Abandoned Reincarnation

Chapter 1 – After Being Abandoned, I Realized That I Had Reincarnated

First Arc: Beginnings

Proofread by FlawFinder

It’s cold. It hurts. It’s painful…

I think I might have fallen off a cliff…

The pain is running all over my body; my limbs are numb; the towering cliffs above me are… Hazy.

Will I die here? 

This life was… Way too short.

I was born in a poor rural village. Each day I helped my father with work until I could no longer stand up on my own.

I could only eat small meals before going to bed each day, but… Even with this kind of daily life, I was still happy.

But things changed when I became ten years old.

In this village, once every year, they gather all children that are ten years old and perform a ritual to check their magical aptitude.

They use special stones that react to magical power and find out what the elements one can use are and how much magical power they have within them.

Children who have a good magical aptitude are then sent to the nearby town in order to use their power for their families and for the village. They become adventurers while they practice their magic.

They’re still children, so they can’t earn much money with this work though. Not to mention that many can’t even succeed as adventurers and end up never returning home.

Still, the village is incredibly poor, so the people here had no choice but to count on the income brought by their adventurer children in order to survive.

Both my older brother and older sister support my family as adventurers, so my parents were praying that I’d get good results at the ritual. So that I could become an adventurer and obtain a better life.

But the results were terrible.

I did have magical aptitude alright. I could easily handle the basic elements of fire, water, wind and earth. In fact, I could even use the special elements of lightning, ice and light.

… But I had a miniscule amount of magical power inside me. No matter how good your magical aptitude is, it’s useless if you have no magical power.

A girl that cannot handle a sword nor use magic could not be an adventurer. The path to my parents’ dream was crushed.

When I saw how depressed my parents were at this, I decided to do my best to help them. I wanted to reward my beloved parents in whatever way I could.

But reality was ruthless. My parents, who found me useless, dumped me in the woods.

I couldn’t understand it at first. I kept asking myself why I was abandoned. Had I done something wrong?

I thought my parents loved me, but apparently that was just a delusion.

When I realized the truth in front of me, I started crying. Throughout the day and the night, I just kept on crying.

I tried wandering through the forest to get back to my parents, but no matter where I moved to, I could not reach the village.

Before long, my body started hurting from rubbing too much against the tree branches. My legs started swaying because I was hungry, and it became harder and harder to keep moving.

Then, unfortunately, as a result of wandering around while barely being conscious, with my sight being blurred out by my tears… I fell off a cliff.

My legs are hurting a lot… I tried moving them, but that just made them ache even more. I might have broken a bone.

I was too tired, too hungry… I didn’t want to move my body anymore.

I just… Managed to turn my body around, so that I could lie on my back and look up at the sky.

The sky was of a bright blue right now. Is it around noon time, perhaps?

In the past, I would have forgotten when the break time rolled around and kept on focusing on my research, so I either missed lunch or had a colleague poke me about how I was supposed to go eat.

Even then, I sometimes replied that I would go soon, but still remained so absorbed in the research that I forgot about eating anyways.

… Wait, hold on, what was that just now? Research? Colleague? I’m just a ten years old girl born in a poor rural village. I never did any research.

I also did have some friends, but I never had any colleagues… What’s happening to me?

Calm down… Deep breaths… Who am I?

I’m Haku. Just a girl who grew up in a remote village.

That’s who I should be… However, the image of some other person keeps coming to my mind.

Haruno Byakuya. A man on his thirties who was a researcher at a major medicine-development company. That is who I am.

… No, no, no. This is strange. Way too strange. I’m supposed to be me, but I’m somehow a mixture of two? Just what is this feeling? What am I remembering?

Did I… Recall the memories that I forgot? Did the impact of falling off a cliff do that?

Though it’s strange that I, a ten years old girl, am somehow having memories of a thirty years old man.

… Perhaps because I remembered a small fragment of those memories, but now more memories started coming one after another.

Earth… Japan… I was hit by a car…

After experiencing a headache-inducing eruption of memories, I could finally process everything and understand my situation.

I seem to have reincarnated. I lived in Japan, a country of Earth, within my previous life.

I died after being hit by a car, and after that I was reborn as Haku in my current world.

The headache became even more intense after coming to terms with all that.

And at the same time, a slight amount of shame started to well up in me. Although I was born a girl in this world, my previous life was that of an adult man, so… The things I have done without any discomfort so far are now plaguing my mind.

I wanted to hold my head down in shame, but I couldn’t put any force onto my body to make this kind of sudden move.

