Death was very different from what he'd imagined. It should have been nothingness, a complete lack of awareness. But it wasn't.

Death was warmth all around him, wrapping around him like a blanket. Sometimes he heard muffled sounds but he couldn't make out if they were words or just a soft humming. If he had eyes, he couldn't get them to open, so he saw nothing but darkness. But while he couldn't see the space around him, he could move within it. It wasn't easy. Every small movement of his limbs felt like wading through thick syrup and moving around tired him out quickly.

Actually getting anywhwere was impossible. For some reason, death hadwalls. It didn't make much sense, but who was he to decide what death should be like?

Obviously, his previous assumptions had been wrong.

'I always thought death would be like disappearing into nothingness, but I thought that I would become a part of it and slip away forever. But I'm still here.'

Maybe it should have scared him, but defining what he was thinking and feeling took a lot of effort and he kept losing his train of thought. When he was awake, he was always on the brink of falling asleep again.

It was peaceful, but very strange. He wasn't upset about being dead. Sometimes, he felt a surge of longing for the people he had left behind, but the feelings ebbed out when he inevitably fell back into a slumber.

Death wasn't what he had expected at all, but it could have been a lot worse.

One, day it ended.

Without warning, the walls started closing in around him. He was going to be crushed if it didn't stop, and it shouldn't matter because he was already dead, but it hurt unlike anything he'd ever felt before. The warm coccoon around him was supposed to be safe. It shouldn't be trying to harm him.

Struggling against it didn't help, but he tried to anyway. Panic had set in. All he wanted to do was to get out of there, and get out fast. But that didn't happen. The walls kept squeezing him and there was nothing he could do about it. It felt like it was never going to end. At some point, he gave up on trying to make it stop and just focused on slowing his heartbeat.

Then suddenly, the warmth was gone. He wasn't being squeezed anymore. The pain hadn't faded yet, but the worst seemed to be over. Slowly he opened his eyes, but everything was blurry and dark.

What the hell was happening?

Something warm was wrapped around him again, but it had the wrong texture.

Someone lifted him and held him in their arms as if he was a tiny child. That really didn't make any sense. He'd been pretty tall not so long ago. And why was another person there? So far death had been a solitary experience. The other person had gotten to keep their regular size too. Unfair.

He opened his eyes again to get a look at the person. His sight was still blurry but he could make out the contrast between a pale face and dark hair. He wished he had his glasses.

Then the person spoke, and he recognized the voice. It was the same muffled humming he'd heard before, inside the warm cocoon. The woman (and he was pretty sure she was a woman now that he'd heard her speak) had a raspy voice. She sounded tired. He still didn't understand what she was saying, but he recognized the language. She was speaking Japanese.

He could only understand a few words of the language, not nearly enough to communicate. But maybe she would understand him if he spoke English? It was worth a try. He opened his mouth to ask her what was going on, but only a gurgle came out. He tried again. And again.

That's when it clicked.

He couldn't speak. He was tiny. He was...he was a newborn child.

All this time he'd thought he was dead, when really, he'd been inside the womb of the woman currently holding him in her arms. It finally made sense, but at the same time it didn't.

It was so weird. Surreal, even. Reincarnation was a thing.

He was torn between fear and curiousity. Was this really happening?

The woman held him closer to her chest and lay down on the ground. She was shivering and he wished he could help her. The birth had been horryfing from his end but it had probably been worse for her. And they seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Alone. That wasn't exactly a good sign.

He tried to keep his eyes open, but he was getting tired again. Maybe this would make more sense when he woke up again.