Hello there, I'm The Royal Protector and you're reading the seventh chapter of The Silver Eyed Prodigy. I would like to apologize for the long wait, but I'm currently doing finals, so I don't have nearly as much time for writing than I would like.
coduss: Master Willem would be proud.
merendinoemiliano: Thanks, I'm going to be making more Grimm based off of mythology, so Apophis is just the tip of the iceberg. In regards to Team ASHE being surpassed by others because of natural improvement of available knowledge, you would be normally right in any other case, but Team ASHE is a bit different. You will see exactly why later on as I made a detailed backstory for each of them, but for now I'll just lay down some things in their favor.
Firstly, skill. You told me that Caryll's skill shouldn't be that high at that age (6), because he has no outside influence that would have forced him to become stronger. You reasoned that you could see it happening it if he was born into a war or something, well, guess what, all of Team ASHE was born into the greatest war Remnant has ever seen and were forced to improve in order to survive.
Knowledge. The way I planned it out is that all four members are the masters of their 'specialization' (like X was the best Dust Alchemist and Y was the best Combat Specialist and so on). An in universe explanation for this? Well, place yourself in the shoes of the first headmaster of Beacon right after the Great War for example, what the hell do you teach to your students? What regulations should be in place? What the hell is a Huntsman supposed to be in the first place? You can imagine the entire staff running around like headless chicken trying to figure things out. I briefly mentioned that Team ASHE played a large role in shaping the system of Huntsmen, I will elaborate on this later down the line but basically they were the ones who designed the curriculum of the Academies based on their experience hunting Grimm. So basically every student in history learned what they chose to share with the academia. This doesn't mean that some people didn't expand upon certain subjects, but even they were only rediscovering things Team ASHE already knew 60 years ago.
Raidentensho: Ship-wise, I may have some inkling of an idea of that already. Weapon-wise, none of the above :P
skeletalpheo: What's that smell? Ahh, sweet blood…
Chinchi37: I'm glad my suffering hasn't been in vain :)
Guests: Thank you guys!
Lord-Azrael3 (And a few others who were complaining about the nerfed Kamui): First off, thank you for the criticism, I thought about it a lot and I made up some form of compromise that I think we could agree upon at the end of the response, but I would like to point some things out in your review that didn't hold much merit.
You need to watch Volume 6 at least before reading this, dude. Not only because it's one of the best Volumes up to date, but because this story is full of spoilers, plus after watching it you would realize that some of your points lose merit in the eye of canon. I'll put a spoiler warning for you for those points if you don't want to be spoiled, though.
*spoiler*
Grimm are fodder? The Apathy and the Leviathan would like to have a word with you.
Leviathan Grimm showed that Kaiju sized Grimm are somewhat common. When planning against Cordovin, Jaune argued that her mech was likely designed to fight large Grimm that come in from deeper waters, and he was later proven right. If they have a giant mech just for that purpose it stands to reason that they are somewhat commonplace, I mean you don't see the US building giant mechas just because Godzilla might appear on the shores of California.
*spoiler section over*
Why don't Titans attack kingdoms? I could be childish and ask why doesn't Salem wipe out humanity anytime she wants, as she's perfectly capable of doing so in canon, but I wish to make an enjoyable story, so this will be part of the compromise.
The problem with power scaling is my fault honestly, I put in the previous chapter all the nerfs Caryll got, but forgot to mention like literally half of my explanation. Who knew rushing out chapters can lead to things being forgotten?
Caryll will become OP in comparison to the main cast, I will say that now, but he will have enemies to match. Semblances can evolve in RWBY (like Blake's shadows literally allow her to teleport now and Ruby can now take others with her while using her Semblance), meaning that Kamui can be "upgraded" with time.
Caryll got Kamui because he needed hax to survive, how else could I make him survive against, I don't know, a Maiden maybe? Maidens stomp almost anything in physical prowess but their power is useless against someone who isn't even in the same dimension as them, so it could make for a fairly balanced fight.
I know that Kamui consumes little chakra and its 5 minute time limit, so chill out guys. I changed this mechanic because otherwise Caryll would have almost no use for Aura at all. I mean Aura in the show is mainly used for defensive purposes, but Kamui is a superior form of defense in every single way. Later on the hard limit of 5 minutes will be explained by his Aura reserves, so that will be still in play.
What I meant about not being OP is not being OP this early in the story. I could have just given him both eyes right off the bat but that would have felt shallow and would have made every encounter a meaningless cakewalk.
