A/N: This was definitely something that made me feel pretty sad, especially the song I used. I guarantee that you're probably going to cry by the end, unless you're made of stone or something of that sort. *Sigh* Well, if there's one thing RWBY definitely hammered into my brain, it was to keep moving forward no matter how hard things get.
Also, over 200 favorites! Yes! Holy crap! Thank you guys so much! I hope to keep on meeting your expectations. I also hope you like the not so subtle references to Game of Thrones in this one. I absolutely love the characters, especially the Stark family. Well... what's left of them, anyways. And yes, I did name Izuku's grandparents after main characters from Persona 5. I love that game.
Enjoy the chapter, everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.
I do not own the cover image
Chapter 25: Memories and Legacies
"Wait, if your parents cut off all your access to their money, then how are you able to afford all those clothes, let alone your ammo." Yang asked her beret wearing upper classman while they ate breakfast.
"When we got the green light for unsupervised missions, I nearly worked myself half to death to get as much money as I could." Coco took another bite of her eggs as the bustling conversations at the dining table continued around them.
What time is it? Context time! After Coco, Yang, and Nora had changed into their swimsuits, they helped out wherever they were needed, since most parts of the system already had more than enough people in them. To get things done faster, Yang and Nora mostly helped to move the piles up and off the beach while Coco mostly helped some of the others dive into the water. Eventually, they found a few rather large pieces of trash that the former two had to help haul out. Their suits were all one-pieces, being dark violet, bubblegum pink, and chocolate brown respectively and proved to be quite useful whenever they were needed to help dive. Yang's showed off her figure rather well, and she could've sworn she saw Izuku accidentally staring at her a few times before realizing just what he was doing and snapping himself out of his daze. Not that she was completely guilt free, she often gave him a few looks whenever she got the chance. Well, that and she... kinda liked it when he looked at her that way, even if it wasn't intentional. She also saw Nora try, and fail, to get Ren's attention in a similar way, but he was too focused on cleaning the beach to notice, much to the copper-haired girl's disappointment. Coco on the other hand... well... Yang hadn't seen her and Fox after they finished dinner since they went upstairs and did... something... it involved a lot of moaning and seemed to make Velvet blush a very dark shade of red. (A/N: You all know what they did. I'm not spelling it out for you. Well, I technically did, but still)
"Well, if you made that much money with low-level missions, I can't wait for my team's no supervision green light!" Yang punched her right fist into her left palm to emphasize her excitedness. She then grabbed a cup of water and began to chug it, feeling rather thirsty that morning in particular.
"You'll still have to wait a few months, but yeah, it's pretty exciting. Also, were you staring at speedy yesterday?" Coco asked with a knowing smirk on her face.
This almost immediately caused Yang to do a spit take and briefly cough before she regained her breath and tried to reply, "I-I-I... erm... uh... you... saw that?"
"Hey, there's no shame in checking the guy out. He is pretty ripped."
"Coco!" Yang punched the aviator sporting girl in the shoulder, practically burning red in embarrassment. This only caused her to chuckle and, after a few seconds, she replied, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Besides, it's good to like him for his character, but that doesn't mean you can't like the way he looks."
Meanwhile, with Izuku and Shoto...
"Look man, it's alright to look at her that way. You didn't start liking her that way for her beauty, but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate it."
"But I didn't want to act perverted, and I ended up doing that anyway." Izuku slammed his head into the table once again, a visible dent now forming around the impact point. His breakfast sat next to his head, untouched, and a glass of water sat in front of him in the same fashion.
"*Sigh* Dude, for the fourth time, no one's judging. Look, she is alluring, but you need to get over this. Besides, I'm fairly sure she was checking you out too."
"Pfft! Yeah, right."
Shoto never dropped his deadpan stare, even as he drank the entirety of his water glass. Izuku, though slowly, widened his eyes in surprise, and said, "You can't possibly be serious."
"Dead serious." Shoto put his cup back down and began to eat the remainder of his breakfast.
.
..
…
"… you're messing with me." Izuku dug into his meal to try and avoid the conversation from going any further.
"I'm not," Shoto said as the rest of the table began finishing their meals and Izuku wolfed down his.
(thirty minutes later, Izuku's POV)
Izuku's scroll began to vibrate as they were cleaning the dishes from breakfast. Briefly excusing himself from the sinks, he answered the scroll, "Hello?"
