Chapter 2: The Day I Felt Her PainI started watching anime in 2006.At first, it was just fun. Bright colors, wild action, over-the-top characters — the kind of stuff a kid could get lost in for hours. I didn’t see it as anything more than entertainment. But years ter, something started to shift.

  There were characters — rare ones — who could feel each other’s thoughts.Not through words. Not even through actions.Just… presence. A silent understanding.

  And something about that fascinated me.I was a curious child, the kind who couldn’t let go once something grabbed hold of my mind. I wanted to understand how that was even possible. Was it real? Could humans really connect that way? I searched. I read. I asked questions. But no one had an answer. Eventually, I gave up.

  Until something happened.

  One afternoon, I was outside pying with four friends. We were running, yelling, pushing — the usual chaotic energy of childhood. Then one of them fell.Not a bad fall. Not dangerous.

  Two of the others immediately burst out ughing.That was normal. We always ughed when someone tripped or slipped. Kids are like that.

  But this time… I didn’t.

  I froze.Something in me tightened. I rushed over and asked, “Are you okay?”Genuinely worried. Not pretending.

  And I remember thinking — Why didn’t I ugh?It was such a small moment. But it felt off. Like I’d stepped out of a script I didn’t know I was following.

  I shrugged it off. I was just a kid. I didn’t have the words for what had happened.I didn’t even know what it meant.But the memory stuck.

  Four years ter, I nded in the hospital.

  A shared room.Two beds. One already occupied.

  There was a woman staying in the other bed. We didn’t speak. Barely even looked at each other. She was older. Quiet. I was just some kid with a cold or whatever it was.

  Three days passed like fog.

  Then, on the third day, a doctor came in.Not for me — for her.

  He spoke softly. Too softly. But I still heard the words:“You have uterine cancer.”

  She broke instantly. Tears streamed down her face.And then something happened I could never forget.

  I felt it.All of it.

  A crushing, unbearable sorrow surged through me like a wave.My jaw clenched. My chest tightened.Tears welled up in my eyes — not for me, but for her.

  I didn’t know her. I didn’t even know what uterine cancer was.But for those ten minutes, her pain was mine.As real as if it had happened to me.

  That moment rewired something in me.It wasn't imagination. It wasn’t sympathy. It was deeper than that.

  It was empathy.

  And that’s when I realized:All those silent moments in anime where two characters just knew what the other was feeling —they weren’t fantasy.They were a reflection of something very real, and very powerful.

  Something that had lived in me all along, waiting to be noticed.