Fall Maiden Cinder: Finally! I have obtained the full power of the Fall Maiden-!
Caryll: Kamui-Raikiri! *Cinder gets cut in half and an awkward silence follows, broken by a stray cough*
Caryll will gain both, full versioned eyes, but that doesn't mean I won't make him work his ass off for them. Power is earned, not given.
Regarding the First Hunters, in this story they supposed to be this super overpowered characters that basically created Huntsmen. Like, together I would place them to be as strong as Ozpin or Salem in their non-immortal days, but I'll suppose I'll tone that war remark down a bit, but not by much.
Hmm, a team for Caryll, you say? That's not a bad idea honestly and coincidentally I could make a team out of characters I already planned having in the story… Say hello to our first team member, who will be introduced this chapter and will be able to keep up with Caryll strength-wise.
My compromise: Titans still exist but like 95% of them are asleep because they require a certain level of ambient negativity around them to awaken (like the Grimm Wyvern in Mountain Glenn). The last great awakening was during the Great War with a smaller one during the Faunus Rights Revolution. However there had been reports lately that more and more Titans are awakening for reasons unknown (this will tie into the plot). First Hunters will be nerfed slightly to better reflect "power scales" in RWBY.
If you agree with this, just say so and I'll update a few chapters to fit this into the story.
Everything else will be explained by Silver Eyes and Hashirama cells!
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, if I did, I wouldn't be writing this. OCs are mine though.
Chapter 7: Fons
Raven barged in angrily into her own tent with a fuming expression on her face. The sheer stupidity of that girl grated on her nerves like nothing else. The stubborn brat clang to her own naïve fantasies like a lifeline and refused to see reality for what it was.
She began pacing back and forth with a calm expression that anyone could have seen was strained. She was running out of options, she tried reasoning with her, the stupid brat literally stuck her fingers in her ears and sang gibberish. She tried forcing her to train, the girl threw the practice sword at her feet and scowled at her. Then she tried forcing her hand by attacking her regardless, the girl got injured and cried all afternoon, refusing to even look in her general direction. They repeated the process every day for an entire week, with the same results.
It was safe to say that Raven's patience was running thin, if this kept up she'll have to resort to more… drastic measures. Normally she would shove aside such thoughts after a brief consideration… but the girl's power was essential for the prosperity of the tribe. If she were to cave in to the girl's childish tantrums she would remain weak and only a hindrance to the tribe, and those were dealt with accordingly.
She disliked even considering it seriously, but maybe the best option was to end the girl in the presence of other female members of the tribe and be done with it, there was that one girl who showed potential, Vernal, she remembered, she was just the right age as well…
Unless…
She stopped her pacing and drew her sword. The little girl wouldn't even hear her out anymore just out of spite, not that Raven even knew how to convince an 8 year old that it was in her best interest to leave her childhood behind willingly.
Fortunately, she knew another 8 year old who has done that already.
She swung her sword in a downwards arc while channeling her Semblance and her body moved with a familiarity in the direction of the red portal. What was odd was that her portal didn't form correctly and began flickering immediately after casting. Raven stopped in her tracks and regarded the destabilized portal curiously. The portal struggled to remain in shape before it dissipated into the air.
"Hmm" Raven hummed interestedly, that hadn't happened to her in over a decade. When she unlocked her Semblance back then she sometimes had trouble connecting her portals to her desired destination. Her Semblance used people as markers for a destination point, but it was still limited by physical distance, meaning that the farther away her target was the more Aura she had to infuse into her Semblance to connect a portal to them.
She of course practiced with her Semblance enough over the years that the Aura drain was reduced to barely noticeable levels, even to the extent that crossing continents would hardly make her break a sweat. To see that her attempted portal, that had enough power in it to reach Patch, was inadequate made her curious.
Intrigued, Raven checked the connection she shared with her annoying self-appointed nephew/godson and found her eyes almost jumping out their sockets.
Oh, she could still sense him, but the sheer distance between them-, no between him and Remnant was mind boggling, it also felt strange, it felt like the distance wasn't purely physical, but rather something else she couldn't describe with words.
The surprise on her face vanished suddenly and was replaced with a look of determination. She didn't know what he was doing in that otherworldly place, but that brat just posed her a challenge she couldn't deny, she infused so much Aura into her sword that its normally red blade began glowing like a miniature star and swung it in a downwards arc.
