Rebirth

Rain tapped against the bedroom window.

Akira Sato sat at his desk with a math textbook, loose papers, and a laptop. Finals sat two weeks away. His grades already ranked near the top of his class, yet he studied anyway.

His phone buzzed.

“Still studying?”

A message from his friend.

Akira smiled.

“Yeah. I’ll play later.”

He set the phone down and rubbed his eyes.

His room felt quiet. His parents watched television downstairs. The smell of dinner still lingered in the air.

Life felt normal.

His laptop screen froze.

“…Huh?”

The cursor stopped moving.

A small white box appeared.

Return?

Accept. Decline.

Akira frowned.

“What kind of virus is this?”

He clicked the X.

Nothing.

He pressed Escape.

Nothing.

He restarted the laptop.

Nothing.

The message stayed.

Return?

Accept. Decline.

He sighed.

“Fine.”

He clicked Accept.

The screen turned black.

The room followed.

The walls vanished.

The desk vanished.

The floor vanished.

Silence swallowed everything.

Akira stood in darkness.

“Hello?”

No answer.

A voice echoed through the void.

Conditions accepted.

Welcome back.

Pain exploded through his body.

His vision blurred.

His thoughts scattered.

Everything faded.

…

Cold air touched his skin.

He opened his eyes.

A wooden ceiling.

A tiny room.

His body felt wrong.

His hands looked small.

His voice sounded weak.

“What…”

The word came out as the cry of a child.

A woman stood nearby.

She looked exhausted.

She stared into his eyes.

Black.

She lowered her head.

“So another Bell.”

Her voice carried no joy.

Only disappointment.

Akira understood nothing.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

Then months.

His memories stay

He learned one thing before he learned to read.

Bell.

His race.

The lowest among humans.

People looked away when they passed.

Merchants refused service.

Other children laughed.

Adults spat near their feet.

By the time he turned seven, he stopped asking why.

By ten, he worked.

By twelve, he learned pain.

By fourteen, chains felt normal.

By sixteen, hope felt distant.

He served inside a noble’s estate.

Clean the halls.

Carry water.

Wash dishes.

Sleep.

Repeat.

One afternoon he entered an old storage room.

Dust covered every shelf.

Broken furniture filled the corners.

A pile of books rested beneath a torn cloth.

Most had rotten pages.

One stayed intact.

Introduction to Magic.

Akira stared at the cover.

His heart raced.

He slipped the book beneath his shirt.

Nobody noticed.

That night he lit a small candle inside the servants’ quarters.

He opened the first page.

Mana exists within every living thing.

To control your mana you must breathe.

The extent of your element is your imagination.

Akira stared at the paper thinking to himself if magic.

Is only limited to your imagination he had a thought.

But he didn't want to try it just yet.

He continued to read.

“Each human has six elements of magic they can control”.

Fire water earth air dark light.

When Akira read this he realised that the rules to magic are similar to a rpg.

Or anime isekai.

But suddenly he heard some of the nobles outside.

He decided to put the book down and go to sleep.