She avoids being homeless

Not even five minutes had passed since the doctor left when Aoi heard another knock on the door. This time, instead of the doctor, a nurse entered the room. She looked very young and had blonde wavy hair.

The nurse approached Aoi's bed and sat down on the stool beside it. She looked at Aoi with a gentle expression.

"Hello, my name is Amane. I am here to ask you a few important questions," she said. Her voice was very soothing. It helped Aoi calm down a bit.

She was still very confused with the situation so she could only nod her head.

"Okay, first could you tell me how exactly you came to this island? Or how your ship sank?"

Aoi hesitated. She was unsure how to answer. Suddenly waking up on a raft after dying sounded quite unbelievable after all. Even Aoi herself still didn't completely believe it.

"If it is too much, you don't need to answer right now," the nurse assured in a gentle voice.

The hesitation on her face must have been misinterpreted, because nurse had a face filled with pity. Aoi hastily thought about what to do.

"...It's okay."

After thinking about it, she decided to not tell the nurse that she had died. She didn't want to sound crazy.

"The...ship I had been...traveling on...got sunk. After that, I just woke up on some piece of wood."

Aoi told the nurse a lie; she normally didn't do something like that. Her family taught her that lying and deception is goes against their code of honor. She completely agreed, but in this case she didn't have any other choice.

Aoi recounted the rest of her story while being as truthful as possible. She told the nurse how she had drifted completely alone on the ocean without any way of steering her raft, how she had seen the terrifying sea serpent and how her raft had finally sunk into the whirlpool. Her inability to do anything.

When she was done, Aoi looked down still guilty from lying and waited for the nurse's reaction.

She was caught off guard when she felt nurses arms wrap around her as she was enveloped into a tight hug. She looked up into the nurses face uncomprehendingly. Aoi was surprised to see that the nurse had started to cry. She didn't know how to react.

"You've been through so much. It must have been hard. Don't worry. You're safe now," said the nurse.

It was then that the feelings that Aoi had been suppressing to focus on survival slowly came back. She was just a normal high schooler. While she was trained in kendo and stronger than the average person, Aoi didn't have any experience with life threatening situations. She had obviously been scared. It was too much for her to just shrug off. The stress that had build up over the days alone on the raft.

Only now did she realize that she wasn't alone anymore. She was safe. Someone was there for her. The relief caused Aoi to begin crying along with the nurse. After so long being starved of human interaction, Aoi was incredibly happy to finally not be alone anymore.

The two continued hugging like this until Aoi finally calmed down enough to stop crying. They stayed in a comfortable silence for a while.

It was only a few minutes later that Aoi pulled back. She wanted to continue talking, but her strength suddenly left her body and she collapsed backwards into the soft bed. Now that the tension was gone, her exhaustion was catching up with her. Her eyelids grew heavy. She tried staying awake, but it was impossible

Before Aoi fell asleep, she managed to hear a gentle 'good night' from the nurse.

...

Over the next three days, Aoi's body recovered from the wounds she had sustained during the storm. She was eating the surprisingly good hospital food and getting more comfortable rest. The gentle nurse came into her room every day to talk and they had become good friends. Aoi was enjoying the human contact again.

Her body was now almost fully healed. No machines were attached to her anymore and she could freely move around in her room. She had taken the opportunity to inspect herself and guessed her current body's age at around ten years old. Way younger than she had been at the time of her death.

Aoi was currently in her hospital room doing her morning stretches. All the time just laying around and waiting made her body stiff. She also had way too much energy stored up.

For someone who was normally very physically active like Aoi, not being able to move around had been really frustrating. She was finally free.

As she was finishing up, the door behind her opened up. Amane came into the room and Aoi exchanged a hug with her. As she was about to start talking to the nurse, she noticed another person standing in the doorframe.

Aoi threw a questioning look at Amane.

Catching her unspoken question, The nurse showed Aoi a gentle smile.

"This is Haruto. He owns this islands orphanage where you will be staying at starting today," she told Aoi.

