===============================================
"""Happy 22nd birthday, Andy!""" my family members congratulated me all around. Some clapped their hands genuinely while the rest did it out of obligation.
'I swear birthdays get more embarrassing every year.' I thought with a light blush on my cheeks.
I lower my lips to the two small flames sitting on top of the childish "22" candles and blow them out with one controlled breath.
"Wait. Did you make a wish?" my father asked, his brows furrowing.
'Oh, shit. I forgot you're supposed to do that.' my eyes widen slightly, the realization having hit me that I really did forget to make a wish.
I purse my lips and rack my brain for a suitable wish, or anything, really.
"Uh.. I wish I'm still alive?" I say awkwardly, even I'm stupefied that I just said that.
My father, however, did not take my little joke well. He immediately shushed me and smacked my shoulder. He didn't say anything, but it was obvious I shouldn't have done that. If I had to guess, probably a superstition of some sort.
'Huh. Maybe I should have wished for a job and a girlfriend after college.' proper wishes started flooding my mind whilst I stare at the dancing smoke.
.
.
The next day. Andy's house.
I'm just going about my day as usual, when I feel a sudden tightness in my chest.
My left hand darts to the spot over my heart before gripping my flesh. 'Fuck..! Again? I really should take exercise seriously.' I curse my inability to lead a healthy lifestyle.
I experience minor heart attacks roughly once every 2~3 months. Likely due to my minimal-exercise and no-diet lifestyle.
"I probably have more heart attacks than those fat fucks." I curse through my teeth, wincing from the squeezing pain..
'Shit.. When will this end?' the pain lasting longer than usual. I begin wishing for it to end quickly.
However... it didn't end. This time felt inexplicably tight on my heart.
"Ah..Ahh...!" the squeezing sensation became stronger, making drop to the wooden floor below me. My lightweight frame creating a loud thud.
I begin to feel increasing stiffness in my jaw.
"Ugh..! Ah..!! Help..!!" I desperate call for help through the pain.
However, there was no one around to help. My mother is asleep in the next room, While my brother downstairs likely has headsets on. And my father is off at work.
'It hurts...' my eyes moistened as I squirm on the floor.
'Is this some sort of punishment? But for what? I didn't hurt anyone that much. Not physically nor with words. Lavishness? Never heard of it. We're just afloat enough to enroll in private schooling.' I rack my brain for anything I've done in the past that would warrant such punishment.
Eventually, I started to feel numb despite the tears flowing out of my optics.
'No. What punishment? This is just a result of me neglecting my health. Nothing more to it. Simply cause and effect.'
As the numbness in my body increases, my vision starts to darken as I lay there on the wooden floor wet with my own tears.
'I'm sorry mama, papa. This useless son will burden you two to bury his corpse.'
And just like that, the young man named Andy, age 22, passed away from a heart attack.
Not having accomplished anything, not even getting a taste of what having a girlfriend is like. He always insisted that he'd only date after he graduated and got a job, but this is where it got him.
A life unfulfilled, a life that didn't benefit anyone.
...
.....
........
"... What?"
I open my eyes and see neither the gates of heaven, the fiery pits of hell, nor nothingness.
Instead, I see an unfamiliar white ceiling.
I turn my head to see a hospital monitor. I trace the chords to this foreign feeling attached to my nostrils.
I look down at myself.
I'm laying on a white bed with a blanket over my body.
Not dead, I think.
"Did I somehow survive..? A heart attack that felt like it killed me, didn't actually kill me?"
I move my right arm and immediately feel a shooting pain from it
"Ack- Fuck!" I winced.
"What happened to me..? Ugh-" it was then that a rush of memories flooded my head. Foreign, yet familiar.
This lasted for just a brief moment, but it left me sweating all over.
"Who..? These.. are these are my memories..?" the unbelievable event left me confused, dumbfounded.
I look through the memories I just received. A language I don't remember ever learning, places I've never been, people I've never met, things I never did. Yet, it feels like I've done all of this, somehow. It's to explain.
Shortly after, the realization hit me. There's one thing that would explain such a string of events.
"No fucking way... I've been fucking isekai'ed, or, well, reborn."
