When I opened my eyes, all I saw was just darkness, like pure black. Where is this place? Shouldn't there be someone in black cloaks to guide us? I mean souls need to be send to the afterlife right? In this space, silence was my only companion. It felt...tranquility for some reason. I mean, everything around is dark. Nothing is here. Surely, I would have a case of Nyctophobia if I were alive.
I recall pushing Dan to solid land, lost my grip, and fell into the gap. The fall felt endless. I thought I will be struck falling for eternity. Yet the aftermath...I don't want to talk about it. Let's just say I took a hard fall.
Though the shadow speaking to me gave me chills. I have a feeling I have angered the heavens. What happened after I fell? What did that thing do afterwards? I hope my friends were safe.
After all the thoughts, I wonder what am I going to do now. Maybe the person in white dress can tell me-
A person?!!
Holy mother of- Is she a ghost?! Is she going to hurt me?! Wait, I am also a ghost.
....
"H-Hello, can you talk?"
Welp, way to start a conversation to a friend of my kind. The woman just stood there, her white blonde hair bangs covered half of her face. I looked at her, unsure what to say to her.
"H-Hey, my name is Saikawa Jun. W-What about you?"
Awkward silence passed by us, and my eyebrow start to twitch in annoyance. If she could speak at least a word, I would greatly appreciated. I took small steps towards her, just a few feet away in case a jump-scare happened. I bend at my waist and tried to peek under those bangs. Upon a closer inspection, I noticed she has a fairly white complexion and long hair that curled at the ends. The white dress hugged her petite figure and flowed down her knees.
Though her figure appealed my eyes, her chest was sort of flat or average. While I was inspecting her, I noticed a faint outline of a tendril from the corner of my eyes. The white-barely seen-ribbon came from the woman's chest, swirling in mid air. My eyes followed the movements of the threadlike ribbon, ending at my chest. I froze, eyes enlarged at where it leads to. Why me?
"Her soul is connected to you, young child."
I jumped ten feet in the air. That voice! Its from the shadow before! What its doing here?! Is it going to eat me and send me to hell?!
"There is no need to be afraid, child. I will not send you to hell. Only those who did made evil deeds will be sent there," the voice chuckled.
It read my mind! My mind spun in frenzy. I looked around, trying to find where he was. Judging from the deepness of the voice, the vocals were masculine.
"I am nowhere, rather I am the space you inhabited."
"W-What did you mean?" I croaked out, eyes darting around.
"I am the dark void you resided in, between the heavens and the ground. After you died, I took your soul with me."
"Why would you do that?" I finally found my voice and gathered my emotions.
"You met an early end at the age of eighteen, still young, you have yet to experience your life. You were not foolish like your friends on trespassing. You went along to take care of them if something happens."
"Of course, I have to! What will happen if I don't go along with them? I will feel unrest if they did not come back," I looked down at my feet. They were my only friends in my life.
"A noble heart you have, yet you have quite a temper," he said, pausing for a second. "I have decided you will be reincarnated into another life."
Wait, what is this? Some kind of play.
"No, it is not. I am simply transferring your soul into this maiden's body. The white string connected both of your souls."
As I stepped back, the tendril followed, its length extended. My hand reached up to grab on it. The tendril began to glow a soft white light. I felt drawn to the gleam and played with it, spinning it in circles and creating waves.
All the questions burned at the back of my head. The tendril seems to be connected from me to the woman. What does the tendril connected to her and me mean? The more I mull over the more my brain found more complex questions than answers.
"You will be sent into a dimension. This world needs some patch up due to issues. You will go through obstacles and learnt to overcome them. You hold an important role. Make sure you don't let doubt clouded your mind. Live your life to the fullest, child."
The shine from the tendril brighten the surroundings. Unknowingly, a fog began to wrap around us. My body tensed up from the sudden change in the place. I looked around, wondering where the fog came from. The blanket of white encircle us, turned thicker. It crept round our feet, its silent footsteps tiptoeing around our bodies in the dark abyss. It clung to my skin, feeling cold and unpleasant.
A pull on my chest jerked my torso forward. The threadlike ribbon tugged at my chest. The tug made my heart felt saggy like a wet sponge. My face contorted in a grimace of pain. The pull shown no pause as I stumbled in my steps to follow. The tendril shrink and illuminate a brighter glow as I neared the woman. I pressed on my heels to stop the motion yet it ruthlessly forced me towards the woman. I braced myself for the clash, only to find myself inside her.
My mouth hung open in disbelief; my torso merged with the woman's. My mind screamed bloody wrong that my body(soul) was inside her. I think I heard a chuckle somewhere in the space.
I did have the time to yell out loud as a luminous light emerged from our chests. I felt one more pull-stronger this time-and our souls consolidated. A binding pain seared through my whole body like thousand needles poking on my skin. I screamed out from the pain and curled my body to protect myself. I shut my eyes, hoping the pain will go away. On the outside, a whirlpool of various colors swirled beneath them. It expanded further, radiating the void. The fog contracted and followed the movement of the whirlpool, constricting like narrowed walls. The whirlpool reduced in size, deliberately formed into a ball of light and shifted away in a direction.
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Somewhere in Japan, at a hospital...