"Hi, Izuku! How are you?"
"I'm alright mom. Why're you calling?"
"You don't remember?"
"Remember wha-" Izuku suddenly stopped in realization, his eyes widening for emphasis. He then spoke once more into the scroll with a far more subdued voice, "I'm sorry mom. I... forgot."
"It's alright, Izuku. I don't blame you, what with all the crazy things that have been happening lately. We'll be going to Patch tomorrow morning. Is that alright?"
"Yeah. I'll see you then. Love you, mom."
"Love you too, Izuku."
She then hung up the call, Izuku slowly placing his scroll back into his pocket and walking back to the sinks, his face now donning a somber look.
(three hours later, the basement ring, general POV)
Izuku overreached one of his jabs, giving Yang the opportunity to make up for a missed strike of her own by grabbing the outstretched appendage and give him a straight elbow jab to the gut that she enhanced with Ember Celica. The resulting force nearly sent Izuku into the steel wall at opposite end of the room. The two had agreed to a hand to hand spar just a few minutes earlier, which was why Izuku was only using Cirrus and Stratus. He could've sworn Tempest hummed in jealousy. Moving on-
Izuku promptly launched himself off the wall and made a sweeping side kick towards the side of her head, which the blonde brawler blocked with her forearm. The green haired boy anticipated this and dropped from his elevated stance into a crouch to strike at her stomach. Yang's aura dulled the blow, though, allowing her to grip Izuku's arm and flip him behind her in a slamming strike.
Izuku anticipated this, angling his body to the point where he could counter her throw, landing on his feet with his arm in a rather awkward alignment. Yang capitalized on this by wrapping her right leg around his arm and placing her left shin on his neck, using her weight to drive Izuku onto his back. A few seconds later, he tapped the blonde brawler's left calf twice. He was tapping out.
He rarely tapped out this early.
Yang knew this fact from all the sparring they'd done previously and, after getting off of Izuku's neck to let him breathe, offered him a hand up. The blazer wearing inheritor gladly accepted the gesture, getting pulled to his feet a bit faster than usual (Yang had gotten quite ripped over the past few weeks) before the blonde brawler asked, "You alright, Greenie? It's not like you to tap out this soon."
"I'm fine," Izuku simply stated with a shaky smile as he exited the ring, briefly exchanging a glance with Bakugo on the way up. As the ashen blonde walked down the steps, a realized look came over his face.
Yang, noticing this, asked, "Do you know what's up with Greenie?"
"What's it to you, blondie?" Bakugo answered her question with another, giving his signature snarl as he did so.
"Don't call me that, Mr. McSplodySplode. You're blonde yourself," Yang quipped back without her signature teasing smile, though the comment still angered Bakugo to a degree.
Bakugo sighed as he dragged his open left hand down his face, trying to calm himself before he asked, "Do you really want to know?"
"I'd like to help if that's a possibility." Yang held no deceit in her eyes as she said that.
"Then ask Deku yourself." Yang started for the basement exit, only for Bakugo to grip her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks before he continued, "Actually, don't. If you have anything to say to him, say it soon. He's...
"… he's not gonna be around for a while." Bakugo finished as he moved into the ring, grabbing a spare punching bag and absolutely laying into it while he left Yang both concerned for Izuku and confused about what was soon to happen.
(the next day, 6:08 am, outside the apartment complex, Izuku's POV)
Izuku wasn't wearing his hunter's outfit as he normally would, instead wearing a green t-shirt under a blue zip-up hoodie, accompanied by a pair of black cargo pants with Cirrus and Stratus on his feet. Tempest was strapped to his back, for the just in case scenario that they ran into any Grimm on the island of Patch. While Cirrus and Stratus were more than enough to get the job done, Tempest almost seemed to insist that it be taken with him.
His mother stood across from him with both her hands crossed in front of her, her purse hanging from her left shoulder. He much taller had he gotten since he saw her last? This thought was interrupted when she asked, "Are you ready to go, Izuku?"
"Yeah," Izuku said without a hint of enthusiasm, trying the best he could to smile back as they walked in silence to the docks, though his mother knew that it was forced.
(one hour later, the island of Patch, Izuku's POV)
Izuku hurled his recently eaten breakfast into the trash can at the entrance of the Patch Island docks, his mother patting him on the back to make the process easier. After a little while, Izuku managed to stop hurling, briefly drinking some water and spitting it into the same trashcan to rid his mouth of the dreadful aftertaste.
