Evanescence

A New Face, An Old Face

I couldn't believe my own eyes.

Even when faced with the reflection on the bathroom mirror, I still couldn't properly take in my new appearance. The face staring back at me was familiar, yet I could not entirely bring myself to call it my own.

Just as I had remembered, my eyes were still obsidian mirrors. However, they seemed to have gotten a tad deeper; one could even say that they now seemed lethargic or somber. The innocence they used to brandish had faded away, giving even myself chills with their newly acquired torpidity and graveness. It was as if my eyes, which used to be one of the more cheery facial features, had lost their vigour over time. Perhaps it was just the new dimensions of my face, making the eyes look more narrow and fierce—but I also managed to observe a certain "melancholy" behind its cold keenness, as if an event had distorted them into the way they were.

My eyes soon moved from inspecting themselves to a few centimetres above—my hair. One of my most prominent features, I was happy that it changed only very little. In fact, it still kept its general octopus-like shape: black clumps of curved triangles spreading out sideways, two "tentacles" at the peak that vaguely form a semicircle area above my head, and bangs that stubbornly grasp onto my head like claws. As primary features of my "Tako Hair," a trait that I have been teased for since I was a child, I have become rather identifiable by them. Of course, it had its own share of modifications. It had become much longer, and my bangs have increased in number. Overall, these were just minor changes—even their colouration was still just as I remembered, mirroring my eyes' own dark shade, and contrasting with my pale complexion.

Of course, with this sharp contrast of colours, my focus shifted to my body and physique, which had changed greatly. I had grown and matured—instead of having the kind of body I remembered, which was still trying to get rid of the baby fat, I had one that belonged to an athlete on the ectomorphic side. I had also gained a massive amount in terms of height, which actually made me a little woozy, as I was used to my short stature. I had always been somewhat athletic, but my form was a little too fit, as if I had been working out while I was unconscious.

After inspecting myself, I sighed in defeat. I still had questions that I wanted answers for, but I concluded that all of these changes, despite how foreign they looked, were not unlikely considering the circumstances. And said circumstances were revealed to me just before I headed to look at myself in the mirror.

Shortly after revealing my name to the doctors and a thirty-minute rest, I recalled the number of my Uncle Kaito. His number was always somewhere in the back of my head, as my father told me I should contact him during emergencies that he is unable to remedy himself. I wasted no time and immediately called my uncle, fingers crossed—I was lucky that he picked up, because I was not sure if he still kept the same mobile number. Upon hearing me explain the situation to him, he grew skeptical, hardly believing his own ears. He even asked me a series of questions to prove my identity, all due to his disbelief. When I proved my identity to him, his voice seemed to have a tinge of nervousness.

He believed that I was dead.

Uncle Kaito then started to drop revelations one after another, which hit me like bombs. Apparently, there really was no car accident. We had arrived safely to our destination, and we were already attending the formal party. Well into the party, the venue was bombed, and neither of our corpses were found. It was assumed that we were instantly cremated, and a funeral was held without our corpses.

I then formed a possible story in my head. Using all that I knew, I tried to rationalise what I had gathered—perhaps I was not in the formal party in the first place. Maybe I went to Inazuma Town for a reason that I couldn't remember, and a separate incident occurred. But because I was presumed to be in the party, nobody looked for me. I was instead found a short time after the party, without being identified. And that would lead to me being in the hospital for some time.