Something black cut in front of my eyes.

“Archangel-sama. May I have a moment?”

It was Kuroto.

Kuroto stood in front of me, hiding me from the archangel with his back.

“I believe this individual is unsuited for another world. He has lost the meaning of going there. If possible, I would ask that he be born into a place with an environment close to the world he came from.”

Kuroto was protecting me.

Protecting me, whom he had every reason to distrust until just moments ago.

But the archangel continued to look down at me.

“Resolve is something that must be nurtured. This child harbors a longing for another world. Of course, it is not an easy path. But is it not also our role to deliberately point out a harsh road?”

Did this giant woman intend to send me to another world no matter what?

In response, Kuroto let out a deep sigh and slowly shook his head.

“Archangel-sama. May I ask one thing. Why did ‘such a massive number of reincarnations occur all at once’?”

…What was he talking about?

I couldn’t understand what Kuroto meant at all and found myself staring at his profile.

But the archangel seemed to understand.

At Kuroto’s question, the archangel’s face—until now carrying a dubious smile—froze.

Something serious enough to change her expression.

If reincarnations happened in bulk, was that bad?

As if sensing my confusion, Kuroto continued.

“Normally, reincarnation proceeds in order. Even if a large number of humans die at once, they are reincarnated little by little, in sequence. But this time, it was rushed. Skipping the order of the cycle of reincarnation implies urgency. Could it be related to the ‘reason these people died’?”

The reason I died.

The instant I heard those words, images flooded back.

Inside the bus, inside a metal box filled with screams, countless people cried out in terror.

The bus being pressed against a guardrail along the coast.

Something pushing the bus.

Something terrifying.

That thing’s vertically split eyes glaring straight at us.

“R-Right. I was killed by that… monster!”

The words slipped out.

It wasn’t just images that flashed back—emotions came with them.

The monster I saw at the moment of death.

A monster with eyes similar to the dragon I’d just seen.

Kuroto’s gaze turned to me.

Those sad yet gentle eyes immediately sharpened as he looked back at the archangel.

“Archangel-sama. Is this not a ‘bug’?”

A bug?

As in a strange phenomenon from games?

Or did he mean an insect?

While I was puzzling over the word, the archangel’s wings spread wide.

“Please wait a moment. I will confirm this with the Power Angel.”

With that, the archangel flew off somewhere.

Left behind, I directed my question at Kuroto, who was staring up at the sky.

“Kuroto-san… um, did you just say ‘bug’?”

“Yes. That’s right. A bug.”

Kuroto turned toward me as he spoke.

“A bug is a kind of distortion of the world that causes phenomena that should not occur. If you think of it like a bug in a game, it may be easier to understand. For example, natural disasters such as earthquakes or massive floods. Supernatural phenomena like mass time slips or the appearance of other dimensions. There have even been cases where creatures from other worlds wandered in.”

Creatures from another world.

Hearing that, I began to understand what the earlier conversation meant.

That monster appeared suddenly because a bug occurred.

And because of that bug, we died.

“And as for why bugs occur—most of the time, it’s due to interference from power that is too great. For example, when a god exerts influence on the lower world. Granting divine protection to humans, connecting different worlds, forcibly reincarnating souls, altering the laws of a world. The aftereffects of wielding such overwhelming power give rise to bugs.”

So a god did something, which caused a bug and that bug became that monster?

“Th-Then… does that mean I died because of a god?”

My words faltered.

That archangel earlier—did she kill me and then calmly try to send me to another world?

Seeing my agitation, Kuroto looked up at the sky and answered.

“I cannot say for certain, but judging by how flustered the archangel was, the possibility is quite high.”

As Kuroto said that, the sound of wings echoed from above.

The archangel descended again, this time accompanied by several winged children.

“The request of the Venerated One has been approved. We promise that this child will be reincarnated into an environment as close as possible to his original world.”

As close as possible.

At those words, I almost let out a cry, but held it back.

It seemed impossible to return to my original world.

I wouldn’t be able to see my parents again.

Still, it was better than going to another world.

I couldn’t show them any filial piety.

I died before them.

But I’d do my best in the next world.

I’d live better in the next world.

As I thought that, small children lifted me up from both sides, their tiny wings raising me into the air.

“Huh?! W-What is this?! Who are you kids?”

“They are angels.”

Kuroto’s voice came from below.

Before I knew it, I was being carried by angels and flying through the sky.

“It’s alright. You’re entering the wheel of reincarnation. You’re being reborn.”

As he said that, Kuroto grew smaller and smaller.

Panicking, I shouted toward him.

“Kuroto! Thank you! I’ll do my best in my next life! This time, I swear—!”

“Do your best! May your next life be a radiant path!”

