The clock rings. Morning.

A message: tidings of failure.

A mask. A loving family.

Things are fine. I'm fine. I-

Failure. The mask cracks. Rage.

Running. Escaping.

Cold. Regret

I was angry… that's no excuse.

Resolution.

I'll apologise. I-

Screeching wheels, a flash of light-

Oto-Nin

Prologue - Yumika Nogawa

Huh? What happened? Where am I?

I'd slipped, I was about to get hit by some kind of vehicle, then this.

Whatever this is…

Everything was blurry, not just visually either. My listening was distorted, my sense of touch was going haywire, and my sense of smell was a mess.

On top of all that, there was this pressure I couldn't describe.

Was I knocked into the river? Am I drowning?

The pressure was too much, I felt like I was being pushed out of myself-

I blinked.

I'd moved.

Everything was still fuzzy, and that weight was still present.

I tried to move, but my limbs weren't reacting properly.

…or am I just not feeling it properly?

I blinked.

Again, moved, but now things had cleared up slightly. I could make out the vague blobs of colour that resembled shapes, I could feel that I was lying on my back. I could hear sounds, distinct from each other, but still sounding like a bathtub remix.

Most of all, I could confirm I wasn't drowning, this was something else, but I couldn't think with this unbearable headache-

I blinked.

Once is an instance, twice a coincidence, three times a pattern.

Things were slightly clearer, but that didn't matter with this unbearable weight on my mind and body.

Meditation.

The idea struck me. I was an amateur, but if I needed to clear my mind it was a decent go-to.

Breathe in, 2, 3, 4…

I closed my eyes and let go of my vision.

…and out, 2, 3, 4.

A steady, and even pattern.

Breathe in, 2, 3, 4…

I focused on the feel of the air passing my lips, discarding the feel of cloth on my back and the air on my skin.

…and out, 2, 3, 4.

Then I discarded that as well.

Breathe in, 2, 3, 4…

I focused on the sound of my breath, discarding the bubbling and buzzing of the world around me.

…and out, 2, 3, 4.

Then I discarded that as well.

Breathe in, 2, 3, 4…

I focused on the stress in my body, picturing it like a stream of water running through my body. I pulled it together, right into a ball in my heart.

…and out, 2, 3, 4.

Then let it release and flood my body more evenly.

My eyes opened.

The pressure was gone, I could finally think.

Analysis Begin!

What do I know?
1. I've been moving around.
2. The movement appears to be instantaneous.
3. My senses are haywire, but improving with each move.
4. My last memory before this is almost being hit by a vehicle.

Subject: Movement?
Assertion: Facts 1 and 3 indicate a passage of time.
Objection: Fact 2. Movements appear instantaneous.
Take that!: Emphasis on 'appear'. A lack of consciousness or memory would have a similar effect. Added as speculation 1.

Objection overruled.

Assertion accepted on the basis of speculation 1.

Subject: The truck?
Claim: Speculation 1 could also explain fact 4?
Objection: Too little data to accept assumption, discover more about current condition first.

Objection sustained.

Analysis End.

Right, need more information-

My thoughts were interrupted as the pressure came back and-

I blinked.

This continued for a while and I realised a few things. Especially once my senses cleared up enough for me to make out the world around me.

First off, I wasn't dying… I had likely already died, and either the whole 'talk to a goddess' part had been erased from my memory, or whatever cosmic being controlling my life had pressed restart quicker than a salty league of legends player.

Wait, what's league of legends again?

There was aspect two, a lot of my conscious memory hadn't survived the reincarnation. My current theory was that my baby brain was suffering from stack overflow and had just disregarded information at random (fortunately my subconscious knowledge seemed unaffected).

I suspected baby brain overload was also the reason for my fading consciousness and the pressure like aches I'd been suffering. My body can't handle my consciousness so I get booted out. Fortunately, the meditation seemed to help ease it up and let me last longer.

Gotta reduce that RAM usage.

Which led to aspect three, baby. This was clearly a second life, starting right from the beginning.

As for my starting situation… I was lost.

I was in some sort of feudal Japanese-style household. An assumption based on both the style of the building and the language those around me spoke. Unfortunately, that didn't tell me much. This could be feudal japan, or it could be any number of anime style worlds with feudal japanese styles.

The three people I saw most often seemed to be some sort of servants.

There was Natsuhi. She had a lazy air about her, her hair was done loosely, but recognizable within whatever regulation they had here. She seemed to be in charge of the other two.

There was Issai. Built like a tank, but had the personality of a teddy bear, complete with tactical attack hugs and ugly crying.

Finally there was Ichino. Ichino scared me. Whenever the others were around they'd be all sweet and cheery, but the moment we were alone they would go through a full on Aizen-style transformation into someone who hated everyone and everything and wanted them to know it.

They tried to speak on occasion, but by now I didn't really bother listening.

I had tried, honestly, but the foreign language was hard enough without having to filter out the layer of 'baby speak' as well. They were all like 'ohsha gjood byoj'... except in a language I didn't understand!

