A Young Girl's Second Reincarnation Pt 1

I've always had a... distaste, for concepts of fate, or the divine. Of some higher power in the universe (or multiverse, I suppose), influencing and interfering in affairs not their own. Fate is fluid, and the wheel of destiny operates on human hands.

Humans have free will. No one can take that away from us. We are able to use the cards we are given to obtain the future we desire.

Then, in a fair world, it is further our right to stack the deck in our favor, through applications of logic, reason, and rationality. Such is the advantage of being separate from beasts.

But this world, and every other, is not fair.

-=-

Unknown Time

Unknown Space

Unknown Location

Light. A bright, holy light surrounded her on all sides. A feeling best described as ethereal in nature flowed through her body.

And as a rational being with an avid disgust for elements of the divine, Tanya found herself repulsed.

Even through closed eyelids, the light was almost blinding. Not the most comforting experience, all things considered.

-=-

"So... is this Death?"

Art by (@tanjaded)

-=-

So, is this death, then? Last time went a bit…

Differently, she recalled. For one thing there wasn't some irritating Devil claiming to be God greeting, or rather berating, her.

Being X, you bastard. Of all the times, now you decide silence is appropriate? Take responsibility for your actions!

It was silent for a moment.

Jeez, at least give me some sort of deity to talk to at this point. I need someone to rant at.

Confirmed. Extra Skill: Voice of the World Communication… successfully acquired.

Fuck. This wasn't supposed to happen. How did I even... ah, right. Mary Sue. That self-righteous bitch. Did she get the best of me? How did I even die?

It must have been something extremely powerful. Maybe Being X had finally pulled up his bootstraps and decided to off her himself. Or perhaps he'd blessed Mary Sue again? That seemed like something he'd do, doubling down on his idiocy rather than admitting defeat like any sane or rational being would.

I guess I wasn't strong enough? Ah, I think the Type 95's mental corruption is really starting to get to me. I can't quite recall. If Being X were here right now, there's no doubt Tanya would have attempted to strangle him. Damn it all. If I didn't have to rely on the Type 95 everytime things went south, this mental corruption BS would practically be a nonissue.

Notice: Semidivine relic Elenium Type 95 computation orb nonexistent. Removal of reliance on relic impossible. Constructing adequate substitution… Confirmed. Unique Skill: Tetrabattery Limit Enhancement… successfully acquired.

…It's a shame though. Just one more push, just a few more weeks, and the war would finally be over. I was so close. We were so close. Heh. To think, I actually had people I could call friends this time around. Subordinates that changed for the better, comrades-in-arms that I've spent years with…

She mentally shook her head.

I never even got to share a friendly alcoholic drink with them. That would have occurred soon too now that I think about it. Finally 18 years old in this second life, and able to drink by Imperial law. Well, all that's down the drain now. No use crying over spilled milk, or alcohol in this case.

Tanya sighed internally.

Formulae-based magic was nice too. Magic in fiction is usually so random and irrational, so reincarnating in a world where you could perform it with understandable and ultimately reasonable calculations was at least a small consolation for my shitty situation. I certainly liked flying around under my own power. When I wasn't being shot at, of course. It was nice. Even fun, on occasion. Damnit all. Just when things were finally looking up… honestly, I wouldn't have minded staying like that.

Silence met her.

… Ah. it's really not fair, you know? Not at all. What else was I supposed to do? What even was the point of all that struggle? Just for this? I'm only human, after all.

That was the last thought Tanya had in her second world.

Confirmed. Unique Skill: Formulaic Casting… successfully acquired.

Notice: Current body of Tanya von Degurechaff exhibits traits of physical, mental, and spiritual damage.

Constructing the same body… Failed.

Constructing a similar body without damage… Successful.

Cleansing of detected accumulation of mental corruption… Successful.

Preservation of soul and memories… Successful.

-=-=-=-

Tanya came back to consciousness with a start.

Ah, am I going crazy? I knew the mental corruption was getting worse, but this is a bit ridiculous. If I've developed schizophrenia, could it at least stay away until after I've finished dying?

Tanya let out a huff of irritation.

I'm sure Mary Sue would find that hilarious. Me, her hated enemy, going crazy right before dying. She might even call it a sort of cosmic justice. As cosmic joke is more like it. That might be the worst part of this whole situation, my death giving her validation for that ridiculous belief she has in that devil.

Though, as bad as this was, it might be a bit easier to handle if Tanya knew exactly how she died this time around.

...How did she even kill me?

All she could really remember was a bright light, and Mary Sue's glowing face. As in the literal sense of the word, indicating mana usage.

Well, she also vaguely remembered the Type 95 going haywire… uh, even more haywire than one would normally expect.

Actually, the light from then was not unlike the one she had previously been floating in. And actually, now that she thought about it further, that holy light or whatever had been gone for a while now.

Tanya twitched her fingers. Her brow furrowed, as a different form of light bled through her still closed eyelids.

Uh, wait. Did she even kill me? I can still move my body. That doesn't seem very dead to me.

