A new beginning, a second start...

* * *

Opening my eyes, I find myself confused. Right about now, I should be a shade of red upon a grey sidewalk, yet here I sit in an unfamiliar room. Perhaps they took me back to the hospital... a grim thought. I place my hand on my forehead, sighing... wait, hand?

Looking down at myself, I realize that something has happened. I have arms, although they're a bit... small. I'm sure they have a great personality, but why are they so meager?

"Weird..." I remark, hearing my own voice echo off the walls of the room. It sounds a few pitches higher than usual, like I haven't progressed into adulthood yet.

More observations hit me at once. This room seems to be remarkably dated, lacking any technology reminiscent of what the current time should be. I'm not wearing a hospital gown of any sort, rather what looks to be some sort of... cloth garb that I cant quite place. However the most telling piece of evidence is that my hair is a different color than it should be, a shiny white that reminds me of the clouds. Different place, time period and personal characteristics... I got reincarnated.

Rolling with the punches, I decide to check if I have an overpowered skill of any sorts.

"System,'' I mutter, only to be met with silence. No game-like visual effects or pop-up window appearing... perhaps the system works differently in this world. It only makes sense that it would follow me to the next world, right?

Shaking me from my thoughts, the door to the room opens. Through the door walks a woman with white hair much like mine, looking to be around her early 40's. She has orange eyes, the type of orange that reminds you of a fire that eats through it's surroundings. She looks relieved, yet concerned when she notices how I look at her. A blank stare that conveys no familiarity.

"Arthur? Are you feeling better?" She asks, seeming to be talking to me. I guess Arthur is my name now, my assumed identity in this new world. I open my mouth to speak, yet catch myself as a heavy guilt weighs on me from nowhere. I'm in the body of a child, a hijacker of corporeal vessel.

"I'm..." I don't finish my sentence, unsure how to. My brain feels bogged down, swamped by some feeling of decay. What do I say right now? That I'm fine? That I don't remember her? That I'm not her child? How the heck do all those protagonists even decide?

"It's okay, Arthur. You don't have to speak yet. I know that being sick has been hard on your throat... you've been coughing up a storm ever since you were blighted," She says, sitting at the bedside gently. I'm not quite sure what being blighted means, but it has the feeling of a sickness... a dark and poisonous green, perhaps.