Unknown Time and Place
“How are you feeling?” The man said to you as he sipped his drink casually, as if what had just happened wasn’t insane. You straightened yourself and looked around the room you were suddenly in, everything was a pale white color and seemed to glow lightly. The entire room and everything you could see outside the window were devoid of color except the two of you. You felt horribly out of place.The man sat before you on the other side of the desk and the entire aesthetic reminded you of being sent to the Principals office. Except you’d done nothing wrong. Not really. You had acted heroically, of that you were sure, but you couldn’t quite shake the feeling of intimidation you felt as the man you’d tried to save looked you over. Had you done wrong somehow?
“...I’m dead?” You questioned softly while looking yourself over. What a way to go...at the Con with all of your friends one minute, dead the next. This wasn’t an ideal situation.
“Yeah.” He said plainly. You sighed in resignation before he continued, “And what a dumb way to go, huh?”
“What?!” This made you angry, “It’s not dumb to try to save a life.”
“Even if you die?”
“...Yeah.” Although you weren’t happy about the outcome, you were perfectly secure in your choice to try to push the man out of the way. You were dressed as a hero after all. “Maybe I took the cosplay too seriously?” You chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.
“And if I told you that if you’d just stood there and done nothing, I’d have been fine?” The man questioned again while putting down his cup. He looked different here than he did on Earth, at the Con he was just another nerd in a costume that was unlucky enough to be standing next to the pillar that fell. As he sat before you, you questioned whether he was ever a human at all. This line of questioning seemed to prove it.
“Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah.” He laughed dryly, “But thanks all the same.”You hung your head for a second and looked over your hands, the costume you’d spent weeks on was torn to shit, but the skin underneath was completely fine.
“So now what?” You asked curiously, “Do I go get judged or something?”
He laughed in your face, and quite frankly, it pissed you all the way off.
“What the hell, man? You can’t just laugh at dead people.” You grumbled further but it could hardly be considered language. He just sat in silence as you looked back up at him.
Why weren’t you more upset? You were dead and apparently your death was completely pointless. You should be upset in some way, but somehow you weren’t. Something about this room was so calming you felt yourself start to doze off.
“Hey! Stay awake, girl. If you fall asleep you’ll pass on and I won’t be able to help you.” His voice was suddenly sharp as he sat forward and poked you in the arm. You sat up quickly. Weird. I wasn’t even tired.
“Look, you’re a cool girl, and to be honest it’s my bad that you’re dead.”
"Oh, it’s your bad?” You mocked playfully, “Dude, it’s fine. I wasn’t a huge fan of my life anyway. All I did was try to escape.” You thought about all the binge watching and reading you did. Anything to immerse yourself in a different place. You weren’t built for Earth as it was. That line of thought got you feeling down for the first time since being here. You’d really wasted your life on stupid Otaku nonsense. Not many would miss you for long.
“That’s a cool costume,” The guy said almost as if trying to pull you out of that train of thought, “I don’t recognize the character.”
“Oh!” You perked up at the question, almost forgetting that you were dead for a second, “It’s an original character. I was on my way to the OC contest at the Con. I worked on her for weeks! Even wrote a fanfic about her. Overclock: The Powerup hero!” You rambled about her for a minute before stopping yourself for a second and chuckling. I sound like Midoriya right now.
“Yeah, you do.” He chuckled.
“Did you read my thoughts?”
“Kind of, But to be honest you’re a pretty predictable nerd.” He smirked and finished under his breath, “Outside that one time.”
“What was that?” You weren’t sure if you were offended or not, honestly all of this was pretty confusing.
“It’s just...I didn’t expect any of you to take the cosplay so seriously.” He almost looked sad.
“I always take cosplay seriously.” You smiled at him, “Especially with her. As I made her I just knew she was everything I ever wanted to be. So, because of her I was suddenly everything I wanted to be...I guess, a Hero, you know?” Terrible grammar aside you could tell he understood where you were coming from.
“Okay. You wanted to be her. Wish granted.”
“What does that even mean?” Your sassy side started to come out, I mean, you were dead so what was with all the niceties anyway?
“It means I rarely lose bets.” The man sipped his drink again, “And I’m rarely wrong about people. Since I was wrong about you and it caused your death, I suppose the only nice thing to do would be to give you the same thing you tried so hard to give me. Life.”
You didn’t have time to respond before everything in the room started to shake and fall away into dust. You looked toward the man in a panic to find him gone and everything starting to fade to black.
YOU ARE READING
My Hero Isekai
RomanceA non-traditional reader insert following the readers OC Overclock on her adventures after being sucked into her favorite anime. A reverse harem style retelling of the series from the point of view of a fan who was reincarnated as a character from...