He Zhi awoke upside down and strapped to a tree by a thick rope. He tried to look around, but his mobility was limited. He saw familiar people such as Kuroda and the Frogling girls as well as his nieces and nephews. Unfortunately, they were all tied up as well.

Even though his was flipped around, He Zhi could make out that smoky smell that plagued his nostrils. As he grew accustomed to the situation, He Zhi noticed the three Sects surrounded by cloaked members of the Immortal Cauldron Sect. In the center of the group was the other animals, cowering in fear behind their new friends’ backs.

Unfortunately, everyone was pretty much on edge and a few brawls happened amongst the Apprentices every now and then. One of the Immortal Cauldron Sect members walked forward, placing a holodisc on the ground. A decrepit excuse for a human appeared who seemed like an ancient skeleton come back to life.

“You! So you are the one who killed my grandson! I am one of the Elders of the Immortal Cauldron Sect. And you are going to die today!”

He Zhi would have normally been calm and calculating since he had an amazing power, but without it, he could do nothing but fret and worry.

But he wasn’t worrying about himself, he was worrying about his family. Fortunately, it seemed that the Cauldron Sect members were there to make sure the other Sects didn’t interfere. The bad part was what was going to happen to the others? Why were they tied up as well?!

Soon, he heard groaning sounds and saw Kuroda shifting under her constraints. She quickly broke them with her amazing strength and attacked the nearby Mages!

“You meanies! Leave us alone!”

The leader of the Cauldron members threw several vials but none seemed to have an effect, even the sleeping gas. Apparently, Kuroda had already built an immunity to it. She struck down the many people and removed He Zhi’s bindings to free him.

Instead of running or fleeing, he instead landed on the ground with a thud that surprised Kuroda and the others. The girls quickly woke up and released themselves as well, attacking the nearby enemies. Their abilities rivaled the siblings and Hu Lao only because they had absorbed more threads into their body.

The other three Sects were about to get involved when He Zhi heard something that made his blood drain. He saw a hologram of the Sect Master of the Terror Sect.

“Stop, don’t interfere. If we get into an altercation with the Immortal Cauldron Sect, we would not be able to receive the items we want to purchase. Leave.”

“But Uncle, what about He Wu’s brother?!”

“Leave him.”

He Zhi looked up to see He Wu about to storm over in his direction while people clashed all around.

“He Wu, stop! What has your brother ever done for you?”

Hearing the old man’s voice, He Wu was angry at first before he actually thought about it. Then he realized that it was because of his brother that he was able to be humanoid and strong, but the Twisting Terrors Sect helped him utilize that strength and teach him how to actually fight.

He Zhi didn’t do that. He showed his siblings something and left them to survive, even pushing them away when they had annoyed him.

He Wu was visibly confused, but He Zhi noticed He Wu looking at the other members of the Terror Sect. Finally, He Wu returned to Darius’ side.

And Lily went back to Sandra’s side. Hu Lao was about to leave but then realized her predicament.

She was sent off by her grandfather to learn from He Zhi, however, he did nothing to teach her. In fact, he tried to get away from her on multiple occasions.

Only Little Sister rushed over, dodging through the mass of people to reach He Zhi.

This sparked a strange emotion within He Zhi, as he could realize that Little Sister thought of him as important. This caused He Zhi to stand up, albeit wobbly, but he still tried to reach Little Sister. Just as they were about to grasp each other’s hands, several small darts approached them.

Without any warning, Little Sister sent a gust of wind towards both the darts and He Zhi. But the darts were magical items, which meant that it would require more force to stop them. He Zhi was thrown out of the way and got up just in time to see Little Sister get impaled by several small needle like blades into her body.

Seeing his sister die before his eyes, he went mad again. All he had on him was the Ice Saber, but he would use it to the best of his ability!

He Wu looked on, disgusted with himself. When he saw another of his siblings die in front of him, he remembered the pain he felt.

He also remembered the pain he felt when He Zhi had accidently hit him back at the small pond. To this day, the small pond was restructured to look like a hyotan sake gourd. Of course, He Wu wouldn’t know what that was, but He Zhi had recognized it when he saw it.

When He Wu had witnessed his Elder Brother become so strong, he was actually afraid. He became traumatized and even became more of a servant to his own brother out of fear and necessity.

But then he remembered what had happened immediately after He Zhi woke up. To have gone through all of that for him, He Wu changed his mind and joined the fight. Lily followed, but Hu Lao stayed still. She had managed to see her family fly off to safety, so she had no ties to the situation.

Instead, she watched as her associates died one after another. She never really felt joy or happiness from being beside these frogs, especially since they killed both of her brothers and made her into this freak.

He Ya tried to support her friends but got overwhelmed when no one was nearby to save her. She got tired too quickly and fell, an acidic vial smashing into her face, dissolving it to a liquid mess.

He Yu couldn’t keep up either and soon ran out of energy after summoning so many water and wind drills. A strange seed was shot at her and started to absorb her strength, and eventually her life. She fell, a dry husk of what she was before.

He Yi and He Huan both kept fighting, but soon fell, daggers sticking out of both their guts or necks. They also had strange marking spreading from their wounds, a sure sign of poison affecting their blood streams.

Someone was about to strike Lily, but He Wu blocked it, using his fighting prowess to compete directly. Unfortunately, he was not used to fighting dishonorable opponents. He had several needles sticking from his arms and Lily kept trying to heal him, but the poison was too fast.

He Zhi was using the Ice Saber to cut down enemy after enemy, but he was only surviving thanks to the negative emotion that filled everyone who was near him. He tried working his way over to his brother and sister when He Wu slumped over and Lily was decapitated in one fell swipe.

