In a place, looking like an ocean without waves, flat and clear, a boy no that had just turned 18 found himself standing on a water-like surface. It seemed to be deep, yet he stood on it like it was a solid ground. The horizon empty with no source of light, yet it was not dark at all. Light was present without a point lf origin, existing omnipresent around him. He thought to himself in that situation of unfamiliar surroundings.
"It is weird… I never thought I'd just die like that. How disappointing. Ah, and my head hurts so much. What a nuisance... This sure feels weird… Being dead isn't like I expected it to be at all… Although, as an atheist, anything I would have observed right now would be unexpected. Because the fact that I observe something is already different from nothing."
He chose to walk around this unfamiliar place. The only knowledge he possed being, that he had died. He did not know where that knowledge came from. But he decided not to question it for the moment. This place was bizarre enough after all.
While walking, he felt an unnatural warmth coming from behind him. It was not the warmth of a fire, nor was it any sort of emotional connection. As he turned towards it, he saw a young woman, her beauty immediately captivating him where he stood. She had long white hair, a stunning figure, blue eyes and smooth skin, although all but her hands up to her neck was covered by a white robe-like dress. From the looks alone he assumed her to be his age. But something told him, she was way older. She sat on a small chair, at a table with two cups of tea and a second, empty chair. It was then, that the he noticed the golden halo above the womans head. One would think that to be the first thing anyone would notice in a situation like this, but for some reason, the moment their eyes met, he could not focus on anything else. He began trying to explain it logically, but only for a mere, fleeting moment, scolding himself right after for even considering it. He felt it both rude and pointless to just continue standing there, staring at her without even having introduced himself. However, he was still cautious, as that was just in his nature. Before he could doubt the saftey of the situation any further, the woman spoke to him in a gentle, calm voice that could only be described as angelic.
"Welcome, poor, lost little soul. You're not amongst the living anymore, as you might have guessed. But do not be afraid. I will be your guide in the afterlife and your lawyer in your judgment. My name is Hikari Yuki, but you can just call me Yuki. Won't you sit down with me?"
Her voice was soothing, in a way. It felt divine and full of kindness. Her long white hair, the blue eyes, her feathery wings... There was no mistaking it. She had to be a true angel. Or so he thought assumed for now. He still had his doubts about her credibility. After all, was it not just as likely that he was just imagining everything, as it was that all religious beliefs he had looked down upon his entire life, were actually the truth all along? He found the thought incredibly annoying. However, despite finding it difficult to believe, his usually empty eyes now had a spark of excitement in them. So he spoke in a cold voice as response to her loving one.
"How did I die?"
"It seems you don't remember much... Maybe a sudden end of your life disturbed your mind, and you lost your memory. This is not a rare situation... But don't be sad! I will be here for you, and I will tell you everything that is essential in the afterlife. Now enjoy your tea~"
He thought it to be a simple question, something a true supernatural being would be able to answer convincingly. If she was in fact an angel, that was. But her responds annoyed him slightly, though that was not something he was going to let her know. Instead he was wondering about something else.
"I don't like tea."
This was actually a lie. In fact, he loved tea. The calm aspect of it, the different flavors, what was not to like about tea? But why did he not just tell her that? He was testing something. Her, specifically. If she was an omniscient being, he would not have any infuence on her by lying, or concealing the truth. So she would easily see through any lie he told her, and call him out. Or maybe she would play along, out of boredom? However he was confident that he could tell the difference. It was important that she was not omniscient. Her response to his lie would show.
"You don't like tea? Are you kidding me? Tea is the most delicious and healthy thing in the world~!"
That response was rather playful. But it gave him a lot of information about her. First, if she is in fact aware of it being a lie, she was not offended by it. Or at least, did not let it show. So, that left him with three options. First, she was omniscient, but not arrogant enough to be offended by such a harmless lie, even if it could be argued to be disrespectful in front of a deity. Second, she was both omniscient and arrogant, but was able to hide that very well. Or, the last and best option for him, she was not omniscient and did not realise that he lied to her at all. It was like a gamble. With three posible outcomes. And he would win in only one, so a 33.33% chance of success. But realistically, it was way lower because how if she was a true angel, that meant a lot of supernatural things could be just as true. So omniscience conveniently not being one of them was rather unlikely, as he thought. But then again, did numbers truly matter right now in the first place? He thought not, and just went all in.
However playful personalities like hers were not exactly his favorite. Though, he was willing to accept that for now, he did not have a choice anyway.
"Ah, well... it's just like that. Don't worry about it. How about we play a game? If you win... I'll drink your tea. But I have some special conditions in case I win…"
She put one hand under the chin and thought, or pretended to do so, since she already decided to agree the moment he asked.
