AN: So I may have encouraged you guys a little too much around the correcting me thing. If it's something that makes the paragraph illegible then absolutely tell me and I'll clear it up but if it's something like a little formatting issue there's no need to tell me. Thank you for telling me really but every little thing doesn't need to be perfect. I give a new chapter when I'm happy with it. A little grammatical issue won't concern me enough to edit the chapter again.
There's a little bit of Laura's POV leaking through in a few places. Call it third person omniscient or something. It makes the story flow better so I'm keeping it.
This is the start of the more fun chapters too by the way. More world building and fun times and a bit less drama character introducing. It all started when a cat punched a magical girl in the face.
Grimm souls chapter 6
The meeting
Dexter didn't have time to think through his new situation. He did whatever he could with one goal. Escape.
With his harmless kitty paws Dexter bravely punched the hell out of his alpha's face. Then he realized something. His punches weren't making any sound. At that he paused for a second and paid attention to what he was doing.
Laura's face was being smushed around like jell-o and Dexter's paws were placed on her cheeks. He forgot he made his paws fluffy to silence them. Stealth and all. Laura had the most unamused look Dexter had ever seen. It was an impressive look to pull off with her cheeks all… What was it he had said? Smushed? That described them perfectly.
Laura's free hand pushed aside his cat paws from her face and just stared disapprovingly at him. Just then Dexter had what seemed like a good idea. He placed his paws on her face again and just moved them around a lot to annoy her. With a snarl she batted them aside.
At this point Dexter was just about out of ideas. But… would that work? Hopefully. Dexter tried shifting into his larger cat form, still being held. He felt his bones and flesh remodeling itself to his familiar form. His body grew, teeth sharpened and lengthened, fur grew more ragged and feral. Best of all was the shocked face Laura had. With his now muscled forearms Dexter's paw darted out forcefully and smashed into Laura's nose. Cat jab, you sneaky human.
With a cry Laura stumbled backwards, one hand reaching for her weapon and the other clutching her throwing knifes. Dexter was having none of that. He leapt off of the roof but unfortunately he went through Laura's window. Dexter could feel plenty of wires snapping, making a ruckus of noise. Bottles fell, cans clanged, an arrow whizzed past him into the street below, and Dexter swore a stray cat screamed outside.
In his panic Dexter did what cats did best when scared. He jumped like five feet into the air. Then MORE tripwires were triggered. Boards on the wall tore loose, a bucket of something fell from a now broken pulley, and one nasty crossbow bolt scraped over his skin, leaving a gash on him.
Dexter flailed through the web of traps to the wall and dug his claws into the wood in desperation. He found purchase and climbed the wall in leaps and bounds. He made it to some support beams and hid in the darkest shadow he could. He then calmed his heartbeat and listened.
"Holy hell! Someone getting murdered?!"
"What in the brother's name was that?"
"I TOLD you those two were going at it!"
"My leg!"
Distinct from that prattle were the pounding footsteps of Laura up the tavern stairs. She slammed open the already completely screwed up door, breaking off the second of the third hinge in the process, and beheld the impressive destruction that was completely her fault. Serves her right for turning her sleeping quarters into a goddamn killzone!
Dexter wasn't angry with his alpha. He was… irate. Of course she would trap her room when she was asleep but leaving a warzone worth of traps in her room for any hapless intruder to stumble upon? Absurd! What if he needed to break in?
This reasoning was quickly forgotten as Laura hefted her pack, stuffed any scattered clothes or weapons in it and jumped out the window-what? She just hopped out.
Dexter hopped out after her onto the rooftops an stalked her a bit as he had done so much before. Laura jogged out of the city and Dexter followed.
Laura jogged for quite a while. After what might have been an hour or so she slowed and stopped, breathing lightly. Dexter was probably going to regret doing this but staying in the shadows was not an option anymore. Not only would it not work but it would only further distance him from his alpha.
Dexter shifted to his faunus form and hopped down. Laura didn't hear him until he hit the ground. She whirled around with her rapier drawn and pointed at Dexter, her breathing stilled.
"What do you want?" She snarled
"I…" Dexter hesitated here. There was no good way to handle this but he may as well just throw it out there. It wasn't like he'd done anything wrong… besides stalking a girl… and stealing a load of money… and being mankind's worst- you know what she doesn't need to know about the grimm and stealing bit.
"I want to learn from you. You know how to use a sword better than I and that's something I desire to learn."
His alpha peered closely at him, as though judging his worth. It was very uncomfortable and Dexter tried not to fidget. Nothing had ever looked at him so closely before.
