I awoke from my slumber as the shrill croaks of the cicadas reverberated in my ear canals and the warm light illuminated my room.
It feels unusual to wake up in response to the rising sun my natural circadian rhythm. It reminds me that I'm really in the past.
Breaking my thoughts was a mouthwatering scent that wafted around the house.
When I got up to investigate the wooden floorboard creaked.
I could hear the faint chattering of my parents, which naturally I followed.
I slid open the thin door to the dining area, where I was greeted by them kneeling down at the table eating breakfast.
"Ah, You're finally up Kousei",
My father mumbled with a food still in his mouth.
My mother promptly smacked him playfully.
"Watch your manners when eating! And Kousei, hurry up and eat before your breakfast gets cold."
"Alright… good morning"
In the centre of the room was an unoccupied area, where there were two bowls, one containing a steaming bowl of miso soup and another containing a heap of cooked white rice.
So that's the source of that amazing smell, my stomach grumbled and I couldn't hold back any longer.
So I swiftly knelt down grabbed the chopsticks with a strange sense of familiarity despite never using them in my previous life and attempted to scoop a bite of rice.
Wack!
"Ow!"
My mother smacked my head and I was quick to put my hands onto the radiating pain that rapidly formed on my head.
However, the pain suddenly stopped. I must be tired.
"Did you forget your manners as well Kousei?!"
Oh yeah. I forgot I live in Japan now.
"Sorry mum I forgot"
I clapped my hands together
"Thanks for the meal!"
And proceeded to dig into my meal to satiate my voracious appetite.
After a while of eating, I eventually finished my meal and spotted my father getting ready for work taking his equipment with him.
"Dad! Could I come with you today?"
He turned to me with a confused expression.
"Huh? I thought you didn't want to work in the mud?"
"I had a change of mind"
"I see, so you're finally lookin' up to your father"
"Yeah yeah, let's just go already."
On my way out, I stubbed my toe. But instead of feeling the typical long lasting pain, I had only felt the initial jolt that left just as quickly as it came.
There's no way this can happen twice in a row? Is it that I can't feel pain?
I pinched myself to test the hypothesis but I could still feel it. However as I began to increase the force the sharp pain suddenly disappeared.
What?! Why can I not feel pain after a certain threshold?
"Kousei! Are you coming or not?"
"Yeah I'm coming!"
I went outside with my father, following him on the trailing path to the paddy field.
In the midst of my walk to the field, I couldn't help but keep thinking for a reason as to why I couldn't feel pain after a certain threshold.
After a while I came to the hypothesis that it's a drawback of receiving all my memories at once?
Maybe my brain utilised other areas to accommodate the sudden influx of memories.
I hope I didn't lose any IQ points…
Sigh, if that really is the case, I'm going to have to be way more careful and observant with injuries from now on.
"Kousei why do you look so down, cheer up! Aren't you excited to be working with your father?"
"Of course I am excited…"
When we arrived to the paddy, my dad greeted the other farmers and introduced me around to them.
Being an introvert in my past life I just nodded or gave them a curt bow.
"Wow! What a respectful kid you got there!"
"You should take lessons from your son!"
Eventually they stopped their socialising and got to work on the field.
There was clumps of young rice plants that was waiting to be transplanted into the soil.
"Kousei! Come here and follow my example"
He grabbed a clump of rice and inserted into the damp soil.
I followed his lead and copied him, albeit with less precision and efficiency.
…
"Phew… that's the last one"
"You've done a good job today son, now it's time for my favourite part of the day!"
After a day of hard work, my dad took me to the local communal baths.
But I don't think I could ever get used to this.
In my previous world, I was jumpscared by butt naked old men in the gym locker rooms but here it's part of their normal routine.
After washing up we went back home, farming was a lot of hard work and it was already late into the afternoon.
I went to the front of the house and after grabbing a tree branch, I fashioned a makeshift sword.
I swung it around in an uncoordinated manner practicing sword play.
After a while I got tired of it. Without a proper instructor of any kind it's hard to not accidentally adopt bad habits. I'm conscious of this so I really only focused on basic swings.
Eventually, I ended it off by doing some body weight exercises.
***
Time flew by and I'm a lot older now.
I continued my routine of daily training plus farm work also incorporating jogging into my daily routine.
I'm around ten now which is working age here.
My bodies developed quite well and I'm finally starting to gain some muscle on my frame. Although, my height genetics don't seem to be the greatest.
And today's a special day, my father has decided that today's the day he's going to teach me the the ins and out of work for those living the rural life.
So I'm going to the city with my father to sell some rice grains.
"Stay safe on your travels Kousei."
My mother kissed my forehead and ruffled my hair.
"Hurry up Kousei!"
"Yes father!"
We hauled a wooden cart full of a mound of burlap sacks and clay pots full of rice grains, beginning our long journey into the city.
Since we are from the country side, the journey is long and we will need to take breaks at many villages over the course of approximately three days and three nights.
I'm definitely quite worried about the possibility of demons, so I pestered my dad for us to not travel after sunset prolonging our journey.
"Kousei you're a grown kid now and you're still scared of those stories old man Toji told you."
