Bab 5: Fist 1: A Normal Life?
Fist 1: A Normal Life?
"Pass me the dressing!"
"Hey, that's mine!"
"Mom! Jean is playing with my lunch!"
"Stop shouting!"
Jaune looked at the mess in front of him, wondering if it was too late to return to the room he had left.
"Hurry up, Jaune! If you keep standing there, there won't be anything left for you."
Apparently, it was indeed too late. With hesitant steps, he cautiously approached and sat in one of the chairs at the table.
It was a large table, big enough to accommodate the entire blonde family in front of him.
He looked at the strange scene; it was like one of those family comedies that aired on television when there was nothing else to watch, but with many more family members.
It was strange. Just like Charanko, his family had died in a monster attack, which was why he had decided to seek his master and pursue his heroic dreams once again. A scene like this... the closest thing was when all the dojo's disciples gathered.
"What's the matter, Jaune? Are you going to eat or not?" A high-pitched yet sweet voice sounded beside him. Jaune looked and saw a little girl no older than 5, with big blue eyes, blonde hair in pigtails, and a few freckles on her face, staring at him.
"Uh, yeah," Jaune sighed and began to eat. Going from a life-and-death battle with what was possibly the world's strongest monster to sitting down to breakfast was certainly an experience.
But that wasn't what had him distracted. Certain vague memories, certain fragments of memory he believed to be forgotten, were attempting to resurface.
They all tried to return to his mind with little success.
In truth, he had long accepted his first death and decided to forget the past, which was why he had let go of those memories.
Who would have expected that his second life would end with him returning to the first?
Because all the evidence pointed to that.
Although he couldn't remember everything, Jaune still knew enough to recall that he had once had seven sisters, that they were all blond, and that it had always been a challenge dealing with all of them.
Unfortunately, he didn't remember any of their names.
It wasn't because his memory was poor; quite the opposite. As a martial artist, his master had taught him techniques and methods to maintain an "almost" perfect memory for certain knowledge.
The problem was that he had become so focused on his new life that he had chosen to forget the first one, and now it was coming back to haunt him. If he had known, he would have tried to keep his memories as intact as possible.
"Dad will be back from his mission soon, so you need to get ready for your training, Jade." For some reason, those words snapped him out of his trance.
He looked and saw his "mother" talking to a blonde girl of no more than 16 years.
The girl had a somewhat expressionless face and simply nodded.
For some reason, Jaune felt that he didn't like her much. He guessed it was one of those long-forgotten feelings resurfacing.
Taking his gaze away from the girl, Jaune returned to his thoughts. What was he supposed to do now?
Certainly, he had never made a plan in which dying and waking up, again, was a factor.
Clenching his fist, he decided on a basic course of action for now. He needed to get this body in shape.
He still didn't know what he wanted to do with this new opportunity presented to him, but whatever path he chose, he preferred to do it with at least enough strength to defend himself.
This body appeared to be around 14 years old. If he trained moderately, it would take at least 3 or 4 years to regain the strength he had when he ascended to Class S.
If he wanted to reach the level he felt when facing Garou, it would probably take more than 5 years.
He would have to test the strength of this body to be more certain, but his assumption shouldn't vary too much.
That seemed like a short time compared to his second life, but that was because as Charanko, he had to learn everything from scratch. In this life, he already knew it all; he just needed a body capable of executing that knowledge.
It wasn't so much about relearning; it was more like getting back into shape after a period of inactivity.
If he really pushed himself to the extreme and exaggerated, he could probably reach the peak of his strength when he faced Garou in less time.
Jaune didn't feel a sense of urgency, so he didn't consider that path for now.
He didn't remember any impending danger in the coming years, but to be honest, that didn't assure him much, as he didn't remember a lot about the upcoming years. He died when he was 17 in this world, and now he had returned at around 14.
If he were smarter or had some kind of innate super-perfect memory, he would probably start a series of very serious plans using the knowledge of the next 3 years.
It was a shame he couldn't even remember the names of his family members correctly.
He would have to try to meditate later and see if he could dig into those vague and illusory memories, but he didn't hold high hopes.
"Come on! School will start soon, so hurry up!" His "mother's" voice pulled him out of his thoughts once again, and Jaune decided to go with the flow for now.