I guess that was one point in Ichino's favour, they didn't 'baby speak' to me while in 'evil mode'. Though from what little japanese I'd picked up from watching subbed anime, I was quite sure they had called me 'stupid' and wished 'death' upon me.

Either way, the point is they'd mostly given up on talking to me, which was fine. It was much more interesting trying to piece together what I could from my surroundings, or follow along when they spoke to each other slowly, as rare as that was.

Other than each other's names, there were three other words that were spoken often: 'Daimyo', 'Risuke', and 'Yumika'.

This building did seem a bit castle-like, so I could assume it was the daimyo's residence. Daimyo being a term for some sort of feudal lord in Japanese that I recognised, so that made sense.

So the two names? They mentioned Yumika a lot more than Risuke, and I could only really hear them while in the room with me… so I guess that made me Yumika.

It also leads into the last thing I'd discovered: I was biologically female this time round, which was new. Not a fact that bothered me, in the end humans are just brains piloting mechs made of flesh and bone.

At least I'm still human.

The minutes ticked by.

I'm bored…

I didn't know how old I was when I finally met the daimyo.

He had a short crop of black hair and dark coloured eyes. His face was adorned with thick eyebrows and a thick moustache. Dressed in shades of grey, with a flat square black hat on his head. Heh, the hat had those little tassels. I would guess his clothes were made of silks, compared to the servants' probable cotton wear, which made sense.

Being that he was much larger than me, he struck an imposing figure staring down at me.

Um… hi?

I couldn't really understand what his highness would want with me of all people.

Unless…

A thought struck me.

What was that word..?

He was about to turn and leave when I spoke for the first time in this life.

"Father?"

He stopped with the moment it took for him to register the word, before a massive grin marched across his face and lit up his eyes. It was accompanied by a deep, mirthful laugh that echoed right from his gut.

"Yes! ~~~~ ~~~~~~ Father!" He picked me up and held me out. "Yes!"

There was a comforting warmth to the whole thing, almost like a kind of magic. It bubbled in my chest, and I found myself involuntarily choking out a giggle to go along with his laughter.

Then he put me down again and it felt like that connection was ripped from me.

No, come back!

It was immature…

…It was childish…

…but I didn't want him to go.

It felt like a chord right to my heart had been cut, the wound bled out and filled me with this primal sadness.

It made me want to cry.

No.

I set my thoughts in order and stomped the feeling out.

I'm an adult.

I finished reigning my feelings in and regained my equilibrium.

It's fine, he's my father, I'll probably see him again.

Line Break

I didn't.

I was quite sure that years passed without him showing up, but I never quite managed to stomp out that desire to see him again.

He's the daimyo, he's probably just busy…

Okay, so I wasn't trying that hard to stomp out that feeling.

Things did change following that exchange though.

It started with Natsuhi.

She started talking to me again, but without baby speak. She would go slow, describing her actions and the items around us simply. It was a cold, disconnected thing, but it was useful and practical.

Once Issai caught on, he tried to do the same… but he really didn't have the temperament for it and always seemed to devolve to gushing about something or other. He did wonders for the mood though. Hard to be unhappy when someone else clearly is happy.

Ichino was the last one to talk to me again… and only when one of the others was present.

Can't win 'em all.

Thanks to the stupid headache the words didn't really seem to stick as well as I'd have liked.

I grew older, my range of movement improved and the headache began to properly fade, thanks to continuous meditation, which meant that I started to gain some basic communications skills.

Unfortunately, it was less talking and more a mutual reading of body language and expression accompanied by context clues, with a few words thrown in for good measure.

There were attempts to get me to learn more of the language by that point, but… I really couldn't be bothered. You see, I wasted enough of my last life learning two foreign languages that I never ended up using and hating every second of it.

I might need this, but no, it's way too boring.

Anyway, I wasn't quite at the point where I could casually walk around, but clearly old enough that they called in more help, which was how I met Tatara.

"Yumika."

I looked over at Natsuhi standing by the sliding door with a stranger. She waited a moment before indicating to said stranger.

"Help."

I nodded as he bowed, then went back to just… lazing about, stuck in my thoughts. Natsuhi had already called it quits when it came to studying today, and while it was 'novel' to get to move around again… it was also really exhausting, especially since I hadn't quite rid myself of the sluggish feeling and pressure/headache cause by my immature body and brain.

I did note that Natsuhi hadn't left me alone with the stranger, which was a bit odd. They'd long since realised that having more than one person present at the time was overkill. Though I was thankfully left less alone with Ichino than the others… They still scared me.

So why not this guy?

Well… obviously because he's new and a stranger. Something that took me way longer than I was proud of to deduce.

Alright, let's save you guys some time.

They needed to find out if he was trustworthy, and I was bored.

For this experiment…

I wobbled myself onto my feet.

…I shall walk to him!

He eyed me neutrally as I approached, but had no other visible reaction, even as I saw Natsuhi panic in the corner of my vision.

