Pantom Thief Rose - The prelude

*BAM*

Crossing the road, suddenly a flash of white.
Everything went white, then turned red in a world of pain, and black in a world of ****.

Sae Yoake was just another college girl, and a fated encounter with Truck-kun sent her straight to another world... or so she hoped, currently naked in the middle of a black nowhere.

Black.
Black everywhere.
Black above, black below.
Black left, black right.
Black front, black back.

If she couldn't feel herself standing on her feet, the busty red-head may even think she was just a lost soul floating in the void.
Her body was as bare as the surrounding and pretty much the same as it was before Truck-kun did his thing... to be precise, it was the same minus the rose-shaped red mark on her left hips, barely above her navel.

Did that have something to do with her current situation?

"Yes" a voice answered her unspoken question, and suddenly she found out she wasn't alone anymore.

The ground she couldn't see rippled and as if emerging from a lake, a canine-headed humanoid appeared from within.
His skin was darker than the black surrounding themselves, as if it was a brand of darkness leagues below the common black color, and was in high contrast with the golden accessories adorning his semi-naked body, an lavishly adorned silk cloth being the only resemblance of clothes on his body and barely hiding what looked like a third leg beneath...

Well, he was still more dressed than the naked Sae, which squeaked in embarassment while trying to hide her privates with her hands.

"W-who... what are you?" she asked with a ting of fear mixed with embarassment in her tone.
She'd swear she saw he smirk in response, but how could she recognize a dog's facial expression?

"Jackal, not a dog"

He spoke with an hint of amusement, and she realized he was reading her mind.

"You are dead"

No shit, Sherlock.
She already realized, but he was still too direct considering it was such a touchy subject.

"I rule over ****"

So it was his fault she died?
No, he didn't look like the sleeping driver that ran her over... no, wait, maybe the driver was dead too?
If he was...

"I hold played no part upon your passing, but i rejoice for it nonetheless"

Fucking troll.
So he was here to laught at her?

"I know not what kind of role such foul creature played in your past world, but i am no troll. I am a god"
Before she could think of something blasphemous, he kept speaking "I'm not your god, if you ever had any to being with... but i will be"

Is that so?
She didn't look convinced, but she soon was. As soon as he added "I will, if you do not wish for the void to rend your soul and fall into oblivion, never to ascend or reincarnate again"

Was that what happened to people once they die?
No heaven, no hell, no nothing... no, wait, he spoke of ascending and reincarnation so why was she out that look?

"Because i made it so"

This fucker.

"You wish to mate with me? Bold one, but worthy of it. However what you see is merely a projection, even as a god i can't interfere with matters outside the bounds of my world... or so it should be, if it wasn't for my absolute rule over **** and your fortunate passing at a most auspicious time"

Who'd want to mate with him?
She was sure that the "fortunate" and "auspicious" he was talking about would hold a complete opposite meaning for her.

"Therefore i pulled, and now you're lost in a rift between worlds with me as your only anchor to existence. Should my projection leave, there would be nothing to prove you actually or ever existed, and therefore you will cease to be"

So... should she thank him?
Because she now existed solely thanks to him, albeit he was the one to made it so in the first place.

"I now have a deal for you"

That sounded more like a devil than a god.
Maybe he was an evil god?

"Gods have no alignment. We simply are, and behave according to the laws we rule over. Good and evil do not apply to describe us, though terms such as neutral, lawful and chaotic could still be applicable"

Was he some sort of D&D fanatic?
Apparently the **** god ignored her last thought and kept going.

"You have a choice to make. Be lost to the void and cease to be, or become my vessel and act out my will into my world"

There was an awful lot of my in that deal.
My this, my that, my here, my there.
But point was, Sae didn't was to cease to be and therefore could only accept becoming one of his "my".

"A most wise choice, as expected of my new shrine maiden"

Indeed, he was quick to brand her as his.
Hopefully he'll also be as quick to explain what being his shrine maiden would entail...

"Enact my will, didn't i already say so? As a god not only i can't interfere with matters outside my own world, but i also can't easily **** my will onto the mortal plane... or at least i can't without triggering some sort of calamity. To be clear i'm not against calamities, but my involvement would mean blowing it out of proportion and the amount of dead souls i'd have to process in a short time would increase beyond the godly acceptable"

In short, he was too lazy.
If he got too involved too many people would die, but being the god of **** every single dead soul will end up in his underworld or whatever he had here so the price for having fun in the mortal world would be an increase in workload.

"I do not approve of your wording, but your assesment is on point. Now, for the main problem..."

He paused, as if trying to bring up some tension and thrill for what he was about to say.

"... i do not dare to mess with the mortal world, but that doesn't mean other gods don't dare. The most involved is the goddess of love, her interference spreading not only love but also leading to an increase in birthrates"

Isn't that an happy thing?

"Life begets life, and the more life is born now the more deaths will come later"

So the more the population increase, the more work you'll have later.
Therefore you want to interfere while you still have time to do so, and she... did he want to turn her into an executioner? A genocidal murderer?
He didn't want to get his hands dirty himself (because too many people would die and he'd end up buried in work) and so he wanted to dump it all on her?

"No, nothing of the sort. No matter how much you'd kill, it'd still not be enough to offset the increasing birthrate. I'm already employing alternative solutions for that, but the problem is that they aren't working as well as i hoped" he sounded almost frustrated, but he still continued "Initially i sent down an undead plague. Figured less people would pass on if the deads were kept on the mortal realm, and their grudge for the living would lead to conflicts and more undeads"

"The plan failed. Allowing them to be sentient and have a sense of self didn't improve their efficency in expanding and creating more undeads, the fools instead took it as a second chance at life and went on to do whatever they wanted with the sole purpose of enjoying themselves! To warn them i sent down a curse, made it so most of them would become the mindless murdering tools they were supposed to be, but instead of coming to their senses and taking charge of the mindless... the ones who didn't fall to the curse, those fools, they reneged me instead!"

Fury, it was clear he was very pissed at his failure.
For Sae though, he only sounded more and more like the evil god he denied he was.

"Well, i still have other plans, and those do not involve you. Instead, your main task will be to recover artifacts that will help us in our endeavoir"

Good, she won't have to become a murdering tool... though she was pretty sure that recover he was talking about wouldn't be as wholesome as he made it sound.
To make a guess, she would most likely end up a thief or something like that.

"Wise, as expected of my shrine maiden. You have to recover those relics, and you can employ any mean to do so... aside from that, and a few other tasks i may assign you from time to time, you'll be free to act as you wish"

Could she really do that?
Somehow she doubted it, but it wasn't like she was in any situation to refuse so...

"Good, now it's time to remould your body"