Space rippled in front of her for a good few seconds before the familiar oval shaped portal snapped into existence. It still flickered from time to time but otherwise seemed stable enough to traverse. Good thing too, she had to use a good chunk of her reserves to create the connection, it would take a couple minutes for her reserves to recover and attempt another distant connection like this. She quickly stepped through before the portal collapsed and dissipated.
She looked around herself, mildly surprised at her surroundings. She blinked a couple of times as she was presented with a seemingly endless plain of perfectly geometrical rock formations beneath a dark sky.
"Auntie Raven? Is that you?" She heard a childish voice ask from her side. She turned to face the source of the voice, the normally smug brat looked like he swallowed something particularly unpleasant.
"Brat" She greeted with familiarity, trying to hide her own interest in this strange place "Where are we?" She raised the question as she glanced around.
Caryll continued to stare at her with disbelief for a good minute, working his jaw in thought before letting out a tired sigh "I really should have seen this coming, our Semblances are somewhat similar after all…" He muttered under his breath.
"Well, to answer your question, you're inside the pocket dimension linked to my Semblance" He gestured around grandiosely "I call it the Kamui dimension or my Time-Space, whichever you prefer" He shrugged with an easy-going smile.
"Your pocket dimension?" She asked with mild skepticism, the kid owned an entire dimension?
"Well, nobody else is around to claim it as only I can access it… you don't count" He sent a warning glare in her direction "And I can manipulate it somewhat if I concentrate hard enough" He explained while motioning to a large slab of stone. It elevated smoothly into the air before slowly returning to its original position.
Raven was impressed, she didn't know the specifics of his Semblance but she could see the advantages in having a personal dimension. Storage of supplies, weaponry and, if he was capable of drawing people in here, a portable home-field advantage came to mind after only a few moments of consideration.
"Oh bummer" Caryll spoke up suddenly, she sent her a questioning look and he elaborated "Now I can't kill you easily by trapping you here until you starve to death or something" He pouted in mock disappointment.
"As if you could even lay a hand on me" She scoffed dismissively, absurdly skilled he may be for his age, he was still leagues behind her in nearly every field. The boy didn't refute her claim, accepting the truth behind her words and instead reached for inside the bag on his side. He took out four knives and the ground could be felt shifting beneath their feet until a narrow chasm opened up beside them.
"What are you doing?" Raven asked the laid back looking redhead as he moved to the edge.
"I'm waiting for you to tell me the reason behind your visit" He answered without looking at her "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy your company but you rarely visit without a good reason" He dropped a knife into the abyss "Until then, I'll just continue training" He declared evenly.
"Oh really? And just what kind of training are you doing now?" She raised a doubtful eyebrow.
"I've been training here instead of the real world lately, apparently mom didn't appreciate me starting forest fires all the time" He dropped another knife "So with that in mind I've been testing the limits of this place. Like for example how deep these chasms can go" He hummed thoughtfully.
"And?" She prodded, eager to move on from this conversation.
"I never hear any impact echoes so I guess they are bottomless" He shrugged and dropped another knife.
"Then why do you keep doing this?"
"I've yet to check if different colored knives reach the bottom"
He dropped another knife.
…
…
"Oh, by the way could I have some more knives? I've been running out of them lately"
She sent him a blank look. The brat had the audicaty to smirk at her.
Deciding that if she kept silent he would only continue to mess with her nerves Raven decided it was time for her to swallow her pride.
"…I have a favor to ask" She gritted out.
"You want me to manipulate a girl into basically becoming your attack dog?" I sipped from the tea offered to me and regarded Raven carefully. We were sitting around a low table in her tent, drinking some green tea, I was always more of a coffee person myself but I simply couldn't say no to the promise of good tea. Shame that Summer would materialize beside me and slap my hand away whenever I tried to brew myself a cup of coffee, saying that I was still too young for it.
The worst part was that she was growing increasingly resistant to my Puppy Eyes mk.2…
But returning to the matter at hand, I was surprised at Raven's open plea for help, enough in fact to tentatively agree to hear her out. That led to her bringing me to her tribe to discuss exactly what she wanted help with.
You can imagine my surprise when I heard that I was supposed to convince a girl 'my age' that she needed training or she would die. Not to mention all the red flags this situation set off in my mind.
