The Accident

“Girls!” Ms. Telly barged into the room. “You’re gonna perform in the Budokan in two months”

“Petal Youth” is a rising girl band featuring vocalist Minichi at the center, Rimi on bass on the right and Hataki on drums at the back. One and a half years after debut as a band, they finally got their chance to perform in the Budokan. Ms. Telly, their manager has been insanely busy with the organisers and various teams to ensure everything goes as perfectly as possible.

A week before the event

“Minichi, hurry up, we are getting late” Rimi is visibly annoyed at Minichi playing Menshin Impact all day.

“C’ming, just 5 more mins, umh umh…” Minichi’s busy.

“Let’s go Rimi, she’ll learn her lesson when she misses the train”, Hataki sneered.

“Guys, wait for me.” Minichi called out to Rimi and Hatakai as they were about to go through their college gate. “Sorry guys, I missed the train”.

“That’s why I told you to hurry up”, Rimi barked.

“Sorry! I was fighting the boss and lost track of time.” Minichi endearingly explained herself.

The three girls are about to complete their second year at Melhouse University, studying Mechanical Engineering. During their first year of university, they started the idol group “Petal Youth” which took the internet by storm and now they will be performing in the Budokan in a week.

“Minichi, Rimi, Hataki! Good luck for Saturday! We’re rooting for you!” They're pretty famous in college.

“Thank you. We hope we can live up to your expectations!” the girls replied back.

Whoah, they’re looking amazing today!... That’s a celebrity for you… Can we get free tickets? What do you think?... I wish I could date them. They’re my queens!!!....

All sorts of chitter can be heard in the college today as they pass through the hallway towards their class.

“Hey Minichi”, after classes a guy from their batch approached her, “the thing is I got this lucky charm for you. Please accept it.” He offered his gift to his goddess while bowing.

“Oh, you didn’t have to!” Minichi blushed. “Please accept it,” he insisted. “Ahh okay. Thank you so much, Asaki!”

“This is nothing but just a small gift from a fan.” he tried to brush it off. “So…” he paused.

“Huh, what is it?” Minichi was curious. Was this a confession? Couldn’t be. What would she do if it was? She begged it to be something else.

“So, I was wondering, if you…” he paused again, “..could give us three tickets for your concert.”

Ahhh, it’s not a confession. Thank god. But wait. “Eh?” she blurted out.

“No it’s okay if you can’t, I totally understand” Asaki tried to back away.

“No no, that’s not it. You didn’t need to be so dramatic for it. We’re batchmates after all” Minichi smiled.

“Minichi, let’s go,” Rimi called to her from outside the classroom. “Oh? Owww…” she smirked seeing Asaki and Minichi together, “I’ll wait outside”

“Ahh, that’s not what’s happening here” Minichi and Asaki shout together. But Rimi was gone.

“I have to catch ‘em. I’ll ask Ms. Telly to send you guys three tickets. See you later, Asaki!” She ran off to catch Rimi.

Asaki is stunned that it worked.

On Saturday morning (The big day).

“Mi-ni-chi! Will you stop playing at least today? We can’t be late.” Rimi snatched the tablet computer from Minichi’s hands.

“Uhh uhh, I am gonna lose, waaaa!!!” Despairing, Minichi dramatically begged for the tablet.

“Stop it guys or we’re really gonna be late” Hataki murmured in a gentle voice as she checked herself in the mirror.

“But Minichi won’t just stop playing.” Rimi was running around the room with Minichi’s tablet in hand. Minichi was chasing after her. “I promise it would just take me 5 more minutes. I am good at it.”

“Jeez, these girls! Well that’s Petal Youth for you.” Hataki murmurs.

“Ahh, I could’ve totally won that match” Minichi was in despair, again. “Yeah and then we’d be late for the performance” Rimi was barking, again. The three were in their car going towards the venue: Melhouse Budokan. Ms. Telly was driving. There were escort safety vehicles on all sides.

On the highway, the escort car behind them suddenly suffered brake failure and hit their car. The car got out of the lane to the adjacent one just as a truck was coming their way and CRASH!

