Rebirth, part 1

All I can see is darkness.

It was slightly disappointing that my life didn’t flash before my eyes. After hearing about it so much in media, it was a bit of a letdown. The cold they always describe also feels different from what I expected. It’s more localized to the front of my body and side of my face, almost as if…

I open my eyes, realizing that this unknown cold sensation is the concrete I’m currently lying on top of.

Unable to move the rest of my body, the only thing I can do is look around my blurry surroundings. The ground is a harsh grey with the distinct texture of a concrete road, but beyond that is nothing more than unidentifiable shapes. I can hear a commotion, but I can’t tell what anyone is saying. The blue of the sky is oddly calming as I feel my consciousness slipping away from me.

The last thing I see is a small pool of blood forming next to my face.

Yet again my vision fails me, however opening my eyes proves to be more difficult this time. Not only that, I can feel a sharp pain in my leg and the side of my head. It seems like I’m lying on my back inside a bed this time, because I can feel my body surrounded by a soft warmth.

I can hear curtains flapping as a not so gentle breeze invades the room. With renewed vigor I make another attempt at opening my eyes, so I see if there’s someone that can shut that window. Slowly but surely the light from the sun pierces through my eyelids. Fighting the urge to close my eyes again I open them halfway in an attempt to survey my surroundings.

The room I’m in looks fairly standard for a hospital. The lack of any complicated looking equipment, besides a heart rate monitor I can see in the corner of my eye and a blood bag that presumably connects to my arm, suggests that I’m not in any kind of critical condition. Closing my eyes briefly, I let out a short sigh of relief. I’ll have to wait and see what the doctor has to say, but it’s probably safe to say I won’t die right now.

Just as I finish reassuring myself on the grounds of absolutely zero medical knowledge, a nurse walks past my bed and closes the window.

“Thanks.”

The nurse looks at me, slightly surprised to see me awake.

“あっ只野さんもう目覚ました？”

“Huh, what? What did you say?”

“えっ英語ですか？あの... I... getta doctah... foh yuu... now... okay?”

I can only nod in confusion at the questioning but sincere look she gives me. She walks back out of the room with a slightly hurried pace. It’s pretty surprising that she barely speaks english…

After a few minutes a man walks in wearing a big white coat and matt black hair combed to the side. He’s probably the doctor in charge of me. After flipping through the chart in his hand he stares at me with a serious look on his face. Maybe I am going to die after all...

“Good morning, my name is Wadahara and I’ll be your doctor while you’re here with us. You were in a serious accident yesterday, but luckily you got away with only a concussion and a few relatively minor injuries. Your leg should be good as new in six to eight weeks, though we’ll need to get you a cast. As for your head… Well, I think it’s best if you see for yourself.“

He reaches for a handle sticking out of his pocket to reveal a hand mirror. I manage to sit upright with some effort as he hands it to me with a slightly awkward smile. When I grab the mirror out of his hand he takes a step back. I give him a puzzled look as he puts his fingers in his ears. Before I can think about why he did that I look into the mirror and…

I let out a scream.

Staring back at me was a complete stranger. Instead of my own reflection, there’s an asian boy on the other side of the mirror copying my every move. I distinctly remember having green eyes, not black. My hair has also gone from short and curly brown to medium length and straight but oddly spiky black. There’s some bandages on the left side of his face and some bruises, but otherwise he looks fine. Touching my cheek with my free hand to see if it’s real, the reflection does the same.

With my mouth hanging open in shock I look at doctor Wadahara. He unplugs his ears and reaches over to close it for me.

“Yes, Tadano-kun, I’m afraid the stitches will leave a permanent scar on the left side of your face. You also lost quite a bit of blood, so try not to move around too much. Look on the bright side, I’m sure the ladies will love it once you’re a little older.”

“What do you mean scar… You completely changed my face! What the hell, man?! This isn’t funny!”

As I’m shouting and flailing my arms around because of the surprise cosmetic surgery, I start to feel a bit light headed.

“Please calm down. You’re exaggerating a little bit there, Tadano-kun. The concussion must be worse than we thought if you’re acting like this…”

“What do you mean ‘acting like this’? I think this is a pretty appropriate reaction!” I respond with righteous anger at the mocking tone the doctor has taken on all of a sudden.

“Well, you’re speaking fluent english...” He says, now in a serious tone with a worried look.

This man must be crazy. Does he think that by changing my appearance I would start speaking a different language too? I’m starting to have my doubts about his qualifications as a medical doctor.

“Even if you were an honor student, an accent is very hard to get rid of completely. But here you are, speaking with what is clearly an american accent. That’s not something you get from getting run over by a car… At least not that I know of! Hahaha!”

That belly laugh is pretty insulting. Luckily he snaps out of it when he realizes that I don’t appreciate his newfound sense of humor.

“No need to worry, kid. We’ll figure out what’s up with that funny little brain of yours and have you back to school in no time.” He says in what is surely meant a reassuring tone, but what he said wasn’t only weird because of how sure he seemed of his own success.

“What do you mean ‘kid’ and ‘school’...?”

I hadn’t been to school in more than half a decade, but he was eager to throw me back into that poorly disguised prison. At this point there are just too many questions piling on top of eachother in my head. I’m gonna need to get some answers out of this supposed doctor. He’s still giving me a funny look from my first question, but I’ve decided that I want to ask a different one before that.

“No, forget that. Answer me this first: where am I?”

“Okay, sure. #### Hospital, Tokyo, Japan…?”

Some part of me already suspected it, but it still blew me away. I went from downtown New York to a hospital somewhere in Tokyo in a single day. But that still doesn’t explain the rest, which brings me to my second question.

“Who am I?”

“I was afraid this might be the case, amnesia caused by head trauma is no joke.”

“Please,” I cut him off before he goes on a tangent, ”just answer the question.”

“Okay, sorry... You had your student ID on you, so here you are."

He hands me an ID card with a picture of the face in the mirror, but I can’t read these weird symbols. I look up at mister Wadahara in confusion.

“Ah, it’s not just speech then, my bad. Your name is Shotaro Tadano. You’re 16 years old and you attend Hououin Academy here in Tokyo.”