Chapter 4 - Fire & Ice
Ichigo starred out the window of the train car as they left the large station and broke into the blizzard outside. The temperature quickly dropped a few degrees inside the cabin as the train began its way towards the school. Unable to see much of anything through the dense snow Ichigo returned to his seat and poured himself a drink. Winter and Qrow were both in the cabin as well, the first sittings on one of the beds looking over some papers and the later was currently pouring some whiskey from his flask into a cup of coffee. Rolling his eyes at Qrow's usual behavior Ichigo took a drink of his coffee before pulling out his scroll and opening up the book he was reading earlier.
As the train pressed on through the snow it's speed had been slow and steady since leaving the station. They were basically moving at a snail's pace because of the amount of snow the engine had to push through. A faint flash of light from outside the window got Ichigo's attention, walking towards it he couldn't make anything out from the blizzard. Looking at him Qrow asked, "You seeing things Ichigo?"
Staring out into the blizzard Ichigo answered, "No I saw a quick flash of light, I'm just not sure what it was. I can't really see anything out there."
Qrow just chuckled to himself before returning to his drink. Not seeing anything Ichigo let it go returning to his seat thinking. 'I was certain I saw a small flash of light from out there, as faint as it was.'
Before Ichigo could think of anything else Winter asked, "Ichigo is it true your semblance has a second form other than that mask?"
The room was already pretty silent when she asked but now you could almost feel the weight of it. Ichigo quickly looked up from his scroll and looked from Winter to Qrow who caught his gaze. Shaking his head Ichigo said, "Yeah, I guess you could say it's a second form. Honestly thought it's more like the complete form of my semblance and the mask is just a fraction of its power."
Looking back at her papers Winter made a few notes before asking, "Well what is the mask compared to the full power then?"
Setting his cup down Qrow laughed. "What's his mask compared to the true thing?" shaking his head Qrow said, "The mask is like a student compared to a maiden, there's no comparison."
Ichigo quickly butted in, "I wouldn't go that far but the full power of my semblance is probably 4 or 5 times stronger than the mask is. That's my guess anyway, it's hard to determine since it's always getting a bit stronger as I do."
Once again Winter went to her papers and scribbled down some quick notes.
"What's with all the questions of his semblance all of a sudden huh," Qrow asked pouring another cup.
Finishing her notes Winter replied, "It's simply for later reference and so I can try and understand exactly what's the high interest in your semblance. It's easily the most popular and talked about semblance in history yet little is written in the history books about it."
Under his breath Ichigo said, "I'd like to keep it that way."
"Anyway sorry for the sudden questions but I figured this was the best chance I'd get in a while to ask them."
Ichigo just waved it off, "Saying it isn't a problem just wasn't expecting it is all."
"Well would you mind if I ask you one more question?"
Shaking his head Ichigo replied, "Go ahead."
"When did you learn of your semblance and when did you learn it had the second form?"
Sitting back in his seat Ichigo thought for a few seconds. As he did Qrow said, "Well I remember when he learned it had a second form, probably not something he'll talk about."
Looking to Ichigo Winter asked, "Why wouldn't you want to talk about it?"
"Well it's the event most everyone knows about me, I learned about it when my team was killed. The day team ICOO fell apart."
Before Winter could say anything a voice came on over the loudspeaker.
"Due to the weather we are gonna have to stop for awhile and Wait until we can get someone to come and clear the rail. It seems most of the snow has turned to ice here and we can't break through it, just sit tight and we'll update you when we hear something."
Ichigo just rolled his eyes and got up, heading to the door he rested his hand on Engetsu's handle as he reached for the door handle. He stopped when he heard Qrow yell across the cabin, "Don't tell me your planning on going out there Ichigo? I know Engetsu is really strong when it comes to dust manipulation but to clear the entire track. I don't know if you even have enough dust to do that right now."
