Death had suddenly come to me. From an unexpected place and time. In front of a large truck. Time had moved slowly. Things that I had left undone appeared on my mind one by one and disappears. My boss from my previous part-time job, my friend, my university professor. That reminds me, I havenāt submitted my report yetā¦ā¦ And lastly everyone from the orphanage. I donāt think they would end up thanking me for my life insurance. I still wanted to live with more thrills in my life if possible. When I though so, I heard a voice of a kid laughing, and every bone in my body was broken.
I was in the forest when I woke upā¦ā¦ I looked around and towards the sky.
The moon, which I felt was bigger than the moon that I knew, was shining in the sky. The trees that were illuminatedĀ by the moonlight were very big. I wonder how many times taller the trees had grown compared to me? Was this the afterlife? There was a story about a flower garden and theĀ Sanzu River, but I didnāt catch a sight of it. This was a shabby afterlife. Where the hell am Iā¦ā¦? Suddenly, I felt something bitter in my mouth. It was some grass when I spat it out. Why did I eat some grass? And then I realized that I was famished. Dizziness, fatigue and the general feeling of malaise assailed my whole body. If I donāt eat something I will die for sureā¦ā¦ I must look for something that I can possibly eat. Acorn, mushrooms too, anything is okay.
I need something Iām able to eat. Suddenly, a big centipede entered my field of vision. Usually, I would scream and run away from that place, but I just stared it for some reason. Looking at it carefully, I think I could clearly see it had soĀ much muscles. Iām certain the poison was on the mouth, aside from the mouth, will I able to eat itā¦ā¦? ā¦ā¦ ā¦ā¦ Can I eat it? For the first time, I ate an unappetizing centipede.
āCome to think of it, will I be okay from the parasites?ā After the centipede settled in my stomach, I became worried. I was a little worriedā¦ā¦ Will I become stupid if I donāt have enough nourishment? However, I donāt now how to start a fire. Oh well, might as well eat it raw since I need to survive.
Since I chewed it well, itās going to be all right, going to be all right. Probably. If my brain worked half as much and hesitated, I might die from starvation. I just wished that there wasnāt any parasites present. āIām thirstyā¦ā¦ā I began to walk to look for water. I want to wash out the aftertaste of the centipede in my mouth quickly. I felt it was ten minutes of walking when I found a brook. The words that came to my mind was to not drink the water, but thereās no way around since I donāt know how to start a fire to boil it. āI have returned to the livingā¦ā¦ā Water was important after all. Because the water looks clear, I think Iām safe from parasites. Probably. I looked at the water surface on the brook. My face was illuminated by the moonlightā¦ā¦ ā¦ā¦ ā¦ā¦ ā¦ā¦ Who was this guy?
An emaciated gray-haired kid was reflected on the surface of the water. ?????? Wait, wait, surely the reflection on the water was wrong. Even the reflection of the light may sometimes go wrong. I rejected the reality before me because I donāt understand what this means in my mind. I touched my cheeks timidly. I could see that my cheek bones were visible. I was not fat, but Iām not that skinny for my cheek bones to be visible. Next, I tried pulling my hair. My hair was gray. A typical Japanese should have raven-black hairā¦ā¦ This was reality. In other words, this was that, itās that famousā¦ āItās reincarnationā¦ā¦ā I looked up at the night sky. The size of the moon that was shining in the sky was twice as big as the moon from Earth.