Chapter 2:
"There you are," said Weiss as she and Blake reached Ruby, who had just exited the inn after confirming her team's lodgings.
"Hey, what's up?" asked Ruby.
"Where's Yang?" asked Blake.
"She went ahead to the festival," said Ruby. "We'll catch up to her in a little bit."
"So, we're staying?" asked Weiss.
Ruby nodded, giving them a wan smile. "Professor Ozpin didn't exactly give us a choice in the matter." She briefly explained what Ozpin had told her.
"It makes sense," said Blake. She smiled and rested a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "You really could do with a rest."
"I guess..." said Ruby with a sigh. She looked down at her feet and frowned. "Though...if I was gonna go to a festival, I would have liked to have Jaune with me."
"I know the feeling," said Blake, Weiss nodding her own head in agreement.
Ruby felt a faint stirring of guilt in her gut. After all, she and Jaune went to Beacon together. They saw each other nearly every day, unless one or both their teams were out on missions. Blake and Weiss, on the other hand, had the misfortune of falling for Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasillias, two boys from Haven. While they had worked with Ruby and the others during their fight against Salem, the boys had returned to Haven with their team to finish their own schooling. From what Ruby saw and heard, the long-distance relationship was trying for all the parties involved, but they were making it work, especially Blake and Sun.
"So...I guess we should go try to meet up with Yang," said Ruby.
"That does seem like a plan," said Blake.
"Although," said Weiss, "if you still want to do something more Huntress-related, there is something we could do."
"Weiss," said Blake in a warning tone, "I think we should follow Professor Ozpin's advice on this. Let's not stress ourselves out."
"I'm just presenting Ruby with some additional options," said Weiss indignantly.
"What option?" asked Ruby.
"Oh...a little bounty hunting," said Weiss with a small smirk on her face.
"Bounty hunting?" said Ruby, her eyebrows rising. She wasn't a big fan of the idea. It wasn't uncommon for Huntsmen and Huntresses to hunt down wanted criminals, in addition to their usual work fighting the Grimm. Ruby had always felt that that kind of work was best left to the authorities of any given Kingdom, suspecting that Huntsmen infringing on their territory tended to ruffle more feathers for the police than it soothed when criminals were brought in. On the other hand, the bounties that Huntsmen went after were the worst of the worst, the likes of Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall, the latter of whom still sat just below the top of the list, with the second-highest bounty ever offered in Remnant's history. Other bounties included rogue Huntsmen and Huntresses who had left behind their legitimate work, and turned their skills at violence towards those weaker than them. Those people needed a Huntsman to bring them in, Ruby supposed.
But...unless the bounty in question was Cinder, Ruby wasn't certain she was interested. There was only one other person on the list who had her attention, and she knew that the chances of finding him were absurdly remote.
"You see," said Weiss, oblivious to Ruby's internal deliberation, "we had an interesting talk with one of the soldiers manning the wall. Apparently the Grimm fleeing the area in time for the festival is an annual affair. And, according to that soldier, it can apparently be attributed to a person who visits every year to see the cherry blossoms."
"But what does that have to do with bounty hunting?" asked Ruby.
"Well, our soldier friend gave us a fairly substantial hint," said Weiss. "He mentioned that this person has 'demon eyes.' Sound familiar?"
Ruby's eyes opened wide and she fixed her gaze on Weiss, while Blake glowered at the heiress from behind. "Are you sure?" asked Ruby.
"Well, it's nothing definite," said Weiss. "But I don't think it's entirely out of the question that he might be here. So...if there aren't any Grimm to fight, and we're going to be stuck here for a week anyway, why don't we see if we can nab ourselves a billion-lien bounty?"
Weiss opened up her scroll and showed Ruby the bounty in question. Ruby looked at the bounty, her face as hard as stone, her silver eyes cold, like quenched steel. "Yeah...why don't we."
It was the highest bounty ever offered in the history of Remnant, the most wanted criminal in the world...the only person aside from Cinder that Ruby would ever consider hunting.
"Demon Eyes Kyo..."
"I wonder where the girls are," said Yang, looking around. She and Kyo had finished their lunch a while ago and were now lounging under the tree. The day passed by lazily and Yang actually felt her eyes drooping as she leaned against the trunk, watching the pink mass of flowers hanging above her sway lazily in the light breeze.
