Chapter 2 - Chapter 1: Reincarnation
Ueeeeeeeeeeen.
A child's crying voice could be heard in the distance.
The sinking consciousness reacted to that voice, awakening just a little.
(Ah... what is it...)
Thinking in the hazy consciousness.
With a head still heavy with sleepiness, I thought vaguely what time it was, but I didn't feel like checking.
Ueeeeeeeeeeen.
(...That's noisy. What is Mom doing...)
Giving up on any further thought due to such extreme lethargy, I turned over to try and sleep again.
It seems I had been lying face down, but from the palm of my hand touching the bed to change posture, an impossible sensation returned.
Various feelings of wrongness rushed over at once, and consciousness began to awaken rapidly.
First, the sensation transmitted from the palm was not sheets. It was a hard sensation like placing a hand on bare ground where gravel had rolled.
And then, I realized that sensation wasn't just in my hand; I could feel it on my own cheek as well.
And the smell. I clearly felt the smell of dust, as if breathing in the swirling sand and dust.
Startled by such abnormal sensations, I suddenly sat up, and there was the bare ground as expected.
What I hadn't expected was that the dry dirt road stretched on endlessly, and the scenery of what looked like fields on both sides also stretched on endlessly.
"..."
I couldn't understand it at all.
I thought I was sleeping in my home bed, but somehow I was outside.
Why am I in a place like this? I tried desperately to think with my confused head, but since there was hardly any material to think with, no useful thoughts could possibly arise.
While thinking while confused like that for a while, I noticed a slight headache.
I found myself in an unknown place.
And with a headache as well, there was only one possibility derived from circumstantial evidence.
(...Did I drink that much yesterday?)
It was a ridiculous answer, but the most plausible answer right now was "I drank too much. I got drunk and came this far. I have no memory."
As consciousness turned toward the pain, a throbbing pain began to be felt, pulsing like a heartbeat.
I casually placed my hand on my forehead, and the sensation of gravel was transmitted to my palm again.
Is gravel stuck to my face? Looking at my palm, something like half-solidified blood was clearly attached there.
(Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you injured!?)
About to be confused again by the serious situation exceeding expectations, I consciously took a deep breath, clenching my strength and closing my eyes tightly.
I took several deep breaths like that, telling myself to calm down... calm down...
(This isn't the time to panic. First, confirm the current situation. Whether there are injuries. The extent of the injuries. Possessions. Current location.)
First, accurately grasping the current situation is the top priority. The actions to take will change depending on that.
If I had a smartphone in hand, or even just one utility pole nearby, the immediate problem would be almost solved.
Because if I called 110 and told them the utility pole number, I could be protected.
With the things to do becoming clear, I regained a little bit of calmness.
I sat cross-legged directly on the ground, lightly tapping my limbs with my fists.
(No parts that resonate... No fractures, seems like no serious injuries?)
Feeling a little relieved, I slowly stood up this time, trying to rotate my shoulders, limbs, neck, and waist.
There were no parts complaining of strong pain, and it seemed there were no sprains or bruises for now.
(...Speaking of which, this injury seems to be the only real injury.)
A sigh involuntarily leaked out.
Because abrasion-like wounds were spread quite all over my body, in many places.
I first noticed the injury on my forehead, but when checking my limbs, the arms and knees I saw were in a state where blood had solidified and gravel was stuck.
Probably the forehead is in the same state, so I decided not to touch it and left it as is.
It seems I fell quite spectacularly. If it weren't about me, I might have laughed out loud the moment I witnessed it, but unfortunately, it is about me. There is no time to laugh.
However, since there is no environment to treat the wounds, I put the injuries on hold for now.
In the current situation, fiddling with them improperly would only worsen them, not make them better.
And, while checking the condition of my body, I noticed something else.
This is a more serious situation, but since there is nothing I can do even if I think about it now, I decided to prioritize other checks instead.
■■■■■■
(No possessions. No clues to know the current location, for now.)
I didn't even have a smartphone, let alone a wallet.
I searched the surroundings, but nothing was dropped.
This is very serious, and it is almost certain that I cannot solve it on my own.
Unless there is some luck like being closer to home than I thought, solving it on my own will be difficult.
I want to avoid troubling others as much as possible, but in a state where I am injured in an unfamiliar place, I can't say that.
I can only vainly wish to keep the trouble to a minimum even if I do cause it.
And I had no idea about the current location at all. There were only fields around, no houses, no utility poles, no signs, nothing.
