Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

It was early morning. Low mist was in the air and Karni was on a morning walk, unusual for him. He slept so well, that, despite waking at an ungodly early hour, he felt incredibly energised.

Despite the time, he could already hear the life in the small mansion starting to slowly wake up.

Karni took this chance to explore. He hadn't seen everything in the mansion yet; yesterday, he was quickly taken towards the training grounds for a beating… training.

Walking towards the courtyard he noticed a familiar figure. It was the knight who trained with him. Lao Alix.

She noticed him quickly. Since everything was silent, only footsteps could be heard. And they stood out in this quiet morning.

"Why are you up so early?" She questioned, as she tied a thick rope onto a pole. The rope was suspended in midair.

"Couldn't sleep. What are you doing?"

"I'm preparing a training ground."

"In the backyard?"

Lao Alix nodded. "It's for you. Miss said to teach you how to use your body correctly, and the backyard has enough environmental variety for us to do just that. Since according to our miss, we need to train you while you're most tired."

She scratched her head. "And we are to make you do it while you have to balance out everything else. I really don't get what our young miss expects sometimes."

Since she was doing this for him, Karni decided to help out a little. In around 2 hours, they were done setting everything up. There were a lot of different terrain set up.

They took a half an hour break before deciding to start training. Might as well test if they set up everything okay. He was given another wooden bo staff today.

Karni immediately noticed the difference compared to yesterday's training. There was no normal terrain in this set up, sometimes it was boulders, other times it was mud and then it was on a rope. And before they even began sparring, they focused on completely exhausting Karni's physical body.

Contrary to the energised feel in the morning, this exhaustion training was truly done well. He barely had any strength, so he simply let weight make decisions for him, because he did not have the energy to fight against gravity. Yet despite that, sometimes, it worked. Gravity was a wonderful way to dodge incoming attacks.

… … …

Karni was exhausted. He was walking, but it didn't look like that. He was basically letting his body make decisions for him. This made him walk in a very wobbly way. At some points the body leaned left, so Karni went left. Then it leaned forward, so Karni had to pick up the pace.

And sometimes his body leaned back, and Karni stopped. And stood there. Waiting. Until his body decided to move on again.

He was running on autopilot. While his mind was still working properly thanks to the adrenaline from training, he was sore all over. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't move much of his body in a normal way, he'd have to really focus.

Simply getting to where he wanted felt like a chore at the moment. He was called by Siduo to come to a study. It was really a small library for the people in the mansion. Since he was going to a more refined place, he took a shower first. At least that brought some refreshments.

Walking into the library, he noticed an older gentleman in fine attire next to Wu Siduo.

"Ah, Kiki you came!" Siduo shouted in a whisper.

"Kiki?" Karni glanced weirdly.

"Mhm, my new nickname for you."

Aha, Karni immediately figured it out. It was revenge for him calling her Sisi. Well, that's okay.

"It's nice, I like it."

Siduo fell silent. "You what?"

"I like it."

Before she could say anything more, the older gentleman coughed to get some attention from the two children.

"Miss, if we could."

"Right." Siduo straightened out.

"Kiki, how much do you know about our region, you come from far away right?" She gave him a secret wink at that.

"Umm. Not a lot. General knowledge mostly. Can't even read the language."

"That is quite a problem." The man said. "Forgive my rudeness. I'm the head butler and caretaker of the Wu family. You can simply refer to me as a teacher for the foreseeable future. I was asked by our young miss to teach you about most things that go on in the world, as well as, apparently, writing and reading."

Karni nodded and said his thanks to Siduo and the head butler. It was a simple problem really. While he could understand everything, he couldn't read anything. Most of the things he wrote down in school in the first few days were from what the teacher said, not what he wrote on the table.

Even when he registered at school, he had to ask for help to fill everything out.

His new teacher and Karni sat down on one of the tables and Siduo left. The head butler brought with him study material.

First he introduced him to the basic alphabet. Karni immediately noticed something he didn't before. Right now, he wasn't hearing english. But what sounded like Chinese. Yet when the butler started to explain things, he heard it in english.

Now that he realised this, Karni noticed something else. The mouth of the teacher, when he was speaking in English, didn't match the sound he was making. He was speaking Chinese, but Karni heard it in English.

Now Karni was even more motivated to learn all this. He didn't want to wake up someday, hearing Chinese everywhere around him and not understanding anything. This was most likely a perk from him being reincarnated, and he didn't know how long it would last.

… … …

Karni dodged behind a boulder. He was used to this by now. The environment wasn't an enemy, but it also wasn't a friend, it was simply a constant existence in the world. At times it could aid him, at times it would work against him.

In a case like this, where the environment was something he was familiar with, as was his opponent, it was a completely neutral force.

