Disclaimer:
RWBY and Detective Conan aren't mine.
I'm only distorting both to force the canon characters into my own storyline.
h.
Harbingers of Doom
by FS (FidgetFidgets)
h.
Pain
Is your reward for being near me
Fate
Won't be your friend when I'm around
Blame
Me for the tragedies that follow
Grave
The situations that surround
I'm a harbinger
I cannot lie
I will change the color of your life
…
"Bad Luck Charm", by Jeff Williams
0.
To most people, Semblance is a divine gift.
They cherish it, hone it, bemoan its mercurial, inconstant nature.
Developing your Semblance is lifelong hard work. Polish it every day and you may become skilled enough to activate it more than once during a serious fight. Neglect it for a few weeks and it will shrink like a muscle which hasn't been used for a long time.
Hunters and huntresses go green with envy when they learn that his Semblance is constantly active without him exerting any conscious effort. Similarly, they will invariably pale when he tells them what exactly his Semblance does. He doesn't even have to add that it strikes indiscriminately and uncontrollably.
A few—the soft-hearted ones—will flush scarlet and offer their sincere condolences before they flee from him; and when he is drunk enough, he might appreciate their rapid colour change and their flight. It's remarkable how even a non-Faunus can take on an unconventional colour as green and shift to its complementary hue within such a short time.
1.
He makes no secret of the fact that he only drinks to forget. It's certainly better than getting wasted at the bar of a run-down restaurant just because he can. Or maybe it's worse since it's a joy to watch Kogoro Mori (his present drinking companion) knock back all the stuff he orders. The famous Sleeping Detective is a man who genuinely loves the drinks he imbibes instead of abusing his body to drown his depression.
"And what's your Semblance?" asks Kogoro, whose Semblance is Distraction, as Qrow learned in the first two minutes of their conversation. This nifty Semblance is unrelentingly active and grows to unanticipated proportions whenever its owner passes out; and when it strikes, even the hungriest Grimm will lose interest in feasting or will simply overlook the slumping, snoring figure on the ground.
"Ah," murmurs Qrow, and takes a sip of his double martini.
His companion returns his evasive answer with a puzzled grunt before dropping his mug, which lands noisily on the floor but doesn't shatter. Lucky under the circumstances, exclaims the waitress with a ringing laugh as she cleans up the mess and winks at Qrow.
So many female guests have begun to visit our restaurant ever since you came to the city, she claims after wiping her soft white hands on her apron. "You inveterate charmer, you!"
Qrow smiles but doesn't engage in her banter. It might be only the alcohol, but he finds her awfully cute—so cute that it spells trouble. And he needs to keep his life simple.
"Lucky bastard!" Kogoro murmurs in his sleep. "I wish I were like you!"
Sipping at his double martini in blissful silence, Qrow eyes the sleeping detective, whose aura has begun to glow in a greyish indigo shade, and idly wonders why he has a nagging feeling that he should pay for their drinks and leave this place at once. It's not like he is afraid of an attack. Whenever Qrow is drunk—if he is lucky enough to get drunk—he can fight as well as when he is sober.
Summer Rose once admired him for fighting with panache even when he is blind drunk. She claimed he would walk with even more swagger…
Thinking too much doesn't do anyone good. He will need another double martini to stop this, which is why he orders himself another one.
2.
An elegant lady with an elaborate chignon and giant spectacles, who reminds him of Glynda despite looking more feminine than Glynda, has just entered the restaurant, jolting him awake with her murderous aura. Now she is trying to rattle the intoxicated Kogoro Mori—her "failure of a husband"—out of his dreams but all to no avail. Seems like the wife (Eri Kisaki, lawyer, as Qrow learns from the lady after she has finally calmed down enough to introduce herself) doesn't appreciate the Sleeping Detective's sincere love for the bottle as much as Qrow does. The photo which has just fallen out of Kogoro's pocket by accident receives even less appreciation, being a portrait of the idol Yoko Okino engraved on a gorgeous silver-framed glass pendant.
Qrow sighs. He really needs to leave this place (and Kogoro Mori's life) after downing his next double martini.
