A Semblance of Hope

by Vimesenthusiast

After a unlucky moment with the gang back in time, Ranma's forced to seek out the then-present day Happosai to steal his Namban Mirror to get home. When an explosion cracks the mirror, he's flung through time and space to land on Remnant, but he isn't alone. And what are these weird white and black creatures? Pairing undecided but will be either Yang or Pyrrha not a harem or multi!

2. Chapter 2

I don't own Ranma or RWBY.

Yes, this time my teaser chapter ran for more than a prologue and chapter 1. There are reasons for that, which I will discuss at the end of chapter 3.

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Chapter 2 Fall

"Wait what end of year exams?" Ranma said, astonished. The time had flown by so much, that he hadn't realized he and Benzaiten had been here in the school for nearly a full year now.

"Just like regular vocational schools we have end of year exams Ranma." Jaune answered, taking his surprise as coming from ignorance rather than shock. "I hope you've been studying, our Language Arts professor is a major stickler, half your grade can be decided on the final."

"Erk." Ranma scowled, but did not make any move to correct Jaune's assumption, overcome by the horror of the exams. He shook his head, muttering about how time fly's when you're having fun, before turning to Benzaiten. "Did you know about these exams, Beni?"

Benzaiten smiled demurely putting down her cup of tea and sharing a smile with Amethyst, who was sitting next to her. The Arc girl was easily her best friend here in the school, the only one of the senior's whose maturity came close to her own. "Of course I do, I've been studying for them for a few weeks now. Why do you think I haven't been practicing with Safaia Toboe?" Her smile widened slightly. "And before you ask, no, I won't help you study at the last minute. But if I were you, I'd get to work right away."

"Ugh, my own sister throwing me to the wolves." Ranma gasped, grabbing at his chest dramatically, before springing to his feet, nodding at the other students all around him. They weren't friends really save for Jaune, just acquaintances, but friendly ones at least. "I'll get right on that I suppose. Don't want ta be forced to retake the classes after all, school's boring without that."

But while Ranma wanted to concentrate on the exams and Benzaiten wished to spend as much time with her friend as possible, they found that there were far more demands on their time at this point than they had hoped. The final exams were always a time of high stress, emotional turmoil and even fear for the students of Semaphore, a veritable siren's song to Grimm, who of course responded.

Hunter teams were called in to patrol the area around the plateau while senior students like Amethyst and her friends were assigned work around the plateau's top to keep any flying Grimm away. Of course Semaphore, both the school and the city which shared its name, had automated defenses against such, but it was both good experience and kept the numbers the defenses had to deal with down to a manageable level.

While Benzaiten joined Amethyst on patrol around the plateau's edge, Ranma joined the Hunter teams assigned to head out into the desert to ambush any large group of Grimm spotted heading in the direction of the school. This being Vacuo they were spoiled for choice of course, but even to Ranma there seemed to be a lot more in the area than before.

"So they really do react to negative emotions, weird." He said, casually smashing in a Big Mama's face with a punch before twirling his monomolecular wire around, bisecting several Iguana.

"Yeah, all the Grimm have that in common y'know." The leader of team STRS, or Stars, a young man named Simon Aqua, said. The next instant, his single-bladed battle axe took a medium-sized Death Stalker's stinger off near the body before his teammate Teresa slammed her lance into its stump before sending a grenade deep into its body from the grenade launcher slung under her lance's tip. "I thought it kinda bizarre at first myself when I heard about it, since most of the time their senses are, y'know, normal. But Grimm will congregate from hundreds of miles around if they feel a place becoming too fearful or whatever."

"And of course once they arrive they make it even more." Rikardo Flowers said, laying down a heavy cover fire with his short stub rifle. Unlike the others, Rikardo wasn't very good in close, but his aim even with his stub rifle was damn impressive. "It's a vicious downward spiral, the only way to stop it is hold on until the feelings recede, kill off enough high ranking Grimm to make the others run, or flee."

"I read about Mountain Glenn, Twin Umbra, and Bricktown," Ranma said, frowning heavily. "I just thought that Vale and the others had spread their defenses too thin, but it wasn't that at all, was it?"

"Even history authors don't like to admit that geography does more to defend the kingdoms or major cities than hunters. Oh, there are communities outside the four countries, but most never last. There are just too many Grimm, and if a place starts feeling anxious or fearful, it goes downhill quick. Even cities and towns inside Vacuo and the others have been known to go silent."

Finishing his little history lecture Simon nodded at their fourth team member, a Faunus named Sheera Orchid. She was a silent, hulking behemoth of a bear Faunus, who used two monstrous scimitars, paired with a huge machinegun on her back for distant work. She nodded back having seen the same thing he did and sheathed her scimitars, pulling out her machine gun and laying down fire on the distant packs of Iguana and Hyenas. Smiling at the sight and seeing no more Grimm in the vicinity Simon nodded, pulling out his scroll. "We're done here, lets head back for now."

The last two days of exam week were the worst yet. By horrible bad luck or equally bad planning both the senior combat exam and the freshman History exam took place on the same day, forcing the anxiety of the school to all new heights.

Though not for Ranma, he had history in the bag, because from history he learned tactics, strategy, and, more importantly to him at the moment why Atlas and Vacuo hated one another. Vacuo hated Atlas because they had used an experimental weapon on Vacuo in the Great War, destroying much of the nation's farmland and causing the desert to grow exponentially. Now Vacuo's Council had to spend a lot of its budget to bring in food to feed its people. Farmland was a finite resource in Vacuo, and that made farmers like the Arcs immensely wealthy.

Atlas didn't like Vacuo because in the last war Vacuo suddenly decided to side with Mistral at the last moment, costing Atlas an outright victory in the war. They had managed to broker an alliance with Vale, which gave them the numbers to turn on their old enemy Mistral, but their armies had taken massive losses when they faced the Vacuan forces sent to aid their ally.

To Ranma, both sides were morons. Why humans on this planet would waste time fighting one another when Grimm were always encroaching was not something he wanted to think about. And they were always encroaching. If you read the history books and looked at the texts you could see it for yourself if you really thought about it. Yes the big four cities were protected, but not the nation's that took their names from them (for the most part, Atlas the nation used to be called Mantle before a military coup), and every decade or so you could tell that humanity was declining, towns and villages in the so-called protected countries disappearing.

Just put that down as one more thing about the Grimm you don't like Ranma, he thought to himself as he walked through the door with Benzaiten. They just are too damn persistent when it comes ta killing humans. He blinked, staring at where Jaune should've been waiting for them at their regular table. "Where's the kid?"

"You really don't check your scroll, do you?" Benzaiten said, pulling out her own and holding it in front of his face.

She hit play and Ranma listened for a moment. "Hey Ranma, Beni. I'm not going to be in class today, my family and I all went over to Vacuo to celebrate the twin's birthdays."

"Which twins?" Ranma interrupted, causing Benzaiten to laugh quietly.

Jaune went on. "Anyway, all of my sisters and my parents got food poisoning, they all tried something off the seafood platter while I had the pasta. Long story short, I'm staying home to take care of them all. I even got permission to take my exams later because we had to get a doctor flown in and everything." Jaune laughed dryly, while in the background Ranma could make out the noise of someone barfing. "It's been a… smelly… night. And noisy too, can't forget the noises. No matter how hard I try. Hope your days going to be better than mine and we'll meet up this weekend okay?"

With that Jaune hung up, and Ranma looked at Benzaiten. "Well, 99 problems and that one ain't mine."

"You are sometimes a horrible person, you know that yes?" Benzaiten laughed, and the two went to their class. But their day was interrupted around 20 minutes or so into the history test, when klaxons began to sound.

OOOOOOO

No one knew until later what had happened to cause the Grimm in the area to go from numerous but aggressive yet not really up to attacking the mesa in numbers to a full on assault. The surviving students had to work it out, and the seniors decided that the turning point was during the senior combat classes' final exams. These were full on one-on-one combat against their fellow students, and unlike in other countries, Vacuo went until someone was knocked out rather than lost their aura.

It added to the anxiety, and yet because of the added pressure more students learned what their semblances during Vacuo's final exams than in any other nation. But it backfired on Semaphore now. No one was sure who the student was, but an empath had awakened his powers during his match, winning the match and then suddenly being overwhelmed by all the emotions of the people around him, reverberating those emotions back out and acting like a bugle horn calling the Grimm to feed.

