After what seemed like an eternity, I slowly opened my eyes. A wave of dizziness immediately assaulted my head relentlessly as I looked around. It seemed that I was in some kind of a dilapidated shed. I was lying on a stack of hay that made my back itch as I slowly sat up.

The first thing I noticed upon standing up was my height. Either my mind was playing tricks on me or I shrank noticeably. A breeze shortly entered through the cracked window and fluttered the skirt that I was wearing.

The breeze continued on and gently flowed through my hair. “Hold on, I don’t remember my hair being this long as well.” I thought to myself.

After a quick thinking, a sickeningly conclusion came to my mind. “This isn’t my body!” I wailed out loud in despair.

Looking around wildly, I scrambled for the door, only to realize that something was preventing the door from opening on the other side. I banged on the door and pushed with all my might but it did not even budge an inch.

I glanced at the window before attempting to break it with my fists but to no avail as well. I slowly laid back down on the stack of hay before thinking about my situation.

“First of all, what happened to my body? This clearly isn’t mine. I was on my way home but then I just woke up here in this body. Was I kidnapped and this is all some sort of an experiment?” I shuddered before a hunger pain assaulted my stomach.

I looked around for anything to eat or drink but there was nothing except a stack of hay in this empty shed. Hours passed and I was beginning to feel despair at the thought of dying from lack of sustenance when the door creaked open slightly and a bowl was pushed in before shutting the door again.

I crawled over to the bowl before hungrily devouring it’s content. It was a meager bowl of porridge but food nonetheless. “Am I a prisoner of some sort? This would most likely be the case as I seemed to be weakened intentionally and locked up.” I concluded.

Soon night came and I slowly drifted off to sleep. Upon waking up from the uncomfortable hay, I found another bowl of porridge placed inside. The amount given seemed to reduce slightly with every bowl. This was bad. I needed to figure out a way to escape this place before I slowly died of starvation.

Once again, I tried to open the door and was expecting to fail but the door opened this time and swung outwards. “Huh? Why is it unlocked this time?”

I stumbled out of the shed for the first time since awakening in this body. The cool breeze fluttered against my skin. I was in some sort of a clearing surrounded by huge trees that looked like they could block out the sunlight if they wanted to.

There was no sign of anyone else. It was too quiet. No sign of birds chirping or insects making noises. Only the sound of a breeze going over the grassy clearing and the sound of the leaves shaking.

Spotting a small puddle of water in a distance, I slowly hobbled towards it, hoping to check if the water was drinkable. The only source of water I had gotten was from the porridge.

To my surprise, the water looked crystal clear with no sign of debris floating around in the water. I stared into my reflection in the water. A small petite face of a girl stared back. Her face was malnourished and had mismatching colors in her eyes.

This body looked of that of a 14 year old. Her abnormally long dirty black hair cascaded down her back which stood out against her pale skin from the patches in the shirt she was wearing.

After examining myself, I bend down to scope up some water by cupping my hands and drank it thirstily. Once I had extinguished my thirst, I looked around once moe. The sky was particularly strange. It felt as if the sky was very high, far too high in fact.

“Where am I?” I asked no one in particular.

Once I got to the edge of the clearing, I could only see a sea of trees blocking my vision. I started to climb up a tree as I needed to know which directions to go to but quickly abandoned the idea after falling back down. Trying to climb with a weakened body was too dangerous.

While I was deciding to whether try my luck and venture out into the forest or wait for the person that brings food, I heard the snapping of branches and footsteps coming from the forest, the sound gradually getting nearer and nearer.

I quickly ran back to the shed but instead of going inside, I hid behind it, away from the direction of where the footsteps were coming from.

“Quick quick, give her the food and let’s get out of here!” a voice laced with urgency called out to someone beside her.

“Wait a minute, the door is open! Did you forget to lock the door again!?” another voice lashed out.

I took a peek and spotted 2 girls older than me wearing strangely, a yukata. They looked to be around my age. Why would they be doing this? My eyes flashed with disdain and picked up a nearby stick to use as a weapon, however flimsy it appeared to be.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Quick! Go and search for her!” the voice that lashed out ordered.

A set of footsteps could be heard hurriedly going back into the forest, presumptuously to look for her. Another set slowly came towards my location.

“I know you are there. Come out already.” the voice called out.

I slowly walked out from behind the shed showing myself. Seeing as I was holding the stick as a weapon, the other person only laughed with ridicule clearly visible in her eyes.

“And what do you hope to accomplish with that stick? Be a good girl and scurry back into your shed now.” she ridiculed opening up a hand held fan and covering her mouth in a practised motion.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I called out while brandishing the stick in front of me.

A look of surprise appeared in her eyes before starting to fan herself. “Oh my, pretending to have amnesia are we? Go back into the shed before I get angry.”

Upon seeing that I had no intention of going back in, she sighed. “Don’t blame me for being roughed up then!”

She quickly jumped backwards before using her fan and swinging it in my direction. A blast of wind quickly knocked me over my feet before getting back up, not showing any expression despite being shocked inside.

“How was that possible? A simple swipe of her fan caused a wind strong enough to knock someone over?” I pondered hard.

“So stubborn aren’t you?” she said with a glint in her eyes. Once again, she repeated the same action but I immediately jumped out of the way before rushing towards her, intending to hit her with the stick.

