AWDC Chapter 21
by VolareAround the time the village’s living environment began to change, changes were occurring within my body.
Facial hair was growing, and there were noticeable changes in my male parts.
It was the beginning of what’s known as puberty.
In my previous life, I had naturally experienced this as an adult, but it was so long ago that I had forgotten.
Anxious, I spoke to Jim. He was close in age and a close companion, so he was reliable.
“That’s proof that you’re becoming an adult. Not just the beard, but hair will grow down there too,” Jim told me with amusement, sharing his experiences. Until about last year, Jim and I weren’t that far apart in height.
Now, there was easily a 10-centimeter difference. Jim had grown a lot this year.
I felt like I was being left behind by Jim, but I wanted to believe that my height would increase as well.
It was around the end of summer when the physical changes began. One night, while I was sleeping, I suddenly had a headache and woke up.
Not wanting to worry Ilse, I went outside, but the headache didn’t go away.
(This isn’t a disease.)
I intuitively knew that this pain wasn’t caused by an illness.
I sat down on a tree stump and stayed quiet, and suddenly, memories from my previous life flooded back.
All sorts of memories were entering my head, and it seemed that was what was causing the pain.
I suffered from the headache in the garden at night for about 30 minutes.
“What’s wrong?” Ilse called out to me.
“I got worried because Toma didn’t come back for so long.”
“I had a headache and woke up. But it doesn’t hurt anymore.
I’m sorry for worrying you,” I replied in as bright a voice as I could and decided to go back to bed.
I was Japanese, born to the son of a local official.
My name was Misaki Toma. My father named me that, hoping I would live with pride like a lighthouse.
Perhaps because of that, I think I had a strong sense of justice from childhood.
I rebelled against bossy and arrogant children. I especially disliked bullying the weak.
In fifth grade, when I helped a child who was being bullied in class, I ended up being bullied myself.
But I didn’t skip school and didn’t give in to the bullying. Eventually, the bullying stopped, and from then on, I believed that if you stick to your principles, a path will always open up.
I went on to become a doctor, but when I was working as a part-time surgeon, I began to have doubts.
University professors would parade around the hospital rooms with their subordinates, doctors, and nurses.
I was forced to participate in the professor’s lordly procession, and I was fed up with the rampant authoritarianism of working in a Japanese hospital.
My childhood dislike of bossy people came to the surface.
And I began to look overseas, where I could test my abilities, and applied to the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers.
In the Cooperation Volunteers, my experience as a doctor was valued, and I ended up touring areas so poor that they couldn’t afford medical care.
What was useful there wasn’t advanced medical technology, but comprehensive medical care.
There were very few doctors in poor areas. Medical care there required everything.
Internal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, dentistry, obstetrics, and pediatrics were all necessary.
I couldn’t tell the patients who were brought in that I couldn’t treat them because it was outside my specialty.
Before I knew it, I had over 15 years of overseas experience, and I was approaching 40. I gained experience interacting with various patients.
There, I needed knowledge not only as a doctor, but also as a hygienist and nutritionist.
I also felt firsthand that escaping poverty was necessary to make patients healthy.
What doctors can do is save patients, not reduce the number of patients.
However, in impoverished areas, patients were appearing as quickly as they were being saved.
In poor families, “hunger” was a greater threat than disease.
I began to feel that I couldn’t save patients unless I somehow dealt with “hunger” itself.
In poor areas, there was no running water. It was the women’s job to draw water from distant springs.
Even young girls would carry water jugs on their heads, walking barefoot on rocky roads.
The water was cloudy and wouldn’t be drinkable in Japan.
Still, it was better to have water.
There were times when water shortages led to famines, and “hunger” became the biggest threat.
I thought that arid regions couldn’t become self-sufficient and the number of sick people wouldn’t decrease unless I somehow dealt with the water shortage.
And I participated in a project to draw water with the residents of a poor desert area.
It was superficial, but I toured Japanese water facilities, learned ancient water control techniques, and incorporated them.
The reason I thought I should draw water to Toriholi Village after being reincarnated there was because of that experience.
Improvements to surveying equipment and surveying technology, and the soon-to-begin waterway construction.
I was able to gain knowledge of my previous life at this important time.
However, the circumstances of my death and why I was reincarnated were still not clear. I didn’t know if there was any connection between the physical changes and the awakening.
However, from that point on, I had a stronger sense of the significance of working with the people of this village.
“Are you alright?”
Ilse was still worried about me even after I returned to my room.
“Um, Grandma.”
I hesitated whether to tell her that my memories had returned.
“Yes, what is it?” “No, it’s nothing.”
Even if I told her the truth, I wouldn’t be able to eliminate her worries.
“I’ll be with Grandma. Always,” I changed my words to reassure her.
And those words were also my resolve.
If I use the knowledge and experience from my previous life, I can enrich life here. However, I should be careful about how I use it.
It is true that the science and technology of my previous life enriched people’s lives, but it was also often used for war and crime. I thought that bringing it into this world should be done with caution.
I also don’t intend to proclaim that I am a reincarnated person.