She did a mental tally, moving each finger, then each toe one after the other. Then, she clenched and unclenched her hands. She rolled her shoulders. She tilted her head from side to side. She-

Am I just lying on the ground? Tanya thought incredulously. Weiss is never gonna let me live this down.

The Argent sat up and opened her eyes. Then immediately closed them again, as the morning sunlight attempted to gouge out them out with its intensity.

Okay, I could have handled that better. You're still in a warzone, Tanya. Let's do this logically and not waste any more time.

Tanya opened her eyes slowly this time, letting them adjust gradually to the sun's unforgiving rays. It was as her vision adjusted that a few things became readily apparent.

The most obvious was the weather, closely followed by the location. It was a sunny and warm morning, not a cloud in the sky. A forest clearing surrounded her, lush green grass and well-sized trees propagating outwards from the crater she was sitting in. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

Except, Tanya had been fighting in the cloudy skies over the Russy Federation. In the evening. During winter. Over a frozen, treeless grassland.

"What the hell…?" Tanya murmured, gingerly getting to her feet.

She made to step out of the (was it an impact crater?) pit she'd been lying in, but just as she was doing so her sense of balance shifted. She nearly ended up right back on her ass, barely managing to stabilize herself.

Tanya stumbled as she attempted another step, her legs and arms doing more harm than good in her impromptu balancing act. Unfortunately, it seemed she wouldn't be selling tickets to the act anytime soon, but after just a few minutes of struggle, she did manage to stop nearly falling over.

"What in the- the hell is going on?!" The increasingly confused Colonel kept as still as possible, internally lamenting her randomly shit sense of balance.

When her balance seemed to have settled a bit more, Tanya quickly did a once over, scanning herself for any sign or indicator as to why it was being such an uncooperative bitch.

She blinked. Well, a few things came to mind right off the bat.

Her clothes were the same as when she'd… well, is "died" even accurate now? Regardless, she still had on her mage flight suit, along with her harness and its various pouches. However, her backpack was missing, as were all the other supplies she usually carried in the aforementioned pouches.

Her weapons were gone as well, with both her submachine gun and her Luger along with her main, backup, and backup backup knives missing from their respective holsters.

This also was the case for the Type 97 and the cursed Type 95. Which meant, for the first time since her original deployment to the Rhine Front, she was entirely without a multicore computation orb.

It was mildly concerning, to say the least.

Though, for some reason her goggles had remained despite her helmet mysteriously being gone. No wonder her head felt so light.

So, it seemed all she had on her were her clothes. And discounting the dirt from her apparent nap on the ground, everything was spotless. Like brand-new, in fact. Her black gloves and her boots felt like they did first time she'd ever put them on.

Somehow, she'd become like the mage equivalent of new car smell.

Yet, that wasn't even the most immediately noticeable change.

Whoa, is the ground farther away? Tanya did a double take. She patted her torso idly. I feel different, too. My body feels… stronger, for lack of a better description. And my mind feels clearer than it has in years. Was the Type 95's mental corruption that bad? It's like I just got sober after years of being constantly near drunk.

The Argent brought her hand up to her face, balling it into a fist then relaxing it, turning it back and over and back again.

I feel great. Better than great. What happened to me? Actually, I can tell that my body and mind aren't the only things that have improved. Perhaps it's more accurate to say my entire being has improved. Or maybe "fixed" is a more accurate term. I'll have to do some tests to make sure. Either way, this can't be the work of Being X. No chance in hell that bastard would do something to actively improve my life.

"I can't say I mind getting away from the warzone, but this is a bit ridiculous." Tanya said aloud, more to confirm she was actually awake than to be heard by anyone.

Speaking thoughts was a good way to ground oneself through physical sound. That was just basic psychology.

...Was it? She'd only taken one or two psychology courses in college, and that was two worlds ago.

Ah, nevermind.

Right. So what happened to her? As of right now, she had two working theories.

The first theory was that she had actually died, and this was the afterlife. Not ideal by any means, but she certainly could have found herself somewhere worse. Like Hell, for instance. Or with Being X, which would also be Hell, just not in the literal sense.

Still, to have died and reached the after life so easily was a basically a slap in the face after her years of conflict against Being X. The very thought made her blood boil.

Now, the second theory was that she had time travelled. As outlandish as it sounded, it would explain both her apparent increase in height and the overall improvement of her being.

The former could be explained by her aging with the time transition, and the latter by an extended period of time away from the Type 95 and Being X. Whether it could be considered more of a "Rip Van Winkle" scenario, or a "Hot Tub Time Machine" scenario was currently unknown.

And in terms of outlandishness, she'd literally been reincarnated into a war-loving world by a vengeful deity-like being with productivity issues. Time travel was practically reasonable when you knew that much.

Tanya rolled up the sleeve of her left arm, noting the presence of one of the small scars from Anson Sue's kamikaze attempt all those years ago. She checked the other arm just to be sure. Again, and exactly as she remembered them, were some of the various marks and nicks she'd accumulated over years of conflict.