A swing of a spear came towards his head as Karni bent backwards 90 degrees, but didn't attempt to realign himself. He simply let himself fall and put the wooden bo staff on the ground as a place to catch his balance. His weight would do the moving for him.

In a simple move he was almost on the other side of the boulder he was previously next to… And then he tangled up his own feet and lost balance. Though this time not on purpose.

He was quick enough to use the bo staff not to fall, but he showed an opening. Lao Alix caught up with him, and attacked from both directions, knowing that he wasn't precise enough to block them both with the bo staff.

It wasn't the first time this happened, and it wouldn't be the last, but Karni wanted to try something he's been cooking up.

He mustered a bit of soul power and broke the wooden bo staff into two, successfully intercepting both of the attacks with half a bo staff in both of his hands. As if he had two short poles.

Lao Alix was caught off guard, and Karni managed to kick her in the stomach to push her away.

She stumbled a bit before catching her balance and stopping, showing Karni to stop as well.

She was staring at the now broken bo staff and sighed. "Smart."

Karni went towards the lumps of other bo staffs to pick up a new one. This wasn't the first bo staff that was broken, but it was the first which Karni broke on purpose.

"Wait, Karni. It's been two months already, it's about time we start training with your martial soul again."

"Oh." Karni stopped before realising. "Oh!" He was now excited. Finally, he graduated from the wooden bo staff.

He summoned his martial soul, which he hasn't used in a while. The sight of predictions actually caught him a bit off guard. Even when training with Siduo, he used wooden weapons, so he could gain experience.

Yet while the wooden bo staff felt like, well, a bo staff, when summoning his martial soul… for the first time… something felt a little off. It felt odd before as well, but that was connected to an entirely different reason. This was the first time he noticed that his martial soul didn't really feel like a bo staff.

Was it a bo staff? It felt like it was something else, something different. It had the basic shape of a bo staff, but it could be called a decorated pole as well, if we went by description alone.

When holding a wooden bo staff, it felt like a bo staff, a long pole, a stick, whatever one would call it. This wasn't any of that. What exactly was his martial soul?

"Karni?" Lao Alix noticed his absent mind.

"Yeah? Ah right, I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere."

The two got into position. Karni wasn't used to his predictions anymore. He's only been training without them for two months. It made it feel like his instincts were wrong.

He was clearly better at dodging, but his moves were simple, predictable, his attacks were too.

Lao Alix still had trouble closing in on him though, more so than before. She remembered what her young miss advised her on when it came to Karni's abilities.

Karni saw multiple shapes form, the future was indecisive. It didn't catch him off guard. If anything, he was waiting for when it would happen.

Interestingly, his moves became more fluid yet again. His weight helped him move like before. Multiple predictions turned his brain into overdrive. It felt like he could see both the future as well as the person herself. The challenge reminded him of how his mind used to work.

But the focus was also his weakness. He forgot about the environment. A rope made him stumble. He quickly used the practised moves to catch his own balance, but Lao Alix saw another opening.

It was the same move as before. One attack from left and the other from the right. Though Karni could see the golden predictions beforehand now.

If only he could split his martial soul in half like he did with the wooden bo staff. Though he wouldn't dare break his martial soul, he still thought about it.

And with that thought, his martial soul suddenly split into two perfect halves. He was so amazed he almost forgot to block the incoming attack.

Both Lao Alix and him stood there in shock. Lao Alix even sighed. "And here I thought I was preventing you from using such tactics. Did you plan this?"

Karni shook his head. Still amazed. He thought of putting the two halves back together, and, like a magnet, it fused back perfectly, without him needing to do it physically.

Then he thought of splitting it apart again, and so it was. The two halves were about the length of a drumstick. He noticed something else. He put them together again.

When the two were fusing, Karni noticed that the two drumsticks elongated a bit, becoming the size of a bo staff again. Splitting them apart, they became shorter again. If he would put them together physically, they wouldn't be near the length of the original bo staff.

Size changed based on form. This made Karni excited. Very excited. He thought about the two keeping the length of half a bo staff, which was more similar to a length of a shortsword, and nothing changed. Oh well, he might've been greedy there.

He hit them against each other and it was like something in him remembered a feeling he'd forgotten. A ringing in the very martial soul. He felt full of adrenaline. "I can play drums now!"

… … …

Karni was in the corner of his room, playing his drums. His martial soul was summoned, split in half, and was being used to play the drums instead of normal drumsticks.

In fact, there were no drumsticks in the room at all. He named this form of his martial soul the Drumstick Form. Jokingly he called them Drumsticks of Predictions.

Whenever he hit the drums it was like an energy was released into the martial soul and stored. It wasn't only with the drums, it wasn't even only with the Drumstick Form.

