Angau Glas
A Sword that is only Sword, is a strange thing in a world that seemingly adores complexity. The blade he held in his hands as he gazed upon Beacons Ballroom ceiling made all the odder by the vast number of complex and unnecessary creations littered around him. Some out in the open, others packed carefully into bags near their owners and some grating out a screeching chorus as they're maintained. To them this simple sword was a relic of the past, something "uncool" or "old-fashioned". They forget that it's still a blade, simple but nonetheless deadly. Still, though he may envy those with Scythe's or Fire-Swords, he has never wished more to be like his own weapon.
To be simple. It's been too long since his life has been anything even close to that. The blade though rusted and chipped, showing age like nothing else before it, was only a blade. He wished he could be like that again, just a boy.
His focus turned outwards once more, zeroing in on various conversations around. "There were over 50 of 'em, killed 'em all with ease" A boy boasting of his exploits. He'll die tomorrow, ambushed by Beowolves during Initiation. His parents do not mourn. "Hmmm, hmm, hm, hm Hmm" A girl humming to herself, trying to distract from the uncomfortableness she feels being in a crowd this size. She'll lose her eyes three months from now, but her honourable discharge will lead her to achieving her life's dream. "What is the meaning of this, discriminating just because of their race, you bastards!" He'll fail the exam tomorrow, achieve great things for Faunus Rights and die peacefully in his sleep at the age of 79... No one will find the mutilated corpses of untold numbers of Faunus Women and Children buried beneath his home.
A simple life ended for him long ago.
It's amusing really, what a Semblance can do. It can allow one to travel faster than any could imagine, to sow bad luck to anything and everyone around the wielder, it can bend space, skew time and control Grimm with but a thought. His semblance had once been a shield to protect him, capable of expanding outwards to encompass others if he so wished it... Evil Aura connecting with it, supercharging it, while he attempted to lay down his own life to protect a friend... A Semblance is only meant to help it's holder... He was protected...
"That girl..."
"You know her?"
"She was there this morning..."
It didn't protect them in the end, did it?
Each iteration, each time he reverts back to the moment his Aura first sparked, the moment he realised he might actually achieve his dream of being a hero... Aura is present whether unlocked or not, but to unlock something there must first be a Lock... He'd acquired that Lock when he first heard the Headmaster's speech.
For this body, it was only several hours... For his mind however?
They say time heals all wounds... In reality, it rips even the tiniest cuts asunder. It fades colour and life from all things, it only destroys. Time creates nothing.
It will only erase.
Still, even in this iteration of himself, of this new timeline or universe or whatever one wishes to call it. He'll still try. He'll play it as it comes, he'll never force something because he'll never have to. In the end it'll only be him, on his own, alone in all things. A Semblance isn't only a good thing, his just has the worst downside to his goals. Time will fade all things until they become nothing, not even dust remains after its steady march. The ticking of a clock will forever be a curse, a reminder that he will exist in a cycle for all eternity. His Semblance is Rebirth but the power he has always held, even in the beginning when he was just a simple boy, his power was always Destruction.
"Well, isn't that why we're here, to make the world a better place?"
It's not why i'm here Ruby... and... i'm sorry, truly. You made a friend today, a young caring boy who would only ever try to help and I- and I... I took his place. Just a rusty old sword close to fading away but too stubborn to go quietly. I'll try to be your friend in his place, but the Jaune Arc you met this morning died many hundreds of years ago...
Alone, like always...
The first thing that comes, is always destruction.
There is a reason why, other than thoughts, the word "only" is the only one in Italics for emphasis.
If I continue this, then perhaps you'll now too.
It's probably obvious where I got at least part of my inspiration from "cough cough" time travel fiction "cough cough" The Legend of Legendary Heroes "cough cough".
Kind regards,
Yourfellowwriter.