”…Man, I’m beat.”
It was already past 10 PM. The protagonist trudged along the road from the office toward his apartment-just some guy pushing past thirty. Graduated college, landed a job at a black company, and ever since it’s been unpaid overtime every single day. When was the last time he even had a day off?
”The moon’s so round tonight… so round…”
He wasn’t really thinking about anything. Words just leaked out of his mouth like a broken faucet. Honestly? He knew he was burned out. But when you’ve been treated like a company slave for years, your spirit gets so ground down that you can’t even muster the will to run anymore. Clear thinking? Forget it.
”…Huh?”
His eyes locked onto something he just happened to notice. He rubbed them and looked again-but what he was seeing was definitely there.
”No way… no freaking way.”
The area had gone completely dark, lit only by the dim glow of the streetlights. And there, crawling across the crosswalk-no, moving on all fours-was a baby, maybe a year old. No parents in sight anywhere.
”This is impossible. Completely impossible, but-ah.”
The signal was flashing. There was no way that baby could crawl fast enough to make it across before the light changed. Well, at this hour, maybe no cars would come anyway? That thought crossed his mind, but before he knew it, his body was already moving. He scooped the baby up.
”Hey, that’s danger-huh?”
The moment he lifted the baby-an insane roar of sound hit him. And when he spun around, what filled his vision was-
(A trac-)
BOOM. Agony ripped through him. And then…
”…Nngh. Huh?”
When he came to, he was staring at a sky full of stars. Stars? Where he lived, you couldn’t see a proper night sky at all. When was the last time he’d seen them this clearly?
”Hey there! Looks like you’re awake, bro.”
”Wha-?”
He jerked his head toward the sudden voice-and froze, eyes wide.
”Whoa, you seem lively. Or… wait, nah. I guess not. I mean, you’re dead, so that checks out.”
”Huh… uh…? B-ba…”
”Whaaat? Spit it out.”
”The baby’s talkiiiiiiing!! Wait, why’s your voice so DEEP!?”
”Kuhahaha! Man, that’s a great reaction, bro!”
So. The one talking to him was a baby. Drool bib, diaper, the whole deal. But also-sunglasses on his face. A cigar in his hand. And a voice like gravel aged in whiskey. The protagonist’s brain was short-circuiting.
”…Huh? Wait, dead? Dead as in-what? Who’s dead?”
”Who else but you, bro? Got yourself turned into ground meat, real clean.”
”Wait, I died…? Ah-“
That instant, the scene came flooding back. The explosion of sound. The thing rushing toward him right after he picked up that baby. That was-
”See, you tried to save me, bro. And then-bam!-some nitro-boosted tractor turned you into paste.”
”Hold on, none of this makes any sense!”
”Kuhaha! Yeah, I bet it doesn’t! But sorry to say, it’s the real deal. You died because you tried to save me-got run over by an eighty-year-old granny in a nitrous tractor.”
”Why would you put nitro on a tractor-and an eighty-year-old-and that area’s supposed to be off-limits to vehicles anyway-ugh! I don’t get ANY of this!”
”Hey, hey, take it easy, bro.”
”Easy? You’re telling ME to take it easy-when the guy saying it is a deep-voiced BABY-“
”Alright, alright. Lemme explain, so just hear me out.”
”R-right…”
”So. Let’s see… easiest way to put it for you, bro-you can think of me as, like… God.”
”God…? You…?”
”Kuhaha! Bet you’re thinking, ‘No way a baby-looking thing like that is God,’ right?”
”Uh… well-“
”Yeah, I get it. Other gods give me crap about it all the time.”
”Th-they do, huh…”
”Anyway, forget that for now. First thing you gotta know: normally, you wouldn’t have been able to see me at all.”
”Huh? But I can see you right now-and back then I even touched you…”
”Right. Normally, that’d be impossible. Seein’ me, touchin’ me-none of it. But you, bro-you were pretty much half-dead from all that overwork already. And then it just-how do I put this-clicked into place, y’know? So you ended up spottin’ something you shouldn’t have been able to spot. And the result? Well, you got turned into paste.”
”So… I do vaguely remember feeling some insane pain… but, um, what happens to me now? Do I get to go to heaven or something?”
”Aaahhh, about that… Your death this time was entirely my fault. If you hadn’t seen me, you wouldn’t have died. Not that I planned for some nitrous tractor to come barreling through, mind you.”
”Trust me, neither did I…”
”Anyway! Point is, your death was my responsibility. So I’m gonna give you a special deal-reincarnation!”
”Reincarnation…?”
”Yep! You Japanese folks love that stuff, right? Reincarnation stories!”
”I mean, yeah, I read ’em… but wait, so I’m going to a fantasy world? If possible, I’d rather not start as a baby again.”
”Kuhaha! Nope, sorry. The world you’re reincarnating into ain’t no fantasy world.”
”Huh… then what kind of world is it?”
”Hey now, that’s the fun of it-you’ll find out when you get there! Oh, and don’t worry-I’ll throw in some cheat abilities too!”
”Oh, you’re actually giving me some…”
”‘Course I am! I cut your life short, so this is my apology gift!”
”Right… so what kind of cheat are we talking-“
”Huh? What’s that? You think ONE is too stingy!?”
”I never said that-!”
”Kah! Fine then! Super-sized special! I’ll give you a whole bunch, so you better work hard with ’em!”
The moment he said that, the ground-if you could call it that-split open beneath him, and the protagonist started falling.
”Hey-! Wai-HOLD ON AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
And just like that, he was tossed into the unknown without understanding a thing.
Trivia:
- The protagonist’s exhaustion from his black company job is what made him spiritually “fuzzy” enough to see the baby God in the first place.
- The baby God mentions that other gods tease him about his appearance, suggesting he’s an established but unusual deity in the divine hierarchy.
- The nitro-boosted tractor driven by an 80-year-old granny is deliberately absurd—the humor comes from the sheer randomness of the cause of death.
- The protagonist’s willingness to save a stranger’s baby, even in his exhausted state, shows his core character hasn’t been completely crushed by his circumstances.
- The God’s apology and offer of cheat abilities suggests genuine guilt, not just divine whimsy.
- The protagonist’s request to avoid starting as a baby again is a meta-commentary on common isekai tropes.
- The fact that the reincarnation world is explicitly NOT a fantasy world sets up a subversion of expectations for the genre-savvy reader.
- The God’s “super-sized special” offer of multiple cheats implies the protagonist will have significant advantages in his new life.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A Japanese term for an exploitative, abusive employer that forces unpaid overtime and mistreats employees. The term has become recognizable in translated light novels and is preserved here for genre authenticity.