Strong Start

'Where am I?'

A strong light assaulted Tatsuo's eyes, and he struggled to open them. Rubbing them gently, he finally got a clear view of his surroundings.

"Huh? A forest?"

He raised his upper body and looked around. What surrounded him was a beautiful, lush green forest. A fox was looking at him curiously, but it escaped once they made eye contact.

Suddenly, he felt a wave of discomfort assaulting his head. Surprised, he grabbed it into his hands and made an effort not to scream. An inordinate amount of memories started flooding his brain as he relived his entire life in a mere second. 

"I... I remember..."

The training, the battles. He remembered everything. What's worse is that he could vividly feel the sadness he went through during the last years of his life.

"I expected my regrets to wash away after dying, but it seems like they're here to stay... What a sad fate."

...

"Even so... Where am I really? I thought a man like me would surely end up in hell. Not in such a beautiful forest."

Feeling the grass below him and smelling the aroma of nature always brought momentary peace to his heart. He sat there for a while, enjoying the scenery before him.

After finally deciding to move, he got up and walked in a straight line, analyzing his surroundings. He had been in many countries, so he hoped that he could somehow guess where he was.

He saw little fauna, but the flora made him feel like he was back in his home country, Japan. The deciduous trees gave him a familiar feeling that brought him back to the old days.

Not too far away from where he woke up, Tatsuo found a medium-sized pond. A small frog was resting on top of Lily pad , it's throat expanding as it croaked without a care in the world.

Once he reached the water, Tatsuo jumped in fright. 

"What!? I-Is this me?"

Getting closer to the pond once again, he stared in disbelief at his reflection. He looked like he was fifteen, and his eyes shone with an ominous red glow. Although this startled him, what really spooked him out was the color of his hair.

It was pale-white, something he had never seen on a kid before. 

"Is it some kind of mutation? Am I sick?"

Frightened, he sat down and crossed his legs before breathing in a certain manner. It wouldn't be wrong to say that he was meditating, but the purpose was different. 

With this breathing method he had developed himself, Tatsuo had always diagnosed his body. The way it worked was a mystery even to the world's leading martial artists.

After ten minutes, he opened his eyes once again. His face was filled with confusion.

"Even though I thought I was sick... What the hell is going on?"

His body felt light and vigorous. In fact, he had never felt this good before. Wanting to test this out, he started performing some moves.

"I am sure that I did not feel like this before sitting down. Did something change then? From what I know, my breathing method does not have such an effect..."

It was as if though he had taken some kind of performance-boosting drug. Even though he was new to this body, he still felt like his reaction speed was very good. 

As he exercised, he somehow felt that he was getting stronger.

Holding his chin in his hand, Tatsuo stared at the frog while deep in thought. Closing his eyes, he started the breathing method once again, paying extra attention this time.

What he found shocked him. Every time he completed a full cycle of the breathing method, it felt like some kind of gentle energy permeated his body, slowly tempering it.

"Is this some kind of magic?"

He had no other words to describe it. What was this energy? And was it harmful? He couldn't tell.

SFX: Growl

Suddenly, his stomach growled loudly, snapping him out of his thoughts. He needed to find food and shelter as soon as possible.

He did not understand where he was, but he couldn't just sit by and wait for hunger to kill him. He had to act fast.

The first thing he needed to find was a water source. Thankfully, he was used to forests. He could remember all the times he was forced to spend nights alone to reach secluded temples, in search of worthy opponents.

Taking a deep breath, he backtracked and went back to the clearing in which he awoke. Looking around, he found the spot that the fox from earlier had been in.

Tatsuo carefully analyzed the soil and found fresh tracks, which he followed. If there were animals, there had to be a drinkable source of water nearby.

After ten minutes of following the fox's tracks, Tatsuo found its nest. He hid so he wouldn't be noticed.

Luckily, the fox came out of its home after a while and started walking off. Tatsuo smiled and followed it silently.

A small distance away, Tatsuo started hearing the sounds of running water.

"A river... Bingo."

It wasn't long until he reached the river. It was large, and the water was crystalline. A bunch of animals, including the fox, were drinking from it.

Tatsuo gloated. He had gotten very lucky this time, to find clean water this fast. Taking a closer look, he even saw a bunch of fish moving about in the water.

This was the perfect scenario. He had secured a water source, and even found food. If he followed the river down-stream, he might even find people at some point.

Feeling great, Tatsuo kept his distance from the wild animals and slowly approached the river. He got down and drank the clean water.

"Ahhh... So refreshing."

Feeling better, Tatsuo did not idle around. He got up and walked back into the forest and started looking for a stick. After a while, he managed to find a decent one.

With the stick in his hand, he went back to the river and found a sharp rock. Sitting down by the water, he started sharpening the stick, transforming it into a make-shift spear.

"Perfect. With this I can hunt."

Making sure that most of the animals were gone, he took off his ragged pants, revealing his underwear, before walking into the water.

An hour later, he had gotten five decent-sized fish with his spear.

"Not bad. Although this body feels weird and isn't trained at all, I still managed to catch some fish."