The streets of Tokyo bustled with their usual chaotic rhythm—honking cars, chatter, the distant melody of some upbeat pop song bleeding out of a convenience store. Among the crowd, a high schooler weaved his way through humanity like a ghost—head down, eyes locked on his phone, fingers tapping with mechanical precision.
Shinozaki Yuuta. Seventeen. Profession: elite slacker. Status: dangerously absorbed.
He wore his black school uniform like a badge of reluctant honor—jacket crisp, tie barely clinging to life. In one hand, his schoolbag hung limp. In the other, his phone glowed brightly with the pixelated violence of Mage Mayhem: Infinite Wave.
"Alright, come on... Just give me Infernal Dragon Comet. I've already picked it five times—three more and it's mine."
Yuuta's thumbs danced across the screen as he guided his digital mage through hordes of grotesque monsters. Each time he leveled up, three new spell cards appeared. Choose wisely, stack the same spell, and eventually… boom. Three-star glory. The ultimate evolved spell. Annihilation in one tap.
"Heh. Who needs to whale when you've got brain cells?"
Yuuta grinned. He prided himself on being what forums called a 'strategic freeloader'. Never paid a cent. Always OP. His mage was already melting monsters with flaming meteors and laser beams shaped like serpents.
Cars passed him. People moved around him. None of it registered.
"Tch. Got offered Ice Prison and some other two useless spells again. Do I lock it in or reroll? Damn, maybe when I get home I'll—"
Home. That reminded him.
"Ah right… which 18+ game was I gonna play tonight?"
A smirk tugged at his lips.
"There's that new demon queen dating sim. Or the one with the... slime girls. Choices, man. I'm an adult. I make hard decisions."
His mind wandered to the many "research-intensive" apps he had hidden behind folders labeled "Math Notes."
And that's when he heard it.
Screaming.
Not in-game.
Real screaming.
Distant at first. Muffled by the bubble of his thoughts. But it grew. A chorus of alarm, panic—raw, human fear.
Yuuta blinked, mind fogged with confusion. He slowly pulled his attention back to the world around him.
"Wait… what the hell?"
Then he heard it:
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK
It wasn't just loud. It was close. A beast's roar made of metal and rage.
He looked up.
Time froze.
A truck.
A big one.
The driver inside? Slumped over the wheel, unconscious.
And Yuuta?
Standing right in the middle of the street.
People were screaming from the sidewalks. A woman had her hands over her mouth. A child cried. An old man clutched his chest.
"Oh f—"
The truck hit him like a divine punishment. Metal crunched. Bone shattered. His phone shattered into pixels midair.
Yuuta's body was launched across the streets like a ragdoll. He hit the ground hard. Blood sprayed, pooling under him in dark, spreading rivers.
His leg bent the wrong way. His uniform was shredded, cloth torn by jagged bone and impact. One eye was still open, twitching in disbelief.
And then... stillness.
Crimson silence.
The city's heartbeat skipped.
"Wha... what just happened...? Did I seriously... get hit by a truck...?!"
"No way. No fucking way. I—I was just playing... I didn't even get to see the 3-star animation!"
"This is such bullshit—this is how I go out? Not in a blaze of magic glory, but as a sidewalk pizza?! And I was wearing my favorite jacket, too!"*
"...Mom. Dad. Sorry. Guess dinner's off. Don't cry too hard, okay?"
"But most importantly... oh shit... my laptop. My browser history. My search folders... the uncensored patch for Elf Dungeon Escape 2..."
"They're gonna find it all."
"I'M GONNA DIE REMEMBERED AS A FREAKING DEGENERATE."
"...Wait. Am I already dead?"
"...It's getting cold. Damn... It hurts less than I thought it would."
"I should've just stayed home and leave for absence in school. Played something wholesome. Like Tetris. Or taxes."
"Goodbye, cruel world. And screw you, Truck-kun..."
And with a final twitch of his bloodied hand, Shinozaki Yuuta's eyes dimmed.
The street grew quiet again.
And just like that…
He died.
On a regular afternoon, in the middle of Tokyo.
With no epic music.
No epic battle.
Just a truck, a game, and a very embarrassing browser history of a boy...
—————————————
And Darkness.
Still, infinite, suffocating darkness.
No sound. No wind. No ground beneath him. No sky above.
Just... nothing.
Shinozaki Yuuta floated in the endless void like a corpse adrift in space.
His thoughts echoed in this black abyss, more vivid than his body.
"Is this the afterlife?"
His voice didn't bounce. There was nothing for it to bounce off.
