Chapter 2: The Womb and Chakra POV: MC
The next sensation I felt was a constant beat. I tried to open my eyes, but they stayed shut. I couldn’t feel anything except a weighted blanket of some sort. My memories were fuzzy. The last thing I remembered was- The system of the game! I... I had a heart attack of some sort, and then? The RE: Clan system showed up. Now, where was I? I couldn’t move, speak, or even open my eyes. At least it was comfortable, and I could almost fall asleep to the rhythmic beats sounding from someplace above me.
As I was about to settle in, I looked back on what had happened, and my real emotions started pouring in. I was high on adrenaline while the attacks were happening, and during my time in the weird space that was not quite there, my emotions were completely dulled. I had died. I had a heart attack and died. Everything I had worked for, everything I had accomplished. Gone in the blink of an eye. My mind started racing, if I could have started hyperventilating, I would have. Instead, I was forced to calm myself down.
After what I estimated to be an hour or two of nothing happening, I finally reached a fragile peace between my emotions and my tenuous sanity. ‘Well, I’ve got nothing better to do, so I may as well keep track of the time.’ I started counting, slowly and purposefully, keeping track of the rhythm playing above me. After reaching 85,000, I realized that, if every two beats was a second, which was how I had been counting up till now, it would have been almost a whole day (AN: A day has 86,400 seconds) , and I still wasn’t hungry at all!
I continued counting, number after number, falling into the repetitive action. It felt like those meditative classes I had taken what felt like a lifetime ago. Finally, I reached a state of complete deprivation, where only the numbers came through. At least, until I felt something inside of me, the barest hint of it. The glimpse I had caught seemed as if a river was flowing through me, but that was impossible. Right? It should be.
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I focused on that feeling, giving in to the silence once more, and I felt it again! Deeper and deeper I sank, and eventually, I could make out rivers of something flowing through me. Some esoteric energy of unknown origins. But were they unknown? The last thing I had seen had been for a ‘Naruto’ video game. This could be chakra. The excitement at this discovery immediately shook away the currents of shock and fear that had been flowing through because of my death.
I remembered reading fanfics with overpowered main characters, who came with jonin-level power straight out of the womb. Eager to experience that power for myself, I dove straight into the energy, attempting to understand and maybe even manipulate this new addition.
It was not that easy.
I could focus on the energy, but nothing I did affected it even a little. It just kept flowing in a pathway around my body. By seeing where the energy flows, I was able to get a decent outline of what position my body was in. My being in the fetal position lending credence to my ‘in the womb’ theory.
I decided to keep counting as I explored my ‘chakra’, because what else was there to do?
~1 month and 3 weeks later~
Recently, my body had been experiencing spastic fits, where I kicked out around me, unable to control myself. In addition to this, I felt bigger and stronger. The rhythmic beats would occasionally speed up, especially during my fits. If my Isekai theory was true, then those beats would logically be my mother’s heartbeat.
I had been able to focus on my entire chakra circulatory system, or chakra meridians as I have heard them called, bringing into a clear and focused view. I still hadn’t made any progress on the aspect of manipulating the chakra itself though.
That would soon change.