"What do you think? I can melt the ice and we'll be on our way or we sit here for a few hours in this freezing storm waiting for help. I'll be right back trust me it won't take as much as you think."
As Ichigo opened the door the winds blew in snow quickly dropping the temperature of the room. Slipping outside Ichigo quickly slammed the door behind him and threw his hood up. 'Man this is such a waste of time.' Ichigo thought as he walked towards the front of the train.
The snow was pretty deep even close to the train. Pulling Engetsu from its sheath Ichigo held it out in front of him as the blade began to burn a light red and the snow around it began to quickly melt clearing an easy path through the deep snow. 'That'll make this a bit easier'.
As Ichigo passed the front engine he was met with nothing but the whiteness of the blizzard. With the train no longer blocking the wind Ichigo felt the full force of its gusts and his cloths did little to stop the cold piercing his skin. Turning to have his back face the wind Ichigo quickly pulled a red crystal from his pocket and held it against Engetsu's blade. It began to absorb into the blade and as it did the heat coming from it increased.
Once it was completely absorbed Ichigo walked directly in front of the train. Bringing his hand up he was going to summon his mask before he thought, 'That would just waste energy, it doesn't make my dust manipulation that much stronger.' Turning his attention back to his blade flames engulfed Engetsu's and the surrounding snow turned to water and quickly steam from the intense heat from the blade.
Taking a deep breath Ichigo held up Engetsu and quickly brought it straight down sending a torrent of flames crashing down the snow covered rails. As the large amount of snow turned to steam it filled the air creating a large cloud of ice fog as it froze once again due to the cold. Letting the flames subside from the blade Ichigo resheathed it. Taking a look at his handy work Ichigo was happy to see he completely melted the snow and ice away from the rail for quite a distance. 'Nice, that should cleared the path and will get us moving, but damn that took a bit more energy than I expected, I'm still not that great at dust manipulation like that.'
Turning around Ichigo started making the walk back towards the train car. When a faint whistling noise in the distance got his attention. Looking far off a sudden bright flame formed far off in the distance. As it grew closer Ichigo quickly guessed what it was and ran back towards the front train engine yelling, "Get this train moving."
Before Ichigo made it to the engine the missile struck the ground near him. The explosion sent him crashing hard into the train and derailing a few of the train cars. Dazed Ichigo stood up and saw three more missiles flying towards the train. Catching his breath Ichigo saw the large crater and train car that was torn to pieces from the first missile. 'Fuck this train isn't going anywhere.' Ichigo thought looking at the damage.
Further down the train Winter and Qrow jumped out of their train car after they heard the explosion and felt the entire train shake. Looking for the source of the sudden explosion they saw the large smoke trail that was coming from the crater near the front of the train. Qrow quickly ran towards it when he saw Ichigo leaning up against the train. Pulling out his sword he yelled as he ran towards his friend.
Hearing Qrow, Ichigo looked in the direction of his voice and then looked back towards the coming missiles. As they came closer Ichigo let out a sigh thinking, 'Neither one of them can survive something like that without some kind of damage.'
Quickly running towards Qrow, Ichigo grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards Winter. You could see the surprise on Qrow's face as he was pulled back towards their train car. As Ichigo reached Winter he wrapped his arms around both her and Qrow, taking a deep breath Ichigo summoned his mas. 'This is all I have time to do. I hope it's enough to withstand this.'
Not knowing what was happening Qrow and Winter were shocked when they saw the three incoming missiles. Trying to fight Ichigo 's hold Qrow was yelling,"You can't take this Ichigo, I won't let you throw your life away for mine." The struggle was of no use and Qrow knew it, he couldn't overpower Ichigo when he had the mask on and he knew that. Still he tried to break free to cover Ichigo with his body instead.
As the missiles were about to hit the train engine all Qrow could think was, 'Please don't hit him.'
