Meddling The Omniverse

"I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!!" A young Japanese man cried loudly at the top of a tree.

"Get down you stupid apprentice!" an old man was fuming under that tree. "Stop crying on top of that tree, you're only running away and that won't get you anywhere!" he shouted.

"NO! YOU'RE JUST GONNA MAKE ME GO THROUGH THOSE HELLISH TRAINING AGAIN! I'LL DIE IF THIS GOES ON!"

"Calm down Zenitsu! There's no way training of that level could even kill you! Just get down from there you dolt!"

"BUT DON'T YOU SEE! NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRIED, I COULDN'T EVEN DO ONE OF YOUR FORMS, NOT EVEN ONE!!!"

"You don't know that! Practices and efforts will always bear fruit! As long as you believe in yourself, no matter how long, you can achieve it!"

"YET I SHOWED YOU NONE!" Zenitsu without hesitation continued, "I STILL REMEMBER THE DAY WHEN YOU SAVED ME FROM THAT TRAP, WHERE THEY CONSPIRED TO MAKE ME IN DEBT! I WAS A NOBODY ABANDONED BY HIS PARENTS!"

"You are NOT a nobody Zenitsu!"

"I AM A NOBODY! I WAS TRASH THAT WAS FOOLED INTO BECOMING A SLAVE! I WOULD HAVE BECOME ONE IF YOU DIDN'T SAVE ME BACK THEN!" 

Zenitsu pushed on, "I KNEW THAT WHEN YOU PAID MY DEBT! THERE WAS A CATCH!"

He screeched, "AND I WAS RIGHT! YOU WANT ME TO BECOME A DEMON SLAYER AND SO ON!" the sky turned cloudy.

The old man felt slight guilt, "Well, I am a bit sorry for-"

"DON'T APOLOGIZE! EVEN THOUGH YOU BROUGHT ME IN JUST TO INHERIT YOUR THUNDER-BREATHING! NO MATTER WHAT! I GOT NOTHING! I COULDN'T MASTER IT AT ALL GRAMPS!"

"GRAMPS!? Zenitsu you ape! Don't just call me grandpa! I'm your master-" 

"NO YOU'RE ALWAYS MY GRAMPS! AND I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART! I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO MAKE YOU PROUD AND LIVE UP TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS!"

The old man blushed at his declaration and continued his persuasion more calmly, "Zenitsu, anything you do earnestly with effort will always bear fruit. Just trust me and continue your training-"

"YOU DON'T GET IT GRAMPS, I COULDN'T FEEL ANYTHING!!! EVEN A LITTLE PROGRESS!" 

"Zenitsu you can't-"

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE, NO MATTER WHAT THINGS WILL NEVER GO MY WAY! WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN!? IS THE WORLD'S AGAINST ME!?"

"Calm down Zenitsu!"

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!!"

*CRASH!!!*

—

What… just… happened…? A consciousness floated in the empty darkness.

What…? How did I… get here? It thought as if it were struggling for a change.

It instinctually moved something inside him, causing its hand to brush its face.

HAnd? FaCE?! Clarity returned to its eyes. He was Agatsuma Zenitsu, a cowardly apprentice avoiding his training. All he remembered was clinging to a tree before everything turned black.

"Wh-wh-wh-where AM I!?" he exclaimed as he stood in the endless darkness.

With each passing moment, fear grew in his heart. As this inexplicable situation continued, his body shook and his legs trembled 

Suddenly a turbulent hurricane picked him up. Zenitsu screamed as the turbulence roughly flung him.

Brak! He lay on the floor like a broken puppet. He realized he was in a new place, instead of pure darkness, stars illuminated the place. 

Somewhat in awe of the stars above him, Zenitsu reminisced, "These stars… just like when I fainted after finishing gramps' training."

"Oh really?"

"Oh yes, I was-WHEEEIIHH?" Zenitsu jumped in shock like a frisked-up cat.

WHO'S THERE!!! He thought as he went to a nervous breakdown. No one was around him but he heard it.

An iridescent mandala circle descended upon him, and an otherworldly being in a particular Japanese outfit emerged from its center. It announced "Greetings Agatsuma Zenitsu." 

Zenitsu fell on his but out of shock and fear. Yet the being continued, "It is my displeasure to inform you this but you are…" The being stopped his words, for the man in question already disappeared.

A powerful ripple spread from the horizon. A gigantic transparent dome has been revealed, keeping anyone, especially a certain Japanese person, confined.

From what the being saw, Agatsuma Zenitsu the Japanese man, had run and reached the place's boundary.

—

"Eris-chan? Does this happen often?" Ristarte questioned.

"No, those like him are… uncommon," Eris replied.

"Well is it all right for us to be here?" The blond-haired goddess asked again as they watched.

Aqua and Eris, with the company of two other people, observed this from a secret monitoring room.

"Of course! Sir Seth doesn't mind it." The fluffy assistant Jif replied. 

Ristarte looked back at the venue and said, "So this is how you isekai people?"

