Perhaps it was the last dying cries of his oxygen starved brain, but at the point of death, he experienced a cliche moment – His whole life briefly flashed before his eyes.
His father had been a career soldier with the Australian Army. Loud, proud and terribly awkward at times, but a truly respectable man with a truly respectable beard.. His mother was a stay-at-home Mum. A gentle soul with great skill in cooking deserts. She would often sing as she baked, so he enjoyed quietly reading as he listened. They cherished their only son for 7 years and his youth was spent in peace.
Soon after, his mother fell pregnant with triplets and life became far more chaotic. Training constantly with his father, he suffered through high school, waiting to enlist in the army.
When he was 15, his father was killed by a drunk driver. After nearly beating the man half to death in a rage, the man decided to continue with his plans to become a soldier. As his training went on, he could run further and faster every week. Progress was a great feeling!
After getting high marks on the Army's written test and interview, his dreams began to take shape... Then a letter arrived: “We've discovered some medical issues, please consult your Doctor. We will hold onto your application until you've recovered. Best Wishes!”
With no father and a chronic illness, his dream turned to nothingness in an instant. Money was tight and he was constantly a burden since no jobs would take him and his illness. After ten years, he'd decided enough was enough. If he couldn't be useful, he could at least have a long rest, alone. Grabbing his backpack and bow, he quickly scrawled a note to his mother, then began his journey into the bush.
With the slideshow coming to an end, his consciousness finally went dark.
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* Bu-Dump Ba-Dump *
A strange reverberation violently wrenched back a flicker of his consciousness. Like a heart beat hooked up to an amplifier, the pulsing echoed through his entire being.
* Bu-Dump Ba-Dump *
As he opened his eyes, he was assaulted with a sudden wave of vertigo. He was floating in a void...
Behind him was a shimmering, transparent energy wall with trillions of galaxies beyond it! There was another similar wall some distance in front of him, but it was hard to truly know how far away it was.
Looking 'up' and 'down', there was nothing but eternal blackness between the two walls. It gave off the feeling of “Nothing will survive in here...”, stimulating a primal fear deep within him for a moment. He almost lost himself to the terror, but the soul-shaking pulsations swept over him again and again, calming his mind.
Without this comfortable feeling constantly beating on his psyche, he might have started to go insane from the lack of direction. Was he standing up? On his back? Was he upside down? ARGH!
* Ba-Dump*
He had been in a state of 'attempting to throw up' for quite a while because of the dizziness, but he could do nothing except painfully wretch. Nothing came up. A familiar feeling for him, it happened daily for the past 10 years.
"God, this sucks. My entire stomach hurts and my head's still spinning from the void. Hopefully this isn't Limbo... I don't want to be stuck in this shit!"
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He traveled along weightlessly in the nothingness for what felt like hours, accompanied by only the pulsing and his stomach rumblings.
"Is this reincarnation? I wasn't expecting anything at all from the afterlife, to be honest.
I hope I get some cheat abilities or starting gear this time around. But honestly, anything's good as long as it's not a cockroach... If there really is a god here, please spare me from that fate! Even a goblin would be better!"
After what felt like days, the wall of strange energy ahead started noticeably moving closer and closer at an alarming speed. He felt a brief electrical tingle cover his skin as it passed through the wall and then darkness took him once more.
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The first thing he felt was pressure from all sides. Like being wrapped tightly in a blanket as you sleep, only to wake up unable to move because of the tangled bedding. The second thing he noticed was off in his periphery... 3 bars. Red, Yellow, Blue.
"The fuck? It feels like I'm being crushed by something warm?"
He struggled, but it was ultimately pointless. He could feel his limbs trying to move, but they simply couldn't. After about 20 minutes, he was assaulted with light and discovered he could finally move his arms and legs a little.
* WHOOSH *
He felt he was suddenly moving at a rapid pace. A mans face came into blurry view. It was a rugged, earthy looking man with a massive bushy black beard. His ancient looking eyes were as blue as a summer sky, glinting with intelligence and pride.
“**** ********** *****”
“** ***** **!”
"Doesn't sound like any language I've ever heard... I still can't move very well either. Oh shit, don't tell me I'm a baby..."
Denying it wouldn't change the fact. His own tiny little hand had wandered into view as he was thinking. His left hand was obviously that of a baby!
"Well I guess I should have expected that from reincarnation. Where'd this ring come from though? I didn't see anyone the whole time I was in the void?"
He had spotted a baby-sized golden ring on his right ring-finger. It had two bands of gold, framing a strip of royal blue in the middle. The face of the ring had a smooth golden carving of a beautiful goddess with hair that curled out in all directions, giving the effect of a brilliant sun behind her.
As he was inspecting the ring, his father swaddled him and he was bound again!
"BLAST!"
As he lamented his loss of freedom, a white glow briefly lit up the entire room from somewhere behind him.
A short moment after, the blinding light vanished and multiple footsteps headed for the door. He listened intently while his assumed parents spoke in hushed whispers. Presumably about him, since they were constantly pointing at him and the ring while they argued.
The two nodded with determination, hugged and the man left the room in a rush. He was alone with his new mother.
"Maybe it's feeding time? I hope this doesn't get too awkward..."
His new mother was a beauty. She was in her early 20's and had long straight golden hair that curled at the ends. Her emerald eyes sparkled with a certain mischievousness. She was quite short compared to her bear of a husband, perhaps only 173cm, but she radiated a feeling of intense power. Despite having just given birth, she was rosy cheeked and constantly giving him a comfortable smile.
His first few feedings went as well as you could expect, for a man of 28. The embarrassment alone was enough to last his entire new lifetime!
He progressed quickly and started learning to walk and talk. If his parents ever spoke, he would listen intently and try to work it out. He wasn't certain, but it sounded similar to English, only with slightly different basic sounds.
By the age of 2, he'd figured out some basic things from his constant observations:
Firstly, his new name was Abe Haruki. His parents were Ketrel and Ayako and they ran a large ranch, just an hours walk outside the walls of a large town. The local culture seemed to be based on Japan, with people often bowing to each other as they passed, based off status.
The bars in his periphery were most likely HP, Stamina and MP, but he wasn't certain yet. The yellow bar dropped as he ran and the red dropped after he tripped and skinned his knee, so he just needed to test out MP next.
Finally, the weather! It was far more mild than Australia. It was more like English weather back on Earth. Haruki was constantly thankful.
“Thank god, no more 45 degree days...”
His daily life was happily spent toddling about, lost in thought and inspecting what he could. The world outside the window was bright and full of farmlands. Some mountains in the far East had snow on their peaks and people traveled along the nearby road often enough for him to hear scattered conversations while in the front lawn. It was a comfortable place to live, especially for him.
“I'd like to see those mountains some day.”