It all started the day I left my country to fly overseas. It was the first time I would get into an airplane, I didn't feel anything at that moment except joy that I would finally explore the outside world. Little did I know that this trip would be the start of a dangerous but also magical adventure.
So to begin with my name is Keya Shkigal, I am at my early twenties and I graduated the veterinary school. The thing about me is that I always favored animals over people since I found them kinder than humans. My life in general was nothing out of the ordinary, my family and the environment I lived in was fine. When I turned twenty I started finding life pointless and boring, that made me pick up new things that interested me, the first one being traveling around my country which I found extremely satisfying for that period of time.
Three years passed and I started feeling that emptiness again, like nothing felt interesting around me, I started bugging my friends about going on a trip abroad and we agreed to book a trip to a much bigger country than ours.
Four months later the time had come, our first trip abroad was finally happening, I remember the joy we felt going to the airport. We checked in our tickets successfully and headed to our airplane seats, our gang was consisted of me, a boy named Kahiro Kedi and another girl named Senya Mito.
When the airplane started moving I noticed a tall person outside the airport watching toward us, he was dressed in an open black blazer, black pants, black shoes, his chest was bandaged and strangely enough he had a black crown on top of his long white hair, his face looked blurry like a photo filter was put on him. I turned to tell Senya and Kahiro but when I turned back to show them he was already gone.
Half an hour passed and the airplane took off, the trip had officially begun. We had a conversation about a friend we had in the past, who unfortunately left us 3 years ago, we reminisced the moments we had together while traveling around our country.
"He would be so excited about this trip" I whispered.
At some point halfway of the fly we heard a weird sound coming from the speakers placed around the plane, I heard the word of the number twelve. Senya noticed that the sky looked strange, it looked like we were in a tunnel of clouds, most of the people started panicking and screaming, I asked Kahiro to go check on the pilot since we only then realized that there were no airplane stuff around. Kahiro came back and told us that the door to the piloting area was locked, people then panicked even more and the screams made the situation worst. At that moment I grabbed my phone and saw that there was no signal as I tried to call the station, that was only natural though since we were on an airplane, what really caught me by surprise was that the time was stuck to 12:00, I quickly told Senya and Kahiro to check their phones, both of them said that the same applied to their phone clocks.
I told Senya: "I feel dizzy"
I saw some people collapsing, that is the last thing I remember before I collapsed too.
I woke up in a forest with a lot of fully bloomed flowers without any kind of wound or pain, the air felt neither cold nor warm and the scenery felt magical in a way. I noticed that I was alone and all of my things were gone, I shout out in search of Senya and Kahiro but I got no response. At first it felt like I was teleported to an isolated place but then I saw two people walking with some vegetables at their backs. their clothing seemed weird, as if they were living in the past, it was a kid and an old man.
I immediately ran to them.
They looked at me as if I was an alien.
"hello" I said.
At first they hesitated but after a moment the old man answered.
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
"My name is Keya, I was on an airplane with my friends and some other people, I felt dizzy and fell down slowly falling asleep, I don't know what happened next have you maybe seen any other people around here?"
"Also where are we exactly?" I asked confused.
…
The old man asked me what and airplane is, which caught me by surprise.
" Haven't you seen an airplane? It's a vehicle that flies from country to country."
The old man looked lost.
" I don't know what that thing is, anyway, I didn't see any other people that looked as weird as you either"
"What seems weird about me" I asked
"I haven't seen anyone with strange clothes like yours, anyway, we are headed back to our village, you can join us if you want." he replied.
" I will gladly accept your kindness, since I don't even know where I am"
It was better than staying to the forest alone anyway.
While we were heading to the village I noticed the little boy speaking to a bird on his shoulder and it looked like the bird was talking back.
"Do you really communicate with the bird?" I asked.
"Yes through the natural communication technique, we are using the same technique to communicate with you since you don't talk our language"
"What do you mean, we don't talk the same language? We are literally communicating in English don't we?"
"No, we don't know the language you refer as English, we use Ki techniques to translate our language to yours, don't you know how to use your techniques?"
"I have no clue what a Ki technique is" I replied.
The old man proceeded talking without using the technique they were talking about and I didn't understand a thing at all.
"Woah! So that's your language?"
"Yes, everyone in this world has unique techniques like the one we are using right now, some people have one while others have many, it's weird that you don't know about them".
It immediately hit me that this so-called Ki techniques was some kind of magical abilities, since I had watched a lot of fantasy anime I was not going to waste my time panicking over magic existing and on top of that I didn't want to look clueless either, it would make me look weirder after all.
"So how many Ki techniques do you have" I asked.
"I only possess the natural communication technique" the older man said
"I have two techniques, the natural communication was my first one since I inherited it from my parents. I then unlocked the animal summoning technique, which lets me call on animals around me for help whenever I need it, isn't that awesome?" The kid asked.
"Yes it sounds really cool" I said.
"By the way you said that techniques exist in this world, what did you mean by that? We are on earth right ?" I asked.
" What is earth?" The old man asked and he continued "this world is called Ashora".
"Ashora? I am definitely lost"
At that moment I started having thoughts that maybe I was literally teleported to another world like in fantasy and apparently magic existed there.
