The house was small.

It was so small it felt more like a 4.5 tatami room. The floor consisted of hard-packed dirt and there was a cold fire pit in corner. In another corner, there was a moderately sized straw matt which Kotori assumed was the bed. There were a few ratty blankets on it, but the living conditions were quite plebian.

Kotori's father gently set her down and began to start a fire. He went outside to grab some firewood from the pile outside and once he brought a few logs back inside. He pulled out a small knife and a piece of flint.

Her father had little difficulty in starting the fire and eventually turned a cold lifeless firepit into a roaring flame. Kotori scooched closer to the flame. The heat was nice, especially since the house was very cold. The dirt sucked the heat from Kotori’s body. There was a slight chill in the air, and the warmth that came from the flame was a welcome pushback.

Kotori sat by the fire and warmed her hands. Her thoughts drifted

[well this sucks].

It was rather apparent that in this world farmers were not particularly wealthy based on her observations.

[Not that I could've expected that much] She thought

Kotori once again cursed the fact that she had not saved any karma for her reincarnation. If she had even saved a little, she would've been able to have a more comfortable life. She could’ve reincarnated as a hero again instead of this miserable experience.

[How am I supposed to resolves this]

She began to reflect on her negative karma stat. She had to do something to get it back up to at least 0 Karma or else she would be squashed.

"Is something wrong Kotori?" a masculine voice interrupted her thoughts.

Kotori was snapped out of her rumination by her father who was giving her an extremely concerned look.

"Just tired I guess," She said absentmindedly replying.

She couldn’t really tell him about the thoughts she was having. Kotori was a unique case among souls. She somehow managed to keep her memories. Her father, on the other hand, wouldn't even understand what she was talking about is she tried to explain it.

"If you're so tired you should rest on the bed," he said trying to be helpful. Sato Hikki didn’t know what was causing his daughter to be so glum.

Kotori, who wasn't tired at all went to bed and pretended to sleep. At the very least it would give her an excuse to think more about how to regain her karma back.

[How do I get more people to love me] She thought

Kotori had to think big, really BIG. For most people, living a life of virtue and honesty would be enough karma for their next reincarnation, but in Kotori's case just living a virtuous life wasn't enough. She had to do something massive that would benefit the whole world. In her previous life, she had managed to solve a cancer-like disease and resolve most of the world's hunger issues with brilliant inventions and knowledge. But based on the technology she's seen so far, she didn't believe that recreating those technologies in this world would be feasible. Plus, she wasn't even sure if the laws of physics would work in the same way, or if the biologies of humans in this world were the same.

[Man, this is really going to be difficult]

She began to wrack her head. For one, she didn't even know how karma accumulation works. Based on the small drop she had earlier it seems to be a linear system. But she didn't understand how certain actions were judged. For example, if by helping one person she hurt another would that still rewarded with a karma increase? Or would the net gain be zero? What if she ordered someone to help another. Would her karma value go up? Or the person she ordered to do the act be the one to gain the karma instead?

As she laid on the scratchy straw bed, Piles of questions began to swirl in her head. So many questions that she almost felt like her head was overheating from all the thinking she had to do. She put a hand to her forehead, and it felt feverish, but she soon realized that it was just the side effect of the small house being warmed up by the fire.

"I'm back dear"

Her thoughts were interrupted by another voice and she turned her head towards the doorway and saw a rather plain woman holding a small boy. The woman's hair was the same dirty blonde as Kotori's and her facial features were western. She wasn’t a beauty by any stretch of the imagination, but she was also not ugly. By a simple process of elimination, Kotori assumed that this woman was her "Mother"

"Welcome back dear!" Her father walked up to the woman and gave her an enthusiastic hug.

"Papa you're squishing me" the boy who was now trapped in their embrace was protesting while trying to escape.

"Oh, sorry about that Ryuji" Father said and tousled the boy's hair before letting him go.

Once free of his father's embrace the boy scampered up to me.

"Oneechan! look what I found today" He outstretched a dirty hand

Kotori looking into her brother's hand and saw what could only be described as a pile of dirt

"Dirt?" She said confused

"It's not dirt!" He said moving his hand agitating the pile

"Hey wake up!" he said poking the pile of dirt with his fingers

Kotori watched in amazement as she saw the dirt shudder and move. Eventually, the pile shaped itself into what resembled a mouse.

"It's a dirt spirit!" he said excitedly "You can talk to spirits right!"

I can?

She thought back to the [Spirit Seer Skill she had].

[Is this a spirit]

She didn't even know what a spirit was, and watching a pile of dirt shape itself into a mouse and begin to move was already defying her typical human understandings of what was possible in the first place.

[I guess I might as well test my skill] She thought

"Hello?"

Kotori was surprised to realize that when she tried to speak to the spirit, the message didn't come out of her mouth but instead felt more like she was mentally projecting words from her mind.

The dirt mouse looked at her and she suddenly felt a strong feeling of ravenous hunger mixed with slight fear. She was confused for a moment before realizing the feeling was coming from the mouse. Apparently, it was communicating through feeling rather than words.

"Are you hungry?" she asked

The mouse stared her in the eyes and once again Kotori was awash with that same feeling of  ravenous hunger again

"What you want to eat," she asked again

the mouse gestured to the pile of ashes near the fire.

Gently taking the mouse from her brother's hand she brought the mouse over to the fire. It began to chew on the piece of charred wood ash. After several bites, it stopped and then looked at her again.

Kotori felt awash with a sense of fullness and contentment. She took this to assume the now full mouse was happy.

"Status" she whispered testing the skill once more

 

Simple Dirt Spirit

Race: [Spirit] Age: 1

HP: 5

Mana: 1

Agility: 1

Strength: 1

Defense: 1

Karma: 10

Skills: none

Traits: [Minor Earth Spirit]

 

Kotori realized that this spirit was a little more than a child. And thus, which probably explained why it communicated more like a baby. Although, Kotori was also unsure if that was the correct assumption to make since she had never really met an adult spirit anyway.

"Look the spirit is eating!" Her brother exclaimed

Startled by this, the spirit jumped into the dirt near the fire pit and disappeared

"Hey! where'd he go!"

Watching the dirt spirit he had worked so hard to catch suddenly disappear greatly upset her “brother”

"Oneechan, you scared it away!" his eyes began to water

"When I worked so hard to catch it too..." and then he started to wail.

Kotori was unsure what to do, in her past life she was bad at dealing with children and this situation was no different.

He mother saved her from this impending tantrum

"Hey hey, Ryuji, no need to be mad you'll have plenty of time to catch more, come here let mama hug you," Her mother said, opening her arms inviting her brother into an embrace.

Kotori sighed in relief.

Ryuji ran over to his mother and began to cry into her arms

"Baka-Oneechan," he said crying into his mother's arms

"No need to be like that I'm sure your sister didn't mean to let it go, and besides you weren't really expecting to keep that little spirit forever were you?" Her mother comforted Ryuji

Kotori who had been an only child in her previous life was now learning the meaning of having siblings.

[Gabriel, I now can't complain but couldn't you have given me a less bratty little brother] She pleaded internally

She sighed, knowing that her path to a happy reincarnation was going to be a long one indeed.