"I hate boats," Izuku said.
"I know. I wish we could take an airship, but you know we can't afford the airfare."
"I know. Doesn't mean I have to like boats."
His mother chuckled at this. "True enough."
They walked the oak tree littered paths of the island town, briefly spotting a few children playing on a small playground in the distance. Izuku had a split-second flash back to one of the times Bakugo had bullied him in their younger days, when he'd decided to pick a fight with a kid who couldn't even defend himself. Izuku stepped in to help but... well, he was still a Fractured at the time, and Bakugo had had his Aura unlocked at a very early age. It was hardly what one could call a fair fight.
However, that had been nearly fourteen years ago, and they'd been in Vale, not Patch. Izuku moved his eyes back to the path in front of him, following the last few blocks of the trail leading to their destination, never noticing a child hiding behind a tree whom stared at the playground, a loneliness he once knew haunting their eyes.
(fifteen minutes later, the home of Izuku's grandparents, Izuku's POV)
The walk to the house, as it had been for the past sixteen years, or at least the ones Izuku could rightly remember, was no less intimidating. And for good reason as well. The house they stood in front of, while it wasn't all that large, was a call back to the times of ancient eastern Mistral, with grid-patterned fusuma doors dotting the structure and a curved, upturned tiled roof that only began what was a rather old yet sturdy looking structure.
"What's wrong, Izuku? You're not scared, are you?" His mother noticed Izuku's nervous face, causing him to almost snap backward and reply, "N-n-n-not of the building."
As if on cue, the door slid open to reveal a man in a dark green, Hoyeki-Ho robe that left most of his chest exposed, though it still rested on his shoulders and the hem only went down to his ankles, a pair of geta sandals completing the outfit. On his head was a mop of gray hair tied back in a ponytail with a stray bang just barely touching his nose, and small but vibrant brown eyes.
"Ah! Grandson and daughter in law are here!" The rather large man said with an eastern accent as he gave a hearty laugh before he lifted the two off the ground in a rather tight bear hug. Well, maybe that was the wrong statement, his size dwarfed that of most bears... it was also the thing Izuku dreaded the second most coming here. Moving on!
"G-grandpa... can't... breathe..."
"Oh! Sorry, I forget your bodies more fragile than mine." The large man, now confirmed as Izuku's grandfather, let them both down to the ground, allowing them fresh air once more.
"Many thanks to both of you for coming again this year," said a voice from inside the household. She was as old as Izuku's grandfather, though they'd both aged rather gracefully, with her mid-back length gray hair hanging loose with black eyes and a kind smile. She wore a green, tightly tied, short sleeved kimono with a pair of blue slippers on her feet.
"No, thank you again for letting us stay here all these years, Makoto." Izuku's mother bowed her head slightly her respect for the pair clear as day.
"No need. I'll prepare some tea for you. Ryuji-" she turned to the large man, "-be sure to clean up the dojo."
"Yes, yes. I do it." Ryuji said in a bland tone, though his lips carried a small smile as he placed a chaste kiss on his wife's lips as he slipped off his geta sandals, carrying them with him towards the back of the house.
Makoto beckoned her grandson and daughter in law inside the house, the two taking off their shoes, or in Izuku's case combat boots, before they stepped onto the proper wooden floor. The living room had a single table meant to seat six people, though there were only four chairs seated on either of the longer sides of the oaken colored rectangle.
His mother stepped into the kitchen after Makoto to help prepare the tea, the elder woman not thinking to object since she knew his mother only meant well. Izuku looked for a place to set Tempest down without disturbing the aesthetic of the house, but he couldn't find anywhere that fit the bill. It was also around this time that Ryuji came back into the house through the back door, saying, "Let me. I have place for weapon."
"O-okay. Thanks, grandpa." Izuku said as he hesitantly handed over Tempest, briefly remembering the last time someone tried to lift Tempest and the weapon simply wouldn't move. These worries were proved unnecessary as Ryuji lifted the bastard sword/scythe with little effort, though he did comment, "Your weapon heavy. That is good. You stronger than look, grandson."