"I'm sure they'll find you in time," said Kyo calmly, laying on his back on the grass, staring up at the canopy. "This town isn't very large, so there would only be so many places to look, especially if they know you're at the festival."
"True," said Yang her smile widening. Generally, this wasn't her particular idea of a good time. Yang was a true party girl. She liked going into town, finding a good bar, and getting a good buzz. If that buzz came with a nice brawl on the side, she was in heaven. On the other hand, she also realized that it had been a long time since she'd just sat back and taken things easy. This festival seemed like the perfect occasion for laying back and watching the world go by. The flowering trees were mesmerizing in their beauty. Yang felt she could stare at them for hours. Kyo wasn't bad company for that sort of relaxation. He was quiet and tranquil, his presence almost a soothing balm.
Yang yawned and stretched, her prosthetic arm clicking and whirring in the process, drawing Kyo's eyes to her. "Oh," he said softly. "I didn't realize you had one of those."
"Is something wrong with that?" asked Yang a trifle defensively. It wouldn't have been the first time that someone had taken exception to her prosthetic limb. Opinions on such things varied. Some reacted as though the limb were ugly, or at least unsettling, mainly because they knew that it concealed the stump of where Yang's flesh and blood arm had once been before Adam Taurus had cut it off. Those were civilians, the boys Yang had occasionally tried to pick up being disconcerted that she took off her arm before going to bed.
Amongst Huntsmen, there were two differing camps. Some, usually those with conditions like Yang's, considered such a limb to be a mark of pride, a symbol of their dedication and perseverance, their determination to not even allow a missing limb to stop them from fulfilling their mission. Others considered it a symbol of weakness, a sign that the Huntsman or Huntress who had lost the limb had been remiss, weak, or clumsy, and that the prosthetic was a symbol of their inadequacy. Fortunately, those in the latter camp were among the minority, even among Huntsmen and Huntresses who hadn't lost a part of their body.
"I don't see a problem with it," said Kyo. "May I see it?"
Yang nodded and rolled back the sleeve of her coat, letting Kyo examine the arm. "It's an elegant design," said Kyo. "I think it suits you."
"Thanks," said Yang, blushing. That had been the first time someone outside of her doctor or the arm's engineer had shown such an interest in the limb, much less used such a favorable description for it.
"May I ask what happened?" inquired Kyo.
"Sure," said Yang. "I...got careless. Do you remember when Beacon Fell a couple years back?"
Kyo nodded, which didn't surprise Yang. She was certain nearly everybody remembered Beacon's fall, regardless of whether they had been there or not. After all, the loss of Beacon had also meant the loss of Vale's CCT Tower and, consequently, the loss of the entire network, cutting off all four Kingdoms and all the outlying settlements from each other. The resulting fallout had been devastating, especially for numerous smaller settlements, and even large towns or villages, outside the Kingdom borders. The loss of communication had brought about confusion and panic, which had naturally drawn the Grimm like flies to rotting flesh. Several such settlements had disappeared practically overnight following the disaster.
"Well I was there," said Yang. "During the fight, my partner, Blake, had gotten in a fight with the White Fang's leader, Adam Taurus. When I found her, he was standing over her, practically torturing her in front of my eyes." She looked down in shame. "I realized too late that it was a bait, that he'd made Blake scream to draw me in. I just rushed in without even knowing what I was getting myself into. But he used his Semblance to cut my arm off before I even realized what had happened."
"I see," said Kyo, his hand moving up to trace the plates that overlapped over Yang's arm. Despite the fact that her arm had been severed a short distance above the elbow, Yang's prosthetic enveloped the stump, covering it up all the way to her shoulder. It was a feature to keep the point where the prosthetic joined her flesh and blood from being targeted. It also made Yang feel a bit more secure as it made her arm look less...incomplete.
"I lost it because I was stupid," said Yang sadly. "I'd always been like that, letting my fists do the thinking for me, and jumping without looking."
"Perhaps," said Kyo with a small smile, still running his fingers along Yang's arm. "But the fact remains that you are still alive."
"Huh?" Yang blinked and looked at Kyo in confusion. His warm, crimson eyes met hers and his smile widened.
"Scars are like lessons," said Kyo. "They show you where your defenses failed, where you discovered your current limitations. If you take the lesson to heart and learn from it, you don't acquire the same scar twice. Even a lost limb, like yours, is just another kind of scar in the end. You overcame that limitation and emerged stronger and wiser from it, am I right?"
