I never put much faith in things like religion and the afterlife. I mostly figured whatever happened, happened. There was no use agonizing over where'd I end up if there was anything at all besides the empty nothing. If there was such a thing as heaven and hell, I'd like to think of myself as decent enough person not to warrant eternal damnation. Unless God really was as awful and judgmental about things like being queer or not pious like those overbearing, self-righteous Bible-thumpers made Him out to be. But yeah, most of the time, I didn't think on things of a more philosophical nature beyond the beliefs that guided my moral compass. Despite my "let come what may" attitude, however, I didn't expect to find out so soon the answer to the age-old question, "What happens when we die?"

I didn't realize I had died at first. Everything was muddled and it felt like my head was stuffed with cotton. I couldn't make a coherent thought beyond, "I'm hungry," or "I'm tired." It was an endless cycle of eat and sleep. I spent most of my time sleeping, or at least I think I did, and what time I spent awake was filled with hysterics about why the world felt like I was experiencing it underwater. Why couldn't I move properly? Was I drugged? Maybe I'd been in an accident and they were keeping me under so I healed better.

Another problem was my emotional state, or rather its fluctuating. The littlest things set off the waterworks just as quickly as the simplest thing could calm me down, and let me tell you, cracking up because a large shadowy figure is shaking something in your face is really disconcerting. Which reminded me, I really need my glasses back, but it was hard to communicate when your tongue felt like lead and your ears felt like they were plugged with noise-canceling headphones.

Speaking of shadowy figures (recently upgraded to blobs of color), there were quite a few of them, a man and a woman- although it was mostly the woman, the man only came when the woman was there- and a few others that weren't around often enough for me to tell them apart. They spoke Japanese or something that sounded like Japanese, which was odd since I'm American. Maybe they were my nurses and doctors assigned to my care for whatever accident I had. Every time I managed to be coherent, at least one of the figures was usually there, and if they weren't, my cries brought them quickly to check on me.

With my brain as fuzzy as it was, it was hard for me to keep track of how much time had passed, but I know at least several weeks passed as my vision drastically improved and my mind began to clear, with it my memories slowly coming back. I could also pick out names from the unintelligible (to my ears) language my apparent caretakers spoke. The woman's name was Rei and the man was Enji, someone else was Fuyumi and another Hien, but the others I couldn't tell. I didn't think anything of these names until the day I woke and my vision was as clear as it hadn't been since I first started wearing glasses. Did someone put them on while I was sleeping?

Everything looked strange, and I found it difficult to concentrate on any one thing. It was all slightly too big and I certainly wasn't in any hospital room. I'd been in one enough times to know what they were supposed to look like. In fact, this place looked more like a child's room, a nursery or something. It certainly didn't help that I was surrounded on all sides by wooden bars like some sort of crib.

At the moment, my mind was clearer than it had been in a while and I took the time to figure out how I came to be in this situation. I'm pretty certain I was stabbed. The details were hazy, but the feeling of lying on the ground, bleeding out, body growing cold was one I don't think I would ever forget. Perhaps I died and this is some kind of limbo?

"だれが目がさめているか見なさい! おはよう私の甘い女の子。ああ、私に会って頂けますか? 私の Hien はとても速く育っている!"

Not sure why I can't understand anything if this is supposed to be the afterlife, though. Rei stood beside the bars of my wooden prison and I'm pretty sure I dissociated for a moment there because my mind went completely blank when my eyes caught sight of her. The first thing that registered was her hair. It was white. Not the silvery grey of old age- she was much too young for that- or the platinum blonde of hair dye, but actual, honest to god, white. It was the strangest thing ever.

"Hien?"

I didn't notice anyone else in the room, but given my limited mobility, it wasn't too much of a stretch for Hien to be just out of sight. Rei reached toward me, I assumed to help me sit up when I noticed that the closer she got, the more impossibly large she seemed to grow. I'd known my caretakers were on the large side, but this was ridiculous. When she was right over me, I panicked, bursting into tears. Rei seemed to grow concerned and made soothing noises in an attempt to calm me, but I wasn't having it when this impossible giant was cradling my entire body in her arms. You'd think by this point, I would've noticed something was up sooner, but you could hardly blame me when I was lacking my full mental faculties. Eventually, I tired myself out and cried myself to sleep, still being rocked by this giant woman.

When I woke up again, I was alone in the room that looked more like a baby's nursery than a hospital room. I wasn't hungry, but I'm sure that'll change soon, no need to call someone in here just yet. It's rare for me to have alone time like this. Left on my own, I began to evaluate my current situation. 1) I was somehow in Japan. Not once had I heard English spoken in my presence, which makes no sense if I was in America, ergo I was someplace where Japanese was the dominant language, i.e. Japan. 2) I'm not in a hospital room. There was a distinct lack of hospital background noise, like the constant beep of a heart monitor or the quiet hum of machinery. Now that I can see the room clearly, it was rather obviously a baby's room. 3) Whoever's been looking after me is freakishly huge. I know I'm not the biggest of people, only coming up to 5'2, but there's no way someone could carry me in their arms like that and not be an actual giant. Considering all these facts, plus what I observed earlier, either I managed to slip into a coma and I'm very lucidly dreaming right now (do people in comas even dream?), or for some reason, I'm a baby (which, what the actual hell?). People don't just randomly become babies in countries on the other side of the world that they've never even been to. Given my earlier speculation of my possible death, such a thing might be possible if reincarnation were a thing, but this isn't some crappy fanfic. People don't just remember their past lives. Or maybe they do and that's why babies cry for no reason. They end up forgetting over time. The only thing that could make this situation even more unbelievable would be finding out I'd been reincarnated into some fandom. I could feel tears of frustration building up as my lips trembled.

"間違った妹は何であるか?"

One of the other voices I recognized, Fuyumi, suddenly appeared at my side and my tantrum stopped right in it's tracks in a repeat of Rei's appearance, although for slightly different reasons. Fuyumi, like Rei, had white hair, but also had streaks of red here and there. It wasn't the outlandish hair colors that bothered me, or rather, it wasn't the fact that they were outlandish, it was that I'd seen that exact combination on another Fuyumi, one that was much older than the child before me, and also happened to be completely fictional.

"これをの Hi-chan 見なさい!"

What happened next was imprinted into my mind for many years to come. Out of Fuyumi's hands, glittering snowflakes appeared, swirling and twisting in an invisible wind. My mind was mesmerized, eyes locked onto the dazzling display.

"それは私の特性である。 より古いときあなたのを得る!"

Those tears suddenly came back with a vengeance and once the first whimper left my lips, it was like the floodgates had opened. I could vaguely hear another voice, Rei's, chattering concernedly over my cries as I was lifted from my resting spot into her giant arms again. My head rested on her shoulder as she rocked me gently, rubbing my back and making soft shushing noises. I felt more than saw the bottle being pushed towards my mouth and damn my infant body, but it worked. I instinctively latched onto the nipple, greedily drinking the milk, while not thinking too hard about whether it was breast milk or formula. I ended up drifting off back to sleep without even realizing it.

Here's the old chapters 1 and 2 tweaked and combined. Hopefully, it flows better than it did before.