Chapter 1
If anyone ever told him that he'd die and be reincarnated into another world, he's going to laugh so hard on their faces! But there he is! Killed in a bus accident and then reincarnated in England in 1979!
As in every story that he reads about reincarnation in his first life, he has a very basic, boring beginning. Meaning that he's an orphan and lives in an orphanage named The Rising Sun Orphanage. As told by the principal, Madame Mariette Maxime, unlike other orphans currently living in the Rising Sun Orphanage, he was orphaned at birth. His mother died giving birth to him on November 20, 1979, and he was transferred directly to the Rising Sun Orphanage by the hospital after being named Alan Walker by one of the nurses, as he had no relatives and no one came to the hospital to claim him.
In all honesty, Alan finds it quite alright to be an orphan at birth, because it would be much more awkward if, by all accounts, he suddenly had another mother. Before being killed by a bus, Alan had already been 35 years old, and all his life, he called another woman "Mom" for so long that he couldn't find it in himself to call another person "Mom."
Unlike all the stories that he has read, Alan doesn't know that he was reincarnated into this life at birth until now when he turns 7 on November 20, 1986! Well, we all know what they say about the number 7, right? It's a magical number! So, of course, Alan finds it quite fitting that 7 is the year he regains all of his memories of his previous life.
One of the reasons Alan thinks he doesn't have the memories of his previous life at birth is because his brain is too fragile to contain all the 35 years of memories. Really, the brain of a newborn baby can never process that much information! No one can! Even now, at 7 years old, Alan is still having an awful headache processing all of his own memories. It takes him totally by surprise to be honest, because all he knows is that one moment he's sleeping peacefully in bed, and the next moment, without even a notice, just right when he turns 7 after midnight, a bunch of memories, flashbacks, and thoughts come assaulting back to him, making him completely blackout!
The next thing he knows is that he's been completely blacked out for the whole 7 days in the hospital, and no one knows why. The hospital is really at a loss because all the tests are telling them that he's perfectly healthy, if a little bit malnourished, but he just doesn't wake up. Luckily, on the eighth day, Alan finally opens his eyes!
After waking up, knowing that Madame Maxime has been very worried about him, even though he's having the worst headache of his life, Alan still finds a moment to reassure her. God bless this woman; she is nothing but a saint. Alan is nothing but thankful for being under her care because he knows for a fact that not all orphanages are bad, but unfortunately, a large number of them are truly horrible. So he knows that he is very lucky to be in the care of Madame Maxime, a 65-year-old woman who spends all her life taking care of unfortunate children like him.
Alan used to hear people say that being kind is the greatest strength, but after knowing Madame Maxime, only then did Alan finally understand that! With 35 years of experience, Madame Maxime is truly the sweetest living soul that Alan has had the chance to encounter. She loves all the kids under her care fairly, and even though life has not been kind to her since she lost her husband and her children, she still sees the best in people, treats the world with kindness, and wants all the kids under her care to have a great life. She has been doing everything to make sure of it. And because of that, Alan admires her greatly.
- I'm fine, Madame Maxime! I'm doing great! You don't have to worry about me at all.
- Are you sure, Alan? You don't look quite well yourself. Are you sure you don't want to be in the hospital for a few days more?
Even though the headache is killing him right now, Alan still says:
- I'm sure, Madame. It's just a little headache. I'm sure it'll be gone after a few days of good rest. There is no need to waste money at the hospital just because of a little headache, right?
Still doesn't feel convinced, but because Alan keeps insisting that he's fine, Madame Maxime finally gives in and goes to talk to the nurse about releasing him. The nurse is also kind of sceptical about releasing him, but in the end, due to all the tests coming back normal, the hospital has no reason to keep him here, so they decide to let him go with a few pills for the headache.
And now, it's been three weeks since he got back from the hospital. Currently, lying motionlessly in bed and staring blankly at the ceiling, Alan is trying his best to process and absorb all the memories of his previous life as much as he can while also questioning himself about what the fuck he's going to do now. Honestly, if someone wrote a book or even a brochure about what you should or shouldn't do when you die and are reincarnated into another world, Alan sure would devour that book from page to page! God help him, because he seriously needs some help right now.
