Karni and Siduo were surprisingly cheerful today. Their problems had been solved, they had decided what sued to be undecided, and the only thing to do now was to use the remaining four months to make problems disappear completely. Well, all but the biggest one.
They were on their way to the orphanage during the end of the weekend, to do some actual teaching and give their new disciples some tasks to do until next weekend. They would not have the time to teach them every day, so they had to make the most of it.
Siduo had told Karni how she helped Liu Liu with the Luo Guixing problem. "I just told her to not react at all. If he challenges her, belittles her or even attacks her, she should leave herself defenceless and ignore him. Luo Guixing might be ambitious, but the guy isn't a brute. He'll either stand back or use a more diplomatic approach. Either way, it's a win-win for her."
"Either way?"
Siduo nodded. "She might not want to admit it, but I saw the way the two looked at each other. Their pride is at the forefront at the moment, but their cooperation in battle had always been synergetic. If it doesn't work out, at least their petty fights will stop if they don't hang out anymore."
"Rivals to lovers, eh?"
"Hopefully. I'm rooting for them." Siduo was full of smiles. Liu Liu was more of a friend than a disciple. She had less difficulty teaching Liu Liu than Karni had teaching his trio of kids. Liu Liu mainly needed to learn new research; the others needed foundations.
"People like them tend to be late bloomers in realising these feelings though." Karni chuckled.
"Oh don't ruin my dreams, Kiki."
Karni raised his arms in defeat. He'd stay out of it. The two entered Shrek Orphanage and were greeted with an uncanny sight. Every single child was looking out of the window at them. As the two entered the whole building cheered for some reason.
Shishi stood by the entrance, with Karni's three new students behind her. She sighed. "Word got out that you'll be teaching the three of them… and it got out because of them as well. By the time I tried to take care of the situation all the children knew already. It spread like wildfire. Because of that—and I'm hoping you'll agree—we'll be having a 'field day' in the backyard with you two as the instructors."
Karni and Siduo stared at the mountains of children looking out the windows and sighed. It's not like they had a choice. There would probably be a rebellion if the two said "no" now.
Karni and Siduo walked through the orphanage toward the backyard, the three students sulking in the background, feeling sorry. Karni looked at Shishi. "Director, how many mechas do we have?"
"A lot of mechas, but very little mechas suitable for children to pilot. 5 only."
Karni sighed and turned back to his disciples. "Since you three caused this, it's only right you pilot the mechas first and embarrass yourself a little. Siduo and I will take the other two mechas for the first showing."
He turned back to Shishi. "Director, how many orphans are there in total?"
Shishi turned to him with an apologetic face. "4562. Though some of them likely won't want to take part in this."
Karni tapped his chin. That was… a lot. He did some quick maths. "If we let every one of them pilot the mechas for 5 minutes… it would take us 76 hours to go through everyone."
Siduo sighed. "What if we give them two people to pilot. 2 minutes each. The other is in the cabin in the meantime."
Karni shook his head. "Would still take 38 hours to get done with everyone and might cause accidents in the younger ones." He paused. This gave him an idea. "Director, how many of them are actually Soul Masters?"
"30 percent."
"That's high!" Siduo exclaimed.
"It's Shrek." Shishi said. "It attracts a lot of Soul Masters which means there is also the greatest population of them here. Unfortunately that means a lot of Soul Master orphans as well. And we take each one, both for their safety and for the future safety of Shrek City."
"So this lowers the numbers to 1300. But we can't just exclude the children without Soul Power."
He thought about it for a little bit. "Those below 6 years shouldn't do anything anyway. How many of them are there? They can at most go into the cockpit."
"They are 40 percent of everyone."
"Which leaves us with around 2700 children." Karni thought out loud.
He went silent for a second before snapping his fingers. "The federation does not let children without Soul Power to pilot a Mecha until they're 10. I'm guessing there's around 20 to 30 percent of children aged 6 to 10?" He looked at Shishi, who nodded.