"I wouldn't put it that way, but yes. I've done all I could to make her see reason, but she continues to be deadweight… If this keeps up I'll have no choice but to dispose of her" Raven told me before drinking from her own cup. I frowned in thought, trying to remember what this reminded me of, before a metaphorical light bulb went off in my head.
"I'm sorry Auntie, but this just doesn't make sense" I narrowed my eyes in suspicion "You said that you found her during one of your raids and took her in" At seeing her nod I continued "Don't take this the wrong way, but I know you aren't a good person. Even if you were in a nice mood you would have just left her on her lonesome in the forest or dropped her off in a nearby settlement at best" I pointed out to an increasingly guarded looking Raven.
"Will you do it?" She said curtly with narrowed eyes but I ignored her.
"Unless she is someone important? You want to train her, so you don't want to ransom her" I theorized out loudly "You see potential in her then, no doubt. But in someone so young while having no qualms about killing her at the same time?" I tapped my chin in mock consideration.
"You have no idea what you are talking about" She sent me a warning gaze, but I continued to pay her no mind.
"Oh, I think I do" I flashed her a winning smile "Uncle Qrow told me the tribe is from Mistral… couple that with the girl's apparent need for training…. Tell me Auntie how did you get your hands on the Spring Maiden-?" I was cut off as a red blade invaded my personal space in the blink of an eye and rested against my throat.
"How. Do. You. Know?" She glared at me venomously from across the table. A quick glance downwards showed the tea set ruined by her quick swing, bummer, the tea was delicious.
"Well, that's just mean" I blinked at the offending blade and promptly phased through it. Having a blade against your throat is seriously uncomfortable, let me tell you.
"Answer. The. Question" She demanded with an unfamiliar cold fury empowering her voice… She never spoke to me like this before, damn I think I really went a bit too far this time with my attitude.
"I wasn't inducted like you were if that's what you expect me to say" I glared back at her lightly, the sword still remained in the same position, not that mattered to me… for about two more minutes.
"Then how?" She was visibly holding back herself from cutting me, well, in her mind that was what she was doing at least.
"It was by accident" I shrugged "Mom left her scroll home one time when she went on a mission. I accidentally glimpsed one of her messages from Ozpin and curious as I am, I read it. It was really interesting and I may have… went through all her mission related messages she had with Team STRQ" I admitted sheepishly. I wasn't even lying funnily enough, I was keeping tabs on Summer's communications to get a better picture on Ozpin's and Salem's secret war while simultaneously looking out for any seemingly overly dangerous missions Summer may receive.
Wait, isn't that a sort of invasion of privacy…? Oh, I guess I'll have to think of a damn good apology when the time comes…
We sat there in an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like minutes, all the while Raven was giving me a piercing stare, until she sighed deeply and lowered her sword.
"Sometimes you are too damn nosy for your own good" She commented exasperatedly while sheathing her blade.
"I wonder about that" I tilted my head to the side playfully, she just scoffed in response.
"How much do you know?" She regarded me seriously with a calculating expression.
"Pretty much everything there is to know. I know about the Maidens, the Relics, Salem and my eyes" Lady, I may be the second most knowledgeable person on this planet aside from a spirit in a lamp under a giant mountain.
"Then you know why I left that life behind. The web of lies that surround Ozpin only give false hope against her" She scowled at no one in particular.
"I can understand your reasons… I don't agree with them but I understand where you come from" I nodded thoughtfully, fear was one of the most primal emotions there is. Sadly Raven allowed it to rule her own life "It's just a shame that you won't be there when we defeat her" I offered as an afterthought.
"You… Trust me Caryll, you don't want to get tangled up in all that" Was that concern in her voice? I shook my head detachedly.
"I have no personal grudges with Salem, Grimm exist with or without her, but our goals don't align, so I suppose I can't stand for her idea of world domination" I reasoned calmly with a frowning Raven "Besides, I can't just hide like you, she will come after me just because of my eyes. It's only fair for me to hunt her in return" I pointed out that annoying little fact.
"Then you'll die like all others before you" She told me coldly.
"I myself do not fear death" I repeated myself from 5 years ago "But I would like to protect my family" I sent her a piercing stare "You're strong, wouldn't you also fight to protect what's yours?"
That silenced her and I silently mourned my spilt tea. She wasn't looking at me anymore, but rather through me, with a complicated expression that I couldn't quite place. The silence stretched on for what seemed like minutes before I let out a tired breath.
