1 RAIN AND REBIRTH

In a noisy rain, a silhouette wandered through the streets. Their gaze was vacant, and their steps were unsteady. They swayed like a drunkard, without an umbrella, letting the rain soak them to the bone. As expected, the silhouette stumbled, falling headfirst into a muddy puddle. No sign of life emanated from them, left lying there on the ground. A child passing by with their mother pointed at the silhouette, but the mother immediately reprimanded the child, frightened by the morbid aura emanating from the silhouette.

Time passed, and the silhouette had not moved from its spot. Then, a strange light illuminated the silhouette. The spectacle seemed invisible to the world, as passersby continued without concern. However, one person noticed—the disheveled old man approached. His face, wet from the rain due to the lack of an umbrella, expressed sadness and compassion for the silhouette. He crouched down beside the silhouette.

"Young one, why do you court death at such a young age?" asked the old man in a dejected tone. "Tell me you wish to live, and I will help you," he added. He remained there, stroking the silhouette's golden hair, waiting for a response. A minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes passed, but there was no reaction from the silhouette.

The old man sighed in sadness. "So, you choose death. Poor boy." He stood up and shook his head. He was about to turn away when the silhouette suddenly began coughing violently, like someone who had narrowly escaped drowning. The silhouette turned around, now lying on its back, still coughing vigorously.

Seeing this, the old man crouched back down. "My child, you have chosen life. Here, drink this, and you'll feel better," said the old man as he produced a strange potion. He raised the silhouette's torso and brought the potion to its mouth. Disoriented and in pain, the silhouette offered no resistance and drank the potion.

Miraculously, the silhouette's coughing stopped, and its condition stabilized. "Can you walk, my child?" the old man asked. The silhouette, whose gaze was no longer vacant, scanned its surroundings, then turned to the man. "How did I end up here?" it finally asked, its voice troubled, not understanding what was happening.

"I know no more than you, dear child," replied the old man. "I found you lying in that puddle, looking close to death." After stowing away his potion, the old man stood up. "Let's not stay in this tumultuous rain. Come to my place; we can warm up by a good fire," he suggested.

The silhouette stared at the old man for a moment, then, having no other alternative, nodded, accepting the old man's proposal. It struggled to get up and followed the elderly man.

They descended the streets and left the city to finally stop at a wooden house in the woods. Throughout the journey, the silhouette remained silent, feeling as if its body were different than usual and questioning how it ended up in this place.

The old man then invited the silhouette inside. The entrance led to a simple room with a short stool in the center and a mat in one corner. The silhouette took a seat on the stool as requested by the old man, who set about lighting the fireplace. After some effort, warmth began to spread in the room.

Taking another stool from the adjacent room, the old man sat in front of the silhouette, handing them a cup of hot milk, while he held a cup of herbal tea. As the silhouette was about to accept the cup, intense headaches suddenly assailed them.

"Young one, are you alright?" the concerned old man inquired. The silhouette did not respond, burying its head in its hands. "It must be a fever. Take heart, my child; I believe I still have potions for that. I'll go fetch..." The old man was about to leave to get a potion when the silhouette stopped him, taking the offered cup.

"No need, old man. It was just a passing crisis, nothing serious," the silhouette said, its face still slightly tense. The old man looked at the silhouette for a moment, then finally agreed to let it pass, sipping his herbal tea with the silhouette at small sips.

Throughout the following minutes, the old man wanted to ask the silhouette about how it ended up in such a situation but refrained, fearing to bring back painful memories.

On their part, the silhouette was in complete chaos. 'Damn! What the hell is this?' they thought. Supposed to be celebrating their promotion with friends, they found themselves in such a lost place. Initially, they thought they had drunk so much that they had wandered into the middle of nowhere. However, after the passing crisis, everything seemed clearer.

'It's impossible... How can such a thing happen?' Instead of finding solace in the return of their memories, it became a source of anxiety and great confusion for the silhouette. If they were to believe their recovered memories, then they had transmigrated to another world! Absurd, isn't it? Yet, everything seemed to point to it being true.

To make things even more complicated, they were no longer in their original body but in a new one. But that wasn't the climax. What shocked the silhouette was that they knew the identity of the body they currently possessed. Knowing this made things even more incomprehensible. The body in question was supposed to be that of a manga character. A damn Japanese fiction character.

As an otaku in their spare time, they had the opportunity to read many Japanese works, including the one from which this character was derived. 'Kurapika Kurta.' One of the protagonists of the successful manga, HunterxHunter (A/N: it's read Hunter Hunter, not Hunter x Hunter). A character with a cold-blooded demeanor, intelligence, and consumed by vengeance. It was also the silhouette's favorite character when they had read the manga. Now, they had become this character, and according to the memories they had, this body had already experienced the massacre of its clan, an event that would have triggered the character's grand quest for vengeance if the silhouette hadn't taken their place at that moment.

'It's maybe a dream, isn't it?' It was absurd for the silhouette to accept what was happening to them. How could they accept it when it seemed so absurd?

"Ouch!" The silhouette suddenly exclaimed, having burned their tongue by accident. "Be careful, my child," intervened the old man. The silhouette tried to cool their tongue with saliva.

"Otherwise, thank you, grandpa," the silhouette thanked afterward. "If it weren't for you, I think I'd be dead from the cold by now."

"Ah, it's nothing," the old man retorted, smiling slightly. "I'm used to wandering in the city. Seeing you at death's door reminded me of my youth after losing my family. I'm glad you chose to keep on living."

The silhouette was touched by the old man's words. 'So, he's the one who helped the original Kurapika in the manga?' The silhouette still didn't know if they were in an alternate world or if they were truly in the manga's world. The old man in front of them had never appeared or been mentioned in the manga. However, since the manga was on standby before the silhouette ended up here, it could have been planned for the future, considering that the manga had stopped at an arc focusing on the character that this body was.

"Tell me, my child. What do you plan to do next?" the old man suddenly asked. He didn't know the silhouette's past. If this one who had chosen to live had a wish or an objective, he would try to help them to the best of his abilities.

'What do I plan to do?' This question began to plague the silhouette's mind. It was indeed a good question. Regardless of whether they had truly transmigrated or if it was a dream, one thing was certain: the silhouette wanted to return home, where their family and loved ones were. Thus, their future plans had to aim for that goal.

'It will be risky and difficult, but it's the most effective way if I truly want to find a way to get back home...' "My child?" The old man called out to the silhouette, noticing that they were lost in thought.

Coming back to reality, the silhouette fixed their determined gaze on the old man. "Yes, I know what I'll do next, grandpa," they said boldly. 'I'll be Kurapika Kurta for now.' They had decided... to become a Hunter!