"I'll count it as 25 for the sake of ease. So that would be around 1100 kids. If we take that only 30 percent of them are Soul Masters, we can remove another 800 kids from those allowed to try out the mecha. It leaves us with 1900 children…. That's still a lot. If we halve it to sharing the cockpits, it's 950 five minute sessions. If there are five white mechs…" Karni did some more quick maths, "it still takes us about 15 hours for everyone eligible to be able to try it out."
Karni scratched his head and looked at the clock. 9am. Great. He was about to make the kids stay until 1am. At least everyone would get a try, right? No. He needed to find something else. Not to mention something for all the kids that couldn't try it.
Shishi chuckled from the side. "You'd be a good teacher."
Karni looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Why's that?"
"You're thinking of the best way to go about not only in doing this, but so all the kids could get to experience it. It's kind, while also thinking about who should be able to or not for their safety."
Karni stared, slightly embarrassed.
"I'll help you out a little. We also have 30 yellow mechas, and 100 students who can use them."
Karni's eyes shined; "Well why didn't you say that sooner?" He started mathing again before stopping. "It doesn't matter. That will work for sure. Though it will still be a 12 hour day."
"If anything, the kids will appreciate that." Shishi laughed.
"And some kids who aren't Soul Masters should also be able to try out, maybe some side entertainment for them in the meantime? Any other mechs? To at least look at or learn about them?"
Shishi nodded. "I'll talk to the caretakers. The vice-directors are waiting for you. Tell them your plan. They'll organise everything efficiently."
Karni nodded and went to the courtyard. All of the kids were already here. Time to go to work.
… … …
Ten minutes later Karni stood in the middle of the backyard with Siduo and his three students beside him. Five white mechas were behind him and thirty yellow mechas off to another side of the park. Karni cleared his throat, and his voice echoed as if spoken from a stadium microphone. The whole backyard, the size of a stadium, fell silent.
Karni glanced at his student who had the Harp for a Martial Soul. She looked at him with amazement. He winked. "You'll learn this as you grow up as well. Focus now."
He said aloud. "Each of you get in line based on the following description. Those below 6 years old, get in a group to my left." It's where most of them were already standing, as it was where the caretakers were ordered to escort them. "Unfortunately, since you're young, you will not be able to experience the Mechas today, but the caretaker in charge of you will show you around a Black ranked Mecha, and you'll be able to learn about their inner workings." He was glad that one of the vice-directors offered their own mecha as a display for those who wouldn't be able to try mecha piloting today.
"Next, 6 to 10 years old. Those who are Soul Masters split into your own group and those who are not split into another." He pointed left for one and right for the other.
"Those who are not Soul Masters will not be able to try piloting today, as there it would be dangerous for you, and we cannot do an analysis of whether your bodies are able to pilot it or not on a short notice. However, if you want to be in the cockpit with someone else to see how it's like in the mecha, feel free to partner up with someone. Those at the Yellow Mecha section," he pointed toward the Yellow Mechas, "have given a promise to let anyone try out the mecha with them."
"Finally, those above 10 years old may all try out the white mechas and learn how to pilot them. If you do not wish to, or simply want to see the mechas instead, you can partner up with a friend or go to the Yellow Mecha section to see how it feels to be inside one.
"The sessions will last a total of 5 minutes for each of you and those partnering up with someone will have a chance to go early. If you want, you may even switch the seats in between, but you will still get a total of five minutes of flying."
Karni breathed out and looked at the faces. The kids were already starting to partner up. Thank gods. He didn't want to force them to partner up, but even if some did not, with the additional 30 yellow mechas, and a lot of curious faces, it should be doable.
"For starters, you may look to me and Siduo as well as Xu An, Hao He and Qin Ming who will attempt to follow along. You may choose to use your five minutes to do the same practice, or you may not. It is up to you. The only thing forbidden is attacking another mecha.
