A strange sensation shook me to the very core of my being, and my consciousness rapidly moved into wakefulness.
I thought it was an earthquake, but it wasn’t.
It somehow felt like it wasn’t my body that was shaking, but my mind.
“Ugh, it’s so bright…”
The sunlight shone directly on my face as I sat up.
The sun was too stimulating for my sleepy eyes and I hurriedly covered them with my hand.
The moment that hand touched his face, a strong uncomfortable feeling that blew away his sleepiness shook his brain.
“………hmph.”
I can definitely feel myself touching my face.
And yet, everything in the palm of my hand feels like a different person.
The texture of my hair, the texture of my skin, the size and contour of my face, the thickness of my eyebrows, the length of my eyelashes, the shape of my eyes, the height of my nose, the thickness of my lips, and so much more.
None of it was what I remembered.
No one consciously remembers the shape of their own face.
Yet, there are at least a dozen times a day when I wash my face, or brush the bangs from my eyes, or touch my face at least a dozen times a day.
For example, we can recognize a pimple on our face as discomfort at the moment we touch it because we subconsciously remember that there is essentially nothing there.
And if you look closely, you can see that this hand is no different.
The length of my fingers, the shape of my nails and the thickness of my muscles are completely different.
In the first place, the size of the palm of my hand is like a different size.
“Ah, ah. My voice is so high.”
Finally, I feel between my legs.
Yes, it’s there.
“A prepubescent, ten year old boy.”
For now, I’ve figured out my situation.
There would be no point in trying to figure out why this was happening, just like the situation with Marie.
I turned my attention from the inside to the outside.
My current location, a wooden room, a private room, and a single-story building judging by the position and thickness of the pillars.
The bed is made of wood, the sheets are cotton.
The sheets and pillowcases have only recently been changed, based on the number of hairs that have fallen out.
It’s not luxurious, but it’s clean and well-maintained.
There is nothing in the room that can be called personal.
There is an empty vase beside the bed and enough space for one person to sit and work.
The room smells faintly of disinfectant, which suggests it is a hospital.
The window frames are wooden and the glass is of poor quality product with little clarity.
The view outside is of lush trees and clear skies, and from the blue of the sky, the air pollution seems to be fairly low.
My guess is, this is a poor hospital in a suburban, nature-rich area.
I’m a boy of about 10 years old and I’m in here for some reason. No noticeable trauma or pain, so the cause is unknown.
I’ve only been here for three or four days at the most, since a long stay in this poorly equipped hospital is unlikely.
The vase is empty, either because I don’t have any relatives to visit, or it’s connected to the cause of my hospitalization.
I guess I need to do something.
Let’s leave the room for now and try to gather enough information without making a scene.
I pull off the quilt and get off the bed.
The cool wooden floor felt good.
‘Roji-kun, I’m coming in!’
I heard such a voice just after I stood in front of the door.
When I heard the distinctive tone of the young woman’s voice, I went into a state of panic, but the door had already been opened.
“Ah.”
Whose voice was that?
I gave a wry smile and the tall older woman in an apron held the door open and was stunned.
Yes, this sister had called out into the hospital room, but she wasn’t expecting an answer from inside.
Even if I was unconscious, it was out of respect for my privacy that she called out to me when she entered the room.
A boy who was not supposed to wake up has woken up.
“Well, um, good morning…….hello?”
Even I can misread things.
However, it should have been possible to read the situation, since there are no slippers or other footwear near the bed.
“This, is a lie, right?”
The older woman muttered if she’d just met a ghost.
Passable Translations 