The Retribution of a Reborn Life

Boarding bus number 233, my self-proclaimed elder brother, Ye Sakaki, and I slowly embarked on the ten-minute journey home.

The journey stretched on.

Though the ride was bumpy, we encountered few obstacles.

While real estate prices near the Moonlight Pavilion School District were frighteningly high, what was truly absurd was the lack of foot traffic despite such exorbitant costs.

In fact, quite the opposite was true: Crescent City, where the Moonlight Pavilion School District was located, felt far more tranquil and secluded compared to other urban centers.

Ordinarily, such an area would be associated with a slightly lower quality of life.

Yet, the reality was starkly different. Land prices here were only marginally lower than those in the capital, which meant Ye Sakaki and I currently resided in what amounted to a two-bedroom, one-living room apartment—though the ‘living room’ was barely distinguishable from a ‘bedroom’.

Moreover, it was nestled within an old apartment building that completely lacked any safety certifications.

At this moment, I held nothing but a necklace-style MP3 player, brimming with numerous songs exclusively composed by a little-known singer named [Slayer].

After all, for a reborn individual like myself, these so-called ‘mobile phones’ of the present era felt akin to forcing a university student to read elementary school textbooks.

To me, such devices were comparable to the phonographs people recognized today.

Even if they boasted color screens.

Even if they supported storage chips up to 128MB.

Even if they were phones that had ‘mastered’ the utterly pointless skill of flipping open…

Yet, merely browsing novels online required hours, listening to music meant files had to be under 2MB, and connecting to a network terminal was affectionately termed: [The Long Wait].

What purpose could such ‘mobile phones’—barely deserving the name—possibly serve for me, someone with hardly any friends to contact?

If they held no meaning, then they had no reason to exist. I had to find something else to take their place.

Thus, I discovered the Moom-box, a miraculous music player rumored to maintain its quality for a decade without a single issue.

Furthermore, it was noteworthy that this necklace-style music player boasted an internal capacity of 64GB, with each song easily reaching hundreds of megabytes.

This was precisely one of the reasons I admired the singer known in Chinese as [Slayer].

Her elegant music, accompanied by an ethereal and solitary female voice, featured unpredictable and ever-changing string rhythms, all delivered with an uncompromising passion for her craft.

It was a full tier above the music currently trending online.

One of her few shortcomings was that she never incorporated the widely popular rap style into her songs.

Furthermore, the singer known as ‘Slayer’ consistently uploaded her music only to some obscure corner of the internet, as if these unique and beautiful melodies were solely for her own enjoyment. This set her fundamentally apart from artists who would even tarnish their own reputations for fame.

Yet, [Slayer] only truly gained widespread popularity a year or two before my own incident. Even then, she never made a single public appearance; instead, she was represented by a green-haired, two-dimensional anime girl avatar.

Had it not been for a moment of curiosity in my previous life, prompting me to click on one of Slayer’s original songs—each hundreds of megabytes and taking over ten minutes to load—I likely would never have discovered this artist.

(Music playing—Ancient dust, do you know the secrets hidden among the stars~~~~)

At this very moment, with sound-isolating earplugs firmly in place, I silently walked the path to our rented apartment.

(Music playing—Heavenly stars, do you comprehend the solitude weathered by time~~~~)

I turned my head.

Ye Sakaki was following behind, backpack slung over his shoulders, embodying the posture of a dignified elder brother.

…Zzzzt.

Music playing—Oh, glorious sun above…. Screeeech… Glorious sun, glorious sun, glorious glorious glorious sun… sun sun sun sun sun sun!

A colossal cacophony of distorted music, coupled with an indescribably grating electrical noise, nearly ruptured my eardrums.

“Ahhh! Is this retribution?! Why are even you, little Si, mocking me now?!”

The overwhelming noise made me disregard everything else. I ripped out the tightly fitted earplugs and forcefully smashed the now defunct MP3 player onto the ground.

Music playing—Oh, glorious sun above~!! Ah!! Ah!!

“…Indeed… Slayer, you shall be sacrificed!!!”

CRACK!

Unable to contain the suppressed fury within me, I delivered two more kicks to the ‘deceased’ MP3 player—a device of a mysterious brand that, despite having fostered a two-year bond, was now mercilessly and cruelly abandoned in an instant.

Even in its final moments, this music player, which boasted a decade of flawless quality, upheld its integrity. Despite my utterly ‘heavyweight’ stomping, it maintained its uniformly smooth surface.

Yet, this quality guarantee… was flawed from the start, wasn’t it?!

Finally, under my intensified ‘war stomp,’ the defunct MP3 player ceased its function of conveying others’ sentiments.

(Music playing—Hiss… hiss hiss hiss……)

“Little Qi?! What are you doing? Can’t you try not to be so impulsive?”

“As your elder brother, I believe…”

‘Oh, here we go again.’

This was precisely why I harbored such an enduring dislike for him, an impulse that had never faded over the years.

What I detested most was that conceited, arrogant tone.

I recalled a peculiar man from my previous life who proclaimed himself: [One who shatters ancient trees before mountain Buddhas, and demolishes holy temples with crucified bodies below.] This man also bore a name that resonated with both fierce arrogance and unyielding resolve.

—Sato Makoto.

No matter how I perceived him, I always sensed a strong aura, one belonging to a protagonist.

—The legendary school tyrant from Municipal High School No. 8.

He was the [Number One School Tyrant] of a school that, rather than being a ‘graveyard of lives’ like most, felt more like an ‘ash purification plant’.

Sato Makoto, a young man whose age had long surpassed twenty yet remained in high school, was a school tyrant whom even the underworld had to respect. During his third year of high school, at a city-wide sports competition, he had said to me:

“—Hmph~ You piece of scum, why don’t you become my subordinate?”

It was a phrase common in the underworld, almost a catchphrase, but to me, it was utterly intolerable.

A phrase that insulted my parents.

Moreover, it defiled the memory of my mother, who, unlike in this life, had [mysteriously disappeared] during my high school years.

For ordinary people, it might have been dismissed with a laugh, but to me, those words were an unpardonable transgression.

****

Then, the next day.

In a small alley outside the campus, the police found Sato Makoto along with several youths, both male and female, whose lower bodies were so grievously injured they would require surgical removal of certain organs. It was said that un-melted, hammer-shaped shards of ice were also discovered at the scene.

—Thus, it became a bizarre cold case.

From this, it was evident just how ‘kind’ Ye Sakaki’s temperament truly was.

Perhaps, the reason I was a girl in this life… was the ‘retribution’ for all the wickedness I committed after gaining my powers in the last?