While she knew that something was wrong, it took her too long to notice exactly what. She was being held. Being carried was an extremely odd sensation, although the swaying and tapping of steps were comforting. Her first memory was being carried from room to room, against the shoulder of a woman with far too much hair.

The first memory in this body, anyways. She thinks she has other memories, presumably from a past life. They are faint, but they are all she has to reflect on in her rather bored and useless state. So she reflects, when she has time, and currently she has a lot of time.

She remembers feeling a mother's comfort. Remembers kissing someone soft, laying in their arms. Images flitted through her head at random; faint pictures of a strong man with tanned skin, and a woman carrying a newborn child. Rough hands gliding through her short sweaty hair. A woman with golden blonde hair and a warm hug. She remembers she was smart and shy, but she can't remember the color of her eyes, or the house she grew up in. Personal memories seem to be her only problem, as she can still think in her old language, recognize and identify objects she had never seen, and she do math problems in her mind... even though she can't remember how she learned it. It felt more like common sense. It doesn't really matter though. She has a new body. A new life.

A new body... that is insanely weak. Even shitting herself takes an insane amount of effort, muscle control is apparently not in her immediate future. She would have liked to say she was a quiet baby, she tried to be considerate to her caretakers, but she cried too often out of sheer frustration of not being able to move. What little progress she made was never enough, despite using all the time she was awake to build her strength.

Her caretakers, which she had deduced are not her parents, often carried her, cooing in a strange language, which she was desperate to latch onto. She was surrounded by other children most of the time, their shrieks and cried grated on her sensitive hearing. She realized the woman with far too much hair was probably not her mother, after being breastfed by another woman. To her easily confused state, she had thought she had same sexed parents, but the confusion quickly faded with more observations. It didn't take long to realize; she and the kids around her do not have parents.

But the woman with far too much hair seemed to be her main caretaker, so she became a mother of sorts. As far as she understood, she was the youngest child in the facilities care. She was observant of the other women bustling about the large house, bringing one group of children snacks or reading to another. None of them had babies on their shoulders, and her crib was the only one she had seen in all of their 'exploring' of the house.

Exploring the village on the shoulder of her 'mother' was much more fun. Oh yeah, and that. She lived in a village now. Cue complete culture shock. Her past life had been full of tall metal buildings and technology, information and communication at the touch of your fingers. Hundreds of tousands of people, all had access to amazing equipment, for both entertainment and work.

There are lights and electricity here, adding an odd modern feel to the rows of wooden houses and shops (which, she had no idea how they constructed them, the architecture is so different than anything she'd ever seen, and honestly didn't seem sturdy). She was far too small herself to judge to size of the village and amount of people, but she can inherently tell it isn't near anything the size from before.

The small girl often went on walks through the crowded streets, being carried while her caretaker, Aki, runs supplies to the orphanage. These walks were quite common, and often the highlight of her week. She babbles in the beautiful womans' ears, tugging her clothes for balance and staring at all the vivid reds and blues they didn't have at home.

Strolling through the crowded market streets on the side of Aki, she really observed the people of her new village for the first time. There seemed to be a very popular uniform, and bladed weapons were carried openly and with pride. Flashes of old memory come with the sight. Strange metal weapons, loud bangs, and metal projectiles tear through the middle of a fragile paper target. She shakes the images from her mind, rubbing her eyes with a chubby hand.

The next uniformed person that caught her wondering blue eye, she watched. She was able to observe for a few moments, curious as to why thy all had that heavy looking vest on in this heat. The woman turned and caught her gaze with red eyes almost immediately. The girl hid in Aki's mane of hair, flinching from the sudden eye contact, hoping her dark ash black hair blended enough with Aki's blue black to be unnoticeable. When she peeked out from behind her curtain, the red-eyed lady was lost in the crowd. Aki continued her shopping and the girl continued her quiet watching, making sure not to focus too hard on any uniformed citizens.

A towering monument of faces above us cast a shadow over the market, sheltering most from the heat. Chubby little child arms were wrapped around Aki's neck as they rested on a bench, the long day of walking (well, being carried, but it was exhausting in its own way) in horrible humidity making her already weak child body even weaker. The grocery bags were at the foot of the bench, the child splayed on her chest, a book held open against her back. She turned her head so she wouldn't get the crumbs of her fish cracker snack in Aki's hair. The small snack food went a long way in replenishing her energy, and Aki set her on the ground as she gathered her bags, ready to walk them home.

She unsteadily stood, toddling to hang onto the wooden bench seat. She bounced in place and babbled as she waiting to be picked up once again. She loved walking but hated falling, specially in a diaper. It was just uncomfortable, as you can probably imagine, and at almost a year old she was still pretty uncoordinated. As Aki gathered all the bags, she reached her stubby arms above her head to be picked up, but something occurred to her rather suddenly.

Meaning, she ended up on her ass before even realizing what happened. She should have kept her hold on the bench, but who knows if that would've actually made any difference.

"SUKI!" yelled Aki. The ground shook once more, and Aki fell too, almost crushing her. Pure energy whipped through the air out of no where, sending dust into her eyes and threatening to sweep her small form into the growing tornado of papers and dancing leaves, all moving fast enough to leave burning papercuts on her exposed skin. The air itself turned purple, and then red, and then it burned. It even burned her lungs as she wailed, screaming in confusion at the sudden and unexpected agony she was experiencing.

It burned like the fire she had once experienced before. Memories of charred and blistered flesh surfaced violently, causing her to curl in on herself, instinctively holding her arms to her body. This energy burned. It burned like her flesh was melting off her bones. It burned like she was in hell, with nothing else for the fire to consume but her. And it was hungry. It wanted to eat. It wanted to destroy. It wanted fuel. And then it was all too much, because it went back to black. Back to after the before, and before the now. Her mind was so peaceful again, so quiet.

She didn't want it to end after the brief but monumental torture she just endured. She just wanted rest now. She didn't want to remember the fire, and she didn't want to feel the acidic burn against her skin when she woke up. She didn't want to go back. She would be covered in blisters and sores and charred flesh.

She was like that for a while. The dark was a relief. It hugged her on all sides, tightly, leaving no room for the pain or agony that would tear her apart if she ever left it's comfort.

Someone was calling her though. Something felt wrong. Just slightly off, like when you feel like something bad is going to happen, but have no way to explain it. "Suki," was stated in her mind, an unfamiliar disembodied voice in her own head. The word was written behind her tingling eyelids, in a language not known to this world. It lit up her pitch black comfort into a dull grey glow. That was her. Suki.

There was another name behind it now. It was too blurry to read, too far into the dark to make out. But it was there. And it took all of her pain away, and it took all of her fear, and it took all of her unwanted memories. And it became her too. Now it was just them, Suki and an unknown that was also Suki, but also not.

And now she was ready to wake up. Slowly, feeling came back into her body, and she smacked her dry tongue against her lips, trying to regain some moisture.

She pried open her crusted, stinging eyes, noticing she was alone. Within her blue eyes sat the curse of hatred.