OOOOOOO

The Grimm attack was sudden and overwhelming. One moment the vultures were flying well out of range of the defenses, gathering in numbers ranging from six to fifteen. Then the next, they were all of them diving down towards the mesa.

The automated defenses went to high gear as hundreds, thousands of Vultures and Great Vultures, far more than the Hunters had realized were nearby, dove down. The Great Vulture's armored bellies allowed them to close until they could attack, while more vultures landed and began to attack the buildings and people around the edge of the mesa, including the students on patrol.

The principal reacted promptly, signaling the alarm and then getting on the scroll with Vacuo. "Emergency, emergency, Semaphore is under attack, repeat Semaphore is under attack! Mass Grimm assault, mass Grimm assault."

With that done, she turned to the school intercom. "All teachers to arm and join the plateau defenses. All seniors to arm themselves and join the plateau defenses. Freshmen and sophomores are to follow the orders of their emergency proctors and standby."

With that she grabbed up her staff, the fire dust in the ends of it glowing, and raced out of the room. Outside Dorothy met up with her secretary, who was her old teammate and on-again off-again lover. "Once more into the breach," she quipped, hiding her anxiety with the ease of a very long life. "Let's teach these bastards to stay away from my school!"

OOOOOOO

Team STAR had been out on patrol that day, and everything seemed relatively normal. They'd destroyed two large packs of Iguanas, several Scorpios, and even ambushed a few Big Mamas. It was near the end of their watch time when the Grimm attack began.

Ricardo looked through his sniper scope, and gulped audibly. "Guys, over that next dune, there's… I think I just saw a Great Spitter."

The team looked at one another, shocked. "An A-class!? There were no reports of one of them being in the area were there?"

"Reports," Simon scoffed spitting to one side. "When've reports ever been accurate about Grimm movement? You know as well as I do the further you get out into the desert, the less anyone can tell what's there."

Teresa gripped her long lance, opening up the side of it and putting in a new dust cartridge. "What are we going to do?"

Simon looked around at his team and grinned. "Well guys, we've always wondered how we stack up against an A-class, now's the time." They all smirked back at him, hiding their nervousness under bravado. "Could you tell which direction it was going?"

"Towards the school." Ricardo said, tensely. He was trying to find it again, but it disappeared behind one of the dunes. "I can't spot…

That was when everything went to hell. The team turned as Sheera let loose a agonized howl that was utterly unlike her normal quiet nature. They turned to see her flying through the air, propelled by a blow that had ripped off her arm despite her aura protecting her, tossing her body towards the rest of her team.

There stood a giant Grimm vaguely similar in build to a lion, only many times larger and with a much larger upper body build, almost like a lion that had a fullback's built up shoulders and neck. It had armor covering its head and back like a mane, with spikes protruding everywhere along it. A long, serpentine tail ended in a club with more spikes sticking out of it. Its claws were as long as a man's hand and they dug into the sand of the desert as it stalked towards them. Its fangs were huge and dripping saliva, and it's red eyes locked on them with a disconcerting level of intelligence.

Simon gulped, then brought his gun up firing on full automatic as the others did as well. "Teresa, grab Shera and let's get out of here! This is team STAR," He shouted into his walkie-talkie. "Team needs immediate extract! Leo in the area, repeat, Leo!"

And then the Leo was on them, and Simon had no time to realize that no aid would be coming.

OOOOOOO

Ranma grunted, whirling his mono wire around above his head catching a vulture as it tried to dive bomb at a student who had just dove into the small doorway right next to Ranma. There were more and more of them in the air, but he thought that the battle was beginning to get under control. He didn't see as many Great Vultures anymore, which meant the Hunter teams and the seniors on sniper duty were doing their job.

"Come on you kid," Ranma grabbed the younger student, tossing him towards one of the proctors, who grabbed him and hustled him along with the rest of the students, exiting the school store, which was set to one side of the gymnasium, one of many open areas in the school grounds which had become targets for Vultures looking for places to land.

Ranma fell in step with another proctor, "How much longer do ya think?"

"Helps already arrived, so not long." The man said with a shrug. "Three teams of Hunters from last report, we should be good."

Ranma winced and was about to tell the youth about the folly of such thoughts, when the ground underneath them began to quake. "What the hell? I didn't realize Vacuo was a earthquake prone place?"

"It isn't." the young man said gulping quietly and raising his scroll.

OOOOOOO

Great Spitter acid was powerful stuff, powerful enough in large quantities to melt rock. This happened now, six A-class Great Spitters concentrated on one portion of the mesa, while all around them a Iguana pack thousands strong milled. The acid did its work, burning through and destroying several hundred feet of rock, with the Great Spitters moving their fire around to widen the damage. It took around an hour, but they were able to destroy enough of the rock at the bottom of the mesa to cause the rock above it to start to crack and fall.

There was a deep rumbling sound as this occurred, and afterwards the Grimm had a way up onto the mesa, broken rocks from the avalanche allowing them access to what had previously only been accessible by the flyers. The Iguanas roared as one, racing upwards while the desert behind them heaved. Thousands of Scorpios, Death Stalker's and King Cobras, Vacuo's specialized version of the King Taijutu, appeared there, pushing up out of the sand and roaring forwards.

The older Grimm, the Great Spitters and the largest Death Stalkers waited until their younger brethren had charged forward, then parted as the Leo appeared, it's fangs red with blood and it's claws dripping with ichor up to the elbow. It looked at them, then up at the mesa and roared. As one the larger Grimm charged up after their lesser brethren.

OOOOOOO

Principal Dorothy was a realist. The moment she felt that rumble, she knew what it was, and that Semaphore was lost. Immediately she pulled open her scroll, stepping back and allowing her teammates to take over the defense of the rooftop the two of them were standing on. "This is Semaphore, Semaphore is lost, repeat Semaphore is lost, send transport carriers, repeat Semaphore is lost!" She broke off as she stared aghast at the horde coming up at them over the new entrance to the Caldara. "Send mass transport carriers, or else we're all dead!"

OOOOOOO

Ranma found himself separated from Benzaiten, cutting down several Grimm, little Iguanas led by one Big Mama that had tried to attack one of the townsfolk. His house was crushed in the battle, but Ranma had put down all of them before grabbing up two of the families kids and rushing on with them after the parents, who had already raced off carrying two more. he put them down when he found another proctor at the end of the street, nodding at the youth. "That's the last of them on this street."

"Good, head over to the next street to the left, they're having trouble there."

Ranma nodded and leaped up onto the nearest rooftop making his way across the rooftops before dropping down in the next street over. He came across several Scorpios, several little Iguanas and one giant Death Stalker fighting what looked like two juniors. As he watched the Death Stalker skewered the young girl through the chest, throwing her aside as to of the Iguanas fell on an elderly couple, tearing them apart.

In response Ranma howled and whipped his mono wire forward, slicing the Death Stalker into pieces before landing upon its corpse. He kicked off, and was in among the rest of the Grimm, legs smashing out. Every blow killed a Grimm, but it wasn't enough. The elderly couple was dead, as was the girl.

The other student seemed to be in shock until Ranma slapped his face. "Get a grip man! This is what you decided to train for, now you take those people, and get them moving!" he said staring at a group of civilians who had been hiding in one of the large doorways that was common in here in Semaphore as overhead protection, something that had served them well in the initial Grimm assault.

The student gulped, stared for one more second at the body of his friend then turned resolutely and began to chivvy the civilians away. It was well he had, because just then two King Cobras smashed their way through a house at the far end of the street, coming on quickly seeing as opened their mouths in anticipation of food.

Ranma drew back his mono wire, clicking it in place on his wrist guard and grinned viciously at the oncoming snakes. "You'll find you've bitten off more than you can chew with me you big bastards!" With that he leaped forward, engaging the two up close and personal, while around him the evacuation continued

But that evacuation was having trouble. There were only so many bullheads available, and the nearest place of safety that could accommodate them all was Vacuo itself, three hours flight away. The bullheads could each carry 100 people, but once they took to the air that was it. None of the pilots were really thinking clearly of course, there were smaller closer places, such as Arclight, but Arclight wasn't responding, and the other two small communities nearby were mining communities which simply didn't have the capacity to handle the population of Semaphore even spread between them.

