The Time I Was Reincarnated and It Was My Birthday 《This Week's Three-Topic Story Announcement》

Today is my birthday. Depending on how you look at it, it is also the anniversary of my reincarnation into a new world. Yeah. I can hear a voice telling me to calm down. I can hear it myself, too.

To be over forty and start talking about reincarnation on your birthday is a pretty seasoned case of 'chunibyo' (middle school syndrome). When chunibyo grows to this extent, it is no longer a sickness; it is more like a bonsai tree. As a result of carefully watering it and shaping it with the seasons, I have become a middle-aged man who can say, 'Today, I enter a new world,' with a straight face.

I actually think that might be what a birthday is.

Because even though today's me has the same face as the me of yesterday, only my age has been properly updated for the fiscal year. The contents remain the same, only the version number goes up (and the bugs just increase). It feels like I am scanning myself at a self-checkout counter without the help of a clerk.

'Yes, here is your new age.'
'Would you like a bag?'
'That's fine, I'll just put last year's fatigue right in there.'
Unmanned accounting of life is happening as usual.

I used to expect glamorous meanings from birthdays. Like waking up in the morning with a completed personality, hearing the voice of a sage in my head, or having a status screen appear at the edge of my vision.
Agility +2, Tolerance +5, Vocabulary +7.
And while I'm at it, body fat percentage -3.

I have been waiting for such convenient updates for many years. But reality is harsh. Even if I wake up on the morning of my birthday, all I have is bedhead, mild eye strain, and some vague heaviness in my shoulders. The gate to a fantasy world does not open, and only the mirror in the washroom looks at me with its usual tension.

Even so, I decide to think that I have 'reincarnated.'

If I don't, every birthday would just be a day where I buy a slightly expensive pudding at a slightly expensive supermarket.

That is happy in its own way, but I want a little more story. Once you pass a certain age, you have to generate your own events to keep going.

Today is Day 1 of the new world.
Let's treat the failures of yesterday as things from a past life.

Isn't this a big deal?
Things I thought about writing but left alone.
Things I thought about saying but couldn't.
Times I tried to look cool and failed.
I can fold all of those things up at once as 'memories of a past life.' It is so convenient that it looks like the entrance to a religion, but for now, it remains within the scope of personal use.

Perhaps life needs a little emergency exit. When you hit a dead end and try to leave through the front door with effort, guts, or reflection, the door is usually heavy. It won't open whether you push or pull. At times like that, you say something a bit silly like, 'From today, it is a new world,' and slip out through the side door.

Without that much of an escape route, humans would be steamed by their own seriousness. I am now at an age where I understand how a steamed bun feels.

The me of the new world is a little free.
Things I avoided until yesterday, the me of today can start with a fairly calm face. Because I have reincarnated.

It is a pretty rough reason, but being rough is good. For a restart, cutting it as roughly as konjac and throwing it into a pot is just right.

If you carefully align the corners, you will never start. Both konjac and life are easier to move forward when they are a little wobbly.

So, today is my birthday. The day I reincarnated into a new world.

Well, I feel like I might be worrying about the same things as yesterday when tomorrow comes. At that time, I can just give it a different name again. That is how people survive.

At the very least, I intend to keep going for quite a long time with such silly excuses.

《This Week's Three-Topic Story》

1. Forgetting to lock the door
2. Immunity
3. Saving points (*'Poi-katsu' is also okay)

Please use the hashtag
#ThursdayIs3sday
.

Anyone can participate.
The deadline is tentatively next Wednesday, July 1st.
It is okay if you are late.


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#66WeekWritingRun
[Image cooperation: Sachiwa]

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