"Finally, before we begin: after the beginning presentation, those who are not interested in mechas, will be able to follow the teachers with the colourful signs. There are many stations where you can try out things related to Soul Masters and Mecha Engineers. Feel free to look around." Karni took a big breath. "Now then, let's begin."
He nodded to his disciples and Siduo and the group went inside the white mechas. It really wasn't that long since he started, but he had improved drastically, as he enjoyed practicing the Greatsword with the Mecha.
The group started with a simple walk. Xu An, Hao He and Qin Ming who have never before piloted mechas, were all having trouble keeping up this simple pace. Karni hoped this would tell the few brave idiots among the audience that piloting wasn't that easy and not to try doing dangerous, if exciting, stuff from the start.
After about a minute of simply walking, to let his disciples adjust, Karni stopped. He hopped. A simple jump. Then a few short jumps. Then larger and larger, before the jump, at least in Karni's and Siduo's case reached the same height as their Mecha.
Xu An, Hao He and Qin Ming did not manage to reach that height, but the best of them, Hao He, with his Breath, managed to reach the height of his mecha's chest.
Karni stopped and started bending the mech backwards. The legs stayed in place, while the mecha leaned farther and farther back, until it was parallel with the ground. Due to basic physics, Karni did have to change the leg placement, otherwise the mecha would just fall, but he did suggest to the audience trying it out with having arms as the support. The point was to figure out just how effective the mecha could be in terms of flexibility and the skill required for balance.
Xu An unfortunately fell with the mecha and had to fix herself up. The other two managed to support themselves with their arms and toward the end of the minute, Hao He even managed to stay in balance with his legs alone for three seconds.
Karni went on to the last exercise. He grabbed one of the many weapons available. For now, he decided not to take the Greatsword, he wanted to show the basics of what people should try. He would show a few weapons.
The focus on the arms, on the fingers of the mecha and ability of control over the weapon. The swing of a giant weapon and the emphasis on balance needed.
Five minutes were up. A minute of walking, a minute of jumping, a minute of bending and two minutes to showcase a few different weapons. He and the rest exited the mechas and the expectant next few pairs of people went up, guided by the caretakers. The children likely would not be able to go through the whole practice, as Karni's own disciples were struggling immensely by the end, but it couldn't be helped with that number of children.
Karni quickly jogged off alone, leaving Siduo and his disciples to deal with other situations and watch over everything. He reached the Yellow Mecha section, already busy with many curious eyes. He saw children between 6 to 12 around; most of them between 6 and 10.
He jumped up to a mecha that was just stopping its little presentation. A 7 or 8 year old kid exited while Karni spoke to a girl of the oldest generation in Shrek Orphanage, a 12 year old. "How's it going? Everything in order?"
The girl nodded. "Thanks to the teachers, everything is going smoothly."
Karni sighed in relief. This girl was a de facto leader of the orphans who liked mecha in the orphanage. Apparently, the previous de facto leader was actually Liu Liu—she had often become Karni's practice partner during the Mecha Piloting classes. An opponent he had yet to beat, even. She used her own Martial Soul for the weapon.
"Thank you for keeping everything together. Keep doing the good work!"
"Thank you too, this is a fun, if already tiring day."
Karni smiled. "Only 12 hours to go."
The girl rolled her eyes and accepted the next passenger, while Karni ran away to another section of the Yellow mechas. Liu Liu was there, being more as a teacher and showing them the mechas' technology.
She waved him away after he saw that she was in the middle of an explanation, and he gave her a thumbs up. She returned the thumbs up. There were multiple of such little stations. Educational or fun games. Of course, they were not particularly original in nature, as Karni had to come up with them on the fly along with those performing them. Siduo was already running one of her own. Hers wasn't one mechas but vehicles. She borrowed one from the workshop and was showcasing the inner parts, comparing it to a mecha.
Karni moved along and in an hour he toured everything. No trouble. Well then. Onto the next cycle. This was his job for the day, he needed to make sure everything was running smoothly. Over and over again.