… This is not the time to think about this kind of thing. Getting out of this predicament is my top priority.

Let’s clear my head and analyze the situation.

I fell off a cliff. I may have been lucky enough to survive, but I broke my leg, so I can’t move properly.

Moreover, I’m extremely hungry and will starve to death in a few days if I don’t eat anything soon.

I also have a severe headache… Yeah, this is a pretty serious condition.

Nothing starts if I can’t move though.

I forced myself to sit up. The pain was tremendous, and I had to use one of my hands as support in order to not fall back down, but I somehow managed to endure it.

And now, I was finally able to take a look at my surroundings.

I was at a very beautiful place. Dark-green flowers grew all over it, and a stream flowed here from somewhere.

I should be in a forest, but as far as I can see, there aren’t that many trees here. It feels as if I’m in a meadow.

It’s certainly nice to see the sunlight shining through this empty sky, and to feel the gentle breeze caress my cheeks.

I didn’t know there was such a beautiful place within this forest.

However, I cannot afford to admire the scenery right now.

I looked around, searching for something that could be used. 

There were mostly flowers growing near me, but there were also a handful of herbs. And I could recognize one of them.

“This is a medicinal herb…” I muttered.

This was not the first time I entered the forest. Although I never went into its deeper parts, I still went inside it a fair amount of times to gather herbs.

This herb was very similar to the one that I often collected. This one was larger and greener than the one I was used to, but it should still be a medicinal herb used to cure wounds.

With this, I may be able to do first aid…

I tried reaching out to it, but… I couldn’t lift my arm.

I didn’t understand why at first, but after looking at it, I saw that the area just above my elbow had a large gash at it, and blood was flowing freely.

I now noticed that my arm was growing cold… This is bad, I need to stop this bleeding as soon as possible.

However, my other hand is supporting my body, so I can’t move it.

This is so frustrating. That herb is right in front of me, but I can’t reach it… Can’t I somehow pull it closer?

I really wish I could use the Storage skill at a time like this…

Storage allows one to store an infinite amount of items inside a pocket space. It’s a skill that allows merchants and adventurers to take items in and out of it at any time.

It’s extremely useful and makes carrying things around much more convenient.

And its range allows one to pick up items that the caster can see and that are within 3-4 meters of them.

This herb is within my arm’s reach, so it should be no problem to get it with this skill, but… It’s a very rare skill, so there’s no way I should be able to use it.

Some skills can be obtained if one satisfies certain conditions, but I don’t know the pre-requisites to obtain the Storage skill, so that’s irrelevant to me.

… This kind of knowledge should feel normal to me, but right now I can’t help feeling like it’s very similar to a game. 

I suppose it must be the fault of my past-life’s memories. That life had neither magic nor skills, so I suppose it’s a given for me to think that this world gives off the feeling of a game.

Never mind that. I don’t have time to think about this kind of dreamy scenario where I have the Storage skill. If I don’t think of something quickly, then that will be my end.

I can’t feel my feet any longer, and the bleeding on my arm is pretty bad. I really need to somehow get those herbs.

… Huh?

When I looked at the place the herbs should be, there was nothing there.

Or rather, the other herbs were still there, but not the medicinal herbs I took note of… How?

It can’t be…

Just to make sure of it, I imagined myself taking out the medicinal herbs from within a bag.

… When I did that, those same medicinal herbs appeared on top of my usable hand.

“Seriously…?” I muttered.

Apparently, I can use Storage, somehow.

Wait, no, how did that happen? Did I hit my head and go crazy?

Well, I already remembered memories of my previous life, so I suppose I might be crazy already…

Ah, no, it doesn’t matter. First priority is first aid. The rest can wait.

The herbs were on top of my hand, but that hand was holding my body in place, so I couldn’t move it, or I’d fall on my back again.

Slowly… Carefully… Painfully… I laid my back against the cliff. Now I could use my hand freely.

I moved the herbs to my mouth and chewed on them.

Ugh, it’s bitter… Endure it. Endure it, this herb’s juice is effective, so this can’t be helped.

I used my mouth to rub the juice on my wounded arm. It felt terrible, it hurt, it was wet… But I had to do it. I had to handle this.

Now, tie up the wound with some leaves to stop the bleeding… This will be enough for now.

I’m tired… Sleepy…

Perhaps because I wasn’t very strong in the first place, but I fainted as soon as I stopped the bleeding, as soon as I relaxed a bit, just a small bit…