In a place, with nothing but a calm, endless ocean as solid ground for as long as the eye could see, a boy that had just turned 18 found himself standing with no direction or orientation. The water seemed deep, yet it felt as though there were nothing beneath it. The horizon was empty with no source of light, yet it was not dark at all. Light was present without a point of origin. Though faint, it existed 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. And my head hurts... This sure feels weird… Being dead isn't like I expected it to be at all… Although, as an atheist, anything is different from what I expect to find here."
He chose to walk around this unfamiliar place. The only knowledge he intuitively possed being, that he had died. 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 that was most likely not the case, given that she seemed like some sort of supernatural entity. She sat on a small chair, at a table with two cups of tea and a second, empty chair. It was then, that 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 question 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 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? Could all the religious beliefs he had looked down upon his entire life actually have been true 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 irritated him a bit, 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 disliked it? He was testing something. Her ability to see through lies, specifically. If she was an omniscient being, he would not have any chance to influence her by lying, or concealing the truth. It was difficult to determine whether someone was omniscient or not. After all, she could just play along, for whatever reason, and pretend not to notice him lying. However he was confident that he could tell the difference.
"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 to lie in front of a deity. Second, she was both omniscient and arrogant, but was able to hide that very well. Or, the best and final option, she was not omniscient and did not realise that he lied to her at all. It was like a gamble. With three posible outcomes. Realistically, the three options did not have the same odds at all. In fact, the last option was by far the least likely. Omniscience conveniently not being part of this god-like creature's abilities was wishful thinking at best. But as a true optimist he had to wonder, 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?"
She could still try to trick him, but he had already decided to go through with the gamble. So, he adjusted his voice to not sound that as cold as before and spoke.
"Chess, I'm pretty good at it. You might call my conditions ridiculous though."
She looked intrigued 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 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 a servant. 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, this doesn't mean you have to be submissive and sacred to speak your mind or anything. I think you know what I'm trying to describe. 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.
"Hm… Yeah, I think I get it. Like a partnership. Or, permanent employment for free… I guess the closest thing to having god-like powers is to "control" someone with god-like powers. I have no idea why you want to posses me, or want me to look up to you like that… But if 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. Despite Yuki seemingly expecting him to act impressed, he was unable to genuinely give her that reaction.
And as if his ridiculous conditions were not enough to prove that he was a true narcissist, he kept going.
"Since you bet so much, I will make all my moves with only two seconds of time for each. So I will only have a second to think of what to do, and another to actually play 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 now with her look which had just a moment ago been filled with kind compassion. It looked like her pureness was just a facade after all.
"The rules are quite unfair for 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… But I guess you will learn the hard way. Go on, your move.
And so they started playing. Him only taking 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 eyes until they held eye contact for a few moments, only to move his gaze down to her chest, and then up again. It was extremely irritating and uncomfortable, even though she knew exactly what he was trying to do. He was doing it to emotionally destabilize her, which worked far better than he thought it would. The only reason he tried this was because he assumed angels had little experience with anything romantic or sexual, and were not used to being the focus of that kind of attention. So it was possible they would have stronger reactions that had a negative effect on their concentration. He was curious if angels even cared. If she would have ignored him, he would have stopped probably stopping, despite not being completely uninterested himself.
But she could not focus at all. Which he found fascinating, but he eventually stopped anyway because his position was winning already.
Her mind drifted off in the back. She was actually losing? She, a divine, perfect being, losing to a human that stared at her inappropriately for a cheap advantage. It would have been much closer if he had not done that, he himself had to admit. Not that he would say that out loud. It would only stabilize her and give her ways to justify the situation to herself. Instead, she could wonder as planned, was it all just a dream? Was she dozing off and would wake up any second now, finding herself alone again? She realized the moment she had only two moves to play left, how real it was. And her king was in a prison, with just enough space for it to not be a draw. And then, finally, 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 you are really weird, you know that? Like, reeeeaaally weird! I honestly struggle to picture you as part of the same species that kills itself over imaginary borders and stuff. But hey, congratulations! Amongst all other angels, I am the smartest, the prettiest , the best! I am the closest to god himself, even! Well, in any case, I am now your servant or whatever, as per our agreement... Is this the moment you ask for a wish or what?"
He just looked at her, no emotion on his face. It was then when she found that he looked somewhat sad. Because if someone was this detached from feeling accomplished, when even victory against someone as fabulous as herself was unable to make him explode with joy, something must seriously be wrong with that person. So much so that they could need fixing… Then he just patted her head and calmly spoke.
"Why, thank you. I hope we will get along, Yuki."
His desire to be viewed as superior even by gods aside, she could not help but find the sheer pride of this person be something of a divine feat in and of itself. Which sounded pretty casual. But in truth, 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 something like a god now, but it did not matter. She wanted him for herself, this special being. Surely, she alone could help him. She genuinely believed that this "superior human" was meanr for her and her alone. So she blushed at his touch and spoke teasingly.
"Oh, I think we will get along real well, you and me… Do you want me to call you Master? 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~!"