-1- Reborn Into a New World

"Watch out!" Kazuki Takahashi's scream tore through the night, a desperate warning to his older brother, Kaito.

"HONK! HONK!"

Kaito, who was driving, reacted on instinct and jerked the wheel while slamming on his brakes, but it was useless. The 18-wheeler, which had lost its brakes and ran the red light, tried to miss them but was going too fast.

"BOOM!"

The 18-wheeler slammed into Kaito's car, killing him instantly and his brother following him a second later.

'Dammit!' Kaito thought as his soul left his body.

'Dammit!' Came the same cursed thought from his right. To his shock, Kaito heard his brother's voice in the silence that followed. He turned to see Kazuki's ethereal form, a ghostly mirror of his living self, translucent and glowing faintly in the dark.

'Is this death?' Kaito wondered, a chilling calm settling over him.

'What? How?' Kazuki's spectral eyes were wide with confusion as he looked at his brother.

'How can I hear you? Can you hear me? Are we dead? What is this?' Panic threaded through his thoughts, a stark contrast to Kaito's stunned silence.

'I think so,' Kaito thought to his brother, 'and yes, I can hear you.'

He locked eyes with Kazuki and saw the fear etched into his brother's face.

Then it happened.

Behind his brother, what he would call a dimensional rift opened and began to suck his brother into it.

'No!' he yelled as he reached out his arm, trying to get to his brother. The closer his arm got, the more the suction began to act on him, and before he knew it, he and his brother were both pulled into the rift, leaving their old world behind forever.

***

'Where am I? Kaito, are you still there?' Kazuki's voice trembled.

Kaito was forced to close his eyes to adjust from the abrupt darkness turned to light as he answered, 'Yes, I'm here.'

He opened his eyes and looked over at his brother, who he noticed was staring straight ahead in shock.

'What is it?' he asked as he looked over to see a whole new world much larger than Earth, with massive mountains, wide winding rivers, and a lone tree so big it almost touched outer space.

'Where the hell are we?' Kazuki asked, looking to his older brother for answers and reassurance.

'I don't know,' he calmly stated.

Kaito's eyes widened as he watched his brother begin to drift toward the planet below. Panic tightened his chest. 'Where are you going? How are you moving?' he thought desperately.

'I don't know. I'm not doing anything,' his brother said, scared to death of leaving his brother behind.

Kaito's heart pounded as he saw Kazuki speed up. Before he knew it, he was also being pulled along. 'I'm starting to follow you. Just hold tight,' he tried to reassure his brother, hoping to calm him down.

They were being drawn towards the planet faster and faster, the space between them growing. Within seconds, Kaito could no longer see Kazuki. One of them was heading over the towering mountains, while the other was plummeting straight down.

Kaito strained his eyes, searching for any sign of his brother. Suddenly, his vision blurred and shifted. He found himself in an entirely new place, a large city built of stone and wood behind him and a massive forest ahead. 'What the hell?' he thought, confusion and unease washing over him.

A tense few seconds passed before he heard Kazuki's voice again. 'I can still hear you, but I think I just entered a pregnant woman's belly. It's all dark now, and it looked like she was giving birth.'

Kaito looked down as his soul passed through a small house where he saw the same exact thing. A young red-haired woman was gritting her teeth about to give birth, then he entered her body, and everything went dark.

'Kaito, are you still there? Can you hear me?' Kazuki's voice broke through the darkness, still filled with panic.

'Yeah, I can hear you,' he assured his brother while deep in thought.

'What do we do? How will we meet back up?' His brother's voice crackled with urgency.

'OK, calm down. Here's the plan: if we are able to remember our previous lives after birth, then let's meet back up in 21 years at the large tree,' Kaito said, trying to soothe his little brother.

'That should give us plenty of time to grow up, figure out where the tree is, and be able to leave on our own.'

'OK, OK, I hear you. When we turn 21, let's meet at the large tree. Sounds like a...' his brother's voice cut off abruptly.

'Kazuki! Kazuki, are you there!?' Kaito shouted into the void. He waited, each second stretching into eternity. Just as despair began to seep in, a bright light pierced his consciousness.

***

"He's a boy," a man's voice could be heard.

Kaito closed his eyes tight; the light was way too bright.

"Let me hold him," a woman requested softly.

"Here you go," the man said, and Kaito felt himself being handed over

Kaito was slow to open his eyes, but once he did, he looked up to see a beautiful young woman with long red hair. Then he looked over to see a young blonde man with spiky hair, both with bright blue eyes.

"What do you want to name him, Naomi? Still Renji?" the man asked Kaito's mother.

"Yes, Renji. Renji Namikaze," Naomi confirmed, her voice filled with warmth.

Renji's heart raced as he pondered the meaning behind the name 'Namikaze.'

'Namikaze? Like from Naruto?' he thought, the connection seeming too bizarre to be true.

'This has to be a coincidence. There's no way this can be a world with magic. That's crazy,' he reasoned, trying to steady his swirling thoughts.

"Sob!"

"Naomi, why are you crying?" the man asked with concern, grabbing Renji's attention as he looked up at his mother, who was sobbing uncontrollably.

"I... I just don't... want my baby to... have to grow... up in a place like this," Naomi whispered, her voice choked with tears, the crying getting worse.

"I know, sweetie, but it'll all be OK. Renji will have a good life. I promise he'll grow up and get married, have kids, and he'll even get to work with us at the restaurant," the man said, trying to comfort her.

"I know... but why... why did we have to end up here?" Naomi's sobs began to subside, but her pain was still evident.

'Where is here, and why is it so bad?' Renji wondered, anxiety creeping into his thoughts. The uncertainty gnawed at him, and a sense of dread started to take hold. 'I just hope Kazuki is better off than me,' he thought, always more concerned for his younger brother's wellbeing than his own.

"Why isn't he crying?" the man asked, his voice edged with concern.

"I don't know," Naomi replied, her gaze softening as she looked down at Renji. "Sometimes they don't cry. It should be fine."

Renji, lying quietly in his mother's arms, stared up at her. 'Maybe this won't be so bad,' he thought, comforted by the warmth of her bright blue eyes. He tried to lift his arms to reach her, but his small body didn't cooperate, his limbs flailing awkwardly.

'Dammit, this stupid little body won't listen,' he grumbled inwardly, frustration bubbling within him.

"Aww, Kenshin, look! He's finally moving," Naomi said, her face lighting up with joy. She reached out, allowing Renji to grasp her finger, a small smile playing on her lips.

***

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