Reincarnation.

My name is Inei. Just Inei, and yes, this is the story of my life, in a certain twisted sense of speech, it is.

Many of those great stories we may have read or heard today begin with something as macabre and sad like the death.

Unfortunately, for those who were expecting a more creative, comical, realistic or even exciting conception of this story from me. For that very special and discerning group of people I think they will be greatly disappointed in reading this story. Unfortunately it is not such a different work from the rest. I am not someone as special or unique as I would like to think I am. I am, or was, just an old bag of bones shortly before the acclaimed trial. Before my demise.

As I was saying, let's move on, it all started on the day of my death. A sunny summer day like any other in the land of the rising sun, Japan. Right in its capital, Tokyo. My journey to the other world began with a simple and peaceful death that very few dead people can boast about without sounding like envious greens. A natural death. A death from old age.

Today was Tuesday, year 95 since my birth into this world. My body rested peacefully on a comfortable bed inside the Mitsumoto Public Hospital. My old and wrinkled face was now completely pale. A satisfied smile adorned my lips.

*Pi-i-ip*

The machine that regulated my heart rate beeped. A beep that marked my departure to the great adventure. My rest. My demise.

- He's gone, doctor. What do I put in the records? -. Said a middle-aged nurse in a tone almost as low and mechanical as a caress of the wind.

She wore the typical light blue gown. She was plump, short, with black hair and gray eyes. Her face did not reflect much emotion towards my death, only certain, sorrow. A circumstance probably related to several years of experience in the medical field. In her hands rested two things. Medical records and pen. His words were addressed to another member of his team: the doctor in charge. An old man, short, thin, with black eyes and gray white hair. A man who was looking at my body in a half-absorbed way.

- Annotate: Date of death: "08/23/2020". Exact time: 8:52 A.M. Cause of death: Natural Death. Old age. Just old age. Lucky old guy, huh? Except for his legs, of course. Hehe -. Said the doctor as he covered my body with a sheet.

His voice was full of sarcasm and a smug smile painted his features. The nurse frowned and then snorted with visible displeasure at her self-centered companion.

- May you rest in peace -. The nurse muttered, turning away from the room.

The doctor followed her still lost in his own joke.

Yes, in that casual way I would begin my story. But first of all, this old fossil would like to brag a little about his long and prolific first life. Of his accomplishments. Of his, once long ago, grand ambitions.

Well then, let's get started. Once upon a time there was an orphan boy in Tokyo, Japan. A curious and playful child in the turbulent 1940s. A boy who had two big dreams. That child was me, naturally. So, my first dream was to have a family, people who loved me. So far there is no surprise. The second dream was something a little more childish. Something much more simple and innocent. A fantasy. A huge fantasy that originated from seeing the dojo two blocks away from the orphanage where I was living at the time. A martial arts dojo that I frequently peeked into from a secluded, dark corner. A dojo where I witnessed for the first time the power that man could wield through with his own hands. With his stamina. With his strength. With his resolve. With his skills. That second dream became my everything. From then on I no longer wanted a family. I just wanted to be the strongest person in the world. I wanted to become the best martial artist there was. Unfortunately, dreams are just that. Dreams. Life doesn't allow for dreams many times. It is not always possible to carry out a dream to the end. We cannot always dedicate our valuable time and living space to something so whimsical. To something so frivolous. There are dozens of variables that would prevent it and I couldn't even think of being able to recite them all. But of course, I was a stubborn, hard-headed brat and continued where others somewhat more thoughtful would have already thrown in the towel. I looked for a job as a delivery boy and after much effort managed to pay the high dojo fees. So it went until I turned 18 and suddenly I was called to serve my country. By then I was already the best martial artist in all of Japan. No one could beat me, whether in strength, agility, endurance or cunning, I was virtually a battle machine. I had learned and fought with the best. I was an army individually. A genius who only appeared once in a thousand years, as I often heard those older in the dojo say. A genius not only in martial arts, but also in the academic world. He had been able to enter the University of Tokyo, something that very few orphans at that time could even dream of. Something I admit today, I was very proud of. The future was looking bright for me. The graph was heading only upwards. I still wonder now: What if I had not gone to war? How far would I have been able to go in that life? Unfortunately that's a question I can never know the answer to and that's because. That's because even though I was someone with such a complete background. Even though I was someone with such unquestionable virtues. Nothing. Absolutely nothing would prepare me for the hell I would live through for the next two years. A hell from which I would be scarred for life. The war. I was naive, I believed I could do anything. I believed that nothing could stop me. I thought I was someone special. Someone unstoppable. Obviously I was a fool. I was blind. At first it was fine. I rose quickly through the army ranks. I was the perfect soldier. Strong, decisive and daring. The Japanese ideal of the warrior and strategist according to Miyamoto Musashi. We were slaughtering the enemy. Those Western sissies. They couldn't stand up to our people, they couldn't stand up to our drive and then. Then, all of a sudden, they dropped the bombs. I will never forget that day. I never can. Not really. Because even if I was hundreds of miles away from the place where that monstrosity had detonated. Even if I thought I was invincible on the battlefield, still. I could still feel that crushing heat, the destruction that beast was capable of generating. I could feel it on my skin. I could feel it crawling up my spine. It was fear. The panic of the unknown. An instinctive, animal fear like no other. A moment of distraction, that. That was all it took. A moment of distraction for a stray grenade to send me flying through the air. A moment's distraction to turn my life into mere remnants of the past. In short: I survived, we lost the war, we had bitten off more than we could chew, they turned off the tap and we entered an economic crisis. My pride was broken, I was crippled from the waist down, I collected my retirement as a disabled soldier every month without fail and here we are. In the great void after death. Being just one more spherical soul among seas of human souls floating on that void with no apparent limit.

