ã€ŠAestral Onlineã€‹ Chapter 1 - Prelude ~Reworked~ Authors Note Edit: Oh i actually forgot to mention this probably won''t stay a oneshot because it seems a good amount of people enjoy this^^ So folks. I completely reworked this chapter from top to bottom so i felt like this is a reason to publish it anew. I give many thanks to my mentor Chiisutofupuru for helping me a big deal with this whole thing. I hope i didn''t make any mistakes while deleting the old version so this is recognised as the only chapter. And now have fun with this (really) totally new experience compared to the first version. "Yes mother, I eat properly and yeah, I keep the apartment clean,¡± I roll my eyes and shift the phone from one ear to the other. "Well, I only want you to be well. And remember to pick up the laundry grandma cleaned for you!" Mom says from the other end. "Yeah, nice day Mama." I turn the phone off, and place it back for synchronizing with my port device. Every morning the same conversation, slowly mom and dad should understand that I can very well take care of myself. I am already 16 years old after all. Nothing I can do about that. Hopefully the others at school have something new on Aestral. Maybe I¡¯m in the last drawing for beta keys? That would be absolutely awesome! The shuttle toward Seishou Academy arrives at the stop, and as usual it is so densely packed that there is no space to breathe. "Why does everyone have to get the shuttle at the same time as me? I deliberately skipped the first two classes today so that I would arrive when lunch break begins!" In the corner of my eye, a strangely dressed short man straightens his jacket. I¡¯ve seen this guy a number of times already. I occupy the bus on varying times and that old geezer is there almost every day, no matter the time. "I wonder what he is working as he has so much free time. And anyway, why can¡¯t I shake the feeling that the guy is staring at me constantly. And what is in his strange black bag?" From one moment to the other the Shuttle comes to an abrupt stop while ear trembling noise float¡¯s about from everywhere and all passengers standing on board fly around wildly. I feel a slight pull on my neck that sends shivers down my spine but as soon as I turn around after collecting my thoughts there is nothing suspicious. After the initial excitement settles, I run for a vacant seat. Now I have a legit reason to be late for school, he-he. "Hell, I can even brag about having survived this accident.¡° After arriving at school, something about 180 centimeters large pounces on me.. I was never especially tall and that didn¡¯t change up to this day as I am only 163 centimeters tall. "Hey Ryouta why are you so late to school? I wanted to tell you something amazing before the lessons began," my friend said, sitting on my back. ¡°Why are you so late?¡± "Shinji, care to get off of me first? I¡¯ve no desire to listen to Prof Nakamuras boring babbling about history,¡± I grumble. ¡°What''s the matter so early in the morning?" "You will not believe it, but some guy from class B-2 has received a beta access on Sunday," Shinji yelled in my ear. "For real? What are we waiting for, go! We have to talk to him! Where¡®s B-2 again?" "On the second floor!¡± Shinji said from the ground, pointing toward the staircase. ¡°-but you can forget about that, he''s skipping school and playing at home ... I''d do that if I were him as well." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!"You''re probably right. Well, you''ll get your own soon too and then you can tell me all about it," I told my friend still lying on the floor. "Yeah, I mail you as soon as I have it," Shinji mumbled as he stood up. "Thanks man. Let''s see who gets showered with spittle today by ''Longtooth'' I would like PE if not for this idiot of a teacher," I mentioned the end of break as we made our way towards the next lesson. I happily skipped the last unit. The shuttle is not as packed as this morning and those noisy students who only talk about girls all day are nowhere near. Just this weird guy is in here again... What does that guy do all day long? "Excuse me, I create a poll, would you be so kind to help me? It is also worthwhile for you!" - The strange man approached me. Is he talking to me? Well now I at least know why he¡¯s in here at ever varying times. "Sure, what do you want to know?" "Not much and it doesn¡¯t take long. It''s about a survey, how much percent of students would currently prefer to belong to the opposite sex and how the distribution of desired sex looks like in general currently. So ... would you prefer to be a man or a woman, given the chance to choose?" What a strange poll... what company is he doing this for? But never mind, I''ll just tell him something stupid, could be fun anyway. "Well, if I am honest, I always wanted to know how it is like as a girl but I will definitely not remain as a girl forever because then my family would ask what went wrong with me... and I wouldn¡¯t want to expose them to unnecessary difficulties." "So you do not refuse a change in general?" "No I would probably try it, given the guarantee I¡¯d return to normal. Tell me, what company did you say you work for again?" I ask, but he turns away. "Thank