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School, Jaune decided, was boring.
It was also tedious, perhaps because he had spent too much time surrounded by adults, or maybe because he wasn't accustomed to kids or teenagers who weren't hundreds of times smarter than him. Spending time with Child Emperor hadn't helped his perception of children.
The point was, something was bothering him.
Thankfully, recess arrived, and Jaune quickly bolted out of the classroom. Being there had felt suffocating.
Surveying the area, Jaune realized that the school's campus was quite large.
He wandered around until he found a secluded spot; he didn't want to interact with others right now.
Instead, he decided to test his current strength.
He began to stretch properly. As a martial artist, the ability to control every part of your body was essential. This way, you could harness every gram of strength in the most optimal and efficient manner.
This ability was more mental than physical, despite what it might seem like. It's about feeling every part of your body, and the proper stretching helped with that.
Looking at the tree in front of him, Jaune assumed a stance, took a deep breath, and sharpened his focus. In a blur of motion, he unleashed a punch, utilizing every muscle, bone, and joint in synchrony, extracting every ounce of strength from the body he now possessed.
His fist struck, the tree's bark broke, exploding into flying splinters, and the trunk shivered for a few seconds.
It was pathetic.
Jaune stared at his slightly bleeding fist with narrowed eyes. All the strength of this body, and he couldn't even break a tree trunk.
As Charanko, at the age of 9, he could already crush rocks with his fists.
It seemed like he had a lot of work to do.
He cleaned the blood properly and turned to leave. He didn't need to prove anything else for now.
As Jaune walked, a sound caught his attention.
"Stop!"
"Or what, freak? Are you going to sic your ticks on us?"
His feet moved on their own, and he quickly arrived at the scene where he saw a group of kids surrounding a young boy around his age, slightly overweight with canine features.
"That's new, but I've seen weirder things," Jaune thought but didn't pay much attention to the oddity.
"Leave him alone," he instead hurried to stop the clear bullying in front of him.
Even if he had died, he was still a hero. Allowing something like this to happen in front of him would be simply impossible.
"Huh? Oh! Hahaha, look who it is! Pathetic Jaune! I thought you'd hide behind your sister's skirt forever," the one who seemed like the leader spoke, his voice dripping with contempt and clear arrogance.
Did he know them? Jaune thought, and it was likely that he did. He had suffered from school bullying in his first life, right? He probably had found the culprits.
Oh well, it seemed his luck wasn't so bad after all. He had some pent-up feelings to release, and it looked like he now had a perfect target in front of him.
"I won't repeat myself, leave him alone," of course, as a hero, he couldn't just attack them first. If they listened to his words, he would let them go.
Of course, villains never heed warnings.
"Tch! Look at him; it seems he forgot his place. What do you think, guys? We have to remind him of what happens when he messes with the wrong people."
"Of course, hahaha."
"Come on, I've wanted to punch his stupid face for a long time!"
Of course, lackeys always follow the leader.
Jaune watched as the half-animal boy began to slowly distance himself now that the attention wasn't on him. Perfect, having a potential hostage would only be an obstacle.
Some might think it's petty and immature to pick a fight with 14-year-old kids, but Jaune never underestimated any opponent.
After all, one of the greatest heroes he knew and one of his few close friends was Child Emperor, a Class S hero at the age of only ten.
Underestimating an opponent solely based on their age was ridiculous.
The leader rushed in with a completely incorrect posture and a poorly telegraphed punch.
Jaune didn't even bother to deflect the attack; he simply evaded it and extended his fist, connecting with a simple yet effective punch to the guy's chin.
For Jaune, it felt like moving in slow motion, but for the bullies, it was as if Jaune's hand had turned into a whip, striking the leader's face and causing him to instantly collapse to the ground.
"What!?" Their surprise was their downfall as Jaune swiftly lunged at them, striking each one until their bodies lay on the ground.
He didn't use much force, and his blows wouldn't cause lasting damage; dealing with them simply required swift and accurate movements.
"It hurts!"
"Curse you!"
Seeing them groaning on the ground wasn't a pleasant sight, and Jaune felt no satisfaction.
These foes... were no real threat.
