Tsunayoshi

two

❝ SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING OLD ❞

...

She closed her eyes to think about her new situation, adapting would take a little more time than expected.

For centuries she had been roaming the afterlife and battling as nothing but a soul. This sudden shift into a body, a barely few-days-old body at that, was disconcerting. It was as if something had just taken her soul and root it down into something a hundred times too small to host it. Perhaps this was why children slept a lot.

From what she understood — perhaps experience was a better word — every time she slept, her soul becomes more and more in-tuned with her body. Despite that, every time she wakes from her sleep, something would hurt in her mind, enough to make her shed tears.

Was this due to her memory or was the pain simply intolerant to her physical body? That was a thought to consider.

Passing time as a baby was like a blur, one moment time ticked by so slowly that it seemed as if it wasn't moving, but another moment the time just goes by so quickly like lighting which coloured the skies ever so often.

She only began to fully grasp her surroundings possibly six months in, give or take a few. She knew because she could hear her mother telling someone, wishing her happy sixth month into birth.

People make the biggest of fuss over children when they're younger, don't they? Odd.

She curled her fist and watched as her dull reflex of hand moved seconds slower than she thought it would. Her body was slower as a child, a drastic change compared to her before. She was mildly scared she would be very different from what she remembered operating as but at the same time, it was fascinating to know that she had a new life now.

A new identity.

Her mother walked up to her, a beautiful woman with a bright smile that lit up the whole room. She melted every time she was picked up by her mother and held close in her embrace. It was a warmth that she had sorely missed in her time as a soul.

Her mother was a young woman, from the look's of it, barely even twenty, she presumed. With long brown hair and wide, expressive brown eyes — she hoped she got her mother's eyes, she liked them a lot.

As her mother prattled away in a language she couldn't yet understand — the afterlife has no language barriers, she forgot language differences even existed until now — she allowed herself to listen, trying to see if she could pick out any phrases.

Her mother smiled at her, stroking her hair lovingly.

Speaking of her mother, she wondered where her father was? Was he dead? Was he alive but no longer with her mother, rendering her a bastard's child? Or maybe he divorced her mother?

She reached out to pat her mother's cheeks, making the woman smile and coo at her lovingly. She basked in the love and warmth showering her, it was rather nice. She snuggled deeper into her mother's embrace and simply enjoyed her time as a child with no worries.

It took a whole other month before she could finally understand what her name was, her mother finally sat her down with a few cards on the site and a paper on the table. She gazed at the items curiously, picking the pencil-like item on the table. She picked it up and twisted it around her chubby hand, wondering what sort of item was this.

"Ah, no, no," her mother said, pulling the pen away.

What limited language she could understand right now, the word 'No' was one of the few words she could say she understood with absolute confidence. She watched as her mother pull the front of the pencil-like item out, revealing something that looked akin to a pencil yet not.

The item worked like a pencil, except in deeper colour. Written on the paper were beautiful characters, strokes neatly displayed. She leaned closer to watch the characters being finished, entranced by each stroke. When the writing was finished, four characters were on the previously blank piece of paper.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," her mother pronounced cleanly.

She blinked in confusion before staring down at the paper again, what was a Sawada Tsunayoshi? Her mother giggled softly before pointing at her, poking her chest slightly and then back at the paper.

Then, firmly, she repeated the words, "Sawada Tsunayoshi."

Oh. Was this her name? She brightened at that, staring at the characters more intently now. She poked the characters before pointing at her mother.

Her mother smiled.

"Tsu-kun." Her mother said, pointing at her. Then, she pointed at herself, "Kaa-chan."

"Kaa-chan," she pronounced, fumbling a little but still clear. Her mother looked delighted. Enjoying the look, she pointed at herself and glanced back down at the paper before saying, "Sa-wa-Da Tsu-na-yo-shi."

"--, Tsu-kun!" Her mother clapped, hugging her.

She smiled before turning down to look at the words again, then repeated, "Kaa-chan, Tsuna-yoshi." She patted her mother's chest, trying to say she loved her.

Her mother understood, somehow, because she was kissed on the forehead. Her mother smiled down at her with that bright, sunny smile and twinkling warm eyes before saying.

"Kaa-chan loves you, Tsu-kun," her mother said softly.

Sawada Tsunayoshi smiled up at her mother and said, "Tsunayoshi loves you, Kaa-chan."

"Kawaii, Tsu-kun," her mother says in a word she hasn't understood yet but has heard before.

She furrowed her brows, it has to be a good word, right? She looked at her mother seriously before repeating, "Kawaii, Kaa-chan."

Her mother's response was to laugh and hug her more, smothering her with love and warmth.

And so, this was the first step into her new identity as Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Edited 20/08/2023