you for your help. I wish you a nice day and exciting holiday. Goodbye!" Give me a break, that old fuck rides the same shuttle every time- and now out of the blue utters some outrageous questions and leaves like that the instant he¡¯s finished? I got better things to do with my precious time. Does he take me for a fool?. Surely that was a joke... The shuttle arrives at my station with a subtle hissing sound. I will go by grandma¡¯s place tomorrow to pay her a visit and grab the laundry while I¡¯m at it. First let¡¯s see what¡¯s happening in the All-Net now. ~ Ring Ring ~ What time is it? Oh man the stupid alarm clock has stopped again. Oh never mind, let''s see who''s there. Maybe Shinji, who has found out something new about Aestral. I make my way to the door to welcome the late guest. "Good day, dear sir. I''ve got a delivery for a certain Mr Ryouta Kuwakabe, is that you?" he grunts. Delivery man. Let¡¯s get this over with. "Yes I am, where do I need to sign and how much does it cost me?" I reply. "That''s all been taken care of by the sender,¡± he places the screen in front of me. ¡°Sign here and here¡ Please." "Who¡¯s the sender?" I don¡¯t know who would send me such a big package without telling me beforehand. "Says... ''Zestro Electronics'' -and more I can¡¯t make out." "Ah well then, thank you and a nice evening," I said and he hands me the package. "Bye" So, let''s see what¡¯s inside this package. Maybe bonus material because I gave the very first order for Aestral. That would be really cool. Having dispelled about five kilos of packaging material, there is a fully round, about sixty centimeters wide black ball left in the box. What''s that for? -a part? I haven¡¯t seen a power cord, how does it work? The ball lights up from the inside out and tiny openings appear everywhere around the globe, from which roll out countless even smaller machines. "Whoa! What are all these? Small beetles? They look like diminutive ants!" One of the tiny machines reaches Ryouta. It crawls up his arm to the veins and stops. I lean in close, the tiny bug lifts it¡¯s head and pricks my arm. I flail my arm around in a panic, trying to shake off this little pest and try to wiggle away from the orb still releasing more of these small things as I feel my consciousness rapidly fading away and then ¡ there is only darkness. Chapter 2 - Appearance Hello guys, I finished the second chapter but... well i just feel like the wall of text would crit you for over 9000 so I was wondering wether if anyone would like to do spacing/formating for me since im utterly useless at it. Anyone interested in it can answer to this post and if noone pops up untel 2 hours from now I will just publish the chapter in this post like it is.... So its your choice >.< Aaaaw to hell with the wait... im impatient xD EDIT: Btw it may be a little early but i dont have anything against constructive critic/reviews. The thick white flakes falling from the sky in silence, unsuspecting of anything happening on the cold white earth below. Amidst all these flakes, there was something else mixed in between, completely different from the surrounding snow in the air. Near the disturbance falling towards the ground was a small cozy looking village. Near the village many children ran in the deep snow. These children didn¡¯t just run around there without reason. As it happens they managed to spot the odd thing in the sky. And just like any other healthy young kid they decided to take a look at what was falling from the sky so close to their beloved village. The kids upon a closer inspection, seem to wear rather crude clothing if one took our modern garments as a standard, because one could make out every single thread in it from a distance and it was also obvious that the cloth was fairly stiff. The only thing that kept these kids from freezing to death would have been the animal pelts stacked on top of each other to create some kind of protection from the cold. Upon reaching the place where the oddity fell to the ground the smaller kids ran around a small trough in excitement yelling ¡°It¡¯s a girl, it¡¯s a girl¡± on and on. The oldest of all the kids present was a boy called Troy. He too was merely twelve years old by now but that made him some kind of a leader to the other kids and thus they listened closely when he told two of the smaller ones to go get ¡®gramps¡¯ to this place, because he didn¡¯t know what to do in this kind of situation. The girl in the trough looked like she was slightly older than Troy himself but did only wear some flimsy white clothing that could hardly protect her from the harsh cold that permeated through the air. After realising this he readily parted with his coat made from the pelts the villagers managed to get from the wolves in the nearby forest to keep the girl from dying. ¡°She¡¯s so pretty and frail,¡± Troy thought to himself. After waiting for about ten minutes an elderly figure approached the scene and quickly brought order to the romping smaller children. ¡°Troy. Come here and help me get this poor girl to the village. It¡¯s not safe out here in these times. And you loud lot. Make sure to go home! Your parents are surely worried sick by now.