The Voice of God—as Yuzuriha called it now, had gone silent.
And soon after, there was a flash of bright light. The kind that would cause blindness if stared at it long enough with the naked eye.
Fortunately, she didn't have eyes…or was she blind?
Still, it was one of the perks of being blind. Not that she enjoyed it or anything.
Anyway, that pale light was gone and it was dark again. But unlike before, something had changed.
For one, a strong, pungent odor had invaded her senses.
It smelled like sweat, grime, trash and mold. If she had a mouth, she would be vomiting her guts out right now.
Wait, smell?
She could smell?!
Her sense of smell was working, she could feel air coming in and out of what she thought was a nose. Not only that, but she could also feel!
A cold, hard and slimy surface pressed at her rear. From up there, was something soft pressed against what she thought was her body.
Whatever that soft thing was, it was really pressing itself at her form, almost squeezing it tight.
Yuzuriha didn't complain, she could barely feel it anyway.
The air brushing past her was humid, sticky, and heavy, clinging to her like a second skin.
Before she could process that, her hearing kicked it in next.
…Her actual hearing.
'What's going on?'
At first, it sounded like it was coming from a distance, but it became sharper and closer by each second.
It was pure chaos.
No, that was a bit of an exaggeration.
The best way to explain it was that— a discord of sounds had crashed into her awareness like an unrelenting wave.
Wait—smell, touch, and now hearing?!
Three out of five of her senses returned. So did that mean she had been reincarnated already?
Well that was quick.
Usually in the reincarnation process, the soul undergoes a series of trails and judgements to determine its next rebirth.
But by the looks of it, she skipped all of that and went right straight into rebirth.
Was that a good or bad thing?
During reincarnation, a soul is reborn into a new body, influenced by its accumulated karma.
As it stood, Yuzuriha had amassed a mountain of bad karma in her past life.
Ah, well, that didn't matter now.
Whatever new life she was given, it had nothing to do with her current self.
Her memories, personality and sense of self were going to reset any second now.
That was how reincarnation worked right?
If so, then why was she still hearing noises? She should have been erased already!
Instead she was hearing strange noises, which turned out to be voices. They were faint at first, muffled like they were coming through a wall.
They quickly became sharper.
The closest one was wailing—a heart wrenching cry filled with sorrow. Someone next to her was crying?
Were those tears of joy from her new parents?
They came across as too painful though, and too young even. Amid the sobbing, Yuzuriha heard something else.
'What the? Are people fighting?!'
She could hear guttural grunts and the unmistakable sounds of bodies colliding. Fist striking flesh. The scrape of boots against a hard surface.
Yep, people were actually fighting nearby.
Why were people fighting at her rebirth?!
It hadn't been a second since that revelation dawned in her mind, she wanted to get a better look but she couldn't see a damn thing…
…the darkness clouding her vision showed no signs of being lifted.
'—Ah, I can't see.'
The thought calmly crossed her mind.
'Uwuah, I can't see!'
And then came the panic, but she made sure to keep it internal.
The only type of sounds babies can make are wails and whining, even though it was well within her birthright, she didn't want to be one of those annoying babies who cry a lot.
That was if she was a baby.
At any rate, this was no time to panic, she calmed her mind and began to think.
If she thought about it, three of her senses came to her slowly, one by one, so if she's patient enough, she'll eventually regain her sight.
Wooh, ok. That takes care of that.
This begged the question—are the eyes of all newborn babies this terrible after birth?
'No, no, no, that's not important right now, maybe later.'
Right now, something bigger was happening.
Since she couldn't rely on her vision, her sense of hearing was going to start working overtime.
Yuzuriha had already established that close to her, someone was crying and a couple of paces away, people were engaged in a bloody brawl.
"See what ya made us do, boy? This is what happens when street rats don't know their place!"
"Teach 'im a lesson, Bill! Break 'is pretty little nose!"
"You old codgers, how dare you!"
The first two sneering voices were deep and raspy, like that of grown men and the last was young and lighter, a boy?
Through that weird thud, followed by a pained gasp, Yuzuriha started to get the picture of what was happening.
'Two men are ganging up on a boy!'
'Could that boy be my father and those two men are trying to kidnap me?!'
This seemed like a good time to panic, wail, cry, whine or whatever…
…but she couldn't.
Yuzuriha wanted to voice her concerns but she couldn't, her voice wasn't obeying, almost as if she was mute.
And the fact that she couldn't see what was happening made it all the more frustrating.
'Being a baby sucks!'
As true as that was, that didn't lessen the threat of the current situation.
A roar of anger was accompanied by the sound of a body colliding with something solid—a wall, perhaps. And there was a cluster of other sounds she couldn't make out.
They sounded too chaotic.
"Blast it, he's got the Xiang laced pistol!"
"This ain't over, boy. You'll regret crossing the Chunjiheti Guild!"
The two men's shouting was followed by the sounds of retreating footsteps. With that, Yuzuriha confirmed that the two men had indeed turned tail, however…
"Bloody cowards, come back here!"
…The boy was not satisfied. She could almost picture him trying to chase after them.
'Idiot! He got off lucky but he still wants more?!'
He might have held the upper hand but that was sheer dumb luck! If he chased after them, he might run into more trouble on the way, or worse!
She might have not known who the boy was or her relationship to him —possibly her father—but she was not going to let him throw his life away.
'Get up! Do something!'
Since her voice wasn't obeying, she focused on moving her body. Inch by inch, until she managed to sit up.
—ha!
The moment she did, the crying she heard earlier suddenly stopped. There was a pause, and then, a small, trembling voice took its place.
"Y-Yor…?"
It whispered. High pitched and fragile, the voice of an innocent little girl.
"Yoruwaaaah!"
Yuzuriha froze as she felt slim arms wrapping tingly around her. The girl's body shook with sobs as she buried her face into her shoulder.
"Yor! Yor, you're alive!"
The little girl's voice came again, this time louder and trembling with relief. Before she could respond, the sound of footsteps rushing over cut her off.
"Yor?!"
The boy cried as he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around her body as well.
"Yor! You're alive…Bless the Stars, you're alive. I'm so sorry!"
"I thought you were gone. I thought they took you away…"
"I'm so glad you're alive"
Yuzuriha was at a loss.
The two kids embracing her and crying made her want to say or make some sounds of reassurance, but she couldn't.
At the very least, she must have been really important to them, she could even feel the depth of their love and fear through tears soaking into her clothes.
Amid all this confusion, Yuzuriha was glad of something though.
'Yeah, glad I'm alive too'