Leon had been sure now—It wasn't a dream.
Seeing how the pain of his nail being torn off felt so real, he had waited for a long time to wake up in his room or maybe even at the hospital. But seeing how he was still here, feeling hungry, he came to the conclusion that he had died and transmigrated into the body of this child. He had seen many anime and read countless novels on the same topic, and it felt like the only reasonable conclusion he could come to. Nothing else came to mind that could explain his present situation.
It had been a long time since he ran from the dog. He didn't know exactly how long, but it didn't matter. He was feeling hungry—very hungry.
He carefully inched closer to the opening. Once he got close enough, he stuck his head out, scanning left and right. He saw piles of trash. On one of those piles, he saw something like a hand sticking out. Squinting his eyes, he tried to look again, spotting a dead body stuck in one of the piles. Its flesh had rotted as flies hovered above like a dark cloud. He quickly looked elsewhere as his guts wrenched. But by coincidence, in the direction he looked, he saw another body near a puddle of dirty water. This one was much closer to the opening. Earlier, in panic, he had failed to notice it.
It was the body of a young boy, much bigger than he was now—around 15 to 16 years old. Still very young from his old perspective as a 26-year-old man. He also had silver-white hair, much like Leon had now. From the condition of the body, since it hadn't started rotting yet, it must have died recently.
Noticing that the dog was nowhere to be seen, Leon came out slowly, his eyes scanning for even the tiniest movements around him, ready to crawl back into the opening at a moment's notice. When he didn't see the dog in his surroundings, he released his breath—which he hadn't realized he was holding.
Walking towards the trash hills up ahead, Leon steered clear of areas where he had spotted dead bodies. His nose burned with all the filthy stench around him.
He passed hills of trash, puddles of black water. On the way, he spotted multiple dead bodies—some buried under piles of trash, some lying in the open. One thing was common about these bodies, though: none of them looked older than 20. He saw the bodies of young boys and girls, all dressed in old, tattered clothes. Strangely, most of them had no outside injuries—at least not on the parts that were visible from afar.
Even as a 26-year-old mentally, he refrained from going closer to the bodies. He held a strange, unexplained fear of them waking up and grabbing him—just like in the movies.
As Leon continued, his feet suddenly came to a halt as he hid behind one of the trash piles. Peeking from its side, he saw the same grey dog sleeping up ahead in a relatively clean and dry spot.
Leon went around the trash pile and slowly, without making any sound, tried to walk around the spot where the dog was sleeping.
Aside from the hill he was hiding behind, there were no other big trash piles he could use to hide in his immediate vicinity. The only one was on his right, but it was where he had noticed not one but three dead bodies.
Making his decision, Leon walked into the clearing. His goal was to reach the trash pile on his left, just slightly ahead of the dog's sleeping spot.
But just as he was about to step into the clearing, he heard a low growling sound coming from behind him.
His heart trembled as he slightly turned his head back to see another dog. This one had dirty white fur with big black spots here and there.
As soon as Leon met its eyes, it barked and started running.
Wasting no time, he too burst into motion, running desperately. As he reached the hill he was aiming for, Leon saw from the corner of his eye that the grey dog had also woken up. It chased after him, right behind the other dog.
And to add to his misfortune, even though he looked at the grey dog for just a split second, that distraction was enough to send him tumbling down from the trash pile. He wasn't accustomed to his body, so running without full concentration had turned into a fatal mistake.
Leon desperately tried to get up, but in his desperation, he made mistake after mistake. His hands and feet kept slipping beneath him—maybe because he was on a trash pile, maybe because he wasn't used to his body—but that didn't matter anymore. The dog with dirty white fur and black spots was already on him.
Just as Leon's heart sank in despair and his hands covered his head to prepare for the dog's attack—a savior came.The grey dog that had attacked Leon earlier and was following behind bit into the leg of the white dog, and both dogs started fighting.
Leon used that opportunity and broke into a sprint. By the mercy of the gods, this time he didn't slip. He made a beeline straight ahead—towards where he had spotted the outline of streets and houses.
As Leon got closer and closer to his goal, he saw clearly what lay ahead: a slum area. The outline he had seen was the back of houses. He spotted a small alley between tightly packed houses and dove right into it.
As he reached relative safety, leaving the dogs far behind, he saw other children just like himself. There were around five of them huddled together. As they spotted the newcomer one of them came closer.
a girl who appeared around ten years old .
She suddenly grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently.
"Leon, where were you? We were so worried! How many times have I told you not to go in there? There are wild dogs there! don't tell me they bit you "She shouted at him at the top of her lungs.
Leon was in no capacity to reply. From all his running, he was panting heavily. His mouth felt dry, his legs had gone limp as he sat down.
The girl was still holding him, demanding answers.
In his mind, he laughed at the irony—Even in this world, his name was the same. Maybe it was coincidence... or maybe, it was how it was meant to be.