1 Birthday

The first time he woke up into this world, he was naked.

His body instantiated seamlessly, causing little disturbance to the atmosphere.

As soon as his body finished materializing, he fell right into the pool of warm water prepared by the team for this very purpose.

The density of the salty fluid pushed him towards the surface so that he floated on his back, where he stared up to the ceiling of white canvas.

The water muffled the voices around his ears but there sounded like a celebration.

"Happy second birthday!" he remembered them saying.

A face looked down on him. He failed to recognize it the first few moments while recollecting his thoughts, feelings, memories, logic, and rationality.

A man's face wearing only a hint of a smile and gave away the stern and severe nature on some corners.

Bento, that's his name, it finally returned to him.

"You made it," Bento said, standing next to him with the water up to his waist. "Welcome to the other side."

He struggled a little as Bento stood him upright.

"Is this… am I…" his mind faltered in anticipation.

"This is Noein, yes. You're successfully transmigrated," he said.

By instinct, he looked around, scanning his surrounding. Bento and the other squad members gathered around, though only Bento was in the pool with him. A team leader's job to do so.

He recognized another face. Lito or his doppelganger held a cupcake on a small plate with a birthday candle on top, and it looked tiny in his masculine fingers. The others hooted and clapped and threw confetti in the air.

Their group of six all gathered in there.

"What's your name?" Bento asked.

Benedict, that's his name. But everyone knew that. The leader must be asking for his other name. His doppelganger name.

It reminded Benedict of starting another RPG playthrough where he must think up a name in the character customization menu.

But this was not a game. This was not a VR simulation. Neither was it a lucid dream. This was real. And they had real enemies to fight. An entire world to save.

This – this other living flesh he inhabited – was the product of a process called Interdimensional Psychic Projection or IPP, and it existed in a real place in space and time. In simpler terms, he had been duplicated in a parallel universe.

"Come on, Lead, at least let the boy get dressed first," Marcel's red-haired doppelganger said.

"Aki," his response came from a foggy mind.

Bento held out an index finger to shush the other teammates behind. "What's that?"

"Aki. That's… that's my doppelganger name."

"Is that Japanese?" Marcel responded with her same high-pitched voice, "You're in a whole new world and you're still a weeb."

"It's not Japanese," Aki said. Marcel had a way of triggering a response from even towards trivial things.

"It's a good name, Aki," said someone with a face Aki didn't recognize right away. And his realization surprised him, "Maria?"

"In the flesh!" she – or he – replied, showing his manly biceps.

Aki thought they had told him everything to expect before the IPP, but he had a feeling he was still in for countless surprises.

There was Bento, Daphne, Marcel, Lito, and Maria. But someone was still missing. Tony. He's 19, a year older than Aki. He tried asking, but Bento urged him to the side of the pool towards Lito. "Go and blow your candle. It's a requirement."

Aki hated birthdays, or at least his own. Whenever the day is approaching, it filled him with sadness and anxiety: Because it meant showing up to his family and relatives who all lived at the same compound with all of his good-looking, talented, and intelligent cousins with real aspirations, unlike him who his mother said was 'painfully introverted' preferring to lock himself in his room playing video games and reading books. Not that he disagreed with his mother. It's just that, to him, his birthday made a mockery of his mediocre, underachieved existence.

But this birthday was different. This day was special. Being able to instantiate into this place was considered a miracle. And it's only the beginning.

After blowing the candle and the compulsory eating of Lito's cupcake, Aki received another wave of congratulations that came with handshakes, a pat on a shoulder, and a kiss on the cheek from Daphne, who he considered as a bad-ass big sister but preferred to reciprocate in a not so sisterly manner.

Daphne tilted her head, looking down at his body parts that were underwater. "You're cuter without clothes."

He turned away, self-conscious in a sudden, with ears feeling hot and red.

"It's too soon to try your tricks on the kid," Maria said.

And then Marcel added in a teasing manner, "You'll have more time to traumatize him later during the demonstration."

That didn't sound good.

"Ah, he's going to love it," Daphne replied.

"We'll see about that."

Bento pointed Aki to a small dressing room at the far side of the Rebirthing Station while the others headed towards the exit.

"Get yourself dressed before we proceed. And don't gaze at your navel too long. We have a long day ahead."

The moment they were all gone, Aki ran into the dressing room with an eagerness of a kid to open a special present.