Chapter 1: A new Beginning
The room smelled of antiseptic and something organic that no amount of cleaning could mask. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, their sterile white glow washing out what little color remained in the pale blue walls. A single window looked out onto a parking lot three stories below, where the late afternoon sun painted long shadows across empty spaces.
The heart monitor beeped in a steady rhythm, a metronome counting down. Each pulse of sound accompanied by a small green wave on the screen, rising and falling with mechanical precision. An IV stand stood sentinel beside the bed, clear fluid dripping through transparent tubes at measured intervals. The bag was nearly empty.
Beyond the closed door, muffled sounds: distant conversation, the squeak of wheels on linoleum, someone’s muted laughter from the nurse’s station down the hall. The sounds of a world continuing, indifferent.
The bed dominated the small room—raised slightly, white sheets crisp and tucked with hospital corners. A thin blanket lay folded at the foot. The pillow was flat, worn from use. On the small table beside the bed: a plastic cup with a bent straw, a box of tissues, a call button that hadn’t been pressed in hours.
The air conditioning kicked on with a mechanical rattle, pushing stale, cold air through the vent above the door. The temperature was set too low—always too low —but no one had complained.
The clock on the wall read 4:47 PM.
Everything was still.
A man lying on the bed picked up the remote. He pressed it. He started counting his breaths. One. Two. Three. More seconds passed as footsteps were heard from outside the door. The door clicked and opened slowly.
“Hello, sir.” The nurse’s tone was professional and caring. She walked closer to the bed. “How may I assist you?”
“I’m done.”
The nurse looked at the man, trembling slightly. She asked. “What do you mean, sir?”
“I… want to end this suffering.” The man breathed slowly, trying to contain the pain in his voice. He took a deep breath before continuing. “I want to talk with my sister. Can you bring me my phone?”
“Yes, sir.”
The nurse walked to the other side of the room and unplugged the phone from the charger. It was heavily cracked from constantly dropping it over the past few months.
“Here you go, I went ahead and called her for you.”
“Thank you.”
The nurse left the room. Before she exited the door, she looked back.
*ring ring* The phone rang through the room. *click*
[What’s up, bro?]
“It is too much, Kira. I am not getting any better now.” The man said on the phone. “I will ask the nurse to put me down.”
[What! Why would you do that? We could...] Kira yelled on the other side of the phone.
“Enough.” The man began coughing violently. As he calmed down a little, he continued. “It will be soon. I am going to post one last video for my fans. Do you want to join?”
Silence filled the air, except for the monotonous beeps of the heart monitor.
[yes. I will be there in an hour.]
“Thanks, sis.” The man hung up the phone. He turned to the call remote again.
The nurse came through the door again. She was holding a clipboard. “Did you have a good talk with Kira?”
“Yes.”
“How may I assist you?” The nurse said. She checked his pulse.
“I want to make one last video with my sister. Can you bring me a laptop?” The man said, lying back to look at the ceiling.
“Sir, I cannot allow that.”
“It is my last wish. Please.”
A sigh came from the nurse. She walked out of the room. A few minutes passed as the nurse returned with a laptop and two microphones. She placed them on the table next to the window.
“Thank you.” The man said, slowly sitting up. “Can you help me to the chair. My sister should be here soon.”
The nurse nodded as she rolled a wheelchair to the bed. With a smile that looked more sad than happy, the nurse picked up her patient’s arm. She assisted as he slowly sat down in the wheelchair.
“Here you go.” The nurse said, pushing him to the window.
“Thank you.”
The man opened the laptop and entered his password. Three windows popped up: his recording software, mytoob, and his editing software. The man smiled. He opened more windows on his various social media accounts.
“Can I get a camera, too?” The man said, turning to the nurse.
“Sure.”
The nurse left.
He sighed before pressing the record button on his recording software. He quickly switched to his other windows and connected the recording to them. The man waited for his viewers to flood in. When his views hit 500, he stopped his premade intro.
