Chapter Text
The book was old. Dust clung to its corners, but the ink on the pages remained vibrant, as if the knowledge contained within refused to fade with time.
Flip.
The history of their clan. Glorious, terrible. Names she didn’t yet know how to pronounce. A sea of white-haired figures adorned in intricate robes stared out from the illustrations. Their clan’s emblem—celestial, spiralling—repeated like a chant across the pages.
Flip.
A new page now, with diagrams. She didn’t understand all the words, but she followed the flow. Patterns. Cycles. Lineage. She traced the symbol with her tiny fingers.
Flip.
Another book lay beside her. This one was thinner; its pages curled with age. Handwritten. Not printed. The ink was rich, dark, and deliberate. She opened it reverently. The first line was a question: What is chakra, truly? Below it, an answer that made her pause. She couldn’t read it all, but she could feel it. There was a rhythm, a hum. As though the words themselves had chakra.
The girl leaned closer.
Someone was calling her. A muffled voice. Distant. It echoed faintly in the quiet chambers. She didn’t respond. Not yet. She had to finish the paragraph.
“...the life current that flows from the stars to the soul…”
So fascinating.
What kind of strange, beautiful world was she reborn into?
Then—light. Brilliant, sudden. The room flared with illumination as if the ceiling itself had opened to the heavens. The scrolls and books shimmered under the pale glow. She winced, lifting a hand to shield her eyes, scrunching her tiny face in discomfort.
And then came the voice. A gentle voice. Familiar. Stern, but soft around the edges. A boy’s voice, still touched with youth, yet already too mature for his age.
“You lost track of time again.”
She turned.
Standing at the doorway was a figure clad in pale robes. His hair was silver-white, and his eyes—closed as always—still seemed to see everything. He stepped in with quiet grace, not quite angry, but clearly exasperated. He called her name.
“Nemi.”
Yes… that was it. That was her name. In this new life.
Nemi blinked slowly, the haze of the words in her mind finally fading. She closed the book with a small thud, sheepish. Her little legs swung as she adjusted her posture, suddenly all too aware of the mess she had made across the floor.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured in a soft, childish voice, brushing hair from her face as she looked up at him. She was only three, and her hands were still too small to tidy the taller shelves. But she was quick to learn. Always had been. Even now, in this life.
Her brother—older by three years—sighed and walked over, kneeling beside her to help stack the scrolls properly.
“Tone-nii,” she said gratefully, her lips curling in a small, sincere smile.
He didn’t say anything at first, just offered a knowing smile as he placed the final scroll back into its case.
“You’ll burn out your eyes if you keep reading under the moonlight,” he said, ruffling her hair.
Nemi giggled and leaned into his touch.
This was her new world. One bathed in starlight and ancient knowledge. She had lived once before—she knew that much.
But now… she was here.
And the story had only just begun.