REINCARNATION? TRANSMIGRATION??

It was the peak hour, the sun was shining brightly above the head, life was moving at its own  pace. It was your usual busy day.

A boy around late teens was walking on the roadside in a lazy manner. He had a plastic bag on one hand carrying groceries and was looking at a smartphone on another hand. Nothing was too notable about him that could attract anyone's attention.

He was surfing through the net searching for something.

"Man~ there is nothing interesting in this new mangas. Can't they make something which is actually worth the time? like solo levelling? haaa.... I miss its weekly updates."

It's been some months since his favourite comic 'Solo Levelling' ended its series. Since then he hasn't come across a comic which can hook him up and that's the reason behind his grumbling.

The boy was so immersed in his phone that he didn't notice the cranes and construction going on the sidewalk and passed by.

ring~ring~  ring~ring~

Suddenly the phone in his hand starts ringing.  He picked up the call to see the caller was his mom

"hello! Maa"

[Shiva, where are you? what's taking you so long to finish shopping?]

"haaa....Just don't ask maa. I am too tired, i guess all the housewives in the neighbourhood chose today for going to the groceries"

[Chuckles* Well sad for you i guess~ Anyway did you get onions too?]

"No? You didn't ask me about the onions though"

"Ah sorry son, could you please get the onions on your way back?"

"But I am already out of the store"

"There's guest coming today i won't be able to make dinner without them"

Shiva sighed. "Alright I will go grab them"

"Thank you son. Come home safely"

"Yeah" After saying that he cut off the call.

Ah~ What a pain~ Now I have to go back there again. Why does maa have to send me  to do this type of task?"

After finishing the entrance exams, there was a lot of free time for him to spend. Moreover, due to covid situation there are rumours that the starting college session would be delayed.  Honestly, anybody in his place would have a party and spend time having fun with friends. But, Shiva was too lazy to even think about that. 

His favourite way to spend time was to lock himself in his room and be immersed in his laptop playing games and stuff.

Someone may call him a NEET, but he was not. Actually he can be quite sociable when it's needed. 

And moreover he doesn't have any questionable hobbies that some people have. He likes to try different things with interest. Recently, he has been going through different networking sites to see what they could offer.

The thing is, after a long period of stress over the entrance exams completely drained him dry. He is just not in a mood to do anything now, other than just laying around his room.

But today, his mother asked to grab some groceries from the store. The outside temperature was more than 32 degrees. He really is in no mood to go out in this blazing hot summer. But, denying his mother would cause even more problem for him * Moms are scary *. So he reluctantly agreed.

Now, after finishing the given job, while he was already on his way back, he was told to go back and buy onions. This annoyed him a lot ( f*king onions ).

While turning back the phone accidently slips out of his hand and falls on the ground.

"ah damn" He bent to pick it up but suddenly heard a loud voice.

"HEY BOY!! WATCH OUT!!"

'!!?' He looked back to find the owner of the voice, but suddenly felt his world shaking. And the next moment shiva was laying on the ground. There was a blood pool forming around him, the groceries were scattered everywhere.  A huge iron bar hit him. His eyes were slowly becoming heavy, the body was turning cold. His senses were slowly leaving him.

The image of his family came into his mind.

Mother.....Father...lil sis....

Slowly his consciousness faded away leaving  streaks of tears falling down his cheeks.

                            ************

Hitomi was preparing the day's lunch. As poor farmers in a remote village at the outskirts, they didn't have many options for meals. So she was making the usual plum rice. The rice was also not of good quality. But what can they do? Even meeting the end meal is a blessing for the peasant farmers.

"Mom! Mom!!"

Hitomi turned to see her daughter was calling her.  She and her husband had this lovely little girl 4 years ago. She thought that she found her happiness for life but fate was cruel. Two year ago her husband passed away.

The difficulty of surviving increased by folds.

The thought of not getting her daughter a good life aches her heart.

"Mom!"

Hitomi woke up from her stupor and asked

"What is it sweetie?"

Her daughter Kaya answered "Mom!!  Koutaro-nii woke up!"

'!' "Really!? Where is he?"

"He is still on the bed!"

"Ok, let's go see him."

Hitomi left the kitchen with Kaya and walked towards the bedroom, leaving the half prepared meal.

The bedroom was nothing special.

What would you expect from a peasant's house?

There was a single bed in the middle made of old wood bars, which didn't look like it could withstand a grown man jumping on it. And some common furniture.

On the bed a boy around 6 years of age was sitting and looking up at the straw ceiling with a dazed expression.

"Koutaro?!"

Suddenly the door opens and hitomi walks in with kaya in tow.

"Koutaro, you are awake, we were so worried when you fainted suddenly!" said hitomi with a worried expression getting close to the boy.

Koutaro was the only son of their neighbour.He is 6 years old. He was usually a cheerful boy but everything changed 10 months ago.

His parents were found dead in the forest. They were coming home from the nearby town after finishing a business  but unfortunately a wild beast attacked them and they ended up losing their lives. The young boy's heart was scarred hearing the sudden news of his parent's death. He became totally lacklustre after that.

Hitomi was pained by this development, so she  took the young boy to live at her house, to which other village dwellers agreed. He has been living with them since then.

But today he suddenly fainted on the yard. She was incredibly scared by the situation. In these 10 months she started to view him as her son. So something happening to him is the last thing she wants.

The boy, Koutaro looked towards her, waking up from the daze.

"u- uh  I..." he was going to say something but was stopped by hitomi.

"Its okay child you don't have to say anything. Just rest for now." said hitomi, carefully embracing him.

"I am going to prepare the meal, stay here like a good boy. okay?"

Koutaro didn't say anything, just slowly nodded his head.

Hitomi smiled and looked toward kaya

"kaya lets go outside, koutaro needs to rest for now"

"ok" the little girl nodded seriously.

"koutaro- nii rest for now, I will come back later."

Saying that she got out of the room followed by her mother leaving koutaro all by himself in the room.

'Dafuq....what the hell is going on!? How did everything end up like this? Is this a prank someone is playing on me?? Why am I in a 6 year old's body??  This is not funny at all!!!'

'Koutaro' or more precisely Shiva screamed inside his head.

He doesn't understand what is going on but..... He knows that he is fucked up.:)

(A/N  yo... I know there are a lot of grammatical errors and I apologise for that. English is my third language and it is my first time writing something like this. Moreover I have no idea how this app works. I am still learning. If you find something hard to understand, inform me and I will correct it.)