Chapter 2: A New Beginning
A/N - Alright! I'm back with the second chapter, okay, warning, there are mentions of birth and the whole process, so if you happen to be uncomfortable about that, please skip reading when you see the (WARNING) sign, and continue on until you see the sign that says it's over. Anyways, here's the chapter, if there's anything you don't like please give a review on it, its highly appreciated and, happy reading – Diwata.
"Speaking"
"Thoughts"
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, Eichiro Oda does.
A consciousness awakened in a dark void where there wasn't anything to be seen.
"Where am I?"
An inside voice spoke to no one in particular.
"Hmmmm….."
The voice seemed confused, why was it there? What is its purpose there?
"What am I…?"
Unable to come up with a proper answer to its question, it stayed like that for a while, and by a while, it meant a reaaallllllyyy long time.
It thought of the important questions like, who, what, when, where, and how, but nothing seemed to make sense.
After a few sessions of ask and try to get answers, the consciousness decided on organizing its thoughts first, before it came to a conclusion, based on its observations.
"Okay, based on my findings, I am somewhere dark, with no light whatsoever, not to mention being aware of my surroundings. I also don't have a body, so the only conclusion I can come up with is that, I am a consciousness that just suddenly exists…somehow."
The self-proclaimed consciousness agreed with its plausible theory.
"Uhhh, so now what?"
It thought, unsure of what to do next.
"What do consciousness do anyways? I am so lost right now."
The consciousness asked no one in particular as it was sure no one else is was there with it.
It was all alone, by itself in an unknown place without clear explanation.
Time passed on, and there was no telling how fast or slow it went.
It could have been a few seconds, minutes or a few hours at best, but it could also have been for days, weeks, or even months….!
There wasn't anything to mark how time progressed in that place.
The consciousness could only think for itself and wasn't entirely sure of what do except to just, exist.
The time it spent there was absolutely boring, there's not much that it could do, though that didn't stop it from experimenting on said place.
It tried to move, but it couldn't, must be some restraints or something.
It tried to do something, anything, just to be free from doing nothing.
The consciousness was tired, although it did nothing than scream internally or try not to go insane with the lack of company.
Yeaaaah, it didn't really have a choice or a say in that matter.
"Haahhh, its sooooo boringgg! Why am I even here? Just to suffer? From eternal boredom?"
The consciousness complained for about the 189th time. The lack of entertainment and the absolute darkness almost made the said consciousness go crazy yet again.
Consciousness-es can go crazy, right…..?
"Ahhhhhhhh whhhhyyyyyyy ASDFGHJKL"
And so it complained, and occasionally shouted gibberish, and hoped that something interesting would happen, in the dull dark place it resided in.
Amazingly, someone answered its woes.
Something was heard, it was faint, but undeniably there.
"YES! FINALLY! SOMETHING!" The consciousness shouted, evidently overjoyed at something so trivial.
Try being all alone in the dark with no affirmation of your existence and no entertainment that was even possible down there.
It made the consciousness appreciate even the slightest change or addition in its quote on quote, 'home'.
The consciousness calmed down and analyzed the faint sounds coming from what seemed to be outside.
"So I'm guessing this place is like a shell or something? I mean, the sounds are not coming from anywhere around me, so I could only assume it's from the outside, sooooo there must be a whole new place out there, and I'm stuck in this awful place. This sucks."
It concluded, and continued to listen closely to the sounds outside of its 'shell'.
It was a soothing and gentle sound, and the melody was calming which almost lulled the consciousness to sleep.
"What a pleasant sound, is that 'music', no, more specifically, a 'song'?"
The consciousness asked itself, not that it expected a reply.
The song continued on, which made the consciousness at ease.
It enjoyed it as much as possible, sadly, like all things, it came to an end.
"Awww! Done already?" It felt sad that the pleasant sounds were over, and that the eerie sound of silence was back and enveloped the consciousness once more.
The source of the song was a mystery, yet it felt very familiar.
The song had a form of beauty and aesthetic that the consciousness couldn't express.
"I want MOOOORE" It had a mini tantrum before it settled to just be thankful of whatever that was.
More time passed by, and it was as boring as it could get.
Though the songs were heard occasionally throughout the course of the consciousness' stay in the 'shell' as it named it properly.
The consciousness came in terms of its existence, if the purpose of said consciousness was to drift away in an eternal void, then so be it.
The loneliness always faded away when the song starts.
Honestly, it was the only thing that it looked forward to the most as there wasn't really anything to do there.
The consciousness felt something, and that something felt reminiscent of being underwater.
Swirling in some sort of fluid, anyways, it was there and the consciousness somehow had the ability to have a sense of touch.
"OH! Alriiiighhtt! Now we're getting somewhere!" the consciousness exclaimed.
Finally, the unknown puzzle pieces started to make even a teeny bit of sense.
It cannot really understand how, but still, now that it realized that 'It' was no longer a consciousness if it felt something, right?
