Illusion Queen

Chapter 1

Tsukimi didn't awaken her memories of her past life until she had a bad fall, where she bumped her head and got a concussion at the tender age of two. Her parents panicked and they rushed her to the nearest doctor.

Said doctor treated her and told the distraught parents that she might never wake up. And if she did, she won't act the same. To her parents' relief, she did wake up around two days later. True to the doctor's word though, her personality changed. Her parents saw their daughter as more mature, serious, and contemplative. She became more curious about the world than before her concussion and she asked difficult questions that a scholar would ask. For example, some questions pertaining to the government system in the world, the geography, and the economic system. When Tsukimi first asked those types of questions, her parents gaped at her but nevertheless answered her question if they could. They did use a rather simplistic way of answering their 2 year old daughter's questions although, by the expression she makes with her face, she doesn't appreciate it.

However, there were some instances that their daughter acted more normal. The pure curiosity shining in her heterochromatic eyes when exploring the town with them, the stubborn insistence on exploring the forest in the island, the pleading for her parents to buy sweets for her, and the cute stumbling of words were a relief for the parents. Yes, their daughter is different but she's still their little girl, their little, beautiful moon.

Tsukimi has been handling her reincarnation well. She accepted that she's alive when she knows that she died in the Before, the place where she lived her previous life. She was no doctor but she knew that a gunshot wound through her heart and a severe concussion was enough to kill her. Her partner was too far away to get her to the hospital in time. So, it could be the combined efforts of her grievous injuries and bleeding out. Tsukimi thinks she died at the place where she was shot.

She's not going to be all philosophical and ask herself if she's in a dream because people with concussions don't dream. And she's not going to question whether the Before was just a dream because frankly, that's not her cup of tea. That's her partner's cup of tea.

No, she's not going to question her reality and whether she's alive or not. However, when she saw a den den mushi on the living room table, she started questioning whether she went crazy. She went up to the den den mushi and stared at it for a good five minutes, her mismatched eyes to the snail's blinking eye stalks.

"What's this?" Tsukimi asks her worried parents, not taking her eyes off the snail. The snail looked very unnatural to her and somehow familiar. The gears in her head are working overtime to try and remember where she had seen something like this.

Her mother walked to her daughter's still figure and tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, afraid that if there's any sudden movement, Tsukimi would jolt like a scared animal.

"That's a den den mushi, Tsuki-chan. We use it to call people and talk to them." Her mother bent down to look at her daughter's face when her daughter didn't answer. Tsukimi's face was blank, causing the mother's worry to skyrocket.

"Tsukimi-chan? Are you okay? Do you want to sleep?"

Her daughter finally turned her head to meet her mother's distraught eyes. A smile was attempted although it looked more like a grimace. "Sure...mom."

The mother's face fell at the change from "mama" to "mom" but quickly resumed her worried expression. The mother slowly carried her to her daughter's room, mindful of the concussion, and tucked her into bed, the father following the two into the room and hovered near his daughter's bed.

"Have a nice rest, Tsuki-chan." Her mother lightly kissed her forehead.

"Hope you feel better when you wake up, Tsuki-chan." Her father lightly kissed the bandage wrapped around his daughter's head.