"Jaune!?" A somewhat familiar voice cried out behind him, and Jaune turned to see one of his "sisters" looking at him in disbelief. She resembled him a lot, much more than any of his other sisters.
It was strange.
He quickly approached and began to inspect him as if she were a mother looking at her offspring.
"They hurt you!" She looked at his slightly bloody fist, confused about why he was in this state.
"It's just a scratch... What are you doing here?"
He didn't know her name, which made this conversation a bit uncomfortable.
"What am I doing here?! What are you doing here?! I told you not to wander too far from us. Don't you remember what happened last time?" No, he didn't remember.
"Jeanne, did you find him?!" Another voice arrived, and his sisters who were closer to his age soon joined them. There were four of them in total.
All of them shared some physical resemblance, but none quite like Jeanne did.
Was she his twin or something?
"Damn it, Jaune! We told you not to wander off!" Jaune was feeling suffocated.
There was this feeling he couldn't decipher during dinner and now it was returning.
He couldn't put it into words, but there was something about it that made him uncomfortable.
How they touched him, how they inspected him – it was as if he were a toy that had been damaged.
He didn't like it at all.
"I'm fine," with a bit more brusqueness than he intended, he released himself and distanced himself from them, his sisters looking at him with strange expressions due to his peculiar behavior.
"Is there something wrong, Jaune? You've been acting strange since you woke up," Jeanne, who had been closer to her brother since they were born as twins, approached him with clear concern on her face.
"I just had a bad dream," Jaune could only come up with an excuse, sighing in relief, as acting wasn't his strong suit.
Not to mention that he was still tense; he hadn't fully managed to relax yet. He simply couldn't accept that things had come to this point.
Was a god or a deity playing with his life? How could he have been resurrected again, in the same body he had already died in, and with apparent time travel involved?
If he had woken up in the middle of the Grimm ambush that had killed him in the first place, maybe he would have accepted it more easily.
Who was he kidding? He would probably be just as confused.
"Come on, classes are about to start again," not wanting to dwell on this further, he went along with his four concerned sisters.
None of them paid any attention to the bullies on the ground.
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Jaune was acting strange, and Jeanne, as the twin sister of this boy, was the first to notice it more quickly than anyone else.
Normally, her brother was the first to wake up and help their mother prepare dinner, making sure the younger sisters were well and assisting with other household chores.
Although Jaune was clumsy, he tried his best, and that was something the entire family had come to appreciate.
But on this day, her brother hadn't even said good morning to anyone. There were no smiles, and he hadn't tried to comb the hair of the youngest, like Juniper, who was only 5 years old.
It was as if he wasn't there.
Had something happened to him? Those were the thoughts of most of the sisters present.
Things got even stranger when it was time for recess at school.
Jaune, who normally always stayed with them for his safety, was nowhere to be found.
Jaune, her twin brother, wasn't very strong. He was clumsy, and their father had never allowed him to try to learn how to defend himself.
In a village where most kids tried to learn how to fight to become huntsmen, that was like asking for a beating.
Jaune had received several of those before his sisters decided to intervene.
They couldn't watch over him all the time, but they did the best they could.
It would be easier if Jaune knew how to fight. Jeanne thought this to herself but never said it aloud. For some reason, everyone in the family who was older than her and Jaune thought it was wrong.
That Jaune should never learn how to fight.
The younger sisters didn't understand this, but they didn't dare say anything, not since the day Jade found Jeanne trying to teach Jaune a few moves and reported it to their parents.
Things hadn't ended well.
So, of course, it was a big surprise to find Jaune standing over his former bullies, clearly having beaten them up.
Not that they didn't deserve it, of course.
They hadn't seen how it happened, but the fact that Jaune had done it meant that their brother had learned to fight. Someone had taught him to fight.
The four sisters hadn't said anything, but a silent message passed between them.
They couldn't tell anyone else in the family about this.
For Jeanne, Jaune knowing how to defend himself was something he should have known all along. She didn't understand the attitude of the older members of her family, but deep down, she disagreed with them. That's why she had to warn Jaune.
Once they left the place where the bullies lay on the ground, Jean spoke first, beating Jeanne to it.