Luckily for the three, the missiles only connected with the train engine which was their actual target. Still the explosion from them sent a shock wave their way along with a ton of shrapnel. Feeling an intense pain in his side Ichigo fell to a knee as Qrow and Winter watched his Aura fail. A red light quickly flickered over his body as his mask shattered. Holding his side Ichigo felt a large piece of metal that cut into his side. His breathing quickly became labored as his vision began to go foggy.
Holding him so he wouldn't fall Qrow said his name over and over trying to gain his attention. Ichigo wanted to answer but his body wouldn't let him, he just kept hearing his name as he fell unconscious.
Winter just watched as blood began quickly pouring out from Ichigo side staining the snow red. Before they could do anything the sound of airships filled the air. Cursing under his breath Qrow began picking Ichigo up by his shoulder saying, "Grab his other arm we need to move that's gotta be whoever shot those missiles coming to check on the cargo."
Looking from Ichigo to the source of the distant airships Winter said, "This was such a big mistake. Ironwood shouldn't have called for this."
Holding Ichigo up Qrow looked at Winter with a puzzling gaze, "What are you talking about?"
"There isn't any dust on this train the real shipment is being done in airships as we speak, this was just a distraction. Ironwood was so worried about an attack on the shipment after what's been going on he formed this plan. He figured when the news got out he was having huntsmen accompany this train it would trick people into thinking it was the real shipment."
Qrow stood there speechless before turning his attention back to Ichigo. Trying to walk with Ichigo all Qrow could think about was how pissed he was at Ironwood. 'If Ichigo doesn't fucking make if I'm gonna fucking kill you Ironwood." Qrow never even noticed Winter grabbing hold of Ichigo's other arm and helping him. They made their way to the front of the train and form their headed in the opposite direction of the oncoming airships. Pulling out his scroll Qrow opened up the contact page and quickly began flipping through the names. Stopping on Ozpin's name Qrow quickly called him as they made their way from the train.
It only took a few seconds for Ozpin to answer and Qrow quickly said, "Oz were in a really bad spot right now. This whole thing was just a decoy for the real shipment. We need a pickup right now Ichigo's Aura is gone and he's bleeding out bad. I'm sending you our location now."
On Ozpin's end all he heard over the roaring wind before Qrow cut out was, "Oz we're in a …. now. This ….. just a decoy….. need pickup…..Ichigo's ….bleeding bad….. our location."
Leaning back in his chair Oz couldn't believe what he just heard. Recieving a message his scroll vibrated in his hand and looking at it, there was the coordinates Qrow mentioned. He stared at it for a moment before quickly getting up and making his way out of his office.
A few hours have passed and Ichigo was lying down in the center of a dark room, he was attached to several medical machines and had two IV's, one in each arm.
In a chair facing the bed Qrow was sleeping. On a small table next to him were several empty liquor bottles and a few shot glasses. There was a small throw blanket over him, most likely put their after he fell asleep. His hair was messy and there were some bags under his eyes. Lastly there was both his and Ichigo's scrolls on the table. Ichigo's being closed with several notification icons on it. Qrows being open and left on a message from Winter saying, 'Let me know when he wakes up please.'
There was half a reply written saying, 'Why should I tell you it's yours and Ironwood's fault for.'
The door to the room opened and a faint light shined into the dark room. Ozpin slipped in before quietly closing the door behind him. Looking to Qrow sitting in the corner he thought, 'Glynda must have been in here earlier doubt he put that blanket on himself.'
Turning to Ichigo lying in the bed he walked up and checked on the machines and IV's he was hooked up to. Seeming satisfied he looked to Ichigo with a sad face, "I've seen you like this to many times Ichigo, and every time I worry that it'll be the last time I'll see you again."
Taking a seat at the foot of his bed Ozpin said, "I blame myself everytime even though you would say otherwise. I know you'll be fine you've been through much worse before but it's hard not to worry about you. I've known you since you were basically a child." Taking one last look at Ichigo, Ozpin stood up and walked back to the door, quietly leaving the room he left the two of them to sleep.