Benzaiten knew this all too well. She and a group of mid-range fighters had gathered together on orders from Dorothy to defend outskirts of the school, and already they were being pressed hard by Grimm. Since the landing pad was part of the school, it was designated the evacuation point in case of emergency. "The more people that come in," she said the "more this place is looking like a smorgasbord to the Grimm!"

Next to her Amethyst's friends, a young man named Bart something or other shrugged his shoulders, lifting his gigantic sniper rifle to his shoulder.

If an American had been there, they would've thought it looked like a Barret, but it wasn't. The rifle fired special dust infused rounds, which upon striking their target caused ice to form over the Grimm in question. A second regular bullet followed a moment later, shattering the frozen Grimm. Bart used this trick now, putting down a large Death Stalker that had just appeared in his line of sight. "Death Stalker down, and what would you have us do? We have to get the civilians out, and this is the only place large bullheads can land!"

Benzaiten growled angrily, not liking the obvious pointed out to her like that and turned twitching a few buttons on her Saifai Toboe, activating the sound assault as she strummed the musical instrument's strings. A loud blast of sonic disruption fired out, slamming into a group of Iguanas and a Big Mama who had just rounded a corner. The Iguanas were shaken apart within seconds while the Big Mama simply slumped, Grimm blood pouring out of its ears as it roared and wailed in agony. Bart's bullets took it in the head through one of its size, ending its suffering.

"Then we do what we can." Benzaiten sighed, shifting her weapon over to solid shot and aiming at a group of Scorpios chasing in a large group of refugees. "Then we do what we can."

OOOOOOO

Jaune sighed stretching his arms above his head and cracking his neck explosively as he leaned away from where he had finally put Tia and Dia his youngest two sisters to bed. They had it worst of all of them, having eaten just as much of the tainted seafood as the others, but being so much smaller it'd wreaked even worse havoc on them. This was the first time in several hours where he wasn't helping one or the other of his sisters were his parents into the bathroom so they could puke out their guts.

He took a moment to simply enjoy the silence, though the smell of puke was still in the air. Then he looked up in alarm as the family's phone went off again. It had been doing that on and off since lunchtime. They normally didn't get that many calls in a day, let alone a few hours. Moving over to it he shook his head. "Oh if this is some sales call I'm going to scream."

It wasn't. He opened the phone, staring as Dorothy shouted into it "emergency, emergency Semaphore is under attack, repeat Semaphore…"

Jaune closed that one quickly and opened up the latest message, hearing about the evacuation, its desperate pleas for Arclight to open its borders so that the bullheads could make fewer trips. Hurriedly he dialed back. "Principal Dorothy?"

"Praise the dust!" the elderly woman's voice gasped at the other end of the line. "Marcus, is that you?"

"T-this is Jaune, principal." Jaune stuttered. "My family's all down with food poisoning, none of us could answer the phone, and all the workers are keeping their distance, the smells, well um, anyway what do you need?"

"Jaune, you need to open up Arclight for emergency bullheads! Can you deactivate your overhead defenses?"

Jaune bit his lip thinking hard then nodded. "I should be able to with some help from my father, and I'll get the foremen and the other workers ready to receive the refugees. Is there anything else we can do?"

"Pray." Dorothy said and cut off the connection.

Jaune swiftly moved to rouse his father, urgently telling him what was needed. Marcus tried to pull himself out of the bed, only to keel over in agony. Stomach issues ran in the family unfortunately, and Marcus was like his son in that he also had very horrible motion sickness. Despite all of them taking Beni's medicine lately, the food poisoning was almost life-threatening to them. Still he was able to give Jaune the codes to power down the automated defenses that protected Arclight from above, which would allow bullheads to fly in unmolested.

With that done Jaune called the two four-minute of the farm together, telling them what was going on and leaving them to organize the people while he raced on, downing an extra-large portion of Beni's stomach medicine. Victor was waiting for him by the family bullhead, nodding at Jaune. "You sure you want to head out with me?"

He didn't even have to ask what Jaune was doing there, strapped into his armor and with Crocea Mors at his side. "I'm a Hunter in training!" Jaune said, ignoring the way his voice squeaked as he said it. "Th-this is what I signed up for. L-let's go."

Victor nodded, strapped himself in and a moment later the Arc family's private bullhead rose into the air and was on its way.

About twelve minutes flight later they came upon the mesa upon which Semaphore and the small city around it sat, and both Victor and Jaune gasped in astonishment at the carnage down below. There were literally thousands of Grimm everywhere fighting all over the giant Mesa, and for a moment Victor worried that the landing pad would be similarly congested.

But it wasn't. Jaune killed two vultures and a Great Vulture with the remote operated machine gun set on top of the bullhead, taking them from above and behind respectively, Victor landed be Arclight bullhead, pushing a button to open the doors. Refugees began to flood in immediately, and Jaune kicked out of the copilot's chair. He leaned back into the cargo hold, shouting "Anyone know how to control a gun get up here!"

An elderly gentleman pushed his way over the seats, taking the copilot's chair from Jaune as Jaune leaped out of the bullhead. He nodded to Victor, who saluted before pulling up on his joystick, the bullhead responding with alacrity. "Jaune!" said a voice, and he turned to see two of his older sister's friends racing towards him along with Benzaiten. "What are you doing here, did Amethyst come with you?"

Jaune explained what happened, while he picked up a heavy machine gun that some student had let drop, wincing at the weight of it but thanks to Ranma's training he was able to lift it up and place it on a bit of rubble to use as a makeshift mount. He fired it, his body shaking with the aftershocks but kept the rounds on target, destroying several Iguanas who had turned raced onto the landing pad chasing a group of civilians. The civilians raced on shouting thanks, and Jaune destroyed a Big Mama that had just appeared behind the Iguanas.

"Jaune?" Benzaiten said slapping him on the shoulder, suddenly appearing there from the same rooftop his sister's friends had come from. "You are not trained…"

"It doesn't take much training to fire a machine gun!" Jaune shouted back. "I might not be a senior, but I am training to be a Hunter!" He turned to look at her, his face serious despite how pale it was. "I, I'll do my part. Trust me."

Benzaiten stared at the young boy, and he was a boy, all of 14 with big ideas, or 15 now she thought, remembering that they'd had a birthday for him about a month back. But right now he was acting like a man, like a warrior, and Beni was suddenly proud to know him. "All right." She nodded over to where several other Hunters in training had appeared, racing through the streets carrying bundles of weapons. "In that case, you're in charge of these kids, get them armed up and protecting the landing pad from anything that gets by Bart and the others."

As Jaune nodded she turned away, racing back towards the position she and Bart had been using as a sniper spot. Leaping up beside him she said, "Bart, you are in charge here until one of the Hunter teams gets back to relieve you. I am going to go out and do short range patrols, remember to look before you fire!"

Bart scoffed at that admonishment, but didn't reply nodding over to Jaune and the rest of the younger teens who were now setting up at the four entrances to the landing pad. Behind them the civilians to at last started to get themselves organized. "That's a good kid."

"Yes he is, I just hope he doesn't get himself killed today." Benzaiten replied tartly, before racing on.

OOOOOOO

Ranma had remained at the front of the battle, trying to defend the civilians as they retreated from the edge of the mesa where it had collapsed towards the landing pad and the Academy. He'd lost count of how many bodies he'd come across, or how many Grimm he'd killed, because the answer was certainly not enough. Communications were down now, either because the com. tower was down, or because Dorothy was down Ranma didn't know. All he knew was that what organization there had been in the evacuation was slowly eroding, and the Grimm were everywhere.

Even so Ranma did what he could, leaping from building to building, killing any Grimm he saw. When he came upon downed hunters or seniors he'd pick up their weapons using them until he ran out of ammo tossing them aside and going back to using his mono wires, his feet, his hands, even his head twice, nearly every trick in the book. Normally Ranma would hold something back, but the analytical side of him, the part Genma had trained through ambushing him pushing him, always forcing his body and his mind to adapt beyond normal human levels, told him that if he did that this time, people would die.

Ranma killed a Big Mama, punching his fists straight through into its brain overcoming the armor covering its head, then turned as the building behind him exploded. Or Ranma thought it was an explosion, but it wasn't. Instead a Hunter had been hurled through the building from the other side to land face up and broken in the streets.

