2 Rebirth/Zenin
Catclaw slowly opened his eyes to a white-out ceiling. His vision was fuzzy, but he could tell that he wasn't in the same place as before.
'Am I… alive?' He thought while staring at the ceiling. 'And where am I?'
"Congratulations madam, it's a girl! Here, hold her." A woman said in a language catclaw couldn't understand as she grabbed him and handed him to another woman.
'The fuck?' He thought as he felt himself getting manhandled by some kind of giant.
It only took one look to shatter his expectations of the situation. As he brought his stubborn arms up to his eyes, he noticed just how small and stubby they were.
"Nurse, aren't babies usually more… you know, talkative?" The second woman asked.
"Well, they should be, but don't worry, she looks perfectly healthy." The nurse spoke in a reassuring tone.
As though jinxing it, the baby immediately started screaming and throwing a fit. The nurse looked at the scene and laughed while the mother turned pale.
A sniper's breathing, one of their most fundamental but crucial aspects of their work. It allows them to keep a clear head in the midst of difficult and stressful situations to make sure their shot never strays off course.
Yet now that he had the body of a baby, his lungs couldn't expand and contract properly, he couldn't control his heart rate. Thus throwing him into a panic and causing him to give into his baby instincts of screaming at the top of his lungs.
The mother gently rocked him back and forth as she tried to calm him down, yet to no avail.
"Madam, I think it is best if I take her. We still need to run a few checks on her to make sure she is healthy." The nurse said.
The woman looked at her with a worried look.
"Don't worry, it won't take long." The nurse said. "Oh, silly me, I almost forgot to ask. Have you come up with a name for your child?"
"Yes… Naoko."
"What a pretty name." The nurse smiled while taking the child from her mother. "We will be back very soon. Hold on for a couple of minutes madam."
"No problem, just make sure she is healthy." The mother sighed.
She looked down at her hands with a frown on her face.
'Naoko, I despise that name.' She thought. 'But a girl, what rotten luck.'
*
A few minutes later, the nurse came back with Naoko wrapped up in a blanket of sorts and handed her back to her mother.
"You will be discharged soon as per your request, if all things go well. Do you have anyone who will pick you up?"
"Yes, there should be a man waiting at the reception, please let him know that I'll be there shortly."
"Is it your husband?" The nurse asked.
"My husband? Ha." She scoffed. "No, just a driver to get me to and from the hospital."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I guess Mister Zenin must be busy then." The nurse laughed.
Her sympathy and cheerful expression was only met with a cold glare of disdain.
"T-then, I'll go then the forms." She stammered out, startled by the woman's expression.
Through all this, Catclaw was absolutely and utterly dazed. Nothing made sense. One moment, he was resting in a strange woman's arms, then another moment he was being whisked away to an examination room only for some doctors to check his heartbeat and shove a thermometer up his ass.
Eventually, his tyrannical captors handed him back to the only person he felt safe around. His mother.
'My what? My mother? No. Wait what? I'm a baby. How am I a baby? Damn this woman looks nice.' Were just some of the thoughts running through his head.
At some point, all those scattered thoughts converged in one main line of reasoning.
'I've been reborn.' He concluded. Even though he couldn't believe it, it was the only conclusion that he could arrive at. Besides that everything was a dream. It felt too real to be a dream.
'Too bad I can't understand a thing they are saying.' He thought while shifting his head slightly to meet his mother's gaze.
He raised his hands, reaching towards her face, a gesture she returned by warmly smiling down at him and playing with his little stubby hands.
"At least you're cute." She chuckled.
Finally, the nurse returned to their room, release forms in hand and a big smile on her face.
"Everything's ready. Just sign here and you'll be good to go." She said as she handed the woman a normal black ink pen.
The woman quickly signed the documents and began getting changed from her hospital gown.
*
A relatively tall middle aged man stood up from his seat in the reception to formally greet the woman carrying her child.
"Ma'am."
"Greetings." She said, unsure of the man's name.
"Shall we get going." He asked.
She hesitated for a moment before reluctantly replying.
"Yes… we should."
As they both got into the car, the driver began adjusting his rear view mirror while trying to make conversation.
"What's his name?" He asked.
The woman frowned in response, a reaction the driver caught a glimpse of in the mirror.
"Her name is Naoko."
The man remained silent for a while as he started the car.
"A girl huh? Can't say the head will be happy to hear that."
She frowned again.
'The audacity.' She thought, in disbelief, that a mere servant dared speak to her that way.
Unfortunately, her hands were tied, there was not much she could do about a servant directly under the head of the clan.
'Oh we're in a car now. I wonder where we're going.' Catclaw thought, completely unaware of the mood in the car, just happily sucking on his own finger. What blissful ignorance.
*
More than two hours later, they arrived at their destination. A large mansion looking thing located in the middle of nowhere on a ridiculously large plot of land. All the buildings were built in traditional Japanese architecture, with numerous houses and annexes dotting the compound.
All servants were dressed the exact same, a white kimono top with loose fitting hakama pants for men, and a simple kimono for women. The whole place just looked absurd, like going back in time five hundred years when everyone had a stick shoved up their ass.
Two of the servants were waiting for them at the entrance of the main building. As soon as they spotted them, the servants bowed and opened the door leading inside without a single word.
Catclaw felt uneasy at the sight of it all.
'This feels weird. Just being around these people makes me uneasy.' He thought.
His mother, on the other hand, walked quickly and with purpose, speeding past any and all servants or otherwise on her way to her destination.
Soon, they were faced with another sliding door. His mother seemed to hesitate slightly before moving her hand gently and opening the door.
On the other side, a large hunk of man was sitting on the tatami mats that made up the flooring while taking large swigs from his gourd. The man sported mid length gray hair that he slicked back to reach just beyond his neck, he had a pair of small black eyes and a long, thin mustache gray mustache. His kimono was improperly worn as he only wore it over his left shoulder.
A child, no older than 12 years old with black hair sat next to him.
"I see you're busy." The woman said.
"Hmph, I was showing Naoya how to use his innate technique." The man said. "But now that you're here, I assume you have some good news?"
The woman grit her teeth and stepped forward.
"Her name is Naoko." She simply said.
"Hm? A daughter? Hahaha!" The man burst out into laughter. "That's a first. First the twins and now her as well?"
Seeing the man laugh at her, the woman stood her ground, refusing to back down in front of the head of the clan.
"You hear that, Naoya?" He took a sip from his gourd and wiped his mouth. "You have a little sister now. Naobito, Naoya, Naoko. I wonder if she'll inherit the projection technique too. Hahaha!"
'I wonder what's happening. I wish I could speak… Japanese?' Catclaw thought. However, he did notice that an awful lot of people were saying 'Naoko' when looking at him, so he guessed it was either his new name or his mother's name.
"Well, we'll just have to wait and see. Whether she inherits an innate technique." Naobito said coldly.
The woman's face dropped, her worries and anxiousness now evident.
"If that's all, you're excused." He said.
Quickly regaining her composure, she gave Naobito a cold stare.
"Yes, goodbye for now." She said while giving Naobito and Naoya a bow before turning around and leaving the room.
"God, that was stressful." She sighed.
'That looked stressful.' Catclaw thought.
*
For the rest of that day, everything proceeded smoothly. Catclaw's mom remained with him for the remainder of the day while nursing staff shuffled in and out of their room to check on them both.
Everything went smoothly except for one part.
Catclaw was finally feeling the baby urge to relieve his bladder and bowels at the same time, something which felt very strange as he had almost no control over the process.
The sudden urination and his lack of diapers made the nurses that were carefully undoing his cloth wrap very pissed. Literally.
Catclaw hid a snarky grin from the nurses as he knew that as long as he was a baby, everyone would be none the wiser towards his shenanigans.
Though, one thing did feel especially peculiar. As he looked down at his own body, his small baby eyes widened in shock.
'WHERE MY DICK AT??' He inwardly yelled. 'No. No. No. What is this??'
The answer was obvious. Catclaw took whatever deep breaths he could take and calmed himself down. Preventing a breakdown from happening in front of all those people.
'God, you have forsaken me. Your cruelty knows no bounds.' He lamented. 'If you're going to give me a second chance, why do this to me?'
After being cleaned, she was wrapped up in another blanket and placed in a crib near her mother's bed, yet, she didn't feel like sleeping.
'I guess Naoko is my name then.' She thought while looking at her mother sleeping alone on the bed. Her slender frame and her jet black hair coupled with her captivating black eyes made her an attractive woman.
She took another look at her mother's solitary figure, alone in a bed far too big for one person.
'How terribly lonely.' She thought.
