CHAPTER 1.1: WAKING UP

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A/N: 3/11 – Changed Tamiko’s appearance to match the LN version.

 

 

　I feel a faint flash of light through my eyelids.

 

　Toward the whitish circle of light, the fragments of my fragmented awareness slowly gather.

 

 

　My head is heavy.
I am too dazzled to open my eyes.
I cannot breathe properly.

 

 

(…… Me?) (MC)

 

(……Who am I?) (MC)

 

 

　It was such a question that was addressed to no one, finally put into words in my head.

 

　*Breathe*, *Breathe*, I could only hear the sound of myself breathing.

 

　Soon, the answer appears, like small bubbles rising to the surface of the water.

 

 

(I’m—Abe Shuu.) (MC =>Shuu)

 

 

　In the grayish darkness, I fumbled through the information about who I am.

 

　Born on January 9, I just turned twenty-three.
Never married, no girlfriend.

 

　Height 175 cm, weight 65 kg.

 

　Company-employee.
Sales department of a web advertising company.
First-year freshly graduated—soon to be second year, I guess?

 

　Graduated from the Faculty of Economics at a Houji University. [T/N: No Idea where/what Houji University (法治大学) is.]

 

　Born in Gyoda City, Saitama.
I’m currently living in Kanamecho.
[T/N: He’s living in the northern area near the Tokyo Metro.]

 

　My father is a company employee.
My mother works part-time at a supermarket.
I lived with my parents and grandmother until I moved to Tokyo.

 

 

(And then……well? What was I doing?) (Shuu)

 

 

　Last week, I fell off a balcony and was rushed to the hospital.

 

 

(When I woke up, my dad and my mom were there…) (Shuu)

 

 

　My right arm and leg were fractured.
I was hospitalized immediately.
A total of three months of recovery.

 

　The back of my chest is rapidly becoming colder.

 

 

(I did something stupid.
I was so drunk that I fell off the balcony.) (Shuu)

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(I’ve put the company through a lot of trouble, too.
I hope they don’t fire me.) (Shuu)

 

 

　I strained my eyelids and forced them open.

 

　A whitish light flashes into my eyes.
It is so bright that the backs of my eyelids start to feel irritated.

 

 

　It is not fluorescent light.
The ceiling and walls are covered with a thick layer of what looks like moss, which emits a dim white light as if it were a special paint.
I have never seen such a form of lighting.

 

 

(I’m not in a hospital room… right?) (Shuu)

 

 

　I moved my eyes to look around.
It’s a space about four-and-a-half tatami mats across a rock wall, a lousy place to call a room.

 

 

(…Where am I? What’s going on?) (Shuu)

 

 

　The myriad of questions that pop into my head is blown away by the sight of the blue-blackish substance covering my body.

 

　I was encased in something that looks like a cocoon.
It looks like I’m in a chrysalis or now spider food.

 

 

“Woah!” (Shuu)

 

 

　In a panic, I rip it off.
It was sticking to me as if it had roots, and it was stringy, making me feel uncomfortable.
I scrubbed it or scratched it with my fingernails to remove it.

 

 

(…huh?) (Shuu)

 

 

　The right arm is moving normally.
My legs, too.

 

　When it is removed, I can see my pale skin exposed.
I am naked, no hospital gown, no underwear.
There was no cast that had held the fracture in place, and there were no surgical scars that should have remained on my arm and leg.

 

 

　I think I was admitted to the hospital about …… ten days ago.

 

　My family came to see me.
My friends from college, my boss and colleagues came to see me.

 

　But – I can’t remember what happened after that.

 

　When did I get better? And with such a clean recovery.

 

 

“What the hell is this…?” (Shuu)

 

 

　Barely audible, my throat seems to be recovering some of its functionality.

 

 

(I mean, I’m really myself, right…?) (Shuu)

 

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　Was I reborn as a different person with my memories intact?

 

　I can’t be certain because I don’t have a mirror, but the shape of the fingernails on my hands, the somewhat crooked middle finger, and the hair on my arms are not out of place.
The color and shape of my slack nipples, and my lazily hanging thing has the size and rightward bend that seemed to belong to my own body.

 

　So, the wound had healed completely without my knowledge, and I was also left alone in a place like this?

 

 

“… doesn’t make any sense at all…” (Shuu)

 

 

　At any rate, I try to stand up.
I wobble for a moment, but my thin legs somehow support my body.

 

　I stagger out of the room through the h