"Yeah," said Yang, a smile returning to her own face. It was the first time someone outside her personal circle of friends had offered such a glowing, positive insight into her situation.
Kyo withdrew his hand from Yang's arm and settled back. Yang's eyes flicked curiously to the sword beside him. "So what do you do?" she asked.
"Me?" asked Kyo, his eyes going wide with confusion. Yang nodded. Kyo laughed that awkward laugh of his again. "I travel."
"Travel...doing what?" asked Yang.
Kyo shrugged. "I go places...I meet people...I see various things. I don't have a job, per-se. I tend to just wander around." He blushed and laughed awkwardly again. "I guess that must seem silly compared to a Huntress like you. I don't really have any direction in life right now."
Yang looked away from him and out over the park again, wondering how she actually did feel about that. It seemed silly on the surface, but she knew the feeling of being adrift, lost in the world without a sense of direction, not knowing what you wanted to do with your life. That had been her feeling after first losing her arm. The loss of her arm had been the culmination of an entire sequence of events that had led up to the Fall of Beacon. First, she had been framed during the Vytal Festival Tournament by Mercury and Emerald, Cinder's two cohorts, causing people to believe that she had attacked her opponent without provocation, after their match had been concluded. Then they had done even worse to Pyrrha, playing on her anxieties with Emerald's hallucinations until Pyrrha lost control of her Semblance and "killed" Penny the first time. And then, of course, after that had come the Fall, Pyrrha's death, and Yang's injury.
That sequence of events had destroyed the pillars of Yang's existence. For years, she had longed for an adventurous existence, where she could galavant across the globe, doing all sorts of exciting things, living in such a way that she'd have no idea what life would throw at her next. In a sense...that was exactly what she had gotten. The world had been thrown into chaos, there was no way of telling what would happen. The possibilities were endless...and it was the most miserable thing that Yang had ever experienced. As a result, she'd lost her drive for a while...until she'd managed to remember what truly mattered, and rediscovered her willingness to fight for it.
"I think it's okay to be lost sometimes," she said.
"Well...right now I seem to excel at going out of my way to get lost," said Kyo with another awkward laugh. "Though, I expect to hear from my family soon. They'll probably want me to come back to visit."
"Your family?" asked Yang. "Where do they live?"
"Our home is northwest of Vale, in Leng" said Kyo. "It's near the tip of the dragon's tail."
Yang frowned, recalling the location on a rough mental map of Remnant. She wasn't sure if she remembered a particular settlement in that location.
"You probably haven't heard of it," said Kyo.
"What's it called?" asked Yang.
"It's-" Kyo's answer was cut off by Yang's scroll buzzing.
Yang pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it, surprised to see that Ruby was calling her. "Hey, Sis. What's up? I've been waiting for you and the others."
"Where are you, Yang?" asked Ruby. "We need to talk."
Yang's eyebrows rose and she found herself frowning at the serious tone of Ruby's voice. "I'm over in the park under the really big tree in the middle. Are Weiss and Blake with you?"
"Yeah," said Ruby. "Listen, we need to-"
"Then get your butts over here," said Yang eagerly. "You don't want to miss this."
Silence greeted her for a moment and Yang thought Ruby was going to protest. But then she heard Ruby sigh. "Okay. We're coming."
"See ya soon," said Yang, hanging up the scroll.
"Your sister?" asked Kyo, looking at her.
"Yeah," said Yang. "She's two years younger than me, but she got into Beacon at the same time I did. She's the leader of our team. I think it'd be fun for you to meet her."
"I look forward to it," said Kyo.
"Look, Ruby, I don't think you should try so hard at this," said Blake. "You really should take the chance to get some rest and relax a little."
"I will," Ruby promised absently. "But I don't want to miss this chance. If it's real, if he really is here...Then this is our chance! I won't let him get away."
"Ruby..." Even Weiss, despite being the one to propose the idea in the first place, was getting a little worried.
"After everything he did, there's no way we can ignore him," declared Ruby. "If he's here, then I'm gonna avenge Penny, no matter what. If he's not here, then we can..." Her voice trailed off as she, Blake, and Weiss reached the edge of the park. "Whoa..." said Ruby, her eyes threatening to explode out of her head at the vibrant display of the cherry trees in full bloom.
"Amazing," gasped Weiss. "This should be one of the most famous landmarks in Remnant. It's practically criminal that beauty like this isn't recognized worldwide."
"It certainly is incredible," said Blake. "The mayor wasn't underselling it. Yang was right to call us out here."
"She said she was in the middle of the park by the really big tree," said Ruby, setting off down a path. "Let's go find it."
As she walked, Ruby felt the anger and determination that had welled up within her at the suggestion of the criminal's presence ebb away, replaced by warm admiration for the stunning beauty around her. It was as though the pink color washing across the trees had washed across her own soul, cleansing it.
"That must be the one she was talking about," said Blake, her keen faunus eyes spying the tree already. "There she is...Who's that with her?"
"What are you seeing?" asked Weiss squinting. They were too far away for her to make out details, but Weiss could tell that Yang was sitting next to someone, dressed in black.
"It's a boy," said Blake. "I can't tell much else about him. He has a sword with him though."
"Ooh! Maybe Yang's found herself a boyfriend," said Ruby excitedly. Granted, given that it was someone she had probably just met, Yang clearly wouldn't be in a relationship with him at the moment. But it would give Ruby and the others prime teasing material for the rest of the week and when they got back to Beacon.
"If he's armed, then perhaps he is a Huntsman," said Weiss.
"I thought there weren't any in town," said Blake. "That was why they called for us in the first place."
"Yes...well..." Weiss tried to fish for an answer to that, but didn't have one. She supposed they'd just have to wait until they met the boy.
As they got closer, Yang spotted them and waved them over. "Hey!" she shouted.
At the sound of Yang's voice, the boy looked in the direction Yang was looking in, his luminous crimson eyes meeting those of Ruby, Weiss, and Blake. The three young Huntresses stopped with shocked gasps. Weiss took another look down at the profile on her scroll to confirm her suspicions before looking up again.
"It's him!"
Ruby's hand blurred behind her and she whipped out her weapon. Crescent Rose clicked and whirred menacingly as the massive scythe unfolded. She spun the weapon in her grip before leveling the barrel at Demon Eyes Kyo.
"Yang! Get away from him, now!"
"Ruby! What are you-?" asked Yang, her jaw dropping at her sister's unexpected ferocity. She looked over at Kyo…who seemed completely unbothered by the high-caliber sniper rifle pointing right at his head. "Kyo…?"
Weiss and Blake moved quickly, drawing their own weapons, they dashed to flank Kyo from either side, leveling their blades at him. "You're under arrest," said Weiss.
"Is that so?" asked Kyo rhetorically.
"What's going on?" asked Yang, looking at her friends in confusion.
"You need to pay attention, Yang!" snapped Weiss. "This is the most-wanted criminal in all of Remnant, the billion-lien bounty…Demon Eyes Kyo."
Yang froze and stared at Kyo. It had never even occurred to her. She had only ever glanced passingly at the bounty lists, usually to check if Cinder or Adam had gotten caught yet. She'd completely forgotten that Cinder came in second to one other person. And he was talking to me the whole time without me realizing it, thought Yang. For someone to have earned such an absurdly high bounty, he must have been extremely dangerous. She swallowed nervously.
Despite now having three weapons leveled at him, Kyo didn't seem fazed at all. If anything, he seemed amused, possibly even excited by the prospect of being attacked.
"Leave your sword where it is, and put your hands behind your head," ordered Blake cooly.
Kyo actually grinned. "I think not," he said. Instead, he picked up his sword by its sheath in his left hand and stood up.
"Don't move!" shouted Ruby, baring her teeth and tightening her finger on the trigger. "I'll shoot you!"
"You can try," said Kyo in a disturbingly nonchalant manner. "It's been a while since the last bounty hunter came after me. This might actually be fun. However…" He looked around. "…I would much rather not do it here."
Yang, Blake, and Weiss looked around, remembering they were in the middle of a festival. The moment the weapons had come out, the people nearest to them had scattered with panicked screams. Now a few curious souls had come back, lining the hills, watching the unfolding situation with trepidation.
"What are you talking about?" asked Ruby, her eyes narrowing.
Kyo sighed. "The people of this town work very hard to keep the cherry trees healthy so that they can bloom so beautifully. They are kind enough to allow me to visit every year to see them bloom, so I would not wish to repay their kindness with wanton destruction. If you really wish to fight with me, I know a spot outside the walls where we can do so without causing any problems to our hosts."
"You think I'll trust you?" growled Ruby, tears actually gathering at the corners of her eyes. "After what you did…?"
Kyo canted his head to one side. "What did I do?" he asked. "I don't recall meeting you before."
Ruby let out a snarl that sent chills down Yang's spine. The last time she remembered Ruby looking this murderously angry was the last time they had confronted Cinder. Instead of answering Kyo, Ruby instead reiterated her order. "Drop your sword and surrender…or I'll shoot you dead."
Kyo sighed. "Once again, I would really rather you didn't shoot here." He took a step forward.
Ruby's finger tightened around the trigger as she was about to fire her weapon, only to freeze in place as Kyo was no longer in front of her, but right behind her, seeming to have crossed the distance between them and move behind her in that one step Yang had seen him take. His sword, still in its sheath, was now resting over his left shoulder in a casual manner as Kyo stood calmly behind Ruby, as though he had been there the entire time.
He's fast! thought Yang in shock. Faster than Ruby?
She couldn't be sure. Ruby was blindingly fast, but Yang hadn't even seen a blur when Kyo had moved. It seemed like speed that bordered on teleportation. Or maybe he had teleported...she couldn't be sure.
"As I said, if you're going to insist on fighting, I will insist on doing it somewhere else," said Kyo. He stepped back from Ruby, and began to walk away.
"Wait!" shouted Ruby, turning to bring her weapon to bear. She froze as Kyo turned his head to look over his shoulder at her. He wasn't smiling anymore, and his crimson eyes shined. With it came the force of his will, slamming into Ruby like a battering ram, a wave of murderous intent that carried a tangible force behind it, enough to nearly blow Ruby off her feet all on its own. Crescent Rose nearly dropped from her trembling hands, and she did lower the barrel, her intent to fire all but forgotten.
"Either follow or fall here," said Kyo. "I told you once already that I will not fight you in this place."
Her nerves shocked by Kyo's will, Ruby fell in step behind him, not putting her weapon away, but no longer menacing him with it either.
"Wait," said Yang, looking helplessly at Weiss and Blake, "do we really need to do this?"
"It's what Ruby wants," said Weiss firmly, giving Yang an unusually cold look. "Did you forget already, Yang, just what he did?"
Yang wracked her brain, but Blake spared her the effort. "The Atlesian Seventh," she said. "It's what earned him his bounty in the first place."
"Oh," said Yang, her eyes widening. Then a shock of horror rushed through her as she remembered the incident. The Atlesian Seventh Mobile Brigade, some seven-thousand soldiers, androids, and associated equipment, backed up by a squadron of three Atlesian Seraphim-class warships, models more advanced and powerful than the ones Ironwood had brought to Vale for the Vytal Festival. They had been wiped out by a single person...the boy they were currently following through the town.
They hadn't borne witness to the destruction directly, but they had seen its aftermath. Ozpin had sent them out in a long-range transport at Ruby's insistence, primarily because of the person who had been stationed with the Seventh at the time. Yang remembered the sight. The battlefield was scattered with bodies and the remains of both humans and androids. The mighty warships had been reduced to smoldering wrecks, cleaved into pieces.
But most important of all...
"He's the one that killed Penny," said Weiss, her tone filled with a simmering anger.
Penny Polendina, Atlas' infamous artificial person, the first of her kind capable of producing her own Aura. Penny and Ruby had become friends, their friendship solidifying after Ruby had learned the truth about Penny, and embraced her all the same. But Penny had been destroyed by Pyrrha's out-of-control Semblance attack during the Vytal Festival Tournament. However, following Beacon's Fall, General Ironwood had retrieved Penny's core, which contained her personality and her Aura, and brought it back to Atlas, where her body was rebuilt, newer and stronger. Penny had been an invaluable ally to them during the fight against Salem and, following its end, Ironwood had agreed to allow Penny to transfer to Beacon.
But Penny hadn't gotten the chance. She had been on a mission shadowing an Atlesian Specialist with the Seventh when they had come across Demon Eyes Kyo, who had attacked the brigade and brought it down. Penny had been utterly destroyed in the battle, her core irreparably damaged. Learning the truth had left Ruby nearly catatonic for the better part of a month while she tried to cope with her grief, and she had overcome it only by swearing to make the one who had killed Penny pay.
It had been a blow to them all. They'd all come to see Penny as a friend and comrade, to the point where she had been honorarily inducted as the new P in Team JNPR. But she and Ruby had been especially close, almost to the point where, if Ruby hadn't already had Jaune, Yang wouldn't have been surprised that she'd hooked up with Penny.
Now she had that chance. But it seemed almost surreal to Yang. She looked at Kyo, trying to equate the gentle boy she'd met under the cherry tree to the vicious killer that had wiped out Ironwood's forces and killed one of her sister's best friends. She just couldn't. It didn't seem right somehow, like there was a piece of the puzzle missing.
"Oh ho, it seems like trouble's found you yet again, my boy."
Yang looked up to see the mayor standing in front of them, a congenial smile on his face, completely at odds with the grim feel of the situation. Kyo smiled brightly back at him.
"My apologies for the inconvenience," he said. "As it so happens, it appears my past has caught up to me, Mr. Mayor. I warned you this might happen."
"Well...I can't say I wasn't warned," said the mayor with a sigh before turning his attention to the young Huntresses behind Kyo. "I also can't say I don't understand the position of you ladies, but..."
Weiss' eyes narrowed as she looked pointedly at the mayor. "You knew what he's done, yet you allowed him to enter and stay here without even alerting the authorities. You do realize that you and your administration, plus who knows how many others, could be charged with aiding, abetting, and concealing a wanted criminal, don't you?"
"I realized our actions might have consequences, Missy," said the mayor, his tone hardening. "This boy has been a boon to this town ever since he started coming. We can't overlook that."
"So your festival is more important than upholding the law?" asked Blake, astonished.
"It ain't just the festival," said the mayor. "Do you have any idea what it means to have even a week with a guarantee of no Grimm attacks? They spend the rest of the year wearing us down, little by little, and the only guaranteed respite we get is the brief few days this lad comes to visit us. More than the festival, this is a time for us to rest, recuperate, and rebuild. Weighing that, it's only natural that we would turn a blind eye to the boy. I'm sure the other places he visits feel the same."
"That's ridiculous!" declared Weiss. "I don't care what you say, there's no way a single person can drive off all the Grimm just by showing up. There has to be another explanation to it."
"Well, if you can find it, I'd be mighty obliged," said the mayor darkly. "But, until then, we'll trust the evidence of our own eyes."
"Please," said Kyo, holding up his free hand. "There's no need to begin an argument. Mr. Mayor, you should at least feign ignorance. As it is, I don't think these ladies are inclined to invite further trouble for you, but their issue with me appears to be personal as much as it is professional. They have a grievance to settle with me, and I certainly would be rude not to oblige them."
"So you say, boy," said the mayor with a sigh.
"I'm leading them beyond the town limits, so there shouldn't be any damage done," said Kyo with a cheerful smile. "It's best to get this over with, I certainly don't want to miss the cherry blossoms falling."
A shiver went down Yang's spine. Kyo spoke with the pure, absolute assurance that his victory was beyond question, that his taking them outside of the town was to merely indulge their grudge, something he apparently considered on par with an errand to go pick up the groceries or something similar. Even she couldn't deny feeling irked at being spoken of so dismissively, however strong Kyo might be. Team RWBY had been at the forefront of the battle against the greatest threat to the world since before the time of the Great War. They had faced the most dangerous enemy imaginable. They were not to be taken lightly.
The mayor allowed them to pass, and Kyo led the group out the town gates and into the cleared area just outside the wall. There he turned to face them. Taking his sword off his shoulder, Kyo, with deliberate slowness, closed his fingers about the handle and drew the blade forth from its scabbard. The blade slid out with a metallic grinding noise before clearing the sheath with an eerie ring that made Yang's bones hum.
The sword might have just been a simple sword, but it was a work of art to Yang's eyes. The blade was flawless, showing no chip or scratch, its steel tempered to give it blue highlights that set off the flowing, rippling, woodgrain-like pattern that ran along the edge. As just a sword, with no extras, it might have been the finest blade Yang had ever laid eyes on from the stance of pure craftsmanship.
What was more, the sword had a strange feel to it. The moment Kyo drew it forth, the air around him seemed to grow more excited, humming with nervous energy, as though the sword itself was eager to fight. Yang pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, almost to the point of closing them, stretching out with the senses she'd spent the better part of the last two years honing, feeling both Kyo and the sword. To her shock and amazement, the sword was alight...almost as though...
"The sword has its own Aura," said Yang, her eyes shooting back open.
"Th-that can't be," said Weiss, doing an inspection of her own before reeling back like she had been struck.
"It does," said Blake, having done the same thing that Yang had.
All three of them stepped back nervously, taken aback by the shocking, seemingly impossible revelation. Only Ruby appeared undaunted, her anger resurfacing as she glared openly at Kyo, not caring how strong he might be.
"You're very observant," said Kyo, with a chuckle as he tossed the scabbard aside. "This is my partner and dearest friend, Tenro. He has been passed down my family line for generations."
"An heirloom, huh?" mused Yang. That's not too different from Jaune's sword. But Jaune's sword most definitely didn't have an Aura and it certainly didn't have the sense of power that Kyo's sword seemed to radiate.
Kyo grinned and took up a loose starting stance, leveling the sword at them with one hand, its tip pointed at Ruby in particular. "Now then," he said, an eagerness to his tone that made Yang shiver, "let's begin."
Ruby tensed, not needing the invitation. Instead, she leveled Crescent Rose behind her and pulled the trigger, firing a shot in conjunction with her semblance. She rocketed at Kyo, leaving a stream of scattering red petals in her wake. She closed with Kyo with blinding speed, putting all her momentum into the scythe as she swung it at Kyo's neck.
Kyo simply rotated his wrist, bringing the sword around and up in a parry to intercept Ruby's slash, somehow managing to make the motion look lazy, despite the fact that he executed it with such blinding speed that the blade became a shining arc in the air before it froze in place to stop Ruby's scythe. Kyo's sword met Ruby's weapon at the point where the blade joined with the shaft, the scythe's blade now angled around behind Kyo's neck.
Ruby pulled the trigger again, this time using the recoil in conjunction with a mighty pull as she sought to pull the blade back through Kyo's neck and take his head off. Kyo relaxed his body and ducked beneath her blade as Crescent Rose became a red and ebony blur passing over his head. Not wasting the momentum the shot had imparted into her weapon, Ruby turned her pull into a spin, bringing the blade around again, aiming to slash Kyo from his shoulder to his hip in a downwards, diagonal slice.
Kyo shifted his weight, leaning to the side and allowing Ruby's blade to pass within inches of his body. Ruby spun her weapon about again, attacking Kyo with a variety of dizzying angles, also trying to line up shots with the rifle to hit Kyo, even when he dodged the blade. Kyo's form doubled, then tripled, then seemed to multiply even further as he danced in place, Crescent Rose cleaving through his afterimages, but always leaving its real target unharmed.
"Let's go!" shouted Weiss, drawing Myrtenaster and skating forwards, her lunge carrying her across the ground, the point of her rapier leading like the head of an arrow as she became a streak of white flying at her target.
At the last second, Ruby leaped clear in a jump that carried her up, over, and behind Kyo, opening up the way for Weiss as she thrust Myrtenaster at Kyo's heart. Once again, Kyo shifted to the side so that Weiss' thrust missed him by less than an inch. Weiss allowed her momentum to carry her past Kyo. A snowflake-decorated glyph appeared beneath her feet, launching her straight up into the air. As she went up, Ruby attacked Kyo from behind with a powerful swing of her scythe.
Kyo brought his arm up and over his head so that the blade was angled downward on his left side to catch Ruby's attack. At the same time, Weiss launched herself straight down at him from above with another glyph. Kyo twisted his wrist, throwing the scythe clear and leaping out of the way as Weiss plunged the tip of her blade into the ground.
It proved to be a wise decision, as shards of ice erupted in all directions, Kyo's leap allowing him to just barely avoid being skewered by the jagged shards. Ruby had also backed away, but immediately reversed directions, coming at the ice, firing several shots from her weapon to put herself into a spin that put all her weight and momentum into the move as she swung. The blade of Crescent Rose rotated until it now stretched out from the end of the shaft, rather than off at a right angle as Ruby hit the ice with terrific force. The entire formation shattered, throwing dozens of razor-edged fragments at Kyo like shrapnel.
Kyo's sword flashed through the air, and he cut down or deflected the incoming shards, precisely targeting only the ones that were a threat to him as they buzzed through the air like angry hornets. He seemed completely un-pressured by the attack, his movements still managing to look lazy even as they turned his sword into a shining streak through the air.
There was a flicker of motion behind him, and Blake came at Kyo from behind. She had drawn Gambol Shroud's sword from its sheath, holding the sheath in a reverse grip in her left hand as she thrust the sword in her right at Kyo's back. Still pressured by the shards of ice coming at him from the front, Kyo shouldn't have had the time to spare to answer Blake's attack at his back as well.
