[Kuzan Pov]
The wind was howling at the dead of night. A sole figure could be seen walking within the wilderness, lost in thought as he drew closer to the lake. He gazed into his reflection, seeing a face he had grown accustomed to over time.
"Why"--- he asked, knowing full well that he would receive no response.
"Why am I not surprised anymore?"
It had been only been a year since Kuzan had woken up in this teenager's body. At first he was surprised, confused as to why he was given this chance. From the fragments he could remember from his past life, he knew that his current state was much better than his previous one. Growing up not being able to walk more than 300 feet without collapsing on the ground, definitely wasn't a pleasant experience to remember.
"I know they say you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but..."
[1 Year Ago]
At first, he was undeniably confused—waking up in unfamiliar surroundings, a robotic voice echoing in his head, and a young girl shaking him awake. For a moment, he felt like he might die a second time from all the shaking.
[Initializing...]
"Kuzan, wake up right now or I will slap you awake!"
"Whaaaaatt?"
"Good, you're awake. Uncle Ikaria is waiting to take us to school. Get ready or the teacher will yell at you again for being late."
Seeing him waking up, the girl ran out of his room and slammed the door shut for good measure.
"TTHUCUH"
"Good, if he wasn't awake before he sure is now, hehe." the girl said giggling, while going down the stairs.
He looked around, not knowing what to say. Before he could let a sound out, he was assaulted with a surge of pain like he had never felt before. None of the needles he endured growing up, the times he collapsed from overexertion, or the pain from constant physical therapy he went through could compare to the surge of pain he felt upon waking up.
"Argh!"
Pain, so much pain. From his head to his toes, but especially his head and eyes. All he could see was white. Memories, oh so many memories, all foreign yet so familiar. Of a life he lived, yet he knew that it was not his. After what felt like an eternity, he felt the pain lessen. Ever so gradually, it grew weaker, till he couldn't feel it anymore.
[Initialization Complete]
"What the hell is going on right now." he muttered, still shocked by the pain.
He remembered lying in a hospital bed, with the constant beepings of various health monitors recording his heart rate and god knows what else. It was so annoying, the constant beeps at those set intervals. He would have tried calling out to the nurse to turn it off if he had had the strength. He knew he had less than a day left, at that. The nurse had told him that his parents would arrive in 2 hours. She had begged him to hold on till then. Unfortunately, it was not something he could control.
"Are you coming, or are you skipping again?" he heard her scream impatiently from downstairs.
He opened the door to reveal the interior of a beautiful mansion—clean and pristine, fit for a royal chancellor. In his past life, he would have died a dozen times over just trying to navigate the hallway and living room of such a place.
"I'm not feeling it today." I said in a monotone voice, with a half smile on my face, doing my best to replicate the mannerism of my recently departed friend.
"Uh, okay, just make sure to get well soon," the girl said lovingly, worry palpable in her eyes. For a second, it was as if he could see the image of a golden retriever showing concern for its owner transposed over her.
"I'm really fine, it's just a cold."
"Humph, whatever, Ms. Granger will get mad at you, not me."
Nevermind, it was definitely a cat that I saw. An orange one at that, I'm sure of it.
"Uncle Ikaria, can you please make sure that my dear sister gets to school on time?" I said to our trustworthy butler and morning chauffeur.
"Of course young master, I will make sure that she arrives on time or I have failed my duty as a butler of the Rosen family." said the old man with enthusiasm not befitting his age.
"Oh, how many times have I told you to call me Kuzan Uncle Ikaria?"
"127 times including that one, young master," said the old man, adjusting his glasses like the protagonist of a shonen detective anime after making a keen deduction.
"Can you guys do this later, I have a history presention to go to?!" said the girl pouting and growing more impatient with each passing second.
"Alright young master, I will see you at 3:00 after doing the groceries and picking the young miss up from school. Please remember that your aunt is visitng this afternoon."
"Yeah, yeah I remember, bye."
I walked back to my room and closed the door shut, breathing a sigh of relief. 'Looks like I fooled them from now. I really need a second to process what's going on. I remember lying on the hospital bed waiting for my parents to show up, but then its blank. Then I remember hearing some weird sound and waking up to whatever this is.'
"Wait" I said aloud to absolutely no-one present, a bad habit from my previous life.
'It wasn't just a sound, it was a word, initilizing, yeah thats it.'
"No-way" I said aloud again, this time with excitement and incredulity.
'I have to say it. Come on.'
"Status"
*[Welcome host to the Martial System]* said a robotic voice with no emotion.
------------------------------------
[Status]
Name: Kuzan Rosan
Age: 13 years
Title: None
Strength: 10/100 (Average Adult Value: 10)
Stamina: 10/100 (Average Adult Value: 10)
Intelligence: 20/100 (Average Adult Value: 10)
Dexterity: 10/100 (Average Adult Value: 10)
Will-Power: 10/100 (Average Adult Value: 10)
Perception: 10/100 (Average Adult Value: 10)
Skills: [Willful Eye (5/100)]
Techniques: None
Genes Synced: [Locked]
------------------------------------
"Lets fucking go!!!"
I manage to calm myself down, albeit barely. I was a huge lover of sports in my past life. MMA, boxing, taekwondo, karate, kung-fu, it all fascinated me to no end. My parents didn't particularly like me watching them though. On their infrequent visits, they would always try to get me to switch the channel in my hospital room. Like with many things, I am sure they meant well. They didn't want to see me hurt when watching others do something I would never get close to doing.
"But that's the point" I remember screaming at them. Imagine if everyone around you had wings to fly and you were one of the unlucky few who didn't. Would you too not be fascinated by their wings, by their flight. "What's it like?" you would ask them. "How does it feel?" "Don't you get scared?", you would pester them on and on, however no matter how much you question, you will never feel satisfied until you try it for yourself, damn the cost. It would mean more to you than the world.
'What's that [Willful Eye] technique?' I try to focus on it, and much to my joy, a description pops up.
[Willful Eye]: A natural talent, you can see the projection of emotion, willpower, martial drive, passion, and in extreme cases imagination in the form of illusions. You can also see through the projections at your discretion.
"That's awesome!" so that's what I saw when I looked at Melissa this morning.
'What do I do now?' I knew I needed to plan if I wanted to achieve my previous dreams. You can only rely on yourself to get things done as they say. 'First, I need more information. From my memories of the previous Kuzan, this world seems like the Earth that I am familiar with but I have to make sure. Maybe I didn't hop worlds, just bodies.'
I logged into my desktop by entering my username and password and began browsing random topics including American history on Wikipedia. 'Everything looks like how I expect it too, the only difference being that it was 2018 in my previous life, however the time stamp at the bottom right corner of my screen told me that it was 1993.'
'Looks like I can use my knowledge to make some money after all.' with a small smile blossoming on my face. I didn't love money and I wouldn't call myself a greedy person, but I would be a fool to not realize the versatility of money.
I clicked on the 'The World's Billionaires' tab on Wikipedia to check their net worth and estimate how long it would take for me to get on the list. All of a sudden, while going down the list I stopped scrolling when I see a single name. It was in the same color and font as the rest of the names, but it appeared so much bigger.
'Mitsunari Tokugawa'
"This day just keeps on getting better and better."