The Strange One

As Aaron was brought into this new world, his parents noticed something. He possessed no 'Ki'. Even newborn babies had Ki, even if it was almost unnoticeable, but their child had none.

"Doctor, what is up with our child? He isn't showing any Ki signs."

The doctor walked off, and pulled over a screen, with two small circles dangling from it, like a stethoscope with two ends.

"Don't worry, Mr and Mrs Stone, we shall measure your child's Ki levels using this handy device called a Ki Reader. It measures the level of Ki a person has, even if it is unnoticeable by us humans."

So yes, machines existed. Think of a somewhat more advanced human society, and that's what this world is.

The doctor placed both of the circles on Aaron, one on his head, and one on his hand. These were the two most active Ki Points in a human body, at least from experiments. The screen pulled up an image, as it calibrated Aaron's Ki Levels, before it came up with a result.

On the screen, it showed the message 'Ki Level: 0'. The doctor looked at it, as if it was wrong.

"Surely that must not be the case. Let me just try again. It was probably the machine malfunctioning for the first time."

He pressed the 'Measure Again' button on the screen, and watched as it pulled up another message.

'Ki Level: 0'

'This is the correct amount.'

Now is the time to remind you that Aaron was born as a human, so later on, it might be better to think of him not as an inhuman being, but more like Hitler or Sephiroth.

The doctor cleared his throat, before speaking to the speechless parents.

"So, it isn't wrong. Mr and Mrs Stone, your child has no Ki. He is going to be weaker than any other person on this planet."

The parents didn't even register this fact. They were busy processing how it happened. Both of them had a large amount of Ki, even being famous for it, so why did their child have none?

Aaron didn't even know what was going on. He was just a newborn child, so of course, it would be unfair for him to have his memories back at that early point.

Flashes of his new life passed by, like his first sight of his parents, his first word, his first steps, but they didn't stay for long.

Now, he realised that he is four. He didn't have a care in the world. All he cared about was doing child things, which mainly, for him, involved staying inside, playing video games. Yes, they existed.

His parents made sure that he didn't go out until he had matured. Kids his age were around twenty times more powerful than him, because of his lack of Ki. His parents absolutely lived him to bits, and they didn't want to see him die by an accidental tap on the head with Ki Infusion.

Ki Infusion is basically where you add your Ki to any action, to improve its power. His parents had tried hundreds of things to get his Ki up, by any means necessary, even going to illegal measures, but nothing worked. Their kid was impaired from the rest of society.

They tried to get him to meditate, to get him to absorb Ki from the outside world, but nothing worked. At least, not Ki-wise.

Something clicked within Aaron the first time he meditated. His body had realised that it utilised not Ki, but a different source, although it wasn't able to use it, and did not know the name for it.

He would routinely meditate, so that he could attempt to bring up some more of this unknown energy to the surface, but nothing happened.

One day, however, he heard a faint voice in his mind when he began to meditate, although he couldn't tell what it was saying. It was all hushed.

Every day, he continued to meditate. Not for hours on end, of course, but for around fifteen minutes, and each day, the voice got louder. He began to hear what it was saying, although he didn't understand why it was saying it.

"Break Free..."

"Break Free..."

"Break Free..."

'Break free from what?'

This was the question he always asked the voice, yet he got no answer. The voice just kept repeating itself, not eluding to what he had tk break through. A barrier blocking his Ki? Definitely unlikely, but it could be the case.

Now, obviously, his thought process wasn't the smartest, but he was a bit smarter than everyone else who was his age, so he had THAT going for him.

The voice kept on getting louder, interrupting his sessions, but suddenly, something new happened one day. During his meditation, his mind was transported somewhere else. All he could see was a large barrier, with blue flames surrounding the other side. Despite knowing not to go anywhere near flames, he felt like he should touch these ones. He tried to break the barrier in his mind, using an imaginary hand, but his hand rebounded off of the barrier, stopping him from reaching the flames. He needed to get there, but he was unable to break through.

He finished meditating for the day, as his parents walked into his room. They sat on his bed, as they patted their hand beside them, indicating that they wanted him to sit beside them.

He sat up on the bed, as his parents looked at eachother with smiles. Steven was the first one to speak.

"Son, we have some very great news. We have decided to get you taught in the ways of swordsmanship!"

Elise then weighed in with her input.

"We know how everything is going to be hard for you in this world, because you have no Ki, so we want to give you the best fighting chance possible. Swordsmanship allows for you to get by with skill, and you won't need to rely on pure strength."

Aaron mulled this over for a bit, before giving his verdict.

"Sure, I wanna learn how to swing a sword!"

In his mind, Aaron reckoned that if he could just get to the blue flames, something cool would happen, so he decided to accept the swordsman, because it might help him pry open that pesky barrier which is stopping those cool flames.

Of course, he didn't know what the blue flames were, but here's something for the reader.

They were his memories, along with something much more useful.