¡± the old man bellowed. Immediately the smaller children ran off yelling in excitement over the odd new girl in the village. After the boy and the old man brought the girl to the villages community hall, the hall is the biggest building the village has to offer, the old man sent Troy home so he could inspect the girl for injuries. He didn¡¯t discover any of the feared injuries but instead came to know of her basic condition. Her skin had a color almost like porcelain with a smooth feeling to the touch. Her height was about 1.4 meters while there was no visible sign of puberty as of yet. Her hair was almost as long as she was tall herself, had the color of obsidian and fell down to slightly below her buttocks and was covered from the shoulders onwards by a thin leather band to the bottom. Her eyes had a light blue color resembling the skies tone on a sunny day. While weighing about 48 kilograms her build was small and petite at that point. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! The only thing she had as clothing was a white dress considered a nightgown in the village. Other than the dress only a small pendant dangling from her neck drew attention for it was the only item on her that could indicate to her identity. Inside the pendant the old man found a gravure reading ¡®For Rya¡¯ giving the girl a name she would be called by the others. After he had completed the inspection he called for Amy, one of the tailors of the village, to prepare some clothing for the little Rya because what she had on herself was hardly appropriate. ¡°Old man, what are you waiting for, get out of here or do you want me to throw you out myself? Mister village chief Gregory,¡± Amy said scowling. ¡°No reason to get violent Amy, I was already on my way. And her name is Rya by the way. At least that¡¯s what her pendant says,¡± Gregory replied in haste, fearful of her retaliation. As soon as the old man left the community hall Amy undressed Rya and put more modest clothing in the style of the village on her. But still she would not wake up from her deep slumber. ¡°I wonder when she will finally wake up so we can talk to her. What she has to tell us about where she came from will be important considering the old lores I got to hear when I was young,¡± Amy mumbled in contemplation. After finished clothing the little girl Amy went on her way to inform Gregory that Rya was now presentable but would most likely need at least the whole night before she will wake up. ¡°In this case I will announce a village meeting for tomorrow evening for Rya should be awake by then,¡± Gregory responded and got to work for the following day. In the middle of the night the pendant on a particular girl¡¯s chest began to glow in the dark unnoticed by anyone sleeping in the surrounding houses. This same girl was in the middle of dreaming a rather unusual dream. For in this dream she had no body and floated in an endless black space without any sense of direction. Only a soft but deeply vibrating voice accompanied her in this dark place. ¡°Little human, what did you come here for? For this is my domain to do as i see fit,¡± the voice questioned. Stuttering the little human answered to the voices demand, ¡°I am here because I have nowhere else to go. At least I don¡¯t know how I can move somewhere else myself.¡± In presence of the following chuckle the girl came to fear what was going to happen, because she didn¡¯t know how she came to be at this dark place and also didn¡¯t know who she was. All of this only adding to her fear of the foreign voice. ¡°It seems like some power has rid you of your memories and placed you in my domain just after that. I won¡¯t judge you for things not in your control and I think you are rather amusing. Thus I will grant you a little gift. Every time after your sixteenth birthday, when three months have passed, I will unlock some of your memories. That will slowly give back your past live and also amuse me with your reactions to that. And now go back to the place you came from,¡± the voice explains to the little girl. After the voice vanished, a strong wind encompassed the formless girl and cast her further away into the vast darkness until the little girl lost the capability to form any coherent thought. Chapter 3 - You meet to part ¡°You are still too slow Troy. You will never catch me if you don¡¯t train some more.¡± I yell laughing while I run through the forest¡¯s border, Troy following just a few paces behind while stumbling over his own legs due to having no breath left in him. ¡°That¡¯s not fair. Why is it that you are always faster than me even though I am a year older than you?¡± Troy complains after stopping and leaning over to catch his breath. Some might find it strange to hear Troy say he is older than me because I don¡¯t look like I would be younger than him at all. ¡°-Except for my chest area sadly.-¡± I just don¡¯t seem to grow there much at all. Even the girls two years younger than me either overtook my growth in that place or are close to. Ever since the villagers took me in I lived together with Amy, the villages Tailor. I say Tailor but the only thing the villagers don¡¯t do themselves is making the clothes themselves. They prepare the leather and strings themselves and hand it over to Amy to assemble the clothes in the end because it hastens the production somewhat. In turn the other grown up villagers are responsible for hunting, woodworking and other similar things of the sort. Like this I learned how to make my own clothes by watching her over the five years I have lived here. ¡°You are just not made for running Troy. You should rather go hack some trees or something with your kind of body.