Before I could reach her, something tripped my feet and I went sprawling onto the ground. I looked back on what tripped me and it was a tree root sticking out of the ground which was oddly out of place for it to be here.

“Stay away from my sister!” a figured yelled out, running towards us from a distance.

“Dammit, this body is too weak!” cursing myself under my breath, attempting to stand back up before the girl with the fan used her feet which had heels on to push my head back on to the ground.

“Stay down there like the lowly insect you are.” she calmly said while pushing my head further into the ground.

I was about the grab the leg pushing me down when she stopped and kicked my head instead, knocking me out.

Upon waking up, I found myself lying on a bed inside a room resembling an infirmary. My head was bandaged and an IV bag hooked up nearby with a thin tube running in to my arm.

There was a person sitting down and sleeping with her head on the bed who stirred from her slumber after noticing me waking up.

“Rica! You are finally awake! Do you know how worried I was when you were gone missing for a week?!” the girl with the crimson red hair sitting down cried out before jumping and hugging me.

“What happened?” I asked, not understand what was going on.

“You were found unconscious bleeding from an injury you sustained on your head!” the girl cried out before continuing to hug me.

“Who are you and where am I?” I continued to ask.

The girl wiped away her tears before looking at me with a shocked expression. “Yo-you don’t remember me?”

She suddenly started crying again before exclaiming that I must have gotten amnesia from the blow to my head before rushing out of the room.

Once again, I found myself at lost on what to do. It seemed that someone had changed the rags that I was wearing to the matching uniform the girl that ran off had worn. I stood up and looked out of the window. I was probably in a school of some sort.

Not before long, the girl ran back in with a doctor in tow. Noticing that I was standing, she hurriedly asked me to lie back down on to the bed.

“Miss, can you tell me what you remember so far? For example, how you got injured or the first day coming to the academy.” the doctor asked before preparing to take down some notes.

“I honestly cannot remember anything? I cannot recall my own name either.” I answered half truthfully.

“Seems you have a severe case of amnesia. Miss Charlotte, please make sure to help her to follow her daily class and routines. It may trigger some of her memories back.” the doctor recommended before taking down some notes and walking out of the room.

“My name is Charlotte Lyrisca and your name is Rica. You never told me your last name before.” Charlotte explained. “We are currently attending the Guild’s Academy for people with special abilities.” she continued.

“Huh? What special abilities?” I asked dumbfounded.

“This is more serious than I thought.” the doctor said seriously.

“Huh? Didn’t you leave the room already?” I asked dumbfounded to the doctor that was standing by the side of the bed. I had to rub my eyes the second time to see if he was really there.

“This doctor is famous in the city for his renown medical skills as well as having the ability to teleport.” Charlotte explained watching my eyes become wider and wider in disbelief.

“What..? Teleportation? Stop pulling my legs! There is no way anyone can do that!” I snapped.

All of a sudden, someone rested his hand on my shoulder. “Calm down Miss. You need to control your temper.”

No way. He was just standing right … in .. front … of ….. me. But then again, this might not be the Earth anymore.

“Do you believe it now? If so, I will be taking my leave.” and once again, the doctor disappeared.

“Want to see mine?” Charlotte excited said, interrupting my train of thoughts.

“Sure.”

“Okay, here goes!” and after she said that, a bright spark illuminated the room before a fireball formed in her palms.

“!!!”

“A fly is going to enter your mouth if you continue to keep it open.” Charlotte giggled before the fireball was extinguished.

“What’s mine, what’s mine?” I asked excitedly. I should have some sort of cool ability right since I am not from this world … probably.

“Huh? Uh… about that, your ability is to store items in a pocket dimension.” Charlotte nervously answered while fidgeting with her fingers.

“Anything else? Storing items without needing a bag sounds really great!” I answered enthusiastically.

“That’s about it.”

“...”

“...”

“It can’t be that bad. Just that it has … it has … no offensive .. capabilities..” Charlotte answered downheartedly.

“Oh.. but why is having offensive capabilities important?” I asked curiously.

“Support capabilities are important too like having the ability to heal for example but offensive is the most important ability to have since it will most likely contribute more to the war.” Charlotte explained.

“War? What war?” I asked, my eyes widening in surprise.

“The war against the daemons. Foul beings that appeared on the other continent through a portal and wreaked havoc upon it. Millions died when they first attacked and have now taken over the entire continent and resides on it.” Charlotte angrily explained, her eyes full of hate momentarily.

“I see…”

Silence momentarily filled the air before it was broken by a cheerful voice.

“The doctor cleared you for discharge although I will need to accompany you. Let’s go back to our room.” Charlotte said while helping me out of the bed.

“Don’t worry about your ability. I am sure it will still be useful for example, helping to carry supplies and stuff!”

We walked down on to the ground floor before entering another building, most likely to the dormitory. I was thinking about the things she said about wars and daemons. Seems like this isn’t such a boring world.

Entering our room, Charlotte excused herself before going out and mentioning that she had classes to attend to while I got take the day off for today. As I went to shower, I noticed something strange with my eyes. Previously, my left eye was blood red and my right eye was that of the color of a green kiwi but now, both was kiwi green.