A year and a half before all this fiasco.

Renji, who was just 4 months old back then, awakened from his sleep, and just like any other infant of that age, his eyes were clear, but the expression was odd as if he was confused. He felt heavy and stuffed, mentally. He looked around and could perceive the surroundings clearly, but he felt the world spinning, albeit slightly, like he was drunk and felt high from alcohol. This was the first instance where it all began or, in a way, started to manifest.

There was no pain or uncomfortable feeling in his body, but he just couldn't think like he normally did or even form any logical thoughts. He behaved like a pre-programmed machine, unlike what one would expect from a reincarnated individual like him. He cried when he was hungry and didn't have an ounce of control over his excretion. Just a normal child.

As he grew up, these symptoms did not go away; if anything, they became intense. Renji was able to pronounce his first words with little difficulty and started walking when he was barely a year old. Except for being a very sleepy child, he was not any different, no matter how one looked at it.

But it all changed when his age crossed 18 months; his expression started to become even more trance-like, and he fell asleep far too often for children his age. At some point, he was only awake for seven hours a day, causing extreme stress and worry to his parents, who brought him to the Leaf Children's Hospital every now and then to check his health, only to find no proper solution.

At first they convinced themselves with the fact that the consulted doctors claimed nothing was wrong with Renji's body. But, seeing the condition worsening day by day, they visited a popular medic ninja hoping to find the possible underlying cause, only to have their hopes shattered. Over and over, there was the same diagnosis irrespective of the consultant.

'I don't find anything wrong.'

But how can the parents accept it? Even the little solace they found in these diagnoses dried out at some point. So finally, they couldn't take it anymore and decided to spend their savings to get an appointment with a Jounin medic ninja (iryo nin) who, in the end, also didn't find anything amiss but gave the suggestion to check the child's mind just in case. That is how Renji ended up under the care of Aoi Yamanaka.

While all these incidents were happening, his parents worried, misunderstanding sparking as everyone twisted the situation to their own understandings and desires; all Renji felt was a spinning world where whenever he was awake, his body moved on its own and did things by instinct without him having any conscious control over it.

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And when he was asleep, he fell into dream after dream where he experienced scenarios that were difficult to explain, which felt familiar, very intimate, forming an indescribable emotion in his heart. These dreams repeated like a never-ending cycle that overwhelmed him to no end.

That is until this day when it just vanished, like a display going blank when the power runs out. He awoke from the dream. It's not the first time, but yet it felt like it has been ages since he woke up, like this is the first time he truly ever woke up.

He was confused at this; he felt different, but he couldn't point a finger to what it was that made it different. Everything in the surrounding was a familiar sight to him, but his subconscious, though, told a different story.

He stretched with a lazy yawn and stood up from his bed and went out of his room, or he tried to. The door was locked, and he couldn't reach the lock with his height.

'Great! a-'

He thought before his mind went blank for a moment.

'What was that? NO! What is this?'

Renji grabbed his forehead in confusion and panic. Those thoughts that resounded in his mind just now were not of the language that he had ever heard or spoken, at least not the one from when he was awake. He scavenged through his mind to understand what happened.

Little by little, like the grains of sand moving in the hourglass, his mind became clear as a distinction formed in his memories.

One, which he found to be the real deal, that involved his parents, his surroundings, and his experiences so far.

Second, the other one, which he termed as alien, had very odd memories that defied the logic by existing in both clear and unclear manners. Everything related to that memory can be devised and labeled into two further categories. Non-living and living.

All the knowledge on the former: Non-living, was clear as fresh spring water, like he had learned them all or rather engraved them in his bones. It also included certain memories that matched with his real memories, but the ones here felt different, like they were from a third-person perspective. He decided to visit them later to find out what it truly is about. But, not now; now he got something that was even more mysterious, something that induced the emotion of heaviness and fear that he had never felt before.

The later part of that division: living; every time he tries to recall it, a heart-gripping uneasiness finds its way to him, making him shudder. Renji's breathing became ragged as he clenched his little fists.

'It's okay, it's... okay.' He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down as he attempted to recall that second part in his memory, causing his breath to become even more ragged. He was the only one present in that little room, with the only audible sound being his own heavy breathing, which was eventually broken by his sudden gasp.

His body went cold and rigid with his eyes wide and mouth agape.

"De... DEAD?!!"

With that, Renji fell unconscious.