Chapter 1 : Three Seconds Rule

――I felt a heavy shock in my head, and woke up.

The surroundings were pure white.
In front of me, a blonde girl wearing a simple white gown appeared.
With both of her hands, she held my cheeks and brought my face up.

「E, Excuse me? What is this place?」

「……Haー!?…….So, he's really awake? It would be nice if he didn't wake up, but… Ahhー what should I do now…..」

Said the girl, who dropped her shoulders after saying something disturbing.
If I looked closely, not only her blonde hair, but her blue eyes also made her look like a foreigner.
Without exaggeration, she was truly a beautiful girl.

I saw a pair of wings on her back. A cosplay?
What a really high cosplay quality. As expected from a foreigner.

While thinking about such things, I noticed the changes in my body, at the same time I began to understand the situation.

Eh? Why do I have no limbs? And, it's just me or my body was turned into a ball or something?

I could feel she was touching my cheeks, but my limbs were missing, and for some reason I realized that my body turned sphere.

I became a ball.
And a beautiful blonde girl sandwiched my cheeks with both of her hands.
What's with this situation!?

「Miss? What kind of situation is this?」

「Oh, right, I have to explain. Ahem. You died」

YES!? Is this girl kidding?

I remembered yesterday, after work, I stopped by my favorite izakaya; I got drunk, but I managed to get home, and immediately dove into my bed.

*/ Izakaya : Japanese bar restaurant

「Ah, indeed there are people who can't remember how they died, but your case was different. While still drunk, you slipped when you tried to jump into your bed, and hit the back of your head against the floor. You may not remember because you were drunk, but that's how you died. You're lucky, because your death wasn't so painful. Well, you might be saved if there was someone who took you to the hospital right away」

So I'm really dead?
I still had something I wanted to do though.
And this girl seems to be able to read my mind.

「Yeap. Because I'm an angel!」

The girl who proclaimed herself as an angel made a smug face.
I hoped she was lying though, but it seemed this wasn't a prank television program, and it felt too realistic to be a dream.
Perhaps I was really dead, and the girl in front of me was really an angel.

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「And… what will happen to me? My body has become a ball though」

「A, Aahh… about that, right now, you're only a soul without a body. And from now, your soul will be washed using a soul washing machine to remove all of your memories, and then you will be reincarnated. That's how it should work, but」

Soul washing machine?
While I was curious about that thing, the angel girl turned her eyes sideways.
There was something like a two-tank washing machine.
Was that a soul washing machine? It looked like an ordinary washing machine though.
So I'll be washed with that thing?

「Well, ordinarily, I'll put you into this machine, wash your memories and sins, and then after you clean, you'll be reshipped to the world… but…」

It looked like she had something to hide.
She looked away as a drop of sweat ran down her cheek.

「A, Actually, I'm a new recruit; today's my first day doing the reincarnation job. And… I accidentally dropped you. You then woke up by the impact」

So my head hit the floor after I died because my head hit the floor, huh.
The unpleasant things really came continuously.
But that didn't really hurt, so it's fine.
Well, it was too bad that I died, but I couldn't help it.

「So do it quickly if you're going to wash me」

「I want to do that, but… normally, we put the unconscious souls into the washer and then shipped them. Look, just like that」

The moment the angel girl turned her gaze to the side, the white wall of this room, which I thought was just a small room, became translucent, and I could see the surroundings.

It was like a call center office or some kind of factory.
People wearing white clothes with wings on their back appeared out of nowhere and lined up horizontally while holding something like a ball, and they threw the balls into the soul washing machines.
After that, they took the balls and put them into the other tank that seemed to be the dehydration tank.
The white balls that had been dried, thrown into the hole on the side of the dehydration tank, rolled down, ended up on something like a white conveyor belt, and sent away.

It seemed that the series of work was repeated endlessly.
The working pace was also really fast.
Looked like they were professionals.
By the way, the angels were lined up horizontally, but I couldn't see the edges.
How vast was this place?

「If the working pace is really fast like that, you don't have time to talk to me like this, right?」

「Well, yeah. But, it will be quite a troublesome matter if there's a case where the soul regains consciousness like you. We cannot wash your memories and sins from your previous life because the moment you woke up here in heaven, your memories and sins will be stacked with the new one. So even if I wash you, the one that will be clean is the new memories and sins, not the old one from your previous life…… aaahh, what should I do」

The angel girl crouched down while still holding me.
She looked quite depressed.
Please dont drop me again.

「But with this kind of flowing work, haven't there been failures like this before? Besides, there's a 3 seconds rule, right!? Well, the souls aren't food though」

*/3 seconds rule : actually, this is a rule of food consumption. If you drop the food on the floor and pick it up within 3 seconds, it's still good to eat.

「Well… that's right. Actually, even if the soul regains consciousness, we can still wash them within 3 seconds before their memories are completely stacked with the new one. But it'll be a little harder to wash like stubborn dirt. I learned it at the training. But when you woke up, I was panicked and my head turned white, so…」

So there really was a 3 seconds rule, huh.
Moreover, it was already too late for me.

「Haahhh….. I'm going to report to my boss for now. Reporting this situation is important after all…. Hahhー I'm sure I'll be scolded……」

While still holding me, the angel girl closed her eyes, and then my view became white.
The next moment, a long white haired gramps with an aura of a great man appeared.