"Why were you stalking me?"
"I'm socially awkward." Dexter blurted out
What?! No! It's because she's scarier than a dragon and her soul is… Yeah, you know what? I'm socially awkward now. End of story.
"Bullshit."
Oh thank the brothers
"Fine. You caught me. I'm not socially incompetent. I'm a grimm in faunus form who wants to learn how to kill better. Rawr."
Laura looked at him for a moment. She sighed and her rapier lowered a little.
"Look, do want to harm me or exploit me or something?"
"No."
"Fine. We're travelling together. Hip hip hooray. Go get some firewood and perhaps some game. You've done enough trouble to at least make camp."
Dexter let a small smile come to his face and he walked into the forest to gather wood and meat… Hunting deer or rabbits would be a fun test of his archery skills. Hm, maybe he should treat this as an exercise.
|-\\/-|
Laura wasn't quite sure what her companion, whatever his name was, wanted, but she didn't think it would be too harmful. He had plenty of chances to attack her but he hadn't so he probably wasn't an assassin. He probably wasn't a military man. Military men, even the best of their infiltrators, weren't smartasses like he was.
Maybe, Laura dared to hope, he genuinely wanted to learn her style of swordsmanship? A pupil would be nice. Someone to handle all those pesky chores and Laura could spar with someone, have company, and pass down her knowledge. It was an appealing idea.
There was the concern of his abilities, however. He could turn into a cat of various sizes and form weapons out of bone. Nobody Laura knew of had ever had two semblances and she would likely have heard if there was such a person. That made it likely that he was one of those rumored warriors who could change form. She'd only ever heard of them changing into birds, though. Hm. That made it likely that his bone manipulation was his semblance. Or perhaps his semblance was something along the lines of body manipulation to an insane degree of training? Laura was skeptical.
Wherever her companion's powers originate he seemingly wasn't a threat but it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on him for a while.
Hearing the crunch of leaves her companion came into the clearing with an armful of dry branches. He left to get more wood or meat without a word.
Laura grabbed her pack and leaned back. Plenty of rations, her weapon maintenance kit, her survival gear, a now somewhat lighter trap kit, a few maps in a cylinder, some clothes, and some other miscellaneous tools.
Looking up at the sky Laura doubted it was going to rain tonight. It was dark and overcast. All the light would be gone within an hour. With a frown she decided if her companion didn't return soon she wouldn't go out to look for him. For the moment, however, there were chores to do.
Getting up with a groan Laura stood up from her comfortable spot on the ground and set up the fire. With a glance around she tapped into her maiden powers a little bit and made a strong gust of wind move the leaves out of her camp. She set up the sticks with a space in the middle for air and put some leaves in the middle. She cheated a bit more and lit the fire with magic. Truly what powerful and mysterious magic was meant to do.
Laura was about to lay down once more when her prospective apprentice walked in. Good brothers his footsteps were damn near silent. It was eerie.
Her companion was holding a rabbit with an arrow through its neck, the head half on the body in a rather grisly scene. In his other arm was some more wood. Laura grabbed the rabbit and pulled a knife and pan out of her pack. She gutted the rabbit without a word, emptied out the viscera, and seperated the pelt from the meat with a practiced hand.
She put the meat and bone onto the pan and the pan into the fire and dug a small hole with her hands. She buried the viscera and pelt. She didn't have any methods to treat the hide so, while it was a shame, she buried the pelt rather than leave it out. She never did like treating pelts anyways.
The meat on the fire was sizzling beautifully. The smell was euphoric and the meat was turning golden brown. Laura didn't often use salt but for this she would. The rabbit was quite fat. Even for the summer the continent was enjoying the rabbit was particularly fat. Laura sprinkled the salt over the rabbit and left it for a moment. In the meantime she grabbed two straightish sticks and started on narrowing the points with her knife.
"So what's your name, anyways?"
"It's Dexter. Your name is Laura, right?"
"Um, yes." Creepy. He stalked me long enough to know my name.
"Sorry about the stalking. It wasn't my first choice of how to meet you but you seemed to have enjoyed the thrill of it."
The paranoia at night? The fright intense enough to make her jump? Oh, the end. She had been VERY smug and proud when she caught him. That had been fun.
"Not as much as you seem to think. The end was nice. Then again, overcoming obstacles is… its own form or reward. I'd have preferred it if you hadn't stalked me at all."
By this point the rabbit was done. Laura set the pan down with her cloak keeping her hand from burning. She seperated the legs from the body and handed one to Dexter. She bit into the leg blissfully. She had gotten the legs cooked well.
