Isekai'd into New Meridian

A Year in Time

Looking back, it is genuinely shocking that a full year has passed since my mind awoke in the body of a young Black Dahlia. Of course, it took some time before I acclimated to the changes, particularly being an older mind in a younger body. For instance, it felt incredible awkward to bath myself since it felt morally wrong to intrude upon the privacy of a younger individual, but eventually I had to toughen up in order to maintain both hygiene and to dissuade possible suspicious of unusual behavioral changes. It also took me a while before I responded to the name Dahlia, but I eventually began to respond to it like my original name back in the "real world." Overall, I got comfortable in my new body with few difficulties and proceeded to befriend my fellow peers within the orphanage.

There were four children, me included, housed within the Trinity Orphanage of which I was the oldest at twelve years of age. The youngest was a young human boy named Charles at seven years of age, who was a kind soft-spoken boy who liked to help his friends in their daily chores. The second youngest was Kane at 9 years of age; he was a dagonian with characteristics similar to that of shrimp with two pairs of antennae and was very skittish, finding it difficult to remain still if he wasn't actively doing something. The oldest of the other children was a human girl named Vannisa, who acted something between a smug little twerp and a lighthearted jokester that tried her hardest to make the younger boys laugh at either her or my expense.

To be frank, at first, I tried to distance myself from the other children by staying in the library to learn all I could about the history of the Skullgirl world or preoccupy myself with chores. However, Charles constant cuteness and caring personality eventually melted the icy barriers I created and began to play with the other orphans. I suppose that even thou my mind is that of an adult, my body was that of a prepubescent and influenced my actions. We four formed a strange sort of kinship with Vannisa and I being the protective big sisters. I would be lying if I said that after seven months that I didn't begin considering them my siblings and love them as such. I grew especially attached to Vannisa since we could relate to one another as we were both similar in age and the same gender. As such, we found it much easier to confide our feelings with each other better than we could with the others in the orphanage.

The Trinity Orphanage itself was a moderately sized building ran by Markus Agustus in the countryside near the three-way border between the Canopy Kingdom, Gigan Nation, and Chess Kingdom. It was outside a small town named Noxton, which was an agricultural town that grew produce to sell to the larger cities in the Canopy Kingdom like New Meridian. The best word I could use to describe Noxton is tranquil, mellow, and filled with some of the kindest folk you could hope to meet. I would always come across the farmers at the local market when I went to purchase groceries for dinner, always happy to give extra produce. The land around Noxton was green and fertile, with vast fields of spring green grass between the freshly plowed patches of earth. It was the definition of the rustic small-town, which is why I couldn't help feeling sad whenever I gazed upon the town; knowing that it would eventually be destroyed. For in the Skullgirls video game, the area between the three countries was known as "No Man's Land," an area so devastated by the Grand War that no life could be sustained there. I remember the stage based of No Man's Land; filled with rusting war machines, skeletal remains, a bleak orange tinted sky, and dust being carried on the wind.

During these thoughts of what this fertile land would become, the better I understood Cerebella's hatred towards the Renoir Noble family. These people, Noxton, and the land surrounding the quaint town was beautiful inside and out. Yet what did Franz Renoir care? He went to war to protect his kingdom and for what? Broken alliances, destroyed land, murdered innocents, a broken family, and a wife that became the most powerful skullgirl in history. Even thou I knew Franz would come to regret his campaigns later as shown in the webtoon. I couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of hatred for the man. Thou I doubt I could change the future to such a dramatic extent, yet a part of me wish I could.