… … …
Karni looked at the time, swiping off the sweat. It was a decently warm day for the time. It was a windless day without could which meant the sun had free reigns, it was practically the best weather they could hope for, but also very tiring weather. Bottles of water were being passed around by the caretakers regularly.
It had been mostly without trouble so far. A few rowdy kids fought once but were stopped by the nearer caretaker. Some other kids complained they were not allowed to pilot as unfair and Karni had to explain and even present the reasons from inside the Mecha himself. There were some kids who tried to cut the line or go for the mecha twice as well, but the caretakers knew well who to look out for; they had been with these kids since their diapers.
Karni cleared his throat like at the start; his voice echoed over the backyard. "Everyone, stop what you're doing as soon as you're able…" he stayed quiet for a few seconds, waiting for everyone to silence. They looked at him expectantly. "It's lunch time!"
The chatter immediately started, a few cheers, a few grumbles of "finally" and so on. Needless to say, the kids were hungry. They needed to eat to grow strong and healthy.
This also meant that Karni could finally have a breather after 4 hours of constant work. Lunch was usually at 12pm, but due to this whole event starting only at 9am, they decided to move it for an hour so they could prepare everything without rushing. After all, a special event required an especially tasty meal. Paid by Director Shishi herself.
He sat down at the caretaker section along with Siduo and Liu Liu. Some of the caretakers were patting him on the shoulder every now and then, since he was announced as the leader, and Shishi herself decided not to let the other caretakers help him lead this. Even Siduo was not allowed to help him out in terms of leading. She was to follow his orders.
Why was this? Only Shishi knew. Though Karni had guesses. He knew that Shishi was familiar with the Shrek Pavilion. It was likely Yun Ming himself who decided to be a hardass on Karni. Though that was just his guess. It could have been Shishi's whims as well. Or revenge for causing the situation in the first place. The teacher needed to be responsible for his students.
Siduo was chuckling at Karni's tired, if surprisingly satisfied face. "Teaching did always suit you."
"Did it? I must have chosen the wrong major back home then." Karni chuckled back at her.
Siduo smelled the food, satisfied. "Well, you're a designer as well, right? Your… Computer Science studies, yes? Well, I wouldn't say they were completely useless."
"Sisi, I surpassed the knowledge I knew from then when I was 7 here."
Siduo chose her food and took a bite. "Mmm. Well, nothing you can do," she chewed the food, "but move on, eh?" She gave him a bright smile.
Karni rolled his eyes and grabbed a bite as well. "To be fair, when I was in high school—our version of the advanced academy, you could say—I actually went to, like, a summer school of a friend's and was a kind of teacher there during the summers. It was a fun experience. I just never took it as, well, me actually having capability of becoming a teacher."
Siduo ruffled his hair. "Well, you're doing great."
… … …
Karni wasn't doing great. He was looking at basically a crime scene. Of course, some "bright children" decided that the most appropriate thing to do with the food was to fight with it.
The caretakers weren't sure how to deal with it. One of them showed their Martial Soul, six rings and all, and the kids ignored him. Shishi decided not to get involved, so of course it was up to Karni to fix it up.
Karni summoned his Martial Soul as well, with his impressive Soul Ring configuration and all. One of the caretakers looked at him. "I already tried."
Karni nodded. "I know, I saw. I'm trying something else."
Karni was going to take a more direct approach. A more aggressive, if completely harmless one.
His third ring lit up. Sonic Rhythm. The place slowly became silent. Like putting the volume on the radio down. The kids were throwing food and shouting, only for no sound to be heard. Like a vacuum. The kids slowly stopped, turning. Confused, uncomfortable. There was something so uncanny on a primal instinctual level about one knowing unconsciously that something should be felt, heard, but nothing was. At least to those who weren't deaf. But even those could feel vibrations on their skin. Karni managed to lower even those. The heaviness and the feedback didn't match.
And all the while, Karni just looked at them with crossed arms, of what he imagined would be a stern looking face, and luckily, he succeeded, with a smile that he learned by having Mo Qing as his teacher.