Ranma recognized him as the history professor. "Professor Tesseract!" He shouted, moving over to the man, getting there before a few Iguana's killing them absentmindedly as he knelt by the man. Checking for a pulse Ranma didn't find one and he growled angrily, smashing his fist on the road before he turned the way the professor had come from.

He hadn't noticed because the sound of combat was so pervasive, but the rest of the Professors team was engaging a massive Grimm on the other side of the street from his previous position. He blinked in shock as he stared at it, knowing it could only be of Leo, though one part of his mind was thinking Oh thank Hachiman, it doesn't look enough like a furry demon from hell to trigger the neko-ken. It was just as Blue had described to him, a gigantic vaguely lion creature, but with enough differences to keep it from freaking Ranma out.

And it was fast too, and smart. As Ranma watched it smacked a bit of rubble up off the road, blocking a dust round from professor Geomancy, the science professor. In close trying to fight the Grimm were, Aaron and Martin White, the principal's secretary. Aaron was armed with his habitual sword and shield huddled down behind his shield as the Leo slashed at him, his pistols gone somewhere. He held his ground for a moment, while Martin twirled out from behind him, his long glaive twisting in to hack at the Leo's side.

But the Leo jumped backwards then his head darted forward, clamping down and tearing. Martin screamed as his the thing neatly bisected his forearm, ripping off more than half his glaive at the same time.

"No!" shouted Ranma, breaking out of his stasis and charging forward at the same time that Aaron shouted the same thing coming up out of his crouch with a shield bash, catching the Leo underneath the chin before it could pull away. His sword came around in a flash, but it bounced off the Leo's skin, forcing Aaron to turn in a circle with the momentum of his own blow. He brought his shield up again, sideways this time smacking into the Leo's armored nose as it moved to bite him in turn, but couldn't dodge a swipe which caught him in the chest, hurling him aside.

Dorothy appeared, from one end of the street, her normally immaculate appearance gone now, half of her face a mass of scars where someone had healed damage done by a dodged Great Spitter's acid blast of acid before it could kill her. She whirled her staff above her head, and the fire Dust activated, creating a halo of flame around the edge of it which suddenly towards the Leo. "Die beast!"

But the Leo proved it was intelligent again. It didn't try to take the fire on head on, instead it battered its way into a nearby building using it as cover and Dorothy couldn't correct her attack in time. Ranma grabbed Martin, staring down at him as the man shuddered in shock at losing his arm . As Ranma held the man breathed his last, and Ranma stared down at him, aghast. He laid the man down, closing his eyes gently before turning to Aaron.

Just then however the Leo leaped out from its hiding place, Dorothy's dust assault having ended, causing Ranma to turn. Before that thing could reach for her, Ranma leaped on it from behind, dodging its flailing tail midair before pummeling its back with Amiguriken speed fists.

The Leo's skin was decent armor, well above normal Grimm's actual armor. It could stop Ranma's blows from doing much damage, but not no damage, and Ranma felt something inside the beast's skin give way. The Leo howled, twisting quickly and throwing him off with an ease that was astonishing, turning quickly to catch Ranma midair with a slash from one paw.

But Ranma grabbed onto its claws, just as it connected wincing at the pain of it before flipping himself over the Leo's paw and kicking out hard catching it on the nose. The nose was well armored, and the Leo tipped its head up, flipping Ranma backwards through the air. It lunged for him with open jaws and Ranma could only grab its jaws and hold it open before they clamped down on him. For a moment they stood there, the Leo trying to close its Jaws and Ranma, using all his strength to hold them open.

Dorothy mumbled another command activating her Semblance. Pointing she sent the last of her fire dust forward in an explosion of fiery power that caught the Leo in the rear. The Leo turned with a howl, throwing Ranma through the air to impact one of the nearby buildings, were he slid to the ground for a second before leaping up, his face a rictus of fury. "Oh no you don't!

The Leo made to go after Dorothy again, but Ranma slammed bodily into its side, pummeling its underbelly with Amiguriken speed. He once more felt something give inside the creature, then was forced to dodge one of its back limbs as it clawed at him.

Rolling away Ranma came to a stop then rolled away again as the Leo leaped at him with unnatural speed, dodging several sniper blasts at the same time. These things really are fast! No wonder most Hunters have a problem with them. Grimm weren't supposed to be able to dodge like that, nor were they supposed to be able to think of blocking sniper shots like this one had done. It also seemed to know which rounds were dust infused and which weren't. It would ignore the normal rounds, while either dodging or blocking with rubble the dust rounds that professor Geomancy was firing at it as it and Ranma danced around one another, blocking, attacking, looking for a chance to go in for the kill.

"Get out of here professor Geo!" Ranma shouted, "Get the principal and get back to the landing pad! You'll do more good there!"

"You can't think to take that thing on alone kid!" the teacher shouted back, loading his last special dust round, an air type which would act like lightning in a bottle.

Just then however Ranma had been turned completely around by the Leo on the road, who suddenly turned from Ranma and ducking professor Geomancy's round leaped towards him unhindered. Ranma howled in fury raising his hands and shouting "Moko Takabasha!"

The ki blast shot out, slamming into Leo's tail and incinerating it right below where it met main body. It yowled with pain, but even so it's hand lashed out, catching professor Geomancy where he had been crouched on the roof and hurling him backwards, the professor unable to retreat fast enough thanks to the length of the sniper rifle he used. Typically he would've had his teammates there to protect him it in close range, but two of them were down already.

Ranma had no time to wonder if the professor was still alive as the Leo turned on him, snarling in fury and attacking relentlessly now, it's front legs a blur almost matching the speed of the Amiguriken technique. Ranma dodged what he could block and took what he couldn't, wincing as the claws of on the thing opened his forearms up despite his bodies durability, never getting hit with a full powered swipe, just the edges of them was painful enough, and he always used their momentum to change his movements randomly, keeping up with the beast with difficulty, not using his mono wire for the moment since he figured the Leo would just dodge it. If it gets a full hit on me, I'm dead, not even my durability can stand up to that. And it's too fast and too wily for my mono wire to… wait a minute…

Thinking quickly, Ranma redirected a blow to the left twisting around that limb forcing the Leo to reach over that limb with it's other one to try to smack him aside. It opted not to of course, leaning down quickly with its fangs bared to try and bite him instead. This was just what Ranma had hoped for.

Bringing his hands together right in front of the things face quicker than even a Amiguriken move he shot out a Moko Takabasha. Even so the Leo was fast, pulling it's head to one side and letting the ki blast pass it by harmlessly. But that opened it up for Ranma's next assault, because it couldn't dodge the spinning disc that fired out of Ranma's vambrace the mono wire quickly twisting around the things neck at a few twitches from his arm.

Ranma pulled, and then stared astonished. The armor of the Leo's mane resisted the mono wire, something that Ranma would've thought impossible. But then the Leo reared back, putting all of its energy into getting away from the noose like an animal would. Ranma felt himself lifted up, then flying through the air still connected thanks to the forearm launcher.

But at the same time the wire was cutting into the things neck, Ranma could tell that the wire of it under its neck at least was beginning to tear into the beast's hide now. The Leo roared again, trying to retreat now but Ranma used his midair maneuverability to grab onto first a lamppost, then the side of a building, latching himself hard by punching his arms into the building's side.

Even so the Leo was strong enough to rip him and portions of the building he was holding out entirely dragging them along until Ranma could get his feet under him again. Leaving grooves in the concrete as the Leo tried to get away again Ranma was at last able to put enough pressure on the noose around the Leo's neck to cut into its jugular. The Leo screamed again, clawing at its neck but unable to get the wire out of its neck, its blood pouring out around the small but deepening cut.

It still took a while, and it still dragged Ranma down the street nearly getting him killed by several other Grimm, but there were other Hunters in the area, and they, seeing what was going on covered him quickly. Eventually the Leo succumbed, slumping down. Ranma wearily made his way over to its body, unlatching the wire from its noose around the things neck, reeling it in with a touch of his palm. Then he made his way back through the streets, killing a few Grimm along his way but no longer looking for them just yet, he needed to check on the teachers.

Principal Dorothy and professor Geomancy stood over Aaron's body. Around them several dozen more Grimm lay, their bodies slowly dissipating as Ranma came upon them. "Is he?"

Geomancy shook his head, pushing up from where he had been kneeling by his friend. "He wants to say something to you." Ranma blinked at that, but nodded and knelt down by the man. Aaron weekly held up the arm containing his shield.

