He opened his eyes and saw a woman's hand halfway rising to his mouth.
Rising because he could see the ground beneath the hand.
Halfway because as soon as he saw what was in the hand, he turned away and puked.
It was raw, red meat. Still covered in dark grey fur.
The half-eaten body of a rat...
Masaru raised his hand to his throat, gagging desperately.
What kind of rebirth scene was this!
He was no stranger to the many theories, fiction and even clinical studies done on the concept of rebirth.
But wasn't rebirth supposed to start as a baby? Or in some mighty creature's body? Maybe in the unconscious body of a just-deceased person?
Why did his have to be to the scene of being fed a blood, disgusting freakin' RAT!
And as he puked, he held his hand in front of his face and realised - the rat was in his hand, in front of his face.
In fact, the rats little half eaten face and exposed brain with the skull bitten halfway through was staring him straight in the face.
"Ahhhh!!!!" He heard a feminine scream and flung the rat away as far as he could. The corpse hit the wall with a light *thud*, then bounced off and fell back on his face.
"Arghhfhfhflwl get it off get it off!!!!!" Again he heard a dainty and bell-like girl's voice screaming and shouting squeamishly.
Finally Masaru sat down in a heap on the ground. Covered in his own vomit. Covered in rat blood and entrails. Sitting in a dark alleyway in the middle of the night.
Dumbstruck as it all dawned on him.
He had to admit the reality.
That screaming voice?
It was his.
The "graceful and sexy woman's hand rising to his mouth to feed him"?
Also his.
The teeth and bite marks on the half-eaten rat?
Also... His... Mouth...
"Blergghgh!!!" The revolting thought triggered a new round of puking!
He puked a little stomach acid, then struggled to hold it back, but ended up regretting it greatly. Resistance was even worse than just vomiting - the stomach acid was in his mouth!!! Gross!!! He spat it out and tried to puke out his empty guts.
Panting heavily, he sat back down and continued trying to make sense of things.
He was reborn as a girl.
A slim, white and fair skinned pretty girl.
He looked down.
'Small breasts though... Well, still, they're pretty firm and bouncy, not bad, not bad...'
He was dressed in rags that looked like they hadn't been washed in days, if not weeks. It was a dress that could have at one time been white, and perhaps good quality.
But now it was just rags, barely enough to cover his body.
Masaru sighed.
At least he was alive.
Though he needed to find out who he was and *where* he was quickly...
And from his full strength throw of the rat at the wall, he was pretty weak, just about as strong as a normal human...
But before he could get up and check out his surroundings, he heard hurried footsteps and voices calling out.
"Quickly, over there!"
"Right, constable Ben, the screams came from just around the corner!"
Masaru tensed up as two blue-uniformed men came running around the corner, then shone two beams of light into the alley where he was sitting.
Two men dressed in matching blue uniforms and wearing short, flat blue hats with black front rims were staring at a girl covered in blood, vomit and rat intestines and they froze.
Not because of how disgusting the scene was.
But because...
She was stunningly beautiful.
While Masaru froze, fear and shock rising in his dainty little heart that was pumping furiously.
Behind the two beams of yellow torch light, he could see two pairs of eyes that filled him with dread.
Red eyes.
Demon's eyes.
He was in a world of demons - surrounded by enemies.
He tensed up and tried to get up to run, but he was too slow in this weak body. Too slow and too hungry, with no energy to even fight back.
He looked on in terror as they pulled out black instruments from their belts and began to lift them up.
Then he was confused at what happened next.
The grizzled older cop held the black device up to his mouth and spoke into it, saying, "This is constable Kirishima of the Osaka police force, Fukushima station emergency rescue team. False alarm, false alarm. No sign of devils here. It's safe, looks like a lost teenage girl, maybe escaped from an institution? Though she doesn't look stable and might need some help. Cancel the alert, over."
While Masaru stared in confusion as the older man's talked to the black box in his hand, the other man turned off his beam of light and approached him.
Masaru instinctively backed away, shuffling as much as he could on the ground until he realised that his back was already against the wall.
'Shit... I don't have any powers right now... And... My mental state is in shambles...! How will I fight...' He cast his gaze around desperately to look for a stick or weapon he could use as a sword. Even without his holy sword Luminaire, he would show these demons that he, Hero King Masaru was not to be looked down upon!
Then his mind was thrown into further disarray when he heard the next words.
"Miss, are you alright?" The younger man, presumably constable Ben, spoke gently.
It took the pretty young girl a while to realise that the handsome but naive young man was talking to none other but himself, Masaru!
Shocked, Masaru nodded numbly. What...? The demons were not going to attack him...?
...And how could he understand their speech?
Regardless, he let out a sigh of relief as the man drew closer with a gentle look on his face. He was tall, athletic and looked kind, approaching clearly without any ill intentions.
Then Masaru froze.
He had a terribly bad feeling about things, so he hurried over to the puddle of water nearby to look at his reflection.
Then he screamed.
* * * * *
As the two kind and helpful policemen helped the strange foreigner girl up and brought her to the halfway-house for the homeless to get cleaned up, Masaru could only dumbly follow them.
He still couldn't accept what he had seen in the blurred and dim reflection of the muddy waters.
Golden hair. Facial features of perfect proportions, with a high nose, high and fine cheekbones, long eyelashes. And the deepest, most misty, alluring eyes that would drown whoever stared into them too long and ensnare their heart in just a glance.
Deep red, piercing eyes.
Deeper red than even Demon God Glados'.
Demon eyes.