"Nothing? No hellfire? Just… the world's most boring loading screen?"
He tried to move. He couldn't tell if he even had a body anymore.
"This is bullshit. I better not be trapped in some low-effort isekai knockoff dimension."*
Silence answered him.
For what felt like hours—or maybe seconds—he drifted, empty. Until…
A sting.
Tiny at first. Like a single ember brushing his side.
Then another. And another.
Then it felt like his entire being was boiling.
The darkness began to warp, melting like plastic over flame.
A wave of blistering heat surged through him.
"Wh—what the hell?! Where the fuck is this heat coming from?!"
His thoughts scrambled, mind twisting in panic.
"Am I descending into hell? Is this karma for all the 18+ mods I installed?! I swear I didn't pay for that dolphin DLC!"
Suddenly—
LIGHT.
Blinding. Warm. Blazing.
His vision exploded open—white and gold flooding in like a dam breaking. Then came blue—endless sky. A sun hanging above him like the eyes of a predator.
He gasped, eyes squinting against the burning brightness.
"Wait—this isn't Tokyo… this isn't Earth… Am I still alive? Is this heaven?"
A gentle breeze kissed his skin.
For a split second, peace.
And then—
AGONY.
It hit like a tsunami made of knives. A violent, electric pain surged through his entire body.
Yuuta jerked violently, curling into himself, mouth open in a scream he couldn't even finish.
"WHAT THE FUUUU—"
His muscles spasmed. His bones crunched. His insides twisted, reshaped, shrank, warped.
His organs felt like they were being stirred with molten chopsticks. His spine curled unnaturally. Something moved under his skin—creeping, slithering, like worms made of fire.
" FUUU— KILL ME— FUUKING KILL ME ALREADY?!"
Every nerve was a live wire.
And then… it stopped.
All at once. Like someone hit a switch.
The pain vanished.
Yuuta collapsed onto warm grass he hadn't realized he was lying on. His chest rose and fell in haggard gasps. His vision was a smeared watercolor of light and movement.
'Am I... done? Did I survive that? Shit what was that?!'
The sky above was still clear, the sun still warm.
He lay there like a starfish, limbs splayed, breathing like he'd just given birth to himself—which, in a way, he had.
Slowly, the tingling in his limbs faded.
"Did I... reincarnate?"
He said it aloud.
His voice was shaky. Smaller. Croakier?
A wave of curiosity, and then—hope.
"Reincarnated! Yes! This is it! This is my chance! Just like in those novels!"
His otaku brain kicked into turbo mode.
"Alright, alright. What am I? A noble's bastard son? A forgotten royal heir? A dragonkin with a dark past?"
Images surged into his mind. Busty elves. Bunny girls with cute fangs. A slime queen with questionable morals.
"A new world. New magic. And me—handsome, overpowered, and drowning in waifus!"
He began laughing—low and creepy at first, then louder, unhinged. The laugh of a man who had rolled a natural 20 on his reincarnation check.
But something felt... wrong.
Very wrong.
His mouth moved weirdly like a sock puppet. The laugh echoed oddly, like it came from a throat not meant for it, but Yuuta ignored it.
He opened his eyes again and stretched one arm up to the sky in theatrical glory.
"I vow! I vow in my name, Shinozaki Yuuta—I will claim every beautiful girl, and give them my noble seed! I—!"
Yuuta stopped.
The hand he raised…
Wasn't a human hand.
It was a green, slim, moist limb with three fat fingers, wide and soft like frog toes.
There were no fingernails. No skin creases. Just smooth, rubbery flesh.
"...Eh?"
He blinked.
"EHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?"
His breathing spiked. His tiny chest heaved. He yanked his green hand closer, turning it, twisting it.
Still green.
Still frog.
"N-No way. No... NO NO NO—"
He sat up in a panic, desperate to examine the rest of his body.
But he didn't get the chance.
THWACK!
A whistling sound split the air.
A blur of motion.
And then—PAIN.
An arrow pierced straight through his outstretched right arm.
Clean hole. Perfect shot.
Bright red blood sprayed like a broken faucet from the wound, painting the grass, his belly, and the skyward-facing at his face.
"G-GYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH—!"
The pain was instant and real. His three frog-fingers spasmed, nerves severed. His vision blurred.
"WHO IN THE WORL—?! WHO FUCKING SHOT THAT DAMN ARROW!!"
Blood dripped into his left eye, blinding it.
And just like that—
The fantasy died.
Reality set in.
And Yuuta, once human, once hopeful…
Now injured. Now a frog. Is now hunted.