Aoi was caught off guard again. She hadn't thought about what would happen when she left the hospital. But now that she thought about it, she didn't have anywhere to go. It only made sense that she would be taken in by an orphanage. Her other option would be being homeless so Aoi didn't take long to decide.

She nodded to show her consent. She then walked over to the nurse and gave her another hug. Aoi had really come to like her.

"Come visit me," the nurse said.

"I will."

After the goodbye with Amane, Aoi got dressed in the bathroom. She had still been wearing her school uniform when she was found. She was really happy it wasn't destroyed as it was the only thing she still had from her home. It did need to be repaired though.

She then started walking together with the owner of the orphanage. Now that she wasn't focused on Amane anymore, Aoi took the opportunity to take a good look at him. Haruto had brown hair and eyes. His posture and expression made him feel very approachable and friendly. He definitely looked like he would be good with children.

As they exited the hospital Haruto turned his head to her.

"If you have anything you're wondering about, feel free to ask me," he said.

Aoi thought about the question. She suddenly realized. After Amane came to her room, she completely forgot to ask anything. The relief had completely distracted her. It didn't take Aoi long to come up with the thing she had been wondering since waking up in the hospital.

"When my raft sunk in the storm, I didn't see any island near me."

"That's totally normal. Our island is hidden," he explained.

He pointed his finger at the ocean. Aoi looked in the direction. At first she didn't see anything out of place. Only the blue ocean reflecting the morning sun and a few small ships sailing around. But when she squinted her eyes, she could barely make out something in the horizon. A hint of black. She suddenly had a theory. It was ridiculous, but Aoi hastily returned her eyes to the owner of the orphanage.

He smiled.

"As you can see this island is completely surrounded by a never ending storm. Nobody is able to enter or leave by ship."

Aoi mouth fell open. She didn't think something like that was possible.

"Everyone who enters the storm will lose their boat and wash ashore on our island. We get castaways quite often."

Aoi really wanted to deny it and say it was impossible. But after what she had been through, she knew better than deny things before her eyes. That was the first step to becoming insane. Aoi had to accept reality.

She continued looking at the sea a bit before continuing to follow Haruto to his orphanage.

While walking through the village, Aoi took a look at her surroundings. It didn't look like anything she had seen before. The hospital she had been in was located in the middle of everything. The houses were all for individual families instead of big apartments like those in Japan.

The whole village looked very natural. No concrete was used in the construction of anything. Just wood and bricks. It didn't look out of place in the forest at all. Not like the big cities she was used to. They always pushed the nature away.

There was also a big dock at the sea containing only small fishing boats. It looked very busy even though it was still early in the morning. There were a lot of people carrying stuff around. Everyone was preparing their boat to go fishing.

Aoi and Haruto were walking on a neat stone path. As they continued on their way to the orphanage, the village became less dense. The surrounding forest became more prominent. Aoi could spot a lot more trees and other plants than in the middle of the village.

...

Aoi and Haruto arrived at the edge of the village. There weren't many buildings anymore and the area looked more rural.

The orphanage that was now in front of Aoi was a simple 3 floor brick building. It had a giant backyard where a lot of kids were playing all kinds of games.

Behind the orphanage was a giant forest. The backyard was surrounded by an iron fence that even encompassed a small part of it. Probably to hinder any small kids from getting lost.

Aoi could see a path next to the orphanage going into the dense forest, but it didn't look very cared for. The plants that that had begun growing onto it made it hard to even recognize it as a path. Aoi wondered where it led.

As she and Haruto entered through the gate, all of the children came running to them and began loudly asking questions. They were clearly happy that the orphanage owner was back. Aoi was quickly overwhelmed and began hiding behind Haruto using him as a shield.

He managed to get the kids under control with practiced ease. He probably had a lot of experience dealing with children.

After he managed to get the kids to disperse, he showed Aoi around the orphanage. He taught her the positions of all the important rooms. The last room he showed her was the room she would be staying in.

Aoi's room was not very big. It only had enough space to barely fit a small bed a desk and a drawer. She was used to a bit more in her old life. Nonetheless the room had a very lived in feel to it. Everything look very comfortable.

