Birth

I woke up with a massive headache. The kind that doesn't let you breathe evenly, let alone think. I tried to move my hands towards my head, but they just wouldn't move. And not only that, my eyes seemed bent on not opening despite trying my best to make them.

Also, I was not breathing, so I started to panic a little bit. I struggled the best I could, try to free myself from this apparent prison, but it seemed impossible. And then, after a few seconds, I got too exhausted to even try anymore, which was weird.

I was never the fittest person in existence, but I could sure as hell climb a hill with little trouble, so why was this tiring? It didn't seem to matter, for I was soon swept into sleep once again.

I woke up after an unknown amount of time. Again, I tried to move, but was unable to. Maybe a little wiggle of my hands and feet, but nothing that could be called a voluntary movement. I had a headache again, but it was not as bad as the last one. Actually, it felt like a hangover ache. Nothing good, but nothing bad either.

But that again brought the question, where was I?

I couldn't tell. Not even a little. Las thing I remember was getting on a bus towards the city. I needed to go to the bank to withdraw some money. I was getting clothes and medicine too, I think. So… what happened? Did something happen to the bus? Maybe I was kidnapped? That shouldn't be possible, no one outside of the communities knew my face, only my name. My name…

'Great, I don't even remember my name. Now what? Perhaps I got hit in the head and got amnesia or something… No, that doesn't seem right, my head doesn't hurt that much.'

After that, exhaustion once again overwhelmed me, and I went to sleep. And by went to sleep, I meant more like pass out, because apparently, I had the self-control of a baby right now.

The following days were spent the same way. Waking up, trying to move, thinking, trying to remember, and fainting. It was very, very repetitive, until one day I just woke up and didn't try anything. For the first time since being here, I just took everything around me.

I still couldn't open my eyes, but I could hear, just a tiny little bit, and I could feel my body.

I was in a warm place. It was, actually, very comfortable. Like nothing I had ever felt. I wasn't hot nor cold, I was just perfect. And, for some reasons I just couldn't understand, I felt peaceful. Protected. I relaxed and let my guard down, just for a little while. It was exhausting being me.

And then, I heard it. It was a rhythmic thud. Or more like two of them. Heartbeats, I could tell. But none was my own. I could feel mine, the other two were just there, outside of me, beating. One of them sounded close, and was rather weak, but it was still rhythmical and rather frequent, so there was no life-threatening condition for the moment. The other one sounded strong, way stronger than mine and the small beat, but it was a little more erratic. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. It made me worry. But still, it made me feel safe, for whatever reason.

After I fount out the existence of these foreign heartbeats, I started to listen to more things. I heard the sound of water. Always stronger after the heartbeat, for some reason. But the most interesting thing I found were the voices.

And by voices, I mean more like muffled sounds. Like the kind of which you usually hear when someone is talking while your head is underwater. It was low, almost inaudible and most definitely almost impossible to comprehend, but it was there.

And then, there was the itch.

It didn't take long to notice that the feeling all over my body wasn't something normal, nor did it have the same origin as my headache. The reason? While the headaches were still there, they were decreasing in both intensity and duration, if ever so slightly. But not the itch. Oh no, that one was always there.

It went through all of my body. From the tip of my toes to the top of my head. It wasn't uncomfortable, or painful, really, actually it was kind of relaxing feeling it through my body. Concentrating on one part of it made the sensation stronger, but that was not something I tried often.

As the days passed, I started to ignore the sensation. I could still feel it, all of the time, but I just ignored it. It became second nature, like breathing.

It was something done unconsciously most of the time, but when you concentrated enough, you could take conscious control of it. Carefully managing when you inhaled and exhaled, only for it to return to an unconscious action after, maybe, a few minutes.

My days were spent mostly like this. At various points in time, it almost drove me crazy.

Not knowing the elapsed time spent in this condition was mentally draining, to say the least. But there was nothing I could do, so I just went along with it. Until one day, it happened.

The warm and comfortable feeling all over my body shook and I could tell some noises more clearly. There were rushed voices, at least three of them. And there was also a fourth, screaming her lounges out.

