I woke up in a forest, sitting on the wet grass with my back resting on a tree.
"Huh? Where am I? why does the back of my head hurt so much?" I asked the heavens quietly.
"You fell on your butt fighting an Arvo, stupid, you're lucky you didn't hurt your head too much" I heard from my right side.
(AN: I'm not very creative so I'll just borrow words from my mother language for monster names and change them a bit, sorry… in this case Arvo-Arnav-Bunny)
What's an Arvo? I fell? Fighting? Huh?
My eyes widened realizing I heard a voice and I looked at its origin, seeing a beautiful crimson-haired girl "Who are yo.."
The image of her sparked something in my head.
"Ugh, my… head…" I've put the palm of my hand on my forehead, closed my eyes, trying to pull myself through the pain while memories foreign to me flood my mind.
I opened my eyes a bit and saw the girl running towards me, but I closed them again to lessen the sensory overload.
A few minutes fly by and my head stopped hurting but I didn't want to alert the girl, let's fake it a little bit more and figure out what's going on.
Did I seriously reincarnate? Oh man, I always wanted to do that. But wait, looking at this guy's memories, this world is even more backward than the usual worlds the heroes reincarnate to.
But hell, I'm not one of those smart guys that can turn a wasteland into a leading kingdom, isn't it quite a waste for a god to reincarnate me?
Ooh, maybe my body got donated to study humans in some VR lab and now I'm a brain in a jar connected to a computer or something? I think I might have signed one of those organ-donation cards. Wait no, no, it's not the time to be excited about sci-fi stuff, I doubt that's what happened. we don't have computers for simulations such as this in 2019 as far as I know, this is too real…
Maybe souls are a real thing? is this guy me from my next-eh-current life? No clue… let's figure out why I'm in a forest with this girl.
Oh, my name's Shiki, I'm 15. Her name's Silla, she's 16.
Ugh, this oblivious bastard, how didn’t you figure out yet that she likes you? Why would she follow you running away from the village otherwise? Well, she has her reasons as well, but it's still kind of easy to figure out…
I might have been worse than you in my past life while being your age, but well, I read some novels since then and can figure things out a bit better now.
Forget that. going back to this morning. The 16-year-olds' marriage ceremony was today. Basically, at age 13, the tribe's children start attending training for 3 years. The boys learn hunting, survival, and fighting while the girls learn gathering, crafting, knitting, and some more. At 16, all the children marry their assigned partners the same day, and they don't have much power to affect the choice of partner.
So, this hot-headed kid, saw the girl he had a crush on, smiling while marrying another man and wanted to escape the tradition, he didn't like having his life partner chosen for him, he wanted to live by his own choices. He didn't even know why it hurt him so much, he didn't even talk with her that much before. He still had a year left until his own marriage ceremony, and she, his crush, was already married. With his body screaming for him to leave and his heart heavy, he snuck out of the gathering hall, went to his adoptive parents' house, took his stuff in his training bag with all the necessities and armed himself with his weapon. He wrote a note for his adoptive parents, left the house, snuck by the patrols he was taught of, and neared the forest, there, he heard her voice.
"Where are you going frowning like that?", Shiki jumped, his eyes widening.
"Who's that?" he asked quivering, tension holding his body, he couldn't handle the reaction of his parents finding out about him intending to leave.
"You don’t recognize me now? Nice, very nice, I'll remember that", Silla came out from behind a tree to his front, saying. Her brows furrowed to a frown and aura of a strong woman came out of her.
She resembled a rose, a beautiful red flower, with a stem full of thorns. Her body slender and fit, her chest developing, her hair crimson red and her eyes emerald green. She had some tan as she was in hunter training with the boys, but that didn't ruin her charm at all.
Why was she in hunter training? Well… the girl… didn't bleed. Most of the girls start to bleed at 13 years, but she, did not. The other girls thought she was strange for not bleeding and as such didn't get too close to her. The village chief had let her join the boys' training too so she could maybe get along with the boys and join hunting missions. The boys didn't consider her a possible marriage partner, and even if they did, they knew the village controls their partners. She couldn't bear children, so the village didn't mind letting her join the risky job of hunting. She didn't get a partner for marriage either, even though she was 16.
Shiki finding out it was her, breathed out, his tension lessening, "What brings you here Silla?"
Her cheeks reddened after his question, but he didn't notice, he heard her saying with a somewhat unconfident tone, "It… It doesn't matter… why I'm here… why are you here?"