"There are many more ways you can isekai people." Eris politely answered. "But yes, this is one of the major ways."

"As for his Japanese reaper costume?"

"From what Sir Seth said, this man came from 1920s rural Japan, meaning he shouldn't have the best understanding of mythologies and mysticism other than the traditional ones. With this information, Seth dressed the part to reduce his shock or something along those lines."

"That's weirdly thoughtful of him, but seems wasted on a man like that." Ristarte pointed at the sulking Japanese before elbowing someone, "What do you think Seiya?"

"That man's speed was not ordinary." Seiya pointed toward the cowardly samurai at the edge of the realm.

The cowardly man wore a typical set of everyday kimono and hakama with wooden sandals (zori). A patterned yellow-orange haori draped over him as a katana was equipped around his waist. 

The man was average in height and had fair skin. He has short black hair that is currently cut off in uneven bangs, loosely resembling a bowl cut. 

That man was holding his head in pain as he had accidentally crashed straight at the barrier enclosing this mysterious place. 

She asked, " So he's one of those famed samurais from Japan, Don't you think so Seiya?"

"That's traditional Japanese clothes," he replied.

"An apprentice actually," Jif answered while pushing his tiny spectacles, "Agatsuma Zenitsu, our information said he is the apprentice of a retired high-ranking samurai who they refer to as 'demon slayers'."

"Demon… slayers?"

"That is a term they used to describe samurai or combatants tasked with eliminating 'demons'."

"Demons?" Seiya raised his voice.

"Yes, for some reason this world's Japan has powerful human-eating monsters?" Jif answered hesitantly.

Seiya immediately questioned, "Just Japan, not anywhere else?"

"Ahh… Honestly, I don't know Mister Seiya."

"You, don't know?"

"Yes Mister, we isekai an unfathomable amount of people to an uncountable amount of worlds, due to safety reasons, we only receive information privy to the targeted isekai person we are going to send, meaning that about the world that samurai came from, we only know as much as that Japanese samurai knew." Jif handed Seiya a stack of documents, "Here's a report of the core information of that world from Zenitsu's memory." 

Seiya quickly read it and his mood changed, "So, we only knew that this world's Japan is filled with human-eating monsters because that guy is being trained to slay them?"

Jif confirmed it.

He read again, "Is this all the information we got?"

Jif nodded.

"And this whole demon thing kept secret from the public!?" Seiya raised his tone.

"From what Zenitsu knows of, yes?"

"So if the one being isekaid was someone who had no clue of these demons, we could end up having zero clues about this whole demon debacle!?"

"Uhh… Yes." Jif's voice waned.

"Hey Seiya! Calm down." Ristarte butted in.

"Do any of you know how many holes and dangers this kind of limited information can CAUSE!? Due to that samurai's limited knowledge! We won't be able to tell if there are demons outside of Japan!" Seiya declared with heat, causing silence to descend.

"Even if hypothetically, they only exist in Japan, we don't even know their origins!!! WHERE did they come from and WHO or even WHAT was responsible for their creation!? If we don't even know that, could the one responsible for all these demons recreate them again after these demon slayers wiped them all out!? And the worst part is that this was only the tip of the iceberg, what if this samurai's information is false! or if he was biased! or MORE!!!"

"Hero Ryuuguuin Seiya!" Eris with a stern tone replied.

Noticing this Seiya took a deep breath, "As the ones handling this, matters such as this should have been done more thoroughly. It shouldn't have been limited to what that samurai 'only' knows."

"As a hero, I applaud your meticulousness in this matter and your worry for the safety of that world's citizens, but I would like to remind you that you are currently not the hero designated to save that world. Yet, to feel anger for these innocent people… it is worthy of praise."

Seiya's expression was still filled with displeasure; he was not happy with all of this. 

Ristarte, who never had deeper thoughts about the isekai system became worried and confused.

Observing this, Eris decided to explain to them how the mechanism of the whole isekai project works.

—

WHAT THE HECK!!! WHERE EXACTLY AM I!!! WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON HERE!!! These were the thoughts of our hapless samurai as he descended into hysteria.

He was utterly bewildered by his current condition, just one afternoon he was crying on top of a tree and suddenly here he was.

Trapped in a desolate place Indescribable by most human ways, Zenitsu stood in the presence of a being he once heard from the tales of his childhood. 

Clad in a somber black kimono that flowed like shadows around him, his presence was both serene and ominous. The wide-legged hakama added a sense of traditional martial grace, while the simple, functional obi kept his attire secure. 

His geta clacked softly against the ground, each step a reminder of the inevitable march toward the afterlife. A long haori draped over his shoulders, and a conical kasa hat cast his face in shadow, adding to the mystery and fear that surrounded him.

he was the shinigami, and its existence means one thing…

"I presume you understand who I am and why we are here."

Zenitsu answered in a whimper, "I-I-I… am I in the-the afterlife? Are you the Shinigami that's going to take my life!?" 

"Fortunately or unfortunately, you are correct."

With this answer, Zenitsu broke down.