“What’s up, my fiends!” The man’s voice resonated through the room. He muted to let a cough come out as he read the chat. “Sorry for the wait, but I have some news for all of you.”
The door clicked as his nurse walked in with a camera and a tripod. She set up the camera in front of the table facing toward the man. Having been with the man for years, she knew what to do. The nurse removed a USB drive from the camera and handed it to the man.
“We will start with the bad news first.” The man said, plugging in the USB to the laptop. A red light blinked on the camera, showing that it was recording. “As y’all can see, I’m in this god-awful place again.”
The chat messages became a wall of messages and super chats.
[xXSwordDietyXx]: Are you getting better?
[SanjiLover3543]: You still look as healthy as ever.
[Naruto45727848382]: Nice digs.
The man’s smile made the chat move faster. “Thanks, guys. I wanted to make one last video for you.”
**[$50 — PirateSama4]: Last video? What is happening? **
“Thank you for the super chat. I am getting worse by the day, and it won’t be too long now.” The man’s tone became more sorrowful by the second. “My sister will take over the channel. She will be here in a little bit, so y’all can get to know her.”
**[$100 — InsertNameHere]: Don’t give up. We are here for you. **
[MasterSword934]: We are here for you, don’t give up.
“Thank you, InsertNameHere, for the hundred—dollar super chat. I know it is hard, but I want to go out on my own terms.”
As the stream went on, the man’s voice became more and more hoarse. Thirty minutes passed, and the door clicked.
Kira stepped inside, breathless like she’d run from the parking lot. She was short, barely making it past the halfway point of the doorway. She stood at 5’4” with an athletic build from all of the time chasing her two kids around. Her locs fell just past her shoulder blades, pulled back in a ponytail that showed off her brown glasses.
She saw the stream set up with her brother laughing and enjoying himself as he talked to his chat. She froze. Her dark eyes, the same shade as his, began to water as she had to grab the wall.
Her brother smiled at her, and her expression faltered. More and more tears flowed from her eyes.
“Alright, guys. Kira just got here.” The man said. “We will be taking a short break. Enjoy this new song by my friend, MysticSprings.”
[JasmineTalks]: What no. Stay on stream.
**[$25 — MatthewConhans]: Say hi for me.
[MdDoctor]: I love Mystic’s new song
The man put on the music video for MysticSprings’ new song and added more songs to the queue. He rolled himself to Kira, putting his arms around her. “Don’t worry, I will be fine. It is like taking a nap for a long time.”
More tears began falling from her face as the words sank in. She was constantly rubbing her eyes, ruining the subtle makeup she had. The man reached out for a tissue as he handed it to his sister.
After the third song ended, both of the siblings disconnected from each other. The man rolled himself to the stream again while his sister went to the bathroom next to the door. He turned the stream back on as the chat came flooding in.
“Hey guys, thanks for waiting. How was the song? Great, right?” He said, watching the chat.
[MugiwараMember]: That was a great song.
[AceOfSpades_OP]: How was your talk with Kira?
[LurkerSince2019]: Great song.
More messages flooded the chat as the man answered questions. Kira walked out of the bathroom with a fresh face of makeup and a bright smile. She sat down on the other side of the table.
“What up, people!” Kira’s voice was as loud and as excited as her brother’s, from years of practice on their podcast.
The chat was full of mentions of Kira. Just like her brother, Kira interacted with the chat, inviting more people through.
“What’s on tap for this stream?”
“We will be doing a story together.”
“Like the ones you normally do?”
“Yeah.” The man exclaimed as he took out a sheet of paper and a pen from beneath him. “Alright, chat, what should the story be about?”
[VoiceOfAllThings]: One Piece.
[PowerScalingPro]: What if Luffy had the Dragon Balls
**[$100 — xXSwordDietyXx]: Luffy in naruto
“Thank you for the dono, Sword. We will do your idea.”
“There’s already a jutsu that has to deal with stretching, so we will use that.” Kira voiced.