"I'm telling you dad demons are real!"
"Sure they are…"
After many pit stops and days of gruelling walking we made it to the hustling city.
Around us was a rapidly modernising area, many people wore kimonos but there a few people who stood out adopting a more western style.
A man walked past us in a three piece suit and my dad stared at him like the country bumpkin he is.
"Are you not surprised by this Kousei?"
"Hah, there's nothing special about it, it's just a suit"
"What are you talking, wait how do you even know what it's called! You've never seen anything like this in your life."
"Cough cough, uhhh mother told me about it"
We eventually made it to the food stalls and negotiated a price and sold the rice to the market.
After such a tireless journey I wanted to explore a bit but my dad insisted we begin our trip back to home.
The empty cart rattled on the unpaved paths.
We stopped at a small town to sleep.
It was a basic travellers inn, offering tatami rooms, futon bedding, and set meals.
My father paid for lodging at the inn designated mainly for merchants or farmers and we ate our meal and went to sleep.
After waking up we were served food which we promptly ate and continued our journey.
Surprisingly despite my fear of demons, we made it back without any mishaps occuring.
Since the travel was so long i decided it was fine to travel in the night for the final stretch so by the time we arrived home it was pitch black outside.
Upon entering the windin path to our home, something seemed off.
The air was thick — I felt a bad premonition.
Then it hit me, the thick stench of blood.
Knowing what I know, I expected the worse case outcome but even so, I frantically dropped my stuff and ran to my house.
My father smelt the blood as well, he stopped hauling the empty cart, grabbed a small hand sickle from it and chased after me.
"Kousei! What happened?!" My father asked slightly out of breath.
By the time I reached my front porch, I knew it was too late.
Blood seeped from the thin door, staining the grass as a pool of red trails across it.
My fathers eyes shot wide open
"Hana!"
Yelling my mothers name, he sprints to the house, slamming the doors open in a frenzy.
A gust of wind blew across, followed by a deadly silence as the sight inside is revealed.
Everything pauses.
When the doors slid open a focused beam of moonlight shun down on a hunched figure.
Despite the slam of the door he kept on indulging and gorging on his meal brazenly.
He had discoloured pale green skin and was hunched down chewing violently. Despite his gluttonous look his body reflected that of a emaciated and sickly individual.
But I know looks can be deceiving.
His razor teeth dug into a lifeless partially disconnected arm, only strewn on by a few long threads of torn flesh, tendons and ligaments.
My mothers lifeless corpse laid beside the demon, her kimono was tainted with splotches of blood. The sight was horrific,and traumatising inducing the urge to vomit .
Tears welled up but even then I subconsciously tried to run to tend to my mother — it didn't matter whether she was dead or alive.
But a hand stopped my from moving, it was my father. Even though he was feeling just as much grief as me, he seemingly kept a level head, although his face betrayed his actions.
But the patter of my step, grabbed the demons attention and he turned his neck in our direction the arm locked in the clutches of his jaw, swayed with the rapid change of direction.
As his neck eerily snapped at us and his bloodshot eyes fiercely gazed in our direction.
"How rude… can't you see I'm eating!", his necked torqued unsettlingly as he adressed at us.
My fingers twitched, sweat trickled down my forehead.
A torrent of emotions swirled inside of me, grief, despair and anger
I wanted to get revenge but I felt so weak…
Beside me, my father clenched his teeth. Veins protruded from his forehead and he clenched a sickle that was intended for rice harvesting in his right hand.
"Hana…"
After the brief moment of processing her death he couldn't keep his composure any longer, my father lunged at the demon, consumed by pure rage.
As he was charging at the demon he tried to order me.
"Kousei run!"
The demon decided to taunt him with a malicious grin, "Was that your wife? She was delicious"
"You bastard!", he sliced at the demon but missed by a small margin as the demon swooped low.
He went on all fours prowling on the ground, his calves and quads became engorged as they flooded with blood, then he pounced like a beast .
The raw speed of the demon was able to take him by surprise, he swung the sickle haphazardly. This time managing to graze both the demon eyes.
"Aaah!" The demon screeched in pain and staggered back slightly.
Although he may have stunted the demons attack momentarily doesn't mean that it didn't come at a cost.
Splat!
My father was huffing and wincing in pain grabbing his arm, or rather lack thereof.
"Dad your arm!"
Blood spluttered out. During their exchange the sharp protruding nails of the demons managed to slice his arm off in one clean arc.
"Dad! You can't fight him, just run"
"Just shut up and run already!"
"I can't! If I leave you you'll bleed out and die"
His right arm that was sliced off had held the sickle, as the arm flew in the air the grip on the handle unwrapped and the sickle struck blade down into the wooden floorboard.
I rushed to pluck it off the floor and clenched it tightly pointing it at the direction of the rogue demon.
Remember all the practice and training for all those years.
I ran in front of my father, took in deep breaths in and out, trying to mimic breathing techniques from the anime, hoping to gain as much strength that I could feasibly muster.
Yet it was futile…
I stood my base but my hands trembled, my breathing was uneven and my grip loosened with every passing nervous tremor.