KING OF STIGMA

Transmigration.

"Ugh..." 

Blaze's eyes fluttered as he regained consciousness. 

"Where am I?" He moved his body only a little but alas he felt the brunt of his fall. A sharp and burning pain engulfed his entire body. 

He groaned profoundly as he robbed his cheeks, stomach, and back. He winced at the tender feeling that greeted him. 

"Everywhere hurts." 

"No kidding, did you expect me to pull back my punches, dumbass?" 

Blaze turned to the direction of the voice, wincing in pain. His gaze fell upon a boy. 

The Boy's facial expression was nothing pleasant. His features were contorted in anger. 

"You good for nothing douchebag!" 

Blaze blinked twice over the boy's manner. He struggled to make sense of his surroundings, his mind was still foggy from the fall. 

"Who are you?" 

The boy bursted into laughter, "Did I give you an amnesia with the beating?" 

"My name is Colt, don't forget the name of the kid who just whooped your sorry punk ass." 

Blaze gasped realising that the pain he was currently experiencing wasn't from the fall. 

'It's as if my soul wound up in a different body, why did it have to be the body of a person who just got the beating of a lifetime?' 

Colt exuded an air of arrogance, he held his chin high as he towered over Blaze. 

On his head were strange feathers that wobbled from side to side with each haughty movement, adding to his bizarre appearance.

Blaze took a proper look at his surroundings. They weren't the only ones there. There were a handful of other children, just like Colt, they were also clad in tattered rags or makeshift garments of leaves.  

"Hey jerk!" Colt exclaimed. "I'm waiting for you to bow your head and grovel at my feat, then maybe I'll let you off." He finished folding his arms. 

The other kids watched the scene unfold before them with indifference, they maintained a safe distance. It was as if they were used to such displays of violence.

Struggling to sit up, Blaze regarded Colt with a mixture of confusion and apprehension. 

Blaze tilted his head in confusion, the more time passes, the more he keeps getting questions with no answers. 

"What... what's going on?" he managed to croak, his voice hoarse with pain.

Colt's expression twisted into a sneer as he loomed over Blaze, his tone dripping with contempt. 

"You think you can just wander into our territory without consequences, huh? Well, think again." 

With that, he delivered another sharp kick to Blaze's side, causing him to cry out in agony. Blaze crouched clenching his stomach as he vomited. 

'To think I'll die from a terrible life only to jump right into another one. I have to be the unluckiest person in the world, no in the universe!' 

Blaze had so many questions... But the one that currently ran through his mind was how he's able to understand and speak the language of the natives. 

'Heck, it's a language from another frigging world!' 

Despite never having encountered this language before, he somehow understood every word that Colt spat at him. 

It was as though some hidden facet of his mind had been unlocked. 

'Maybe it has something to do with the body I am in.' 

"Just look at yourself, pathetic." Colt's stinging voice snapped him out of his trance. 

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Colt sneered with his voice laced with contempt. 

"Attending the awakening ceremony five times and still no success? You're a disgrace!"

"..." 

"Cat got your tongue?" Colt scoffed, his he regarded Blaze with disdain. 

"You're as pathetic as your father," he spat, his words a cruel reminder of the burden Blaze carried—the legacy of a man he had never truly known. 

"Leave this place, Blaze. You don't belong here in the reservation cave for us orphans, you're better off in the slums living with rats." 

Blaze was dumbfounded. "For fucks sake, what is happening?" 

He gasped suddenly sudden pulse of agony tore through his mind tormenting him. 

"You've got to be kidding me." Blaze muttered as he clutched his body. 

'What's with this frail body, I'm a child again?' 

He struggled to comprehend the inexplicable changes that had befallen him. 

Before he could make sense of his dwindling stature, a wave of darkness engulfed him once more, his fragile and tiny body had reached its limit as he finds himself once again slipping out of reality. 

'I'm passing out...' 

The world faded into obscurity, leaving Blaze adrift in a sea of blackness. 

Suddenly, a series of loud chaotic noises pierced through the haze, jolting him back to his senses. 

"What was that?" 

Through the fog of his fading senses, Blaze was still able discern the distant clamor of voices and commotion, it was nothing short of a chaotic exchange that seemed to echo from afar.

In the blink of an eye, Blaze found himself enveloped in the embrace of someone's massive, warm arms. 

'What the? Who's this? It's as if they teleported. And their grip is strong...' 

However, Blaze found the sensation both comforting and disorienting. Even though the warm feeling didn't last long, Blaze found himself at peace. 

He passed out with a faint smile written on his face. 

Blaze's eyes fluttered open once more, he found himself bathed in the soft, dim light of dusk. 

"Urgh, it's like all I do is pass out." 

A sense of anxiety washed over him as he struggled to orient himself in his unfamiliar surroundings. 

"At least those scary kids aren't around this time." 

The absence of the other children gave him a sense of relief. 

As he sat up, Blaze felt a jolt in his head. 

"Ack!" He cried in pain clutching his head. "Now what?" 

Images flashed inside his head. His mind raced as he sifted through the fragmented memories that now swirled within him.

"Well that answers my previous deduction, I'm dead and now, I'm inhabiting the body of another person from another world like a vessel." 

After the last memory flashed, the pain stopped and Blaze found himself gasping for air. 

"I've transmigrated into another world..."