At last, after all these years of study, I can become a fisherman.
I worked so hard to earn this role, and now… it's my time to shine.
That's what he thought.
The ceremony was grand and extravagant, as people celebrated the first human group chosen to reach the afterlife.
After receiving his "Otherworld 1-Fisherman" badge, Pluto made his way toward the ship, offering his final goodbyes to his beloved and what remained of his loving family.
The air was constantly cold and dim, yet somehow forgotten under the weight of joy and happiness.
By now, the entire world knew: the first group had begun their expedition into the afterlife.
The ship departed, and as the voices of the crowd faded, it rose into the sky, dissolving into a storm of shimmering and colorful particles.
Hours later, Pluto finally opened his eyes, and he was there.
The sky glowed with an effervescent light, while tiny stars drifted through the air. Souls:some joyful, some burdened by the lives they left behind, wandered in a strange, peaceful calm.
Pluto turned toward his crew.
There were three others.
The first was a girl, short in stature but likely older than him, her hair was long and dark and her face marked by confusion, just like everyone else.
The second looked like an old trunk of ugly wood: tall, broad, rigid, yet with unexpectedly gentle features.
The third felt strangely familiar. He wore glasses that gave him a sharp, intelligent look, his slim build and short height somehow making him even more serious.
Pluto let out a breath. He had expected worse.
At first, no one spoke.
Then the girl broke the silence.
"So… this is the land of the dead."
Her name, Reya, was written on her uniform.
It was the first time he heard someone speak in his same situation, and he remained silent, slightly unsettled.
"I thought it would be much darker," commented the tall one, Zan(from Zanone)
The shorter one nodded quietly. His name was Vano, and his silence was strangely comforting.
Their mission was to observe and study this unknown place.
It was an honor.
At first, they were lost. But with time, they still adapted.
Surprisingly, He didn't miss home that much. He could still message them through his phone, which somehow never ran out of battery.
They began to know each other.
Another goal crossed off his list.
'It's kind of painful to realize that all of these years of study finally pay off. It's one of the best feelings, but it also provokes a painful sensation in my heart, something that I can't quite catch.'
This was what Pluto was writing in his agenda, while he was sitting near a barrel on the ship.
Zan sat next to him.
"Feel lonely?"
"Yes, but loneliness is what makes people strong, isn't it?"
"Well, I guess so.
But well, Little Pluto, not everything needs to be strong, that's what love is for, isn't it?"
Pluto shook his head quickly.
"I loved and still love, yet I can't find any connection with what you're saying."
Reya made an understanding and researching sound from where she was sitting(in an unsettling way)on top of the barrel.
"Just you wait, that's only the start, Little Pluto."
Zan scowled at the lack of privacy that their crew member gave to them, and glanced at Vano, who was looking in silence at everything around them.
"What's your problem, instead?"
He asked quietly, taken aback and somewhat scared of the guy's seriousness.
Vano sighed and switched his eyes on us.
"Well, everything's my problem but nothing's the solution."
Reya blew out a breath loudly.
"Why is everyone a philosopher here?!"
Pluto looked at her.
"Well, that's probably just how you see us, but we're smart people that talk in a certain way, or you don't quite identify in that term?"
"Dude, that's so mean! I'm not talking to you guys anymore!"
She rushed away with loud yet fast footsteps.
Sooner or later, they had enough capabilities and knowledge to go on expeditions on those strange islands among the strange surreal light, called hexes.
The A-Souls(or that's what people called them on social media) were mainly peaceful and even had a sense of humor, and the crew knew fun was coming around when they saw them. They even made plushies of them by then,on the normal world.
The feeling that every person in the world was looking impatiently at everything they were doing made the crew more and more determined to find something interesting to bring home.
About a week later, they were finally given their first chance to go on a serious expedition, among other unstudied creatures, seen as B-Souls.