"Eh… eh…ehm… I'm trying to find…" not noticing her strange tone, his eyes darted around looking for something to say.
Silla frowned again, "Tell me the truth! There's no need to lie, I'm not stupid, it looks like you're going on a long journey."
"Err……I'm…well…you win. I'm leaving the tribe, please don't stop me, I don't want to stay here." Shiki's eyes cleared and confidence showed in them.
"You're admitting it so easily, and ready to leave me without even saying a thing…" Silla whispered after tilting her head away from him so he won't hear. Tears threatening to come out.
She recollected herself, looked at him and confidently said, "I'm coming with you."
"Coming with me? What? You are not trying to stop me? Wait, what do you mean coming with me?"
"Got a problem with that? We both know I can beat you in less than 5 moves, and I'm ready to leave too."
"Eh…", Shiki's eyes widened 'I've no way to retort, she's indeed stronger, she's one year older and knows skills the girls were taught too… she can definitely help me while not being dead weight…'
He didn't want her to get hurt, he didn't know why but the thought of that made him scared. 'she's a good friend, she's important to me', he thought. He wanted her to change her mind. The village would at least protect her. he didn't know if he'll return after this trip, or if he'd be eaten even before wishing to return.
"Why?" he asked, half confused, half wishing her to reconsider.
"Why do I have to tell you my reasons?" She asked with a face filled with contempt.
He froze for a bit, sighed and said, "I don't know if I'll be able to return, I might even die on my journey. I don't even know where I'm going, do you still want to join me…?", his tone strangely soft.
"It's not like a better future awaits me here…" she said with a crestfallen face, layers hidden in her words.
"Is it because you don't blee…" he stopped his words, seeing her almost cry.
He didn't want to see her cry and didn't mind her company. They were each other's closest friends in the hunting group, he might even like her accompanying him. He thought it would be less lonely at least.
"Ah… I'm sorry… well… welcome aboard I guess…" Shiki tried to put on a fake smile, he was not used to seeing her in this state. He failed miserably but she didn't mind.
"Thanks" her face sharpened and she turned her head toward the woods, away from him. A soft smile stretched on her face, 'I won't let you get away from me', she said to herself while her moist eyes shined like emeralds.
********
Shiki had other reasons to leave as well… his mother died when he was 3. His father, unable to handle the grief, escaped one day into the forest with no one knowing why. That was what he heard at least. But he knew that this wasn't right. He heard the tales of his father, he was heroic, he was strong, he was brave. Fear was not in his father's lexicon and Shiki was sure he could handle grief in a better way. But Shiki knew of a possible reason for his father's leaving. With no attachments besides the son that won't remember him anyway, he left to check the forest after the blue clouds.
You might ask yourself, what were those blue clouds? Well basically, somewhere around the time I was born in, a huge blue mushroom cloud appeared somewhere in the forest.
Afraid of its effects on the forest, my dad probably volunteered to check it out. He didn't want me to worry about it, so he probably told the village chief to spread that other version around in case he died without coming back.
If we're already here, I might as well find our dad, Shiki, I told myself, feeling sorry for my other half.
And while at it, I'll help this lovestruck girl to myself, I mean our self. Shiki you stupid ****, I think you liked this girl too, why did you friendzone her? Never mind, I'll help you both. I don't care about her not bleeding, my childish self is not ready for a family anyway, and this girl is perfect for my tastes. She's caring(well, maybe a bit of a stalker, but not too harmful even so) and loyal, she tries to be strong, she's beautiful, and she's interesting. Yes, she's perfect for me.
Ah, I've been thinking enough, let's greet her… eh… I feel something leaning on my right and shaking a bit, I look back and see her, she's crying, sniffling and mumbling something.
"Why is he like this, should I take him to the village? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know…", she mumbled before feeling my movement, she lifted her head, saw me looking at her and stared back at me, tears in her eyes and her cheeks wet.
"Eh, I wasn't…", She tried to get up while wiping her tears but I've turned to her and hugged her tightly not letting her finish her words.
"I'm fine, you don't need to cry anymore". She was still shocked by my sudden hug but relaxed after a few seconds and started to cry again while returning my hug.
"It's okay, it's okay", I pat her back caringly.
Oh shit, I did it again, I used to do this with my mom when I saw her sad, hugs are a nice remedy for sadness and stress in my opinion. I guess Shiki's feelings are shared with me because I feel very comfortable with Silla, enough to do this at least.