I look down at myself again, moving my limbs about, or at least trying to. The sharp pain forces me to rethink any large movements.
"Am I dreaming..? But this aching in my body feels too real.."
I close my eyes and simmer into my "new" memories. Shifting through them for answers.
After a while, I open my eyes again.
"My name... is Andy Tsukishiro. My mother is Hana Tsukishiro, a Japanese woman. I'm a hafu; a mix of Filipino and Japanese. I'm 20 years old. Born and raised in Tokyo. Never left the city even once..."
"My last memory... It was my birthday. My mother in this world took me out to eat in a fancy restaurant. But I disliked being with her since teenagehood. I walked out on her, for some reason. She quickly chased after me. She kept asking me what she did wrong, but I kept ignoring her and continued walking away... Until I crossed a red light and was hit by a car..."
I once more raise my arm. It still hurts, but not as much as before, oddly enough.
"That explains why my body hurts all over..."
"But this world..."
I briefly course through my memories again.
"It's a reverse world, isn't it? With a slightly skewed gender ratio of 3 to 1 female to male too."
A world where women held most of the power, worked, and acted like men of my old world. Here the men were more.. "feminine." Acting like women of my old world.
The "me' of this world was a spoiled brat. My mother was fairly wealthy, but I didn't treat her nor anyone favorably. Yet mother was still a fool for her son, me. Which is apparently normal behavior for a mother with a son in this world.
"... Weird." I blurted out.
"I never thought I'd become a reverse world protagonist like this... What's next? A nurse will enter the room, see me awake, then drop the tray she's holding?" I laugh at the ridiculous trope.
"There's no way that'll happen-"
Suddenly, the sound of the door swinging open could be heard to my right.
As if on cue, a young female nurse entered the room, with a clipboard on hand instead of a tray, unfortunately.
"Hourly check on patient Andy Tsukishiro-" she spoke in native Japanese. She paused as she met my eyes staring back at her from the bed.
"... Good evening." I greeted her in native Japanese, with a smile on my face.
"...." the nurse, dumbfounded, stared back with her mouth agape and eyes wide.
Suddenly...
"!?!?" my eyes blow wide from seeing what the nurse had just done.
She punched herself on the face. Not a slap, but a full on punch.
"Uhh are you okay?" I asked with a perplexed expression. Clearly not expecting a nurse to just punch herself like that.
"I must be dreaming..." the nurse muttered while rubbing the cheek she just knuckled. "The sleeping beauty of room 214... Awake and looking back at me... Greeting me with a smile on his face..." she stared at me with a dazed expression.
My lips curl into a small smile. "Sleeping beauty? I'm flattered."
"Ah... there he goes again..." she replied, still in a daze.
'Alright. Enough messing around.'
"Could you please fetch me a doctor?" I say in a polite tone.
"Okay..." she replied weakly, the female nurse then proceeded to leave the room.
A few seconds after the nurse left, I replay the interaction just now.
'Right. This face is quite attractive. I was only slightly above average in my old world, but with this new appearance I'm essentially an ikemen.1incredibly handsome man Yet another reverse world isekai trope.'
"Hm? Is that..? The fabled remote hospital bed remote?" dangling on the head frame of the bed is a small remote with a pair of buttons. One with an arrow pointing up and under it is an arrow pointing down.
I reach for the remote, ignoring the pain from moving my body.
Once in my grasp, I hold down the top button. "Whoa..! Cool!" a gleeful smile on my face as the top half of the bed began to rise with a soft mechanical whir.
I let go of the button once it raised about 30 degrees. Still laying, but raised enough so I won't have to look up when talking to someone.
"Now I should prepare myself for the doctor to come bursting in."
A few minutes, there is still no doctor in sight.
'She didn't forget to call a doctor, right...?' I thought to myself, beginning to worry that nurse forgot about me.
Shortly after, the door swung open.
Finally, a doctor arrived with another clipboard on hand. And it's..
'A male doctor..?' my eyes widen slightly. Instead of the cougar doctor I was expecting, it's a male doctor who looks to be in his 60s.
'Well, now that I think about it, they probably want a male doctor to tend to a male patient, if possible. So no complications can happen, I guess? That'd make the most sense..'