*Truc, Truc, Truc*

A large wheel spun rhythmically in the distance. I watched. Violet rays roared across the void above it. It was a rock wheel as big as the void itself where I stood. It chirped steadily. A peaceful screeching sound that combined with the multiple rays was as soothing as a beautiful lullaby. I loved that chirp, my mother's song that I had never known before.

The wheel of human living and dying. My true judge and mother. In some inexplicable and unheard of way, I knew it. I knew it and strangely that didn't matter to me either. Why? I had no idea, I just knew that I had to move towards her. That she would be impartial. That my fate depended solely on her unquestionable decision. On her many twists and turns. Of her almost infinite revolving doors. I now knew that there was no heaven or hell for sure. There was only reincarnation and chance. Reincarnation in another plane of existence and chance to channel my destiny. There was only the wheel of human living and dying. I was going to reincarnate. All for a small and almost insignificant price. My mother had told me and I had listened, accepted, obeyed.

My memories.

The essence of self. What defines us. Something I would gladly pay because my mother demanded it. I was a dutiful son. I was a good boy.

My memories.

I had already reached my mother. The next step was to stop at her mark, receive my caress, and then walk through one of her many doors. To enter her. To kiss her breast. To love her warm embrace.

My memories.

I floated towards a door. I advanced towards it very slowly. A tingle began to run through my ethereal anatomy. I heard the hiss of lightning forming in the distance.

My memories.

There was only a meter left to the mark where I was to stop. Just a little more and it would all be over for me. It would be the end of my story. The long awaited culmination of my extraordinary adventure. The end I had always dreamed of. However, and for no apparent reason, I simply stopped before my time. I didn't know why? But for a split second I thought I heard something. Something very important. A ghostly whisper, thousands of them.

My memories.

My memories.

My memories.

*Truc, Truc, Truc*

Suddenly my mother's singing no longer seemed like a beautiful song but rather a heartbreaking screech. Her caresses were no longer affectionate but strange lightning bolts that sought to absorb all my precious memories. The whispers were no longer murmurs but screams. Screams that I also emitted without realizing it. Why? They were screams of absolute terror, so why hadn't I realized it? It was an uninterrupted chorus of death. Simply why hadn't I noticed it before? My attention shifted to my mother. No. That thing simply couldn't be my mother. It wasn't even human. It was the wheel and nothing more than that. What was that thing really? Doubt gripped my entire being for an instant.

My memories!

My memories!

My memories!

The chorus of souls followed. Then the hiss of lightning in the distance. Panic came over me immediately. A panic such as I had not felt for a long time. A dread equal to or worse than that time, during that battle. During that day. Something that completely overtook me, that was in front of me. The wheel was something completely terrifying.

My memories!

My memories!

My memories!

*Truc, Truc, Truc*

It was all a sham. A hoax. The wheel only wanted our memories. The essence of our being. It only wanted to become stronger. Wiser. My soul shuddered at such a sudden and morbid revelation. But I didn't have much time to dig into it. For the lightning bolt shot out not long after. I reacted with a visibly practiced calm. The calm of a warrior soul. I didn't scream like a frightened child or freeze like an imbecile. I had only one chance to get out of this, I knew. The wheel had been let out indirectly as it manipulated my actions and thoughts. The great and almighty wheel had erred and only because of it. Only because of this could I take what was perhaps my only chance of survival. Immediately and unceremoniously, I floated to the nearest door. The door in front of me. I passed the mark quickly. I had only a few feet to go before I reached the door. It wasn't much, and yet. Yet just that short distance seemed to want to become a whole world to me. My memories. My existence. Everything was at stake. Crossing that threshold was my only and most desperate hope.

*Tri-i-ish*

The lightning grazed my soul to the right narrowly missing and then disappeared across the threshold. Through its infinite blackness. I shuddered momentarily. Everything became hazy. I heard the hiss of another bolt of lightning forming in the distance. I trudged on. I now had a crack in the right side of my soul. I could feel it. It was a small, painful crack.

*Bru-u-un*

I had barely started to cross the door and the other bolt of lightning struck behind me with a resounding boom. A shard of rock broke off as that second bolt hit the door. A shard from the wheel. A shard with strange characters inscribed on its surface. That mysterious shard accidentally embedded itself in my soul. It merged with it right in the same place where it had previously grazed that first bolt of lightning. I didn't care, victory was already mine, I just continued forward in a total euphoric state and then. Then suddenly everything went black.

Time passed as I lay unconscious.

Then my senses came back to me like a tidal wave. I felt confused, lost. I was already through the door, but strangely. Strangely I was now short of breath. I didn't know why? But I had something in my airway and I needed to get it out at all costs. It was my new priority. I urgently needed to be able to breathe. So I opened my eyes wide and then screamed at the top of my lungs.

- Wa! waaa! Cough! waaa! Cough! -. Several shrieks and senseless coughs were the immediate result of my sudden exaltation.

Tender cries and baby coughs.

My consciousness became inexplicably blurry from that point on.

To be continued...