Walking beneath the night sky Raven makes his way to work with great haste, his bumbling form comes pass another store, the punching machine at the stores front catching his attention, deciding to give it a go he drops a bill into the receiver.
he drops into a stance mimicking Jay, before taking aim and throwing a fist and missing, only slightly grazing the edge,
(i missed),
Raven turns away as Yanick appears with a large group of boys wearing a black jacket with an 'RTS' initial written in white.
Yanick takes a glance at the punching pad his eyes pausing at the rip at it's side before taking a glance at the number displayed.
(A lunin?)
Raven on his stroll checks the time to see it's already past eight before rushing through the streets to get to the 'local book shop' before work, walking in he notices the unattended shelves, the thin layer of dust alluding to the state of the shop's affairs. Walking around he takes a glance at several books,
(i need one for the foreign language test), a sudden spike in the glare of the flickering bulb above him causes him to catch a reflection of his glasses, Ravens intuition has him remaining still and in place when he catches the reflecting glare from the corner of his eye again, watching for a minute the same occurs assuring him of his assumption, looking to the top rack he notices a metal gleam just beyond the last book the reflection gone now that he'd shifted his standing point, he returns to his previous position but is unable to catch the reflection again, Raven pulls out his phone to get a picture,
"Hey!, No pictures!, get out of my shop!"
"Oh sorry i was just.."
"Don't care leave!"
"Oh alright"
Walking out the shop he walks down towards the end of the street mulling over what the object was before turning to find the white-haired old man locking the shop",
(i guess I'll have to come in my other body),
A new day ensues and the day runs by quickly, Raven makes his way towards the store, looking to the counter he finds no one present, walking up to the shelf he wastes no time in pulling out the top most book closest to the shelves edge to find a silver boxed shaped key chain,
(a face? Two dots for eyes and a long dash across for a mouth?), Wandering on if he'd wasted his time Raven holds on to the keychain before returning the book to it's place, he walks up to the counter intending to inquire about the Keychain,
"Hello?, Anybody here?", (Should i just drop this and leave?),
{Don't you dare}, an androgynous voice seethed
"What, who said that?",
{Hells it's been decades since i spoke to a human and i am not impressed, is this the new general level of intelligence? Or are you just a bumbling idiot}, a voice bellows into his mind
"What!, Raven looks into his palm to see the silver key chain with a changed expression, the two dots having turned to two horizontal lines, and the mouth having taken the shape of a frown,
"What the fuck, a talking key chain!??"
{I am not a goddamned talking key chain, well i am, but the more accurate term of definition would be familiar, one whose consciousness inhabitants this key chain}, the familiar states this time out loud
"Ho.."
{from what i'm sensing i can tell your one of us but first things first let's get the hell out of here and then we'll talk,.... You do have a place? Right?}
"Of course i do!" Raven retorts shooting the keychain an offended look
{Don't mind me just making sure}
A few minutes later Raven arrives before his apartment door with a light sheen of sweat covering his face, (i don't even have enough cash to spare for a taxi, i really need to get a raise)
{You know i did ask you if you had a house...}
"Are you unable to see?" Raven answers with clenched teeth
{Oh i see fine. Though You could've just said you were homeless, i'd have understood}, the familiar continues unperturbed by Ravens interjection, exhaling Raven puts his key in before turning then steps into his apartment"
{Hells!, i'm from a time far before technology and i've seen paupers live better}
"One, i doubt that, two... How old are you?"
{Firstly let me introduce myself i am ca.. }
"Silver, I'll call you Silver" Raven interjects
{You little trollop how dare such a lowly being name me?!}, The vexed keychain retorted
"You complain i ditch you, simple" Raven concludes shutting down any room for argument, noticing Raven's unconscious body silver inquires,
{Who's that?...you share this pauper's den?}
"God, i can see why you were abandoned in that library"
{You!…}
"Anyway that's my second body" Raven replies
{Second body?}
"I know how that sounds but...
{No i believe you, so you practice a consciousness division..no transference force art?}
Explaining the scenario to the silver keychain Raven watches astonished at the shifting lines on the silver box's visage,
{If this works as well as you insinuate then it has been flawlessly done, I'm surprised, to do this one would need to have achieved perfect zone possibly a brain shifter}
"Brain shifter??? What's that"
{…You don't know what that is do you?... I see so you must be practising kinetic shift subconsciously, truly talented, i guess God is fair after all, no sense but enough talent to substitute}
"Answer the question" Raven chides
{Calm child, i come from a time of martial masters, when martial arts were able to combat iron with flesh jump buildings and wield fists against hundreds}
Raven looks on apathetically,
"Yeah yeah, go feed that nonsense to someone else"
{Your literally talking to a keychain}
"Fair point" Raven replies still quite skeptical
{child punch that white wall}
Raven looks at his tiled toilet walls.
"You want me to punch a ceramic wall with my bear hands?",
{Just go there and punch it as hard as you can and quit being a bloody coward for gods sake}
"Fine!" He replies stepping up to the white ceramic wall, (I cannot believe i let a fucking key chain trick me into this nonsense),
Winding his fisted hand back he swings at the tile wall, Raven looks in shock as the wall before him shatters the cracks reminiscent of shattered glass covering it's surface a hole formed around his fist, his hand still against the wall, pulling his hand out he sees a hole shaped in the outline of his fist, staring in shock Raven ponders every possible logical explanation available to him,
"its real!"…(sure this is a cheap apartment but the walls are still made of ceramic, and last i checked fists don't break ceramic!), walking out of the toilet he goes up to silver sitting before it,
"Okay, i believe you but.....WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!"
