In the quiet countryside village, snow fell from heavy clouds, turning the world into a vast, icy white carpet.
Delicate smoke rose from the chimneys of the houses, while children played carefree in the snow and adults moved back and forth, while the elderly watched the world with melancholy.
The scene seemed serene, if not for the distressing cries echoing from one of the houses, where a crowd had gathered.
In front of the house, some villagers whispered among themselves, while one of them paced back and forth, nervous.
"Who would have thought it would take her so long to give birth? It took her over a year just to conceive. Is she cursed?" murmured one of the villagers.
"Shh! Do you want him to hear? We already have enough worry about her and the baby's lives, and you still talk about curses now?" silenced the second villager, pressing his finger to his lips.
Aarghhhhhh!!!
The murmurs abruptly ceased with the onset of a shrill cry. Everyone knew the baby had finally arrived.
But then a strange phenomenon occurred: the sky, once covered by white clouds, darkened. The world seemed to make a rapid transition from day to night.
Upon realizing the phenomenon, the villagers felt a cold shiver run down their spines, a dark omen settled in their hearts.
"I knew something was wrong with that woman!" exclaimed the first villager, overtaken by panic.
...
Inside the house, the man who anxiously awaited outside burst in, only to be enveloped by a sudden darkness, illuminated only by oil lamps.
In the center of the room, a woman held a baby in her arms, while the midwives looked on horrified at the child.
The man, faced with the scene, anxiously shouted:
"What happened? Is the baby okay?"
Hasty steps led the man to the woman, finally revealing the reason for his horrified expression.
Wrapped in a white cloth, a baby exhibited a face marked by dark red flames, but what was most disturbing was not that; it was his slitted eyes, resembling those of a feline or reptile, bathed in a bloody golden hue.
As he stared at what should have been his son, the man paled and collapsed in shock.
While everyone remained there, motionless with astonishment and terror, the woman, who should have been the mother, gazed lovingly at the baby and uttered:
"Look, dear, our son is born. Isn't he beautiful? Surely, he takes after me," she said, in a weak whisper, overcome by childbirth.
Upon this, the man retorted:
"That... that's not my son!"
"How can you say such a thing about your own child? If he's not yours, then whose is he?" the woman retorted, enraged.
While the dispute unfolded between the couple, the bewildered baby pondered whether he had been reincarnated into a world of giants. However, he soon realized that it wasn't the world that had grown, but rather he who had shrunk.
Observing the surroundings in an attempt to understand the language, the baby realized that the situation didn't seem promising. The expressions of fear and shock from those present clearly indicated that something was terribly wrong in that room, and the strange object in question was him or something close to him.
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"Well... it seems I won't have an easy start," pondered the baby, once known as Adam.
As he tried to move his now transformed body into a baby, he realized his complete helplessness, barely able to stir what should have been his limbs.
Exasperated by the weakness of his current body, he turned to examine the environment for more information.
"By the attire of these people and by the place where I was born, I certainly am not in the modern era. Moreover, I hardly understand the language. By the clothing, I am in Japan!" Upon understanding his situation, the baby began to lose hope of avoiding the dangers of this world.
Hoping to have been born after the final events of history, the baby began to notice something strange about his body.
As a graduate student in medicine, he knew that babies shouldn't see immediately after birth. And that wasn't the strangest thing; his vision was much better than before he had reincarnated.
Testing his other senses, he realized the same was true for them. Wondering where this unnatural improvement came from, he finally remembered the blessing and the equipment he had chosen.
"So that's why I'm being watched as if I were some kind of monster. Most likely my appearance was altered due to the blessing and the serum. As I recall, both Tangiro and the Ancestor of Solar Breathing had marks on their faces, and the main characteristic to identify an onin are the eyes and the insatiable desire for human flesh."
Finally understanding the reason for the fear of the people around him, the baby began to panic. With his current physique, he wouldn't survive a single day alone. If he were abandoned because of his appearance, he would certainly die for the second time.
"Think! Think! How can I get out of this situation? I can't panic now, that won't help at all," thought the baby, already in a panic.
"What would a normal baby do? YES, they cry!" finding an unreliable solution to his current problem, the baby soon put his plan into action.
A loud and sharp cry erupted, interrupting the discussion among the people. Seeing the baby crying, the mother, nervous, tried to calm him down.
Watching the baby cry, people sighed in relief, as they finally saw something normal in him. Now he didn't seem so inhuman, but his appearance still caused strangeness.
Days passed with the baby living comfortably, while rumors about his birth and appearance spread throughout the village.
Looking at the ceiling and reflecting on life, the baby sighed, or rather, tried to.
