Chapter 7: Life, Redux

Chapter 7: Life, Redux

Genji - aka: Sakura

I woke on a shifting mountain. Something under me swayed with a momentum I had never felt before. My body ached, and my head felt like it was about to split open as I swayed slowly back and forth.

Where am I? I asked, as I tried to open my eyes. All I saw was blackness, and tiny pinpricks of light far above me. They shifted and danced in a beautiful, mesmerizing display.

The stars, I whispered to myself as my vision refocused on the twinkling black up above. It was a gripping sight, one I didnt expect after

A hand gently brushed my long, black hair away. And a beautiful face of a woman who was clearly mixed race stared down at me. She looked partially Korean. Or perhaps another of the indo-Pacific groups that I hadnt been exposed to yet. Her smile was as wide as the world and her eyes lit up like the stars overhead.

Ren! She is awake! She spoke softly but emphatically. It was then I realized I was resting my head on the womans lap. When I tried to move, she shushed me and gently guided me back down. I simply didnt have the strength to fight her.

Daughter, who does this woman think she

Memories flooded my mind. I had been raised by this woman since birth. Yu was her name, Yu of the house of Gamra, of which I, Sakura, was sion. Sakura. My last name. Had it been someone elses first name?

It was a girl, a young girl. And she had been named for much the same reason as I. Sakura in Japanese meant cherry blossom, and she, the girl from this world, had been named so for the trees that grew on the back of the

Giant, tortious, city?

Where the hell am I?

Ga . . .mera? I whispered up at the stars in the eyes of the woman I now knew as mother. Sakuras caring mother.

Yes, daughter. We are returning home. Close your eyes and rest. The stars wont go anywhere. Yus face disappeared for a moment and I could hear her speaking with someone else.

Yu! How is our daughter? a mans voice came from not far away.

Our daughters fever has broken. The healers medicine has worked.

Oh, thank the Gods and Spirits. We will offer sacrifices and offerings when we return. I heard genuine relief in the mans baritone voice. I will sacrifice an entire herd of cattle and appease every spirit and god in my lands. A grand feast for all. My daughter lives. His voice choked up, and after a moment, I could hear soft sobs fill the night air as the man worked to regain control of himself. Once he did, my new mother spoke in a teasing voice.

We only have one herd of cattle, dear.

Ha! So we do. Perhaps my joy overrode my sense. But we will have a feast, and we will give many offerings of coin, blood, chie, and magic to all the Gods and spirits. And I will inscribe a letter to the emperor and his line, thanking them for the healer they pay for at the royal court. With that letter I will include Sakuras first weaving of silk, chie, and mana made from the finest materials I can find.

As his proclamations grew more reasonable, I, now Sakura, remembered more about him. This was her father from this world. Sakura, the girl whose body I was now inhabiting and whose memories I had inherited. He, Sakuras father Ren, was a kindly man. He doted on her, even more than her mother did.

Which I remembered, had caused Sakuras illness. Mana poisoning. I whispered, and my mothers starry eyes brimmed with tears.

Yes Sakura. That was what the healer said you had. She looked pained for a moment before continuing. Your father and I allowed you to go too long without learning how to manage your mana. Instead, we allowed you to focus on your chie cultivation, and your work among the poor. You have a kind heart, my daughter, and we only wanted to allow it to grow. But our lack of discipline allowed your mana to build, and rage a fever in your body. The only reason you survived as long as you have, is your chie cultivation. The Iron Body stage at your age is impressive. Even the royal healer thought so. There was pride in her eyes, as well as shame.

Instead of learning to harness the power of magic, as is our duty as nobility, your power grew out of control and nearly killed you.

Bits and pieces of what she was saying came to me in flashes. I, the Sakura version of myself from this world, had been among the poor helping to build infrastructure and provide employment opportunities by opening up small businesses. The last one I remembered working on was a small textile mill along a small stream on the fringes of our familys territory.

She, I, had collapsed while inspecting the water wheel. A fever so intense the wet rag the peasants had brought to cool me had literally produced steam, overtook her. Overtook me.

This was all very strange. Her memories, this other girl named Sakura, filled my mind in a jumble. They swam in my mind, hard to fully understand. It was going to take a while to make sense of. I was exhausted, and my body was covered in cold sweat. The fever, it seemed, had broken not long ago.N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

I see. was all I could think to say. I tried not to sound disappointed, or despondent. But my body was so tired, and my mind was reeling with this new information. I was sure some of what I was feeling leaked into my voice, as my mother, Yu covered her eyes before her tears could fall on me.

I heard the sounds of ruffling cloth and peaked over the lip of the basket they had left me in. I saw Yu had sidled up next to Ren, and held him close. Like he was her life raft in the midst of a storm.

As you say, husband. We will do this together. No matter what comes.

***

The rest of that afternoon, as we traveled towards what my memories called home I sat and meditated.