"Hmmmmm so at least I'm not stuck with my thoughts to keep me amused in this crummy place."
Then it felt itself shift, around its 'shell'.
"Whoaaa there…what is going on?"
It asked as it continued to unwillingly move around, which made it dizzy. After a while, the shifting stopped.
The good things came one after another after that.
The darkness slowly dissipated and was replaced with a dim light, not very bright, but it was light all the same.
"Woooww! There's light now! Yay!"
It internally shouted in glee because of the light that pierced through the dark shell it was in. The light seemed to vary, sometimes it was bright, and sometimes it was dim and sometimes the light wasn't there.
There was also a gastronomic discovery, something was tasted.
"Ooooohh what is this? A sweet taste…? A-am I tasting something?"
True enough, it did taste something slightly sweet.
Then it started to question itself once more, utterly confused with the new senses the consciousness started to experience.
"Just what am I? okay okay, first, I can say I am sentient, I mean I do know that I am aware of my existence, next I can feel being underwater or in some wet place, I can hear sounds coming from the outside of my shell, I can taste something and I can feel/recognize light, and I know for sure I occupy a body, maybe…..urgh just what am I?"
It went like this for a few moments before a huge bombshell was dropped.
"Wait, I can't be just some animal, right? Because animals don't have complex thoughts like this, they mostly act on instinct. Then, A-am I human? nononono, Humans aren't enclosed in a small space..….…
for nine months."
It was at that moment, it realized, it was stupid.
"I'M A FREAKING FETUS" The realization hit the unborn child like a truck.
"How did I not realize that sooner? I am literally inside something, which is a mother's womb DUH, Its official, ladies and gentlemen, I'm an idiot."
If fetuses can face palm, then the fetus right here would gladly be the first to do so.
"Okay, calm down self, now that you know that you are not merely a consciousness, you should be thankful that you're not a sentient rock or something, because that would be pretty dumb."
It decided for itself that being a fetus was much more fortunate than being a sentient object unable to do anything, it would just be a waste of consciousness really.
"Hmmmm fetuses don't normally have this high thought process before birth, so what is this phenomenon?"
The unborn child pondered to itself, having so many questions and having none answered, made the fetus irked, there was also a frequent itch that came from time to time, it was very subtle, but it was always there, at the back of its head.
"Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something reaaalllyyy important?"
The unborn child asked as it tried to focus hard enough to remember something it wasn't quite sure of, then without a word a load of thoughts gushed in.
"URGH!" The fetus was taken aback by the sudden force of thoughts that ran inside the child's head at 50 mph.
The memories of the life of a young girl flashed through many sequences, from her early childhood, up to her adolescence.
"Wha-what is t-this?" The fetus curled, kicked, and shifted inside the womb.
A surge of feelings and emotions of a lifetime was too much for the unborn child to process.
The emotional baggage that the unknown teen was carrying passed onto the child, all the depressing thoughts and loneliness more evident than the rest.
But the worst of all, was the clear memory of her early demise.
The scenes of the vehicle that rammed her to the side of the street, the loud shouts of the bystanders, the sirens of the ambulance and the excruciating pain the she felt, it all transferred to the underdeveloped mind of a fetus.
The pain was so realistic that the unborn child still felt the wounds and trauma fresh on the flesh and mind.
"M-make it stop!" The child struggled inside the womb as it tried to break free and escape from all the pain.
Though the memories didn't seem to cooperate and listen to the child's pleas.
Meanwhile, outside the womb, a woman clutched her round stomach in pain, her contractions were becoming more frequent during the past hour.
The pain lasted more than a minute each and she was sure that this was it, she was going to be a mother, which was much sooner than she'd anticipated.
On the brink of fainting, she limped off her chair and managed to call for her husband.
"Honey! I-I think it's coming! I'm about to give birth!" The mother shouted with all her might as she supported herself on the nearby table.
Loud thumps were heard soon after and a man in his early thirties came running down the stairs.
"Honey?! What's wrong?!" The husband asked his wife as he supported her in his arms.
"The –huff baby! It's –huff COMING!" The woman screamed as she gripped her husband's arm tightly in between deep breaths.
The man finally understood the situation, and quickly thought of what to do.
He knew she couldn't exactly run in her situation, so he decided to carry his wife bridal style and immediately carried his pregnant wife gently, and rushed out the door.
The door slammed open and the commotion attracted the attention of the people outside, curious of what the racket is about.
"Help! Please! My wife needs to go to the hospital, now!" The man pleaded as he looked franticly for help.
Luckily, the people outside aided them and were kind enough to coach the couple a mode of transportation to the nearest hospital.
"Everything's gonna be alright honey, you'll be fine, just hold on a little longer." The husband reassured his wife as he held her hand.
"I –huff know, it's just –huff hurry….!" The wife replied desperately.
"Can this go any faster? My wife's going to give birth any moment now!" The man asked the driver.
