"That Day, I Began 'Reality Reincarnation'" — The Voyage Tetralogy, Chapter 1

Have you ever wondered if things are fine just the way they are?
This is a work written by me, an active sailor.

"The me from back then, and the me of today."

If this can bring even a tiny bit of light to someone who has suddenly stopped in the middle of their life, I would be happy.

You don't need an alternate world to restart your life.

There were nights when I asked myself over and over, "Is it okay to stay like this?"
Perhaps the reason I suddenly got hooked on isekai reincarnation anime was because I was wishing to "go somewhere different from where I am now."

But in reality, there is no magic, no skills, and no cheats. That is precisely why I believe there is "another life" that you have to choose for yourself.

This is a story told to me by a girl I met at an event.
A story about a girl who asked herself night after night, "Is it okay to stay like this?"
And who, upon meeting me—a sailor—began to change little by little.

"Isn't isekai reincarnation kind of unfair?"
When I was in high school, every time an anime character turned their life around with cheat abilities, that's what I used to think.

Reality is just Monday through Friday.
You wake up in the morning, get swayed on the train, and before you know it, the week is over.
If I ever voiced, "Is it okay to stay like this?", people around me would call it a "luxury problem."

But I—
had always been looking for a different way to live somewhere.

That was when I met a man who worked on ships.

A former fisherman, now an engineer on a merchant ship.
His story, as if he had completely "switched" his life, felt just like fiction.

I met him at an event I happened to drop by.
For some reason, I was drawn to the notice that read, "For those a little tired of their ordinary jobs."
—even though I didn't think I was tired.

But after meeting him, I realized.
I had just been "insensitive to my own feelings."

He chose his words carefully and spoke at my pace.
He wasn't pushy, nor did he get too close.
Just by watching him talk about what happened in his life as if he were on a journey,
I thought for the first time, "Life can be restarted."

On a ship, you hardly spend any money.
So, he said, when he's on vacation, he meets people and invests in his own activities.

"I want to properly savor life when I'm resting," he said with a smile.

Perhaps he was the first person I'd ever seen who "cherished his time on land."
Because everyone I had met until then was desperate about "always working hard."

"Isekai reincarnation" might not be somewhere out there, but inside yourself.

I am now preparing, little by little, to "re-choose my own life."

"Reality Reincarnation" might just be
stopping the longing for someone else's story,
and giving a name to your own.

I haven't changed anything major yet.

But the choices in my daily life have started to shift, little by little,
because I spent that day in a way that felt like remembering my own "nautical chart."

Reincarnation into another world isn't something that falls from the sky.
The scenery before your eyes remains the same, but before you know it, "another version of yourself" has begun to move.

That kind of magic exists in reality, too.

[Afterword]

*This text is composed based on the story of a woman I met at an event previously.

I wrote this essay by layering my own emotions over the story of the woman I met at the event. To those who have memories of nights spent wondering, "Is it okay to stay like this?"

I believe that the courage to "choose yourself again" surely exists within you as well.