3 - New World

Jesse awoke staring at a dirty ceiling, a wave of foul smells immediately began assaulting his nose, mainly the smell of feces and blood, mixed with various other filthy smells. Lifting his head, he began surveying his surroundings.

Many things quickly caught his vision, first off, he was in an absolutely filthy kitchen, presumably in someone's house, dirt smeared everywhere, broken windows, trash scattered across the floor, dead bugs, everything. Second, his body seemed to be that of a 10-year-old, or somewhere in that range.

What was even more apparent than both of these however, was the small pool of blood under his head, and the brick smeared with blood sitting right next to it.

"So… this is that recently deceased person that angel was talking about, what the hell happened here?"

Before he could think any further, a dirty woman entered the kitchen, her hair was frizzy, messy and oily. Dirt covered her face and body and her clothes had small tears across them and looked like they came from the trash. She saw him sitting up and spoke.

"Eh, so you're fiiiiinally up junior, I knew a good ol' smackin would get your lazy good for nothing ass up and about, now come on, get to cleaning up all that..."

She pointed at the pool of blood and continued.

"All that shit."

She said in a mocking tone, her voice slurred. Jesse's new 10 year old face seemed downtrodden as he quickly put two and two together. This boy's mother, seemingly an alcoholic or a crackhead or something of that sort, got mad and in some sort of rage, killed him with a brick.

He felt bad for the boy, but all he could do is hope King Yenma would do him good in the afterlife. For now though, he had to get a better grip on his situation.

His body was covered in bruises and dirt, and he felt pain all around him, he definitely needed to get out of here and then fix himself up.

He tried to make his way to the door, but he was quickly stopped.

"Now what exactly do you think yous is doings right there huh?! I TOLD you to CLEAN. UP. YO. MESS!"

She said fiercely before smacking him across the face hard. It hurt, a lot. Rubbing his face, a deep fear began to set in as he swallowed his saliva. Perhaps his body remembered the fear she'd instilled in it, in this child, which in turn made him worry, worry that he was going to die only moments after he was supposed to start his new life. His body began to shake, he was totally paralyzed.

As he stood there, the woman's face began to contort in increased anger. Reaching over the counter, she picked up a plate and screamed in a grating horrific voice, like a banshee.

"I said to CLEAN UP YOUR MESS!"

She swung the plate at his head, and everything seemed to slow down for him, in an instant, he reacted. Quickly, ducking under the plate, he was only just able to dodge the strike. Immediately after, he countered, pushing her forward with all his strength.

Even though his body was weak, she was drunk and off-balance, so he was able to push her over easily. She crashed into the counter and a few plates. Before she even knew what was happening, he had made a break for it, running out of the kitchen, and through the hallway.

As he ran through the hallway however, he saw a door creaked open. From the opening, he could tell it was the original owner of this body's room.

Seeing the toys spread around the room, drawings, images of this body's past life, he felt bad for the kid, he could empathize with people born into bad situations, that's how he lived in his previous universe after all. As he heard the woman getting up in the distance, he quickly made a decision, he couldn't just let this woman completely get away with killing her son.

So before he left, he called the police, hopefully there was enough evidence to get this woman locked up, just evidence of child neglect should get her in jail. As he was finishing the call however, the woman finally got out of the room. He swallowed his saliva as she stared at him, filled with rage.

"How dare you push me like that, I am your MOTHER! You good for nothing LITTLE SHIT!"

She screamed, tossing the same brick she killed this body with before at him. He was paralyzed, completely unable to move, and before he could react, the brick hit him straight in the face, causing him to fall over.

As blood ran down his face and the woman began to walk towards him, his fight or flight response kicked in, and his heart began to beat rapidly. He got up and quickly chose flight, running with all his might towards the front door.

The woman began to chase, trying to stop him, but he was too fast and was able to quickly reach the door, slamming it shut on her fingers. He didn't stop and just kept running, breathing heavy, blood still running down his face. The woman just stared at him from the front door, screaming profanities.

After running for a while, he was out of the slums, and into the main city. He looked in wonder at the city, it looked just like the ones in Dragon Ball, after all that's where he was.

A faint smile spread on his blood covered face as his eyelids became heavy. His vision quickly became hazy and he fell over. He heard the sound of a young girl yelling near him for her grandpa, before he completely fell unconscious, just hoping this wouldn't be the end already, this early.