Shia my mother from earth, had taught me this trick to dealing with stress. It was a practice that I had abandoned for some time. But looking into my new memories as Sakura, I found that meditation in this world granted far more benefits then simple stress relief.

As I sat trying to cultivate for the first time, I felt someone sit next to me in the basket. I opened my eyes and found Yu sitting in the same pose as me, smiling slightly and patiently waiting for me to finish whatever it is I was supposed to have been doing.

Trying to cultivate after such an extreme illness might prove difficult.

I knew what cultivation was, of course, thanks to my new memories. Sakura was practically a genius at the art, having reached Iron Body, the third stage of cultivation, before she was even a teenager. I on the other hand, was just trying to sort through my memories and thoughts about what had happened.

Oh. I am simply meditating, mother. As you and father said before, it would be wise to focus my energies on preventing another bout with mana poisoning for now.

Yus smile was genuine. Im glad you have seen wisdom, my daughter. In truth, your father and I were worried we would meet some resistance from you on this topic.

I took a long moment to consider that, sorting through Sakuras memories and trying my best to guess how she would have responded. I . . . I feel I must pick my battles. I am sufficiently ahead in cultivation among my peers that switching that focus to learning to control and use magic would not be an imposition.

This child was remarkably formal when she was upset with her parents in the memories I had of her. She didnt yell or scream, or cry. She did those things in private. No, she attacked things from a logical empirical perspective, applying logic where other twelve-year-olds might apply tears.

None of that was to say that she didnt have emotions. She certainly did. This girl had been driven by what she saw as injustice in the world. She loved her family, but also saw many of their policies as backwards, or unjust. Perhaps not cruel per se, but lacking in nuance and steeped in slow to adapt traditions.

If the Genji version of myself had been a survivor, having the will to cling to life despite being forced into the edges of society? Sakura was one to bend reality to suit her sense of justice through sheer force of will and logic.

I . . . see. Yu stiffened slightly, but in a way that I recognized as familiar. She was preparing for a battle of logic with her daughter and her body language screamed here we go again. And what battle, as you put it, do you wish to reserve your strength for?

My economic diversification projects, of course. The poverty relief efforts, in particular, were ones that I felt my new parents lands desperately needed. We rely too heavily on agriculture and animal husbandry. The words were unfamiliar on my tongue, but to Sakura, the girl I had been, who now was a part of me in every way as much as Genji was, they were filled with meaning and importance.

During drought years, we have been forced to abandon the smaller outlying villages, to consolidate our people in the efforts of extracting as much value as we can from the Kame and Gamera. A bit of diversification might help us cling to those settlements in a more permanent fashion and save us the expense of having to reinstall peasants, cultivator lords, and the like every few years.

I watched as a set of complex emotions ran over Yus face. The Genji side of me picked up on the subtle hints of her annoyance and displeasure at being forced to confront uncomfortable truths that might make her look bad. The skills I had picked up to ensure my bosses back home, like Mr. Lee never had any reason to fire me.

While the Sakura side of me recognized the slight quirk of a smile, and the tension leaving her shoulders, replaced with mild annoyance at old arguments and disagreements, for what they were. Relief that I, or rather her daughter, was not gone completely. In short, a sign of love and familiar ground tread too often.

We will have to speak to your father. But, if you are willing to work as diligently at your mana control as you were at your cultivation? We might be convinced to allow you to resume your work among the poverty-stricken. But only once we are sure you are in no more danger.

I smiled, something Sakura did when she got her way. Which, with these two, was most of the time. It helped that the girl was wildly competent and trustworthy. Thank you, mother.

Good, now no more talk about matters best left to merchants. My mothers disdain for economics was clearly written on her face. A moment later and the flash of disgust was gone. If you are healthy enough to win such a battle with me, then you are strong enough to begin your work with magic.

Yu smiled wickedly, and my heart skipped a beat. Ren was by far the better cultivator of the two. That fact had largely been why Sakura had so heavily focused on the art. Ren was only a middling cultivator by the standards of someone at the peak of the Nobile Realms of cultivation. But he was an excellent teacher. Something that had brought their house much acclaim and fortune during his leadership. Learning under Ren had been both easy and unbelievably rewarding.

Her, my mother on the other hand, was one of the most renowned enchantresses and magic users in the southern or western kingdom. And a terrible teacher. I had seen what she did to her apprentices. The constant stress, the exacting standards, and nights of tears and hardship. More than a few sions tutored under her, only to leave a few weeks later to find more approachable teachers.

Now, dont think because I am your mother, I will take it easy on you. You will learn, or you will shame us all. As your parents, we might not have insisted on your learning until now, and that is our fault. But we begin making up for it here. That being said, you never once sought me out for a lesson. You have some blame to share, so I expect your best effort. Understood?

I nodded and swallowed the lump that had already begun growing in my throat. My mother scared me.

Good. Close your eyes, and let us begin.