"Well, I am sorry about that. Really. It would have been far more pleasant of a first impression if I hadn't observed you."
Laura finished chewing with a thought. She did have one question for Dexter before they slept. "Well, it's alright. On that last day I followed you anyways."Dexter's eyes widened just a little bit. He put them back to his typical lazy half closed look a moment later. "How exactly can you both shapeshift and make weapons of your bone? People only have one semblance."
Dexter looked irritated and looked at Laura seriously.
"The same way you can incinerate a man in moments."
Laura stilled at that. Did she think he hadn't seen that? Of course he saw that! How could he not? He was right outside the window that first time! She looked at Dexter with a blank expression and sighed.
"Fine. This could go two ways. We both reveal everything here and now or we both agree to not talk about our secrets. Personally… I'd prefer number two but we should probably just put our cards on the table."
Dexter looked at Laura with a strange expression on his face. It was as though Laura had done something exceptionally odd in his eyes. Perhaps she had. It was rare to be so blunt about so sensitive a topic as secrets. Especially with someone you can't fully trust.
Dexter stared for a moment more before looking down and speaking.
"I've spent a lot of time alone. I tried hard to go and meet other people but it was always too dangerous to do so. I'm able to manipulate my body in plenty of fashions. I don't know how or why but I know I'm very different from most people. For example…"
Dexter reached for Laura's knife before grabbing it. Laura watched in interest as he drew it across his arm. His aura didn't stop it as it drew a line across his flesh. Moments after the wound was opened the mark would close itself. Soon after even the scar would be gone. Dexter handed Laura her knife back which she immediately put into her pack.
"Your aura doesn't protect you." Laura spoke in awe. What a horrible curse. To not have your soul protect you. That was a scary concept to Laura. People's auras always protected them. Even monsters of men would have their aura stand by them. Perhaps it isn't able to leave them but to not have the one commonality that separates man from monster. To not belong to either side but alone both in physicality and to their very soul… Laura paled as she realized he wouldn't be thrown out of settlements. He would be branded a monster on par with a grimm should someone find out. Religions call the soul sacred and vilify those without them. Mostly the grimm but that still applies to Dexter.
Dexter nodded glumly. "I prefer to take the form of a cat or a beowolf. I don't get attacked when I look like them. But… beowolves attack creatures with souls. If they don't attack me that just makes me think… What do I have? What's inside me? I spent a lot of time as a beowolf. I got used to it."
Laura had nothing to say to that. To have a semblance with no aura. To not have a soul, form, or people to belong to. Even she could take refuge with friends every once and awhile. She felt that she belonged with a people. For once she was grateful that she had a place among her own people.
"I can do things nobody else can." Laura started. "I can use fire, wind, ice, and probably other elements if I care to. I don't. Ever since I was young I've been hunted like some sort of prized stag. I've had friends but most of them have either died or betrayed me in one particularly nasty case."
Dexter looked grim at the mention of a betrayal. He nodded to continue on.
"I learned to be strong to live. It was unpleasant but I had things others didn't. Power, money, and a few allies. I like my life. It's been harsh recently but it could be worse."
Dexter smiled somewhat and stared at the fire. Laura couldn't help but notice how his eyes seemed to glow. The red reflected an ominous glow like the eyes of a grimm but dimmer with a pupil. The violet eye seemed nearly normal. Somehow that made it seem suspicious.
Laura sighed. Dexter probably wouldn't kill her. He seemed to be truthful but you could never really tell. He wasn't telling the whole truth but neither was she. It was an unspoken compromise between the two of them.
With a hopeful smile Laura fell to her side and snuggled into her cloak, the hood acting as a poor pillow.
Dexter watched Laura begin to fall asleep. He stored the parts of the rabbit they didn't eat in Laura's pack and looked up to the broken moon. He hoped one day he could tell his alpha the full truth. He really didn't care if she did or didn't tell hers. She had proven she was strong, practical, and willing to accept him as a pack member. He had seen her pity him but not for a moment had she deigned to cast him out because of his lack of a soul. He didn't think the thought of getting rid of him even crossed her mind. She probably didn't even realize how kind she was.
Dexter wouldn't tell her that he was perfectly happy fighting grimm on the dark continent. He wasn't quite a grimm nor was he a human. He didn't care much. He was himself and that was enough. It didn't matter to him that his aura didn't work as most auras did. It was still his after all. He considered whether aura was sacred to humans. It would make sense and Laura was fairly horrified as far as horrified can go. It didn't matter much to Dexter.
