Kira: The Powerful Tamer, Nick Venom [distant reading .txt] 📗

Kira---a baby-faced male fifteen-year-old---exited his house. He left the front porch, now entering his front lawn. Why? I told them that I had it covered, so why? Couldn’t they have asked me if I wanted to go or not? They pitch my name into the hat and in three years, I’ll be forced to go? He thought to himself, angrily going over what his parents had told him. They wanted him to join the army while he wanted to live his own life and become an artist. However, as his guardians, they had full control over his life path and chose him to become a soldier.

He quickly left his front lawn, passing by the sidewalk and entering the road. He didn’t bother to look at both sides of the road as he was absorbed by his thoughts. He, also, didn’t care much about his clothing. He walked out of his house with his clothes from the previous night, a stained blue tee-shirt, baggy faded jeans, and white sneakers.

As he crossed the road, a semi-truck barreled towards him at high speeds. The driver noticed Kira in the middle of the road and grabbed hold of the steering wheel, pointing it towards the side of the road. The semi-truck turned sharply, flipping onto its side and sliding towards him. 

At this point, Kira heard the sounds of the semi-truck flipping. He furrowed his brows, dismissing his thoughts for a moment, and turned to look at the source of the sounds. He watched as the trailer of the semi barreled into him, killing him on impact - leaving a large pool of blood and his body in an unnatural position. His hands were inverted while his legs crept close to his neck. His ocean-blue hair dropped over his head, which stared at his body, separated from the entire affair. It laid a few feet from the body, on the edge of the blood puddle. 

Almost instantly, Kira’s soul left his body and drifted towards Heaven, leaving his mortal body behind. Kira looked down from above and watched as people flocked to the scene, calling out for police. He watched in shock as he realized that the body soaked in blood was his. The only thing that could escape his mouth was, “What happened?”

“You died.” remarked a godly being. Kira looked around, noticing that the two of them were standing on top of a mountain’s peak. 

“Where am I? Is this Heaven?” Kira asked the being. The being turned around, appearing to him as a redheaded female with charcoal skin and emerald eyes that shined brightly. She towered over Kira---being seven feet in height---and was toned. She lowered her glasses as she inspected Kira.

“You’re in a division of Heaven… kinda. I welcome to you the Everest Mountain, a district of Heaven. My name is Visa.”

“Everest Mountain…? Wait, why am I here?”

“You died, duh.” She remarked, turning away from him. “You weren’t paying attention to the road, so you paid the price.”

“Wait… what… w-what do I do?” Kira asked.

“I dunno,” Visa remarked. “Do what you want.”

“Do what I… wouldn’t this be the time that you send me to another world or something like that?” He asked, tilting his head while raising his eyebrows. Visa turned around him and looked at him with stunned eyebrows. She shrugged her shoulders and opened a black portal behind him.

“I’ll grant you three random skills, so… bye.” She said, motioning for a small gnome-like creature, named a Laxin, to shove Kira into the portal. Kira yelled as he reached out to hold onto something, but couldn’t find anything to grab. He disappeared from the plane of time, leaving Visa and her minion behind. Visa faced her minion and shook her head. “He won’t die. I gave him strong skills.” She argued. “If he does, then he wasn’t for this world. Apparently, he wasn’t for his last one either. He’ll do fine.”

***

Kira woke up in a thick and overgrown forest, surrounded by trees as far as the eye could see. He sat up and looked around his surroundings, noticing the same sight on every side of him. He glanced at his clothes---wearing the same clothes as he did before his death. “Where am I?” He asked out loud. He stood up and walked around, finding the same sights everywhere he went. 

He ventured through the forest in a straight line, coming across a small pond in a small clearing. He sat next to the water and cupped his hands. He brought his cupped heads into the water, collecting a small amount, before bringing it to his mouth. He slurped the water entirely before putting his hands back into the water, bringing his mouth more water. 

While peacefully drinking, a roar disrupted him. He raised his head to look for the direction of the road. I need to leave before the monster that roared finds me, he thought. Unfortunately, his thought was ignored as the head of a dragon peeked over the tops of the trees. He stood frozen as the dragon scanned its surroundings, quickly detecting Kira. It let out a roar as it began moving towards Kira, collapsing the trees in its way.

Kira, his body no longer frozen stiff by fear, jumped up and sprinted in the opposite direction. The dragon, however, was quicker than him. “That dumb goddess gave me skills? She never told me what they were or how to use them!” He shouted angrily to himself. He ran away from the dragon, but it would soon overtake him. “Help! Begin! Menu! Start!” He yelled, attempting to open a game-like panel to no avail. “Goddess! Tell me what to do!” He shouted.

Visa looked at Kira from her district of Heaven, shaking her head as she watched him flee from the dragon. She turned to her side, waving her hands randomly around to open up a portal. She motioned for the Laxin to hand her a piece of paper and a pencil. Once she got it, she began scribbling on the paper before throwing it into the portal. 

