Reincarrection!!!!
1424 Words
Kevin floated, weightless, bathed in an endless, comforting white light that stretched in all directions without end.
He blinked slowly, eyes adjusting to the brilliance.
“What... just happened?” he mumbled. His voice seemed to echo into infinity.
“I was... reincarnated? Back to my young body, ten years ago? And...”
A calm voice interrupted him.
“You didn’t actually reincarnate into your younger self,” said a woman’s voice, clear and melodic.
He turned, startled.
Floating toward him was a serene, ethereal woman, glowing faintly. Her hair drifted around her like water.
“You reincarnated into someone who resembles you ten years ago. Because you, alone, chose to do so.”
Kevin twisted in the air, arms flailing slightly to steady himself.
“Me? How? Why don’t I remember choosing anything?”
He put a hand on his chin, squinting at her.
“Wait... you look familiar. Have we met before?”
The woman nodded, her expression unchanging.
“Yes. Just before you fainted.”
“What?! Why don’t I remember that either?”
He scratched his head, frustrated.
“Am I going crazy?”
The woman sighed with a kind of ancient patience.
“Listen carefully. It’s time for introductions.”
She drew herself up, her glow intensifying slightly.
“My name is Chinue. I am a Deity. I was assigned to accompany you into the world you are in, because of the faith a certain being had in your reincarnation.”
Kevin’s eyebrows shot up.
“The world? You mean... my world, ten years ago? It’s the same one?”
He crossed his legs in the air, floating as if sitting.
Chinue circled around him slowly, appraising him.
“Whenever someone is transported here—to this dimension—they can’t clearly remember anything. It’s the same when going back.”
She tilted her head, studying him.
“I’m surprised you even realized you were reincarnated. No wonder the Being chose you for this task.”
Kevin frowned.
“Being? Task? Who is this being you keep mentioning? Can I see him?”
Chinue chuckled softly, a sound like wind chimes.
“You can’t. Even entities like me can’t see him. We can only feel his presence. Hear his voice.”
She looked thoughtful.
“It is said... a Creator created him, and then he created us.”
Kevin grimaced.
“Ugh! I wish you hadn’t told me that. So... why did you bring me here?”
Chinue smiled faintly.
“Oh, that.”
She began to rise higher, floating upward effortlessly.
“Follow me. I have something to show you.”
Kevin glanced around, the infinite white glowing all around him.
“I can’t fly. And there’s nowhere to go—it’s just endless light!”
Chinue didn’t stop.
“Come now, before it’s too late,” she said serenely.
Her tone darkened slightly.
“I’ve heard if you linger in this state too long... your soul becomes trapped here. Forever.”
Kevin’s eyes went wide.
Immediately, he shot upward after her without even realizing how he was flying.
“I’m coming, ma!” he shouted in a panic.
Chinue laughed softly, glancing back.
Kevin scowled.
“I know you’re lying. A Deity lying?! I don’t even know what to believe anymore.”
She shook her head.
“I’d rather not lie,” she said calmly. “But actually, I am telling the truth. However...”
She gave him an assessing look.
“The way you figured out how to fly without instructions... shows me how cowardly—and how adaptable—you really are.”
Kevin narrowed his eyes at her.
They floated in silence for a moment.
Then she stopped.
“Here we are.”
Kevin halted too, looking left and right in confusion.
“Where is here?”
Chinue raised one slender hand.
“Look.”
She pointed.
Before them, the endless white parted. A vast, swirling purple portal yawned open, its edges glowing and crackling with energy.
Kevin squinted at it.
“And...?”
“Let’s enter,” she said simply.
Kevin crossed his arms.
“Shouldn’t you at least tell me what exactly thaaaat—”
Before he could finish, Chinue grabbed his wrist and pulled him in.
He yelped as the portal swallowed them both.
---
Inside, the endless white gave way to swirling color.
Kevin felt a steady wind on his face.
“You can open your eyes,” Chinue said gently.
He cracked one eye open.
Light danced all around them—blues, greens, purples—like stained glass in motion.
Hundreds of floating, translucent screens surrounded them in the void, playing moving images.
Kevin turned slowly, mesmerized.
The images showed him—or someone who looked exactly like him—living moments from the past.
But when he turned to his right, he saw other images he didn’t recognize at all.
“Don’t be confused,” Chinue said.
She gestured gracefully at the screens.
“These are scenes from the life of the boy whose body you inhabit now.”
Kevin stared.
He touched his own chest, feeling ghostly and light.
“The boy...?”
Chinue nodded.
“Yes. You won’t remember choosing it, but your soul selected him for reincarnation.”
Kevin’s eyes stung.
He watched the images of the boy laughing with family, playing, smiling so brightly it hurt to see.
“So I... stole his body,” Kevin whispered, voice cracking.
Chinue tilted her head, almost amused.
“No, silly. You saved him.”
Kevin blinked, eyes widening.
“What?”
She continued calmly.
“He was dying of an unknown disease no doctor could cure. He died in his sleep, at the very moment you entered his body.”
Kevin swallowed hard.
“So... when I woke up in the school, in his body... that was when he would have died?”
Chinue nodded solemnly.
Kevin lowered his gaze, watching the boy on the screens hug his family.
“What... about his soul?”
“Kept somewhere safe,” Chinue said softly. “It is your choice to leave his body... or stay.”
Kevin put a hand on his chin, thinking.
He watched the scenes of the boy’s life, the joy on the child’s face.
His voice trembled.
“I... I have no choice but to stay in his body as a... reincar—”
His pupils dilated suddenly.
He snapped his fingers.
“I remember now! This feels familiar!”
Chinue’s lips twitched in a knowing smile.
“Yes. You chose him because he looked exactly like you ten years ago. You called it your remarkable idea for ‘Reincarrection’.”
Kevin’s mouth dropped.
“Yeah! That’s what I... wait. That’s a weird name.”
Chinue laughed softly.
“It is. But you did break the rules of reincarnation.”
Kevin’s smile faded.
“...Rules?”
Chinue’s eyes grew hard.
“The rules are:
1. Don’t reincarnate into a living human unless you’re delivering a message.
2. Don’t reincarnate into an object unless you want revenge.
3. Never go to the past to reincarnate into someone else, unless destined to do so.
4. Don’t reincarnate into someone who looks exactly like you in that world... unless you’re willing for your soul to be destroyed.”
Kevin blinked, mouth dry.
“It sounds like those last two rules were written just for me.”
Chinue didn’t deny it.
“You could say that,” she said gently.
Her gaze turned sorrowful.
“Ever since you reincarnated into that boy’s body, some Deities have been furious at your choice. He was meant to die. End of story. But you chose him anyway.”
Kevin swallowed hard, voice dropping to a whisper.
“...Friend?”
Chinue nodded.
“The one they chose instead of you. The one they believed was fit to save the world.”
Kevin closed his eyes.
A tear rolled down his cheek.
Chinue’s voice softened even more.
“Don’t be discouraged. If the Being has chosen to do nothing about your decision... that means he’s watching over you.”
She spread her arms, gesturing at all the screens.
“Now that you understand... that you know all about the boy’s life, his family, his friends...”
She snapped her fingers.
“Be gone.”
Before Kevin could even react, his soul seemed to come apart at the seams.
Light swallowed him whole.
Her voice echoed one last time as everything went white.
> “And don’t forget why you were reincarnated.”
- Writer
