Suteko Ni Narimashita Chapter 1

I Can’t See Anything

I could hear someone crying. 　

I could also see some flickering lights. However, my vision was blurry. Just where am I? I thought while trying to look at my surroundings, but I couldn’t move my head.

That’s strange, what am I doing? Even though I was confused, I tried to figure out my situation. What am I doing? I tried to think of it numerous times, but an answer just wouldn’t come to me. Is there anything around me? When I tried to reach out, my hands touched nothing but air. For the umpteenth time, I am once again overcome with confusion. The touch of my hand felt different from the one I was used to. It was soft. And short. They felt like the hands of a child.

“――――!”

I heard a buzzing voice overhead. It was probably a woman’s. And it sounded young. What is she flustered about? When I turned my eyes toward the direction of the voice, I saw something golden moving despite my blurred vision. I guess it’s blonde hair.

“――　―――! ――! ――――!”

This time, it was a brown-haired man’s voice. In addition to being impatient, his voice seemed to be filled with anger too.

“―― ――――! ―――― ――”

“――――! ――――――――――――?”

They began to argue about something. However, I didn’t understand what they were talking about. My confusion continued. Just what are they angry about? What’s going to happen to me?

The argument that had been going on just now ended. After the man’s angry shout, the words that followed it made no sense to me. And now, all I hear is the woman’s sobbing.

Suddenly, I was grabbed around the neck and lifted up. I could hear an old woman muttering above me. I couldn’t understand what she was saying though. It’s the first time I noticed this person. Was she there all this time? 

I noticed another strange thing. Not only was it the old woman who lifted me, but she was also above me. My feet were completely floating mid-air. She must be a very tall woman. But isn’t she an old woman? She might be as tall as the average adult woman, but an average woman would not be able to lift me like this. Besides, I’m… huh? How tall was I again? 

My confusion rose. How tall am I? How heavy am I? How old am I? I couldn’t remember a single thing about myself.

The woman muttered something again. The old woman sighed and moved me away while murmuring reluctantly.

A soft hand caresses my cheek and it’s warm. It seems to be a woman’s hand. She stroked my head and the intense crying that had been going on for some time stopped.

Apparently, the one crying was me.

「―― ――?」

I heard the man’s voice again. Then the man said something to the old woman again. The old woman took me and lifted me again, and she began to wrap me in a roughly textured cloth.

At this point, I finally realized that I was a baby. 

“Reincarnation” was the first thing that came into mind. I was probably reincarnated, and those were my parents. But why? Why was I reincarnated? I don’t remember anything from my past life except that I was Japanese. A language I don’t remember, my parents’ hair color, and their use of lamps for illumination suggested that this place I am in right now is definitely not Japan. Perhaps it was due to the immaturity of my undeveloped senses, but I still did not know anything past that. 

The old woman seems to have finished wrapping me in cloth and picked me up again.  A stiff sensation enveloped me, and after I felt like I was floating, I was placed in an open wooden box that had no lid.

「―― ―――」

When the man called the woman for something, the woman responded with a sob. The man picked up the wooden box I was in, and carried me somewhere outside.

The man silently walked along the dark road while carrying me. A slightly cold breeze hit my face. From the sound of rustling and the way the box shook, I figured that the man was walking on a familiar, bumpy road that probably wasn’t paved.

I wonder where he’s taking me. Ever since I was born, I’ve been in a constant state of confusion. So I try to figure my situation out. Currently, I am a baby that had just been born. The people who were probably my parents just had a fight, and this man who seems to be my father is carrying me somewhere. That woman who seemed to be my mother probably tried to stop him, but my father seems to have gotten his way in the end. 

In the end, I still didn’t understand anything. As I was thinking that, a yawn unconsciously escaped from my mouth. It seems my underdeveloped body gets tired easily. Immediately afterwards, I was struck with a terrible sleepiness and I lost consciousness.

Bright. I wasn’t dreaming, but that was the first thing I felt. It seems the sun is already up and its rays are hitting my face.

The next thing I felt was the sound of the trees. It was the sound of the rustling leaves that never stopped. I woke up from my sleep, but I still could not see properly. Compared to yesterday, I could see some silhouettes to some extent, baut everything was still blurry.

And then I realized something. There was no sign of anone around me. My father, who was supposed to have brought me here, was gone. As I struggled to move my short arms and legs, the box I was in shook. From the sound of it hitting the ground, I seem to have been placed on the ground. 

Still, I wondered why my father was not there.

At any rate, I can’t do anything until I know what’s going on around me. Of course, as a baby, there’s not much I can do.

I wanted to know what was going on around me, and that’s when I noticed something strange about my body.

There was something gooey covering my body. I didn’t feel bad about it. Rather, it felt warm and comfortable. And this something was very useful.

When I brought out my hand, which was covered by something gooey, to the edge of the box and I clearly see its unevenness. I could also clearly feel its texture, hardness, color, and smell.

I didn’t know what this is, but it seems I could use it. This thing was mysterious, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do with it right now.

With that in mind, I wriggled my arms and legs and began to clumsily gather information at random.

As I stretched out my short limbs to their fullest extent to search the area, I suddenly had an idea.

I wondered if it was possible to expand the area I was feeling with this gooey substance.

With that idea in mind, I stretched my arm and tried to put more power into it. But it didn’t move.

After struggling for a while, I detected the sensation of something moving along my arm, specifically along my blood vessels. This was probably it. It wasn’t easy to control that sensation, but I got the hang of it after about 20 minutes.

But there was a problem. While I was moving that gooey substance, a sense of fatigue washed over me.

My arms felt sluggish. My eyelids were heavy. Even the gooey substance became hard to control.

It had only been 10 minutes since I gathered information, but I’m already at my limit.

And so, I fell asleep again within an hour after I woke up this morning.

I woke up again. My surroundings were bright. It seems I only slept a bit this time.

But it was still an unnatural sleepiness. I wonder if that gooey substance — I’ll just call it “chi” for now — was making me tired.

And so I thought about it.

I wonder if it’s alright to use this. The fatigue I felt earlier was substantial. Was I putting a strain on my body, or was I consuming something out of myself?

I don’t know. But it was not good to lose consciousness now. Fortunately, I was able to get a good grasp of the terrain and the location of the objects around me just by spreading my chi earlier. I guess I have to be more careful of using it from now on.

Anyway, I’m hungry.

TOC || Next >>