"A game, huh? Well... I don't know… Okay, I guess. But only because you asked me so sweetly~… And because I really want you to drink my tea. Which game did you have in mind?"
It seemed perfect, but she could still ask, even though she already knew what he had in mind. She could try to trick him. But he had to go through with the gamble. So, he adjusted his voice to not sound that cold and spoke.
"Chess, I'm pretty good at it. You might call my conditions ridiculous though."
She looked interested at that remark and put down her cup.
"Chess is a classic, but now you got me curious! What kind of special conditions are you talking about? I'm in to play it anyway."
He thought on how to phrase it, but just chose to be blunt about it.
"If you lose... You become subject to my wishes, like property. You have to do whatever I tell you to, even if I tell you to hurt others for my own selfish reasons. I want you to view me as someone above you. However I do not care how you see yourself compared to others. If you see yourself as superior to everyone, this won't change, only with me being an exeption. Do you accept these terms?"
Those conditions were indeed ridiculous. He was about to play against a divine being. And all he had to lose was having to drink a cup of tea, which he would like to do anyway. While she basically bet her entire being on this chess game. But she was a divinity, so she naturally did not even consider losing to this human.
"I have no idea why you want to posses me, or want me to look up at you like that… But it's that important to you, then I guess I will accept your conditions. I do not think that you can beat me anyway."
She snapped her fingers, and on the table, a chess board appeared out of thin air. But he did not move a muscle at that. That he was not impressed did disappoint her, but only a little bit. And as if his ridiculous conditions were not enough to prove he was a true narcissist, he kept going.
"Since you bet so much, I will make all my moves while only in one second each. So I will only have half a second to move the pieces, and another half to for each move. Should I fail to do so, I lose Instantly. Does that seem fair?"
She noded with a smug expression and responded, almost pitying him. It looked like her pureness was just a facade after all.
"The rules are quite unfair to you now, but since they were your idea, I'm willing to play. For a moment I thought you were the clever kind, but to think you'd give yourself a handicap after I already agreed… Don't you know that is only used to persuade people that haven't agreed yet? But I guess you will learn the hard way. Go on, your move.
And so they started playing. Him only taking less than a second for each move. No matter what she played, he responded almost instantly. His eyes were not even on the board at times. Which frustrated her for two reasons. One being that it meant he was not even taking her serious. The other reason was the place his eyes were gazing at. He, while playing perfectly without looking at the board, was staring at her breasts. It was quite embarrassing for her, because she was losing. Maybe that was why he did it in the first place? To mock her. Well, yes and no. He was doing it to emotionally destabilize her into discomfort and irritation. Additionally, he was curious if angels even cared. If she would have ignored him, he would have stopped even though he was also interested for those kind of reasons. But she could not focus at all. Which he found fascinating, but he eventually stopped because he was winning anyway. She was not in a good position. It was actually like he was not even trying to checkmate her. He just wanted to take all her pieces. Until only the king was left. All while still only using one and a half seconds for each move. She was actually losing? She, a divinity, was losing against a human that stared at breasts. Truly frustrating on many levels. How could it be real, she thought. Was it all just a dream? Was she dozing off and would wake up any second now? She realized the moment she had no pieces left, how real it was. And her king was in a prison, where she only had two moves. Just enough for it to not be a draw. And then, eventually, she got checkmated by a pawn, the most humiliating way to be checkmated. Yuki stared at the board, as her inner world collapsed. Her face turned red with a combination of anger and embarrassment. Biting her lip hard enough for it to bleed before she finally accepted her defeat.
"Fine! You win. But I'll say this! The most human thing about you is your appearance, everything else just screams unnatural! Your way of playing, the look in your eyes... the things that go on inside your mind must truly be inhuman. Amongst all other angels, I am the smartest… I am the closest to god himself, but you... Well, in any case, I am now your property, as per our agreement… Congratulations. Is this the moment you ask for a wish or what?"
He just looked at her. No emotions on his face. Lacking happiness about winning against someone divine with such ease. Then he just pats her head and calmly speaks.
"I'll have many wishes directed at you in the future, Yuki. But for now, I want you to listen to my word and my word only. If I say something it's a law that is to be followed. Understand?"
One would think that to be a ridiculous request but she already accepted it. His superiority was incomprehensible to her. So she was already in a deep state of admiration for him. It was almost like an obsession. She wanted him to be proud of her…? She did not know why. Maybe because she saw him as god now. After all, that is the natural category you would put someone in that defeated the number two to god. But anyhow, all she knew was that her new master was the most superior human. No other words came to mind. She blushed and without hesitation, she spoke in a voice of admiration.
"Yes, Master. Is that how you want me to call you? It feels like that's how you want me to call you…"
"You can just call me Yamato or that… I don't really care."
"Aw, you totally care."