Chapter 1: I, remade

I expected many things for the afterlife, it was a thing that always came to my mind and the reason for many existencial crises in my two decades of existence.

Like a flaming landscape, full of monstrous beings and with people being tortured in the worst possible ways for all eternity. Yeah, I sure as hell wouldn't want to go through this forever, so I was reeeeeally relieved when I didn't see any of this when I somehow regained consciousness.

Or being greeted by angels towards a staircase that would lead straight to the gates of paradise, where I would be judged for my actions and be presented with eternal bliss. Imagine my surprise when that wasn't what I found either. Kind of made me feel like I'd been scammed or something.

In fact, all that greeted me was pure and total darkness.

Have you ever been in a dark room with nothing to do but have your thoughts nagging you for who knows how long?

Exactly, I've lost count of how long I've been here. I tried counting the seconds but I gave up after 1 minute. Patience has never been one of my strong points anyway and I'm definitely not a genius like that guy from Dr Stone.

Hm...

Maybe this is actually hell and this is my punishment?

To be alone for the rest of my immortal existence with nothing but my thoughts?

Damn, now that's a punishment. God knows my thoughts were the reason for a lot of shit I did.

I wouldn't consider myself a totally good person, but I wouldn't go out of my way to be an asshole to people either. I even helped out people who needed it from time to time.

It seems Heaven's standards were stricter than I thought.

In these 20 years that I lived, I would say that I even did well. I graduated from high school without much trouble, got a good paying job, and was on my way to getting my driver's license and starting college.

The problem was that I was never very social, I was the kind of person who only watched from afar and did most things by myself. Some experiences I've had in my life have made me a little too cautious about approaching people.

It's not like I didn't have friends, I even had a few, the hard part was that they were all outside of where I lived, which kind of made things difficult if I felt lonely and wanted to go out with someone.

All this talk about how I lived makes me wonder what the hell happened to get me here.

Whenever I tried to think about how I died, nothing came to my mind, it was like I had no memories of what had happened.

This makes me think of two possibilities.

First; I died so abruptly that I didn't even have time to understand what killed me, which might indicate that I died in my sleep or something.

Second; Something is purposely preventing me from remembering, maybe to prolong my suffering or something. I never liked not knowing things.

Ugh, I've read a lot of fiction, I guess you can tell. I always imagined that my life was some kind of drama for some cosmic being, it was funny and amusing, I even made a point of pretending to be breaking the fourth wall, Deadpool style.

Now, all I have left is to stay in this darkness.

.

.

*Contraction*

hmm? What was this?

I felt something.

Wait...did I really feel something!?

I had even forgotten what it was like, it's been so long since I've been here that some concepts were already starting to get pretty hazy for me. Things like my appearance or the name of my past life just didn't come to my mind.

.

.

Something is happening, recently I started to feel a tight feeling, as if the void I found myself in was getting smaller.

I began to feel even feel new sensations, as if I was submerged in some kind of strange liquid.

I seem to have started to regain some traces of myself, all this time stuck here was making me feel strangely monotonous.

Finally things started to change, I think I was starting to freak out from staring into this darkness for who knows how long.

.

.

I had limbs now, at least limbs I could move.

Well, moving was overkill. It's more like I shake them like they're jelly in hopes of getting out of this hellish place.

I feel like something is coming, the walls around me started to contract more and more, will this nightmare finally end?

.

.

There's something close to me.

I hadn't realized it until now because I was trapped in my own thoughts, but actually, there's something or someone here in this place with me.

I can feel it moving, it's like it's doing the same movements as me, trying to get out of this place.

Could it be someone who died and was put here like me?

What the hell is happening? Where I am? When will I finally get out of this place?

.

.

It happened all of a sudden, I was just trying to get out of this place like I've been trying to do for a while, swinging limbs I had little control with, until something snapped.

I had no idea what the hell was going on because everything around me started to sway and a force was constantly trying to push me.

Was this the moment I finally got out of here?

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I was suddenly exposed to a myriad of sensations that I had completely forgotten about.

It was cold, very cold, I hadn't noticed it before, but the place I was was actually very warm.

Sounds I couldn't recognize entered my ears and soon, I felt myself being lifted by something.

I tried to open my eyes, but it was as if this task required simply primal effort. When I finally opened them, I couldn't see much, all I saw were very blurry figures, very large figures.

It took a while for everything to stop shaking, where I could finally think straight after all those sensations had finished beating my brains with iron batons.

I was being held by someone, of that I'm sure, although they were still blurs, I'm 100% sure they were people.

It felt really good to be honest, to finally be able to move, to finally be able to see and feel, to finally be free from that claustrophobic hell.

It feels like I've been reincarnated.

Yes, I'm surprised too. Reincarnation? This has become such a cliché that I admit I was a little disappointed to put up with that nightmare to be put into another so-called life, my second life.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by who I assumed was my new mom and dad. It's still weird getting used to, but I think not remembering much of my past life is making the situation a lot easier.

"They are so cute! I can't believe I gave birth to these little babies!"

My mom was visibly tired, well anyone would be after she's just given birth to a child, I'm surprised she was still conscious after all.

However, something caught my attention. Did she say "they"? In like, more than one person?

Looks like I was right, there was someone there with me.

Huh, a twin brother or sister has crossed my mind a few times, but I really didn't expect that I was going to get the chance to have something like this.

Wait...why can I suddenly understand what is being said? The language is also not foreign to me.

It was Asian, of that I'm sure, it looked too familiar not to be. I knew a few languages, but I never had time to learn an Asian language.

"Sure, honey, look, one of them is already awake, have you thought of the names?"

This time the voice was male, it must be my father's name. It was a little less deep than I expected. Maybe my new parents had me a little earlier than planned, assuming I was planned of course.

"Mhm, I've been thinking of a few names since I found out I was pregnant, but now finally seeing them I'm sure!"

They seemed very happy, I'm also happy for them, being a father is something I thought about when I was alive in the past life, but unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity. I just hope that in this new life, they take good care of me. And my new sibling of course.

"So what are the names dear?"

I hope it's something cool, I don't remember my old name but I have a feeling it wasn't very interesting.

"Our little boy will be called Haruka Toga and our little princess will be called Himiko Toga!"

Wait...WHAT!?