Even in combat, when he blocked something it was like some energy was saved up. Very slowly and gradually it built up and then he could attack more ferociously.

For now, to keep track of how powerful it was, he called this energy storage Stacks. He still hasn't quite figured out what exactly they were. This martial soul of his was full of secrets, and despite all being separate, on a subconscious level, he understood they were connected to one thing. It's just that he had no idea what the hell that was.

After about half an hour of playing around, he stopped. Feeling satisfied. He grabbed a water bottle from the floor to drink and took a quick shower.

He came out and noticed his ukulele, sitting in a different corner, full of dust. Sighing, he sat on the bed.

Ever since the bonfire, he was incapable of playing the ukulele again. He tried to play a guitar, a synth, anything, but he just couldn't. It was like something from inside him rejected him, like playing an instrument was beneath him, something a lesser being would do. He could tell that he even felt a bit prideful whenever he attempted to play an instrument.

The only thing he could play was the drums, but he had to use his martial soul, not drumsticks. It just felt right. He could feel every beat and vibration of the drums through his martial soul and it was just so satisfying, therapeutic even.

The day he discovered his martial soul could split in two was one of the more happier ones here.

He tried using his martial soul on an ukulele, and he was actually able to strum on it. But it was stupid to do so. It's not like he could change the shape of his bo staff into that of a guitar pick. So, he only played the drums for the past 4 months and it was by far his favourite pastime.

It was another secret related to his martial soul. There were so many now. The symbols, the blocking of what Siduo was saying, the instruments, splitting in two, Stacks, perhaps even the translation thing was from it.

He sat on the bed and started meditating. His mind forgot external thoughts and he focused on the cultivation technique. One taught by Siduo, which was quite good, but he knew that the Tang Sect method was still better. Someday.

In the 6 months since he came here, he was already rank 14 now. He raised his soul power by three. One rank every second month. It was incredible speed. But he didn't feel that confident. Siduo's cultivation was faster.

On some level, it was to be expected. She had knowledge from her previous life. She was a rank above him.

Six months. He's been here for six months already. He's gotten used to many things, but the more he was used to everything, the more he realised how much he had once.

Everyday, he spent some time thinking of his family, his friends. Usually during his time of cultivation. It was the period when no one bothered him.

He was afraid that he might forget what they look like. Some of the ones he wasn't as close with were already starting to fade from his mind. He really hoped that his spiritual power would grow fast. With it comes better memory, and with that, he won't forget the faces which were important to him.

He relished in the thought that, even if he does forget them, his emotions, his feelings towards them, won't.

… … …

The second school year started, and the first day went about as one would expect. There were some basic introductions, welcoming of new students and the opening ceremony. They also got a new teacher as they entered the new school year.

In the afternoon, Karni and Siduo would have their first class with the intermediate academy. That's the only thing that the two of them really looked forward to.

As soon as the bell rang, they rushed outside to where the introductory lessons were held.

They soon saw a group of older students. Most of them looked to be around 9 to 10 years old, and each and every one of them looked at them.

"What are a couple of 6 year olds doing here? You lost?" Asked one of the older students. The teacher hadn't arrived yet, so the two of them immediately became the centre of attention.

Karni just said: "Nah. We're here to learn." And went to sit down on the side with Siduo. This made the chatter even louder.

Some odd looks were now constantly plastered on the two of them. It made them feel uncomfortable.

Siduo couldn't take it anymore. "Yeesh. Do you guys have to look at me so much? Do younger girls interest you?"

Karni just whispered on the side. "Oh no."

The boy Siduo was staring at clearly took offence to her statement. "Why would a brat like you interest me?"

"Out of the two of us, you look more like a brat than me." Siduo smiled.

Karni just repeated. "Oh no."

The older boy couldn't take it. "That's it. I'm not learning alongside a couple of six year olds. You guys better scram, this isn't for the likes of you."

"The likes of us?" Karni now looked at the boy. "Please elaborate. Even if we're younger, we might be stronger than you." He gave a 'kind' smile, the like of which he learned from his friend.

The boy scoffed, as did a few other ones. "How exactly? All of us here have a soul ring already, you know?"

Karni made a confused look. "I'd hope so. Otherwise I don't know why you're in this academy."

Before the boy could hear an explanation, Karni's answer really confused him, a voice was heard from the side.

"Alright, alright, kiddos, stop with this charade." It was a feminine, mature voice, which had a degree of sharpness to it.

A teacher walked up to the group of young students. "These two were allowed to take higher classes due to their talent, so you guys can't complain."

She seemed to be defending Siduo and Karni, however both of them could tell that the eyes of the teacher didn't seem to be protecting them. She actually had slight hostility towards them. Looks like she considered the two of them brats as well.