When I came to, I was surprised to feel my body again. I moved my fingers on what felt like dried grass. Opening and closing my fists was a familiar yet foreign feeling to me. Bringing my hands to my face I was met with a sudden realization that they weren't my hands and neither was it my body.
But despite knowing that, I couldn't stop crying. Tears ran down my face blurring my eyes, the happiness I felt at this moment was hard to describe.
The last time I was this clear in my thoughts was when I was prepping for a fairly harmless surgery. Lying on the bed then I was thinking about how long the operation would take.
I had full confidence in the high cost private hospital and the exceptional doctor doing my operation. But as they say sometimes life just ***** you up.
Something went wrong in that operation, I lost almost all motor functions. I could hardly move my hands, all I could do was see and listen to people talk.
My body was slowly but surely getting hollowed out. I lost so much weight over the months, became a shadow of my former self. Changed hospitals, asked different doctors, at one point even my lungs failed me and they had to attach an external breathing device for me.
I can't say that the months were long, as the meds kept me sleepy for most of the time, as my body needed all the energy to fight the infection spreading inside.
The one who suffered the most was my family. At first I tried like I really did, to keep my hopes up, to be positive. Talking with my family as much as I could, telling them that I would be fine, that we just have to wait and go through this tough time.
But as months went by, I could see their exhaustion not just physical but mental too, they would try so hard to not break down in front of me. Even my friends despite their busy lives kept visiting me as much as they could.
At one point I did get better for some days. I remember the smiles on my mom's face that day, telling me that God has not abandoned me and I will get up on my feet soon.
But soon the infection relapsed and fought even harder and my condition got way worse. Now I would be out of it for days and at that point I started shifting my prayers.
I prayed that my life can end soon so that my parents don't have to suffer more. Because I know that they would not give up on my life and at this point the doctors were just forcefully keeping me alive.
Lying here on this grass, I cried silent tears knowing that my prayers were answered and I just hoped that they could overcome the grief and live a happy and healthy life.
I wiped my tears and sat up knowing that this wasn't the time to reminisce. A 'neighing' sound startled me, and brought my attention to the right side where there was a brown coloured horse looking at me.
[Horse]
"Huh?"
There was a game like blue coloured text box above the horse. Speechless I looked around and found myself in what looked like a stable?
[Door] [Wood] [Hay] [Ant] [Grass] [Pillar] [Fence] [Straw]
Different text boxes popped up as I looked around. Questioning my sanity at this point I looked at myself.
[ Kaga Michio
<Male*Age 17>
Villager: Level 1]
"Kaga Michio?"
Looking at the familiar name and this familiar setting, I had a very strong feeling of deja vu, as if I had seen this scenario somewhere. I stand up and again feel incredibly happy standing on my own two legs again.
I was wearing a black tracksuit and was even barefoot. Taking a deep breath I calm myself down and look at the place where I was sleeping.
[Hay] [Soil] [Ant] [Holy Sword Durandal] [Ring of Determination]
That confirmed it. I picked up the sharp shiny sword and swinged it in awe as it was way lighter than it looked.
[Holy Sword Durandal
-Attack Power x5
-HP Absorption
-MP Absorption
-Incantation Interruption]
"Incredible"
Holding the hilt in one hand I trace my fingers over the red orb. This was surely the coolest looking two handed sword ever. Putting it down, I pick up the silver ring.
[Ring of Determination
-Attack Power Increase
-Personal Strengthening]
Comparatively it looked bland, I even checked inside the ring if there was some elvish incantation written like in Lotr. I chuckle to myself not finding any and wear it on my finger.
Now I am sure that this scenario is all from the Slave Harem manga. I had read it when the manga first started and was instantly sucked into the world and even read the whole light novel despite it being machine translated.
I remember it so well because I reread everything after I watched the anime. The uncensored scenes were better than even porn.
So I died and replaced Michio? How? Why? So some kind of God like being did this? And what happened to Michio then? Is he like inside me as a dormant soul? Or am I just hallucinating all of this and am still on that hospital bed?
I started hyperventilating, because honestly out of all these scenarios the last one was the one that deeply scared me.
Taking deep breaths again, I put my hand on my chest and feel my powerful heartbeat, reconfirming to myself that no hallucination can be this real, at least from my limited knowledge of my previous world.
Joining my hands I pray and thank whoever did this.
Now let me see it.
"System"
For those who dont know about the Slave Harem story, I will introduce the main points in the next chapter.