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.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "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'

  ***

  'I am blind'

  This was the twelfth time Yuzuriha had said that to herself.

  At first it was shocking, but after saying it a dozen times over, she felt indifferent to it.

  She hadn't confirmed it yet, it was just pure speculation.

  But if she had to base it on how quickly her sense of smell, hearing and touch returned to her, then she might be onto something.

  Still, there was a fine difference between suspecting and knowing.

  Sigh.

  Yuzuriha exhaled a heavy breath and decided to redirect her thoughts somewhere else, like her current situation.

  'There is so much to think about, where can I start?'

  With everything that had just happened, she found herself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

  A bit of an exaggeration but still!

  There was just a lot of stuff to cover and doing all of that at the same time might overload her delicate mind.

  Ok, ok, ok. The beginning, straight from the beginning.

  That's how all great mysteries were uncovered right? Yeah, absolutely!

  'First off, let's get this out of the way'

  Right now, Yuzuriha rode on the back of the boy…

  A 30 year old adult was getting a piggyback ride from a child.

  …Yep, that was happening.

  'B-but I'm not an adult anymore. I've been reincarnated!'

  Even so, she couldn't help but feel a bit flustered by this. Her body might have shrunk but her mentality was still that of a woman who had lived for 30 years.

  'This is so embarrassing, but I can't let myself get distracted by such childish things!'

  Yuzuriha subtly shifted her weight as she tried to bury her possibly flushed face.

  The boy didn't seem to struggle, she could feel the warmth of his back as he carried her with ease, meaning she wasn't heavy.

  In other words, her body shape was light, petite.

  'That's another thing I've learnt about myself.'

  The first thing was that, first she wasn't a baby, she was still a child but the exact age was unspecific.

  The second, the boy who was carrying her and the little girl who was holding her hand with both of hers were not her parents.

  'Honestly, that's a bit of a relief. I can't imagine the type of laws they have in this place, but if they allowed something like that then they would have been crappy'

  'Thank God'

  'But what if—Okay, okay, environment. Focus!'

  Since Yuzuriha couldn't see, she had to rely on everything else. And right now, everything else told her they were outside.

  The ground beneath the boy's footsteps wasn't soft like dirt or uneven like cobblestone. It felt smooth, and structured, but not enclosed like an indoor floor. A sidewalk, maybe?

  All around her was a cacophony of different sounds.

  There were sharp honks layered over the rolling grumble of moving metal. Cars. That meant roads, which meant they were in some kind of town or city.

  To add to the mumbles of pedestrians, the air smelled alive!

  Not like nature, but with mouth watering creations of humanity.

  Food, smoke, oil, hints of something sweet and baked, mixed with the unmistakable scent of street food sizzling over open flames.

  That was….oddly nostalgic.

  She could almost tell where they were just by following the ever changing scent of something delicious. Something fried to the left, fresh bread to the right, something heavier and spiced further ahead.

  Unknown to her, she was moving around a lot, trying to get a whiff of every possible scent she could.

  'This sure beats that gross smell in that alleyway!'

  Suddenly, the boy shifted his posture as he adjusted his grip again beneath her rear. This broke her focus, causing her to tense up.

  'Um, no. It's probably nothing'

  No use trying to overthink it. Yuzuriha let out a quiet sigh.

  Alright. She had a rough idea of their surroundings now. But the question was…

  'Where the hell am I?'

  Yuzuriha pondered and made an assumption based on what she could hear and smell.

  'First off, this isn't Japan. Why do I say that? Well, that's because, in most Japanese marketplaces there's always that fresh whiff of grilled yakitori and teriyaki. And of course, my personal favorite, the sweet aroma of mochi!'

  'All I'm smelling here are roasting meats, freshly baked bread and other delicious stuff'

  She felt her stomach grumble from just thinking about that.

  'Then there's the clip-clopping of horse hooves, heavy cars and the language these people are shouting. It's not Japanese but I can understand it, but it doesn't seem like I can speak it.'

  Throughout this road trip, Yuzuriha had tried to voice out her thoughts, such as; What is this place, who are they, or what happened? But every time she tried to let out a word, her voice just jams.

  'These two haven't spoken a single word ever since we left that alley. That isn't really putting me at ease, but I guess they're still pretty shaken up by what happened'

  She couldn't blame them really.

  'Am I really blind and mute at the same time? Wuah, why's my karma so bad?'

  Another sigh escaped her lips.

  "Willow, don't tell big sis about what happened ok?"

  The boy finally said something as he came to a halt. His voice sounded deep as in contemplation.

  "What why?! Those jerks need a lesson and big sis can teach them a good one!"

  The girl immediately retorted, and that earned a turn from the boy, facing to the side.

  "Just do what I say. Don't be a brat! Yor almost got killed back there. Do you really think she'll allow us to go out again if she hears about that?"

  "W-well, um, I guess you're right. Fine"

  She was hesitant in her reply.

  "Use your brain sometimes. It'd do wonders for you. Besides, we shouldn't trouble big sis with those guys, they're bad news. And she already has a lot on her plate as is. You just keep quiet and don't run that loose mouth of yours"

  "You're so mean, Leo"

  Yuzuriha couldn't see her but by her tone, she was probably pouting.

  "You understand, right, Yor?"

  After the boy—Leo, had asked that question, there was a drawn out silence between them. They were waiting for Yor to speak.

  Oh, right!

  It was only after a while that Yuzuriha realized he was referring to her, but it was already too late…

  "You're still shaken, I get it. When we get inside, clean up and I'll make your favorite. A delicious jam roly-poly. We still got some leftover jam and flour, so I should be able to make some for dessert"

  His tone had changed to one of comfort and the girl let out a small gasp, immediately forgetting the scolding Leo gave her.

  "I want a piece too! A big piece! No, two big pieces! No, three, wait, is that too much?!"

  "That's way too much! No way you're getting all that!"

  "Ah what, you're not being fair, big bro!"

  As established Yuzuriha couldn't speak, but there was more than one way to give an affirmative to someone.

  She tilted her head slightly at Leo's words, soon after, he took her head shake as an agreement and exhaled through his nose while ruffling Yuzuriha's hair.

  "Yeah, yeah, I got it. I'll make extra. Let's just hurry, it's getting late, big sis must be waiting for us by now"