It was a simple round shield of the size gladiators or Spartans would've used. Despite the pounding it had just taken, it's circular smooth edge wasn't dented at all, and it almost seemed to gleam slightly. "Take it," Aaron gasped.

"What?" Ranma asked, incredulously. "Why, shouldn't it go to your teammate, I mean, why me?"

"All dead, Leo killed them, you killed it. Besides… you said to me once, you were… a martial artist." The man gasped. "You said… a martial artists duty… The code... defend those… who can't defend themselves. Makes you… a truer Hunter… than most. Most join… for glory, for action… for or because they hate the Grimm. You want to be a Hunter to defend others. Take it…" he said leaning back and his arms falling before Ranma could remove the shield. "And… remember … what a shield is for..."

Ranma looked down at the man, then reached forward and closed his eyes gently looking up at professor Geomancy. Geomancy, who like Martin and Dorothy hadn't been part of Aaron's team but his friend, simply nodded. Slowly Ranma slipped the shield off the man's arm putting it on his own. It felt heavy, heavier than it should've been really especially to Ranma, and he wondered if the shield was made from the same stuff that Crocea Mors and its sheathe/shield were. It certainly looked ancient enough.

"Feels like a promise doesn't it?" Dorothy asked, slapping him on the shoulder, her normal cool professionalism gone in the heat of the battle.

"What?" Ranma asked, bemused. "What do you mean?"

"You'll find out I suppose." Dorothy said. "Let's get a move on, this battle's not over yet." It did get easier from then on, the individual Grimm were no longer as coordinated as they had been, and every type acted true to form now. Yet the humans could not fight their numbers, could not turn back the tide.

OOOOOOO

Jaune fumbled at his side for another ammo canister, then jumped aside as a Scorpio slammed into his previous position. It's pincers twisted the machine gun into a mangled wreck, it's stinger seeking his chest. Jaune flung up his shield, deflecting it to one side, then his body moved automatically, Crocea Mors coming around in a short, economical swing that carved into the Scorpio's armored maw. The minor Grimm's armor was no match for the ancient blade and it expired.

But there were several others behind it, and for a moment it was all Jaune could do to survive, blocking, stabbing at times kicking out, though not often. Moments later the last one died, it's stinger gone, Crocea Mors thrust hard down into it's body.

For a moment, Jaune stared down at the Grimm's body, then around at the others he had just killed. Him, not the machine gun, but him, Jaune Arc, the weakest Arc, the one his older sisters were always worried about, who his parents had tried to convince wasn't Hunter material.

"You okay Jaune?" asked a nearby student, while another was setting up another machine gun, pushing aside the wreckage of the one Jaune had been using.

Jaune idly noted that the student was one of those freshman who had looked down on him not too long ago. Before the youth's voice might have been tinged with resentment, many of the freshman resenting the fact Jaune was getting training from Ranma and Beni. Now however, there was only respect in his tone.

Locking Crocea into it's shield-sheath Jaune nodded, coming out of his stupor with a faint, somewhat bemused smile on his face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Come on, there's still a battle going on."

OOOOOOO

The evacuation continued throughout the day well into the night and into the next day, where thankfully the rest of the adults from the Arc family currently at Arclight joined in, relieving the beleaguered Hunters as the evacuation continued. But the Grimm were pressing hard, and casualties mounted tremendously at night, three more Hunter teams going missing presumed dead along with hundreds of civilians. But more bullheads had shown up from Vacuo, including a few dozen heavy lifters. This finally gave the defenders enough lift capacity to really begin to move civilians out, and they did so with alacrity.

By the time dawn broke, only a few thousand remaining civilians were on sight, and they were being evacuated out quickly. The Hunters had paid for this though, and were being pressed back hard. Worse, Ranma and the others knew they were leaving civilians behind, trapped under rubble, in shelters, or simply hiding. And there was no way to get to them now, most of the mesa now belonged to the Grimm.

Ranma was on the front lines the entire time, seemingly tireless, using his ki and endurance to stay awake and mobile, attacking any Grimm he saw and responding to pleas for help as he heard them. With communications down it was very tough going, and there was only so much he could do. As good as he was Ranma was only one man and could only cover so much area.

He got used to using a shield during the battle, using it at first to defend, and then to attack, taking some inspiration from old Captain America comic books he had read, flinging the shield off his arm to smash into Grimm before using the ricochet catching it and twirl his body through the air to another position.

Hiding in an abandoned house for a moment, Ranma grabbed some water from the kitchen, guzzling it down and leaning against the wall resting as he could. "What a fucked up day." He laughed, shaking his head, but there was no humor in the sound. "Funny thing is, without all the deaths and the need to protect the civilians and other hunters, this'd be almost fun."

Just then his scroll went off and he pulled it out of his pockets, looking at it strangely. "All Hunters retreat back to the landing pad. All Hunters retreat back to landing pad, we're about four more loads from finishing up here, then it's our turn."

Ranma nodded with relief, then put his scroll away and raced out of the room absentmindedly killing an Iguana that had been lurking by the door before taking to the rooftops, using a rifle he'd picked up to kill two Vultures and several Scorpios.

About five minutes of roof hopping took him halfway from his former position to the landing pad, where he found Hunters and several students retreating back to the school, using fire and maneuver as they went. One of them was Benzaiten, who was being carried between two others.

"What happened to her?" Ranma said, dropping down off the routes to learn nearby. His shield slung up, blocking a Great Spitter's acid, and he whirled, flinging his shield back towards the Spitter the shield's side taking it across the eyes before bouncing straight back to Ranma. I've gotten really good at this whole bouncing calculation thing. As the Grimm twisted away several Hunters opened fire on it, and one fire dust round caught it in the mouth where it exploded upon the Great Spitter's next acid attack.

Catching the shield as it bounced back his direction, Ranma looked at the two students carrying Benzaiten who were looking at him in awe. Looking closer however Ranma could see bloody patches on Benzaiten's clothing. "She took out a big group of Death Stalkers and King Cobras somehow, but then collapsed. Before we could get to her a Big Mama nearly bit her in half, in fact it should have, we don't know why it didn't. Aura's supposed to protect you, but not that much!"

Ranma nodded, understanding that it was their natural durability plus her aura that allowed her to survive that, though he wondered how a Big Mama, not exactly known for their sneakiness, could get that close to her. "Get her out of here on the next Bullhead, hopefully to Arclight." Ranma ordered.

The teens nodded, and Ranma moved off, guarding their back as they retreated. When they reached the school grounds he handed their protection over to another group of hunters, then went back out and did the same thing again. Several hours passed, with Ranma protecting the last of the refugees as they retreated to the Bullhead's, where he met up with the last of the teachers.

Dorothy and Geomancy were the only ones left alive from the entire staff of the school. Of the Hunter teams that had been brought in, a scattering ten people remained, cobbled together from the broken remains of teams.

"What's the holdup?" Dorothy shouted into her microphone her voice audible over the ongoing battle and the deep thrum of dozens of heavy machine guns from the bullheads on the ground and in the sky, keeping the sky clear. From her position by the largest entrance into the landing pad, between the cafeteria building and the heavy outer wall of the school, she nodded over to Ranma, who slid into a position right beside her. "Get those last bullheads off the ground!"

"We can't." Ranma heard from her scroll, throwing down the machine gun he'd recently been using to pick up a sword someone else had dropped. "There are too many vultures in the air we need to wait until…"

The man cut off abruptly as the heavy lifters, barely visible high above the mesa, abruptly began to move off, heading away. "Dammit! Lifters've just left, they're full up! Their captains say their air circulators can't take any more."

"Is Arclight still accepting refugees?" Dorothy asked quickly, spinning her staff to crush the head of an Iguana as it went to chomp on her leg. Then she twirled around, bringing it up and around to slam into another Iguana's chest sending it rocketing away.

"Yes! You want us to go there? We won't be able to take as many people per trip, and even if it's close, you're going to have to hold out longer."

"Do it." Dorothy said, her face set into unyielding lines. "We'll hold as long as we can. Every fucking civilian leaves, or none of us do."

Exhausted, beleaguered, and now the sole remaining large target, the hunters dug in, while Ranma leaped up onto the cafeteria's roof, surveying the area. The school grounds were now crawling with Grimm of all sorts, and Ranma knew they were all heading this way. Oh, there were of course survivors out there somewhere. hiding or otherwise trying to escape the Grimm, but even so the landing pad was now number one in Grimm magnets.