"I never thought a baby's life would be so monotonous. Probably this only happens to me, because normally a baby would sleep most of the day. But, due to my anomalous body, I don't need to sleep as much as others!"
Attempting to move once again, the baby finally achieved more than just trembling; now he could close and open his fingers, as well as move his limbs slightly.
While trying to regain his dignity as a self-sufficient human, the baby didn't notice the argument unfolding in another room of the house, as he didn't understand the language.
"I've told you not to call him abnormal! He's your son!" shouted the woman, enraged.
"How can I not call him abnormal? Did you see his eyes? And I've said it before, he's not my son. We can have another one, but we can't keep this child. Did you hear what others are saying about us?" the man shouted back.
"Enough! You've been arguing for days, and it hasn't led anywhere!" said an elderly woman, massaging her forehead in frustration.
"And what do you suggest I do?" asked the woman, indignantly.
"Let's take him to an orphanage, or anywhere else, but he can't stay here. The other villagers are getting more and more scared of his presence here," replied the man.
"We can't take him to the orphanage. Even if we wanted to, it's snowing too much. He wouldn't survive the journey to the city," the woman quickly replied.
Once again, a quarrel erupted between the couple. The elderly woman, realizing that it would be useless to argue further, concluded that her newborn grandson would not have a happy life if he stayed there.
But she couldn't find a way out of this situation, and it seemed that if they didn't make a decision soon, others would do it for them. Feeling a sense of foreboding, the baby's grandmother left the room, preparing for the worst.
...
Elsewhere in the village, several villagers whispered in a group.
"We can't let him stay, he's cursed. You all saw how the sky darkened on the day he was born and his strange appearance!" said one of the villagers, who also witnessed the baby's birth.
"He's just a baby! How could he be cursed?" another villager refuted.
"But how do you explain those eyes and marks? He can only be a cursed baby!" countered the first villager.
A heated discussion broke out among the villagers, only to be interrupted by an elderly man.
"Alright! Calm down! Calm down! We've discussed this for several days now, and the Tanaka family still hasn't reached a consensus. I propose a vote," said the old man, somewhat uncomfortably.
Although there were people opposed to the idea, the vote began anyway. At the end of the vote, one of the people quickly ran to the Tanaka family's house.
Arriving there, she soon found the elderly woman who had previously tried to mediate the couple's situation.
"Mrs. Tanaka, we need to do something quickly. The villagers have voted and now they want to expel the baby from the village and leave him to his own fate!" the villager said hastily.
Listening to what the woman said, the elderly woman realized that the thing she feared most had happened. Quickly, she ran into the house and informed the couple about what had happened.
"NO!!! How can they do this? He's just a baby!" the mother screamed hysterically.
The man, upon seeing this, also felt a sense of unease, but still understood the villagers' decision. After all, the village had already been attacked by an onin. Seeing someone with those same eyes probably terrified them, just like him.
"Let's do it. It's better this way," said the man with some apprehension, but determined.
Upon hearing what the man said, the woman paled in shock and then quickly ran to where the baby was.
Seeing all this happen, Mrs. Tanaka also ran outside, only to find a crowd of people outside the house.
"Wait! We can still talk. Let's not do anything we'll regret later," Mrs. Tanaka shouted.
Stepping forward, the old man who proposed the vote said:
"Ayumi, we've waited too long already. We need an answer now. If not, we'll go ahead with what we were going to do, with or without your permission. This baby is cursed. He has the same eyes as that demon. Who can guarantee that when he grows up, he won't commit the same massacre?" said the old man.
"Hiroshi, I understand that you and everyone in the village are scared, but we can't let the demons of the past influence us now. I lost my husband on that day, just like you lost your daughter and wife, just like all of us lost relatives and friends. But that doesn't give us the right to take the life of an innocent child," said the elderly woman tearfully, with tears in her eyes and a sorrowful voice.
For a moment, a feeling of sadness and desolation spread, but soon buried anger and indignation returned with force.
"Alright, out of respect for our friendship, I'll wait until nightfall. If no decision is made, we'll continue what we were going to do," after saying this, the old man led the crowd away, his face marked by the sadness of past scars.
...
Still in his room, the baby heard the entire discussion that took place outside the house, even though he didn't understand half a word. His newly discovered instincts alerted him to the malice that the group emitted towards him.
Looking at the woman crying as she held him, it wasn't difficult to figure out the reason for all this.
"It seems like my reincarnation will end soon. Who would have thought that reincarnating would be so difficult? I can only place my hopes in the serum and the near-immortality it provides!" thought the baby, as he looked at his mother's face.