Meanwhile, as Kira fled from the dragon, a portal formed in front of him, managing to stay in front of him. The paper flew from the portal and hit Kira in his face. He tore it off his face and read the paper’s contents. “Say Visa to open your menu, dummy.” He read out loud. Ignoring the last word, Kira rushed to open his menu. “Visa!” He shouted, activating his menu and bringing a game-like screen to his attention. The screen told him what skills he held - Immortality, Gate, and Freeze Strike. Under every skill was a description. Immortality was self-explanatory. His appearance became stagnant and he wouldn’t have to worry about his lifespan. The second skill, Gate, allowed Kira to open a portal that can transport him to any destination that he’d visited before. The last skill was Freeze Strike, a skill that allowed him to freeze any person or object’s motions. Kira could leave people frozen for large amounts of time or defuse situations by preventing each side from attacking the other side. 

“Freeze Strike? That can stop people’s motions. I could use this… ” He turned around and chanted Freeze Strike---which activated instantly by saying its name---towards the dragon. The skill froze the dragon in place. The skill left no visible trace, making it out as if the dragon stopped suddenly and refused to move a muscle. 

Kira stared at the dragon with his eyes widened while his jaw nearly collapsed on him. “Why didn’t you tell me this beforehand? I nearly died!” He exclaimed, directing his anger towards the portal. The Laxin emerged from the portal and kicked Kira in the shin before leaving the same way he entered. Kira yelped and grabbed his leg, jumping on the other one. He shook his fist at the portal. 

As a response, the Laxin popped his head out and stuck his tongue out before disappearing through the portal. The portal collapsed onto itself, disappearing from the world. Kira stood dumbfounded at the Laxin’s childish actions. What a rude… gnome?

“Whatever,” He muttered, now turning his attention towards the dragon. The dragon stared at him, his eyes filled with a lit fire. Kira kept his distance from the dragon but managed to get close enough to see the monster in better detail.

“How dare you do this to me, you puny human.” The dragon barked at him. Aside from its mouth, everything else was frozen.

“Y-Y-You can talk!” Kira questioned.

“Of course, I can talk! I’m an elder dragon! How dare you compare me to your puny race!” He declared. His carbon-black scales reflected off the glistering sunlight, creating a bright glow. His blue eyes were a dark shade and his tail was darker. 

“What have you done to me?” He shouted.

“I-I froze you!” Kira declared. 

“You froze me? How?” The elder dragon asked. 

“I-I-I’m not sure.”

“Let me go!” He roared. 

“You’re going to kill me if I let you go, right?” Kira asked him. 

The elder dragon chucked. “Of course, I will. I have my pride as a dragon to kill my prey!”

“Then I can’t let you go… I… I don’t want to die again.” He remarked before turning around. He took a few steps forward, intending to leave the dragon frozen until he was enough away.

“Hey! Wait! You can’t leave me like this!” The elder dragon cried out, changing from his arrogant and ruthless tone to a softer one and appealing to Kira’s heartstrings. Kira took a few more steps, hesitant to go any further. “I won’t kill you!” The dragon pleaded. Kira ignored him and took more steps away. I have to be strong! I can’t die yet! He thought to himself. The dragon, by this time, grew anxious and panicked. “Okay, can we make a truce?”

Kira turned around. “A truce?”

“I’ll leave you alone! How about that! Now, let me go.” The elder dragon pleaded tears streaming down his face. 

“You won’t kill me?” Kira asked him. The elder dragon nodded profusely. Kira deactivated the skill by saying the name again, allowing the elder dragon to walk freely. The dragon crept closer to Kira but didn’t attack him. Instead, he bowed his head to Kira. 

“What are you doing?” Kira asked, his eyes questioned.

“To confirm the truce, you must certify it by giving me a name.” The elder dragon declared.

“A name?” Kira repeated. “Then… how about I give you the name Nazifa. King Nazifa?”

“King?” Nazifa repeated. He then stood up on his hind legs and let out a roar. “I like that name. I’m now Nazifa, the King of the Dragons” He declared. The roar bent the nearby trees and shook every living creature in the forest.

With the announcement over, he stood back on all four legs. He motioned for Kira to follow him, heading into a deeper part of the forest. “My children are in the nest. I want you to protect them if anything happens to me.” 

“I will,”

***

A year later, Kira had figured out the ins and outs of Astrial Forest. During this time, he built a small camp for himself. The camp consisted of a straw-filled bed and a tent with makeshift fences surrounding a circular area. He used materials from nature and items that Nazifa discovered to build his camp. He lived off the apple trees he found nearby and a small farm plot he created. 

He rested on a straw-filled pillow---that he put outside of the tent---and watched the stars overhead. Since the beginning, Kira had used the stars to sleep. A memory of his new life. However, tonight’s stars were different. Unlike the therapeutic feeling it usually gave him, instead, he felt goosebumps rising on his arms. He jumped up, his eyes adjusting to the nighttime. The moons shined slightly on the camp, illuminating a part of his way. The moons were crimson red and ocean blue.

Kira