{Very well then, i can at least grace you with an explanation, there are countless stages to kinetic shifting but as the ages have gone by my memories dwindle, so i recall only the first three or so, but, for now i will reveal only the first one and you will resume training immediately when you are strong enough you will help me achieve my goal by making a contract with me and fighting my battles in my stead do we have an agreement?}
Raven pondered for a while weighing his options before coming to a swift conclusion,
(hmmmmm na, I'm good, no need to get involved with some crazy martial arts secret war, my life isn't some fairytale, but i still enjoy the relative peace )
"I'll train lightly when I'm free, you'll give me information and i won't throw you away deal?" Raven replies with a cynical grin
{Throw me away?, Me?!, How dare you!} Silver bellows into his mind, Raven picks it up before proceeding to throw it into the trash bin at his apartments edge,
{Hey! Come back!, ughh fine!}, groaning the keychain concedes
"Glad we can come to an understanding" Raven picks the keychain out of the trash before heading back to his sleeping mat and taking a seat
"Now talk"
{The first art is the art of muscle shifting, you saw how you were able to break that concrete wall, well muscle shift is simply the way one controls the muscles in the body to contract in a way that exerts the maximum amount of force into a given point, imagine a kick, for example, putting all the force and kinetic energy into the feet or shin then compressing it to achieve maximum results, an innate stage could make every existing muscle in his arm compress and contort to execute the maximum force in a punch, the higher the sub stage the more muscles one will be able to use for a single impact, at the final sub-stage one could use every muscle in their body for one punch and depending on the person they could tear through steel like paper, questions?}
"Yep" Raven replies, "how many sub-stages per art, and how many ar.."
{Three sub-stages per art}, Silver interjects, {stage one is 'innate' it's instantaneous like throwing one punch at full power, the energy is gone after that, stage two is flow where the energy is moved from muscle to muscle to exert the maximum force in every hit even with a nonexistent range of motion and finally the 'compression' sub-stage to create the force inside your own body with no range of motion required just like using your muscles like high-pressure springs}
"High-pressure springs?" Raven tilts his head in understanding,
{you see, when you reach the compression stage then you'd have begun to knock on the precipe of the second art, an example of the third substage is the momentary compression of the shoulder and elbow muscles to ensure the maximum speed and impact in a punch}
"I never said i didn't understand" Raven retorts
{In the old days a lot of what is now useless martial arts and frankly impractical to the normal person were the techniques used by martial masters in combat}
"I understand, i mean let's be honest, martial arts like systema just look stupid when the normal person fights with it".
{when you advance pas.....Ah, you said this body of yours appeared at random?}, Silver inquires, Raven watches the shifting lines on Silver face
"yeah?" Raven answers unsure of silvers point
{This body, i can't say for sure but, it's probably already reached the zone advancement stage, it's like watching a pauper own a supercar, you really must've made a deal with the devil to get this body, if we're going to do this you'll need to train in the other body, first you'll need to endure the initial torture of starting kinetic shift} silver finally concludes,
"Hey aren't you from an era without technology?" Ravens curiously inquiries
{I've been on this plane for well over five centuries child, but i've only been trapped in this vessel for a bit over a century}, silver replies, Raven exhales staring into the weary old ceiling,
"Hey eyes here"
Raven looks down to see silver frowning lines, (it's still unnerving no matter how much i see it, a fucking talking keychain)
"What?"
{Now let's get to current affairs, you are useless till you learn to drive this supercar, so you need to train the fat one but for now i need to know the state of the murim}
"Murim?, Like the martial arts alliance i always read about in comics?"
{Somewhat... It's a congregation of all martial masters and their organizations, with the advent of modern technology and the drop in power experienced by all martial masters, the price paid to save the planet, the threat we face is larger than ever before, there are threats that lurk in the dark child, foes with power you couldn't hope to fathom, if things go to the wire martial masters will stand together}
"I thought martial masters could be strong enough to dodge bullets or something?",
{Look at it this way. Let's say there are four martial adepts for every ten non's, and out of those four only one gets strong enough to dodge bullets, point one get strong enough to face them head-on, back in the old days there were masters who could face ..what do you call it... nuclear? Yes.. In fact they where nuclear weapons but with time and in the absence of relics, the force present in nature had dwindled, the standards for martial adepts in current time have fallen drastically. Now back to the point}
"how do you intend to find the murim, aren't they usually really secretive?" Raven inquires curiously.
{I fear not, you see in the old times we where quite open, but with the advent of technology and the unwillingness of the powerful martial masters to divulge the paths to power, we dwindled from an average of eight in ten to one in a hundred, my memories of a period before i was stuck in the library are a haze, most likely by the death of my previous contractor, but... I'm sure that most martial masters hold positions in power, or to be exact 'over power', they await the white witch's prophecy}
"Ehh?, Prophecy?, White witch?, What does that even mean?" Raven inquires scrunching his face in confusion,
{My point is..they have spent centuries taking over world governments, the flow of wealth and the advancement of technology to aid martial development, i may know a lot but i'm sure there is a lot more i am unaware about, the martial masters are no longer in the open, the rule from the shadows}
"What about the prophecy?"
{That is 'No' matter of yours, not yet anyway, you just focus on getting strong enough to survive}
"Hmm alright" if there's anymore to say it's going to have to be said later, i'm beat, and late for work" Raven lays down waking in his fat body before quickly changing into his work clothes, glancing at his phone the time on the screen prompts him to make haste, (shit we spent too much time talking, i need to hurry!),
"Hey Silver?, Silver, Silver!" Turning raven looks at the silver key chain to see the changing expression on their face,
(wait could it be that i can't speak to it with this body? Cause i haven't become a shifter?, That must be why she was stuck in there for so long, though I don't know the advancement i'll need to speak to her in this body)
putting his thoughts aside, he turns towards the key chain unsure if it could even hear him,
"I'll just leave you here I've got to get to work"
Raven states before exiting his apartment.