Finally, I am so happy!
At last, after all these challenging 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 while walking.
The ceremony was grand and extravagant, as people celebrated the first human group chosen to reach the unknown afterlife.
After receiving his "Otherworld 1-Fisherman" badge, Pluto anxiously 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 almost dim, yet somehow forgotten under the weight of joy and happiness.
By now, the entire world knew: the first group of people had begun their expedition into the afterlife.
After some minutes, the ship departed, and as the voices of the crowd faded, it rose into the sky, dissolving into a storm of shimmering, bright 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 for the first time.
There were three other persons.
The first was a girl, short in stature but most likely older than him, her long hair carried both light and dark tones and her face was marked by confusion, just like everyone else.
The second looked like an old trunk of ugly chopped wood: tall, broad and rigid, yet with unexpectedly gentle features.
The third felt strangely familiar. He wore glasses that gave him a sharp, intelligent look, accompanied by his slim build and short height that somehow were making him even more serious and hardworking.
Pluto let out a reassured breath. He had expected a lot 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 so he remained silent, visibly unsettled.
"I thought it would be much darker," commented the tall one, Zan(from Zanone, the name written on his tag).
The shorter one nodded quietly. His name was Vano, and his silence was also strangely comforting.
Their simple mission was to observe and study this unknown place, and it was an honor.
At first, they were kind of lost. But with time, they managed to adapt to this strange new world.
Surprisingly, He didn't miss home that much. He could still message the little number of people he knew through his phone, which somehow never ran out of battery.
The group slowly 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. Like I still have so much to do if I want to keep up here.'
This was what Pluto was writing in his brand new agenda, while he was sitting near an old barrel on the ship.
Zan slowly walked up there and sat next to him.
"Feel lonely already?"
"I think that's probably the answer, 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?
Appreciating everything without considering anything."
Pluto shook his head quickly without even letting him finish.
"I loved and still love, yet I still can't find any connection with what you're saying."
Reya made an understanding and researching sound from where she was sitting(in an almost unsettling way)on top of the barrel.
"Just you wait, that's only the start of what you can't understand, 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 and seriousness at everything around them.
"What's your problem, instead?"
He asked quietly, taken aback and somewhat scared of the guy's habit.
Vano sighed and switched his eyes on them.
"Well, I guess that everything's my problem but nothing's the solution."
Reya immediately 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, while everyone looked at her retrieviny back.
And then, some days passed.
It was pretty hard to cooperate at fist, but 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 society who organized the expedition kept in contact with the group using some strange looking earbuds, called Hoki.
The A-Souls(or that's what people called them on social media) were mainly peaceful and even had a sort of 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 back home.
About a week later, they were finally given their first chance to go on another serious expedition, among other unstudied creatures, defined as B-Souls.