Haruto then left her alone in the room to get a bit of rest after the long walk.

Aoi took the time to think a little bit. She wasn't in any danger anymore. She could relax, but the lack of any pressure made it unclear what to do. Aoi had always been a person to go just with the flow. She started kendo because her family told her to. Not that she didn't have fun doing it. Aoi had not made any big decisions by herself. She was only a high schooler after all. She didn't have any idea what to do next.

As Aoi was thinking about the future, a loud call for food was heard. She quickly got out of her room and down the stairs to the cafeteria.

Before everyone ate, Haruto had Aoi introduce herself in front of the other children. While she had dinner, the other children asked her a lot of questions. She had a lot of fun talking with them.

After dinner, she got back to her room and slept.

...

All the children were currently in the backyard playing miscellaneous games. Aoi was invited, but she had something more important to do. She was currently alone in the forest searching through the bushes.

When Aoi had seen the fish monster on her raft, she was helpless. That feeling stuck with her. She hated feeling like she couldn't do anything. To deal with the frustration, she needed to train. She needed to become stronger.

Ever since Aoi was young, she had been taught kendo in her family's dojo. Because of this, training became her go to activity. She trained to get stronger. She trained to deal with her frustration. She also trained just because she had fun. She trained a lot.

When Aoi was ten years old, she had just begun learning her family's sword style. The training was very harsh and she couldn't keep up with the other students. At first she was frustrated, but she persevered and as time passed she got better. She finally started seeing progress. She was less exhausted after each training session. The others didn't leave her in the dust anymore. She even started to win some of the practice fights.

But her current body was weak. All the effort she put into training her body was gone. Aoi felt a bit cheated.

Not that she was complaining about being given a second chance at live. Being weak was better than being dead.

She wouldn't stay weak, however. She would simply train until her body became strong again. And it wasn't as if she lost everything; she still had all the knowledge about kendo she had gained by her years of training.

She would definitely become stronger. Aoi just needed to do her best. Even if she never became strong enough beat the sea serpent. She still didn't want to be helpless.

The first goal she set was becoming as strong as she had been before dying.

Aoi finally found a sturdy stick in the bushes. She held it in a stance and started her training by going through the movements of her family's swordsmanship.

The Kamachi family sword style focuses on defending and deflecting the enemy's attacks rather than a strong offense. The user matches the speed of their swings to the opponent's to reduce any damage on their sword and guides the enemy's power. A counter focused style. The required speed is achieved with very fluid movements and prediction of the enemy.

To get this fluidity, the swordsmanship is trained by chaining movements together to form a kind of dance. This dance is performed as training to create muscle memory.

In her last life Aoi was already very proficient in chaining most movements. She only had trouble with the more complicated forms. Even her strict grandfather had praised her for it.

Her current body could still do a lot of the simple movements, but she had a lot of trouble connecting them. Her way of moving looked very clunky. She also got tired way too fast.

It didn't surprise Aoi. She had only started training when she was ten and her body still didn't completely recover from her time on the raft. It was still very embarrassing to make so many beginner mistakes. She definitely had a lot of work on in front of her.

When a bell signaling lunch was heard, Aoi hid her stick in a tree and returned to the orphanage. After eating, Aoi decided to play tag with the other orphans. She needed to train her endurance and there was no better way than running around with kids. They had a lot of energy. She also wanted some human interaction even if it was just with children.

The game itself wasn't in Aoi's favor. Her body was still exhausted from the training and it had been a long time since she played tag. The other kids defeated her with ease.

When it was time to sleep, Aoi was completely exhausted. Her body felt heavy like the world was dragging her down. She hadn't felt this tired in a long time.

But Aoi was also satisfied. When she had been trapped in the void it felt like she stopped moving. She had been frozen without any way of progressing

Now she was finally free again. She was doing something. She was moving forward.

Author's note:

Hello to the people who read this,

We have the introduction mostly done. I hope you find the setting is interesting.

If you have any criticism or I made some mistake, please tell me. I will also try to answer any questions you have.

Thank you for reading. I hope you had fun.