— Yoshi, why so glum? It's your son's birthday! — Satoshi, a family friend, said in a sing-song voice. — You should be celebrating!
— Yeah, you're right… It's just still hard to come to terms with… — the father of the family drawled. Already quite tipsy, he allowed himself to whine a bit to his friend.
— Here you go again with that! You both chose to take care of him, so don't be a wimp and take responsibility.
Yoshi sighed and glanced at the corner of the room. There sat a boy — Toshiyuki, his son, who turned five today. Toshiyuki was sitting on the floor, completely engrossed in staring at a Rubik's cube. He was just fixating on one spot on it.
Even in the womb, the healers had said something was wrong with their son. And at birth, it became clear: he had a deformed mental soul-shell — or, as doctors might tell laypeople, schizophrenia.
***
The morning after the birthday.
— Pain. My head hurts. Hunger. I want to eat. Heat. Fear. Trembling. — The small body didn't understand what was happening. A flood of sensations began to overwhelm the unstructured consciousness.
[Shell status — suitable. Consciousness is malleable. Commencing noise cleanup.]
Before Toshi could process the images that appeared in his mind, his body went limp, no longer responding to his attempts to scream.
[Commencing memory package decompression. 1%… 32%… 57%… 62%… ERROR. Section damaged. Requesting support… Accepted. Memory fragmentation protocol initiated.]
[Upload completed successfully. Awakening initiated!]
— What? Where am I? — As if in response to the question, a meager stream of Toshiyuki's memories, the owner of this body, flooded into his consciousness. — No… Toshiyuki is me… Did I just remember?
In contrast, new images struck his consciousness: another life. Names were erased, but the memories were vivid, as if laminated. Seventeen years of life flashed by quickly and painfully, leaving a bitter aftertaste and shock.
[Data upload complete. Primary status:]
[Personal Information:
Name: Toshiyuki Ono-Yume
Gender: Male
Race: Mana-saturated human ?[1]]
[Ability Assessment:
Condition: Emerging from hibernation. Primarily positive. Mental exhaustion.
Physical Development: Weak (1/5) ?[2]
Mental Development: Exceptional. ?[3]
Mana Condition: Weak (1/5) ?[4]]
[Categories: Skills, Inventory, Modifications — Locked. Insufficient physical development and system integration.]
[1] Sorcerer
[2] Due to the user’s age, the assessment system is simplified. Extremely low development.
[3] The mind and its stored data clearly exceed the age of the shell.
[4] The mana core has been almost entirely unused, resulting in no development.