All of a sudden, Korogo Mori's Scroll rings. The ringing tone happens to be Yoko's latest song—and Qrow can see the amber ringlets around Eri's face straightening and vibrating like two lethal stingers before her chignon begins to glow golden in the dark. He is sure this isn't only a hallucination of his. Eri possesses an aura which could kill an inexperienced Grimm even when she isn't fighting.
"I can't take this any longer!" she barks into her own Scroll after muting her husband's. "Come here and fetch your drunkard of a father before I feed him to the first Beowolf I see!"
Qrow wonders why he is feeling a stab of guilt when it's beyond doubt that their marriage must have been crumbling for a long time, long before he entered the Sleeping Detective's life. His Semblance has nothing to do with this. He might as well wait for his double martini.
The cute waitress, who has come to the rescue, slips on the damp, recently wiped floor, and empties the double martini she has been carrying on Eri's pristine pressed suit before landing in Qrow's lap. The elderly dressmaker who has observed the incident bursts into laughter and chokes on his food. The door to the main entrance of the restaurant flies open when a brunette girl in a scarlet dress storms in, crashing into the skinny lady who has just risen from her table to aid the dressmaker.
"I'm so sorry! Please excuse my parents! They aren't always like this!"
The brunette girl who is now effusively apologizing for the spectacle her parents have made of themselves while she is nursing both the skinny lady and the elderly dressmaker is Ran Mori, the only darling daughter of Eri and Kogoro. Ran is remarkably beautiful in a girlish, endearing way with her large round eyes, long straight hair, and heart-shaped face although her nervousness is slightly off-putting. Intrigued, Qrow wonders whether the orchid in her name and on the brooch she is wearing on her décolleté has anything to do with her Semblance.
He won't have to wait for the answer for long, as a Beowolf pack are heading straight towards the restaurant, howling in unisono as if they had just emerged from a cheap horror tale. He gathers he won't be fighting them alone either, for both Ran Mori and Eri Kisaki have assumed a fighting stance before he can even think of grabbing Harbinger.
Qrow inwardly sighs. It impresses him but also bothers him when amateurs are overly eager.
Speak of Harbinger… Where the hell has Harbinger gone? Qrow seems to recall that it was still beside him when the Sleeping Detective joined his table. Maybe he has carried it somewhere and dropped it while Kogoro and he beheld the local hunters' portraits lining the walls of the restaurant. Qrow can't remember he has ever been so scatterbrained even when he was roaring drunk. This must be the effect of Kogoro's Semblance.
3.
The Alpha-Beowolf has knocked down the bolted door while two other Beowolves have come through the flimsy windows, but Ran Mori has generated thirty-three giant red orchids of glass to keep the beasts out. In the ensuing commotion, Ran's Semblance proves to be extremely useful but also dangerous to herself and the people she saves. Her walls of glass orchids partly obscure the view of the Grimms but also get in the way of the people who are trying to flee.
Her karate attacks, on the other hand, blow his mind. Qrow can't remember seeing anyone fight like her. Ran is like a cross between Ruby and Yang on steroids, taking out her enemies with lightning fast, precise karate kicks and hits with massive impact. Qrow is sure she can hold her own against a Beowolf pack without ever needing a weapon.
Eri isn't less deadly in hand-to-paw combat—Ran must have inherited the fighting spirit from her mother. The two Beowolves have been taken out in a flash although more and more are leaping through the shattered windows. By now the sun has set, and moonlight is spilling through the windows and the gaps in the walls of glass orchids, tinted red by the scarlet flowers. Mother and daughter are hurling themselves at the Beowolf pack with two identical screams which, to Qrow's inebriated mind, sound far more scary than the Beowolves' howls.
Meanwhile, Qrow is under the table on all fours, looking for Harbinger and finding it stuck between the bar, Kogoro's legs, and the cashier's desk.
"Aren't you a famous huntsman?" Eri shouts in his direction, eyes gleaming golden as her aura changes. "Deal with that Alpha-Beowolf while Ran and I take care of the rest!"
"Yes, Ma'am!" Qrow sighs, thanking his luck that he will never stay anywhere long enough to get himself a nagging wife.
