And Just Like That, I Transmigrated

"I finally pulled it off!" The young man raised both hands over his head, panting as he looked up at the sky and thought:

Hard work really does pay off. I practiced nonstop for three days without sleep, and I finally recreated that combo. Hahaha! Now that I've done it, even the sky looks bluer, the trees greener, and the air fresher! Huh? Wait, the sky, trees, fresh air? Where am I? What's going on?

The young man came to his senses and looked around. Grass lay beneath his feet, trees surrounded him, and he was wearing a white Japanese yukata. Confused, he thought:

How did playing a game get me transported out to the middle of nowhere? And someone even changed my clothes? What am I supposed to do now? Out here in the middle of nowhere...

"It's not exactly the middle of nowhere, is it? Look at your feet. Isn't that a dirt path people have worn through the grass? Follow it and you'll reach somewhere with people. And look, there are wheel tracks on the road. They look pretty fresh, too. If you run fast, you might even catch up with them."

"I see. Wait, no! Who's talking? And in Japanese, too!" The young man looked around, trying to find the speaker as cold sweat trickled down his body.

"Don't bother looking. I don't have a vessel to inhabit yet, so I can't appear before you for the time being."

"A vessel to inhabit? What are you? A ghost?"

"I'm a reflection of your inner self. Based on what you call it in your memories and the information I received when I was born, I should be your Zanpakuto. This is the Soul Society."

The young man froze for a moment, then began processing what the voice had told him. "Zanpakuto, Soul Society, white yukata... So I didn't just transmigrate, I died too? Not necessarily. If I transmigrated straight to the Soul Society, that probably doesn't count as dying, right?"

"No, you did die once. Your physical body was destroyed, and your soul was brought here. Also, your spirit body is unstable right now, and it has suffered some irreversible damage."

"So I really did die." The young man sighed softly. "But what do you mean my spirit body is unstable? And that it's damaged? I don't feel any different from when I was alive." He looked at his hands and moved around a little, but didn't notice anything unusual.

"Then can you say your name?"

"My name is kou— Huh? Why can't I say it?" Unwilling to believe it, the young man tried again. "My name is... Hgh!... Cough, cough... What's going on...!" He began coughing violently, his vocal tract suddenly becoming impossibly rigid, as though something had gripped it.

"Your soul was distorted and altered to a certain extent when you traveled to this world. It was even assailed by the mysterious power that destroyed your physical body. Your current spirit body is already a far cry from the person you used to be. In this world, where chanting certain words of power can unleash power, names are vitally important. It's already a miracle that you can still pronounce even part of your old name. After all, compared to the power of space and traveling between worlds, your original self was far too weak. This spirit body, formed after those powers reshaped and blended it, is rejecting your old name. Someone powerful enough needs to overcome that resistance from your spirit body and give you a new name."

"Is that so?" The young man felt a little dejected. He'd transmigrated and somehow lost his own name. What kind of situation was this?

"You need to find someone to give you a new name. Otherwise, we might not even be able to protect ourselves."

"Huh?"

"If you, my master, don't even have a name, do you think I'd have one? As a Zanpakuto, I have neither a blade nor a name right now. I can't even fight. And public safety in Rukongai isn't all that great..."

The young man searched his memories for the plot, and scenes involving Renji Abarai and Kenpachi Zaraki flashed through his mind. At the thought that those things might happen to him, he couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat.

"The district we're in probably isn't as bad as you think. Otherwise, we'd have been killed long ago, standing around here this whole time. We don't know what era the Soul Society is in right now, whether it's before or after the plot. In any case, information is very important. Let's go somewhere with people first, or we won't be able to get anything started."

"True. We can only take things one step at a time." With that, the young man set off along the dirt road, beginning his journey.