??????? POV

Main quest: Stop Fathers plans from coming into fruition.

Huh that seems relatively easy? I just have to stop my dad from doing something. But what? Then I feel a jarring stop as a notification pops up just as my sense of self starts to be sucked into the spiraling tube of consciousness.

Removing memories!

Error conflict of skill… memories not able to be removed. Rerouting… initiating separation procedure.

I feel myself splitting… but just as it starts it the pull lessons and I feel myself drifting off into unconciousness. When I finally come to, I feel the flood of memories of the past lives flooding my mind. They flit across my mind in a flash of… well disappointment. Having an outside perspective really puts everything in the last life in a different sort of light. I see his reasoning but also I can see where he started going wrong. So caught up in the moment he failed to see where it would lead him. I’ll… I will do my best to not end up like that. I don’t want to be as lonely as him… I’ll make sure to do it right this time.

The outside me starts coming too. I feel the pressure pushing me out. The bright light and the sting in my physical eyes as everything around me stings. The self in my mindscape is still processing the last life so I’m reeling from the overstimulation coming from both minds. Unseen Eye is already on but everything is a mess of blurry red and smeared goo. I hardly have the time to process everything around me with Unseen eye before I’m quickly cleaned off.

I feel the presence of many eyes all staring at me. I’m finally released from their rough cleaning to see people in various loose baggy clothes. They don’t look modern, more in style with what I can only assume 18th century eastern medicine looks like. The sounds around me all stop as everyone seems to stand at attention. A man walks in looking very important as the others around the room bow. I even see through my back as my new mother struggles her hardest to not make any sounds in the presence of this man. The attendant that holds me quickly moves me towards him for inspection almost using me as a shield in fear.

Shimada may have grown used to the extra senses from Unseen eye but suddenly seeing everything around me and being jostled around makes me hurl immediately on the important man. He strikes a well-built figure with a long fu Manchu and goatee that trails down to a golden silk shirt that has a gold dragon emblazoned upon it devouring the sun… Which I just vomited on… He immediately starts yelling something and several people seem to appear out of nowhere and all glare down at me. Several things are said directed at me in their language but… I don’t understand it yet.

They eventually relent and set me back down and my mother does not feed me until the man leaves and all of the other midwives follow him out. I hear her whispering small nothings into my ear as I eat… This life might be a little strange.

After eating my fill I’m taken by an attendant from outside to a crib away from my mother who looks like she’s holding back tears as I’m carried away… Okay I hope that’s not serious. At least I have the time to finally take a look at my status.

Name: ??????????

Titles: (empty), (empty)

Age: 0

Carried over skills: Rebirth, Mindscape, Unseen Eye, Treatment+

Health status 100/100

Afflictions: Jaundice, Chronic ear infection

Inventory: Empty, Empty, Empty

Current skills

Reading lvl 1 (Inborn skill) Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty Empty

Okay so my number of skills has increased again I feel like it’s safe to assume at this point that everything will just get a little bit better with each life. I have two empty slots for Titles and a seventh skill slot now. The interesting part is the new section labeled inventory. When I concentrate on it, I see a row of three empty boxes. Considering the name, I assume that it’s some form of storage. I don’t know how to place anything inside yet, but I’ll figure it out when I can actually walk around.

Next on the list of priorities I appear to have Jaundice, yellowing skin common in newborns, not deadly so long as I am properly hydrated and receive proper care. Likely one of the reasons why I was inspected upon being born. Hmm do they perhaps think I might have a disease of some sort? It would be bad if they decided to separate me to prevent infection in case of a disease. If I was a normal child it would probably lead to some messed up development. Eh oh well I’m… so freaking tired…

I wake up from a quick nap to an attendant wet nurse that’s wearing a mask standing there ready to feed me. Hmm shame it looks like they are treating me like a biohazard since they might not understand illnesses at this time. At least they are still feeding me rather than just leaving me to die. After she finishes feeding me she sits with rapt attention watching every little thing I do from a seat not far away.