"I'll help you with your… Maiden problem. I don't really understand why you think having a Maiden around is a good idea in the first place, but I'll help" I agreed reluctantly. Raven blinked in surprise as I disturbed whatever trance she's been in.
"You'll help even with knowing all that… Why?" She asked suspiciously, it was a fair question, I did just offer assistance in a shadow war to a third party as a… fourth party? But she forgot one little thing that made this whole thing irrelevant in my eyes.
"Because we're family, duh" I stated matter of factly "And family supports each other" She narrowed her eyes at me and scoffed.
"You may have my favor in some things but we're far from family, you'd do well to remember that" She replied dryly. This caused me to raise a skeptical eyebrow at her.
"Oh really? Let's see, you give me gifts on my birthdays, listen to my problems, spend time with me and you make sure to visit every few months or so. Nowadays I honestly see you more often than Uncle Qrow, how are we not family exactly?" I pointed out, a bit annoyed. Raven didn't answer me but her expression maintained the same suspicion as before.
"Ugh, you're so difficult sometimes" I muttered under my breath "Besides the favor I'm getting from this I want you to train me while I'm here" I declared to a slightly confused looking Raven.
"I thought your mother was handling your training" She pointed out with mild interest.
"Normally yes, but I can't exactly spar with her while I'm here, convincing children to murder and pillage, now can I?" I pointed an accusatory finger at her "And she only teaches me stuff that is useful against the Grimm, being a law abiding Huntress means she has little experience… killing people" I internally sighed at that little fact, sure there were missions that required Hunters to kill people but those were considered the 'dirtier' missions that few Hunters took willingly. Oh they were still entirely legal and often issued by the kingdoms themselves, but interest in them was relatively low "You on the other hand have no such limitation. I'm not asking you to take me on full time, but I could use some pointers or something"
"...We'll see" She said carefully, her posture finally lightening.
"Great!" I said excitedly and got to my feet "I'll have to get home now, so mom doesn't get worried, but I'll come back tomorrow" I promised her and stretched my arms. I don't think Summer would appreciate if Raven were to whisker me away for too long, or at all for that matter. I saw Raven giving a nod and get to her feet with a hand on her sword but I put up my hand in a halting motion.
"The tea was delicious, we should have some more when I come back" I smiled at her and warped myself to the Kamui dimension with my final destination being Patch. It was a neat little trick I remembered about my Semblance, I could teleport to places I've previously been to by using the Kamui dimension as a medium. Reality shifted and the dimly lit pocket dimension gave away to the image of our house.
I smiled mischievously when I realized that I could pester- I mean visit Raven whenever I wanted from now on.
I let out a yawn as the vortex of Kamui deposited me inside Raven's tent. It was morning back on Patch, and we were around the middle of winter, the Branwen tribe on the other hand was on Anima, which was in the middle of summer and it was around noon here. I took off my coat and tossed it up into the air. Not a moment later a cone shaped vortex seemingly sucked it into my eye. Kamui was sure handy.
I looked around the large tent in search of Raven but didn't find any trace of her, she must be out doing something then, I reasoned. Deciding that going out and searching for her on my own would be more troublesome than I was comfortable with, I decided to make myself some tea and wait for her here. Gods know what the other tribe members would do if they saw a little kid in the middle of their camp.
Judging by what the story showed the tribesmen weren't much of threat and I doubted Raven would appreciate me hospitalizing her men if they got overly annoying.
As I waited for her to arrive I wandered around her tent and took in the obviously tribal themed decorations lining the walls. The exotic tapestry and animal hides were the ones that caught my attention, no doubt they were trophies from successful raids. Interestingly I also found numerous empty bottles of wine and whiskey, which was surprising and slightly concerning as I didn't really take Raven for a closet alcoholic.
A bit more searching later I discovered a small pile of books tucked away behind a barrel in the corner. Curious I picked one up and dusted off the cover.
"Old Mistralian Traditions and Folklore" it read. Now interested, as I haven't really thought much about the culture of this world before now, I sat down on one of Raven's pillows next to the low table and opened the book.
"Tribal culture in the frontiers and beyond, huh" I sipped from my tea and began skimming through the book.
"I see you've already made yourself at home" Raven's dry tone shook me out from my concentration and made me look up at her.
"I was waiting for you to show up" I shot back "So, can we start already? I've been waiting for you for 2 hours" I complained and snapped the book shut.
"You're lucky I was the one who found you in my tent and not one of my men" She told me while motioning for me to follow her. I stood up and followed her outside the tent.
