Chapter 1: Five years old
The foundation of brain development depends heavily on the first 5 years of a child's life. Particularly between the ages of 3-5, that is when a child is learning the most. They typically enter into a learning environment and this is where children learn to form connections with other children and build habits that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. Much of their development is dependent on having a nurturing home environment.
Luckily in this life I was given a phenomenal chance at a good start to life. Ironically, my father was a doctor and my mother worked as a florist. Two subjects that I showed great interest in my previous life, medicine and the language of flowers. They were both kind people and despite missing my first family I grew to love them just as much. They called me their 'lucky flower' taken literally if you were to translate my name into English, Tsubaki meaning camellias and our family name, Yoshino, meaning lucky field.
My new parents do everything in their power to provide me with the tools I'll need in life. Even when I was at an age when most other babies wouldn't be able to create enough connections in their brains they were feeding me with books and information that not every child gets to learn even when they're older. I loved it, especially now that my brain was at an age where it was easier for me to relearn everything.
Tsubaki Yoshino is Japanese, a drastic change from my previous life as an all American girl who grew up in Connecticut. There was still a small mental block for me when it came to Japanese. I understood it and I was able to start speaking it better in the last few months, but I missed English. At times, when I know that my parents are asleep I'll translate my picture books into their English counterparts. I'll point to a word and say out loud the English reiteration. Even with my young brain I knew this would be too advance but I didn't want to let go of something so important to my past.
My memories of my previous life had remained in tact. I slowly began recalling them when my brain was able to develop well enough for me to be able to remember more. Slowly, bit-by-bit, I was regaining pieces of an old puzzle as I was simultaneously creating a new one. I remembered how I lived and how I died, my mother from a previous life and even the few friends that I had been able to make. I couldn't remember exactly what I looked like but hopefully it was similar to my beautiful first mother with her long dark hair, tanned complexion and gorgeous features. I remember being short in my old life but that could've been attributed to the fact that I had grown up rather sickly.
I was a cancer patient in my first life, Acute Lymphatic Leukemia, and it was horrible needless to say. I was diagnosed when I was 7 years old, spent about 5 years in and out of the hospital fighting it, went into remission at age 12. Spent a hopeful 7 years in remission only for the cancer to come back when I was about to turn 20 years old with the doctors telling that the cancer looked 10 times more aggressive than the first time. I spent another 2 years at the hospital until I passed away a few weeks before my twenty-second birthday and was given another shot at life.
And so far it wasn't half bad.
It wasn't until my first day at a new kindergarten that I had made the connection that this life wasn't just some miraculous reward for being sick in my previous body. This was the day that I made two new friends. Well really one friend, the other one sort of just went along with her, but five year old me was prideful and wanted to be able to tell my parents that I made two friends instead of just one.
She was the first friend that I had made in this new life. Not that my parents kept me away from other children, but because most of the children I met at the park either didn't show up the following day or they thought I was weird because I would say things not of this world. It took me a while before I realized that this life wasn't in the same year as my death. My death had taken place in May of 2019, but I was born in April of 1975.
Most kids didn't want to play with me after I kept asking about computers and iPads and wanting to watch television together.
But regardless, I met this new friend before nap time on my first day after moving to the area. The teacher had instructed us to grab our bed sheets in order to set up for nap time and I noticed that a girl, about my size, wearing her hair in two pigtails, was trying to carry two sets of bed sheets.
"Why are you carrying so much?" I asked confused on if my parents had missed the memo and I was supposed to bring an extra blanket or something.
"My friend doesn't like to carry his things," She signed. "My mom told me to watch out over him so I'm helping."
My older self would've told her to leave the blankets and make him get it himself but I knew that wouldn't have made sense for a five year old to have that much common sense. So instead I said, "I can help you!"
We carried the blankets into the room and I watched as the girl made not only her bed but the boy's bed as well.
"See Yusuke, that's how you make a bed so you better do it yourself next time!"
"But it's such a pain Keiko!" the boy replied back.
And that was when I made a new connection.
"What did you say your names were again?" I asked.
"What's it to ya, new girl?" the boy said sticking his tongue out at me.
"He's not always that annoying, my name is Keiko Yukimura and his name is Yusuke Urameshi!"
Needless to say nap time wasn't a very productive period for me that day.