After a few minutes, the first additional heartbeat disappeared completely. That had me freaked out. But before I could do anything —I had forgotten I was incapable of doing so— my heart started hurting.

This… was way worse than a headache. It was physical pain, like if my head was being squished by someone or something. It was, absolutely, not a pleasant sensation.

It lasted for much, much longer than what I would've wanted it to, but it finally came to an end. After that, the same pressure was applied to the rest of my body. From my elbows all the way to my hips, all of it was in pain. Not as much as my head, though.

And, after I finally felt free, I realized a huge, huge problem. A problem I had not even considered for the past months.

Remember what I said about the itching sensation? About how unless you consciously looked for it you would not even realize it was there? Remember how I compared it to breathing? Yeah, well, apparently, I had not been breathing all this time. Funny thing, really.

Somehow, though, I had not died. The oxygen my body needed was still there, provided by who knows what.

But, once I actually noticed my lack of breathing, I started to feel really, really bad. Like I was suffocating. Which I was, considering that I was, well, NOT breathing.

It was the most painful thing I had ever experienced, and I once broke both of my legs. At the same time. It felt like I was inhaling fire. I kid you not. But aside from my suffering, there were some other things I noticed.

The screaming voice was not screaming anymore, just panting, although her breathing was quite heavy. The other voices still seemed rushed, but they were calmer, I think.

Also, I didn't seem to understand any of the worlds spoken. Although they sounded like… Korean? Japanese? Some kind of oriental language, from what I could tell. I also started getting restless, not that I could do anything about it.

But, definitely, the strangest thing that happened was when I felt myself moving. An interesting sensation, once you consider I was not walking, crawling, not even rolling. And the ease with which I was being moved seemed to defy logic, considering I was a grown-up woman. Because I still was one, wasn't I?

Ok. It is not that I didn't see the signs, or that I somehow didn't piece them together. I am like, you know, wicked smart, remember? But I just didn't seriously consider the possibility. I didn't want to consider it. Because really, what were the chances?

Something like this was something you read about, not consider real, not even plausible. And definitely not the kind of thing you expect to experience. So, forgive me for deluding myself into thinking this was just a whole bunch of sense-altering drugs coupled with the occasional hallucination.

Because the other option…

Does this even happen? Seriously?

And then there was the matter of my memories. If this, all this, was real, why did I still remember? There was no heaven, hell, not even Meng Po's soup, and that was my favourite myth about the whole thing. And it sounded tasty.

Anyway, all these was just a very, very weird thing.

And for those of you that didn't manage to quite catch the situation, I am talking about reincarnation. You know, rebirth, the whole samsara thing.

And now, for the looks of it, it was happening to me. Now. Being born again. A baby again.

Oh god, how I am going to get through this?

Las time, I was pretty much an outcast. Insensitive might be a good word, though not the perfect one.

What I mean is that I was emotionally stunted. For the most part, at least.

My parents? Yeah, I liked them. Hard not to, considering they fed me, clothed me, took care of me for all my life. Hell, they even got Ethan because of me, and that couldn't have been an easy decision. Nor a cheap one, for that matter. About Ethan, I absolutely adored him, more than I thought possible, but that was it, really.

I never had any friends. Not the type that you cared for or trusted, just normal, friendly acquaintances. The only other people that I was fond of, even if slightly, were the children I helped. And not all of them, for that matter.

It was probably a matter with my brain, I think. Or maybe my soul? We have proved reincarnation, if my hypothesis was correct. But if that was the case, where did your soul ended and your brain started referring to personality traits?

Taking all of that into consideration, I'm sure you can understand my reluctance to start all over again. Especially with a new family. How was I supposed to love them? What would their reactions be when they found out I didn't —couldn't— love them? Would they be mad? Disappointed? I mean, I was their baby girl, after all.

Oh my god, I'm still a girl, aren't I? Because If I suddenly became a boy, that would be totally messed up. How was I supposed to do that? But, those were concerns for the future, I could tell.

The important part was the now, and I wasn't liking it much. After I got —or what I thought to be— a bath, I got wrapped up in a blanket. It was not comfortable or uncomfortable. It was a normal, acceptable, functional blanket. Great, I like those. Then, once I was all wrapped up like a little burrito, I started moving again.

