Guy's, this is the most beautiful chapter I think, I have ever written. Please let me know if it feels good.
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Obito walked up to me and knelt.
"Will it be all right if I hold you in my arms, young master? It will be easier to carry you, and you won't fall if you feel dizzy."
"Sure," I said, and spread my arms.
I'd rather be safe than sorry.
Obito picked me up carefully. Like I was made of glass and he'd been personally threatened with death if he messes up. Which, knowing my father, was probably accurate.
He adjusted his grip, making sure I was secure against his chest, and walked toward the darker corner of my room.
"Hold tight, young master," he said.
I did.
He muttered something under his breath, and the shadows moved.
Not the way shadows are supposed to move. They spiraled inward from the edges of the room, curling around our feet like black water rising from a drain. I could see it, the cursed energy flowing out of Obito and into the darkness, weaving a bridge between where we stood and somewhere else.
"Get ready, young master," he said.
And then we sank.
Wha-
Darkness.
The kind of darkness that doesn't just block your vision, it consumes it.
Even the Six Eyes stuttered for a moment, the spherical awareness flickering like a candle in a gust of wind.
I couldn't see. Couldn't feel the floor. All I could see was cursed energy spiraling around us.
My stomach was flipping around.
My brain screamed.
And then light.
We were standing in a narrow alley. Stone walls on either side. I could smell someone cooking nearby.
My stomach was still spinning. My head was pounding. But before I could even begin to process what had just happened, Obito smiled down at me.
"Just one more, young master. Hold on."
Stop, you fu-
We dove back into the darkness.
***
Five minutes later, I was on all fours in a grassy field, emptying my stomach onto the ground.
I had died of brain cancer. I had been reborn into an ancient world of sorcery. I had awakened some cool eyes. I had replicated a technique on my first try.
And now I was throwing up in a field like a toddler who'd eaten too many rice cakes on a boat.
Life is full of contrasts.
Obito was behind me, patting my back, panicking.
"I am so sorry, young master! I should have warned you more. I should have known not to use my technique with someone so young. This is my fault. Please forgive me."
I puked one last time, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and looked up at him.
"How," I said, my voice hoarse, "are you perfectly fine?"
He blinked. Then scratched the back of his head with that sheepish expression I was starting to recognize as his default when caught off guard.
"Oh, that? I'm just used to it by now, young master. When I first started training with this technique, I used to vomit every single time." He paused, as if recalling a particularly unpleasant memory. "The first month was… painful."
A month. A full month of throwing up every time you used your own ability.
Yet he'd kept going. Kept training. Kept jumping through shadows until his body adapted and the nausea became just another thing he'd conquered.
There it was again. That quiet resilience I'd noticed when he talked about his limitations. The man didn't have the flashiest technique. Didn't have the biggest reserves. But he had something else.
He just didn't quit.
Maybe life isn't about what you're given. Maybe it's about what you do with it. I repeated it.
Obito was living proof.
I spat one last time and stood up on my wobbly legs.
"I'm fine," I said, waving off his concern. "Just… warn me next time. Or at least give me a countdown."
"Of course, young master. I will never-"
"And stop apologizing. It's done. My stomach is empty. Let's move on."
He finally relaxed and bowed. "Yes, young master."
I turned around.
And for the first time, I actually looked at where we were.
We were standing on a grassy plain. Wide, open, stretching out in every direction like a green ocean. The grass was tall enough to brush my knees, swaying in a breeze that carried the scent of wildflowers and damp soil.
It was pretty. Through the Six Eyes, I could see the ambient cursed energy drifting through the air like pollen.
But it was just… scenery. Detailed scenery, sure. The Six Eyes showed me every blade of grass, every insect crawling through the soil, every shift in the energy currents. But the colors were gone.
Hmm.
I'd been wearing it since yesterday. My father had tied it on, and I'd left it there because it helped.
But manageable wasn't the same as beautiful.
Maybe my eyes are used to the Six Eyes by now, I thought. Maybe I can handle it without the cloth.
There was only one way to find out.
I reached up and pulled the blindfold off.
"Young master!" Obito stepped forward. "You might hurt yourself!"
I kept my eyes closed. Held up a hand to stop him.
"Don't worry about it," I said. "Even if I faint, you can carry me back. So relax."
He wanted to argue. I could feel it in his energy, the way it tensed and started spinning around. But he held his tongue. Instead, he stepped behind me, arms slightly raised, ready to catch me if I fell.
Fair enough.
I took a deep breath.
Here goes nothing.
I opened my eyes slowly. Letting the light creep in like water through a crack.
The first thing I saw was green.
The green of living grass under open sky, lit by sunlight that hadn't been filtered through cloth or processed through cursed energy pathways.
And then the rest of the world followed.
The plains rolled outward in every direction, endless waves of green and gold, dancing in the wind. Wildflowers dotted the landscape with the shades of white and purple. A river cut through the distance, shining like diamonds.
And beyond the plains, rising against the horizon like the spine of the earth itself, were mountains.
The Hida Mountains, if my memory of Japanese geography served me right.
They stretched across the entire horizon, a wall of stone and ice that looked like it had been there since the beginning of time and would be there long after everything else was gone.
I stood there.
The wind blew through my hair. The grass rustled against my legs. The sun was warm against my face.
And the Six Eyes showed me all of it.
Not just the surface. The energy in the air, swirling in gentle currents that followed the wind. The life force in every blade of grass, faint but present. (Don't take this literally)
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
In either life.
"It's beautiful."
The words felt too small. Like trying to describe an ocean with a few drops. But that's all I had.
I stood there and kept looking. Kept breathing. Kept feeling the wind and the sun and the grass and the sheer vastness of a world that was alive in ways my old world had forgotten.
In my first life, I'd seen landscapes and mountains on TV. Photographs of places I'd never been to visit because I was dying in a hospital bed. I'd watched nature documentaries and thought, That's nice, and moved on.
But this…
This was magic.
Maybe it was the air. Cleaner than anything I'd ever breathed. No exhaust. No smog. No factories pumping waste into the sky. Just wind, earth, and the faint sweetness of wildflowers.
Maybe it was the Six Eyes, showing me the world in a way no human was meant to see it. The hidden layers. The invisible currents. The life that pulsed through everything, even the things that seemed still.
Maybe it was simply that I was standing outside for the first time in this life. Actually outside.
Whatever it was, it hit me in a place I didn't know existed.
Something cracked open inside my chest. Not in a painful way.
Gently. Like ice thawing after a long winter. Like a door that had been stuck for years, it finally opened.
"Beautiful," I said again, because once wasn't enough.
And then I said something I never thought I would say. Not in my first life. Not in the hospital. Not in the void with Charles. Not once in fourteen years of existing without a reason.
"I want to live."
The words left my mouth before I could think about them. Before I could analyze them or question them.
They just came out. Simple, yet honest.
"Young master?" Obito's voice came from behind me; he sounded shocked.
I turned to look at him.
And I was smiling.
I knew I was smiling because I could feel it. The muscles in my face were pulling in a way they hadn't pulled in two lifetimes. Not the fake smile.
A real smile.
The kind that starts somewhere deep in your chest and works its way up, whether you want it to or not.
"I want to live a long life," I said, looking back at the mountains. "In this beautiful world."
The wind blew. The grass danced. The mountains stood silent and eternal.
And for the first time since Hiro Ren asked "What is life?" at ten years old, the question didn't feel heavy.
It felt like a journey. A journey that was started by Hiro Ren, but will be finished by Yuki Reizan.
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How was it?? Tell me!!! I gave my all in this chapter.