This is my first post. I'm writing this on a whim, so please forgive any grammatical errors or odd phrasing. Even I, the author, don't know how this will ultimately turn out. Thanks for reading.
Tenma Ōtori sat cross-legged atop the coffin, watching the mourners gathered at the village meeting hall for the funeral. Not a single person so much as glanced his way—it was a thoroughly eerie sight, though only if someone could actually see him.
The funeral was being held to send Tenma off. In other words, he was invisible to the living—a so-called "ghost."
"How long am I supposed to stay here?"
No one answered Tenma's murmur...or so it should have been.
"Tenma Ōtori, I've come to scout you."
Those were the first words spoken to Tenma since he'd become a ghost.
Startled by the unexpected reply, he turned around—there stood a suspicious, vaguely humanoid light.
"Nice to meet you—whu—oww, that's rude!"
When the light extended what appeared to be a hand toward him, Tenma grabbed the nearest tea bowl and hurled it.
"Hey, that's dangerous!"
The light dodged Matrix-style, pulling off an impressive feat. It seemed startled but not particularly angry. Still, Tenma didn't let his guard down and readied another tea bowl for launch. Seeing this, the light finally panicked—
"I'm not suspicious! Don't throw things like that! If you keep hurling stuff, it might hit someone else! Just listen to me!"
Thanks to the light's desperate pleading, the second tea bowl was put down. For the record, the first bowl had flown out through an open window, so there probably weren't any injuries.
"So, who are you? I'm apparently a ghost or something, so I figure you must be something similar."
In response to Tenma's question, the light puffed out its chest—
"How rude! I am a god!"
Hearing this, Tenma slowly drew back his arm to strike—but "It's not a lie! It's true! Just listen!"—the light stopped him.
"Just hear me out to the end, okay! To introduce myself properly, I am a god from another world. Tenma, I've come to scout you and bring you to my world."
The words of the self-proclaimed god (lol) left Tenma stunned and frozen—but he quickly recovered.
"'Lol' isn't that harsh? More like, you recovered fast. I thought you'd be a lot more confused."
"I mean, the fact that I already exist here as a ghost was surprising enough. So fine, let's say I'll accept on a hundred-step basis that you're a god from another world and you came here to reincarnate me. But why did you talk to me?"
"That's obvious—because you were nearby?"
Tenma didn't raise his bowl to throw. "That's enough already!"
"It's true that I happened to pass through this area. But the reason I spoke to you is that your soul seemed like it would be an incredibly good match for my world's wavelength."
"You already knew my name, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"You said you came to scout me, right?"
"Yeah."
"You said you happened to come through this area and found me because our wavelengths matched, right?"
"Yeah."
"You didn't just happen to find me—you already knew about me beforehand, didn't you?"
"...Why do you think that?"
"The story sounds too convenient. Rather, it'd make more sense if you found me because our wavelengths matched, killed me, and then, having turned me into a ghost, made contact with me while pretending it was all a coincidence."
"..."
"So did you kill me?"
"Why would I do something like that?! Don't make fun of me!"
"—! I'm sorry!"
The cry from the being of light calling itself a god sounded half like it was on the verge of tears, and Tenma instinctively apologized. The light lowered its voice,
"I need to apologize too. I've actually known about you for quite a while now, but I swear I never intended to kill you, that's the truth!
I was just keeping an eye on you, planning to wait until your natural lifespan ran out."
"How long ago are we talking about?"
"Since the day you were born."
"That long?! But why were you keeping tabs on someone from another world all that time?"
In response to Tenma's question, the light replied,
"In my world, the world itself can sometimes come down with something like an illness. When that happens, the 'Existence Force' — something similar to the life force of everything that exists within that world — drops, and in the worst case, the entire world can vanish. To prevent that, we deliberately send souls from other worlds on a regular basis to stimulate and reinvigorate the Existence Force."
"So it's like a vaccination? And if I get sent to another world, what are the pros and cons for me?"
"I don't think there are really any notable downsides. If I had to name one, it'd be that as part of the reincarnation process, you'd have to start over as a baby. As for the upside, to make your life easier, I'll grant you what's commonly called a 'cheat' ability. If you'd like, I can also carry over the experience and skills you've built up in this world, and I'll even let you use magic that only works in this world — just once. Within reason, of course."
After thinking it over for a moment, Tenma said,
"Then... could you make people's memories of me in this world fade?"
"...I could, but would you mind telling me why you'd want that?"
"Well, this village has been losing population due to depopulation and had become a village full of nothing but old people, but everyone's been working hard and we've managed to start slowly increasing the population."
"Mm-hmm."
"The ones who drove that effort were my grandpa and his friends. They've treated me incredibly well, but every time I look at them... they're so down in the dumps that it feels like they could die any day now. It's unbearable to watch, and I want to do something about it."
At Tenma's answer, the light's body — or whatever it was — trembled slightly as it spoke in a tearful voice,
"What an incredible kid you are! That's a small favor to ask! But why not erase them completely?"
In response, Tenma blushed slightly and said,
"If you completely erased their memories, I'd be the lonely one..."
he murmured in a small voice. Hearing this, the light burst into tears —
"Tenma-kun!"
She lunged to hug him, so he neatly dodged out of the way.
"That's so mean! But to grant that wish, you'll need to leave this world, so please touch my hand."
Hikari said this and held out her hand? — or something hand-like — so he went ahead and took it.
"Well then, here we go."
The next moment, Tenma lost consciousness along with a sensation of floating.
The prologue seems like it's going to run a bit long, so I'll cut it here.