"I'm sorry sir, but this is as fast as we can go, but don't worry, we're nearly there, just a few more minutes." The driver replied calmly, as he maneuvered the streets.
True to his word, they arrived at the hospital after a few minutes. The vehicle halted and the driver assisted and carried the pregnant woman into the hospital.
The medical staff were quick on their feet as the pregnant woman came in. She was put on a stretcher and was moved to the delivery room.
The husband followed his wife inside, as he put on the proper attire which included a face mask, hair net, gloves and other necessary clothing.
The pregnant woman was changed into a hospital gown and then the long process of labor began.
Back to the mother's womb, the unborn child still processed the load of memories that flooded over.
"It's finally over." The fetus thought, mentally exhausted from the illusionary pain that came with the memories.
"B-Bethany….I'm Bethany Elle…..!" The outburst caused the infant to kick inside her mother's womb.
Bethany finally remembered, the itch that came from the back of her head and bothered her for a while, was actually her memories that tried to resurface.
The unborn child was still very confused. How did the memories of her past life carry on a new form?
It just didn't make any sense, people are only born once, and that was it, people don't shrink in and go back to- okay, that's enough, nobody wants to imagine that.
So the only plausible explanation left is—reincarnation.
"Is this reincarnation? Rebirth? I don't really believe in that, but I'm here, I guess, welp its better than nothing, definitely better than to burn in hell." She decided, now calm and rational.
She didn't really believe in reincarnation, but apparently, she was currently the living proof.
If she was truly a regular baby, then she wouldn't have this level of intellect even before birth.
To see is to believe was the saying, maybe God deemed her too young to die and gifted her with another chance to start again, maybe it was not her fate to die in a car accident.
"Man! I died young, I swear from now on I will avoid cars at all costs."
Suddenly, she felt being squashed under pressure, it became harder to breathe as the oxygen she received from her new mother's blood vessels decreased.
"Whoa whoa whoa, what is happening?" She asked as the walls caved in on her, and the flow of oxygen became irregular.
(WARNING)
She felt being squeezed out of something, and that something happened to be her mother's birth canal.
"I totally take it back when I said babies have it easy so long ago, I feel like being fit into an XS shirt when I'm a size XL….!"
The compression did not stop and it expelled the fluids and mucus in the child's lungs as she passed through the canal
"Thisissoweirdthisissoweirdthisissoweird! Good Lord I wish I'm not overly aware of my own birth! C'MON!"
The child internally screamed as her head finally came out of the tight crevice and rotated to push through.
The feeling of the whole experience of birth probably scarred her for life.
Her second life, that is.
In the delivery room, the mother pushed with everything she had, to deliver her baby safely.
"ARGHHH –huff –huff -huff"
The mother panted as she gripped her husband's arm in a bone-crushing manner because giving birth hurts like hell.
Imagine breaking 20 bones at once, and you get the equivalent pain of giving birth.
"Go on honey! Push! The baby is almost out! Just a few more!" Her husband told her, as he looked back and forth at his wife and his baby being delivered.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHH!"
With one final yell, the baby was out and the labor was finished.
"Uwaaa! Uwaaa! Uwaaaa!" The cries of the couple's first child was heard and made the new father tear up.
Carefully, the doctors wiped the excess blood from newborn child and cut the umbilical cord that connected the baby from the mother before gently handing the baby to the eager mother recovering from labor.
(OKAY Y'ALL GOOD TO READ NOW)
"Congratulations Ma'am! You're now a mother of a healthy baby girl." The doctor said, clearly happy for the mother.
The mother carried her baby in her arms, tears slowly slid from her eyes in joy. She looked at her husband, as she ushered him to see their child.
"Look Alexander, our daughter" The mother's smile shined brightly despite of her haggard looks.
"She's very pretty, just like you Melody" Alexander replied as he took the turn to carry his precious daughter, as he observed his child's features.
The doctors then cleaned the operating area and asked the nurses to check on both the baby and the mother.
"How are you feeling ma'am? Are you feeling dizzy?" One of the nurses asked, as she held a clipboard in her hands.
"I'm feeling alright, a bit lightheaded, and it still stings, but for the most part I'm okay." The mother replied and wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
"So, are you going to name the little one right now? Or maybe later when you've decided on what to name her." The nurse inquired the two while she switched in between the pages clipped on the clipboard.
"Well, remember when we were talking about our child's name honey?" Melody asked her husband beside her, as he cooed at the sight of his daughter.
"Yeah, we agreed on naming our baby, Brian, if he was a boy" Alexander mused.
"-and Brielle if she was a girl, so-" Melody added as she looked at her husband for confirmation.
The two looked at each other before they replied in unison with big smiles on their faces:
"Brielle, our daughter's name is Merlin D. Brielle."
Word Count: 2,932
Date Published: December 19, 2019
A/N – Okay seriously though that giving birth scenario was so weird to write I mean—anyways, hope you like the story so far! – Diwata