I Died and Was Reincarnated as a Goth Femboy

The searing, white-hot agony of Kagutsuchi's divine flame consumed Kenjiro's senses. He was burning, his very essence being unmade by the power of a god. He could feel his life slipping away, his consciousness fading into a roaring inferno. But just as the darkness threatened to claim him, the pain suddenly stopped. The fire vanished. He looked down and saw his body, which had been charring and blackening, dissolve into a pool of clear, cool water that splashed harmlessly onto the stone floor.

The opulent, sunlit bedchamber around Jōmitsu Ren shimmered and vanished. The world went cold. He was somewhere else, standing on a vast, featureless plain of crystalline ice under a black, starless sky. The air was so cold it felt like shards of glass in his lungs. He looked around, a flicker of genuine fear in his ancient, weary eyes. Kagutsuchi was gone. He was alone.

He looked down and saw Bombom, lying on the ice floor nearby, seemingly unconscious. But standing over him was the ethereal, blue-haired boy, that same serene, chillingly amused smile on his face. He pointed a slender, pale finger at Ren.

A spike of pure, absolute-zero ice erupted from the ground beneath the immortal, piercing him through the chest and impaling his heart, freezing it solid in an instant. Ren gasped, a cloud of frozen vapor escaping his lips. He couldn't move. He couldn't regenerate. He was trapped. Then, from the icy ground, more spikes emerged, a forest of them, piercing his body from every angle, shattering his frozen heart and his brain into a thousand glittering fragments at the exact same time.

The world shattered with him. He was back in the sunlit bedchamber. Kagutsuchi was still there, her flaming sword held high, a look of profound shock on her divine face. She looked at Ren, who was now standing there, trembling, his orange eyes wide with a terror she had never seen before. She knew, with a certainty that shook her to her very core, that he was already gone.

"Ren..." she whispered, her voice a sad, dying fire. And then, her duty fulfilled, her summoner's life force extinguished, she slowly faded away, Turning into a shower of glittering embers, the wand that fell from Ren's hand burned and vanished before it hit the floor

Jōmitsu Ren smiled, a genuine, peaceful smile. He slowly walked over to a small, ornate table by the window. He opened a small, carved wooden box and took out a single, faded photograph. He caressed the image of a smiling, red-haired woman with his thumb, and then, his body began to crumble, turning into a pile of fine, gray dust that was scattered by a gentle, unfelt breeze. A single, grateful word echoed in the silent room: "Thanks."

Bombom pushed himself to his feet. The raw, open wounds on his back had closed, leaving only a faint, tingling sensation behind. He looked around. He wasn't in the pristine, sunlit past anymore. He was in the future. The room was a crumbling ruin, the walls covered in a thick, black fungus. And sitting on the tattered remains of the bed, a sad, gentle smile on his face, was Ren.

"So," the immortal said, his voice a soft, weary whisper. "You did it..."

Bombom pointed a trembling finger at Ren's arm, at the solid, physical form of the man before him. "Y-your arm..."

Ren looked down at his own hand, flexing his fingers. "If I died in the past," he explained, his voice full of a simple, tragic logic, "I can't be in the future."

A single, hot tear escaped Bombom's eye and traced a path down his cheek. He quickly, angrily, wiped it away.

"Don't worry, Bombom," Ren said, his smile full of a profound, thousand-year-long sadness. "I was already dead inside... I have to thank you for helping me..." He began to fade, his form becoming translucent, a ghost of a memory. As he vanished completely, a final word echoed in Bombom's mind. "...friend."

Bombom stood there for a long moment, a strange mix of grief and triumph swelling in his chest. He nodded his head, a slow, sad smile growing on his own face. He had finally freed his friend from his terrible sentence.

The world flickered, and he was back in the past, standing in the opulent bedchamber, looking at the pile of dust where Ren had been. He walked over and picked up the small, leather-bound book that had fallen to the floor. He opened it, expecting to find the secrets of Ren's power, the story of his life. But the pages were blank. He flipped through the entire book, but every single page was empty, as if the story had been erased from existence along with its author.

"I remember seeing text in the book..." he whispered to himself, completely shocked. Despite the mystery, he tucked the empty book safely into his purse. The hover-drone was still floating nearby, its red light blinking. The chat was a torrent of celebration and confusion.

"Bombom did it!"

"That immortal man died out of nowhere! LOL!"

"Our Bombom is the strongest!"

Bombom just gave a small, tired nod to the drone, not wanting to comment further. He saw the massive, dark wooden door at the other end of the room and, with a surge of adrenaline and a desperate need to see his friends, he kicked it clean off its hinges. The heavy door flew across the next room, a grand ballroom, and slammed directly into DragonSlayer, who had just been healed by Lyrielle. He went down with a loud, surprised scream. "AAAAAAAH!"

Bombom walked through the now-empty doorway, a small, triumphant smirk on his face as he looked down at the groaning warrior on the floor. "Get up," he said. "Don't tell me you're pleading for me to go on a date with you~"

The chat spammed "LOL" and laughing emojis.

"W-WHAT?!" DragonSlayer sputtered, his face a furious, embarrassed blush. "O-OF COURSE N-NOT! YOU KICKED A DOOR IN MY FACE!"

Bombom just ignored him, his eyes scanning the room. He saw Lyrielle, who was rushing to DragonSlayer's side, and then he saw the massive, unarmored figure of Gluteus. "OOOH? Who is he?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

The rest of the party just sighed. "He's Gluteus," DragonSlayer grumbled from the floor. "But without the armor."

Bombom circled the giant brawler, poking him in his massive bicep. "I don't know," he said, a teasing lilt in his voice. "He doesn't look like Gluteus."

Gluteus put a hand to his face, a gesture of pure, weary exasperation. He looked at Bombom, his eyes full of a strange, analytical light. "By my calculations, looking at you now, Bombom, I can tell that your gluteus maximus has increased by approximately 1.53% in size since our last mission."

The entire party's jaw dropped.

"Yep," Bombom said, a wide grin on his face. "He's Gluteus." His expression then turned serious, the weight of their mission returning. "Let's keep going. We can't forget about SynchroNoice."

"I'm super tired," DragonSlayer complained, pushing himself to his feet. "I don't know about that... and I suffered some big injuries."

Bombom turned to him, his red eyes blazing with a cold, hard light. It was a look that said, without a single word, 'You either obey me, or I will kill you.' But in DragonSlayer's mind, warped by the memory of the forced kiss on the stairs, the look meant something entirely different. 'You either obey me, or I'm going to kiss you again.' His face, which had been pale with pain, now flushed a deep, terrified red. He immediately stood up straight, his exhaustion and injuries completely forgotten. "O-on second thought," he stammered, "I'm feeling great! Ready to go! Let's save that little guy!"