A wail broke the silence in the room. A woman breathed heavily, small droplets of sweat dribbled from her forehead, showing the fruits of her work. Pushing a small being inside her out was no joke. It drained her energy and leave her weak and tired.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Hiragii. A healthy baby girl is born."
A nurse came up to her bedside, carrying the infant who was swaddled in a soft pink blanket. She placed the tiny human into the woman's frail arms and stepped back to allow them to have a mother-child moment.
Feeling the soft material wrapped around her baby, a warm smile reached her pale lips. Crystal tears welled up in her milky white eyes before sliding down her cheeks.
"Ah, thank goodness. Thank you for being born safely," she whispered prayers to the above. Her fingers touched her infant's face, tracing every contours and shapes. Her baby have such small cute features, she thought happily. Even if she has no sight, she still can make out her daughter's face. She hugged the little human to her chest, careful to not harm her.
The door adjacent to the room slammed open loudly, disrupting the loving moment. A tall, slender man with disheveled white blonde hair stood in the opening. His breaths came out hard and fast after he ran all the way from work to the hospital, hearing his spouse was giving birth. When he saw his lover holding something near her chest, his eyes lit up like a child at Christmas morning.
"Is that her?!" he dashed to her side, eyes gazed down at the small one. A small tuft of white blonde hair rested on her head, eyes closed and a tiny mouth agape as she snoozed peacefully.
"Aw~ she is so cute. She is my little princess to spoil," the man swooned at the sight of his baby daughter, sparkles and hearts appeared behind him. The fruit of their love and devotion, their love and creation in this world.
The woman laid against the pillows smiled at the tone of her husband's voice. She allowed him to hold the bundle of joy, listening to him cooing childishly at their daughter.
The lovely moment stopped when the man gasped, pausing in his ridiculous antics. Dark blue eyes turned wide as saucers as he gazed down at his little princess. The woman noticed the shift in air rose an eyebrow.
"What's wrong?" she asked, feeling perplexed at her husband's behavior.
"H-Her eyes-" he stuttered, words struck at the back of his throat. He turned to the nurse and requested for the doctor's presence.
The woman frowned at the lack of response and opened her mouth to speak.
"Dear, what is going on?"
The man faced his wife, his shoulders tensed.
"Mari-chan...I don't know if I am imagining things, but our daughter...she might have a sense of sight."
Her mouth hung open, her milky orbs shrunk smaller. Shock, disbelief and confusion filled her entire being. Her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, her mind spun in frenzy. Those words echoed inside her head. She could see?! How could it be? For the past generations in her family, females were always born with no sight and milky white eyes. It was puzzling as only the females were affected. Doctors tried to find the strange phenomena in their bloodline, obtaining nothing in the end. Since then it has been a common occurrence in their families. Hence it was expected that her daughter will also have similar effects. Yet here she breathed with clear open eyes.
The shocking discovery halted when the doctor entered the room. The father rushed to him, face crept a bit too near his privacy as he exclaimed.
"Doc, please examine my daughter! I don't know why but she seems to have the ability to see! This is unbelievable! My wife clearly told me females in the family were supposed to be blind! Why is my daughter not then?"
The doctor bend away from him to avoid the saliva spattering onto his face.
"Mr. Hiragii, I suggest you to calm down and allow me to check your daughter's condition."
The man snapped out of his trance and chuckled sheepishly. He handed his daughter to the doctor and watched him peered at the baby's face. The surprising part was that the eye color was a mix of green, yellow, and blue. The doctor ordered the father to hold the baby while he took out a small yellow ball. He moved the ball and the baby followed the movements.
The doctor hummed in thought. The father fidgeted as he awaited for the doctor's respond.
"Hm, your daughter shows no difficulty in following the movement. It shows that she indeed has sight."
Disbelief painted on both parents' faces. The father peered closely to his daughter's face as if to confirm the doctor's findings. A small hand smacked his nose, the baby in his arms formed an adorable pout. The cuteness of this washed away his mixed feelings and began to coo at her expression.
"Are you certain, Doctor?" The mother questioned again, thinking it might be false. The doctor shook his head and voiced the same respond. That was final. Her daughter can see.
"If you want you can visit for further tests in the future and we will check on your daughter again." With that, the doctor leave the room. The only occupants in the room were the parents and their little baby. The mother processed every thing, an emotion waved over her. Her child did not have to suffer in a world of darkness. She will not have to go through the hardships of being blind. Her heart swelled. Relief was all she could feel. A small part of her oppose this as her child might still be like her when she grew up. She took a deep breathe and exhaled. She have to wait until her child developed. She will know whether her child proved to have sight.
Then a question popped in her head,
why was her child the only one with sight?
From what she heard, her mother told her that a woman was cursed by a celestial being for doing bad deeds and took away their sights. That's what her mother heard from her grandmother and her grandmother heard from her great-grandmother and so on.
Though the celestial part made no sense to her when she grew older. She thought that was a fairy tale to hide the truth behind the theory of myth. However, were there meanings behind the story? Her ancestors were odd to made up stories to their children to pass to the current generation.
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Hey, it is past midnight now. Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter. I had some writer block in writing this chapter. If there is any grammar mistakes, do tell me below. Thank you!