2 Awakening

I woke up with a start, gasping for breath as unfamiliar surroundings blurred before my eyes. "Wha- What! Where am I?" I stammered, my voice faltering in the strange room. Memories, not my own, rushed through my mind, each one hitting me like a tidal wave. It felt as though I was drowning.

I held my head in my hands, trying to bear the throbbing pain throbbing from my temples. I saw a boy named Shin Ten, the child of an arms merchant, and his older sister called Ten Ten. He had a mom too, but she was killed in some attack I couldn't recall clearly. Oddly, I kept imagining faces that I'd never seen before and somehow matched names to them. The memories were bizarre, like sewing someone else's life onto mine but pieces were missing.

Suddenly, my eyes snapped open, and I sprang out of bed, my body instinctively assuming a defensive stance against whatever inexplicable force had invaded my thoughts. This place was still foreign, and it seemed plausible that some sort of enchantment had clouded my mind. I extended my hand, attempting to summon my weapon, only to find it conspicuously absent.

Minutes dragged by, and I sensed no one. My hand remained outstretched, but no weapon materialized. I looked down, and my eyes widened in horror as I stared at my hands. "What in the world..." I murmured, my voice trailing off into disbelief. My hands were small, unscarred, and utterly unfamiliar.

"That's not the most pressing issue... where is my weapon?" Panic tinged my voice as I examined my palm. Attempting to quell the rising fear, I glanced around the room. It was small, with a study desk and a closet on one side. On the other side, next to the closet, stood a mirror. I held out my hand, and did a pulling motion, only for the mirror to stay put.

I glanced at my hands and shouted, "My aura!" Quickly, I placed my hand over my mouth as I scanned the area. It was the middle of the night, and I didn't want to draw attention, but this was a situation I couldn't help but scream out loud. After waiting for a while and nothing happened, I relaxed a bit.

Closing my eyes, I tried to sense my Aura core. To my surprise, it was gone. In fact, there was not even a trace of aura in this body! How was that even possible? How is this body even alive?

"This is clearly not my body," I said.

Without an aura or mana, a body was unable to sustain life. But it seemed impossible that this body before me had no such readings. Even ghouls and ghosts had an aura and mana! What made this body so different?

I looked down at my hands again. This is clearly the body of the human species. I could feel my heart pumping blood throughout my body, but it lacked mana. Looking at the mirror again, I approached it cautiously, my heart pounding in my chest. The reflection showed a young boy with jet-black hair and round eyes. "My hair is black? Not grey?" I muttered to myself, my confusion deepening.

Although this body was not my own, the soul inside was mine and thus my hair should have been grey. "The color of one's hair reflects the hues of their soul as well as their affinities with the elements," I muttered.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and focused on those memories again, rearranging them. After a minute, I opened my eyes again walked toward the bed, and sat down.

It was clear that I wasn't in my own world anymore. That meant I must have died on the battlefield and, somehow, ended up in this unfamiliar place. "What's a ninja?" I wondered out loud. It suddenly dawned on me that I didn't even know what language I had been thinking and speaking in. And I just noticed this now?

"Right. This body does not have the parallel thoughts spell activated," I said.

Speaking about spells, was this my brother's doing? No. To make something this realistic and maintain it, he needs a spell of at least Rank 13 to cast a fraction of this. Since I'm here, does that mean my brother is here as well? I can't be the only one who came here from my world, right?

I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling for a while and lifted my hand again, trying to summon my weapon. When nothing happened, I sighed and put my hand down. "The Spirit Chastiefol," I whispered, my voice almost a hiss, as I looked down at my hands, their emptiness mocking me.

It was a weapon I had crafted meticulously, an embodiment of my mastery over the elements. Its core was forged from the World Tree, known only to the ancient elves, and its blade was shaped from the metal of spirit, a material revered as divine by my people.

"Those elves... they would kill me if they heard what happened to it," I muttered, my voice laced with a mix of regret and defiance. "Giving out a World Tree root, which they considered divine, to form the strongest weapon, and I lost it." The weight settled heavily upon my shoulders. But then, a bitter chuckle escaped my lips. "Not like they can kill me anyway; they are all dead." The realization hit me. The world I knew, the people I had grown up with, were no more.

Getting up from my bed, I walked to the window and opened it, and there I saw it: the Hidden Leaf Village... Quite the weird name. Under the veil of night, the Hidden Leaf Village took on a different kind of enchantment. My window was on the second floor of a sturdy wooden building, my eyes wide with wonder as I gazed upon the nocturnal beauty that surrounded me.

The satellite in the night sky illuminated the town beneath, its shimmering light giving off an ethereal feeling. "A single moon... it truly is another world."

The ancient trees, their leaves rustling softly in the night breeze, whispered secrets carried by the wind. Lanterns flickered to life, their warm, golden light illuminating the winding pathways and the faces of the villagers passing by.

The Hokage's building, usually intimidating and powerful, now seemed to present a sense of majestic tranquility under the silvery moonlight. The four-faced stone statues of the past Hokages guarded the village from its lofty heights.

"Hokage... Ninja... Guess this world is led by the strongest person in the village instead of having royalty... Interesting," I said. In the distance, I could hear the faint sounds of laughter, drifting from a hidden corner of the village.

It was as if the night itself was alive with celebration, a testament to the resilience and camaraderie of the villagers. The scent of blooming flowers hung in the air, mingling with the earthy aroma of the surrounding forest, creating a heady perfume that filled my senses.

As I stood there, a sense of awe washed over me.

Despite my awe, a darker thought crossed my mind. "If the ninjas are equivalent to the knights from my world and there is a 'strongest,' there is obviously conflict in this world," I muttered, my face growing serious. I closed the window and turned away, my mind racing with questions.

Returning to my bed, I fell back onto it, my mind a whirlwind of confusion and determination. "I need power," I said aloud, my voice filled with conviction.

"But how the fuck do I do that?"

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Author's Note

Yes, the Spirit Chastiefol. It's similar to the one King from Seven Deadly Sins possesses, but also entirely different. I am going to write a sub-chapter about his world before he was transmigrated. It won't be complete initially, but I will update it every time he mentions something new about it. This is the first and probably the last author's note.