'It's warm.... I feel like I'm floating somewhere....'

Ryuji Sora is floating in a long sea, A dark sea. Slowly, small stars start lifting out of it. Illuminating parts of it in a beautiful collection.

Slowly, he rises, floating in the air, Looking around, he is mesmerized by the stars all around. Slowly, he materialises on stairs made of gold. Small plants growing all around him in a distance, with just a straight path leading down to a small platform.

There, He sees 5 other guys standing, facing the path in front of them.

A path that seems endless with no platform underneath. The only reason they can understand it's a path is because there's a mesh made of some white energy expanding endlessly to their front.

But they all know, It's not a disaster. They will reach the end, They didn't need to worry.

Ryuji doesn't look at their faces, Just like they don't look at Ryuji's.

One of them says, "We will take our first step after you, Sir"

Ryuji still doesn't look at their faces, a small smile on his face, and steps in the front, on the supposedly empty expanse under him. 

But it's as if his feet suddenly step on something soft and squishy, and he starts walking forward.

The other 5 men, start walking behind him.

Ryuji still doesn't look at their faces, and they don't look at each other's, only focusing on the path ahead.

"The heaven destroying squad is together even in death?"

The other five men smile, their faces not visible. As if something is just blocking the eyes from trying to look at anyone's faces.

All of them start floating automatically, Their hands behind their backs. A foot down as if it'll touch the ground any second.

They keep floating through the vast expanse of space, While also being open in an endless space, and also being led through a straight bound path.

They look around, Several Stars join together to form a bright heart. No... they are too colorful to be stars

As he looks at it, Mesmerized by it's beauty, he wonders how it's even made.

Some runes appear in front of him.

The runes say something like:

***

Name: Ryuji Sora

Soul Core: Dormant

Rank: Ascending

Attributes: [Child of a God's Grace]

Stories: [The Savior of a thousand happy dinners]

Soul Mark: ---

Soul Bond: ---

Soul Path: ---

***

He looks at all the runes in confusion, and then his eyes land on some runs that point directly in the direction of the Constellation, "The love of a hundred galaxies."

He gazes at the runes with surprise, 'Oh? Those are not stars? But galaxies?'

But that is not what interests him, what interests him are the runes that said some details about him that he's not aware of.

Attributes?

Stories?

Soul Mark? Path?

He glaces at the runes again, when he suddenly heard a huge roar. He glances at his surroundings again and sees long lines of light all around him.

A question emerges in his mind. What are those?

Well, it doesn't take him long to realise it's nothing but a infinitely long line of light created by the stars because of his speed that's faster than light.

Suddenly, a huge diamond shaped crystal appears to his right.

'W-What?! What's this thing moving at the speed of light?!'

The humongous crystal, Larger than Ryuji himself Was flying with them.

As they were slowly getting past it, Scales started to appear, as if it's a large tail, Ryuji couldn't begin to fathom the size of that thing. Let alone the sheer power and presence it'd have. He knew for a fact that he was moving at a speed faster than light, and that too using a power of the universe he didn't understand. Yet this thing was moving fast, Almost at the same speed as them, as if it was nothing. It was obvious that this thing was at a power comparable to a god. Probably. Not like he knew how powerful a god was. Maybe their power was something beyond physical things they can understand?

Before he knew, he reached that thing's gigantic frame. It was a dragon. It had sky blue scales with a few orange highlighting around his joints and a few pigmented spots on his body.

It had a long body. Similar to a salamander. Only Unfathomably larger than a person can understand. If he had to fight a thing like that........ No.... Why would he fight that thing? It looked like it was happy to see them.

Soon, After minutes of passing through that dragon's length.

They reach it's eyes. It had huge, golden eyes. Probably not as huge when compared to his size, but they were huge.

It had a large pupil, Everything was being reflected in a yellow hue and suddenly.... It greeted them?

Ryuji was surprised.... Did it, greet them?

Suddenly, he heard a ping in his head.

**

['The World Dragon' greets you]

**

'The world dragon huh?'

Ryuji looked at it with interest, Then slowly, he nods his head to reply to him.

Ping!

**

['The World Dragon' dances in happiness]

**

The world dragon rolls in the air, Looking happy and elated.

Ping!

**

[A silent admirer congratulates you!]

**

"You are congratulating me? You're a warrior too eh. Thank you.."

The World Dragon lets out a loud roar, then happily goes back to his way.

Swiftly flying back to his route.

Looks like he came here only to congratulate him?

