2 Death, And Rebirth – 1

(Itome's POV)

I died. Yeah, quite the way of starting a story, right? But yeah, not in a game or anything, I was just killed in a bank robbery. I was here to deposit some money for my uncle, since he needed some urgently, and I was used to lending some money to him, since he always pays back no matter what.

However, this time, a group of five guys started robbing the bank, each one with AKs. I was surprised by that, but they didn't take a lot to defeat. After all, at the ripe age of 22, I'm a kung-fu master, as well a karate and a karate master, as well adept in other martial arts. Meaning, I'm a mixed martial arts master.

Or was… I was caught by surprise by the last one, the driver, that saw me taking down his teammates, and sniped me. I managed to pick one of the AKs and shoot the shit out of him, but I died in the way to the hospital.

Or so I think I did. Right now, I can't breathe, but it doesn't seem to be a problem for me. I'm also submerged in a liquid, although I can't see anything but pitch black. It feels viscous, and I can't move at all, although I can't feel anything holding me down.

I focus on hearing instead of seeing, and I hear a rhythmic drum, beating at a steady pace. I can also hear a few other noises that I can't identify at all. It seems I can't do anything… but man, I hope I'm alive. I don't want to leave my sister alone, even though dad is still alive, I worry a lot about her.

I also don't want to be away from Anastasia. We're childhood friends turned lovers, and after we started dating, our parents told that we were engaged due a promise that they did when they were young. Naturally, we were fine with that, eager even.

Shit, I was at the best part of my life, to lose everything so easily. It was mostly my fault, although I managed to defeat the other robbers, I shouldn't have lowered my guard and figured that there was one more. Shit, I really messed up this time.

After a few, for what feels like hours, mourning my decisions, I start to wonder when I'll get out of this place, wherever it is. This isn't any kind of medical treatment that I can recognize, and I doubt that such treatment exists.

After a few minutes, however, I finally notice where I am. Warm, in a viscous liquid in pitch blackness, with the rhythmic sound of a drum… rather, a heart. I'm inside a body, more precisely, a womb. Apparently, I'm a fetus inside a soon to be mother.

I panic a little, but since I'm still inside the womb, I eventually calm down. And after a long, long time, I start to wonder what can I do to pass the time. well, apparently, I'm in some kind of reincarnation setting.

I don't know anything about the world around me, since I'm a fetus. Now that I think about it, how in the hell I'm thinking right now? I'm a fetus! I shouldn't be able to have any rational or complex thoughts!

But mulling over problems won't get me anywhere, so I decide to take a nap, or try to, before a familiar feeling calls my attention. Now that I think about it, I have been feeling this for a while. This strange feeling inside my pre-developed body… this is Ki!

In my previous life, when I spent five years in a shaolin temple in chine, I learned a lot about Ki, stuff that they don't teach anybody that they don't deem worthy. Thanks to my father, the taught me and that was a huge leap in my learning.

It wasn't anything much, like fantasy level stuff. I was able to make myself heal a little faster, make my body a little harder and stronger, as well have more stamina, but that's it. but now… I can feel Ki coursing through me.

Not only that, now that I focus on it, it's all around me! There's also something else… similar to Ki, but different at the same time. oh, my body is absorbing Ki… I wonder why? I didn't know that fetus could absorb Ki… even without air. But the fact is that I can feel that I'm getting a large amount of Ki in this body.

In my previous life, I learned that the higher amount of Ki you can store in your body, the bigger your reserves are, and the better you can use it for longer, just like a battery that can grow in capacity. Well, for now, let's just gather some Ki.

I stimulate my own Ki, and gather the one around me, absorbing it actively. So easy! It was so hard to do this in my previous life! Is it because I'm still inside my mother? Well, no matter, for now, I'll just gather Ki. But I wonder, what's with this extra energy flowing around? Well, whatever, for now, focus on the present task.

(a month later)

For what I have counted mentally, I should've been already a month inside my mother's womb. I have grown in size, somewhat. It's enough for me to notice, but not too much. For my size… am I still on the first four months of pregnancy? I can't tell for sure, but I'll estimate it around that.

I have been gathering Ki steadily, without stopping for a single moment, since I don't feel the need to sleep. Maybe because of the Ki gathering, I don't get tired enough to sleep. And so my days continue, until my birth… or so I thought.

That day, I felt something different. The flow of energy was different that day. The Ki around me was flowing like normal, but the other unknown energy was shaking, moving abnormally. From outside the womb, I could feel the energy gathering, and being thrown inside my mother gently.

It crept to me, extending like tendrils, entering my body. It was gentle, but the pain was searing. The way it hurts is far different from physical pain. I can't feel my body, but I can feel a pain that aches all over and beyond. This energy is colliding with Ki violently inside my body.

My veins, previously filled with Ki, are now being forced to expel it to make room for the new energy that is trying to flow inside it. since moving it is similar to Ki, I try to resist, but even though I can move it, I cannot make it purge from my body.

Ki and this energy intertwine, making the pain unbearable, fighting for space inside my veins. I can feel my body breaking down! If I don't stop this, I'll end up dead even before I'm born! I can't let this happen!

Desperately, instead of trying to make the two energies go away from my body, I force them to flow together. Initially, they resist fiercely, to the point that I think I'm just wasting my life doing this, but eventually, they respond. Even so, they don't see eye to eye, fiercely opposing each other.

No, no! don't fight! Flow together… push and pull… the concept of ying and yang! Oppose each other, and at the same time, necessary for the other's existence… I center then around my chest, focusing their power there, spinning with each other, flowing against and with the other. And surprisingly, it works!

The pain subsides as the both energies enter harmony. After a few seconds, I feel invigorated, even if I don't have a body. I feel my spirit full of energy! The energy being inserted in my mother's womb now flows gently in my body.

This time, there is no pain. Gently, slowly, it flows in my veins, gathering like Ki in a "pool". Incredible… I never imagined that it could be like this! I'm kind of excited to be born, I wonder that are the properties of this new energy are!

And now yes, I spend the rest of my days inside the womb, growing and absorbing the two kinds of energy, now perfectly balance inside my body. And then, five months later, I was born to this world.