When Arashi opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a blurry ceiling. Everything seemed strangely distorted, the light spreading as if it were breaking inside his eyes. His vision wouldn't settle; the world looked warped and heavy, as if it were being seen from underwater. For a moment he couldn't do anything. More precisely, there was nothing he could do. His body felt oddly heavy, small, and uncontrollable. At that moment Evan's consciousness slowly began to rise to the surface after a long darkness. His first thought was clear. …Didn't I die?
His memories returned with a delay. The edge of the rooftop, the dim city lights, the last cigarette, the final breath… and the fall that followed. Evan fell silent in his mind for a moment. Yes, he had definitely died. He remembered that. Then why was he still thinking? Why did he still seem to exist here, staring at a ceiling instead of disappearing into the darkness? Just as he tried to understand it, a warm scent filled his nose. Milk, clean sheets, and soft fabric. Those were not the kinds of peaceful smells he expected after death.
Then he heard a voice. A soft, tired, yet strangely warm woman's voice. "Arashi… calm down." Evan's mind froze instantly. Arashi? The name sounded familiar, but it didn't belong to him. At least, not in the life he knew. Instinctively he tried to speak. His reaction was perfectly natural. Wait a second, I'm Evan, there's been a mistake here— But the only thing that came out of his mouth was a sharp, pitiful, and utterly humiliating baby cry. "WAAAAAAAAA!" Evan froze completely for several seconds.
Silence. Then the slow rise of irritation in his mind. He tried again. This time he was more controlled. Alright, calm down. Gather your tongue. Speak properly. But the second attempt produced the same result. Another pathetic baby wail escaped his mouth, even louder than before. "WAAAAAA!" At that moment Evan fully grasped the terrible truth. …I can't speak. A few seconds later the second blow followed. Because… I'm a baby. The silence that formed in his mind after that realization felt like one of the greatest humiliations a human being could experience.
Evan tried to accept the situation, but the absurd part was that he didn't even have enough control to do that properly. He tried to lift his arm; it trembled meaninglessly in the air before falling back down. He tried to turn his head; his neck seemed to refuse to obey his will. He tried to move his fingers, but his tiny hand made a ridiculous motion toward his face before dropping back onto the blanket. Evan grumbled in his mind. Wonderful. Just wonderful. I finished one whole life, and in my new one I've started from the tutorial stage. A few seconds later he realized something even worse. No, wait… this isn't even the tutorial. I can't even reach the menu yet.
At that moment someone picked him up. A warm body, a careful touch, and a gentle rocking motion… Evan tried to focus his eyes. The face before him belonged to a young woman. She had black hair, and her face looked tired, with faint shadows under her eyes from sleepless nights. Yet she was still trying to smile. At first glance the smile looked kind, but with closer attention it was clearly incomplete. Her lips curved, yes… but her eyes did not say the same thing.
"Calm down, Arashi…" the woman said softly. Hearing the name for the second time made Evan flinch inwardly. So that's my new name. When the woman's finger touched his tiny hand, his little fingers instinctively wrapped around it. Evan immediately commented in his mind. That's purely a reflex. No need to assign emotional meaning to it. Yet he still didn't let go. When the woman felt it, a faint warmth appeared on her tired face. "Good boy…" she whispered. Evan remained silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke in a very serious tone inside his mind. For the first time in my life someone has called me a good boy, and I can't even argue back.
The woman continued rocking him gently. The movement was rhythmic, soft, and—whether he liked it or not—comforting. Evan wanted to be annoyed by it, but the comfort his small body felt sabotaged his thoughts. At some point he realized he was actually calming down. That irritated him even more. You've got to be kidding me… I'm actually being soothed by being rocked. Just as he was about to get angry about that, the woman spoke quietly. "Your father would have been so happy to see you like this…" That sentence changed the warmth in the room into something else entirely.
Evan looked at the woman's face. The smile from before was still there, but now it looked paler. It was like something clinging weakly to the corner of her lips. At that moment Evan felt the absence left by the previous night more clearly. This woman was trying not to cry. She was trying not to break. But deep in her eyes was the silent emptiness carried by people who had already lost something precious. The woman spoke again, her voice even quieter this time. "Now I only have you…" Evan couldn't respond to that sentence. Not because he physically couldn't—though that was also true—but because he genuinely didn't know what to say.
The next few days were both irritating and embarrassing for Evan. His mind was still that of a grown man, but his body behaved entirely according to the whims of a baby. Whenever he tried to think seriously, his body sabotaged him halfway through. One day he was thinking I should analyze the structure of this world when he suddenly burped. Not a small one either—an unmistakable, ridiculous baby burp that shattered the seriousness of his thoughts. Another day he tried to listen carefully to his mother's conversations to gather clues about where he was, only to fall asleep instantly and lose all his mental preparation within half a second. Eventually Evan accepted the truth. I'm trying to philosophize here, but my body's priorities are burping and sleeping.
Even so, as time passed he began to notice certain things. The woman's name was Yuki. Sometimes people came into the room and spoke in quiet voices, bowed their heads, and then left. Each time they did, Yuki became a little quieter. Her smile never disappeared completely, but now it only appeared when she looked at Arashi. And even then it lasted a little less each day. It was as if she wasn't holding on to life itself, but only to her child. Evan watched it unwillingly. He didn't know this woman, this life wasn't his—but the silent absence in the room became more noticeable with each passing day.
One morning when he opened his eyes, something completely different happened. A transparent screen appeared directly in the center of his vision. At first Evan thought it was some hallucination caused by exhaustion. Then he quickly corrected his own thought. Wait, I'm already someone who has been reincarnated. The threshold for absurdity has long been crossed. The screen remained there. At the top was a simple and cold title: FATE LOTTERY SYSTEM. Evan stared at it for several seconds. Then he spoke calmly in his mind. Of course. If reincarnation exists, a system existing too is only natural. Completely reasonable. One second passed. Damn it, it's not reasonable at all.
FATE LOTTERY SYSTEM
Name: Arashi
Former Name: Evan
Age: 0
Level: 1
Strength: 1
Speed: 1
Endurance: 1
Chakra: 2
Intelligence: 8
Abilities: None
Lottery Tickets: 1
Next Monthly Draw: 30 Days
Monthly Lottery Available
Draw?
YES / NO
Evan stared at the screen for a long time. The system said nothing, explained nothing. There were no quests, no guide, and no voice. It was simply a silent menu. Strangely, that made it even more unsettling. If it had been a talking system, at least there would have been someone to argue with. But this thing… was completely indifferent. Evan eventually let out a deep sigh in his mind. I'm only a few days old, he thought. I can't even hold my head properly. And yet I have a monthly lottery menu in front of me. He stayed silent for a few seconds. Then he muttered to himself. Alright… I get it. This new life… was going to be far stranger than he expected.