The doctor then approached me, briefly glancing at the monitor before meeting my gaze.
"Tsukishiro-san, how are you feeling?" the doctor asked, his tone professional. His old man eyes scanning me with expert precision.
"Well, most of my body hurts when I move, doc. My right arm doesn't hurt nearly as much as my left arm, though." I explained my condition honestly. One should never lie to a health professional, after all.
The old doctor nodded at my response. "Your left side was the initial point of impact when you were hit by the car. That is the least we can expect."
'Oh- right! I was hit by a car!' I then used my right arm to remove the blanket over me.
My left arm, torso, and leg were heavily bandaged. No patch of skin was left uncovered.
I turn back to the doctor, worry etched across my face. "Is my left side gonna be okay, doc? Will I be able to live normally?"
"Yes. Yes, you will." the doctor instantly replied. Unfazed by my reaction.
He then casually flipped through the papers on his clipboard. "Miraculously, you only received broken bones. Nothing else." the old man explained after looking through what I assume to be my medical records on the clipboard.
Hearing that, I soon brighten up. Relief washing over me.
"Really?! Thank you, doc!" I thanked the doctor earnestly with a smile before bowing my head in gratitude.
"... You're welcome, Tsukishiro-san." the male doctor received it with a warm, genuine smile.
"So, how long have I been out, doc?"
'I was even the called the "sleeping beauty of room 214" so I must've been asleep for days at least.'
The doctor's expression turned slightly grim.
"Actually, Tsukishiro-san, you've been in a coma for the past 26 days."
My eyes blow wide at the number. "What?! 26 days!?" I yell aloud.
Just like before, the doctor is unfazed by my outburst. Likely used to it from decades of experience. "We weren't certain when you would wake up."
I then reach for the left side of my head and feel a fabric-like texture.
"Did I hit my head that badly?"
"Frankly, yes." the old man replied with a nod.
I proceed to move my left arm and leg.
'It hurts but not excruciating.'
I turn back to the patient old doctor. "So what now, doc?"
"We'll be closely monitoring your condition and make sure there are no other complications."
I nod, grateful for his clear explanation. "Thank you, doc."
I close my eyes and look back on the accident. That vivid feeling of death that was different from the heart attack.
And in the midst of it, Andy's mother, Hana Tsukishiro, her face was pale. She wanted to touch Andy, but refrained from doing so in fear that she'll only worsen his injuries.
I open my eyes and meet the doctor's gaze again. "Doc... was my mother informed? Does she know I'm awake?"
For a moment, the old doctor simply stared at me. Considering the right response to my question. "... No. Not yet. I had to make sure you were truly conscious before I made the call."
"Then please. Please call her. I want to see her." my voice laced with emotion.
'I am her son now, but I don't hate her. How can a son hate his mother who adores him? I just... miss her. I miss my mother, Tails.'
The doctor slowly nods at my request. "I understand. If there's anything you need or you start to feel considerable pain, then please press the nurse call button."
The old doctor then left the room, probably going to call my mother.
"....." I stare silently at the closed door of my room.
I turn to the white ceiling above me, just like how I first woke up.
I close my eyes once more and look back on my first life.
'I was... not great. I wasn't mean, but more like... awkward? I found it difficult to express my emotions. I was embarrassed to show more than the bare minimum affection to my own parents. I should've said I love them but I found it too embarrassing to say... I just chalked it up to it being obvious that I loved my parents that I didn't need to say it.'
'... I should have been more expressive... I should have said what I wanted. I was a fucking piece of shit in a different way...'
I replay the memories with my current mother, Hana Tsukishiro. How she always openly expressed her love for her son. Even though that same son openly expressed his disdain for her.
'I'll love her. I'll regularly say "I love you, mom." And hug her everyday. I won't repeat what I did. I won't be embarrassed to show familial affection. I'll thank her for giving birth to me, for raising me, for loving me even though I was a brat.'
'.. I guess it's true that one changes after a near-death experience. Even though I actually did die. Twice, actually.'
And I couldn't explain it, but I instinctively knew that the original Andy of this world had passed and I absorbed his memories.
'I don't know why you acted that way, but I'll do what you refused to do. You would have suffered a cruel, lonesome fate if you kept going.'