Everything went white. “Arrey? white? Why am I seeing white? Didn’t we get hit by a truck? Shouldn’t it be black? Arrey?” Minichi could hear her voice.

“Arrey? The truck is hitting us. I’m floating in the air with…”...

“Rimi! Hataki!” She woke up on a bed in a brightly lit room. The room was very well furnished, almost as if it was a queen’s bedroom.

“Ghss, ssh khquish” a woman beside her seemed to call someone when she saw Minichi awake. She could hear footsteps and voices outside. Then a group of well dressed women and a man enters the room. Were they royalty? Where was she? What language were they speaking? She looked at her hand and body. They seemed to be okay. No bandages, no sign that she was in an accident. Was this a dream?

“Vhoichss, khess! Me vo luch se? Me vo luch se?” the man spoke to her. She couldn’t understand what they were trying to say. Then one of the women said the same thing to her. She’s dressed differently than the rest. Maybe she’s the queen?

Minichi felt thirsty. “Water?” she asked. But now they were more confused and had started saying a lot more gibberish. She tried to show with her hand that she wanted a drink.

“Hooo, khili khili! Luch se Khili? Khili khquisho!” The man seemed very delighted that they were able to understand. A woman brings a glass of water. So in their language, “khili” is water, Minichi interprets. “Khili!!” she says it out of joy. The people are stunned. And then burst cheering. “Vhoichhsse, Vhoichsse!” they start to clap. Minichi felt like she didn’t drink water for a long time. After a while, most of the people have left the room except two women who are sitting on both sides of her bed. But what is this place? Where were Rimi and Hataki?

She suddenly remembered something. DIdn’t they get hit by that truck? And if she’s alive, shouldn't she be at “the concert? “ she blurted out. The women beside her jumped to her to listen to what she had to say.

She went towards the window in the room. The women tried to stop her but realising she wasn't running away, they sat back down. She opened the window and couldn’t believe what she saw. Lush green mountains in the backdrop and a huge bustling town outside the walls of the castle she seemed to be inside of.

“Whoah! I never thought it was actually possible. I got teleported to another world! I hope Rimi and Hataki are safe wherever they are” she mumbled to herself.

Two months have passed in the new world

Minichi started to understand the local language and can somewhat communicate with the people now. She came to know that her arrival was prophesied a long time ago. The prophecy says that a being who will bring an end to the long war will one day fall from the skies. One night, the people saw a bright glow in the sky. Then a sudden flash and she started falling down.

“Was there anyone else with me?” she asked the king. “Anyone else? We could only see you”, the king replied. “I guess the girls are not here then”, she thinks.

The king took her in as a guest of highest priority and promised to keep all requests. She lived in the castle, had three lovely women taking care of her all day. But she wanted to go back.

This world has magic. But Minichi doesn’t have any mana, despite her being the “prophesied being”. She found the Royal Researcher of Magic, Mobi, to be quite an interesting person. Not only because he leaned into academics but was also quite good at music. As time went by she found herself more and more in his lab, trying to read books to learn magic and language.

“Mobi! Do you have any idea how I can go back?” she murmured the question to him while she flipped through the pages of a book.

“You said something? I think you said something”, Mobi was making a new wand for her and thus didn’t hear her due to the noise. He stopped to listen.

“Do you know how I can go back to my world?”, she repeated herself.

Mobi didn’t answer and started working again. Minichi was confused. Did she ask something she was not supposed to? “Mobi?”

He stopped again. Her wand is done. He walked towards her with the wand in hand and gave it to her.

“Here you go. Now you can also cast spells” he winked at her.

“Hoo, it has a green gem! And the details are so intricate!” Minichi was impressed by Mobi’s craftsmanship. But Mobi was silent again, looking out of the window.

“You know what the full prophecy is? In proper words?” He looked at Minichi. His eyes are intense.

A being from another world will fall from the skies. Take proper care of them, for one day, they will end the war and leave this world in an everlasting peace.

“If we go by the words of the prophecy, you’ll return only when the war ends and there is peace. Also, our teleportation magic works only in this world.” Mobi smiled.