----------------------------------------

"I am free."

In his mind, Yumeii had finally done, what he thinks was long overdue. The stress from his past life vanished instantly.

"No pain, no suffering, nothing can hurt me-"

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a pressure, wrapping around his body. Like being squashed between two walls. Like an Insect dying.

"Aaaah! It hurts!"

Was that the punishment, he received for taking his own life? Was he in hell?

Various questions popped up, but he had no time finding the answers, as the pain got worse. He felt like he'd be completely crushed at any second. The sensation of agony lingered for a long time, and when he felt that the torment had reached it's peak, he let out a scream,

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?"

And with that, the pain disappeared.

"Well what do you know, it actually worked."

Torn away from the glow of his achievement, he was greeted by a variety of unfamiliar noises.

| xxxx-Xx! Xx. |

| XxxXXXx? |

"Is that... Talking? What are they saying? What's happening?"

Yumeii carefully opened his eyes, his vision was blurred by an intense light. Surrounding him were several shadows .

"So I did survive after all."

In that sentence, his emotions were clear. Anger, sadness and bitterness. There was a childish note of betrayal in his tone. Yumeii wondered what was going on. He was sure he died. The memories of his suicide were still fresh. Especially that girl.

"Did she also survive?"

His survival was a waste, he thought, "my will to live was already broken. Even if I got patched up, I would just try again. A higher place, less crowded, head first, whatever it would take to make the next try the last."

He would make sure the next time, he would not fail.

Suddenly, a headache inducing red light coated his vision, followed by a shout.

| XX!XXXX-X XX! | |XXXXxXXXx!?|

The voice was deep and controlled, but it still shocked Yumeii. This was definitely a voice of anger.

"Are you that unhappy that I survived?" He frowned, "make up your mind."

Yumeii saw how the shadows started to move. The only thing he could tell with his poor vision was that they were moving frantically. Not even the silhouettes were there for him.

| XxX! XXx XX. |

| X XX. Xxxxx! |

More people started talking. This time, the voices were soft, feminine even. If it wasn't for their shrill screaming, Yumeii imagined the voices would be soothing.

He then felt how his eyelids became heavy with a sudden onset of narcosis.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"What now?", he thought.

I woke up just seconds ago. How could I be tired already?

But the tiredness persisted.

"Ah... this situation... is beyond weird." He murmured, falling into a deep slumber.

Soon enough, he had a dream. A dream about his past. Like the reminiscent dream, that comes at deaths doorstep.

In his dream he saw a body. The body was lying in a pool of blood, which was turning the clothes to a deep red colour. As he slowly approached the person, the smell of iron was permeating the air. The pungent smell was penetrating his nose, causing him to also taste the blood. Step by step he walked towards his destination in a trance. Only when he heard the splashing sounds caused by his steps did he notice how close he had gotten. As he began inspecting the body he realized who it actually was.      

Suddenly, he felt something wet drop onto his face.

"I must have been crying," he assumed.

Waking up, he noticed that the scenery had changed.

His vision was no longer blurry. Up above Yumeii, there was a vast sky stretching over the blush of dusk. It was about to hit nighttime and it just started raining. The great, looming clouds were rapidly parting and merging, making different shapes and forms. It was as if if they were telling a story, acting on the endless canvas. The sun was illuminating the horizon, it's warm colors blending smoothly with the darkness surrounding it. The brightest stars were already showing, reflecting their light on the raindrops that were now falling on the ground. Looking at it, his spirits lifted.

At this point, Yumeii wondered why he was able to see the sky in the first place.

"Did they really just throw me out!?"

But somehow the ground felt soft. Like he was lying on a blanket or a cushion.

"They couldn't have thrown me out with the whole bed, right?"

He should have died, but he didn't. He woke up in a place with a foreign language and was now gazing at the wondrous sky. This situation was truly bizarre. Was he still dreaming? But, he had just been dreaming and this was definitely real. Plus it wouldn't explain how he'd survived the fall. Trying to understand the situation, he tried sitting upright, but with no use. He couldn't move.

And just like that, he felt his consciousness slowly fading away again.

"Hey really, this isn't funny. what exactly is happening here?!" further confusion overwhelmed Yumeii.

Desperately trying to escape the weariness, he figured out that he could tilt his head. As he was shifting to the left, he saw a child, an infant to be exact, resting just next to him. And at this moment he understood.

The baby was holding a hand, a hand about the same size of a plum. It was Yumeii's hand. The crushing feeling, his strong need to sleep, everything made sense.

He had been reborn. With his previous memories intact.

What a predicament.

And with that he also came to another shocking truth.

His first and last words were of the same tasteless cut.

"I really need to update my vocabulary." He groaned, trying to plot a way around his situation as his mind faded into the void.

A while after sunset, as the last rays of sunlight began to fade, a young girl carrying groceries found a basket lying next to a field road. Inside, she found a pair of infants asleep.

"What is, Oh my, Are they alright, such young kids. Did they got abandoned by their parents? It does appear like that. poor children."

Pitying those two, she grabbed and brought them to a orphanage, situated in a nearby church, where she was living and working at the same time, in a hurry.

When Yumeii woke up again, he found himself in an unknown room with a low ceiling. It was illuminated by sunlight that shone through a tall window. The interior walls were primarily encased in stone, but also contained some wooden beams as support frames. Next to him were several other cribs that, resembling the one he was lying in, standing on a simple rug. A door was also located at the front, which allowed him to occasionally see adults and curious children alike, walking theough the corridor or entering the chamber to look and feed them.

Naturally it wasn't just quiet, from time to time a baby cried or was screaming.

"So annoying, thankfully the one besides me isn't noisy like the other children." 

Yumeii looked to his left and saw The child he was thrown out with.

He had soon found out that she was actually a girl, through the various interactions of his caretakers.

She would sometimes look at him as if she was observing him, wouldn't do anything further than that.

When nighttime arrived, a person would come in to close the shutters and light some candles that provided a dim light accompanied by a warm atmosphere after which the noise would die off and it became calm again.

"Finally, it seems like they eventually moved on to sleep."

The truth was he also felt sleepy but the thought, that he was abandoned right after his birth kept him awake for a little longer.

"The hell! What did I do, to deserve this fate?"

While he was spouting his usual profanities and complained about his bad luck, Yumeii's mind drifted off and fell asleep, too.