The man began writing down ideas and plot points as he read the chat. The two siblings discussed the possibilities of Luffy being in Naruto. Minutes turned into hours as the story slowly took shape. The chat rushed through with excitement as their ideas turned to reality in the story. When they finished the groundwork, the siblings began the story.
“In one of Orochimaru’s labs, a boy no older than 10 lay on a table. His arms were growing longer and longer.” Kira started. “He slowly got up with difficulty as one of Orochimaru’s subordinates walked in with a needle.”
“The subordinate Kabuto injects the boy with the needle, puncturing his skin. The man’s arms slowly inched back into the right place.”
“‘Good.’ Kabuto said with a grin. ‘You are ready to take down the leaf.’”
The story continued as the chat changed its outcome. After an hour of making the story, the stream ended with the man smiling at his final stream and video. Kira turned to him.
“Good work.”
“Thanks. I will miss this feeling of making people happy with my stories.”
The nurse picked up the streaming equipment with haste. Kira walked over to the man and wheeled him back to his bed. She helped him get on it.
“Thank you, really.” The man said, pulling the bedding onto him.
“No Problem. What are big sisters for?”
“Little big sis.” The man corrected.
They laughed a little as the man turned to the nurse.
“I’m ready.”
The nurse called a doctor over to administer the drug for his final rest. Kira looked down at her brother, tears welling up in her eyes as she grabbed his hand. She had lost both of her parents already; now she would be losing her baby brother today, too. The man wiped the tears from her face, his expression melancholic.
The doctor arrived at the room. When he walked in, the atmosphere of the room worsened. Kira’s perception slowed with each step the doctor took toward her brother.
“How are you doing?” The doctor said, a professional smile plastered on his face to ease the man’s sense of unease.
“Could be better without this disease.” The man exclaimed, laughing afterward. “Please leave my possessions to my sister.”
The doctor nodded. He had a syringe with a transparent liquid inside. The doctor pushed the syringe into a part of the man’s IV drip. “Take care in your next life.”
The man found it weird, but closed his eyes to let his body rest. A smile crept onto his face as the heart rate monitor slowed. It slowed more and more until a long, steady beep resounded through the room. Kira grasped his hand tightly, but the man couldn’t feel it anymore.
Everything went dark.
There was nothing. No sight. No sound. The bed that was below him was no longer there. Kira’s hand that was holding him before was not there anymore. Just… nothing.
He tried to inhale, but couldn’t. He tried to think, but his thoughts could never form like water flowing through your hand when you pick it up. He was just there.
What felt like hours, days, months. The man was there in the void, slowly forgetting who he was.
Then—
A pull.
Unlike a standard pull, he felt when he was alive. This one was different. Another one, but stronger. He didn’t know what it was, but it kept drawing him somewhere. He felt like he was tumbling. Tumbling to somewhere he knew not.
Suddenly, the pull stopped. The black, dark void he was in turned to a blinding white light.
The man felt a pair of hands below him as the white light slowly faded. He felt air. He really felt air. His eyes opened, and a giant face was in his view. He tried to yell, but a different sound came out. A cry. A high—pitched, definite cry came out.
The man tried to squirm, but to no avail. He tried again, but the result was the same.
‘What happened?’
He tried to talk, but another cry came out. He kept trying to talk, but the cry still came out. The giant face smiled, and the man felt his whole body moving in a back—and—forth motion. He tried to reach out to save himself, but it didn’t work. He finally managed to lift his hand to stop the movement, but he saw small fingers.
Panic soon spread.
‘This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.’
His thoughts kept repeating, hoping it wouldn’t be true. Then he heard a serene voice from the giant face.
“Hello, little one.” The giant face looked down; it was a woman’s. “From now on, your name will be Fien D. Cyrus.”
‘Fien D. Cyrus? D. D…’
The man kept thinking of his new name when the middle initial resounded in his mind.
‘Oh no. This can’t be. I can’t be in this world.’
