"Happy birthday to you~"

The entire Winterbolt family surrounded Raziel as he sat in front of a cake with four candles stuck into it. It was a small cake, but the six of them would share it nonetheless. Due to the Winterbolt family being unable to afford to celebrate all four of the children's birthdays, they celebrated one each year. This year, it was Raziel's turn. It was his fourth birthday.

By age four, Raziel had short, coiled hair. His eyes, still purple, were starting to have a more almond-like shape of like his mother's. However, he shared a resemblance with his father in nearly every other aspect. His auburn skin and ovalish head shape were the spitting image of his father's.

After the singing was done, everyone clapped and cheered as Raziel puffed his cheeks and blew out his candles, and as he did so, he found himself being transported to a new realm entirely.

"What?" Ky muttered, looking down to see that he was in his old body, the body from before he was reborn into this new world; before he was Raziel Winterbolt of Zionostra, Ramattra's Effigy.

The world around him, or lack thereof, was nothing more than a colorless plane that spanned infinitely. Ky could feel a pit in his stomach, a feeling of loneliness that was eating away at him from the inside. This loneliness, however, wouldn't last for long as a voice soon greeted Ky, one that was more reminiscent of the type of voices he'd heard from his old life.

"Yo! Ky, or, Raziel! I'm not sure which you prefer." the voice spoke with a chuckle, prompting Ky to turn to face it. In front of Ky, there was a person seemingly made of light. They were a blank slate, having no face or any identifying features.

"Are you... God!?" Ky asked. The being of light laughed to themself, shaking their head as they hopped up to sit in the air in front of Ky with their legs crossed. "In a way, sure. There are different gods for different things, but for simplicity's sake, I'm the god of judgment. You can call me Justice."

"Where am I?" Ky asked Justice, and again, the god chuckled whimsically.

"You are nowhere. You see, Ky, my job is to send people's souls where they belong. Christians go to the Christian heaven et cetra. Basically, whatever you believe, I send you there. I create the ideal afterlife based on the life of the soul that visits me."

"So then why am I here? Why am I surrounded by nothing?"

Justice lept down from their floating sitting position and began playfully walking around Ky with their hands behind their back. "Because you believe in nothing Mr. Agnostic Nihilist. You didn't believe in an afterlife, therefore, I have nowhere to place you. Rather than your soul lingering in here, being stuck with me..." Justice then began to whisper. "Though I wouldn't hate the company." Justice cleared their throat and then continued their explanation. "I created a world based on something I know you like. That book you'd been thinking about with the gods and such. I scrapped together all of those ideas and created a world just for you."

"So then why am I here now?" Ky asked. What Justice was saying didn't make much sense. Sure, he understood his soul was placed elsewhere after his death, but if that was the case, why was he in this infinite space in his old body?

"Because I wanted to talk to you, silly. I want to discuss your second chance. This new life of yours isn't an afterlife, it is not eternal. Meaning, that once you die, you'll end up right back here with me unless you change. Tell me, name five people in your past life that you loved."

Ky sat in silence. There was no answer to give to Justice. Ky was a loner by choice, being too afraid to feel loss ever again.

"Can't do it, right? Now tell me ten things you appreciated about life?"

Again, Ky was stumped.

"How can I choose an afterlife for someone who doesn't even appreciate life? That is why I am assigning something for you to work on in your new life. I am calling it..." Justice flourished their arms outward and did a spin before saying, "The Companion System!"

Ky stared at the god blankly before asking them, "Okay, and what is that?"

"You read novels, right? You are aware of what a system is. This one is unique in that you grow more powerful the more powerful your connection with your companions becomes. I came up with the idea myself."

"So like Pers-" Ky had remembered something like this from a video game in his past life, though before he could bring it up, Justice interrupted him.

"Wholly unique and created by me! Knowing you, the super duper loner boy, you'd need some motivation so becoming more powerful seems like the perfect motivation for you. When the time comes, you will return here, to the Realm of Judgement, and you will be judged by me for one final time."

"And if I fail?" Ky asked.

"Then you will live an eternity in the Realm of Judgement. It may not sound too bad, but the brains of mortals like you don't seem to last too long in places like this. For lack of a better phrase, you will lose your shit in twenty-four Earth hours."

"You know, for a god, you seem pretty immature."

"You know, I've heard that a lot. Anyway, check this out." Justice stopped in their tracks, snapped their fingers, and in Ky's vision, he could see words. He could see the Companion System.

[Companionship Forged!]

[Companion: Justice, the God of Judgement]

[Companionship Level: 1]

[Reward: Mana Threshold Expanded!]

[Raziel Winterbolt's body can now absorb and release an increased amount of mana!]

"As you can see, you and I are a bit closer now. The closer we become, the more you'll get out of it." Justice then placed their hand on Ky's shoulder, and though they were faceless, they looked deeply into Ky's eyes. "And Happy Birthday, Raziel."

As if he'd never left, Raziel found himself back in his family's dining room. The candles were blown and there were smiles all around. He looked at his oldest sister, Raya, whose hair was still long and continuing to grow. She was nearing her teens then, and looked so much like her mother.

Roe was smiling too, being the age Raya was when Raziel first came to this world. Unlike her sister, she cut her hair to shoulder length. Her brown eyes were looking down at her youngest brother lovingly as she rubbed the hair of the second youngest Ryn. He was five years old, jumping up and down due to the excitement of cake energizing him. He and Raziel looked almost like twin brothers, the only stark difference being their eye color.

Again, Raziel could see words in his vision, and time around him froze momentarily.

[Companionship Forged!]

[Companion: Winterbolt Family]

[Companionship Level: 1]

[Reward: Expedited Learning!]

[Raziel Winterbolt can now learn at a faster rate! I.e. spells or equations.]

Time resumed, and Raziel's mother began to divide the tiny cake into six even pieces. The six of them, the Winterbolt family, shared the cake with each other and enjoyed the rest of the night.