Okay… a little creepy but that’s fine, I guess. I start to go through the skills of this world and… it’s odd. The largest outlier is one called Chi Manipulation. So, is this some sort of wuxia cultivation world or something? If so, then I definitely need that skill. So that’s an easy first skill choice.

Skill: Chi manipulation level 1

Description: Chi is level % easier to sense.

Not super helpful at level one but I’m sure once I level it up a bit, I’ll be able to interact with whatever Chi is eventually it'll help. In stories it’s like vitality energy, right? So, would that mean reading the natural flow of life in things? All that eastern medicine type stuff? I primarily studied modern medicine so hopefully I can apply what I know to this… does that mean that they believe in some ancient traditions? I’m not going to have to eat some dried up 1000-year-old mummified remains, am I? But Chi is a thing so would it actually be beneficial? Hmm well if they try to make me drink mercury, I’ll decline but something harmless I’ll at least keep an open mind.

God there is so much I don’t KNOW! I just want to figure it out. -sigh- but for now I need to wait around in this baby body… Whatever, if Haru and Shimada could deal with it so can I. I just have to look at what’s important. Development, learning and living a happy life… For now though I should probably read through the rest of these skills I don’t want to miss an important one…

An hour or so later.

Hmm most of the other skills are fairly normal like Haru's since I notice a distinct lack of any medium or spirit related skills. It also seems like a lot are missing or so far down the list that it’s apparent that they are very uncommon here. Considering writing is fairly low on the list I’m going to guess that public education is not a thing here. Then again, my parents apparently have servants so I may receive an education regardless so that’s a bonus… speaking of which, that masked wet nurse has not left this room or taken her eyes off me in like an hour… Thanks to Unseen Eye I can feel her gaze never even falter… does she even blink? It’ll probably be annoying to have to act like a normal kid when I’m constantly watched like this… Ehhh that’s a problem for when I’m not a baby. For now it’s just slightly creepy.

I’ll hold off on my other skills for now and I’ll try my best to learn as much as I can. Reading isn’t a terrible skill to start out with.

Skill: Reading level 1

Description: Improve reading speed by 2% per level.

It reminds me of the study skill that Haru had but a bit less specialized. With my memory it should help a bit with actually processing the knowledge rather than just taking a snapshot of the information into my brain. I can definitely see myself using it a lot with a whole new aspect of the universe opened up like whatever Chi is.

The next day.

My mental mind has finally finished digesting all of the information from the last two lives. Also, the woman that’s watching me is super human. She finally blinked after like three hours at least a meal was brought in for her after some time, so she still needs to eat but it seemed like an excessive amount of food for how small of a frame she has. I likely missed a few details since I fade in and out of consciousness a few times as my body is just not able to stay awake for long.

The mental download and dealing with all this tiredness might get a little annoying with more and more lives. Though I’m still a baby so it’s not like there is much I can do at the moment anyways.

Finally able to move in my mindscape I look around and see Haru meditating on the ground near the chair. Cracking an eye when I turn towards him.

“So how are you feeling? I hope the memories were not too overwhelming.” He stands up brushing some non-existent dust from his clothes.

I’m glad I’m not alone in all this. Being stuck as a baby alone after watching all of those memories would be… dark to deal with alone. I smile towards him. “Pretty decent just uh kind of disoriented still from the whole vision from every part of me thing. I watched all the memories, but I didn’t feel the vertigo from seeing them like I’m experiencing.”

This gets a small chuckle from Haru. “Ah well, you’re still just a couple days old. Give it time I’m sure you will master it eventually. I’ll admit, when I first watched some of Shimadas memories with that skill it was quite disorienting.” True I still have plenty of time as a baby to assess my current skills. Heck Unseen eye and Treatment aren’t even max level yet.