The Sleeping Detective chooses this moment to declare, "Yoko, you're my one and only love!" in his sleep, and Eri loses her balance for an instant before she takes out her anger on the Beowolf in front of her.
Qrow's Scroll rings. Since it's the "Bad Luck Charm" ringing tone, the caller must be Shinichi Kudo, who has information on the whereabouts of the three missing huntsmen. Too bad Qrow doesn't have time for a chat with Shinichi at the moment.
"Someone has deliberately unleashed these Grimms on us!" cries Eri. "These Beowolves are old! Old Beowolves are too experienced and cautious to attack a city!"
Sure, someone must have lured them here since it's uncommon even for inexperienced Grimms to invade the city and attack a small restaurant like this one directly instead of going for the more crowded market on the other side of the street, but Qrow hasn't heard of any schemes. Either his cover has been blown and the organization is trying to get rid of him, or this is the doing of another organization.
"White Fang," Kogoro Mori murmurs in his sleep. His Semblance is rather handy, enabling him to make deductions about a case while he is fast asleep although rumour has it that Kogoro's deduction skills aren't reliable.
"It's not the White Fang!" Eri insists as her aura grows, surrounding her tall frame with its majestic golden hue. "The members of this organization wear black!" she utters before she breaks down and passes out in her daughter's arms. The truth always requires a high price, Ran explains to Qrow as she places her sleeping mother on a chair next to her intoxicated father. The Queen of the Court, as Eri is also called by her admirers, won't be fighting any Grimms for a fortnight or even longer.
4.
Eri should have considered the pros and cons before activating her Semblance since the fight isn't over yet, Qrow thinks in irritation, but Kogoro's aura must have begun to affect her as well. Ran isn't immune to it either, as Qrow can tell (he has just caught her staring at him with a fiery blush). Perhaps this can't be blamed on Kogoro since Qrow usually has that effect on women—even on girls like Ran who are much too young for him.
A frail reddish-haired woman in a lilac summer dress enters the restaurant through the back entrance just when the Alpha-Beowolf shatters Ran's glass orchids at the door. Harbinger is still stuck. Shinichi Kudo, who isn't accustomed to being ignored, is still calling Qrow's Scroll, which is why "Bad Luck Charm" is blaring now (Qrow has set the volume of his ringing tone to increase with every call he doesn't answer so that he won't ever miss important calls while drunk). The Alpha-Beowolf is howling in the red moonlight. Children are weeping. Adults are screaming. Owls are screeching. And Qrow's brain, which can usually blend out the racket during a fight, can't function while Kogoro's aura is active and working. Where is his Scroll so that he can shut it up? What does he have to do so that Harbinger becomes unstuck?
Mercifully, Kogoro's Semblance doesn't only affect his allies but also his enemies and bystanders as well. A Beowolf hurls itself at the reddish-haired stranger but overlooks the Sleeping Kogoro, who has just got up and straightened himself, knocking out the monster as he stretches his arms and legs with a yawn before he doubles over and falls asleep again. The redhead distractedly frees Harbinger by giving it a slight kick when she—ignoring the screams of the people around her—leans against the bar to pour herself a drink. Some people have a wonderful sense of timing!
Qrow wonders what the stranger's Semblance is, as she has only cast the Alpha-Beowolf, who is about to pounce on them, a listless glance before taking another sip of her drink. Whatever it is, it must have served her well until now, for she only wrinkles her nose in disgust when Qrow cuts off the head of the beast. The rest of the pack literally shrink away, disappearing into nothing as a flash of purple light up her unreadable eyes. Delighted, Qrows cleans his trusted old weapon with a smirk, taking a mental note to buy Kogoro, Ran, and the apathetic redhead each a drink before he leaves.
h.
I'm a harbinger
I cannot lie
I will change the color of your life
I don't mean to bring you pain
But I will
Just why I can't explain
I am no one's blessing
I'll just bring you harm
I'm cursed black cat
I'm an albatross
I'm a mirror broken
Sad to say
I'm your bad luck charm
"Bad Luck Charm", by Jeff Williams
h.