Reincarnated As A Dragon Vol. 1: A New World, A New Life (Old)

Chapter 1: Unprecedented situations

"So, found a good candidate for our project?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure I'm close to finding one."

"This is taking an unbelievable amount of time. My requirements are easy enough. Ain't it not?"

A conversation in a realm that is home to one of the most powerful beings that can be imagined. An eternity of violet and blinking eyes. A youkai and a demon conversing that will lead the fate of a world for the better or worse.

"Kalrusht, I might be powerful, but diligence isn't my forte."

"I suppose so. But even though I heard that you were lazy, I wasn't expecting this much a lack of progress."

The youkai's eyes widened, looking at an orb of light. "Well, well. Would you look at this? I might've found our soul.

In the orb, a teenager sitting on the ledge of a raking lot on a mall, a 3-story-tall drop right in front of him.

"Ahhh, the negative energy from his soul is strong indeed. What a candidate!"

"Are you satisfied, Kalrusht?"

"It's enough for my goals. For that, I thank you."

"Just returning favours, demon."

Kalrusht left, leaving the youkai alone on her turf. Then she looked back at the orb. "Whoever you are, I'm sorry that I have to put this burden on you. I hope you choose the right path."

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I closed my laptop, finishing my day of online school.

"Barry, can you help me with something please?"

That's my mom, a loving mother, to my sister anyways.

I'm only 15, yet I've already been asking myself if death is better for me than living in this pandemic. I was a very active person who loves to play football. I had a lot of friends and my family was like every other. But, a virus was found in December 2019 that ravaged the world's economy and brought humanity to lockdown.

I've lost my sporting hobby. My father, an architect, still works a lot. And for the past few weeks, he's been going home late. My mother, an accountant, works from home. But she's been a pain. It's a different experience than when you go to school for 8 hours and see your parents at home, and it's not for the better. Because their children are home, they pump them up with countless chores and such, taking their liberty, making them busier than in face-to-face school, contradicting people's belief of online school freeing up time.

I lost contact with my friends. Especially my bestie, who is never online anymore on any social media. I'm now a wreck, looking at my laptop 7 hours a day in a blanket. Rarely turning on my camera due to my insecurities that developed throughout the pandemic. I've learned how to draw and paint decently, but that's about the only positive thing I got from the pandemic.

Emotionally, it couldn't be any worse. Human contact is virtually a taboo activity for me. It feels like school is giving us 10x the amount of homework. And other problems that push me to the verge of depression.

My sister just makes the situation worse. Before the pandemic, she was annoying. After the pandemic, she is a beast of her own. I know how it feels to not be able to see your friends again, but don't then take the frustration out on me! And sometimes she does stuff wrong in my presence, and because I was there, guess who my mother blamed?

As for now, I need to help my mother with some shopping at the nearby grocery store.

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