But this time, I noticed something. There was a cry in the room. Or cave. Or wherever the hell I was, but there was someone crying. A baby crying, to be more precise.

Thing is, it wasn't me… I was feeling really confused, until it all made sense. Three heartbeats. One mine, and one of my mother's. So, the third one? Well, I had a twin brother or sister. And by the lack of screaming after I was born, I'm assuming an older one, at that. Not that it mattered.

What was irritating was listening to the screams and cries. It was too loud, babies were too loud. I had my air pathways burned when breathing and I didn't cry, did I? Why did babies have to make such a fuss? I mean, it did hurt, but not that bad. Too loud, really.

After hearing that irritating noise for what seemed like eternity —not really, probably only 30 seconds—, it suddenly quieted down, and I was placed in someone's lap. Next thing I knew, I heard the most soothing voice I had ever, ever heard.

It was sweet, melodic, tender, and comfortable. It was like the voice of an angel, of I had to compare it to something. There is no other creature I can think of that could sound like that. And the smell… it was relaxing. If you could ignore the sweat and stench of childbirth, that is. Bur seriously, it smelled peaceful. I wanted to do nothing more than to sleep, and I was not particularly tired.

After that, a finger brushed my head and I tried to open my eyes. And I say tried because, no matter what I did, I only managed to open them up a little bit, and everything was blurred. I couldn't even see shapes, only spots and stains of different shades of black and white.

Not that it should surprise me. I was, after all, a newborn baby.

I didn't let it bother me, though. The finger, at some point, turned into a complete hand, gently caressing my head. It was comfortable. It was peaceful. And for a moment there, I felt happy.

That was something I never expected to feel. After all, I had only experienced it once. But there was no doubt about it. It was happiness. And, to a very minuscule —but nonetheless present— degree, I felt love.

Maybe it was an instinctual reaction. Maybe it was a result of endorphins released by my brain after birth. But, whatever the reason, it was love.

However, I could definitely not attribute the reason for my love to stupid chemicals in my brain or my primordial instincts after what happened next. It made me feel so warm, so beautiful, that I swear if possible, I could've cried and shed tears of joy. That woman, the one with the melodious voice and warming scent spoke once again.

I didn't understand the language I now knew was Japanese, but as a person who actually watched anime, even if it was only one show, I could identify the most prominent characteristic of the language, suffixes. So, when that woman spoke, I understood nothing except for three things.

That woman started speaking faintly, and I could only understand kaa-san. Meaning she was my mom. I suspected it to be so, but when I knew for certain, my stomach sank, and I was happy. I think a smile even broke out.

Then, I could feel, she turned towards my brother/sister/sibling and spoke to him, ever so gently, something I obviously didn't understand. However, by the end of it, I heard something.

"Seigo-chan."

It was almost a murmur. Almost silent, but it was there.

After that, she turned to me and, in the same sweet manner, spoke. I understood nothing, but I swear I could tell it was the sweetest thing in existence. And, like she did with my brother, she murmured with her face on top of mine.

"Yuuki-chan."

And that leads us to the present. Let me introduce myself.

I am Yuuki, a newborn child, hopefully a girl. I have a beautiful mom, though I don't know her name. I have a big brother called Seigo, though we are twins, so I can claim myself to be the older one later. I suppose I have a father, somewhere, but I have no idea where he is or who he is.

Oh, and also, I reincarnated with most of my memories intact into what appears to be a Japanese family. I mean, it must be, right?

Because the other option is to have been reincarnated into an anime, maybe Naruto.

But, seriously, what are the odds of that happening?

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Hello there! Here's chapter two. I'm sorry if this is going slowly, so let me warn you from early on.

Yes, both of them will be, to a certain degree, op characters. One in one thing and one in another thing, or maybe both in the same thing. BUT, it will be a gradual change. If you want a freaking 8-year-old S rank nin, go check out other fanfics. This one is more focused towards character development and storytelling, not power leveling. Although, you can expect an 8-year-old mid-chunin, maybe. The point is, excluding timeskips, the characters will not get obscenely powerful in an obscenely short amount of time. So, yeah, that's that. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

02/07/18