Aha, but you're too far away to do anything!

It was genius I tell you. If he's a trustable responsible adult, he'll react because I am not steady enough to walk on my own. If not-

Oh no!

I felt my footing fall apart as I ran out of strength in my legs.

This is how it ends!

I saw my very short second life flash before my eyes as I fell- He caught me by the armpits. No shift in his expression.

Safe…

He helped me sit down and Natsuhi eased off, just in time for the door to slam open.

Not smart, I don't think those sliding paper doors can take too much punishment.

Natsuhi engaged the nameless newcomer. It seemed like something was wrong, so she headed out, leaving me alone with the new guy.

He reached into his sleeve, but was suddenly overcome by an expression of surprise as he frantically looked around the room.

Meh, I didn't particularly care.

Then I saw something under the table.

A knife.

…

He must have dropped this when he stopped me from falling. Well, no good deed goes unrewarded…

I picked up the knife by the blade, carefully.

"Sir…"

I said to get his attention-

Second word hype!

-then held up the knife for him.

His unmoving expression watched me for a second, head tilted.

Cmon… this thing's heavy.

With that glint in his eyes, he took the knife back and slid it back into his sleeve.

Ah, secret knife.

I brought my finger to my lips and gave him a wink.

Hell yeah, apple slices available at all hours!

…in my defence I claim 'toddler brain'.

More time passed.

Still my father didn't show himself, though I started getting letters from him… okay Natsuhi got letters from him asking about me, but it was close enough.

See… he's just busy.

The 'pressure' had finally faded entirely, and I didn't get kicked out of the driver seat anymore. On top of that, I had acquired full body movement! I could walk, run, dance, and eat, all by myself!

That and the incredibly minor progress I made with language -urgh-, led me to another strange discovery: Everyone was treating me like a boy.

Which was strange, because as mentioned earlier, Yumika is a girl.

I didn't really mind, it meant I strayed less from what I knew, but it was strange.

Again… learning this fact took me longer than I was proud of. I didn't really have an eye for whether these traditional japanese style clothes were masculine or feminine, and whenever anyone talked to me they used a gender neutral 'lord' suffix.

I think that's what it is at least…

I didn't really talk either, just didn't find any reason to when gestures would do the trick and were much easier to learn, so it wasn't like my word choice was being corrected to match a gender either.

Was it 'Ore' and 'watashi' that meant me? Were they gendered? If so which was which?

I let my shoulders sag and sighed.

Nope, don't know, and don't want to embarrass myself trying and getting it wrong.

So… since I'd clearly not practised communicating, one might wonder how I've made use of my newfound freedom. Quite simply, I started walking around the castle, exploring. Which was what I was doing when I met the one other kid in the castle.

Ow…

It was important to specify that we met in the same sense that two cars meet on a road, that is to say that he ran into me and knocked me over.

Who in the world-?

I got a good look at him, splayed out on the floor across from me, connected a few dots…

"Brother?"

I filed away the question of 'why we'd been kept separate', it wasn't really important for the present.

The effect was immediate. His face lit up like the sun. His servants looked confused between his charge and I, while my own just seemed resigned.

"Really?" my brother asked his servant as he got to his feet, who nodded to confirm.

I didn't even have time to feel good about being right before my newly discovered brother pulled me to my feet and spurted out a string of words.

Something about awesome, beans?, fun, play, and run? Oh, he's running.

I looked to Natsuhi for some divine guidance.

She sighed and gave me a slight shove.

Oh, I'm supposed to chase after him.

My mind jumped to my last family… I never got to apologise and do right by them, but I could at least do right by this one.

With my mind made up, I let out a sigh of my own and gave chase, paying no mind to the raised eyebrow the other servant gave Natushi.
I'm not taking after them, I'm sighing on my own accord thay you very much!

…

Why is he so fast!

I'd completely failed to catch up to him
Does he run every day or something?!

A moment.

Oh right, no playstation or lego, he probably did.

…

A few minutes later, I was on the floor heaving with my brother standing over me, no worse for wear. I could swear that he'd literally run circles around me.

"You done? How boring, bye."

Then the smug bastard ran off, his escort keeping close, and I looked to my own help with arms stretched out, pride be damned. I was tired.

"Natsuhi, help."

She was surprised for a moment, before letting out a sigh, and a smile(?) before picking me up, and carrying me back to my room.

…

I must have run far, we had to pass by father's (!-!) court to get back. It looked like he had guests.

Huh, they seem to be standing at attention, some sort of militant professional then?

It was hard to tell, they had their backs to me. So I tried to pick up on what they were saying when one of them went down on a knee.

"Lord Orochimaru will be pleased with this agreement. Lord Daimyo."

Why does that name sound familiar?

"Indeed, and you may tell him that I am pleased with this hidden sound village he has built within my country."

Oh… oh!

"With your leave."

They turned to leave, and I got a look at them from the front, and got to see their ninja headbands, engraved with a musical note.