It's dark.
So dark, I can't see any shape nor figure.
Where am I? What happened?
Wasn't someone making fun of me calling me a sage?...No, a "great sage", that's right.
There definitely was someone, I heard them just before I died.
Wait, I died?
How do I know I died?
Dying people don't know they died, do they?
Let's see what I remember.
My name, Mikami Satoru. 37 years old, nice guy.
I was meeting Tamura but then some robber came out of nowhere and almost stabbed him and the receptionist girl, Sawatari.
I pushed them out of the way and I ended up getting stabbed instead. After that…
Anyway, I remember. I'm okay. No need to panic.
After all, cool guys don't panic. Cool guys don't look at explosions either, haha.
Right, time to get to grips with things. Just where in the heck am I?
It's so dark, I can't even see my hands.
Wait, where are my hands? I can't feel them!
Are my arms moving? They're moving, right? I can't tell.
No, no, no, no, this isn't happening.
I should be able to see something shouldn't I? Are my eyes even open?
Open eyes...NOW! ...Still pitch black!
Alright, to hell with what cool guys do, now is the time to panic.
Wait, no. Calm down Satoru.
Breathe.
Take a moment...or an hour, and just breathe…
Am I even breathing?! I honestly don't know anymore.
Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.
...Wait, maybe I should be panicking? It's better to do something than nothing, right?
But what if it's too late to even consider panicking?
Okay, back to not panicking.
I can't feel my hands or arms, nor can I feel myself breathing.
I can't feel that stab wound I got earlier, no sense of pain at all.
That's good, I guess? Or is it?
Would it be better to feel something, even utter pain than absolutely nothing at all?
Anyway, for the time being, no pain.
Not hot or cold. Actually it's a pretty comfortable temperature.
...I can feel the temperature? Hang on, I can feel the temperature! So that means I can feel something after all! What else can I feel?
I already know I can't feel my hands or arms.
Now that I think about it, I can't feel any muscles at all.
It's not like I would lose those from a stab in the back would I?
Hang on… a stab in the back.
I feel a sense of dread and unease slowly creep upon me.
What if it hit the spine and now I'm in some kind of vegetative state?
No, no, no, no, please not that!
Being paraplegic would be preferable to that!
Stuck in this darkness, alone?
They say when people are confined in darkness, they quickly go mad.
I'm there right now, maybe dying would be better.
All I have left now is wait to go insane, huh? HUH!?
Hang on a sec.
What was that?
I just felt something.
It feels...flat, but with a lot of tickly threads or something. Is this grass? Am I in a field?
Focus on that area more than anything. Hmmm, wait. I have a body, I can tell!
I can start to feel the tall grass wipe and tickle across it. Still no arms or legs though, but knowing I can feel something at all kind of made me happy.
Though I'm still in complete darkness, gaining at least one of my five senses is seriously relieving.
So I have a body. No ligaments though. But is it still possible to move?
Instead of using my legs, I should just try to focus on exerting myself forward. Okay, aaaand..NOW!
*zurizuri*
I can feel myself moving. I'm moving! Oooh, thank god.
But where am I moving? I thought I must have been in a hospital bed or something, but why would I feel grass there? Also, I swear I felt a rock or something. This hospital is lacking in the hospitality, you'd think that would be the first thing the focus on. It's in the name "hospital" after all.
Well, it doesn't matter, obviously I'm not in a hospital. And still, I can't see where it is I'm moving.
Can't hear anything either, beyond this voice in my head. Maybe I've gone deaf, too? Do I even have ears? How about a nose? I can't smell anything either. Seriously, I just can't understand the shape of my body.
For the time being, I'll move through this grass and learn about myself through contact, the only sense I seem to have left at the moment.
I can feel the grass brush past, the rocks too. But the rocks don't hurt, no scratches at all.
If anything, I feel myself mould around them like some kind of soft dough. But sleeker and more jelly-like like one of those…
I really don't want to think about this but am I a… You know… those things famous in the beginning levels of JRPGs. I mean, it feels like that. It's the only thing that makes sense given the situation. But there's just no way, is there?
I mean, no matter how much it makes sense, it just doesn't make sense!
I'll just try to ignore what does and doesn't make sense for the moment, I should try the last of my five senses. But I don't even know where my mouth is, if I even have a mouth. What to do…?
-Active Unique Skill [Predator]? [Yes]/[No]-
It's that same synthesized computer voice again! I heard it before when I was talking to Tamura, I thought it was a hallucination, but I guess not, huh?
Maybe someone's there? But that doesn't make sense, I can't hear anything else, especially not without ears. And besides, it was more like words appearing in my mind.
I can still imagine the [Yes]/[No]. I should probably choose [No] for now.
Do I click on them with an imaginary mouse or something? Or do I just think the word?
Let's try thinking it.
Aaand…"No."
…
...
...Is there supposed to be some kind of response? How do I know if I chose it correctly? Will nothing happen at all until I choose [Yes]? So much for free choice in the matter.
Can I choose yes now?
Hello?
Mr. Computer voice guy thing?
Can I choose yes now? Where are you?
I have to admit though, hearing a voice, even a computer one, made me slightly happy.
But now I regret choosing "No", but there's nothing I can do about it now. I guess I'll go back to trying to taste something. Where's that grass again?
I move myself towards where I thought I last felt the grass. I can feel the tips prickle, yet the more I move into it, the more I can feel it melt. Not my body, no, no. The grass! I swear the grass melted and absorbed into my body! Didn't taste of anything though.
Well that confirms it, doesn't it? There's no other logical explanation.
I'm not human anymore.
Which means, I really did die from that stab wound, didn't I?
Which also means I'm definitely not in a hospital bed, but in some rocky place where grass grows.
What happened to Tamura, and Sawatari? Did Tamura properly wipe my computer for me?
Wait a sec. I'm not human anymore. So what am I? I mean I thought I was that thing but am I really? I should try moving some more.
*puyon puyon*
I feel like a blob. And not that "3 buckets of KFC and a night of netflix" kind of "blob", either. But literally. I feel like an actual blob all over.
It seems I really have reincarnated. Not only that, but as a slime of all things.
To hell with it, I'm eating this grass.
All of this grass.
Why?
It's obvious isn't it?
I. Have. Nothing. Else. To. Do!
[Writer's note: I intend to re-write Tensura in the 3rd person, with more thoughtful and descriptive writing. But to fully show and emphasize the solitude and thought process of Rimu- I mean, Satoru, I thought it best to stick with first person for this particular part of the story. The rest, I hope to write in the 3rd person in the same style as the first chapter, "Prologue". Thanks for reading!]