In his previous life, born and raised in Vietnam, Alan was all but a normal person with a normal 9–5 job. He wasn't a scientist and never had any fancy jobs; he just simply worked in the customer service department of an international company. Yes, he was a manager! Yes, all jobs are important! But let's get real: his job was to make the plan, train the new people, and mostly talk to people and help solve their problems. Talking is really all he knows!
In the past, he used to joke that words have power! All you need to do is know how to talk and choose the right words, and most of your problems will be solved! Respectfully, Alan is still believing in that, but the thing is, Alan doesn't think talking will help his situation now. What situation, you ask? Well, the situation is that, suddenly, Alan finds out that he has...a freaking superpower! No, for real! He really has, honest to God, a real freaking superpower! A superpower that gives him the ability to change his appearance at will!
It happened in the morning of the day after he got back from the hospital, still having a blazing headache with a bunch of flashbacks and memories. Imagine how surprised he was when, after finishing brushing his teeth, he looked up in the mirror only to find out that his hair had turned bright red! From his original dark hair to the bright red colour, it was the brightest shade you could ever find!
Alan had never felt so grateful for a small mercy that he was all alone in the toilet when it happened. No one ever witnessed it, or else he would have a lot of things to explain, and Alan honestly doesn't even know where to start. What can he say? He turns 7, and suddenly he remembers all the memories of his previous life and has a superpower? That's just not done!
It keeps happening since that day, and after three weeks, with more and more near-caught incidents, he swears that if it keeps happening like this, he will die of a heart attack soon. Fuck it! It has at least cost him almost ten years of his life! But on the bright side, Alan finally gets a hang of his power! In all fairness, Alan still hasn't had absolute control over his power yet, but at least he now knows what he can do and how to prevent losing control in front of everyone currently living in the orphanage.
Thanks to his power, Alan can now change his hair colour to every colour that he can imagine. He can even change his hair colour to the rainbow colour if he wants to. He can also change the length of his hair to be very short or very long. How can he figure it out, you ask? Well, one day of exciting looking in the mirror while willing his hair to change colours to colours, he just had a thought of what he would look like with long hair and BAM...his hair grew so long uncontrollably that it reached the floor and kept going nonstop! Let's just say that trying to will your hair grow shorter while panicking is not a great experience. Not to mention that the whole orphanage's been giving him the side eye since that day for taking too long in the toilet just to get ready! Alan really hates his life these days...
But after that incident, Alan suddenly had an idea! He remembers Medusa, not the one who could turn people into stone, but the Inhuman Queen of the Inhuman. She has the ability to manipulate her hair to do whatever she likes, and as a proud gay person, Alan finds this ability totally awesome! So, of course, he has to try it out! After many many failed attempts, so much so that he lost count, Alan really thinks this idea has the potential. Because right now, at least he can lengthen or shorten his hair to whatever length he wants in a very short amount of time. He can even manipulate his hair to flow in the air in every direction. Fine! He admits it! Saying it out loud makes it not as awesome as he thought it would be, but trust him, it looks so cool in person. And it's promising, right? Just imagine that one day he could manipulate his hair to do whatever he likes, like grabbing, wiping, or even tying or strangling someone... Alan truly believes that with practice, lots of practice, he can make it work!
Along the way, Alan also finds out that he can change his eye colour as well. From his original icy pale grey eyes to whatever colour he likes, you name it, and he can do it!
Currently, that's all he can do, but Alan has the feeling that he can do so much more in the future. Because, recently, Alan doesn't know how to describe it, but he has an itch in his face, or more specifically, his face bone's structure. And that itch's giving him the feeling that he can reshape his face as well, and it'll happen soon! He just knew it!
Respectfully, Alan knows he should be worried about reshaping his face. Because there are many stories telling him how it could go wrong easily in multiple ways, such as what if he forgets his real face or cannot change it back? Scary, right? But this time, there is something reassuring him so that he won't need to worry too much about that. Why? Well, you see... Whenever Alan uses his ability, he feels like there is an invisible rubber band being pulled by himself. The more he holds onto this invisible rubber band, the longer his power works. When he releases it, the rubber band snaps back into its original state, and the power ends, leading him to turn back into his original self! He knows, awesome, isn't it?