Ranma held the line, doing what he could, but he couldn't take the pressure off the others entirely despite how good he was. He never noticed that he had begun to glow blue, the ki of his body answering his call. He never saw the looks of awe in his fellow warrior's faces. All he cared about was defending the civilians and killing Grimm. Every punch, every kick killed, and Ranma moved on, constantly dodging, kicking, destroying, his personality now subsumed by pure instincts.

Dorothy went down, a Great Spitter's acid having hit her weapon, making her easy meat for a Big Mama. Professor Geomancy went down howling his rage standing over her body and firing two rifles on full auto from underneath his arms, slaying Grimm with every round until a Great Spitter, the same who had claimed Dorothy's weapon got him in the face with a full spray of acid.

Ranma's shield caught the Great Spitter behind the head severing its spine. Then Ranma raced up its decomposing body with a machine gun, gunning down a whole street full of Scorpios before turning to aid another hunter, his shield turning a Death Stalker's stinger away from him.

Others went down, other students, other Hunters, but Ranma remained, killing, killing, killing every below a deathblow, every move calculated. He lost his mono wire, the container hit by acid. Ranma hurled it off killing an Iguana with the throw, the acid splattering and killing another Scorpio.

He lost the sword he'd picked up. It shattered in a Death Stalker's grip. Ranma used the slivers to kill the Death stalker, throwing them so fast they penetrated the thing's body armor.

He lost every gun he picked up in turn, using them as guns, then blunt weapons until they shattered.

Only his shield remained on his person, too precious now to use as a long-range weapon, blocking acid as came at him as he retreated with the last of the refugees, several students and one final Hunter, guarding their back until they were on the Bullhead.

Then they were in the air, and Ranma was staring at the carnage down below, at the sheer number of seething Grimm covering the mesa from one end to the other. Ranma stared, until his exhaustion, his ki reserves gone long ago, hit him as the last of his adrenaline left his body. He fell forward to be grabbed by the people whose lives he had just saved, pulled back into the bullhead as they turned for the west, the remains of their homes burning and broken behind them.

OOOOOOO

Ranma woke up several days later on a warm and very comfortable bed. Turning his head he knew saw Lavender and Marcus Arc smiling down at. "How are you feeling Hunter?" Marcus said reaching down and patting him on the shoulder.

"H-how long?" Ranma croaked.

"A few days. Frankly you recovered a hell of a lot faster than we expected you to, we didn't think you'd wake up for two weeks!"

Lavender smacked her husband shoulder glaring down at Ranma. "Do you know how close you were to death?! You used up your aura, and somehow began to use up your own life essence from what the doctors said, and that's not even counting your injuries! But the moment we hooked you up to an IV tube and force fed you, your aura went to work healing you faster than even the best healer could've done. I've never heard of any case like it!"

"It was worth it." Ranma said, then he sighed, trying to sit up. "How many of us escaped?"

The two adult arcs were silent, staring at one another. As they did Ranma shook his head once again at the strange dichotomy of the two of them. Marcus was a giant bull of a man, almost as wide across the shoulders as he was tall, whereas a Lavender was a skinny, almost anorexic figure, which belied the strength in the woman.

And she was strong, she could out arm wrestle everyone but her husband on the estate apparently, and had even made Ranma work for it the one time he tried his luck. Marcus reminded Ranma somewhat of Ryoga, in his strength and durability, both of which were semblance assisted, he had the semblance of Rock Armor, making his body hard and durable as rock. Lavender's strength was semblance based as well, but it was much more surprising in her case. Lavender had dark green hair, while Marcus had his family's blond hair and the family eyes as well.

After a moment Lavender answered, placing her palm on Ranma's forehead and pressing him back down into the covers. "Not, not many. None of the teachers or school staff got out alive, they all went down doing their duty. We think Amethyst and her friends Bart, Gregory and Helen are the only surviving seniors, but most of the sophomores got out apparently."

"The freshman?" Ranma asked.

"Jaune and his class are a mixed bag. Jaune's still with us of course, despite rushing out to fight like that!" Marcus shook his head angrily. The arcs had a tradition of not waking there aura's up until the 16th birthday, which was another year away from Jaune, and Jaune should never have been anywhere near a fight of that magnitude, but once he was, he kept on coming back, even sneaking aboard the family Bullhead head back to the battlefield whatever his parents ordered.

Marcus wasn't happy with it and neither was Lavender. Frankly, they had too many children already in harm's way to want even one more joining it, and while Jaune was technically the family's heir, that was no reason to let him in throw away his life. Both parents had secretly determined to try and convinced Jaune to give up this whole hunting idea, hoping he would listen to them. Amethyst had agreed to do so, traumatized by the battle. But her older sisters were Hunters already out there in the field, and Lavender and Marcus couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to any of them.

"Vacuo was able to do a census and find that most of the citizens survived." Lavender said, trying to be upbeat about it. "All of your sacrifices weren't in vain."

Ranma leaned back, fighting back tears. Tears weren't manly after all, whatever the reason for them. "But we didn't do enough."

"You can't save everyone." Marcus said laying one large hand on Ranma shoulder. "Sometimes it's all you can do just to hang on. In this world, that's the best anyone can hope for. A lot of Hunters die never realizing that."

"It's not enough." Ranma growled, smacking the man's hand away before he subsided. "Sorry about that, but we should've done more."

"The Folly of youth is saying that." said Benzaiten's voice from the doorway. "What could we have done? You gave your all, I gave my all, all of the teachers gave their all! Don't denigrate their sacrifice by saying it wasn't enough! Your best has to be enough, that's why it's your best!"

Ranma stared at her, then chuckled quietly. "When did you get so mature?"

"I've always been mature." Benzaiten quick quipped back, smiling politely at them. "Big sisters have to be."

"Wait what? Since when did we decide you were the older one?"

"I would think it was obvious." Benzaiten lifted her nose up haughtily. "I'm certainly more mature than you are."

Lavender and Marcus quickly left the room leaving the two siblings to harangue one another, getting over there grief as best they could. It would come back later, especially to Ranma, but he would get over it eventually. The human mind, especially those of teenagers, was a remarkably resilient thing.

OOOOOO

Arclight wasn't a farm, as Jaune had put it that first time they talked about it. It was a large plantation built into a small caldera over a natural spring. The only reason why the place hadn't been made into city was because it was so small, barely ninety acres across.

Most of that land was given over to farming, with several small houses dotting the landscape, where workers lived year-round. There were more people out there than normal. The evacuation refugees that had been transported to Arclight were still being ferried back to Vacuo. The sheer number of Vultures and Great Vultures still in the area made that dangerous and slow work.

The Arc house was the largest house in sight of course, a sprawling one-story building with several dozen rooms spread out here and there but no second floor except for one tower, which rose to five stories. It was the center for the automated defense grid, which protected Arclight from airborne threats, the only sort that could get at them given the solid concrete and reinforced steel surrounding the estate.

The entire family lived there, two uncles and their families, several nieces and nephews, and of course Jaune's own parents and their kids. Benzaiten approved of all of it, saying it showed a grasp of foresight and planning, from the irrigation system leading from the underwater spring to the defenses, to even the metal and concrete walls that backed up the rock of the caldera around the property. That, according to Jaune, had actually been more expensive than anything but the automated defenses, but the Arcs were moderately wealthy thanks to being major exporters for foodstuffs and having brought a lot of stake money when they moved here from Vale generations ago. Vacuo did not have much arable land, and little places like this made their owner's lots of money in Vacuo, and also won them a lot of goodwill too. The Arcs for example didn't charge even half the price Vale did for the equivalent amount of produce.

Ranma however had no eyes for any of this right now. He sat on the veranda of the Arc's house, staring down at the shield in his hands rather than out at the vista around him. Next to him Benzaiten sat, gnawing at her lower lip. Ranma caught this out of the corner of his eye but was unprepared when Benzaiten blurted out. "I, I awakened my semblance."

Ranma gaped at her, coming out of his own thoughts abruptly. "Wait, you really do have a semblance? How is that even, I thought, are you sure?"