Assuming the direction my head was facing when I fell was front, and the side of my feet was back.
But whether I looked forward or backward, there was only one road. Moreover, on both sides of the road were fields with grass and plants taller than my height.
It was just like a photo of Hokkaido I had seen long ago. Fields stretching for kilometers, and a single road passing through them.
The road width is wide enough that cars can pass each other without issue, but even so, the view compressed by the fields on both sides was too narrow, making me feel like I had been thrown into a giant maze.
(If only there was an open view or a high place, I could look for a convenience store or a house.)
In a situation where I knew almost nothing, I still had to decide on the next action.
I hope for the luck of someone passing by by chance, but I don't intend to rely solely on luck to solve the situation.
(...I've never had good luck with lotteries or anything.)
Thinking deeply made me want to remember the past misfortunes brought by lotteries.
I switched my mood and looked closely at the road ahead.
And then I looked back.
Then, I noticed something visible in the distance.
At the end of the single road, the view was blocked by fields, but the outline of a mountain could be seen above those fields.
My attention had been focused only there because the surrounding grass and plants were high, but I could confirm there was a mountain beyond that.
I looked forward again, but I couldn't find anything resembling a mountain even in the distance.
This time I looked to the right.
Obstructed by the field's grass and plants, I could barely confirm that something resembling a mountain was far away.
I looked to the left in the same way, but it seemed there was nothing there.
Hmm..., I muttered, crossing my arms and resting my hand on my chin.
It's a gesture I often do when thinking deeply.
(...A mountain behind, and a mountain to the right. A mountain range? Or separate mountains?)
I looked up. The sky was clear, and I could see the sun was almost directly behind me.
The season was early summer. I determined the approximate time by the sun's height and the length of shadows.
(I don't know if it's morning or afternoon, but the sun's height feels lower than the peak. Before 11 o'clock, or perhaps after 13 o'clock. The temperature and air feel like morning, but... I can't rely on that. It varies by day.)
I made a rough estimate to set a guideline for action.
I had no watch and no compass.
If I couldn't get accurate information right now, just indicating a general direction of what action to take would be fine.
I roughly determined the direction from the time and the sun's position.
It should be fine to assume the current direction of the sun is south.
I picked up a stone and tried drawing a symbol indicating direction on the ground.
(If I go along the road, it's either south toward the mountain, or north away from the mountain.)
From this information, I tried to think about the current location.
Of course, I know it's impossible to narrow it down, but I want to get a rough idea of the current location to decide whether to advance or return.
"...South and East, mountains?"
While looking at the directions drawn on the ground, I suddenly realized.
I lived in the city. My home apartment was in the eastern part of Tokyo, close to the border with Chiba Prefecture.
As for the direction from my home, the sea was to the south. And Chiba Prefecture was to the east.
There are mountains within the city area too. But those mountains are on the left side within the horizontally long Tokyo. They should be concentrated in the west.
(As I thought... this isn't within the city.)
I had felt vaguely that something was wrong, but just thinking about it for a little while was a very serious situation.
Mountains visible in the southern direction. Vast fields stretching for kilometers.
Is there a place within the city that fits such conditions?
(Vast fields where not even buildings resembling houses can be found? Even in neighboring prefectures, there shouldn't be such a thing.)
I tried to determine the current location from the information obtained, but it resulted in further confusion.
But it wasn't decided that my guess was correct, and more importantly, I am an indoor type. I am confident I am clueless about leisure.
There are probably mountains as many as mountains that I don't know. Probably, there is some simple oversight or misunderstanding.
(It's difficult to determine the current location, so if that's the case...)
I looked around in a circle.
Regardless of whether the current location is within the city, I don't think it's that close to my home.
(...How did I get here?)
Saying I was drunk and have no memory won't suffice.
It can't be thought that I walked here from home while drunk enough to have no memory.
(Did I use a taxi? If so, it's strange not to have a wallet. Above all, if there was a drunk person saying to drop them off in such a place, they would be taken to the police.)
It is normal to process them as a troublesome customer.
If a driver responds inappropriately to a drunk customer and gets involved in an incident, it will be troublesome later.
Therefore, taxi companies have manuals for dealing with such customers, and those manuals state that they should be sent to the police station.
(Was I kidnapped by car? If so, it's easy to explain not having a wallet and being in such a place, but... I don't understand the meaning of kidnapping such an old man. If they wanted the wallet, they could just take it. There's no need to kidnap.)
