Somewhere in the in-between, two people drive on a highway between worlds.

“Hey, can I pick the next person?” The woman sitting in the passenger seat asked.

The man driving looked surprised by the request. He thought for a minute not seeing the harm, "Sure, and speak of the devil." A clipboard appears on. The truck's console. "Here."

The woman grabbed the clipboard looking it over.

Between 12 and 16.

Male preferred.

Target hero has a sense of being isolated in his own circles, yet has a strong sense of duty to those around him. Willing to put the needs of the many over himself.

Nationality doesn’t matter.

The woman read over the paperwork shocked, “Wow never realized how basic these are.”

The driver laughed, “Yeah, they can't really give specific details, mainly because they themselves don’t understand what a hero really is. In fact, this is an approximation of what they are looking for.”

“And you know what a hero is?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“Come on. I’ve already taught you this.”

The woman stopped remembering something the man said a long while back. “A hero is just an ordinary person.” The man gave her a keep-going gesture. “An ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances.

“Correct!” The man almost shouted before adding, “Maybe I forgot to add to it but also rise to the occasion”

“Oh.” The woman nodded then frowned, “Hey, this is probably important how do I pick a hero?”

“You find someone who fits the request.”

“But how?” The woman looked back over the request, “There are a lot of people, that probably fit the request.”

The man looked blankly at the woman before suddenly realizing he never taught her, and finally feeling it was time. The man sighed, “You've grown so much I guess it's time to teach you.”

“Grown? Teach me what.” The woman looked on confused trying to make sense. ‘The man has always been teaching me, shouldn’t I already know whatever this is? Was this something he taught and I wasn’t paying attention?’ These intrusive thoughts flowed through the woman as she stared hard at the paperwork not letting him see her thoughts.

“I need to teach you how to feel the strings of fate. It will also guide you to the next person.” The man said melancholy.

Somewhere on a pale blue marble, in the middle of nowhere, no sign of civilization two people gather, one a woman sitting, the other a man walking around the girl instructing. The woman sits eyes closed concentrating on the man's words.

“Relax, let yourself drift through.” The man says

Confused the woman opens her eyes to ask, “Shouldn't I focus?”

“No, let it drift. And don't interrupt.” The man admonished

“Fine.” The woman closed her eyes, letting her mind drift, focusing on nothing, letting the calm flow through her.

Seeing her beginning to relax the man started talking again, “Let your mind drift. Let your body's energy flow out of you. Let it flow like a nebulous cloud drifting in the sky, dissipating, and returning to the universe. Let it intermingle with all it touches, finding all the bright connections of the universe.”

The woman did as the man said letting all her power drift off, flowing out. It was strange like she was everywhere at once, drifting everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “This is weird.” She said feeling the need to speak the oddness aloud.

“It does at first.” The man paused to ask, “Do you feel anything?”

At first, she only felt the overwhelming feeling of being everywhere when she suddenly found, what she could only describe as a connection, “I feel the connections?” The more she felt them the more they became clear, “Those are people.” There was an overwhelming number of connections, “There are so many how could I find anything here?”

The man chuckled, “Good. Now we will filter things out.”The man's voice grew slightly distant as he spoke next, “Imagine those connections you found as starting points, let the energy flow through, don't try to control let your subconscious flow through it, just let it.”

A flash of billions of lives played in a cacophony through the woman's mind, overwhelming her, but the longer she did the more she understood, she was seeing their fates. “Wow, I can see what might be, for so many people.” Then she started to notice some of the fates ending abruptly like a television shut off. “Why do so many just stop?”

“Those are sudden deaths, for one reason or another,” The man said sadly.

“Oh,” she understood not needing any more information.

“Yeah.”

The man changed the subject jumping back into the lesson, “Now while drifting along the lines of fate, let your mind wander over the requirements on the clipboard.”

The woman did as instructed letting the request float through. “One by one the connections disappeared from billions until there was still over a thousand to choose from. She was shocked at how few fit the criteria but also surprised by the amount, “They're still so many.”

“Now filter your own criteria, the type of people you wouldn’t want or the type of person you would.”

The woman thought on who would benefit, ‘Orphan.’ A hundred connections disappeared.

‘Doesn't have any friends.’ All but a hundred connections remained.

‘Reads Isekai books.’ Ten left.

‘Would be happy to leave earth.’ With that, only a single person remained. A fourteen-year-old boy, tired of this world always dreaming of being a hero in a new one, knowing he would thrive in a world of magic.

The woman smiled, “I think I found one.”

“Good. Now follow his fate.” The man commanded.

The woman followed the boy's fate watching learning that if the boy stays here he will stay in the system never being adopted. In the system, he will be physically abused, and no one will ever believe him or those who might he is too afraid to speak up. Eventually, the boy gets out when he turns eighteen and somehow stays away from drugs and eventually makes a good life for himself. Getting married, having kids. The man looked happy. The woman snapped out of her meditative state, tears in her eye, and angry. “Why did you make me do that?”

“To show you what you're taking away.” The man said sadly, “Sure his circumstances suck now but later? And the potential in that fate is then used to give them power in the other world”

“That.” The woman was dumbfounded barely listening to the explanation, “Why do we do this?”

“Close your eyes.” The man said calmly.

“Why?” She demanded

In a stern no-nonsense tone, he commanded, “Just do it.” Instinctively she did. “Now find the connections again.”

Reluctantly she did, taking a little longer this time, letting her anger cool, “Ok.”

“Now pull out a little, what does it look like.”

The woman did taking in the network of lives, “Like a million little wires. Wait what is that tangled bit?”Among the little wires was what looked to be a giant tangled mess, cutting the flow off of many different fates.

“There that's what I wanted you to see. That is a forced summon.”

“What?”

“See when we take certain people, we untangle the mess’s of fate, or surgically cut the threads letting the others go. If we don't that giant mess pulls on all the strings until they tare. Causing much more devastation.”

The woman stared down at the tangled mess, and she could feel hundreds of thousands of different lives tangled together. It was when she was examining the web she noticed a thread not the red of fate but a black thread, “Wait what is this black thread?

The man stopped his circling, “Black thread?”

“Yeah, it looks like there is only one.” Then it disappeared, “Wait it's gone.”

“Don't worry about that for now.” The man dismissed.

“What is it?”

“Nothing good, a monster.”

“On earth?” The woman said shocked.

“Not anymore it can't survive here.” He explained.

“Why?” Then she realized, “No mana.”

“So we have a target.” The man skilfully changed the subject.

The woman reluctantly said. "I guess"

The man smiled, it never reaching his eyes, as he looked at the web around the earth seeing another black thread forming, and slowly fading away. 'This is too soon.'