¡± He listens to me in earnest and starts posing while flexing his muscles. ¡°Yeah my body is admirable, right?¡± He grins from one end to the other while slowly catching up to me. I turned in the direction of the village and started to walk in a normal tempo this time. ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the village, we were told to be back before midday so we have to hurry.¡± Troy begrudgingly followed behind and I thought I heard him mumbling about density. He is really fixated on his muscles. ¡°-Boys!-¡± We arrived at the village slightly after the sun passed its highest point in the sky, thus coming too late for whatever they were planning for us to do today. ¡°Both of you dont take life too lightly. You just don¡¯t know how harsh it was until just one hundred years ago.¡± Old man Gregory lamented our late arrival in the village. ¡°Now come with me to the community hall, we got many things to tell you before the day ends.¡± Gregory told us with a sad smile. I faced Troy and asked him with curiosity. ¡°Do you know what all this is about? Did we do something we should not have recently?¡± Equally curious Troy told me he does not know what was happening too. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. After we arrived in the community hall we could tell it was filled with all the people of the village over the age of thirty, looking in our direction with an equally sad expression as Gregory. Slowly I get scared by the looks on their faces because I don¡¯t know what will happen and it looks like it is nothing good. Maybe because it was written on my face or because they anticipated it they relaxed their expressions and Gregory told us in a kind voice. ¡°Troy, Rya you did nothing wrong so don¡¯t think like that but either way, you both will have to leave the village in the not too distant future.¡± I was just about to burst out pleading to be allowed to stay, when Gregory held his hand high and continued talking. ¡°We are sorry you two but it was foretold more than a hundred years ago, that the two people, descendants of the skies, that you two are, will be forced to go on a journey, as soon as they both reach the age of sixteen years. In exchange for taking care of you two, our ancestors and us were granted with a place to live without having to fear any monster or bandit attacks until you leave this place.¡± This could not be true I finally got used to living in this village and was happy with it. ¡°You can¡¯t do this to us. You just can¡¯t. Where do you expect us to go with just the two of us. We don¡¯t know anything about the area except for the village and the woods surrounding it!¡± I cried out lout while tearing up, almost sobbing in the end. At this moment Troy shoved himself in front of me to shield me from their gaze. ¡°I was wondering when you planned to tell us all about this. I knew all along that this would happen at some time since I eavesdropped on you just after Rya arrived here. I hope you won¡¯t just send us our way with clothes only since you mentioned bandits and monsters before and it feels like we will definitely encounter one or both of em as soon as we really leave from here!¡± Troy exclaimed resolutely and obviously planning to protect me in the future. A uncomfortable silence permeated through the room, as the others tried to come to terms with Troy¡¯s changed behavior. ¡°We are really sorry. We would love to have you with us permanently but don¡¯t have a choice in the matter either. And of course we won¡¯t send you off without any means to protect yourself. The bow you always wanted, was in fact prepared for you Rya and Troy, the spear and shield over there are meant for you to use to protect against any harm coming your way.¡± Amy said while slowly tearing up. The remainder of the day passed like a dream for me without really catching much of what we were told. I just hoped Troy would be able to explain everything to me, once we met the next morning. ¡°It¡¯s cold.¡± I mutter while slowly waking from my sleep. ¡°After I got overwhelmed by the huge news of me and Troy having to leave, I just fell to sleep instantly as soon as I arrived at home and I don¡¯t remember leaving the window open, so why is it so cold in here?¡± Right after I fully woke up my eyes shot open just to see I was not in my room anymore, instead I was on the ground in a wide open plain, I never saw before, with Troy standing a few steps away, looking into the distance with a serious expression on his face. ¡°They really did it. They drugged our dinner to move us while asleep.¡± Troy muttered, not yet having realised I was awake. I looked down besides where I lay and found the bow and a few arrows scattered around it. My whole body shaking, I picked up the weapon and its ammunition, slowly rising with the bow in hands. ¡°-I won¡¯ forget this. Gregory!-¡±