I was quite a shy guy myself in my past life, I'd never feel that comfortable with girls as beautiful as Silla unless we were close friends. But here's my second chance I guess, let's try making this one better.
I won't be a virgin in this life! *reincarnated soul cries in corner*
Well, that's not important now.
I'm, erm… in a kid's body. Inside a dangerous forest, with another kid. Perhaps I should go back…?
Is a 16-year-old considered a kid? I died at 21, it was legal in my country… stop, that's not important!
Nah, I don't want to, I agree with the previous owner, I also don't like what they have in the village and I'd like to look for 'my' father as well… they don't seem to care for him too much, adoptive mother probably agreed with father's suggestion and didn't want to risk sending search parties after him…
I lived a boring life last time, and I don’t mind getting killed… At least I think I don't…? well, we'll find about that later I guess… maybe I should try asking Silla to go back again?
"Erm, Shiki, could you release me please?", she said awfully politely while blushing slightly, cutting my line of thought.
I froze. "Ah, yeah, yeah, sorry…", I released her quickly, somewhat timidly while at it.
Yeah, I think I might not lose my virginity in this life either… a smooth guy might continue hugging her tightly saying something like 'no, I won't let you go until you say you're fine and I'll believe you' while waiting for her to squirm for release anxiously saying 'I'm fine! I'm fine! Let me go' while blushing. Meh, never mind, It's not like I was a player in my last life, no need for such expectations from myself. I always thought that I'm a little like the Japanese herbivores from my last life. they don't really hit on women and I didn't try much in my past life either. Well, I was probably more of a coward than them but it's fine as long as I try to change a little bit, right?
Who am I asking anyway? It's my second chance! I'll decide!
"Hey what are you staring into space for again?", she said angrily while standing above me.
I looked up, and then a bit lower, 'nice legs she has there, ah I wish her clothes wouldn't block my view', stop, stop, we're in the middle of a dangerous forest!
'Oh yeah, two teenagers alone in the middle of a forest' I heard the devil whisper to me.
'You horny piece of shit, control that libido of yours', I screamed in my mind
It seems like my libido followed me here, dammit. Is it bad though?
I shook my head and returned to reality, "Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up".
I picked up my weapon from the ground, checked there's nothing around and said, "We should prepare the Arvo and take it with us, no?"
"Let's eat here, it's quite open here so we'll be able to see a bit further when night comes. We'll also not need to carry it around for no good reason"
"Yeah, sure, you're right", I said after thinking about it for a bit.
I was a city boy in my last life after all, and she had one year over me in training In this life. My memory didn't fuse completely too.
We skinned the Arvo and took out its entrails. They were not edible… it looked somewhat like a bunny but was as big as a medium-sized dog. Those front teeth might not be fangs but you'd still feel them.
We put up a small fire like we were taught, we made it small so our fellow villagers won't find us as quickly and we'll have some light for the night. It was getting dark already after we finished preparing the Arvo, the fire, and ourselves. Being in the open forest at night without light sounds like a bad idea too.
`Nom Nom Nom`.
"That's really good! did you learn cooking with the girls? You even brought seasoning"
'What an angel! This stupid kid didn't even think about that'
"Yeah I thought you'd forget tha…", she stopped talking after figuring out she said too much and blushed.
I chuckled a bit and said, "Thank you", while smiling a bit, she looked my way and turned again. Oh, she's blushing furiously, so cute, perhaps my smile charmed her? Or was it the fact she was caught? Maybe both, I've got no idea, my smile was kind of cool though, or so I thought… Why am I feeling so confident all of a sudden? I'm kind of sad I'm so laughable, never mind.
Is it mean if I smiled somewhat knowing she might get charmed? Well… even so, my smile was honest, so don't judge me. It's not like I plan to use her. She seems to like Shiki, Shiki liked her(as a friend), and I think I'd like her too(not necessarily as a friend). With some time at least. It was kind of hard for me to develop feelings in my last life.
"I'll watch for the first part of the night", I said, "is it fine with you?"
"Yeah, sure, wake me up if something happens, or when my shift is up…"
"Alright" I confirmed with a confident face. I was kind of nervous inside, Shiki and my body is somewhat used to the sight of gore and killing but I'm half city-boy inside, I hope I'll manage to not die the first night out.
Alas, I spoke too soon.
I heard a rustle a couple of hours in.