A serious glint comes to Haru’s eye. “Now… there is something that should be brought to your attention. While you were being made something happened out in the white space. Shimada and I have been trying to figure out what it is. Considering it arrived with you we figured you might have a better idea.” I was just born? I don’t really have much of my own experiences yet to offer my own opinions yet. Then again I just got the most recent refresh of both their memories so if any of us can think of something I guess it’d be me. I walk out into the white space with him. “What is it?”

He points off into the distance where a gray shape is. “A giant double doored gate. It has a bunch of writing and pictures on it but me and Shimada seem to disagree on what’s there.” As I walk up to it the distance rapidly closes at a rate that doesn’t really make sense… this space is so weird.

On two large doors there is an extreamly elaborate image of a small explosion surrounded by images and labels and so much… The writing and images are so small they look almost like spots from a distance. Running my hand over it I recognize all of it. Every little detail describing the cell structure of a cell membrane too the periodic table. There are so many details about so many different things that I have picked up over my lives all crammed onto these doors. Small images labeled with the parts then those parts sub labeled with their chemical composition. Long sequences of DNA that are common that I happened to have read from textbooks as parts of certain strains of diseases and neutral genetic markers used for identifying relations that I happened to have learned for a genetics course…

To sum it all up the door… it depicts life… everything I know about it. Every little detail that I understand about life of all kinds creation, the process of aging and division to the degradation and breaking down by bacteria and other microorganisms to return to the cycle to contribute towards another life… It’s kind of beautiful in a… messy kind of way. But why is it here?

I look towards Haru. “Any ideas on what it does? What do you see?”

“Shimada and I didn’t have the greatest samples. I see a memorial of my family it’s a little odd because Saeko is pregnant in the image despite all of our children being present. Outside the village there is also what looks like the process of Takashi becoming a zombie over various stages before rotting to bones.” Hmm so he sees the village that he spent most of his life in. The things he cared about and fought for. Takashi also never became a zombie… so it’s not showing facts or memories.

“Okay… What about Shimada?”

“He sees graves of himself and every person he’s killed. Underneath a sun on that island, he spent so long on… His family was all there too with the blank form of his unknown sibling held in their arms. Along with a younger Miho by their side. He was upset seeing them there and stormed off into his own section of the space out here…” Hmm the place he spent all his life and what he focused on as his goal…

“Huh… I think. I think I’m almost a blank slate… but since I just had both of your biological knowledge downloaded into my mind my understanding of life isn’t about family and friends. Or revenge it’s just what I learned from the memories… just facts that I’ve learned…” I run my hand over the tiny writing and images there.

“I see every little piece of life that I understand from the knowledge that I’ve gathered from both of your lives all arranged into an explosion from an origin. Like the big bang.” My hand tracing up to the middle where it all starts… the center of the explosion which is the only real empty spot on the door.

Right as my hand starts to press in on the clear spot in the center my arm I’m pulled out of my thought by Haru. “I think it’s best if you don’t attempt to open the door yet… there is still much to learn about this world. Before we mess with the unknown.” I pull my hand back like I’d touched a stove top. Right this world operates on different rules… I shouldn’t be too hasty messing with things that I don’t know.

“You’re right… Maybe leaving the weird door thing inside our mind alone for now is a good idea. Who knows it might be some weird defense against something in the world that I’d be inviting into my mind.” Haru nods seriously… then stops to consider a few things.

“You joke but we should be more serious about considering that. If Chi is real what else could be? Perhaps I should start looking into more of the old fiction we used to read and consider our options.” That doesn’t sound bad.

“Good idea… I’ll also be adding a lot more reading material from this life! So hopefully we can find something.” I give a thumbs up. For the first time a really look at my hands… they are made up of gray dust still. I haven’t even really identified with my body yet. Ha, still a spirit and already I’m thinking of solutions that the old geezer hadn’t considered.

“When you have the time… perhaps we should start sparing. I know that I withheld my help from Shimada but… I’ll make sure to be for you this life. I don’t want you to suffer for my mistake like Shimada did.” He holds out his hand and I take it. Sounds like these baby years won’t be so boring after all.