His lone voice was ghostly immaterial. "You 13," he counted them beforehand, "are going to spend the rest of this lovely day with me."
The trouble was stopped, and Karni made each and every one of the thirteen introduce themselves to him. Now he didn't force them to say it to all the orphans, there was no need for actual humiliation, but he made sure to remember their names and call them by them as well.
He took them around the restarted activities. First, they came to Liu Liu's section. "Xiao Hui. Your name tells me you'll get this right. Is Liu Liu doing everything correctly?"
Liu Liu overheard the conversation and quieted down, putting her focus on this Xiao Hui. A girl. Her name meant wise and intelligent.
The girl looked a bit at the parts and what Liu Liu was holding. "She… um…" The girl thought for a bit. Karni wouldn't just ask this for no reason, right? "She didn't present the inner workings of that piece?" She sounded unsure.
Karni turned away. "Wrong. Liu Liu was presenting perfectly fine. She's teaching smoothly. Come on, let's move. With your pace, we might take 2 whole hours to get through all the stations. Let's try and trim that time down."
… … …
"Xiao Hui, your turn again." Karni stood in Siduo's section.
"Outside of the one kid who was making a scene two rounds ago, everything is proceeding as normal." They'd gone through multiple cycles by now.
Karni nodded. "Just right. Well then." He looked at the clock. 8pm. "You kids go and have fun now. You've become quite diligent. You've genuinely surprised me. Enjoy this last hour."
The children unanimously cheered and went off together. Surprisingly, instead of going and having fun with the Mechas, they went off to a free space in the field and set up a little picnic area. Seems like they had become tired of anything to do with Mechas after Karni made them one of the overseers for the whole day. Karni always asked in a neutral way, they could never know if something was actually wrong or not from his questions. They had to figure it out themselves. Of course they were tired of it all.
Siduo chuckled at Karni, seeing his look. Karni just waved her off and moved forward. He might had let them go free after seven hours, but he was still busy. The place had a very different feel now that it had gotten dark. Sort of serene. Blue light lit up the place from the mechas themselves, the rest being lit up from the lamps around the backyard. The freshly freed orphans decided to set their picnic area up somewhat close to a lamp, but not too close. It seemed they wanted to be in the dark, but still be able to see. One of them even brought a smaller lamp with them from their room, so they had two sources of light, though the second one was much softer.
Karni stopped by the White Mecha piloting section and was happy to see that the process was smooth. This last hour the children were actually retrying the mechas, or those who decided not to originally, changed their minds. Everyone who wanted got their try already. It was all due to the Yellow Mecha section and the stations. Many were interesting in more than just piloting. Everything together sped up the process tremendously.
The least problematic section out of them all had been the Black Mecha sightseeing section. The youngest children were there. They were usually the most unruly bunch, but it seemed that the presence of the vice-director really made that whole group into little angels instead of little devils. Either that or the Black Mecha was just too interesting.
Since it was the evening, he had less worries now than before. The kids were getting tired—everyone was getting tired, really—which made them not have energy for shenanigans anymore.
As the clock hit nine, Karni used his powerful control over Sound for the last time today. "It is time to end the Mecha Event for today. Thank you everyone for helping me with this event, to keep it tidy and orderly, for bringing out your own ideas to keep everyone entertained. And most of all, thank you kids for having fun in this somewhat improvised, and secretly forced onto me, event."
He got a nice applause from the kids and a few chuckles around him. It was a satisfying ending in the end. They were also glad he didn't make some long speech.
The children all started filling out the backyard. Some were going back inside the Orphanage, likely to sleep or to grab one final bite before bed, but most stayed.
The stations and mecha activities started packing up, and Shishi approached Karni. "I cannot remember the last time I saw the kids hang outside at this hour. It seems a full day of technology and mechas actually made them want to enjoy the views some more."
