Chapter 3: Alive

Unknown, Unknown

Kai was engulfed with a surge of sadness as he thought of everything he did in his life prior his death. During his death he remembered feeling incredibly serene but now he thought the feeling was sorely undeserved. The return of his memories was so vividly intense that it was like he lived his life once more; killed his master once more.

There’s no point wallowing in these feelings, I need to understand what happened to me first

He now knew the value of emotions and feelings. Without them, he would only return to being a thoughtless cold-blooded killer but at this moment they were preventing him from concentrating. He carefully suppressing his emotions and began to assess his situation.

So I am alive… could I have been brought back to life like Dr. Frankenstein? But I feel so weak. Does that mean they failed to properly reanimate me?

Kai lead an abnormal life since he was a young boy therefore he did not attend school like most boys his age. However, to be an assassin, he was trained to excel in knowledge as well strength. One of the areas of knowledge was the fundamentals of literature and one of his many learning tools was the book, ‘Frankenstein’.

Another skill he required was to be adaptive. If something went wrong in a mission or an unforeseen variable presented itself during a fight, an assassin would have to react quickly and cope with the situation. Therefore, even though he could barely see or move, he remained calm and carefully examined his current condition.

Returning to the beginning of his thought process, Kai reached out with his senses once more. He tried to speak but a slur of incomprehensible nonsense was all that escaped his mouth. He tried to concentrate on his eyesight but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to see any better. He moved around to the best of his abilities but was only able to feel the same warmth from before, nothing more.

He connected the information he previously collected with his nose and ears and was nearly certain he was floating on a large body of water. If he was correct, then he was absolutely certain he was inside an object, or wrapped by an object, because he was unable to feel the wet, moist, texture of the water.

Did they throw me into the ocean because I was a failed product?

Kai’s thoughts wandered like the theoretical water around him while his body remained afloat. He attempted to speak again, in a louder tone, but met the same failure as before. Persevering through the failures, he did not lose hope and repeatedly experimented with his voice at random intervals of time.

The sense of time escaped Kai as his situation remained the same, until a sudden change occurred. The water abruptly pushed harder against the object that contained him; as if something had pushed against the water, forming slight waves that displaced the object’s balance.

-Splash-

He heard a loud sound of something colliding against water. The sound diminished into a softer tone and it slowly made it’s way towards him. Before he could guess what produced the sound, he felt the object, that contained him, shake.

“Holy heavens, it really is a baby. What should I do Boss?”, a male voice shouted.

Someone finally came for m-wait, a baby? Is he referring to me?

“Bring it onboard”, a gruff voice replied after a momentary pause.

“Yes Boss”, the owner of the first voice responded.

Kai experienced another shake and felt himself elevating out of the water. As he elevated he experienced a sensation of being lifted, then dropped, then lifted, in a repeated uncomfortable manner.

-Thump-

When the sensation was over he heard a noise he could only assume was the sound of the man’s feet against wood. The footsteps continued before halting to a stop. He felt an exchange of hands before the gruff voice spoke above him.

“It’s a boy”, Boss said. A series of gasps surrounded him.

They’re really talking about me… this is unbelievable. I’m a baby boy. This implies that I wasn’t revived, rather I’ve been reincarnated!

Kai remembered learning about reincarnation from certain beliefs that he studied, such as Buddhism, but he never believed it to be real. Yet, it was the only reason he could produce that explained this phenomenon.

“VERONICA!”

He snapped out of his train of thought as Boss suddenly yelled. He heard an outbreak of hurried footsteps from below him. The footsteps transitioned to a slower pace, then he heard a click followed by a sound of wood heavily colliding against wood.

-Bang-

“Veronica! How many times do I have to tell you to open the hatch lightly. Do you want to die?”

“S-sorry Boss. I’ll be more careful next time, I swear”, a female voice spluttered.

“I swear to the heavens… every time… forget it, I have something for you to do.”

“What is- wait a second, is that another baby? We’re in the middle of the ocean, how in the world did you get another baby?”

“Shut up and just put him with the rest of the children.”

“Yes, Boss”, Veronica quickly replied, clear that she was reaching the end of his patience.

Kai went through another exchange of hands. This time he felt the actual shape of hands hold him, bringing him to a deeper location. He no longer doubted that he was in a large body of water because of the words Veronica said. This led him to believe he was on a ship so as he descended in her arms, he assumed that he was being brought to the hull.

He felt Veronica beginning to walk on a more steady, flat, surface but before she got too far the ship moved and she lost her balance. He felt a sudden jerk from his original position as he violently flew towards the right. He heard the impact of her body slamming against wood. Fortunately, he was still in her arms as he was unsure if his baby body would survive the fall without suffering permanent damage.

“Damn it! I’ll never get used to this ship. Why did we have to take it anyways?”, she cursed. Regaining her footing, she resumed walking towards her intended direction.

He heard the opening of a door before feeling Veronica take a step forward. A group of whimpers greeted her. Ignoring the whimpers, she spoke in a lazy manner.

