A New Life

"Number 11, the experiment is about to begin. Let's go."

A researcher in a white lab coat and a white mask stood at the door and knocked.

The room's interior was covered in a milky-white substance. There was no visible light source, but it wasn't dim, and it had a distinctly high-tech feel. Yet the room was practically empty, containing only a single bed fused to the floor. Rather than a bed, it was more like a small platform rising from the floor. It had no sheets, pillow, or blanket, only a soft pad of special material fused to the bed itself.

"Okay."

A silver-haired boy lay faceup on the bed and answered faintly.

The boy made no move after speaking. He waited quietly for the staff member to come over, lift him up, and place him in a wheelchair. Number 11 slumped in the chair as he was slowly wheeled out of the room.

This was a superpower research institute unknown to the world. It held—or rather, imprisoned, and that was no exaggeration—all kinds of people with superpowers, whom the researchers here had gathered from around the world.

Number 11 was a test subject who had been brought here for research as a small child, a person with a combination of abnormal superpowers, including telekinesis, perception, a sixth sense, and hallucination induction, all related to Spiritual Power.

Before long, Number 11 was wheeled in front of a large machine and placed inside it like a doll.

"Inject the **spirit liberation drug."

The staff nearby talked among themselves as they worked.

"Director, are we really going through with this experiment? The technology still isn't mature, after all. I'm afraid..."

Two people in white lab coats were talking behind a one-way observation window.

"It's fine."

Number 11 lay naked in an unknown liquid. After being injected with the drug, his thoughts were no longer sluggish, and a spark had finally returned to his eyes. But Number 11 did nothing, simply lying there in silence.

He had been in this laboratory since he was very young. His only impression of his parents was of a woman looking at him with terror on her face. That was probably his mother.

Loneliness, helplessness, pain...

He had spent his time in a mental haze, being studied. That was probably the prevailing theme of Number 11's decade and more of life.

Number 11 himself, however, had no concept of those things, because no one had ever taught him. He had received only some basic common-sense education to make experiments easier, and even that had consisted of positive words like joy and happiness. Although Number 11 likewise couldn't grasp what those words meant, he didn't care. No one usually talked to him anyway; he only needed to understand certain nouns and verbs.

Crackling electric currents stimulated the nerves in Number 11's brain, and waves of agony made him convulse without stopping.

"Brain-domain Spiritual Power activation complete. Number 11, release your Spiritual Power."

Number 11 went through this procedure almost every day. To develop his Spiritual Power to the fullest extent, the researchers here had even deliberately caused his muscle tissue to atrophy, leaving him dependent on telekinesis to move.

"Spiritual Power has reached its peak. The Brain Domain Expansion Project is now officially underway."

Behind the observation window in the distance, the director braced both hands on the workbench, his face full of fervor and excitement.

"Number 11, show me the limits of the human brain!"

"Director, we've successfully detected data from an unknown brain domain!"

"Good, continue!"

"Director, the area of the unknown brain domain is expanding rapidly!"

"Very good, continue."

"Director, the test subject's Spiritual Power readings are rising abnormally..."

"Haha, continue!"

"Director, the test subject's vital signs are triggering an alarm!"

"Continue!"

"Director, abnormal instrument output! Abnormal state of the spirit decomposition solution, alarm!"

"Continue... we haven't reached the limit yet!"

"Director..."

Rumble!!

"Ah, a feeling I've never experienced before. Is this pain too?"

Number 11 felt the flames burning on his body and thought calmly, as though even the flow of time had slowed.

"Is this what it's like to be on the verge of death? It does seem a little more painful than the experiments."

"Ah~ If I really do go to heaven after I die, I hope it isn't empty like the professor said. I hope I can talk to people more there. I hope... I can make something called friends..."

The Kingdom of Fiore was a permanently neutral country with a population of seventeen million. It was also a world of magic, where magic had become a part of people's lives.

Magnolia Town was a historic magical commercial city in the Kingdom of Fiore.

An orphanage belonging to Kardia Cathedral stood in this town.

A small figure lay facedown in the mud by a wall. His body twitched, and several small, indistinct footprints marked his back.

"Pfft~ cough, cough, cough!"

The small figure abruptly pushed himself up, spat the grit from his mouth, and coughed violently several times.

"My body hurts so much. Is this heaven?"

The boy raised his head and looked around curiously.

Gradually, however, the boy's eyes lost focus. A flood of memories poured into his mind.

Compared to the boy's vast Spiritual Power, these brief ten years of memories were like a movie playing.

But to the boy, this was the only movie he had ever watched in his life, and it became the whole of his understanding of the world.

"Eleven... Eleven Brain."

"Is that my name?"

Two streams of tears ran down Eleven's cheeks. Those brief memories had brought Eleven too many shocks.

Joy, happiness, anger, sadness... all kinds of emotions surged through Eleven's withered, blank heart.

So you could smile while talking to people.

So when you were angry, you would shout and yell.

So when you were sad, you could cry.

So this was what it felt like to be loved by your parents...

"Waaah~~"

Eleven lay facedown on the ground and burst into tears! For the first time in his life, he used his cries to give vent to the emotions overflowing in his heart.

"Heaven really does exist! This feeling must mean I'm in heaven!"

The small figure lay in the mud, crying one moment and laughing the next, feeling a warmth in his chest unlike anything he had ever known.

His thoughts were in turmoil, his emotions churning.

Little Eleven had never felt his own existence so vividly, never felt so keenly that he was alive. For the first time, he had found a clear definition of "self" in his heart.

"So I'm still alive!"

Eleven murmured to himself, tears streaming down his face, speaking an unfamiliar language. Yet it was also the first time he had known that language could be so rich and varied.

"I didn't die... so this isn't heaven..."

Eleven rolled onto his back in the mud and gazed up at the blue sky and white clouds he was seeing with his own eyes for the first time. For the first time, sunlight dazzled his eyes.

At some point, a faint smile had appeared alongside the tear tracks on his young face.

"This is a new life!"