"You shouldn't have fought," her words came out with a touch of sternness, the memory of what happened when she tried to teach Jaune a few moves still fresh in her mind.
"What do you mean?" Jaune furrowed his brow, clearly not understanding.
"If a teacher or someone else called our parents over this, you'd be in a lot of trouble! Remember, you're not supposed to fight, you're not supposed to know how to fight!" Crystal was the next to speak; she was the youngest of the four sisters present, only ten years old.
"If you're learning to fight in secret, you shouldn't have shown it in a place like school," Jeanne added.
The words of his sisters made Jaune's face darken briefly.
He clenched his fists and seemed to have remembered something.
Julie, who had been silent until now, decided to speak.
"Where did you learn to fight? Who taught you?"
And that wasn't what they wanted to hear at all. In the entire village, who would dare to go against their father's words to teach Jaune how to fight?
Their father was the village's chief hunter, the head of the guard, responsible for the entire village's security.
His word was even more influential than the village chief's, and there was no one who dared to go against his commands.
How could anyone have the courage to disobey him and ignore the order not to teach Jaune anything related to being a hunter?
"I learned on my own," Jaune, of course, couldn't tell the truth.
He didn't even consider saying it.
Even though these girls were his blood sisters, to him, they were just strangers. Perhaps in his first life, they would have been some of the dearest people to him, but he was no longer that Jaune, and his memories of them were so sparse that he might as well be meeting them for the first time.
There was no trust at all, and even if there were, Jaune didn't consider mentioning his life as Charanko to anyone, at least not directly.
His sisters, of course, doubted his words but could do nothing more than believe him.
Jaune was starting to miss his life as Charanko, and not even a day had passed yet.
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In the dark lands, far from any settlement or kingdom deep in grimm territory.
Something strange happened.
A dark blob of twisted flesh fell from the sky, spasms could be seen from the piece of flesh and sounds like bones crunching came from it.
'D-damn... Damn!" a voice that could not be heard roared inside the broken mind stored deep inside the mass of black flesh.
Negative emotions flowed out of her like a raging sea.
How could she have lost! How could their perfect union be defeated by a half-monster? He was supposed to be the pinnacle! Stronger than even that arrogant monster king Orochi!!
Even so, that bastard who called himself a monster managed to defeat him, destroy his perfect body formed by more than 53 trillion 999 billion 999 million 999 thousand 900 cells!
A definitive fusion, once he was destroyed, there was no hope, even if he had left a guarantee of 100 cells; he was no longer himself. His life or death was completely unrelated to him. As a new individual being, his existence was unique, and that's why his destruction was the end.
Or so it should have been... but somehow, he was still alive.
Broken, torn apart, and not even a shadow of his perfect form, but alive.
He only had to consume sustenance, he needed to regenerate his cells, start over, but he could do it. He would come back stronger and show that fake monster his place!
While he pondered his plans, a low growl caught his attention. He had no eyes, ears, a nose, or anything resembling them, but he could still sense the vibrations of the sound.
Something was approaching, no, many things were approaching.
Drawn by the intense negative emotions, dozens of Beowolves closed in on the mass of black flesh.
Their mouths oozing black, tar-like saliva, and their red eyes gleaming with hunger.
"Hmm, strange creatures, I haven't seen anything like this before, a new type of monster? It doesn't matter, now they will be my food!" The flesh twisted and a deformed arm shot out, grabbing one of the grimm with its twisted fingers.
That was the signal for all the others to lunge forward and start attacking.
Their jaws devouring pieces of the black flesh while the one once known as Platinum Sperm did the same with them.
Devouring each other.
Soon more and more grimm arrived, and the mass of black flesh continued to grow.
The chaos soon caught the attention of some unwelcome individuals...
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What do you think? Our hero begins his new life in the most boring way, going to school! Getting to know his family again and finding out that it's not as pleasant as it may seem.
Jaune is no longer the Jaune they knew, and this will bring serious problems for the Arc family.
On the other hand, from another world, a threat that could destroy Remnant arrives.
Who are the people who have noticed this, and what could it mean for the monster from another world?
I suppose we can discover it together!
I know this may seem slower than the prologue, but it's because the real story begins now! These are just the first steps, but soon we will reach the action.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone