For the writing of this chapter (particularly the fight scenes), I was listening to plenty of heavy Muse; Psycho, Hysteria, Supermassive Black Hole, New Born and the like. You don't have to, of course, but I'd be interested to see if it improved the experience for you. And if you don't know Muse, well, what are you doing with your life? Go listen to some of their music. It's great. Except for the Second Law.
The Second Law can suck a dick.
Disclaimer - I do not own Bleach or RWBY. They belong to Tite Kubo and Roosterteeth respectively.
The Emerald forest was the picture-perfect definition of a Valian landscape. Enormous trees that jutted into the sky like the snow-capped mountains of Atlas, a lush green forest floor peppered with fruit-bearing bushes and gently babbling brooks, the soothing scent of soil and pine filling the air. It was the very image of peace and comfort, a beautiful sanctuary from the harsh nature of the world.
The corpse of a disembowelled Beowolf slammed into a tree and slid down it slowly. The poor beast gave a pained moan as it dissolved into black smoke.
Jaune Kenpachi was dancing in a stream, slaughtering countless amounts of juvenile Beowolves. His feet threw up water with every movement he made, soaking the flowing robes of his Shikkahuso. A small yet razor-sharp grin tugged at his lips, the youngest Kenpachi entirely in his nature.
Nozarashi shrieked through the air, slicing cleanly through a charging Beowolves jaw, killing it instantly. The next came from above, leaping at him from the elevated bank that led down to the riverbed. Jaune held Nozarashi low enough that its tip touched the riverbed and swung upwards, opening a gaping wound in the Grimm's chest and tossing it to the side like an old rag doll.
He grunted and ducked underneath a rather well-telegraphed swing. Nozarashi flicked out and slit the foolish Grimm's throat. Admittedly, there wasn't much point to this fight, but he wanted to warm up his semblance slightly before moving onto tougher Grimm. As Ma had always said; 'If you want a warm up, kill some Valian Beowolves. It's like killing wet-paper towels.'
Three of them jumped him simultaneously, getting behind the reach of his sword and overwhelming him with sheer body mass. Their claws and teeth skittered off his aura, too close to get any real power behind them.
His grin widened as power crackled through his body.
He dropped his sword into the river bank, gripped the skull of the Beowolf above him and wrenched it violently to the side. Its neck broke with a wet snap. He slammed his fist into the second's face and bowled, then pulped its ribcage beneath his foot. His hand shot out and closed around the nape of the final Beowolves neck. He set his other hand on the monsters hips, lifted it above his head, and brought it down on his rising knee. It's spine ground and grated against his leg as it broke. He tossed the dissolving beast to the side and tossed Nozarashi up with his foot. His hand shot out and caught the blade by the hilt.
The world fell quiet, the silence broken only by the timid bubbling of the stream.
Jaune cocked his head.
The last Beowolf snarled ferociously as it sprung at him from the bushes on the riverbank, jaws wide and weeping saliva. Jaune set his feet and caught the beast by the throat with his bare hand, slammed it into the ground and thrust his sword into its chest. The beast dissolved with a piteous growl.
He exhaled and rolled his neck, the small bones popping as he lazily rocked it to the left and right. The Beowolves hadn't been much of a challenge, but they had managed to get his semblance all nice and warmed up. He could feel it sparking and sizzling in his chest, urging him to satiate his urges with a good and proper fight.
He slung his blade over his shoulders and started to stroll down the stream, his bare feet parting the water around them. The chill liquid was rather pleasant, and he liked the small yellow fish that flitted around his feet and nibbled at his ankles. Jaune hummed a tune he couldn't quite remember the name of under his breath.
A crooked grin crept onto Jaune's lips. He had to admit, the cave looked quite promising.
A dark, foreboding chasm, carved out of a towering cliff, lipped by small stalactites and uneven rock. His eyes couldn't pierce even a foot into the blackness that smothered its interior. The stone around the cave was covered in clumsy art that depicted the terrors of the Grimm, a horde of Beowolves and Creeps flowing over city walls like water over a dam, a Deathstalker Grimm retreating into some sort of chasm, it's carapace laden with blood and gore. The deathstalker was drawn a good deal larger than all the other illustrations.
Jaune slipped Nozarashi from his shoulder and gave it a few practice swings. The scarred blade carved rents from the air. There was a chance - a small one - that the cave contained the Deathstalker the drawings depicted. And if that was the case… well.
Jaune smiled excitedly, a child on Christmas morning, and bent over, picked up a large rock the size of his head. He hefted it once, assumed a stance, and sent the large rock flying into the cave.
A quiet enveloped the world.
Jaune inhaled and exhaled deeply, the air flowing slowly from his lungs.
A toe-clenching, spine-numbing screech tore the air in two, sending a veritable colony of small birds flying from the treetops, squawking in terror. A shimmering set of red eyes shone dimly from the darkness, accompanied by the sound of some large creature skittering over rock.
Jaune grinned. He hopped up and down a few times, loosening the lean muscles that covered his frame.
A titanic Deathstalker Grimm burst from the cave, screaming dissonantly, it's legs, claws and lure-tipped tail flailing about as if it was an upturned cockroach. Jaune licked his lips as his semblance bubbled excitedly, small gouts of xanthous energy rising from his body. The Kenpachi darted forward with a chime of bells. The Deathstalkers legs hit the ground with a weighty thud.
The Grimm shrieked again and lashed out with a carapace-covered claw. Jaune leapt over the blow, the attack so fast it ruffled his hair. The Kenpachi landed on it's back and flipped his grip on Nozarashi, aiming to skewer it with a single strike. His sword simply bounced off with a ring. He clicked his tongue as the Grimm's tail lashed out, catching him in the torso and sending him flying backwards.
Jaune slammed into the ground and bounced once before blasting through a tree, his impact throwing up enough sawdust to form a thin cloud. The tall tree swayed once before it toppled over and slammed into the ground with a weighty thump, sending a wave of wind rushing over the clearing.
A thin crescent of yellow energy burst from the cloud, tearing across the clearing with a low hiss. The wave of pure aura skittered off the raised claws of the Deathstalker. It staggered backwards nonetheless, its eyes blinded by the bright energy. It blinked rapidly, it's vision returning quickly enough to catch a glimpse of a bestial grin.
A crippling pain enveloped the beasts right side as two of its legs were sheared clean off. Black smoke poured from the gaping holes. The Deathstalker screamed to the high heavens, tail and claws lashing about its body in a frenzy of bewildered pain. Its ears picked up on a shifting of dirt behind it and it spun, its claws blurring through the air.
Jaune's eyes widened at the sudden attack. He set one hand against the blade of Nozarashi and raised it before him, reinforcing the scarred blade with a good deal of aura. His feet dug furrows into the ground as the blow threw him backwards.
The creature of Grimm hobbled towards him with unnerving speed, claws and tail thrashing about, enraged screech bursting from its mandibles. Jaune's grin was brutal as he raised Nozarashi. Yellow energy licked at the base of the blade.
A bronze shield slammed into the face of the Grimm, sending it careening off to the side. He spun to see Pyrrha dashing towards him, arm extended. He stared for a second, surprised, then scowled. The Deathstalkers tail lashed out from behind him, once again sending him rocketing over the clearing, this time straight at Pyrrha. He grunted and slammed his palm into the ground, sending him up and over the champion. He flipped in the air and landed on his feet behind the girl like an especially agile cat.
"The hell are you doing here?" Pyrrha started in shock at the hostility in his voice.
"I-,"
The Deathstalker screamed and charged forwards, scarred claws gnashing together, froth seeping from its segmented mouth. Jaune growled.
"Fine. Don't get in my way."
Pyrrha nodded and darted forwards. Jaune charged after her, Nozarashi held in a two-handed grip. The Grimm shrieked and lashed out at the duo. Its claws were layered with mud and moss. Jaune leapt over the blow and landed on its back, feet barely brushing against the rough carapace before he darted forwards. Pyrrha slid beneath the blow, bronze plated legs slipping easily over the dewy grass.
Jaune took one final step and sprung forwards, Nozarashi extended behind him. It tore into the carapace of the Deathstalker's tail, a colossal gout of black sludge spraying from the wound, staining Jaune's blade and arm. Pyrrha's Milo dug a trench across the Grimm's underside, cutting neatly through unarmoured skin. She rolled out from underneath the wildly flailing Deathstalker and jogged over to Jaune, at least 10 metres from the wriggling beast. Jaune was scowling grumpily; he didn't yet have enough strength to cut right through the tail, and had only engraved a deep cut into it. Pyrrha's situation was similar, she hadn't been able to cut too deeply into the skin, otherwise she would have been trapped underneath it.
The Deathstalker spun, glimmering eyes wide with fury. It shuddered slightly, claws twitching and trembling, then started to crawl slowly towards them, far more guarded than it had been.
Pyrrha turned to Jaune, her eyes still on the Grimm. "Can you get me it's underside?" Jaune paused, then chuckled coarsely, catching onto her idea. He shoved Nozarashi into his sash and sprung across the clearing in a single leap, rushing straight at the Deathstalkers face. His bells jingled softly.
The beast of Grimm chittered, drew its claws back and caught Jaune in between them, the impact of the blow rushing over the clearing and rustling the grass. Jaune roared and burst into violent yellow energy. His lips twisted into a savage grin as he clenched his hands in a hammer shape and drove them upwards, into the jaw of the Deathstalker. A tremendous crunching of bone resounded through the clearing, accompanied by the Deathstalker lurching upwards, exposing it's pitch black underside to the world, and, more importantly, Pyrrha.
The Mistralian champion was there in an instant, springing off Jaune's shoulder with Milo's clasped in both hands. She slammed the blade into the Grimm's throat and dragged her weapon straight down its underside, Milo cutting deep and true.
The creature arched it's back even further and started to tremble, a low, pained moan emanating from its pincered mouth. It toppled backwards and collapsed with a satisfying thud, a rush of air ruffling the hem of Jaune's Shikkahuso. The Deathstalker dissipated slowly into smoke. The pair watched it go. A satisfied smile lit up Pyrrha's face. She turned to Jaune, kept smiling even as he narrowed his eyes at her.
Jaune hesitated, torn between a polite greeting or an irritated snarl. She'd gotten in the way of his fight, which he hated, but she'd been nothing but polite and kind, and he didn't want to scare away his only friend. In the end, he managed to get a grip on his unruliness, if a very weak one.
"Sorry," He muttered.
Pyrrha turned to him, head cocked to the side. "For what?"
He shrugged. "Biting you off."
"Oh."
"I just hate when people interrupt me," he continued. "Pisses me off."
Pyrrha blinked, then grinned, the skin under her eyes crinkling.
"It's perfectly fine," she said. Jaune looked away and grunted.
Pyrrha patted his shoulder, then moved past him and started to make her way across the clearing. Jaune followed her, hands clasped behind his head. "Let's go find those relics," she said.
"The what?"
"The… relics? The goal of the initiation?"
Jaune paused, barely a second's hesitation, but it was enough.
"You… didn't know?"
Jaune didn't reply, but he twitched slightly. Once again, it was enough.
Pyrrha pursed her lips, and tried very hard not to laugh.
It only took a few minutes for them to escape the thick forest.
One moment they were trekking through the tangled undergrowth, hacking through thick brush and wading through waist-high shrubbery, the next they were suddenly stumbling into a wide clearing carpeted with gently swaying grass. In the middle of it stood a ruined stone structure, tall obelisks crumbling away to nothing, overgrown vines and flower-dotted ivy kindly caressing the remnants of a forgotten era.
There were several figures standing in the centre of the ruins, some tall, some short, predominantly female, all wearing ridiculous outfits. Jaune huffed. He wanted a fight, not a social minefield.
Pyrrha waved cheerily as they neared the ruin, a bright greeting springing from her lips. Jaune didn't bother. The other initiates greeted Pyrrha in kind, some saying Hello, some nodding quietly, one even curtseying gracefully. He noticed unhappily that it was the Schnee girl he'd argued with earlier, and resolved to try and avoid her.
As Pyrrha walked into the midst of the initiates, shaking hands and smiling politely, Jaune stood on the outside of it all and stared at the sky, hoping none of them would approach them. His semblance was still frothing, and he honestly wasn't in the mood.
"H-hello."
Jaune turned, looked down, saw a small girl that smelt like roses. A red cloak flowed down her back like a river, and her eyes were bright and silver. The girl stuck her hand out.
"I-I'm Ruby Rose," she said, glancing away from the suddenly very tall boy.
Jaune grunted, grumbled internally, and shook her outstretched hand. She seemed to inflate a little bit.
"Jaune," He said in return.
The girl opened her mouth and closed it. She shuffled awkwardly, her fingers toying with the fabric of her cloak. Jaune started to turn away, more interested in the forest, and the Grimm within it, but stopped when the girl latched onto his wrist.
"Wait!" She said, trailing off into stutters when Jaune turned back around to look at her. She floundered for a second or two, then her eyes lit up. Jaune's eyes narrowed. He knew that look. She pulled a red box from behind her back, which smoothly unfurled into a demented fusion of Scythe and Sniper rifle. Jaune blinked, trying to understand how this tiny girl could wield such a colossal monstrosity of a weapon.
"This is Crescent Rose," she said proudly, "my baby. She's a mechashift based combination of a Scythe and 12mm calibre sniper rifle that can…" She trailed off as she realised that each and every one of the initiates was now staring at her. She shrunk into herself, and pulled her hood up to hide her face.
"It's too complex," Jaune said. The girl blinked, then shrunk into herself a bit more.
"Y-you think so?" She mumbled.
"Mn. It'll get you killed."
"O-oh."
Jaune shrugged. "Try something simpler. Like a sword."
Ruby opened her mouth, closed it, trying to think of something to say. She decided to shuffle behind Crescent Rose instead. Jaune heard a low groan from behind him, turned to see a leather-clad blonde drag her hand down her face. Pyrrha hurried next to him and dragged him away from the girl.
"Don't be mean," she hissed to him. He opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off when she shoved something into his hand. He stared quizzically at the small golden chess piece she'd placed in his hand. One of the relics? He opened his mouth to ask the question, but was cut off once more as a gust of wind rushed through the ruins and ruffled his hair. He raised his eyes to the sky, paused, and grinned.
An Elder Nevermore circled above them in the sky, each beat of its jagged wings sending waves of wind over the clearing. Even from here, Jaune could see how its eyes glowed a dark, gory crimson.
Jaune drew Nozarashi, just as one of the other trainees said "We don't have to fight him, right?" He spun and glared at the offender, an amber-eyed girl wearing a bow. A round of muttered agreements went around the ruins, deepening Jaune's scowl. Pyrrha put her hand on Jaune's shoulder, but he brushed it off, walked out into the middle of the clearing. No way in hell he was missing this opportunity.
Jaune saw the titanic Raven tilt its head, felt more than saw it's gaze settle on him, a good 10 meters away from the group.
Jaune grinned, and rolled his shoulders back and forth.
And then it circled away.
Jaune blinked in confusion, snarled as he realised what had happened. He heard Pyrrha talking with the group of initiates, heard them all dash away, one after the other.
Pyrrha walked up to him, stood beside him. Jaune kept staring over the treetops, hoping the Nevermore would return so he could satiate that ever-present itch of his.
Pyrrha exhaled, turned to look at him. "It's gone, Jaune."
Jaune hesitated, staring over the treetops, a vague hope in his chest. He grumbled grumpily as the Nevermore didn't return. "Yeah." He slipped Nozarashi into his sash, turned and started to walk away, to an opening in the trees on the other side of the clearing. Pyrrha followed him, a small smile tugging at her lips.
Jaune cocked his head. "Why are you smiling?"
Pyrrha blinked, as if surprised he had noticed, then giggled. "Oh, nothing much," she said.
Jaune stared incredulously at her. After a few seconds of moderate confusion, he shook his head, and chalked it up to more social bullshit that he just didn't understand.
They walked in silence for minutes, the grass beneath their feet now shadowed by the thick, leathery trees that enshrouded the path. There seemed to be a constant wind, ruffling the grass under their feet and the leaves above their heads. The forest eventually pulled away to reveal an odd blend of clearing and valley, a field of grass that sat between two large hills, also bestrewn with grass. Ravaged pillars lined the long, wide plain at regular intervals, covered in intricate carvings much too old to be decipherable.
A sound reached his ears, something he could only describe as a low whump. He glanced over his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, a hail of pitch black feathers, razor-tipped, completely silent as they flew through the sky.
"Pyrrha!" He warned, spinning to face the feathers. She caught sight of them, and without a second's hesitation drew Akouo and crouched behind it. Only a second later she realised that Jaune had no way to shield himself. The Kenpachi grit his teeth, crossed his arms before his face, and pumped as much power into his aura's skin-level shield as possible.
The quiet broke as feather after feather thudded into him, digging into his aura. His arms, his legs, his chest, his entire body was riddled with the metre-long projectiles. He coughed, stunned, and reeled backwards. His vision swam.
Pyrrha choked in horror as the Nevermore plummeted from the sky with unimaginable speed and slammed it's claws into Jaune, sending him hurtling across the plain. He bounced once, twice, then came to a slow halt on the wet grass. The Nevermore screeched and pulled up, it's eyes fixated on Jaune's fallen body. Pyrrha wasn't stupid enough to believe that it was retreating. It was just pulling away for another attack. A stronger one, probably.
Pyrrha cursed violently and started to run towards her fallen partner. She came to a stop as he levelled Nozarashi at her, the tip of the blade trembling slightly. His message was clear; Stay Away. Nauseating yellow energy started to gutter over his body, growing in power even as Pyrrha watched.
Jaune rose slowly, unsteadily, venomous yellow flames now pouring liberally from his body. He swayed in place, head down, Nozarashi hanging from his hand. Pyrrha was barely breathing, her eyes wide. His head lolled back slowly, revealing a face-splitting grin slathered with untethered glee.