However, Kyo showed his impressive speed once more, jumping straight up into the air. Blake was forced to abort her attack as Kyo's dodge now put her in the path of the ice shards flying through the air. At first, she didn't seem fast enough to avoid them and the the frozen shrapnel pierced her body in several places. However, her body then vanished.
Blake had used a shadow, her Semblance not only obscuring her position, but displacing her body, accelerating her upwards in pursuit of Kyo, who spun lazily about to face her. At the same time, Ruby took to the air with a shot from Crescent Rose, launching herself up above Kyo, while Weiss went arrowing straight at him from the ground.
Kyo raised his sword, intercepting Ruby's slash. Even as he blocked, he pushed off with his blade, moving him out of the way of Weiss and Blake's attacks. He descended back towards the ground. Another snowflake glyph, black this time, appeared beneath him and he was sucked down into it and expelled out through the other side. Kyo hit the ground feet first, sinking into a crouch, the force of his landing shattered the earth.
"Yang!" shouted Weiss, her tone indicating what she wanted.
Yang understood. Weiss wanted her to attack while Kyo was still recovering from that hard landing. It made perfect tactical sense. Yang was the one in the best position to hit him. The other girls were in midair and, while their semblances would allow them to change that quickly, Yang was in a better position to strike.
In the past, Yang had never hesitated to throw herself into the brawl, especially if it was alongside her teammates. But now...This was insane. She'd just met Kyo, they'd had a simple conversation and he seemed like a nice guy, but that was no basis for even thinking about not supporting Ruby and the others. But, at the same time, Yang couldn't shake the feeling that they shouldn't be doing this.
Then she saw Kyo's face, his crimson eyes shining, the wistful smile he wore. The truth hit her like a freight train. He's having fun.
Here was a team of skilled Huntresses trying to bring him down. Heck, Ruby had tried several lethal blows against him, something she normally wouldn't do against another person. But he was acting like he was having the time of his life. Yang got the distinct feeling that he wouldn't mind at all if she waded in.
So she did.
Ember Celica's gauntlet clicked and clanked as it folded down her left arm to cover her fist. On her right arm, it emerged from within her arms own mechanisms. Yang snapped her arms back and fired them, using the recoil to propel herself along the ground at Kyo, her right arm coming up to swing right at his head.
Kyo reacted faster than Yang ever dreamed possible. He leaned back, moving his head just outside the arc of her punch so that her right fist passed within millimeters of the bridge of his nose. She followed up with a punch at his gut, firing her gauntlet for good measure. The fiery burst missed Kyo as he sprang back off the ground, his leap carrying him away from the section of earth that had broken under him.
Yang didn't try to press the attack. She stood up as Ruby, Weiss, and Blake touched down next to her.
"Why'd you stop?" asked Weiss. "We had him on the ropes."
"No we didn't," said Yang, her eyes narrowing, a familiar thrill running through her as she looked at Kyo standing there, smiling at them. "He's hardly even trying right now."
"That can't be right," said Blake.
"All the times you tried to hit him," said Yang, addressing her question to all three of them, "has he tried to hit you back yet?"
That made them stop. Yang saw Ruby's fingers tighten around the shaft of Crescent Rose. The tip of Weiss' rapier began to waver and Blake took a nervous step back.
"He isn't taking this seriously," growled Ruby, glaring at Kyo with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, I'm taking this very seriously," said Kyo with that whimsical smile of his. "But, it is possible to take something seriously, and still enjoy doing it." His expression changed, his smile going from something childlike to something much more determined. "As Yang has said, I haven't fought back yet. I wanted to see how good the four of you were. I'm quite impressed. Now..." He raised his sword, holding it horizontally across his body. "We fight for real."
Not a whole lot to say about this chapter, as it's introducing everyone and giving a little insight into their characters. We haven't seen a lot of what Kyo can do yet, as expected for what's only the second chapter of this story.
As for Yang's arm, that was an idea I've had for a while. With prosthetics being used in combat, the point where the prosthetic meets the wielder's flesh and blood has always struck me as a weak point, so it seemed to be a natural idea for Yang's arm to include armor to cover that point of contact. This being Remnant, and transforming weapons being the norm, having such armor unfold out to cover her upper-arm as well seemed like the natural course of things.
Next chapter on Wednesday.
