Prologue: The End of a Journey...

Do you believe in magic?

To this question, most of you would chuckle before answering with what you think is an obvious statement. But what if I told you, magic does exist?

At this point, you may take me for another fool running out in the open world. And quite honestly, I understand why you are thinking that. Magic is just a work of fiction. Petty trick authors use to make their story more interesting. But for centuries, humans described natural events occurring around them they couldn't explain as the work of a God and its trials, or, in the other case, as the result of magic or sorcery linked to the Devil.

If you traveled in the past and tried to scientifically prove humans could naturally produce energy in the form of heat, you would have a great chance to finish at the top of the list for ending up in ashes.

With our modern viewpoint, we could argue as biological science wasn't as developed as nowadays, and humans being a living of curiosity, people just wanted answers and ended explaining these occurrences they couldn't understand as "magic."

But that never changed. Even now, with the scientific consensus and discoveries we made in the last centuries, we don't know everything, and people are still eager for answers. Scientists will do their research to unravel the questions and find the answers. But most people are not scientists, and when something we can't explain comes up, we just put it on account of science because of the meager scientific knowledge we gain at school. In front of children with insisting questions, we could even still describe it as magic as a meaning of our incapacity to explain.

The point is, we just shifted the word "magic" with "science."

But what if I told you magic truly exists? We are just unable to see it as humans in our current world. This big show we name life is just a preparation for what follows after.

My name is Yusuke Itoh, and today, I just turned twenty-six.

It was a beautiful day, and even if it was Sunday, I was on my usual way to work. I've been working as a physics teacher in high school for four years now, nothing too extravagant for a guy like me. That day, birds were singing; children were happily playing on playgrounds; the air I was breathing was fresh.

You're wondering why I suddenly started talking in the past tense?

Well...

That day, I was involved in a car accident.

On the spot, I haven't really felt it. That's just a natural reaction for us humans. When a great shock occurs, and our brain feels like we are in danger, it starts producing adrenaline that renders our pain receptors inert for us to focus on our escape by surpassing our physical limits.

It seems like magic, right? In an instant, you're a superhuman.

Unfortunately, this adrenaline has its own limits, and our body has its own tolerance that differs for everyone. I could make it out of the car wreck but couldn't go further, falling on the ground as I saw people around me shouting at their phones. Soon after, two ambulances and a fire truck arrived on the scene. As soon as they got out of their car, the paramedics rushed to me and tried to talk with me, but I could not answer as I was grasping on life with my last forces.

I was still conscious while being transported to the hospital. Still, as I entered the operating room, I felt more and more disconnected from reality. I slowly began to see the thin veil of the end darkening my vision, already overwhelmed by the powerful light and the blood-reddened gowns of the surgeons. 

But little did I know this entire life I already lived was only the beginning of my story.

As I was ready to meet whatever was waiting for me up there, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Just as I went conscious again, I found myself not in front of the typical image I had of a god but in the arms of a woman with a man and two maids at her side.

Their faces showed a broad smile, but the woman holding me was sweating a lot and looked like she was exhausted as if she had just made the most considerable effort of her life.

The four people looked like they were in their early twenties. I wouldn't be shocked if they told me they were younger than me.

But wait, if that's the case, how is that woman able to hold me? Taking a good look at it, why is there a candle fixed on the wall? Are we in the middle of a blackout?

As I gathered my forces to ask them what was going on, the only sounds I could hear while speaking were baby cries. Do they have a child at infant age?

In reaction, the woman gently laid my head on her shoulder before patting it. At the same time, they started speaking.

...

What is that language? Am I in another country? But that's a language I have never heard before. Even though I'm not the most ignorant one when it comes to world languages, I couldn't even understand a word of what they were saying.

Slowly, the pieces allowing me to solve the case were coming together. I'm not sure, and I still have to figure everything out. I don't know how it's possible, but it seems I've reincarnated as a baby.

My name was Yusuke Itoh, and on the very day of my twenty-sixth birthday, I died in a car accident.