"It's weird like that." Karni agreed. "We can have a certain schedule we enjoy, but if there's too much of that one element, at the end of the day, or the next day, we will want to do something else. Even the sunny days are like that. We all need a little variation in our lives."
Shishi simply nodded, a proud face on her as she watched the closing of the event. She was about to continue speaking, but she noticed a girl sort of awkwardly waiting to her right. "I'll leave you two alone."
Siduo approached Karni and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Phew. What a tiring day."
Karni nodded. "Wanna walk around some more? It is a nice little park area."
Siduo grabbed his arm into his. "Even more work?"
The two started walking. "You call walking work?"
"After this day, yes. My body's perfectly fine, but my mind is exhausted."
Karni nodded. "I get it. But there's also this feeling of fullness after such a day."
Siduo nodded, but her own words were disrupted by her very own thoughts. "You know," she pointed to the kids Karni took with him today, "that would be a romantic little spot if it weren't taken already."
Karni looked at it. Yep. It would be. It had perfect lighting for a romantic evening. "Shall we say hi?"
"Why not?"
They walked to the little picnic area. On the way, the people were constantly whispering about them. The fact they were holding hands almost gave new vigour to these kids.
As soon as they stopped by the 13 kids—no, 16 kids now—Karni's three students joined them. It seemed Karni and Siduo were the talk of the group.
Xiao Hui looked at them holding hands and pointed. "See, Xu An! I told you! They're dating! And you look super cute together by the way." She said that last part almost in fear. Did she think Karni would punish her for saying her thoughts out loud?"
Xu An stared at their hands, blushing. She was apparently the more innocent type.
"Is that really the only thing you've been talking about?" Karni had to ask.
"Well," Xiao Hui started. "Whenever we passed Wu Siduo's station, you two were always glancing at each other weirdly."
"You have good sense." Siduo complemented. "Though some people might not enjoy hearing stuff like that."
"Do you not like it?" Xiao Hui asked.
"No, I actually quite enjoy seeing Kiki embarrassed."
"Then I did nothing wrong." Xiao Hui made a cheeky smile.
"Wait a minute!" Xu An shouted. "She just called him Kiki!"
Xiao Hui rolled her eyes. "Well, duuuh. All couples have nicknames for each other. It's what being in love is all about."
Karni wanted to add a comment to that statement, since their nicknames started primarily as making fun of one another, but Siduo just chuckled to the side. The two sat down on the blanket they put over the grass.
Hao He joined the conversation as well. "We really are taking over the perfect spot for their romantic evening huh. I mean, look at those stars!"
The whole group looked up. It was true. The sky was beautiful. You could even see a part of the galaxy.
The scratching of chalk suddenly sounded. Qin Ming put up the board after he finished writing. "They are Star Crossed Lovers."
"Oooh, Qin Ming, I didn't know you had a feel for romance." Xiao Hui teased the older boy, who blushed.
"Speaking of the stars," Xu An started absentmindedly. "Isn't there going to be a meteor shower in 3 or 4 months?"
"4." Qin Ming quickly wrote on the board.
Xiao Hui sighed. "I heard the best spot to see it is quite far north, at the edge of the Extreme North. Some forest."
Hao He nodded. "Yeah, the Icebound Forest. I think Oscar from the original Shrek Seven Devils got a special Soul Ring and Soul Bone there."
Xiao Hui complained. "Ahhh, I wish we could go out of the orphanage! I still have to wait for three years!" The orphanage only let the orphans graduate when Shrek Exam was taking place.
Karni and Siduo looked at each other. Karni made a small smile. "You know, it would be a perfect goodbye."
Siduo turned to the group. "Do you know the exact date of when it happens?" She was mostly looking at Qin Ming, since he corrected Xu An on when it was going to be.
Qin Ming thought for a bit, before writing it down, remembering.
Karni and Siduo looked at it. Siduo muttered to herself. "That's just the week before you leave."
"Let's look at some meteors then." Karni looked at her.
She leaned into him, cuddling. "It's a promise."