Chapter 1
'W-Where am I?' was the first thought in my mind as I weightlessly existed in some god forsaken place. 'I-I was heading to zero period at school after football practice when I heard some…what did I hear again? It's kind of hard to remember, urgh, this is frustrating. Oh wait! There was a lot of screaming and I heard a bunch of footsteps behind me, which indicated that many people were running. Then all of a sudden a loud sound rang out… and then I can't remember anything else…hmm.'
In the dark void of… wherever I was, I started wondering and theorizing what could have possibly happened. 'The loud bang could have just been a firework or some type of stupid prank done by the damn Owen twins again…bastards. I never did like them ever since they bullied me in middle school. Anyways, maybe I was knocked down by people running through the hall and then hit my head? Maybe?'
In this place I felt as if my body was in a state of…stasis…I guess. That's probably the most appropriate word to describe my current situation. I've been thinking on my situation for, oh I don't know, ages. Maybe? I can't even tell how much time has passed since the 'Hall Incident' as I've deemed it, and nothing has really changed. Wait! One thing has changed! I've finally come to a conclusion on what has happened!
I was walking through the hall at my high school and then someone…most likely the Owen brothers (definitely the Owen brothers)…set off some stupid prank and then stirred up a crowd, sending people rushing through the hall and bumping into me as a result. I then must've crashed into the lockers and hit my head resulting in this coma. Yes. That is my conclusion after many…hours? Days? Months? of conjecture. Well, since I couldn't really do anything physically I tried to make my time useful and made plans on what to do after I got out of this coma. However, after quite some time while I was in mid-thought something changed.
'-en after my dad's birthday party I can set a date for the interview with Rai-…What the hell is that?' A warm feeling began slowly spreading over my entire body. At first I thought that I had imagined it on my fingers and toes but after I had dismissed the warmth I felt it start to crawl up my arms and le- 'Wait! Fingers! Toes! Arms and Legs! I CAN FEEL PARTS OF MY BODY BABY! I'M FINALLY MAKING MY COMEBACK! O-Okay j-just calm down and take mental deep breaths…since I can't take any physical deep breaths at the moment. Just focus on this warm feeling.'
So for a very long time…I think, I focused on the warmth that slowly crawled its way up my appendages. It was a slow-going process for sure. It felt like the stupid warmth was taunting me as it crawled at a handicapped snail's pace…don't even ask if a snail can even be handicapped, I wouldn't know. That's just how slow the pace feels. As the warmth spread over my body I was finally made aware of my physical body. It was…strange to say the least. It was as if my body was being created at the exact moment the warmth spread towards me. It was an odd feeling.
Intellectually, I knew that I must've had a head and a body, but at this very moment I only felt the physical existence of my limbs. I couldn't even feel my torso or head yet. As I said…strange. It was when the warmth reached my elbows and knees when I realized that the warmth was originating from both within me and from around me. It was as if it was seeping out from within my bones as well as being absorbed from a source outside of my body. Now I have no proof of any of this, this is all guess work but I feel pretty confident in this guesswork. Although I may never get any of the answers, it's fun to guess.
Anyways, time passed and I was finally able to feel my entire body, head and wee-wee included. Yeah that's right, I have a wee-wee. What? I'm glad I have my wee-wee still, it is still needed for future endeavors. After gaining access to my body once again I worked on moving my limbs. It was definitely harder than I thought. 'What in the world? Did I lose all motor control due to a single blow to the head!? I'm pretty sure I'm not that fragile. I have played tackle football ever since I was eight years old and I have never had a single injury. How are you going to tell me that one blow to the head wipes out all bodily control!?'
Moving on, after a while I was able to move each of my fingers, toes arms and legs. However, whenever I moved I felt a small outside resistance. It…It seemed like there was something around me, almost like gravity that was higher than the Earth's gravity. Yet I felt as if I was floating…I-I don't know how to explain it in words. With more time and improvement in controlling my body I was able to kick and flail quite a bit but not too fast due to the weird resistance around me. As I practiced I felt yet another strange sensation. The warmth had finally seeped into my entire body and saturated it, I guess, activating a very, very, very tingling and itchy reaction within my body.