Once we arrived at the village I saw wooden houses and tends, there were no modern facilities. People were using different types of magic as we would say on our world, some people bended small pieces of iron and rocks, some others manipulated water, I was so thrilled at the moment, the village felt so magical "duh" but at the same time so peaceful.
"We call this village sulfur, we are a small society living peacefully and in harmony with nature. You can eat and wash up at our house, then we can go out to search for your friends" the old man said.
After I took a bath and cleaned myself the small boy asked me if I wanted to eat with everyone else, apparently in this village they tended to eat together like a big family, I agreed and followed him.
We reached a big wooden building, many people were already inside, everyone was so happy to have me over for a meal, they brought me so many different dishes. The food wasn't that tasty though.
"Can I have some extra salt?" I asked.
"What is salt" the kind lady that brought me the food asked.
"Oh, nothing everything is fine, thank you." I answered.
"So they don't haven't invented even salt" I whispered.
While eating I summarized what had happened this day. The best explanation was that I had somehow gotten teleported to another world named Ashora, magic there existed and it was used in a form of abilities called techniques, people on the village seemed really peaceful so at least I was safe for the time being.
The small kid came up to me after I finished eating and asked me if I wanted to eat more.
"Nah! I am full, by the way what is your name kiddo? I never asked you."
"My name is Niro, I wanted to ask you if you really don't know or possess any techniques?"
"No I don't, we don't use techniques on the place I come from. Maybe you could help me learn how to use some"
"I can't help you with that, the only thing I can do is explain to you how the techniques work"
"Oh, this would be really helpful."
The small kid explained to me that the usage of techniques required Ki particles, which was like mana from Video games.
"Ki is the result of many ki particles sticking together, it's a supernatural spiritual force that everyone and everything possess, without Ki we wouldn't be able to use our techniques since we use it to fuel them. I can feel your Ki but its faint and unstable, maybe grandpa can help you with that" he said.
When everyone was done eating, they all went to their houses or tends. I also stood up and followed the old man.
"Excuse me sir, Niro explained to me the system of Ki and Techniques, he said you could maybe help me use mine since I don't know how it works." I said
"I might be able to help you start channeling your Ki, lets head out to the forest and search for your friends at the same time"
"Sure!"
We returned at the place that I was found. The old man then grabbed my hand.
"I will channel my Ki to you now, is that ok with you?" the old man said.
"Yes I will be fine, go on!"
In an instant I felt the energy surging in me and back to the old man. It felt like a shiver inside my body.
"I felt it" I said
The old man stopped and took his hands off.
"Now that you know how it feels you can try channeling Ki from nature, take your time trying." he said
There was a river there, I placed my hand in the water and it felt like I synced with the river. I felt the flow of the water in my mind, then a voice asked me.
"What do you wish for Keya?"
I subconsciously answered.
"To find my friends"
At that moment I felt the energy of Ki residing inside of me awakening.
"I will give you the technique of apprehension, you can use this technique to find your friends but this technique comes with a warning, I feel a change in Ki since you arrived to this world, I know that you are an otherworlder, everything that you believe is right, you were indeed teleported to another world but I don't know the purpose of this meddling. Use my gift wisely, till we meet again."
I opened my eyes and saw the old man sitting next to me with a worried face.
"What happened young one, you suddenly lost your consciousness and fell down?"
"Sorry for that, when I put my hand in the water I felt my Ki awakening."
"Hmm, it takes more time for children to open their Ki gates, I guess its naturally faster due to you being older."
"That's not all, I had a conversation with someone and apparently they granted me a technique to find my friends. They called it apprehension Technique."
"That's impossible" The old man said in disbelief.
"A moment ago you had no clue what Ki is and now you are in possession of such a strong technique. Let's try using it!"
" The thing is that I don't know how."
"Once you get enough Ki particles you will be able to use it. The apprehension technique is really rare, an SS tier to be precise, the user is able to get a better understanding of an issue and quickly find a solution. We categorize techniques by their rarity and power, SSS+ is the rarest of all, the rest are SSS, SS, S, A, B and finally C. The Ki requirements differ with the rarity and power of the technique. It would be impossible for you to use apprehension technique at its full potential right now, so I will share my Ki with you, that might help you activate it momentarily and maybe get a hint about where your friends are."
The old man grabbed my hand again, I felt his Ki surging in my body once more, at that moment a voice in my head told me to whisper the words.
"Apprehension technique ON"
I closed my eyes, I got glimpses of my friends, Senya and Kahiro were together and safe, they were in a cave resting. In an instant everything went black and from the shadow a familiar figure surfaced, I couldn't see clearly but he had the same tattoo as our lost friend on his hand. I called out his name but I got no response, I started shivering, I felt hatred crawling in my skin and I couldn't move or shout.
"Keya!, Keya!, are you okay?, Keya!"
I heard the old man shouting, I opened my eyes, I had collapsed once more.
"Are you okay?"
I was shocked to talk, the old man tried to bring me on my feet.
"I saw a strange figure that looked like an old friend of mine and I..." I said while trembling.
"Shh, it's okay you can rest now, maybe that was a side effect of you not being ready to use the technique. Did you see anything about your friends?"
"Yeah they are safe, do you happen to know if there are any caves around here?"
"There is one that I know off."
"Let's head there, I saw them resting in one."
"Sure young one, let's go before it gets dark."