Capítulo 2: Chapter: 2 A Whole New World {Re-write}
Renko finally understood what 'Seeing it, but ain't believing it' meant.
Her last memories were a bit too painful to remember, all with those 30mm shells tearing right through her torso. What happened next was the worst, it felt like someone had locked her up in an isolation cell, just like her last encounter with the MPs.
It hadn't been a pleasant one, not with her being suspected of fragging and all, that's what got her deported from the Guerrillas to the reserves. A sort of fall from grace in the military.
Anyway, the darkness was all-consuming and soon she fell asleep and by soon she meant fifteen minutes later. It wasn't her fault that it was too damned peaceful.
Suddenly, there was light, and it was too damned much for her eyes which were just beginning to adjust to the darkness. The first thing she noticed was that she was suspended in the air, and the second thing was she was suspended in the air in two dimensions!
She couldn't move at all, but she could see, and what she saw were countless other people hanging in two dimensions just like her. But they were all sleeping just as she was before.
The air was thick with some sort of smoke, or perhaps someone was spraying around pink paint. A couple minutes after she woke up, a woman walked in, carrying a pink spray can.
Renko blinked hard, trying to make sense of what the hell was going on there,
"W-er- a- I!?"
Much to her surprise, her voice was heavily muffled. Heck, even she could barely hear her own voice.
Not so surprisingly, the woman didn't turn to look at her. Not until Renko decided to try moving again and it was an extremely uncomfortable maneuver while being in 2D.
"What's this?"
The woman finally noticed her and reached out her free arm towards Renko, who just stared back at the strange woman.
"What's yer name, hmm~? Ah, Renko-Ivanovna is it?"
She asked, speaking the name as though she was reading it off of the plaque beneath a painting. Suddenly, the woman took out an old book with the words 'Transmigration Guidelines' printed on the front.
"Let's see~ Hmm... Alrighty then!"
She looked up at Renko,
"The guidelines say you died from a 30mm AP round to the chest. Well~"
The woman fidget around like she was about to tell Renko she had cancer or something,
"You weren't supposed to die on that particular day, well, you were to die a couple of days later but during a long and painful exfiltration. You got off easy."
As the woman spoke, Renko began to realize something: She was dead! Dead as could be! Dead for real!
BANG!
"This is the fiftieth goddamned case this year! What am I gonna do if death keeps messing around like that!?"
The woman sounded genuinely frustrated, although, her expression changed faster than Renko could switch the safety off of a pistol,
"Anyway, you're supposed to be alive. Your luck isn't exhausted yet, and neither is your lifespan. That can be tricky."
As the woman spoke, Renko began to get the feeling that she really was in this strange place and not just shit-faced on the fuel-liquor that the Motor division makes. Suddenly, the woman began to glow like a light bulb,
"It's a pain but I gotta reincarnate you."
'Reincarnate?'
Renko looked puzzled,
'What's this woman going on 'bout?'
Before Renko could try speaking again the glowing woman disappeared in a blinding flash of light. The intensity of it made her want to shut her eyes, but being suspended in two dimensions, she couldn't even do that, not to mention she had been trained not to do so.
Then, just as quickly as it came, the light faded. The darkness that followed was strangely sickening in its contrast. She felt a strange, tugging sensation as if she was being pulled through a tunnel. Colors and shapes blurred past her, none of it made any sense to her, none at all.
The world around her twisted and turned, and she felt a rush of wind, though she didn't have a body to feel anything with.
Suddenly, everything stopped and she found herself standing on the outskirts of a city with multi-story buildings towering in the distance. There was a hum in the air, the hum of urban lifestyle, Renko couldn't remember the last time she'd heard that sound.
"Year 2015."
It was the glowing woman from the strange gallery, she was hovering some feet off the ground, looking around for something,
"Perfect, this year would suit all yer needs. You got the Yakuza, Guns being smuggled in from overseas, Curses growing wild, gods and demons appearing, and Sosuke Aizen just about to pull his hair off."
"...what?"
Renko stared at her in bewilderment,
'What the fuck's this woman on about?'
But instead of answering the question, the woman checked the time on her watch and slapped her head,
"Oh my~ I'm off duty already? Gotta go bye."
With that, the woman disappeared, without offering any explanation.
Renko felt her leg twitch as a gust of unexpected cold air hit her bare calf, sending an uncomfortable chill up her thigh. Instinctively, she reached down to check for blood, but her hand encountered an unfamiliarly smooth fabric instead of the rough texture of her CGCP (Concrete Grid Camo Pattern) uniform.
She looked down and saw that she was not in combat gear; instead, she was wearing a loose cotton shirt and a dark pleated skirt. Worst of all, her boots were gone. She liked those boots. She had paid for them out of her own pocket.