“You there, you’re not holding a baby. Come here and carry this boy.”

“B-but, I never held a baby before”, a girl’s voice murmured.

“I don’t like to repeat myself…”

“I’ll carry him”, a different girl’s voice answered. Unlike the previous voice, this one was more steady and firm.

“Should’ve just said so in the first place.”

Light footsteps drew closer to Kai before he was carelessly tossed over to another, smaller, pair of hands.

“Now if any of these babies die so will one of you, so you brats best be careful. We should arrive in half a day's time.”

-Bang-

A loud slam of the door immediately followed Veronica’s last words. The resulting sound caused the other babies to start crying. Two clear cries resounded inside of the room.

“Stupid old hag”, a boy’s voice muttered. He started making humming noises which Kai could only assume was his method of calming a crying baby. The reason he was unable to discern the noise was because the hum sounded horribly off-beat. The two babies loudly agreed as they continued to cry.

“Shh..” another boy’s voice hissed. “Don’t make the bandits angry. What if they get really mad and kill us? We have to survive and grow strong to avenge our parents.”

“That’s right. All the adults are dead, in the future we have to support each other to stay alive and take revenge.”

Revenge… so their parents were murdered and they were kidnapped. I’ve only heard about kidnappings but to murder their parents as well... These people call themselves bandits, maybe they are working in the more unrestrained part of the underworld.

The children holding the two babies continuously attempted to soothe them. The girl holding Kai curiously muttered, “I wonder why you aren’t crying little one.”

If only you knew girl. This new life of mine seems to be difficult already but nevertheless it’s still a second chance. With my experience from my past life, it shouldn’t be anything I can’t overcome. I will become strong to protect myself but this time I’ll do it right. I will not kill anyone ever again…

The ship rocked in a steady rhythm causing Kai to slowly drift from his thoughts to sleep.

When Kai woke up he was surprised by the sight of the room. The wooden boards were a healthy shade of brown but the entire room was coated in layers of dust and cobwebs. On the floor laid a single bucket and a few blankets that separated the children from the filthy floor.

I can finally see!

His eyes traveled to the girl holding him. The girl looked fairly simple with the exception of her short blonde hair. Her eyes were unclear as she was asleep but her features gave him a small shock.

I knew she was young but she can’t be much older than the time I ran away.

He looked at the children on the floor and, as far as he could tell, they were similar in age. Together there were four children that comprised of two girls and two boys, including the girl holding him. The boys and the girl all had black hair but the girl’s hair was shoulders length.

The movement from his head gradually woke the girl holding him. She stared at him and smiled, “You’re quite the early bird little one.”

The ship suddenly halted. Footsteps drew closer to the door before it was thrown open. The rest of the children instantly drowsily stirred in place. The babies were unsettled with the needlessly loud action and began crying. A tall woman walked through and looked at them in a spiteful manner.

“Wake up brats!” Veronica exclaimed. Kai instantly recognized her voice. She had black eyes and hair that was tied back in a ponytail. She wore a long brown overcoat that covering everything except her black boots. Around her waist was a belt attached with a sheath along with it’s sword that had a slight curve.

That’s a scarab sword. I’ve never heard of anyone using that particular weapon in this day and age.

“We’ve arrived but I’m not leaving this ship with two crying babies. Shut those two up then you can come up the ship yourselves. Be quick about it, you don’t want to test my patience.”

Leaving the door open she walked off and left the children to their own devices. The two boys instantly gave their very best at pacifying the babies so they could quickly leave the unsanitary room.

“Please stop crying”, one of the boys hopelessly begged the baby in his arm. He swayed his arms in a back and forth manner and gave the girl holding Kai an envious look.

“Can we switch babies?”, he suggested with a slight smile.

“No way”, the girl playfully denied. The light squabble between the two caused them to laugh and the other two children quickly laughed along. The laughter was short-lived as the boy who asked the question ceased laughing and put on a solemn expression.

“Life is going to be hard from now on isn’t it?, he sighed.

The rest of the children also stopped laughing and the atmosphere became heavy. The babies continued to cry, unfazed by the depressing air around them, until the girl who was empty handed interrupted their cries.

“Whatever happens, we still have each other right?”, she quietly encouraged. The other three children stared at her in surprise before instantly breaking into wide smiles.

“That’s right”, the girl holding Kai agreed. “Together, forever.”

The two boys gave a firm nod in unison. As if supporting them, the two babies stopped crying which caused them to laugh once more. Having completed Veronica’s demand, they walked out of the room and found the stairs that led to the hatch. The timid girl opened the hatch and one by one they walked out into the sunlight.

“You brats sure took your sweet time”, Veronica scolded with her menacing glare. She was the only person left on board the ship.

Seeing Veronica easily wiped the smile of their faces. Content with their misery, she evilly smiled, turned around and commanded, “Follow me.”

She descended the ship on a slanted edged plank that reached the floor. Reaching the edge of the ship, they all took a deep breath and, swallowing their nervousness, they descended the ship together.