Ryuji chuckles, then looks forward again.

He keeps going and going. A number of beautiful sceneries like black holes, alternate worlds, Cosmic monsters and a number of other things pass by.

Everything he goes by is immeasurably large. If he was a human, He'd be surprised and feel a sense of smallness from how big and mighty those things were. But as he was a soul, Maybe it was affecting his perception, and he felt they are nothing? Or maybe it was because he was a soul that was being transferred safely to Elysium by some unknown power. In any way, He wasn't worried.

Ever since Ryuji was a kid, he had heard stories about Elysium from his grandma. She'd tell him how great warriors always went to Elysium after their deaths. She'd tell him stories about his grandfather and how he sacrificed himself for the world.

Ryuji would always hear stories about his grandfather with Awe. If his grandfather was in Elysium.... And soon enough he will reach Elysium too.... Will his grandfather.... Be there to greet him? Was he looking at him from up there all along? Would he be.... Proud of the life he lived?

All of that made his heart feel some proud human emotions, but then he remembered Sakura.... She would have to live how his grandma lived too ..... She'd miss him everyday.... He thought going to Elysium, his emotions would be turned to those of happiness, and maybe satisfaction since he knew that Sakura will join him soon anyways. But the idea of her being alone, Scared than the idea of him being alone himself. He looked down with a sad face, looking gracious even while standing.

But then he remembered some words his grandma said when he was little.

**

Little Ryuji just came back from the street they played games in. He was kicked out of the game by his friends. They didn't want him to play with them. Ryuji was too little to say anything.... All he could feel were intense emotions, like why do they not want to be close to him?

Is he unbearable?

Is he annoying or is he just someone they consider below themselves?

Ofcourse, Ryuji was a kid. One reason the older kids wouldn't want to play with him could be because he was little, but because the big kids used to bully him, The smaller kids learnt they can do the same, and they treated him like some outcast.

He would be kicked around and sent home alone.

These emotions would take over his mind. And all Ryuji would do is sit in the corner of the terrace of the house, Looking all Sad, throwing stones at the wall. Trying to hit the center of a small target he made using charcoal.

He'd throw the stones one by one. His left palm had the ammunition, and his right palm was the gun.

But guns exist in modern society, so how does Ryuji know about guns? Well, this story isn't set in the 1800's, despite how you originally thought.

His Country had decided to separate itself from the rest of the world around 50 years ago.

The world was currently using Guns, and Japan was only using Swords. The government, and to be honest, even the people didn't want to allow white men to enter their country. That was a reason their country was several years behind. This wasn't always the case though. The people and the government were very open to trades and meeting new people. But an incident 50 years ago.... Just made everything shatter. Making the people paranoid. But that's a story for another day.

When Ryuji's ammunition was over. He stood up, and started walking down, getting ready to climb down the ladders, when he suddenly found none. Three Ugly kids were looking up where he stood and laughing.

"The freak will hang all day!! Noone will save him!!"

Two other kids started laughing and threw a stone at him, and ran away.

The kids probably weren't actually Ugly, but Ryuji felt like they were. They looked vile to him.

He was strong.... He was.... But.... He doesn't know why.... He was sobbing.... His eyes were welling up with tears, and they were streaming down his face uncontrollably.

Meanwhile, The Ryuji in the present, The one floating Through the space, was making a sad face too. Since he was a kid.... Even when he became a man..... But everyone didn't understand. They didn't know him.

As little Ryuji's sobs went quiet, Losing all hope of being rescued, his Grandma came back with a basket of apples on her head.

As she approached closer, Ryuji wanted to stop crying, but his sobbing, just got more intense. Even though he tried to make it quieter than before. Which he did. But now it sounded like a bunny that got under a truck. Probably. Ryuji has never seen a bunny under a truck. So yeah. He wouldn't know what it sounded like.

But when his grandma got closed, she looked at her poor grandson.

"Aww my Grandson.... Did those bad kids do this to you again?" She wanted to sound mad when she mentioned the bad kids, but her voice didn't have enough power to even say that with that much emphasis.

She immediately kept the basket of apples aside and tried to lift up the ladder ....

But she is old and frail.... It's really hard for her....

Ryuji gets sad again.... But for a different reason now. He doesn't like to see his grandma struggling physically. His heart cannot take it. He made grandma worry again.... He is so sorry.... In this world, There is just one person who he can say cares about him, but he makes her so sad....

He doesn't like it when he does that.