The first thing I noticed was how much my eyes hurt. Even squinting, the tiniest bit of light felt like staring into a spotlight.
The next thing I noticed was what sounded like a baby crying somewhere far away.
I quickly realized that baby was me.
Good—looks like I didn't freak out my parents by being born with a blank expression thanks to my past life memories.
Apparently this baby body just cries on its own regardless of what I'm thinking.
After a little while, someone wrapped me in a blanket and picked me up—must be my mother. My eyes aren't working properly yet, so even up close her face is all blurry, but I can tell she's smiling.
Then a man held me. This must be my father, and he seems to be smiling too.
They're both talking to me, but my ears aren't functioning right yet, and my own crying is so loud I can't make out what they're saying. Before long I got sleepy and just dozed off.
….
Apparently my name in this world is Arima Ikki.
I figured out the name because my parents kept calling me Ikki, and when we went outside in a baby carrier, the neighbors called my parents Arimas, so I got the surname too.
As for the kanji, I spotted it on the nameplate by the front door when they were chatting with someone there.(Yeah, I studied Japanese so I know how to read and write).
Ikki comes from Kurogane Ikki, the guy who uses Ittou Shura, and Arima... is that from Angra Mainyu?
Well, it's not some weird made-up name, so whatever.
Doesn't look like I have any siblings yet.
About diapers and High School DxD's trademark... uh, breasts (my mother's), I'll keep that to myself. Let's just say it was complicated.
Anyway, I want to test my reincarnation perks, but Self-Destruct is obviously out of the question. A baby suddenly exploding would probably give its parents heart attacks. And if a baby goes into critical condition, there's a good chance I'd just die for real this time.
Next up: checking out Verg Avesta. Luckily, the original series explained how to manifest a Sacred Gear, and I remember it.
Raise your left hand, then lower it while imagining your strongest technique!
"Aun aa~ (Rasengan)!"
I'll accept the criticism! Sure, it's probably weak compared to attacks from other series!
But I did more image training with the Rasengan than anything else back when I was going through my chuuni phase, so I'm not taking any arguments!
It's not about raw power—it's about what looks cool to the person using it!
Flash!
For a split second, light blazed around me, and then I was gripping twisted blades in both hands.
Zarich and Taurvi—Angra Mainyu's deformed twin swords from Fate. They kind of look like maple leaves... I think.
A baby can't even lift these things, but knowledge of how to use them flowed into my head—or maybe my soul? I dismissed the Sacred Gear right after.
Oh, and obviously I only tested this when my parents weren't watching.
Finally, there's Ittou Shura, but I can only try that at night after my parents are asleep, wrapped up in my crib blankets.
If I did it during the day, they'd notice me being completely wiped out.
So here we are at night. Time to finally test Ittou Shura! Man, this took forever. This baby body konks out immediately, so this is actually like the fifteenth attempt!
But I finally made it to today, and my parents are asleep! Here goes—Ittou Shura!
Instantly, I felt incredible power surging through me. I can't exactly run around—and I shouldn't—but I feel like I could vault over the crib rails in one leap.
I can tell all my senses are super sharp too. I can see the clock hands clearly even in the dark, and the second hand is moving incredibly slowly! From my perspective, it feels like more than ten seconds have passed.
If I close my eyes and listen carefully, I can hear my heartbeat and even the sound of blood flowing.
This is insane! This is amazing! I'm not afraid of anything! Nothing can hurt me anymore!
...poof.
Huh? Wait, my body feels... heavy... and I'm losing consciousness...
The next morning, I still felt sluggish. Long live baby life—I definitely wouldn't want to go to school or work feeling like this.
--
About a month has passed since then, and I've activated nighttime Ittou Shura several times.
Why? Because I can't forget that feeling of omnipotence... cough cough!
No, that's not it! It's because I felt like I might grasp something important if I meditated while my senses were enhanced like that.
Namely: learning senjutsu!
Senjutsu is the art of becoming one with the world's ki and manipulating life energy—your own and others'.
It excels at detection and stealth abilities, and against living opponents, you can disrupt their ki to deal damage equivalent to injecting deadly poison.
It's supposedly weak in terms of physical attack power, but if you manipulate ki to cloak yourself in touki (fighting spirit), it can cover that weakness perfectly.
Normally you learn senjutsu first, then touki, but there are examples like Sairaorg Bael, who devoted everything to muscle and only learned touki after skipping senjutsu entirely...
But those advantages come with matching drawbacks.
There's a risk of absorbing the evil ki floating around the world and going berserk.
Probably emotions like hatred for your opponent or wanting to torture defeated enemies get amplified.
In other words, you have to carefully separate out only the evil ki from all the ki filling the world.
That's hard enough when you're calmly meditating, but you have to do it in the middle of combat while also having the mental strength not to reach for the easy path to greater power right in front of you.
Good ki and evil ki—just thinking about it simply, absorbing both would double your output...
"Just a little bit won't hurt."
"I'll absorb just a tiny bit more."
"Just one more time..."
It's like a drug.
Yeah, even if I manage to learn senjutsu properly, I'm never touching evil ki. Not even once.
In my past life, I never touched cigarettes because I figured once I started, I wouldn't be able to stop. Same principle here.