"You're scared they might look bad because a little kid beat them all?" I remarked knowingly, but it seemed Raven didn't like my little comment.
"Yes, and then I would have to cut your hand off because you attacked the tribe" She rested a hand on her sword to emphasize her point. I put my hands up in a placating manner as we stepped outside.
The Branwen Tribe… wasn't really impressive to look at. The myriad of tattered tents that made up living quarters, storage, armory and such were surrounded by a wooden wall that looked like it was thrown together in 5 minutes flat. The tribesmen going about their everyday lives didn't look better, some of them even gave a definite Mad Max/post-apocalyptic vibe too, just by their clothing and level of hygiene.
"So, do you guys still do sky burials and stuff?" I asked in an effort to focus my attention elsewhere, plus I was actually curious, the book said sky burials were a big deal in tribal culture.
"Sometimes, but only if the person is important enough. The last one was 4 years ago" She answered curtly as she led me through the middle of the camp, where everyone turned in our direction and looked at us for a bit before going back to their activities. I glanced at Raven and saw her non-concerned expression, maybe this was her way of telling everyone that I was with her?
"Whose was it?" I inquired interestedly.
"The previous chieftain's, my father's to be exact" Well, she didn't seem to be invested in our little conversation, judging by her short answers.
"Oh… How did he-" I began tentatively, but Raven cut me off rather harshly "-I killed him during my trial to become the next chieftain. It wasn't required but the bastard didn't deserve to live after all he's done. The only reason he received the rite at all is because all chieftains have right to them" She glared venomously at no one in particular as we left the main gates.
"Oh..." I stared at her in surprise for a few moments, not really knowing how to handle this situation. I mean I knew there were problems with nearly all of the Branwens in the story, like anger and abandonment issues for Yang, alcoholism and possible neglect for Qrow, not to mention the long list of Raven's issues, but deliberate patricide was a new one.
"We're here" Raven announced once we were a fair bit of distance away from the tribe. There were trees around as far as the eye could see with numerous birds singing in the thick vegetation. A quick glance around with my eyes activated showed me the glowing form of a child sitting by a stream not far from us.
I nodded in acknowledgement and began trekking towards her, all the while thinking about how to approach this whole situation. Raven didn't follow and I could even hear the telltale sound of her transforming into her bird form, it was probably for the better if I did this alone, I mused. Arriving just a few meters behind her I sighed internally and put on my best smile I learned from watching Summer.
"Hi" The girl jumped in place and whipped her head around to look at me with a scared expression. Now that she turned to face me I could actually make out her features. The girl looked around to be my age with shoulder length, deep violet hair that was made up into a French braid. Her freckled face still held traces of baby fat and her vibrant pink eyes regarded me like a spooked animal would a stalking predator. She wore a dirty purple shirt and a light blue skirt that went down to her knees with white leggings.
Oh, she also had violet fox ears on top of her head that were twitching madly, makes me wonder how she hadn't heard me approaching.
"Who are you?" She asked in a scared tone, looking me up and down.
"I'm Caryll, what's your name?" I waved in greeting.
"…I'm Lily… what are you doing here? You have to go quickly before those bandits come back here and see you!" Her expression changed to one of worry as she glanced around, expecting to be interrupted by someone.
"She may say this to me more times than I can count, but I know Auntie Raven wouldn't hurt me" I replied evenly and approached her.
"Auntie…?" She frowned thoughtfully before her eyes widened in realization "You're with that hag!" She exclaimed and scampered away from me. I stopped in my tracks and tried not to burst out laughing at that remark.
"She told me you were lonely, so I came to see if you wanted to be friends" I lifted my arms up innocently.
"Go away! I don't want anything to do with those murderers!" She yelled fearfully as she hugged her forearm protectively. I raised a curious eyebrow at that before speaking in concern.
"Are you hurt?" I asked as I tentatively approached her. She looked away from me, but didn't back away when I stopped before her and kneeled down. I motioned for her arm, but she just mumbled something incoherent while looking at the ground. Sighing, I gently took her hand and narrowed my eyes at what I was seeing.
"Did Raven do this?" I asked while scowling, there were numerous shallow cuts and bruises on her arm, likely from some sort of wooden training blade.
"Yes" She nodded meekly. I blinked a couple of times before nodding to myself. Reality warped around my eye and a vortex deposited a bottle of alcohol in front of me that I borrowed from Qrow earlier. I think it was whiskey or some other spirit.
