Tornado of Souls

So, my punishment wasn’t that bad. I had to help rebuild the wall, which I used to do with my original dad when I graduated from high school. Actually, it was weird how difficult it was for normal people to learn how to build, especially if they weren’t born under a craftsman family. Easy peasy. Just brick, mortar, brick, mortar, ect. All that was missing was rebar in the middle of the brick, but I don’t think they used rebar here.

This was also during the half birthday party, so I had an entire team to help. It took like half an hour or so. Magic helps out a lot.

After the party ended, everyone left with food to take home to their families. Damn, I wish I knew how to make Tupperware for them. They just put the food into their book sacks and left! That's grody!

My parents wanted to talk to me privately about my future too.

“Gal, how are you feeling? You are almost a full adult, and I want you to know that you seem strong enough to start adventuring.” My dad sounds like a proud dad alright.

“Val, I think he should learn how to be strong before he adventures.” My mom was right. My body could barely pick up like two of the bricks.

“Yoki, honey, I don’t think he needs that strength if he just uses the lute.”

“So what do you propose he do if he loses his lute in combat?”

“Maybe take another lute out? I use two axes, so-”

“Okay, so you think carrying two of anything is a solution? Maybe you need to carry another brain-”

“Yoki, honey, I just think he’s powerful already. Remember? He was chosen by a Grand Spirit! Just like Tyarmet!”

“I know, but look how frail and fragile he is…” Ouch. I did notice that when I was reborn. I used to have muscles ‘cause I used to hit the gym a lot for the right body image. I didn’t agree with it, but the label wouldn’t sign us unless I got buff.

“Hello, you two.” Arg popped out of my body. “Don’t fret too much, young parents. I think physical training would be delightful, since he was quite strong in his previous world. However, I think he also needs some training on bard magic as well. What do you say?”

My parents looked at each other, and grinned. Oh boy.

It ended up not being that bad.

I spent one day on, one day off with both of my parents. The first day was physical stuff with my mom, and I had to learn how to fist fight. Thankfully, I remembered that I did karate as a kid, and a lot of the stuff she was teaching me was super similar. Thanks, Karate Kid!

“Get ready, Gal!” My mom yelled to me like some superhero. She did this thing where she breathed in, and out, then a huge gust of wind blew around her. In a blink of an eye, she was behind me. Well, I didn’t expect this!

“Woah, Mom, how’d you do that?!”

“Pay attention to me!” She kicked me square in the back of my head. Out of the many years of headbanging, this might be the biggest rattle to my head ever, man.

“Ow! I wasn’t ready, Mom!”

“That’s my first real lesson, Gal. Never trust your opponent. Don’t hesitate to fight back. Fight to kill. That’s your first assignment. Try to kill me.”

“Holy crap, I definitely don’t wanna kill you.” I’ve actually never seen my mom with this murderous intent before. I felt Arg wanting to say something, but he shut his mouth surprisingly.

“Alright, Mom, I’ll kick your ass!” I breathed in and out like she did, and a little tiny wind blew past my feet. Oh yeah, Cobra Kai is out for vengeance. I kicked up and did a sidekick, and I sped past my mom by a few feet. Dude, my aim was bogus. I moved way faster than I usually did though. My mom karate chopped me in the shoulder, and I just knocked out.

The next day was with my dad, and he taught me some universal spells that battle bards have to learn after they mature. I was able to cast those while just saying some words, like how Arg made a contract with me. My favorite spell was “Ars Bezakren”, which basically made me all mad and physically strong until my mana bank was empty. Actually, we found out that my mana bank was super small to begin with, which made them wonder how I casted insanely strong spells.

“Son, did you know that you have a tiny mana bank?”

“Uh, that sounds like a dig at me, but no.”

“I don’t understand what you meant, but I want to work with you to expand it. If you do, you’d be able to cast huge normal spells without exhausting yourself.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant. I thought you called my junk small.”

“Ha, it’s smaller than mine.”

“Wait, you got that?”

“Anyways, I need to teach you more basic spells. The more you cast them while you’re exhausted, you can open your mana pool. We won’t need your lute today, so put it down.”

Training was hell, man. I felt better casting spells with my lute, but that’s probably because of my other-world powers. I basically woke up with a cheat code here.

“Okay, son. Breathe in and breathe out like you did yesterday with your mother. After you breathe out, yell to me ‘Ars Lumina’.”

I did that, and a ball of light spun around between me and my dad like a disco ball. Yuck, disco’s not my thing, man.

“Very good. This one is a very basic one that old Gally mastered when he was 3 years old.”

“Wait, Gally didn’t give me memories for this one! What the hell, dude?!”

I want you to learn everything from scratch, Ricky. By making your soul stronger, we will have a synergistic mana effect, and who knows what will happen if three souls start synergizing in a single body. It’s so exciting. I hope something amazing happens.

Uh, okay.

“Here’s another one. I bet Ricky will like this one. Try ‘Ars Nova’. It’s my favorite one to use in battle.”

I tried it, and a huge airwave came out of my mouth. Damn, so I can sing someone to death!

“Ha ha! Very good. That one was one that old Gally couldn’t handle quite yet. It’s a special voice art that I developed during the war with the Huskites.”

“What if you actually sang it? Like instead of yelling the words, you like, you know, sang it?”

“You know what, as a battle bard, I never really tried singing an Ars Nova. I sang other attacks though.”

“Ars Nova!” My dad sang it in an altar boy style. A huge sideways tornado came out of his mouth, and it ripped an entire boulder into bits. Trees flew away and crumbled. The ground shook like Lemmy’s bass rig during a Motorhead concert. My dad looked at me in total awe. Good thing we were like 5 miles into the wilderness south of Haronda.

“Dude, that was like a tornado of souls!”

“Son, you might be a genius. That is an interesting name for this attack too. Now you try it!”

I tried it, and because of Gally’s naturally high voice, whatever came out of my mouth sounded like a crappy attempt of King Diamond. Still, something else came out of my mouth. Instead of a sideways tornado, a bunch of lightning came out. Some trees in the vicinity caught on fire, and some boulders cracked in half. My dad looked at me, shocked. Pun definitely intended.

“Son, you have great potential. I love it! Let’s make you do that same spell until you drop.”

Oh crap, I’m going to sound like a banshee for hours.

Juggling school classes, training with both parents, and hanging out with friends after school made me feel like I was in college again. I used to take whatever general ed there was, and then go to band practices or the gym, or help my dad with a job. My mom and dad were divorced, so I had to split my time between them too. This was nostalgic, but also a little painful. I didn’t realize how much I missed my mom and dad. I hope they’re okay out there. I hope my death wasn’t too painful for them.