The pain was gone first. Then the darkness.
Dean's eyes snapped open to white ceiling tiles and the beeping of a heart monitor. For a moment, he couldn't remember why he was in a hospital. Then it all came rushing back: the truck, the impact, the feeling of his body breaking apart on cold asphalt.
But he wasn't dead.
He sat up slowly, expecting agony, but found only the dull ache of healing bruises. His hands moved across his chest, searching for wounds that should have been fatal. Nothing. Just bandages and the fading marks of an accident that should have killed him.
"Dean! You're awake!"
A woman rushed into the room, tears streaming down her face. Dark hair, familiar features. His mother. No, not his mother. This woman looked similar, but younger somehow, with an expression he'd never seen before. His chest tightened as memories that weren't his own began to surface.
Her name was Miki. She was his mother in this life.
The memories came in fragments, layering over his own like a palimpsest. A childhood in this world, a Japanese high school, a younger brother named Issei who was obsessed with something called "Sacred Gears." The knowledge settled into his mind like it had always been there, except it hadn't. He was Dean from his previous life, but he was also Dean Hyoudou, Issei's older brother, reborn into a world of magic and demons.
"Mom," he said, testing the word. It felt strange on his tongue, but the memories confirmed it was right. "How long was I out?"
"Three weeks," she said, gripping his hand. "The doctors said it was a miracle you survived. They weren't sure you'd ever wake up."
Dean looked out the hospital window at the Japanese cityscape beyond. This was his life now. No going back. No second chances at his old existence. Just this new reality where his younger brother had powers he didn't understand, and Dean had... nothing.
The thought burned in his chest.
He'd loved anime in his previous life, had spent countless hours watching shows about protagonists who worked their way up from nothing, who refused to accept limitations, who became strong through sheer determination. He'd always thought those stories were inspiring precisely because they were impossible in the real world.
Now he was in a world where the impossible was real, and he had no special power to show for it.
"The school called," his mother continued, relief evident in her voice. "They said you can come back whenever you're ready. Issei's been visiting every day. He'll be so happy to see you're awake."
Dean nodded absently, his mind already working. If this were a world of magic and demons, if his younger brother had a Sacred Gear, then there had to be a way for him to gain power, too, not through some divine gift, but through his own effort.
He'd always been a lone wolf, even in his previous life. Someone who worked alone, who trusted his own strength above all else. That wasn't going to change just because he'd been reborn into a supernatural world.
If anything, it was exactly what he needed.
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