Jaune started to chuckle, the sound coming from the back of his throat, wet and choppy.
The Nevermore was racing across the ground towards him, black wings shadowing the sun.
Jaune's chuckles grew and grew until they took the form of laughter, uneven and jagged.
The Nevermore's claws wrapped around his body and tossed him into the air, tearing up earth and grass and throwing it into the air around him. The Grimm's beak lashed out and ensnared him. His bones creaked.
His grin only deepened.
It shook its head to the left and to the right, tearing gashes across Jaune's aura, then tossed him into the ground, slamming atop him and closing its claws around his body.
It raised it's taloned foot and brought it down on him, again and again, screaming as it slammed him into the ground. Jaune waited until his semblance was close to bursting, a slavering beast desperate to tear its way from his chest, then lashed out with Nozarashi.
The overly long blade tore a deep, deep wound across the Nevermore's face, popping its eye like a rotten grape. The monster shrieked and stumbled away from the pain, shaking its head back and forth, pawing at its face with its wings.
Jaune rose sluggishly from the crater he had been drilled into, swaying unsteadily. Nozarashi hung loosely in his grip, the chipped blade smeared with blood and jelly. His grin was broader than ever.
"Come on," he said, voice slurred. "Have a go. If you're hard enough."
The Nevermore screamed and beat its wings, flinging black feather after black feather. Several of them thudded into Jaune, turning his Shikkahuso to rags. He sagged, like a drunkard ready to vomit, and flooded Nozarashi with power. The yellow energy that surged from it was more akin to a flash flood than a crescent, a violent outpouring of pure energy that rushed across the ground and cut through the Nevermore's wing like Scissors through wrapping paper.
The bird screamed again, the sound wet with blood, and rushed towards the Kenpachi, desperate to kill the monstrosity before it suffered any more of that burning, agonising pain. Jaune gripped Nozarashi with both his hands, set the blade against the soft grass, crouched low, and swung.
The Nevermore fell apart in a flourish of flesh and feather, the now halved Grimm falling to either side of Jaune. Feathers fluttered downwards slowly, dissolving into fine black mist as Jaune watched, a scowl slowly but surely darkening his brow. The Kenpachi snarled and spat, slammed Nozarashi into the ground. He spun, searching for something to fight, to kill. His eyes settled upon Pyrrha Nikos.
His lip's tugged slowly backwards.
She swallowed and took a step back. She knew that Jaune wouldn't attack her. Of course he wouldn't. But there was something primally terrifying about her partner, something that left a deep, deep fear lodged in her heart. An instinct, really. To run.
While she still could.
"J-jaune?" She stuttered.
He didn't reply. All he did was raise Nozarashi. Pyrrha blinked, sweat dripping into her eyes, and then he was before her, eyes burning a noxious yellow, blade nearing her throat.
A purple wave of energy slammed into him, sent him careening off to the side. He crashed into a wall of stone that rose from the ground and crumpled to the ground. He tried to rise, but the purple energy slammed into him once more and forced him to the ground, held him there. He snarled and writhed, but the aura held strong.
Pyrrha held a hand to her mouth, stunned. His blade had been a mere hair-breadth from her throat. She'd heard the whisper of it, the sound any blade made when it sliced through the air. In less than a second, she'd come closer to death than she ever had before.
Her usually steady heart knocked against her ribs, an unsteady, drunken tempo.
Glynda Goodwitch was suddenly beside her, worried eyes hidden behind thin glasses. "Are you alright, Miss Nikos?" She asked gently, laying a hand on her shoulder, subtly placing herself in between Pyrrha and the Kenpachi. The Huntswoman's riding crop was glowing a deep plum colour. She'd saved her life. Barely.
Pyrrha looked to her snarling partner, eyes wide and yellow, clothes torn and shredded. His fingers were curled in the wet earth.
"I… I don't know."
A quick warning; the next chapter won't be out for a while. I've been neglecting my much more popular story to write this one, probably to the anger of quite a few people. No regrets, but I can't really afford to push it to the side for any longer. My standard working time on chapters is about a month, considering planning, writing the first draft, and revising. So, unless my working schedule takes any unexpected spikes in the next few weeks, expect the next chapter in about a month and a half (I'm half way through the first draft of my other stories chapter.) Sorry for those that want a bi-weekly (or, god forbid) a weekly update schedule. I'm a firm, firm believer in quality over quantity, and as a result, finishing these chapters takes a good deal of time.
Thank you very much for reading. If you'd really like to support this story, and maybe (maybe) strengthen my writing motivation by a bare smidgen, please leave a review.