48 Chapter 46 - Trash Goddess

"Satou Kazuma and Touma-san, welcome to the after-life. Unfortunately, you have died. It might be short, but your life is over."

Inside this pure white room, I felt that I once had been here before, something similar to this.

"... Can I ask one thing?" asked Kazuma.

I looked around. I first Kazuma in his tracksuit and in front of us, there was a pretty girl. She was a tad bit smaller than Kazuma and was wearing all blue with a pink hagoromo draped over her.

"Please go ahead," she said.

"... That girl... that was knocked away by me, is she still alive?" asked Kazuma.

I was wondering what the hell was wrong his mind.

"Kazuma... Are you okay? I thought it was your perverted antics, but clearly this time you're insane," I asked kindly.

"I'm not insane! Wasn't there a truck rushing at her and didn't I save her?" he said.

"No... It was a tractor... The truck killed me after you died," I said disappointingly.

"Well Kazuma, to answer your question, she's alive. The only injury she got was a leg fracturing," she said.

Kazuma sighed at this.

"But that's your fault. Your unnecessary meddling by acting like a hero got her injured. You thought it was a truck but your cousin is right. It was actually a tractor... pu he he!" she said.

I could sense Kazuma was irritated.

'She's good at this,' I thought.

"If it was a tractor, then how did I die!" asked Kazuma.

"You died from shock. You thought you were ran over by a truck, but you weren't. I had been doing this for a long time, but you are the first to die so unnaturally!"

"How about mine?" I asked with curiosity.

"Pretty normal if you ask me," she said innocently.

"..." I got pissed. How the heck are trucks normals?

Going back to Kazuma, she said talked about how embarrassingly he died. He lost control of is bowels, was made fun of by the doctors and nurses, and how even his family laughed. Kazuma talked back about how his death was too unnatural and weird.

"What happened to my body?" I asked another question regarding my body.

"Your body was mutilated and severed. It's shame because you were quite a beauty," she said.

'You called me a beauty! I'll bury you if I have the chance!' I thought while gritting.

"Well, that ends my de-stressing session. First time we met, Satou Kazuma-san and Satou Touma-san. My name is Aqua. I'm a goddess that guides young people who die in Japan. Now, you have two options. First would be reincarnating and beginning a new life. The other option would be staying in a place sort of like heaven and live the life similar to an old folks home," said Aqua.

Kazuma started asking more details regarding heaven and was disappointed by her answer.

"Both of them are bad options, since heaven is boring and forgetting everything and starting over as a baby sucks. And so! I have great news for you," said Aqua.

I didn't know why, but I felt something dumb coming up.

Aqua smiled, "Do you like games?"

In a gist, she explained how in another world, there was a demon king. That demon king brought crisis to the world and anyone who died there are scared of him. So everyone rejected reincarnating back to that world and population would decrease if there were no more souls. The idea of her plan was that she could solve the problem by sending other dead people from other worlds, like us.

"Since we are sending people over, we should find people who died young and still yearn to live, sending them over with their original body and memories. It would be meaningless if they died immediately after going over, so we will grant a privilege to all those who are going to that world, allowing them to take one thing they like to that world. It could be a powerful ability, and ," says Aqua.

I started thinking about my status.

'Should I ask her about it and maybe get it unsealed? Or should I get something from her options?'

"What do yo think? It might be another world, but you can live once more. For the people of that world, someone would appear who could fight immediately. How about it? Isn't this great news?" said Aqua teasingly.

Kazuma later asks about languages and I was viewing all the abilities laid out.

"Hey! Could we design our own abilities?" I asked.

"Uhh, sure I guess. It probably won't matter because everything's broken either ways," said Aqua.

"Okay. So there's this one novel I once read and the protagonist had this ability called Heart of Gold. Heard of it?" I asked.

Aqua put her hand on her chin and started thinking.

"So you want the ability to buy anything with gold right?" she said.

"Yeah. I'll be a merchant or something to earn money," I said.

"... Okay sure."

While amidst Kazuma's thoughts, I got my ability.

[Gold Achieves All = Heart of Gold] - Ability to the anything with money *upgradeable*

- [Lv.1] Trade (Buy/Sell)

"Wait a second! I don't want to be sued by other gods!" said Aqua.

[Gold Achieves ??? = ???'s Gold]

"Kazuma! Decide won't ya?" I said.

"I didn't raise you to be like this rude!" he said back at me.

Looking back at the powers, I could see him sweating for some reason.

"What's the best way I can help both of us survive?" he whispered.

I was shocked. It wasn't often when I saw Kazuma care of others. This made me genuinely smile.

"Hey Kazuma!" I said.

"What! I said I'm still deciding," he said looking at me.

He was shocked from my smile.

"I got us both covered. I chose something that will help us financially so choose something that will make you happy," I said gently.

"... Okay. Then... I'll choose-" Kazuma said happily.

"Hurry up!~ it doesn't matter which one you choose. I have no expectations of a hikikomori gaming nerd, can you just pick one and be on your way? Anything will do, hurry up~ hurry up~" said Aqua.

"I- I am not a nerd! And I died outside, so technically, I'm not a hikikomori!" responded back Kazuma.

"Kazuma... that's not how it works..." I intervened.

"It doesn't matter, just hurry up and choose~ there are still many dead souls waiting in line!" she said while munching snacks.

"... Quickly? Okay... I choose you," said Kazuma pointing at Aqua.

"Yeah. Please don't move away from the center of the magic circle... What did you just say?" said Aqua.

A winged woman appeared out of nowhere suddenly, "I understand. Well then, I will take over Aqua sama's job from now on."

Under Aqua, Kazuma, and my feet, a blue magic circle appeared.

"Wait, huh, what is happening? Eh, you can't be serious? No no, hold on, this is too weird! It is cheating to bring a goddess along! No count? This shouldn't count! Wait! Wait okay!?" Aqua panicked with tears in her eyes.

"Good bye, Aqua sama. Please leave the rest to me. We will send envoys to welcome you back right after the demon king is defeated. Before you return, I will handle all your tasks," said the angel.

"Satou family. You will be heading to another world now and become one of the candidate heroes to defeat the demon king. You will receive a gift from the gods the moment you defeat the demon king," said the angel.

"Gift?" I asked.

"Yes. A gift befitting a world savior... You will be granted a wish, it can be anything you want," said the angel.

"Oh!" said Kazuma.

"... You're thinking of returning to Japan right?" I asked him

Kazuma adverted his eyes from me.

"Wait! Giving that cool speech is my job!" shouted Aqua wailing.

Both Kazuma and I were snickering in satisfaction.

"How does it feel to be companions with a man you look down on? Hey, you are the 'thing' chosen by me to be brought along. Since you are a goddess, use your godly powers to make my adventure a breeze!" said Kazuma with an evil grin.

"NO! Going to another world with a man like this, no way~!"

'I have the chance to bury this goddess!' My eyes were blazed a lit.

"Heroes! May you be victorious among the many hero candidates, and become the one to defeat the demon king! Well then, I bid you farewell!" said the angel woman.

"MY LINE! Wahh~! That's my line~!" shouted Aqua.

'This angel lady is really good... I should learn from her,' I thought and a bright light shined from the magic circles.

*****

'He's in!'

The goddess with white hair smiled.

"Let's descend, shall I?"

First thing to do, pad chest.