mushoku tensei: unplanned reincarnation

"Hey, no need for this, let's calm down, you two." My voice came out quieter than I expected.

This was getting tiring. They wouldn't stop arguing.

"No! Go away!" the girl protested.

"What now?! You—" the boy, Shinohara Akito, replied, trying to defend himself.

"But you—" the girl, Nanahoshi Shizuka, shot back, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Oops, this feels like I'm in a light novel about lawyers.

"Whatever, just leave me alone!" Nanahoshi shouted, her voice cutting through the soft sound of the rain around us.

"Calm down, calm down," I sighed internally. These two just needed to kiss already to end all this.

Raindrops ran down my face, worsening my mood, which had already been sinking with every second of their useless argument. I looked down and saw my shoe, the one my mother had bought last week. It was now completely soaked in mud. She's going to be furious when she sees me all wet like this.

"Watch out!" a man shouted from across the street.

"Huh?" I looked around, confused, trying to understand the warning. Then I saw it: a truck coming toward us.

Soaked and slipping in the mud, my feet wouldn't move. I stood there, frozen, while Akito instinctively hugged Nanahoshi to protect her.

'I'm sure my family will be sad when they hear about my death.'

Those were my last thoughts before feeling a violent tug on my collar.

A chubby man, soaked in wet clothes and with a red face from the effort, desperately grabbed me, trying to pull me away from the street. However, when he tripped in the mud, he lost his balance and started to fall. Gravity seemed to slow down, and in an instinctive impulse, I pushed him with all the strength I could muster, throwing him aside while my body lunged forward.

Just before the impact, a light shone behind me, warm and blinding. Was this it? The so-called light of life that people say appears before the end? For a moment, I thought I would have all the answers... but the light vanished as quickly as it came, leaving only emptiness.

The sound of the truck was the last thing I heard before the impact.