"W-How did you do that?" Lily looked at the bottle with wide eyes as I picked it up and unscrewed the cork.
"I have special eyeballs" I smiled at her and lifted the bottle over her arm "This will hurt a lot, but trust me, it will be worth it" I waited for her to nod tentatively before pouring a generous amount of alcohol on the wounds to prevent infection. Lily writhed and cried a bit but I held her arm firmly in place.
"There we go. You were brave there, Lily" I put aside the bottle once I was done and took off my scarf.
"What are you doing?" She asked wonderingly as I wrapped my scarf around her arm like a bandage.
"Stopping you from getting sick, dummy" I pointed at her "The air is full of germs and stuff that can make you sick, plus blood should be inside you, otherwise you might get dizzy" I said as I finished treating her wounds. I don't know what Raven was thinking leaving a wound like that to itself. I was hardly a doctor but even I knew that wound would have festered and would have caused a good old blood infection.
"I-… Thanks…" She looked from her arm and to me in shock.
"Don't mention it, what are friends for after all?" I asked rhetorically as I decided to make myself comfortable by lying down on the grass. For a while nothing happened as I daydreamed about different cookie recipes I could try out with Summer, with Yang as our testing dummy of course, while Lily seemed to be mulling over something silently.
"Why?"
"Hmm?"
"Why are you here? What do you want from me?" She scowled at me childishly, to which I shrugged.
"Nothing, really. Raven asked me to convince you to train, but nothing else" I admitted nonchalantly "Speaking of which, why aren't you training?" I asked her from while looking up at the tree tops.
"Because I hate her! I hate Uncle Leo and those who forced me to train! I don't want to fight!" She yelled hotly before her shoulders sagged "I just want to get back mommy and daddy and play with big sis" Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes.
"…Do you… know where they are now?" I asked gently as I sat up with a worried expression on my face.
"I-… I don't" She looked at me pleadingly "Why? Why is this happening to me? One day I wake up to rain in my room and the next bad people come and take away everyone while I was told to hide" She began sobbing " Then Uncle Leo comes and takes me away because I have to protect the people or something! I just want to go home but everyone wants me to fight for something! Why can't they just leave me alone?!"
I didn't answer her hysterical questions, what could I say? That she, an 8 old, was responsible for the continued safety of humanity and faunuskind? Like she would understand that. I pondered over this for a minute in silence while she sobbed to herself.
Sorry Raven, but I have a little girl to take responsibility of first. I shook my head and embraced the crying girl, she hugged me back immediately and I made shushing noises to calm her.
"Hey, do you know how to waddle?" I whispered into her ear when she calmed down sufficiently. I felt her shake her head in a negative and I let go of her.
"Come on, it's really fun" I picked up a small pebble and showed it to the red faced girl before throwing it at the stream in a low angle. It jumped two times before sinking under the surface. Lily looked interestedly at the display, I turned back to her and smiled brightly.
"See, it's really cool! Do you want to try it?" She blinked in surprise, but nodded and picked up another pebble and threw it at the water. The pebble bounced three times before sinking to the bottom of the stream.
"You're a natural!" I praised the surprised looking girl, maybe she didn't expect to get it on the first try "How about a race? The first one to get five jumps gets ten cookies!" I declared to the openly smiling girl.
What followed was perhaps the most heated battle of waddle I've ever had the pleasure of losing.
Raven can access the Kamui dimension?! How dare I? Honestly the idea came from Raven's Semblance of making portals to people, no matter where they are. She can travel there only when one of her bonded people are there. I put this in for later plot related shenanigans, not much else honestly.
Limited manipulation of the Kamui dimension. This is just me patching up minor plot holes, like what happens when Caryll goes underground or fights on a flying object? From Naruto we know that the ground levels of both the Kamui dimension and the real world are the same… so how can Obito sink into the ground or fight on walls for example while using Kamui? The first option is impossible and the second would mean that the moment he's transported he would just freefall to the ground as he's literally in mid-air. It won't come up very much, like I said it's just plot hole fixing. However if someone has a better fix for this problem I'm open to suggestions.
Isn't Kamui teleportation broken? Yes it is, that's why it's beautiful.
Semi-OC makes an appearance… I guess? We know the little girl Spring Maiden existed but we don't know much about her. Seeing as the story is still 13 years away we'll be meeting a few more characters who were mentioned but never seen on screen.
Until next time folks.