I try to explain this situation, but it inevitably becomes forced.
Judging that thinking with the current uncertain information is just a waste of time, I decided to walk north, in the direction opposite to the mountain, for now.
The reason is that there are probably more people in the plains than in the mountainous areas.
It is a rather unreliable basis, but it is enough as a temporary guideline.
(...Well, the abnormality of this situation isn't just that.)
With a body covered in abrasions and hurting, I whipped myself on and started walking slowly.
■■■■■■
Avoiding puddles here and there, I walked while staring fixedly at my hands.
The abnormal situation wasn't just the place or the means of transportation.
Rather, something even more serious was there.
(...To anyone's eye, these are a child's hands.)
I opened and closed those childish hands.
This was something I noticed when checking the condition of my body, but since there was nothing I could do even if I thought about it, I put it off.
It was the change in my own body.
Hands that were too small. Probably 5 or 6 years old. It's a childish hand to the extent that I can assert they aren't 10 years old.
They were well tanned by the sun, and the color was clearly different between the palm and the back of the hand.
Of course, it wasn't just the hands that were small.
The body and legs, to anyone's eye, were a child's size.
I thought the surrounding grass and plants were high, but in terms of sensation, it was probably around 150 centimeters.
I was just smaller.
(If it were my original height, I wouldn't have had much trouble.)
My height was 175 centimeters, so I should have been able to see the surroundings from above the grass and plants lined up in the fields.
I felt a sense of wrongness at the difference between the accustomed viewpoint height and the current one.
I was curious about my current appearance, but unfortunately, there was no mirror.
However, I was able to check my face with the reflection in the puddle.
I had a quite cute face, to the point where I thought it might be a girl at first.
I panicked and checked the male symbol, and I sighed with relief upon seeing that small elephant.
While shuffling along, I pulled at the collar of my clothes, flapping it.
I had already been walking for over an hour, but there was still no sign of people.
The sunlight was strong for this season. It felt quite hot.
(Child?)
I stopped and looked back at the road I had just come from.
I suddenly remembered something.
When I woke up, I thought I heard a child's crying voice.
My own situation afterwards was so extraordinary that I completely forgot about it.
If I were lost in such a place, I couldn't help but protect them.
Mostly, since I myself am in a situation where I should be protected, saying I will "protect" a child is a bit presumptuous, though.
I thought a little about whether to go back.
When checking my possessions, I had also searched the surroundings easily.
I didn't see a child's figure, nor did I hear a crying voice.
Even in this situation, if there were a child nearby crying, I certainly wouldn't ignore it.
At least I would be concerned.
(Was it a dream?)
At that time, my consciousness wasn't clear.
It was definitely a half-dream state.
I didn't actually see a figure or hear a voice.
(...I must have been sleep-talking.)
Since I didn't see anyone around, it would be reasonable to think it was a dream.
For now, I decided to process it as a dream within myself and move forward.
The aftertaste was a bit unpleasant, but without proof, going back for another hour is something I really hope to be spared from.
I pulled at the collar of my clothes, flapping it, and started walking again.
I looked down at my own figure again and became curious about what I was wearing.
Naturally, the clothes and shoes I was wearing were not mine.
Probably they belonged to the owner of this body?
This child's clothes and shoes were a bit strange.
Should I call them hemp clothes? They were stiff and the wearing comfort wasn't very good.
I thought if they tried a little more processing, the comfort could be improved, but there was absolutely no such effort.
It was low-quality clothing with no hint of creativity or corporate effort, just "100% hemp, this is what hemp is like."
The shoes seemed to use animal leather all over, but they were just bags shaped like feet with bare feet stuffed inside. No socks were worn.
Calling them leather shoes sounds nice, but they were just bags shaped like feet tied at the ankles.
The soles were thickened and hard, so there was no problem walking on gravel roads, though.
If I had to summarize the overall impression in one word, it was "shabby." That sums it up.
I was the one who fell and got dirty, but even subtracting that, it feels like the construction is rough.
And, regarding the knee part of the pants, isn't it unusual to sew a piece of cloth boldly on the outside?
(You probably made a hole, but wouldn't you use a less noticeable method?)
It wasn't a completely different color, but they were using a patch cloth that was clearly visible.
I don't know what kind of household environment it was, but I ended up sympathizing a bit with this boy.
■■■■■■
The most important thing was to find people.
But, I was currently facing a more imminent crisis.
"...Hot... dying... water... hungry..."
How long had I been walking?