"I know it doesn't make sense given our… unique situation." Benzaiten said, not wanting to speak aloud that they had come from another world. After all, people were locked up for a lot less than that. "But I do. You won't be astonished to discover that it is music related."

"What is it?"

Benzaiten shook her head. "I don't know, I collapsed right after I used it. Apparently it's something like matter creation, though I can't remember how I did it or anything else, and none of the people who witnessed it made it out alive. I need to find someone who can train me in it, someone with a similar semblance. Marcus says he knows a teacher over in Vale who can help me."

Nodding Ranma went back to staring at his shield. For some reason despite all the horrible things he had seen during the fall of Semaphore, Aaron's death and his words still weighed on him. "What is the meaning of the shield?"

Cocking her head quizzically Benzaiten was about to ask Ranma what he meant, but Lavender spoke up from behind the two of them causing them to turn. "What is a gun, but a coward's way of fighting? What is a spear, but a tool used first for hunting? What is a sword but a weapon for killing?"

Her voice moved into a sort of chant as she went on, staring down at Ranma. "What is a shield? A defense to protect what is precious. With your shield, your strength and your will protect thee and thine, a wall against the encroaching darkness. Through this shield we achieve immortality and guard those that come after, freeing them from fear and setting them free."

Smiling, Lavender looked down at Ranma. "It's called the oath of the shield, a very old aura activation chant. It's probably been changed from the original Mistralian a time or tow, but the intent is clear enough."

Ranma took in her words silently then looked down at her shield. "I don't know if I'm worthy of this."

Reaching forward Lavender touched his shoulder gently. "Given your actions in that battle, killing the Leo and staying until the last to defend the civilians and the other students I don't think anyone else could be anywhere near as worthy. Keep it Ranma, and always remembered that a shield is made to defend others. Keep to your Code and I don't think you'll ever go wrong."

Ranma nodded, still staring at this shield not noticing that the two women left him there for a time.

Later that night Ranma stared at his reflection in the mirror, frowning thoughtfully. A few more scars for the collection, heh, funny though, that Leo was the toughest Grimm out there, but my ki healed all the injuries I took from it without leavin' a single scar behind. Whereas… I think that one there was left by an Iguana, and that other one, a Scorpio maybe? Though there is the acid scar on my arm.

Ranma's reflection showed the normal image, an extremely well built and muscled young man, his muscles and body type that of a gymnast rather than a body builder, belying his massive strength. He hadn't been without scars before this, small things for the most part, many on the backs of his arms and back from the neko-ken training. Now however, several larger scars had been added to the collection.

One ran along the side of his body, a shallow but long thing. Another was a large bite mark on one thigh, every one of the teeth that had clamped down on his thigh. On his dominant forearm was the worst of the trio, an ugly burn mark directly below where the forearm sheath for his monomolecular wire had been. The Great Spitter's acid had burned through there for a brief moment before Ranma unlatched the thing and tossed it at that Iguana.

He sighed, turning away to stare at the shield where it lay in one corner, it's face nearly pristine despite the abuse it had faced, even the acid from a Great Spitter hadn't down much to damage it. Staring at the shield, his face firmed. They say the greatest defense is a good offense Aaron. I'm gonna prove worth yer trust in me, but I'm gonna do it my way.

The next few days passed quickly, with Ranma and Benzaiten taking turns training Jaune, while the last of the refugees were ferried out. Ranma also took this time to fill several hundred water bottles and stuff them into his ki space. He had a plan, and this plan was built around one basic tenant: Knowledge is power. Ranma didn't know enough about the Grimm and none of the books he had found could tell him more. He wanted to know where they came from, how they were born or whatever, and how they acted when humans weren't around. Anything that could give him an edge.

Benzaiten on the other hand was in contact with the teacher Marcus recommended, Glynda Goodwitch, Vice Principal of Beacon Academy, one of the schools that served as colleges for Hunters. She agreed to meet with Benzaiten and test her on her semblance, and even went so far as offering both Benzaiten and Ranma, on Marcus's recommendation, early placement in Beacon.

Benzaiten refused, unwilling to become just another student again. While her body was still that of a 17-year-old girl, if rather buxom, her mind was that of a 28-year-old girl. She had no wish to take classes with those so much younger than her mentally, and no need to since she could now read the local language for herself.

More and more of her memories from her past life had come back to her over the last nine months, and it had been interesting integrating them with those from her time with Ranma. But it was those memories which were dominant, after all Ranma had only had his curse for a little over a year and a half, while Benzaiten had an entire life before that incident with her best friend. She was willing to become an apprentice, but not a student.

In her reply to this Glynda simply said "We'll see."

Ranma however refused outright. He had his own little mission, and no desire to be a student ever again. The day after Glynda's reply Benzaiten was flown to Vacuo, where she would catch a flight to Vale. She and Ranma spent a few moments talking then hugged one another and parted without another word, promising to stay in touch. Moments after the bullhead lifted off Ranma turned away, and went back into the house making his final preparations for his own self-appointed task.

That evening Ranma set off, with Victor and Marcus dropping him off in the nearby mountains. Like the ones Ranma and Benzaiten had appeared on these were rocky, but unlike the ones in the far north, these actually had some life on them. Forming the main defense from Grimm further to the south for both Vacuo and Vale, they were a mix of forest and rocky, much like places in China except with very different trees. Despite this however, they were simply too infested by Grimm to allow any human habitation, even here in Vacuo.

"Are you sure about this kid?" Marcus asked. "Other people have tried to observe Grimm in their natural state, none have ever returned."

Marcus and Lavender hadn't felt it was their place to dissuade Ranma from this mad idea beyond trying to talk him out of it like this. Both of them had heard the details of how he'd fought, and knew he was already better than 90% of the Hunters out there, and how a man dealt with his grief was his own business.

Besides, Ranma had a few tricks up his sleeve, quite literally, that no other Hunter had. "I'm sure." Ranma said with a faint smile. "Trust me, I'll be fine. I'll see you around sometime Marcus, and say hi to Jaune for me."

Marcus nodded, clasped the younger man's forearm with his own, and a moment later the bullhead was roaring back up into the sky. Ranma ran off immediately, putting as much distance as possible between him and the landing place, moving silently through the trees and the brush until he found a tree with a small hiding place high up it's trunk between two huge branches.

There he hid waiting for several hours to go by and for the natural rhythm of the forest to return in the sound of birds and other animals. Then he moved off, using every trick he could to keep his presence as small as possible, smiling all the while at the enjoyment of it. He loved being out here like this, and he loved the challenge too. Okay little Grimmies, let's see what I can figure out about your asses, when you're not trying to bite mine off anyway.

The Grimm used eyesight, hearing, smell, and whatever reverse empathy they did to be attracted to darker emotions to hunt humans. Because Ranma wasn't feeling any of those dark emotions at the moment, they had to rely on their other senses to find him. And in a forest like this, Ranma was right at home, the next best thing to invisible.

The next several months were not without incident of course, at times Ranma was spotted, at others he saw one type of Grimm or other that forced a flashback on him from the battle in Semaphore. But Ranma didn't use guns or even his shield or anything else to kill the Grimm that spotted him like so many Hunters would have been forced to do. No, he used his hands, and did it as quickly and quietly as possible.

Because of this, he came away with several interesting notes about Grimm, which he wrote down in a notebook. The first thing he learned was that the Grimm didn't need to eat very often at all. They needed to sleep, the amount differing from one type to another, but they didn't need to eat more than once a week regardless of type. They didn't attack animals except to eat, and only the Iguanas and the type called beowolves seemed to find prey by scent.

That scent could be confused relatively easily. Ranma learned this, by using bear piss, rolling in the ground where a bear had pissed to cover his scent. It was disgusting, but it worked. The other type of Grimm did not use scent, but their hearing and eyesight were much better than you would expect.

The next point he found out for certain was the Grimm couldn't use their anti-empathy or whatever to home in on if he remained upbeat and happy. Controlling his emotions like that at night when he had nightmares of the battle was very hard, but Ranma was not one to let grief get him down, and as weeks turned into months began to get over his nightmares.

And in the wild, the Grimm types had nothing to do with one another, and would, at times fight one another. It was almost like a hierarchy thing, the Grimm in any particular area would follow the strongest Grimm inside that area regardless of that Grimm's type. If that position at the top was in question, the Grimm fought it out, and often times the older, more powerful Grimm would kill one another.