I had just started practicing moving my mouth and with this quite discomforting feeling I utilized that practice and opened my mouth to scream out but no sound came out, the action was sadly futile. For what felt like ages, the tingling and itchiness within my body persisted. Finally, I grew accustomed to the stupid feeling and it no longer bothered me, other than me now being aware of this stupid itchiness within me of course.
My practices entered an entirely new level once I discovered out how to move the warmth within and along my body. The only downfalls were that I couldn't move the warmth very far or even effectively and that the itchiness seemed to crawl alongside the warmth whenever I moved it. Since I didn't like that itchy feeling I deigned to not do it anymore at this current moment in time.
I hadn't messed with the warmth in a while and I was getting used to the foreign itchiness inside me to where I almost didn't even notice it anymore without feeling for it. So, like all pioneers in their respective studies, I continued to experiment with the warmth. I still couldn't see in this blasted place so I've been thinking that the blow to my head caused me to go blind as well…just great. I am, however, able to hear something when I move some warmth to my ears. THUMP THUMP…THUMP THUMP…THUMP THUMP 'Hmm, what in the world could that sound be- what the hell? That sounds like a heartbeat! Am I listening to my own heartbeat? How strange.'
After many advances in the 'study of the almighty warmth' I have gained a bit of basic motor control, or a barely (pitifully) acceptable amount of it. It was in the middle of one of my exercise routines that I hit something with my foot while doing a kick. 'FIRST CONTACT! Okay…okay…okay I can do this. Utilize warmth and transfer it to my leg and then kick and reeeeaaach, GOT IT!' After first contact I included kicking the ever present and unknown obstacle in my exercises.
Then one…day? Night? I don't know, one moment I was manipulating the warmth to cycle through my body when the resistance around me seemed to shudder. I stopped my activity and, for a second, I thought that I had imagined it but then the shudder happened once again. 'Okay…so what's happening now?' Is all that I could ask myself when I felt what seemed like walls closing in around me and pushing up against me.
'Okay, out of all of the changes to my situation I like this one the least. I don't like this feeling. It's squeezing meeee AHHH!' With one final push from the walls around me and the pull of some strange thing grabbing my head, I was welcomed by a disorienting light and many…colors. I tried to gain my bearings as I moved my limbs and stared at the looming tannish blur above me.
"WAHHHHH WAHHHHH." '
Who the hell is making that racket? Somebody shut that baby up! Woah!' I felt my body being suddenly moved around and once again that stupid baby was crying. It wasn't until I was settled, and no longer being moved around by whatever it was that moved me around, that I clearly saw the pale face of a woman just inches above mine. She had long sandy blonde hair surrounding an oval face that contained two dark orange eyes that stared down at me.
Her eyes were full of the same look that my dad held for me back in the past, but there was something extra as well. She looked…well frankly she looked at me with love and sadness accompanied by a soft smile, if the upright curve of her pink lips indicated correctly. It was then that I realized the significance of everything that had just happened and the baby's crying suddenly stopped. 'Oh shit…..th-thi-this i-i-is insane! I must be hallucinating!' I was brought out of my thoughts by the feeling of soft lips on my head and a beautifully soft voice.
"Dai suki da yo, Takara." She said before handing me off to somebody else.
'What did she say? What language was that? No, first, WHERE THE HELL AM I?!' Still trying to wrap my head around the current situation, I never noticed how deathly pale my new mother's complexion was or how after she handed me off to somebody, nurses then flocked to her position. Later on, long after this entire occurrence ended, I realized that was the first and last time that I would see my mother in this world. Just like in my previous world, I had once again lost my mother at birth. At least my mother gave me a name this time around and I would treasure it until the day I died. 'Takara.'