He wanted to wake up, he wanted to find out this was all a dream. Everything he ever managed to receive in this new world was taken away from him in practically one day. With the last sense of intelligence he had, he remembered Kuroda.

“Kuroda!”

Sensing something, the snake girl quickly rushed over to He Zhi’s side.

“What is it? What…Why you…you…BASTARDS!”

Before she could avenge her friends’ deaths, He Zhi reluctantly tapped her shoulder.

“No…follow the river down to the lake and you will find a large black turtle. He is your uncle.”

“Huh?!”

“Just go. Don’t stay here and die with me. Just go.”

“No!”

“DO IT!”

Suddenly, the oppressive nature of his aura practically slammed Kuroda to the ground. It quickly disappeared, but Kuroda took the chance to flee.

Seeing as every one of the frogs were now gone, He Zhi was alone. He glared at the other Sect members and used the last of his remaining power to continue swinging at the enemy.

Hack off an enemy’s arm.

Dodge those needles.

All of his actions were more of commands than actual signals. It was as if his body didn’t want to continue. No, he just wanted to sleep, that was all. The gas from the vials had accumulated and mixed with the other poisons, becoming more potent as time went on.

He Zhi fell to his knee and saw the leader approach him.

The man said nothing, but He Zhi saw the pleasure in the man’s eyes as he struck down, ending the Frogling’s life.

======================

It was an anticlimactic death, he realized. Wait, where was he? Why was he still thinking? Hm? A strange scene was appearing before him. Soon, it surrounded him and he felt it was oddly familiar.

“Hey there, little guy. Are you having another one of your headaches?”

He Zhi felt his head move up and down and realized where he was. He looked around at all the little children glancing his way.

“Alrighty then, go and sleep in the rest area, we can go over what you missed later today.”

He Zhi felt himself shuffling over to the play area where the little books and toys were for play time. There were also some pillows that He Zhi had used when he was alive to block out the bright lights and loud sounds that made his head hurt on multiple occasions. It made him sick, but others didn’t see it like that.

“There he goes, the teacher’s pet.”

“I wish I could sleep every day.”

“He doesn’t have to work at all, this isn’t fair!”

'Shut up. My head hurts. You don’t know how I feel.'

He was always the top of the class, put into the gifted and talented program during his elementary school years. But this was probably because all he did was stay inside and read since he wasn’t fit to experience life outside.

He was afflicted with allergies and asthma, as well as having a hard time focusing on the task at hand.

Over time, that feeling of persecution forced him to act.

The scene changed to his middle school class that taught cooking and sewing. Here, he remembered someone making fun of him and poking him in the back.

“Hey, McFagland, McFatty! Hey! Why aren’t you listening to me? I just want to talk!”

The young man was a difficult person to deal with and always liked to cause problems with anyone. Before he even knew what he was doing, he turned around and broke the kid’s finger in an instant. He grabbed that very same finger and lifted the bully up off the seat and off the ground.

He dropped the kid and sat back down, listening to the screams of pain coming from behind him.

Middle school was a time of change in people and he discovered his brutal side.

After that, he remembered that people were oddly nicer to him. Not out of fear, but because he got into trouble just like everyone else. He appeared normal to most people.

In high school, the scene became a more subdued event. He was in class talking to a friend when the teacher said

“Get out.”

“Okay.”

And he grabbed his things and left. It wasn’t a joke and he didn’t care. He treated his high school years flimsily, even screwing up his future by selecting easy blowoff classes his senior year.

He was now out of school and looking for a job, but since he had no experience and looked like a slob, no one would hire him. He never cared about his appearance, but he did shower and cut his hair often.

Eventually, he discovered that when he did find a job, it was too difficult and left him exhausted.

This was the turning point in his life. He sought ways to calm down and discovered meditation and even went to college to get a certificate in Tech Support. Things panned out and he soon experienced his suicide again. But this time, he saw a familiar old man come out of the dark depths of the water.

“Hehe, I am what most people would refer to as a God. I govern bodies of water such as this lake you threw yourself into. I could use your emotions to gain some enlightenment in my own path to Ascension, so how about this. I give you some power and you show me what you can do with it?”

The last thing he remembered was losing consciousness as he fell to the bottom of the lake.

Then, a light appeared. He looked around to see a strange scene. Everything appeared to be separated from him by a barrier of sorts. A really squishy barrier. He opened his eyes wide and saw a familiar figure in front of him once more.

“A FROG?!”

=====================================

For those that don’t know, this novel was originally titled Re: Frog. I had intended the Re: to be confused with Rebirth or Reincarnation, but the Re was actually Restart. I know most people will not enjoy this aspect, but to be honest, I could actually have just ended it there.

HOWEVER!

I have something in mind, but will need time to complete it as my work and school takes priority for now. (I hate my new job and already want to quit/School is easy)

To be honest, this story is extremely personal, so…yeah. Why create a complex character when you can use yourself as a guide? Haha, but I digress. This will be the final chapter of the first arc and I am really stoked about the next one after this next one.

What? I have loads of ideas at the ready!

But even better? I can fix my character as I go along, fleshing him out and introducing more characters or seeing how previous characters will react to different situations.

I want to lastly thank everyone for reading along to my True Tragedy that completely destroys Zombie Survivalist dead. Speaking of, I still need to finish the arc there as well.

Well, see you guys later!

P.S. I tried finding photos of frog people and mostly found tons of hentai. I am ashamed and slightly upset at all the sick people out there…As I cannot congratulate them in person. d (>_o)