1 I Reincarnated?
Splash! Splash!
Countless people ran through the rain in their raincoats, trying to find some shade. Though it proved to be rather difficult with the number of people on the streets competing for shade.
That was human nature, to avoid something they didn't like. That was currently what everyone was doing right now.
Everyone except one man.
He didn't wear a raincoat and he didn't even wear a proper shirt. His clothes riddled with holes as he slowly moved through the crowd.
Not only was the crowd avoiding the rain, they were also avoiding him like a plague.
Though it was for a good reason; his appearance and smell made people perceive him as a homeless person cause that was exactly what he was.
A homeless person.
He was Reo Fuji. If you took one look at him, you would think that he was a man over 30 who was living on the streets.
This couldn't be more wrong cause he was not older than 20!
After graduating high school, Reo's parents found it to be too much of a hassle to continue nurturing someone like him with no good grades and a weak body to boot.
As such, they kicked him out of the house just 3 months after graduating high school. To them, he was simply a waste of space.
Reo just stumbled through the crowd with soulless eyes. He had lost all sense of feeling a long time ago.
He wasn't dumb and he knew that he had aced the test in high school as well but no matter what, no one seemed to believe him. Not even his parents.
The truth was that he had aced the test with little effort in the first place but fate decided to play a cruel trick on him once again.
His classmate who was the so-called 'ace' of the basketball team had everything; girls, power and fame....all except good results.
So when it came to the test ,he knew that he had flunked it badly and with such a bad result.no university would be willing to take him in even with all his achievements in basketball.
This was a world where education ruled supreme.
Luckily for him however, he noticed Reo.
Born with a weak body that made him not be able to fight against anyone, a background so weak that it can be considered nonexistent and a person that no one pays attention to.
It was all too perfect.
As such, he took the opportunity to make use of his background strength to swap the results between him and Reo.
No one questioned it cause a talented student in sports should get good results, right?
However, Reo did.
When he confronted his classmate about it, he blatantly admitted the whole thing and even laughed that it was his own good luck to be his stepping stone.
Reo was furious back then but what could he do. He couldn't beat him because of his weak body and no one in his family would believe him either to send for a request for reexamination.
As such, he was deemed as trash by the rest of society and his family.
Now, he was living on his own through the streets for the last 7 months, looking for food through garbage cans and living together with other homeless people as to not freeze in the night.
As Reo was stumbling through the crowd, he couldn't help but lament his fate.
He never did anything wrong. He had always studied diligently so that his brains could make up for his body.
He never requested anything from his parents since he was young because he was aware of their living situations.
He never made friends with anyone because he thought that he would be a hassle for people instead.
He did everything right but people still turned their backs on him.
He never asked to be born this way. He didn't ask to be born with a weak body that would even cause broken bones at a mere fall.
He wanted to run. He wanted to know what it was like to jump freely without feeling sore in his bones.
He wanted to play basketball as well.
That was his only wish.
Playing basketball.
Standing in the stadium as people cheered his name as he scored a buzzer-beater that would win the game.
But it was all a mere dream. He couldn't even run with the ball, much less score a buzzer-beater.
Right now, all he wanted was to die.
He had been living in hell for the past 7 months. No one cared about him and it wouldn't even matter to anyone if he died anyway.
At most, people would complain about his dead body on the streets but nothing more.
He just wanted to die but he didn't know how.
Could he be struck by lightning? Or maybe a truck-kun or car-san would come his way to take him out?
Anything would seem feasible right now.
As Reo thought about this, he took out a roll of chewing gum that he found discharged early this morning. The best part was that it was still unused.
To him, this was a win.
As he tossed the gum into his mouth, he kept on walking through the streets.
However, he stopped shortly after and started convulsing.
When he threw that gum into his mouth, it didn't stay inside his mouth Instead, it went straight to his throat!
As he convulsed and lay on the ground, he noticed that the people around him didn't even pay him any attention.
They were all too busy doing their own things. There were even some who gave him a look like he was a nuisance instead.
Seeing this, Reo couldn't help but curse in his heart.
He was dying but these people didn't even have the least sense to help someone out.
It didn't matter whether or not he was a homeless person. What happened to the basic sentience of human beings?
However, he couldn't curse anymore as his vision darkened until nothing was left in front of him.
'I'm dead', he thought.
Not only did he not die a normal death, he was even ignored in the end.
There was no truck-kun or car-san. Instead, he died to a piece of gum.
If this wasn't a death filled with grievances, he doesn't know what is.
Well, maybe it was for the best after all. He didn't fit in this world after all. He was finally free.
Now, he could only pray that heaven didn't reject him as well.
As the endless darkness consumed him, he made one last wish in his heart.
'If I had another chance. I would play basketball until I become the best in the world!'
However, little did he know that somewhere in the darkness....something did hear his wish.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Beep! Beep! Beep!
An annoying alarm sounded in Reo's ears.
'So annoying! Let me sleep for a few more days!', Reo grumbled in his sleepy thoughts.
Wait! Alarm clock?
Opening his eyes and sitting up with a 'whoosh', Reo stared at the alarm clock beside him.
Since when did he have an alarm clock here?
He then noticed the room he was in.
Since when did he have a room? Also, this was not his room to begin with!
Just as he was thinking about his situation, the door to the room opened abruptly.
"Reo, wake up! Today is Japan's National Day, you can't just sleep around all day!"
A middle-aged man with a kind look on his face suddenly appeared from the door and began making noise all of a sudden.
'Who is this man? Did he kidnap me? Also, today is National Day? Wasn't it 6 months back?', Reo was thoroughly confused as he stared at the man.
The man then noticed Reo's stare and stared at him back.
"What are you looking at, you brat? Have you never seen such a handsome father before?", the man huffed his chest proudly as he looked at Reo.
Reo only had one thought for this man.
Shameless.
Also...father? This was his father? No way, his father definitely did not look like this.
For one, his father never had a kind look on his face.
The man who proclaimed to be Reo's father noticed that his son was still keeping quiet. After thinking for a while, he decided that his son must still be sleepy.
"Reo, I will give you another 10 minutes to rest but make sure to come down after that for breakfast, okay? We are going to celebrate later at the mall for our National Day so don't be late", with that, the man exited the room and closed the door behind him.
Reo was still in a daze after what happened.
What was going on here? Didn't he die just now? How was he in this room then?
Also, why was that man calling himself my father?
He should be dead but here he was sleeping comfortably in a foreign room.
Thinking of all the possibilities of what was happening, he came to one sudden conclusion.
"Did I reincarnate?", Reo mumbled softly.