So, of course, he's not worried that much, but being a 7-year-old kid with 35-year-old memories, Alan carefully reminds himself that experimenting with unknown power will always be dangerous, so of course he keeps telling himself that he shouldn't rush into it and always be careful! With that mojo in mind, whenever he has free time, Alan tries to experiment with his power as much and as carefully as he can.
It's already December, the school will be closed soon because it's very close to the Christmas break. After doing all the chores and gardening around the orphanage, there is really not much to do. For other kids, doing chores and gardening is hard work, but for him, he finds it relaxing. Alan, however, also takes some time to cover all the school work that he missed because of staying in the hospital for 7 days. He doesn't mind that much, cause he finds it too easy for him. He now has the mind of a grown man, after all. Hence, understandably, Alan has a lot of free time to spend. So...you know, he experiments with his power a lot!
As a result, he now knows that his power is strongly dependent on his emotions. Meaning whenever his emotions heighten, like when he gets angry or happy, his power acts out on its own, and that scares the fuck out of him. There was one time when he nearly got caught as he was startled by one of his roommates. Lucky enough, he felt the power activate on his hair and knew too well that he couldn't stop it, Alan willed it to only grow 2cm instead. Thinking back, Alan thinks he should give himself a reward for this genius idea! No one will ever notice that his hair grows 2 cm longer! But since then, he has made sure no one will startle him ever again!
If someone asks him to describe himself, Alan will say that he's quite calm by nature. You just cannot control your happiness, but can you control your anger? Yep, that's what he can do. If there is one thing taught to him by working in the customer service field, it's that he trained himself to stay calm in the most stressful situations as much as he could. It's not easy; he gives you that, but with 15 years of experience, Alan can proudly state that he succeeds at that shit!
However, one cannot lie to themselves; he knows himself well enough to realize that he has an extreme side that he hides quite well. That extreme side is the manifestation of many unresolved traumas that he doesn't even want to talk about. It's not healthy, he knows! But fuck if being toxic is so great! Jokingly, Alan will say that he is like a raging ocean trapped inside a raindrop that's waiting to be unleashed!
Today is December 17, and everyone in the orphanage is excitedly busy decorating for Christmas Eve. Being Asian in his previous life—Vietnam, to be more specific—Alan has never really celebrated Christmas before. Even now, despite currently being a Brit, deep down in his soul, Alan still thinks he is Vietnamese at heart! And as a Vietnamese, he wants to celebrate his own traditional holidays so badly cause he wants to be reminded of who he used to be. He still isn't ready to give up on that yet...
Fun fact: Vietnamese people still use the Lunar Calendar in this modern time because all of their traditional holidays happen on some of the special days in the Lunar Calendar, so they need it to track those days. Speaking of that, Alan thinks he should get a Lunar Calendar soon. But it's for another time. Right now, Alan thinks he will enjoy the spirit of Christmas and be thankful for all the good things that happened this year, like...having a superpower? After all, Christmas is the time for celebration, right?
- Alan! Wake up! Come help decorate the Christmas tree!
- Got it! I'm coming down!
That's Luke; he's 10 years old and is one of his six roommates. The Rising Sun Orphanage is not a big orphanage; it currently has 15 kids in total ranging from 3 to 16 years old. There are some other older orphans who have already left the orphanage to find their places in the world. But they come back to visit from time to time; some of them even donated money and other things like food, clothes, or whatever they had to the orphanage. The funny thing is, whenever they donate something to the orphanage, Madame Maxime will tell them that they don't need to do that repeatedly, but every time, they will say that this will be the last time. However, not for long; they will donate again.
Alan finds it quite endearing, to be honest. God, he's such an old man. But in all honesty, it's living proof that good deeds will pay off one way or another. Every time Alan looks at them, he can't help but acknowledge that humans are truly fundamental creatures. He knows there are a lot of people who can be much worse than any monster in the old books, but there are also a lot of great people, and with kindness, they truly bring wonders to the world! So he makes himself a promise that when he has a chance, he will help to donate as well. God knows there aren't enough good orphanages in the world, and these unfortunate kids really need a loving place to call home, so Alan will make sure that this orphanage will last forever, or at least as long as it could be.
Coming downstairs to the living area, looking at the Christmas tree and the smiling faces of all the kids, the staff, and some volunteers happy decorating the Christmas tree with the limited supply of ornaments, tinsel, and some poinsettias... Alan silently says to himself: It's truly a wonderful Christmas!