So Ranma made his way through the mountains, spending weeks following different packs of Grimm around, noting how even the largest kinds of Grimm could move through the forest remarkably well. Only the Big Mamas seemed to be unable to knock trees down when they moved.

The most important thing he kept looking for but did not find was any sign the Grimm reproduced like normal animals. Never did he see any visibly young Iguanas or Beowolves or anything that could be seen as young among them, and there certainly didn't seem to be genders among the Grimm. It was like they were born fully grown, and age only added strength and other things to them. Where the hell the Grimm came from was the biggest reason Ranma had come out here, and he was drawing a big old blank.

In his seventh month exploring, Ranma came upon surprise: signs of someone else's footsteps on a muddy ground by a tiny pond, caused by the rain the area had been hammered with the past three days. They led off in one direction before stopping after a few feet, and Ranma frowned thoughtfully. Is someone else out here?

Looking around, he noticed several bushes nearby that looked like strawberry bushes. They all had been carefully plucked clean, and moving on through the treetops Ranma found more signs of someone living in the area, an orange tree that was very well cared for, and what looked like crap from a sheep along with signs of where they had been sheared recently.

Moving on however, he noticed other signs and frowned angrily. "Whoever's out here got spotted. It must've been the rain, the ground's so damn muddy you can't help but leave marks." So saying Ranma jumped up, flipping himself back up into the trees and away over the branches so quickly even a monkey would've been green with envy.

A few moments later he heard the sound of Grimm attacking something, roaring and snapping and soon after that he came upon the fight itself. Standing in front of a small thin crack in a piece of sheer mountainside was an old woman. She was at least 70, possibly older though she still seemed rather hearty. She wore dark brown and green, except for her gloves and hat, which were sky-blue. In her hand she held a shepherd's crook, which she was using adroitly as a staff to fend off a pack of Beowolves.

Wondering what old woman was doing out here, Ranma ran forward, leaping down upon the Beowolves from behind. He landed on the alpha Beowolf, his fingers digging in under the armor bone behind its neck where there wasn't any on armor so that the thing could turn its neck from side to side, grabbing the armor where it flared out over the skin, wrenching it around. There was a sickening crunch, and the rest of the Beowolves turned as the alpha fell its spine snap. Letting the thing fall Ranma smirked evilly at the other Beowolves. "Next?"

Seconds later it was all over, the two humans having made short work of the pack, letting none alive and doing so relatively silently, so no other Grimm came to investigate. Standing over the last Beowolf Ranma stared at the old woman, head cocked to one side. "You know, I thought I was saving you, but I'm not certain I was. You seem to've dealt with this easily enough."

The old woman shrugged, her voice when she spoke scratchy from disuse, her craggy and wrinkled brow furrowed. "It is sometimes the thought that counts I suppose. But what are you doing out here young man? There shouldn't be anyone around here, that would be why I am out here." she said, in a sort of 'hint, hint' tone of voice.

Ranma shrugged. "I came out here to study the Grimm. I was a student at Semaphore, but well, the school fell and I, and I decided we didn't know enough about Grimm, about where they came from, what they did when there were no humans to attack. I wanted to find out so here I am. My names Ranma What's yours, and why're you out here?"

For a moment the old woman stared at him, getting into his face slightly and turning Ranma's face this way and that. Though her eyes, which Ranma noticed were so blue that they put his own to shame, remained locked on his own.

They searched his face and his soul for something, then she nodded. "I believe you. I'd not heard of the fall of Semaphore, but that isn't exactly a surprise. But that is a dangerous project you've assigned herself. No one really studies the Grimm other than how to kill them. People are too busy surviving today to worry about tomorrow, or simply too busy with their own human endeavors." She spat the words. Such as wasteful wars or conflict, all of it so… stupid."

"I believe that." Ranma said with a nod. "I honestly have no idea why any nation on this planet would go to war with any other, with the Grimm so prevalent."

"A better attitude than most." the older woman replied, nodding as she turned away to pick up a large basket filled with bits of wool and strawberries. "I could wish it was more common."

"You didn't tell me your name." Ranma said. "Or why you're out here yourself. Is it just because ya wanted to get away from other humans?"

The woman turned back again staring into Ranma's eyes. Ranma once again got the impression that she could see a lot more of his personality and soul than he was happy with, but he remained silent, staring back at her. "I am Spring young man. Come, you might not have needed to step in, but you did, and that deserves a hot meal at least."

Ranma nodded with a shrug, thinking some company might be nice for a bit and followed the woman into her cave, which turned out to be quite well apportioned and laid out. It even had a tiny Dust generator sitting in one corner powering several mechanical devices: a refrigerator, a heater, and a stove. Along both walls and the back were several alcoves cut out of the rock at head height, though what tool had done the carving Ranma couldn't' say.

Along with clay utensils and pots there were pictures there of people and places but mostly of people, singles and a few groups. Most of the people were Spring's age, but one was of a younger woman with dark black hair, red eyes and pale skin.

All of this and the way the rest of the cave was laid out, with good furniture, and other things indicated that spring had been here for a long time. And is very good with her hands, considering most of that furniture wouldn't have fit through the entrance. He thought to himself smirking a little.

A meow from near one of the small alcove cut into the wall however wiped Ranma's smirk off his face and he backed away hurriedly. Spring noticed this and she turned, one eyebrow raised. "What is it?"

"Er, um, do you have a, a c-cat?" Ranma asked hesitantly.

"Archimedes, yes." Spring nodded moving in the direction of the noise. She moved some clay pots to one side and pulled out a very old, very decrepit looking cat. This was a cat that had lived all its nine lives to the fullest, and was looking to simply laze about its remaining days as much as possible. "Why, what is the matter with cats?"

"J-just keep him away from me, okay?" Ranma said, trying to keep a tremor of fear out of his voice and failing.

"There's a story there I suppose." Spring mused, gesturing Ranma to sit at a small table, while she place Archimedes back onto his shelf. "Don't worry, Archimedes doesn't like strangers any more than you seem to like cats."

Ranma hesitantly sat at the table, and Spring moved over to the small kitchen, preparing a small meal, as she began to ask about the fall of Semaphore, which segued into some fights that Spring had seen in her lifetime of a similar nature. That discussion turned into Ranma spending the night, and continued the next day.

As Ranma may to leave Spring stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "You are welcome to stay here, I think, I think you and I have more to talk about, and this place is as good as any as a base camp for your study of Grimm."

It took some convincing, but eventually Ranma agreed. "Just keep that cat away from me!"

Spring laughed, and motioned Ranma back to his chair. "So, what have you discovered in your observations so far?"

OOO one year later OOO

Ranma finished putting the finishing touch on the message on the gravestone set into the center of the cave, sighing faintly as he stared around at the cave where he had stayed for the past year. He hadn't known when he moved in with Spring what would happen, that she would have so much to teach him, and vice versa, or that she was lonely and he was so lacking in a motherly figure.

She had taught him to live again for more than combat or hunting down Grimm, something he desperately needed after the events in Semaphore. And he had taught her to have hope in humanity once again, as well as many other things about Remnant, about Dust and even the Grimm.

They both got something out of the arrangement, and it simply continued one day turning into the next until the day Spring grew sick. It wasn't a sickness though, not really it was simply old age, and it came upon her suddenly soon after Archimedes had passed away. Within a few days she passed away leaving Ranma alone.

She had left all of her worldly possessions to him, not that it amounted to much. She didn't have much in the way of money, and all her possessions were the furniture and a few personal items. Ranma took only one of them, a small green stone Spring had used as a worry stone for so long it had smoothed to a magnificent sheen. "Something to remember you by." he murmured, bringing the stone up to his forehead touching their murmuring a prayer to the Sun Goddess for the woman.

He would think about the other gift Spring had left him later, or as late as he could. Right now, however Ranma was prepared to once again join civilization, and it was time he got to it. But first…

With an evil smile Ranma went about the cave and booby-trapped everything he could, using every trick his old man had taught him to first make some amusing traps. And then one, not at all amusing one using the dust generator and a few tripwires set right before the grave.

Then he left the cave, breathing in deeply and grinning now. If I'm not coming back here again, then there's no need ta leave the Grimm here alive any longer, and hey, every little bit helps right. With that thought he laughed, then shot out into the forest, intent on exacting some long overdue punishment on the Grimm in the area.

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End Chapter