Clarity.
For children, clarity came late. Their brains were underdeveloped and memories were hard to retain. But many impressions remained. Children were pure, untainted by the world around them.
Or so it was supposed to be.
Gakushuu Asano was born with an impression of a female in her 20s, and equally unimpressed by the world around him. He was quite self sufficient, thank you. Even though his new mother and father might argue otherwise. They'd be wrong.
Gakushuu was the one reborn, not them. If he said he was, then he was quite certain he was. Not to mention he was an only child.
Funny enough, it was actually his father who had a vague suspicion first. Gakushuu's family life was normal. His father was amazing, and a teacher too, and his mother was a lawyer, and sometimes played the role of wife and mother.
So, it was actually quite surprising that his father sat his 3 year old son down and very seriously asked, "Gakushuu, are you a girl?"
Now, normally, he'd be playing pretend, heck, he had actually decided to never talk about his past life (or so he assumed it to be) but his father was sitting in front of him with the patience of a monk, and the determination of a father.
(Also, he was a 3 year old boy who suspected he had vague memories of a past life in his head.)
He burst into tears.
After a slightly frantic father and an amused mother had calmed him down, he nodded and then shook his head.
"I'm a boy, but sometimes I'm more of a girl," he clarified. Then he fidgeted. He hadn't exactly been expecting to reveal anything at all to his family, especially not at such a young age. He hadn't even done anything particularly girlish.
He had played with his family, had a total of two trips overall with them, spent time looking through his father's books, pointing very heavily at the famous companies when his father looked through stocks (which would have been slightly suspicious, but he was generally a smart and intuitive kid) and well, played some more.
How his father guessed his past life's gender-
Well, maybe his father deserved the idolization most kids automatically had for their parents.
"Hm. Genderfluid?" His father asked. Gakushuu shrugged uncertainly. The term seemed familiar but he wasn't sure of the exact definition, so it was hard to confirm.
His mother clapped her hands once.
"How about we do this?" She rummaged for a pen, tore out a page (to his father's wince) and drew an accurate skirt and then flipped to the other side and drew out pants.
"We can hang it by your door and you can just flip it to whatever gender you want us to address you by!" Gakushuu winced before sighing and nodding.
It didn't really feel like a major issue to him, but he was also 3 years old. And he guessed he should be glad his parents were so welcoming about something like this, at least. And he liked the thought of occasionally wearing a dress or something, when he was older.
But it honestly didn't feel like a big deal to him. He wasn't transgender, nor did he feel any body dismorphia. But again, he was only 3 years old. They were all considerations for his future. He didn't mind letting his parents get familiar with the thought, at least.
Which again, begged the question. How the hell did they even figure it out? He looked at his father, only to find him looking back at him slightly curiously.
How odd.
Maybe it was his habits. He had habits he still retained, even if his memories were vague. But even then, it shouldn't have been enough.
Hm.
He became slightly more aware of his father.
Time passed by slowly. His mother occasionally bought him dresses, most of which stayed rotting in his cupboard. The tag still hung by his door, but it almost always showed the pants sign. His mother became disappointed.
His father took him to his cram school, where he napped, played with a few other students, and occasionally cheered his father while he played basketball against a few of his students.
His father still found time to teach him japanese, english and math. Bits of politics, world history and business also popped up from time to time. He seemed genuinely surprised by Gakushuu's talent in languages, and occasionally they debated about politics (which felt oddly like they were gossiping, except instead of celebrities, it had more real world impact).
He liked his time with father. Even if he came in a dress, he had no reaction to it. Whenever his mother saw him in one, she would get excited and take pictures. Sometimes she would act like his tastes and interests had completely changed and try to make him wear something fluffy skirts or put him in a duck costume.
It was bothersome, but even his father would laugh, so he didn't mind it too much. A large part of their cheer came from his mother. He and his father were too similar, and they amused themselves with sly sarcasm. But his mother would pick up the mood and make them play around and laugh.
It had been turning out to be a fun family