With a hopeful smile Dexter shifted into his cat form (It was more comfortable this way) laid down to sleep. He had no doubts he had made the right choice in his alpha. Then something occurred to him.
"Wait… How often do assassins come around?"
"Mmm every couple of days to every couple of weeks. They don't attack in villages and Vale though. Well normally." Dexter let out a relieved sigh at this and settled in to sleep.
|-\\/-|
Dexter was having doubts about his alpha. He knew she wasn't perfect but how can she have messed something up so badly?
Around Dexter were scorches on the ground. It was as if someone had drawn a knife across the ground and threw in explosions to finish the job. Tree that had toppled down were crackling with their independant blazes. This scene was repeated in a line for quite a while. If Dexter had to guess he would say three quarters of a mile had been marred by the unstoppable inferno that was Laura.
At the end of the apocalyptic scene was Laura, one foot on a rock, proudly holding a rabbit with partially singed fur. Dexter could see the pride beaming out of her like she had done something incredible.
"Laura?" Dexter asked calmly.
Laura toned down her pride and looked at Dexter with a smirk on her face. After just a moment she glanced behind him and paled considerably. She nervously looked to Dexter and said "Yes?"
"What is this?" Dexter gestured to the wasteland behind him.
"Uhm… I was hunting."
"You were hunting the forest?"
"No. This rabbit. I wanted to catch breakfast since you got dinner."
"And… that?" Dexter gestured again. A tree fell over behind him.
Laura racked her brain to think of how she managed to do that much destruction. Even when she tried on purpose she couldn't do that much damage.
"Well… I know you make arrows from your bone and I was a little jealous and thought maybe I could do the same."
Dexter stared at her, telling her from his gaze alone to go on.
"My powers aren't exactly subtle you see. I tried making an arrow from ice but it was too light. I tried one from fire and it didn't work well at all. Then I tried using wind to contain the fire compressed inside it and… Well, I got the rabbit, didn't I?"
Dexter looked at Laura tiredly. He had just woken up. "If the ice was too light couldn't you have made it denser? I do that with my bone."
Laura froze. "Oh." she said intelligently.
Another tree fell in the background. A grimm walked into the clearing but saw the destruction and decided to back up where he came. Dexter could empathize.
"We have leftovers from last night's rabbit in your pack, Laura. I stored it."
Laura looked like she might cry. She dropped the rabbit onto the stone and looked down sullenly.
"Now can you put the fire out?"
|-\\/-|
After their rather hectic morning Dexter wrangled a grudging promise to not use the arrows of doom around Dexter. He didn't miss the 'for now' that was whispered after the promise but he hoped he wouldn't be the poor sucker dealing with his alpha's… explosive tendencies.
On the road Dexter considered trotting along as a beowolf or just asking if he could fly as a nevermoore but decided against it. Traveling as a human, or faunus, was just something that he'd have to get used to. But he had to ask.
"So I mentioned you training me in you sword style last night."
Laura perked up a little at that. "Oh yes! Well, about that. You see, I don't have one."
Dexter nearly tripped at that. "What?!"
Laura smiled a little at Dexter's reaction.
"I learned by getting the crap beaten out of me on a daily basis. Eventually I learned to block, parry, and dodge by trying not to get hit. Then I learned to attack with some more normal instruction."
Dexter thought about that for a moment and sadly decided that that was probably the best way to learn any kind of sword style. Experience was the greatest teacher he supposed.
"So you're going to beat me up every night?"
"Yes. And I'll enjoy every second of it." Laura said happily.
Dexter wondered if it was too late to find a new alpha. In the settlement she had been… somewhat restrained (he worried that he would get "training" in trap detection. It had kept him up last night for a little while.) but in the forest she had turned into explosions and mayhem. Dexter guessed it was a matter of fitting in. She was being hunted by assassins constantly, after all. She had to blend in somewhat.
"So we're going somewhere far away if it's going to take several days, hm?"
"Oh no. It's about thirty miles away. It's rather close by but it will… Dexter?"
Dexter had stopped walking. Several days? For thirty miles? His eye twitched. This was stupid. He had flown for several days and covered thousands. He liked the scenery but there were only so many trees he could take before they got boring.
"You do remember how I can change forms, yes?"
"Ah, yes?" Laura did not see where Dexter was going with this.
"That allows me to transform into multiple types of grimm, regardless of size."
Laura looked at him with confusion.
"I can transform into a nevermoore and I'm not going to walk for miles as a human."
Laura seemed to short circuit for a moment. Soon enough she said slowly:
"You… you can fly."
Dexter looked at her stoically. "Yes."