At least her body was responding to neural impulses, in short, she could move again. But something was wrong. She felt significantly clumsier, quite a bit dull, and for some reason, a whole lot weaker. Her ears rang as loud noises came crashing down on them, car honks, people clamoring all around her, talking and shouting. She could almost see a headache on its way.
'Where am I?'
She heard what the lady said: the year 2015, and as she took in more and more details, it began looking like a textbook image of 2015. Tall buildings, lots of people, much clearer skies... it felt like one of those holographic theaters recruits liked to talk so much about. Of course, she never attended one in her 44 years of being alive, growing up in the army.
She tried walking and stumbled, wrong weight distribution. She tried again, taking four shaky steps, heading towards who knows where.
She suddenly stopped. Something caught her eye, something fast and heading her way. She tried to move, but it was too late. A baseball flew out from a nearby park, nailing her just above her ear. Renko staggered sideways, her ears beginning to ring.
A group of energetic high school kids wearing sports uniforms came running out in force, looking far too impressed by the shot to care that they had just hit someone,
"Did you see the ball?"
She didn't answer, nor did they wait to hear it, the ball was bouncing down the sideway and they rushed after it like a bunch of dogs playing fetch.
Renko ignored the slight throbbing of her head, she had been through worse, but somehow this time she felt the damage more keenly. Well, the pain wasn't the worst of the situation...
She felt exposed, stuck dab in the middle of the sidewalk. No ID, no cash, not even a receipt to prove she even existed in the first place. People were definitely starting to take notice, especially after the whole baseball fiasco.
"Right, I forget to give it to ya'."
The glowing woman appeared again, or, well, at least the top half of her. The floating torso should've freaked some people out by now, but none of them seemed to notice her.
"Here ya go, ta-da."
She tossed a beat-up duffle bag at Renko and chirped a goodbye before disappearing into nothingness. Renko blinked in confusion, the army did not train her for this bullshit.
The duffle bag was quite heavy, strangely heavy. She cautiously unzipped it, peering inside. It was a total mess - a couple of books, a PT tracksuit, a wallet, a pistol, two spare magazines, and a box of ammo. A couple of other things caught her eyes, namely a worn leather diary and a thin bundle of letters.
With a sigh, she took out the wallet, slung the duffle bag over her shoulder, and followed the park wall down the street. She flicked the waller open and saw a strange face staring back at her, it was a teenager. A teenager with silver hair, electric blue eyes, and thinly pursed lips. It was a picture of her own face from almost three decades ago, just slightly better fed and better clothed.
The picture was featured on a student ID belonging to one Renko Ivanovna, who was born in 1996 on January 1st and was 18 years old at the time the ID was formally printed. The ID also gave the name of the school, Katagiri Senior High, and the classroom, 3-1.
Other than the ID, the wallet also contained a couple of thousand yen, some coins, and a mirror. Who keeps a mirror in their wallet?
Renko hesitated, she knew she wasn't a looker. The last time she had looked into the mirror, it hadn't been a pretty sight. A jagged line of stitches ran from the corner of her right eye down to her jaw. Two patches of pitted skin replaced her cheeks, a souvenir from when a small caliber bullet tore past her mouth without hitting anything too important, her tongue was burned a bit of course, but that wasn't a big deal. The most disfiguring were the burn scars and patches of missing skin that marred the lower half of her face, back from her youth when she was still with the Mountain Guerrillas.
Still, she would have to see for herself. The time would come sooner or later, why not now? So she dared herself to look.
Nothing.
There was nothing on her face, no scars, no burns, no missing skin, no nothing. Just a plain old semi-albino teenager.
'Huh'
It was nice that she wasn't a child scaring hag anymore, but being a teenager was worse.
"So, Katagiri Senior High huh?"
Wait...
She looked up and saw the building right in front of her, 'Katagiri Senior High School.'
'Oh...'
Slightly curious to see if the ID was authentic or not, she headed towards the building, only letting up once when she noticed that the other girls were wearing the same outfit as her, white shirts and black skirts.
As she moved further past the gate, she became aware of an uncomfortable number of eyes being directed in her direction. There was the answer to one of her questions, she was a student now... some shit.
"Hey, are you a transfer student?"
A friendly voice called out from behind her.
Renko turned to see a girl with long, wavy chestnut brown hair, and big golden-brown eyes. Not to mention the girl stood above average in the height section compared to the rest of the students.
"Yes"
"Nice to meet ya', I'm Hori,"
The girl began introducing herself,
"If you need help finding your way around the school, just let me know."
Renko nodded,
"Thanks."
Moments later, she found herself standing before a glass panel with a receptionist on the other side of it, running her name through the school's student records. It would seem she had to register her details despite already having an ID, an odd system, but it helped avoid complications.
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