as a small girl. A white gown covered the figure's body. Its dark hair washed with the current, and the crimson eyes leered into his soul. Her grip was ironclad, and Kazuya could feel that the fracture in his right femur. His body lost its strength, and he lost all sensation in his arms and legs. But still, he felt that thing staring at him.

   It was at this moment that I received his soul for reincarnation. As I am such a benevolent Administrator. I gave him the best set of skills and the title of a hero in his new life. All was well, and I knew there was no way he could die at the hand of an apparition again. But, for the first time in my duty, I was proven wrong.

   His soul again returned to me after living just thirty years in his new life. So, to make sure there remains no possibility of him being killed by this apparition again, I maxed out all of his skills and abilities and sent him on his way. But the same thing happened again and again. No matter what advantage I gave the poor soul he always came back to me. He repeated his new life for over one-hundred and ninety-nine times. I was at the end of my rope, but then fate played a cruel play on the poor soul. Our story shall begin here. When Kazuya gets reincarnated for the two-hundredth time.


                                                        ****

Thundering clouds loomed over the evening sky. The whooshing sounds of leaves and rumbling thunder made the air livid with excitement and anticipation. Amidst such turmoil, a young man stood at the feet of the forest. His eyes gazing at the forked road in front of him.

   "This wasn't here before?" He scratched his head. The map in his hands did not indicate a forked path. He paced back and forth until he stopped and spat to his right.

   "OK, we go left. My guts tell me right, and I never trust my guts." He climbed onto his carriage. It was pulled by a creature whose head was that of an eagle and body of that a horse. It had claws instead of hoves and red feathers that eased in colored from its head to abdomen.

  "I need to go straight here and then at another pass..." With the map in his lap, his eyes looked around for any clues that could help him know his whereabouts. But the thickets and tall pine trees obscured his vision.

   "Hold it, Old girl." He pulled on the reins and stopped the carriage. His eyes narrowed down on a small opening among the trees. There a huge bolder stood at its center.

    "It's the old sitting man! We are just a few miles away from the treeline." His eyes lightened up, and with a whip, the animal dashed for the opening.

   "Woah! Granny was not kidding about these Ocras. These creatures are amazing." The ocra, with a cry, flew across the forest floor. His destination was in his reach.

  I get to see my girls...

His spirits were high, and he almost leapt out of his chair. It will be six-months since his last home visit. But just as he took the road along the river a bolt of lightning fell in front of him. The orca crashed, and he was flung away like a piece of driftwood. With a loud thud he was thrown about, and in an instant, he was knocked out cold.

                                                          ****

The road was littered with broken glassware and merchandise spilling from tore-opened wooden boxes. Next to the whole mess was an overturned carriage, and the orca struggling to get on its feet. Its reins were entangled in the wheels of the carriage. But even in its predicament the orca desperately tried to reach the unconscious body lying a few feet away.

“Wha—where am I?” The trashing and neighing of the orca helped the man regained his senses. The first thing he noticed after opening his bloodied eyes was the charred-black trunk of the pine tree crushing his carriage, and his orca stuck in a ditch beside it.

“If you hadn’t fallen into that ditch, we both would have been crushed by that falling tree. I guess today was our lucky day.” With a chuckle, he tried to get up and to free the animal, but as soon as he got up a sharp pain climbed up his right leg. He fell into the dirt with a splash and a thud. His hands patted down his body to find the source of the nailing pain.

“Ah! Oh my…” A muzzled cry escaped his mouth as his fingers caught one end of the large splinter skewering his right leg. The wood had torn his major artery and blood gushed out of the wound creating a small puddle under him. He quickly ripped a piece of cloth from his Grey silk shirt and tied the area above the wound. It stopped the bleeding, but a lot of it had spilled out of his body when he was unconscious.

His right arm and left leg had turned blue. He could feel that one of his lungs had been punctured by a broken rib. His body felt numb, and this feeling climbed up his entire body. It was not soon before his vision became blurry, and the light from his eyes escaped into a narrow tunnel. It was at this moment that panic should have settled in, But instead, he laid there with a single thought running through his mind:

Tomorrow is Mary’s birthday. I hope she likes the dress I bought her… The misses must be worried sick, I need to get back home or else I won’t hear the end of it from her…I… need… to reimburse the customers for the damaged goods…

There was no strength left in his arms or legs. His body was spent, but he threw his hands and legs forward like a puppet with its strings cut off. He tried to reach his horse. The light had completely faded from his eyes, and his ears became his guide as he crawled towards the neighing orca.  His breath was wheezing, and heavy. His body could no longer move and with a frustrated cry, he turned his body facing the sky. He could no longer hear or see. The world fell into a great silence, and in this silence, another thought crept from the back of his mind.

At…At least I get to die a peaceful death…

The rain droplets seized to move. The splashes of river water and mud were suspended in mid-air. The sky was illuminated by a never-fading stream of lightning. The blood from his wounds stood still as it left his body. Even the orca’s that was thrashing and neighing quietened down. The world as it seemed had stopped all its motion. All except for the battered body lying in the mud.

“No! Not again. Not now when I am so close to being released.” His mind alert to the sudden stillness panicked. His face and body language showing the telltale signs of someone who knew what had happened. The light returned to his eyes, and his ears could hear small footsteps approaching him. The footsteps skipped and hummed a jolly tune as it got closer and closer.

“Drip…Drip…Drip. I love that sound of blood dripping.”

His pupils contracted to focus the small shadow approaching him. Until it stood over him, and he could see who it was. It was a little girl, barely, over the age of ten. She wore a white gown contrasted by her black her that reached her thin waist. Her eyes were a pure shade of blue, and her skin color was pale white in complexion. It was as if the light could pass through her body. An image of a doll brought to life. She stood over him and smiled.

“Finally, we meet again. This time it was sixty-years. You sure are getting better at this game.”

“No, please let me die! I don’t want to start over again.” His body had no strength left, but still, he tried to wiggle and crawl away from her. His breath was short, and his eyes teared up even more than before. But his body felt stuck in that one spot, and no matter how much he struggled he couldn’t move.

“You are so cold, Kazuya-san. You know how much I hate it when you don't look at me.” Her voice was cold and sharp, but with a hint of playfulness to it. She walked up to him and grabbed him by his black locks of hair. Her petite body with twig-like arms lifted him like he weighed nothing. She moved her face closer, and sniffed his cold body. Her tongue snaked a blood droplet from his forehead, and with a grin from ear to ear she chuckled, “I love the sweet taste of your sweat mixed in with your blood.”

“Please let me die peacefully. I can’t live through another life. I don’t want to play you game!” In a final act of desperation, he bit his tongue and undid his bandages. He hoped to bleed out before she could do anything, But the blood did not flow out. Like everything around him it froze the moment it left his body.

“My, my Kazuya-san. This is the seventieth time, or maybe the eightieth time you’ve tried to kill yourself. But you needn't worry anymore. I will end it soon.”

Her right hand twisted and cracked. Its appearance changed into a form similar to a jagged dagger. She pointed her blade on his chest, and with a smile dug it deep until the blade tore out from his back. He choked and croaked on the remaining blood in his body. His breath stopped, and everything below his head lost its sensation. Her smile disappeared, and in its place, her face was swollen red from tears. Before the end, she leaned his cold body in and whispered into his ear:

“You are my Savior, and I am your salvation. Find me, and you will find the truth to all that is hidden from you.”