Kuroto’s raised voice reached me faintly.

On the verge of tears again, I shouted back.

“Kuroto! Let’s meet again! Over there—again!”

If we met again, I had to repay him.

I thought that—but I could no longer hear his voice.

Had we already grown that far apart?

Before me flowed a great, shining river of light.

Ah—right.

I forgot to say something important.

“Kuroto! Let’s meet again! My name is—!”

What came after that, I don’t remember.

Light filled my entire vision.

* * *

Before her stood the archangel, now “originally small,” made even smaller by folding her wings.

If only she were at least around Kuroto’s height, perhaps this feeling of guilt wouldn’t arise.

But the image Kuroto had of the archangel was already fixed, making it impossible to see her differently.

She looked somewhat like a scolded child and Kuroto hesitated for a moment, unsure how to follow up.

The bug hadn’t occurred because this archangel had done something wrong.

It was simply that a god had made a blunder.

In company terms, she was like an unrelated employee caught up in a corporate scandal.

Thinking that, clumsy consolation here would only rub salt into the wound.

The fact remained that a god caused the bug and the archangel had hurried the reincarnations to cover it up.

For now, it was best to move the conversation along.

Kuroto opened his mouth.

“Now then, my apologies for the haste, but may I ask about the details of this request?”

By “request,” he meant the reason he had been summoned here.

Kuroto had come to the heavenly realm at the direction of a superior existence, told to accept a reincarnation from heaven.

The archangel raised her face.

She seemed to have recovered her composure somewhat—perhaps out of a sense of duty.

That too was important.

“Yes. As for the world we would like the Dark Venerated One to handle…”

The world she wanted him to handle—that was the world Kuroto was to reincarnate into.

That world was, to some extent, under the influence of bugs.

Eliminating those bugs, or at least setting a path toward their elimination, was Kuroto’s mission.

“Dark Venerated One”…

Kuroto couldn’t help his face twitching slightly at the grandiose, painful-sounding title.

Then came the details of the “next world” from the archangel.

In short, it was a world where special abilities—so-called superpowers—had spread into the historical world of the 1900s.

People stopped fighting after gaining these abilities.

Why?

Because a difference was created between men and women.

Women were given strong powers, while men were given abilities that were not offensive.

Since territorial expansion—a major cause of war—had been driven by the military and militaries at the time were composed almost entirely of men, their centripetal force likely weakened.

It also helped that those abilities were given to “all” humans.

Where advanced weapons were monopolized by Western powers, superpowers were an equal force possessed by all nations.

If those abilities surpassed conventional weapons, global military balance would collapse, at least temporarily.

With all these factors combined, world wars like those of history likely never occurred.

From what he heard, it still seemed like a relatively healthy world.

Among the worlds Kuroto had handled before, there were some already beyond saving.

Bugs had spread so far that grotesque creatures spawned endlessly, space itself had warped and connected to other worlds everywhere, or nuclear rain had wiped out all life.

Compared to those, this world was far better.

Since the threat of bugs hadn’t surfaced yet, there was time.

Moreover, Kuroto would be born in the 2000s, making the global situation relatively peaceful.

Just not having to search for bugs while running across battlefields under iron rain would make things much easier.

That was—assuming the archangel performed the reincarnation properly.

When Kuroto looked at the archangel with slight concern, her restored smile looked up at him.

“Please rest assured. We have prepared a highest-grade vessel for you to inhabit. Of course, your soul will not be washed.”

By “vessel,” she meant the body obtained after reincarnation.

In that superpower world, she was saying she would attach a powerful ability.

And not washing the soul meant retaining memories—Kuroto would inherit his current memories intact.

Losing his memories would make remembering his mission extremely difficult, so this was appreciated.

However—

“I am grateful for the consideration, but if the vessel is too exceptional, it may negatively affect the world. Please make it as ordinary as possible.”

Power that was too strong could distort the world.

If he were given an absurdly overpowered body, he himself would become the source of bugs, rendering the world impossible to repair.

As a patchworker whose job was to fix bugs, creating them would be absurd.

Kuroto sighed inwardly.

Whether she knew his thoughts or not, the archangel nodded with a smug smile.

“Understood. We will ensure it does not affect the world.”

* * *

The newborn Kuroto, or rather Kurato, his name after reincarnation, screamed from his bed.

“This is the weakest body ever! Awaa awaa awooo!”

* * *

[ TL: Author uses memo’s as a way for extra info for the series. ]

Memo

Gods and angels’ appearances change based on the viewer’s image of them, so to some people God might look like an old man and to others like a ball of light, it differs depending on who is looking.

A “bug” is some kind of dangerous phenomenon, to avoid triggering that bug the protagonist searches out the cause and deals with it if possible, that is his mission.