Laura slowly let a smirk go across her face. "You mean you want me to ride you?"
Dexter looked at her confusedly. "What else would I do? Carry you in my claws?"
Laura's smirk only widened further, like a predator stalking her prey. "You want me to lay on top of you, grab on, and ride you like there's no tomorrow?"
Dexter felt he was missing something but he couldn't tell what. "It really wouldn't take much effort to ride me. I'll be doing most of the work and it won't take much of a challenge."
Laura's eyes narrowed. "What? Not a challenge? I assure you I can last quite a while."
Dexter was certain he was missing something but he couldn't bring himself to ask. "A while? I've worked through the night plenty of times. You won't be an issue."
Laura looked angry for some reason. "What?! I'll be the one working past after you get knocked out from so much-!" a look of comprehension dawned her. "You were talking about flying, weren't you?"
"Yes." Dexter stated. "What were you talking about? Also, if you can last so long flying why haven't you done so in the first place?"
Laura blushed a little and said "I was talking about something else. Don't worry about it. Uhm, I… dust this is hard to say. I won't be riding you for the moment. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that for now."
"Well travelling as a human is very inconvenient. Do you mind if I transform to a beowolf, then? I'm still fine with you riding me in that form if you're uncomfortable with flying."
Laura blushed. A true, honest to dust blush.
"NO!" She yelped. "N-no! Just no!"
Dexter really disliked walking long distances on two legs. "But it's so much easier to-"
"No Dexter!"
Dexter growled. If Laura didn't want to fly that would be fine for him. If she had a fear of heights he could easily carry her as a beowolf instead. However, there is no logical reason for her to deny him a ride at that offer.
"Illogical." He grumbled.
Laura turned her tomato face and continued walking.
|-\\/-|
OMAKE:
Dexter focused. Okay, a sword. Just a really good-
Something stirred in Dexter and he opened his eyes. A sword. A real metal sword had just appeared in front of him… what?
Dexter frowned and squinted just to make sure he was seeing this right… yes that was a sword. Quite like he imagined it actually. But he had been focused on transforming his body's bone into an unorthodox shape… so why was it made of metal? And his aura was practically full still.
Taking a small leap of judgement Dexter focused a bit on making a pile of gold. He didn't close his eyes this time. Spontaneously, as if bidden in by his will, a pile of gold appeared in front of him…
A shield, a table, an assortment of bricks made into a cage, and a suit of armor later Dexter had decided that he wasn't imagining it. He was somehow denying the concept of nothingness and making things from that nothing. It wasn't his semblance either, if he even had one. Dexter didn't have any choice but to equate it to magic.
Say… his mother wanted humanity, right? So couldn't he make beowolves en-masse for her and just conquor humanity? Or, hell, he might as well make a massive dragon and conquer Remnant…
Dexter smiled just a tiny bit. Oh, wait, he was smiling? Maybe this new form caused some changes to him…
Half an hour later a grimm dragon a mile long and a quarter mile high had destroyed three towns and five caravans. It was frantically marked as an SS ranked grimm by the nearby settlements as messengers raced from the towns towards Vale for the king to kill it.
After making the dragon Dexter absently wondered if he could make aura. A brief flexing of willpower showed that yes he could. Another flex showed that he could expand his.
All over Remnant the hunters stumbled as an aura signature so absurdly large came into being that it could be sensed even by those who hadn't trained in the practice. Simply having an aura meant you could sense it.
An ocean away Salem yelped as a humongous aura came into being… wait, she recognized that aura… oh shit.
Dexter smiled. So he could create aura. Good to know. But of more importance was this… he could create energy but could he create other energies? Like speed?
A rock flying at the speed of sound at a forest showed that yes he could… what else could he create? Maybe he could just smash a few continents and then humanity might just stop eing a nuisance.
Roughly two hours later the continent of Anima became the islands of Anima and Sanus became Sanus one and two. Also there were no kingdoms and everyone just sort of gave up on understanding what was going on.
A wizard and former king reincarnated into a young boy was incoherently screaming. So was everyone else in Remnant.
AN: Some of you might be wondering why they're getting along so well when just days ago they were playing cat and mouse. Well, Dexter is doing it because he's his alpha and it's an instinctual thing. He doesn't even have to think about it. There's also the stuff I'm doing behind the scenes that you can't know about yet.
Laura is doing it because she's confident Dexter isn't an assassin. Mostly. She realizes Dexter has had chances to kill her and he hasn't taken them so she's alright having him along. Company travelling is nice, after all. She's also lonely. Remember the pastries stand?