"Oh, it's nothing really," Izuku said, not really ever feeling the weapon's true weight all that often. He'd felt it before, back when he first began to use it when he'd called it Gale, but eventually, he was so used to swinging it around that it hardly felt like any weight was attached to the weapon at all. That and Tempest would only let him and others it deemed worthwhile wield it without severely hindering them, with the exceptions of people who were at least as strong as Ryuji. Actually, what the heck allowed him to pull the weapon to him back during the Breach? He'd tried it a few times before, but how he'd done it still eluded him.
These thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind as Ryuji stepped back outside the house, taking Tempest to the dojo to be hung up for the time being. It visibly hummed and glowed, clearly objecting to the prospect of being taken all the way to Patch only to be put away in a shed. Ryuji felt the hum and glanced down at the weapon, only to have it go silent and for the glow to die down. The burly man simply wrote it off on his slowly failing hearing and continued towards the dojo, Izuku sighing in relief as he did so. Questions about Tempest's level of consciousness would not be good for him at that moment.
After a few more minutes, the tea was prepared, and the family sat at the aforementioned table across from each other, Izuku and his mother on one side while Ryuji and Makoto sat on the other. In the center of the table was a green teapot, with steam rolling out from the top of it, and clay cups full of green tea sat in front of all of them.
"So, you're attending Beacon now?" Makoto asked as she casually sipped from her cup, briefly closing her eyes as she did so.
"Yeah. I mean, it's very exciting challenging, but it's certainly never boring. Well, except for Port's classes." Izuku said vaguely, not wishing to boast about his exploits.
However, that was what Ryuji was there for. "Ha! Certainly not! I see accomplishments on news! Stopped Huntsman Hunter and defended Vale during Breach! You make great huntsman, one way!"
"Dear, it's day." Makoto corrected her husband with an amused tone.
"So it is. Sorry, Central Common not easy for me." He apologized to Izuku and his mother.
"No need. Again, thank you so much for letting us stay here. And for the tea as well." His mother said as she too took a little sip of the tea in front of her.
Makoto chuckled at Izuku's mother's overt humbleness, "No need to thank us so much, Inko. You're family, and more than welcome here anytime."
"Anyhow... grandson... you-"
"Grandpa... please, don't," Izuku said with a bit more firmness than he'd meant to use. "Sorry."
"No need, no need. Should not have asked again." Ryuji said with a regretful tone, the conversation taking a different turn before they could linger on the unspoken yet still painful subject.
(the next day, 7:27 am, Ryuji & Makoto's house, Izuku's POV)
The freckled boy awoke from the same dream he always had when he visited his grandparent's house; the one that held the father he never truly knew. He could hardly see the man's silhouette, mostly outlined in black with a similar hairstyle to Izuku's, though he knew the color was different, but the thing that stood out the most to him was the only thing they still had left of his father; his dark green, caped hood.
Shaking off the drowsiness, Izuku stretched his arms and rubbed his eyes, and stood from his futon to stretch the rest of his body. He then straightened the blankets and pulled on a green t-shirt and dark grey sweatpants, exiting the room as he walked down the empty, still mostly unawoken hallway to the dining room, his bare feet making nary a sound as he moved.
He found Makoto making breakfast, who noticed him coming in and said, "Hello, Izuku. How are you this morning?"
"I... I'm alright," Izuku said with rare hesitation. Makoto noticed this, and responded, "Did you have that dream again?"
"…"
"You did," Makoto sighed. "If this is about what Ryuji asks you every year, it's not because he's trying to hurt you. He wants to help you, but it's not exactly easy for him either. But... I understand if you're not ready for it-"
"It's not that," Izuku said, not quite realizing that he'd interrupted his grandmother. "I... I'm not worthy of it. I don't think that I ever will be. I want to be, but... I'm not. I don't know if I'm the kind of person he'd want me to be. Until I know for sure... then I'm not worthy."
Makoto stared at him for several seconds with widened eyes, then closing them as she shook her head, smiled slightly and said, "You really are becoming more like Hisashi, you know."
That surprised Izuku, whose turn it now was to look completely shocked. His grandparents rarely talked about Hisashi at all, and even when they did it was always rather vague. Even his mom, no matter how much he'd asked when he was younger, never spoke much about his father. The only concrete hint he'd ever received was when he was ten. The first time your father and I met, we were under a tree just like this one.
Izuku shook himself out of the daze and tried to change the subject. "What's for breakfast?"
"Haven't made it yet. Want to help me?"
"Sure," Izuku said as he walked over to the kitchen sink, washing his hands thoroughly before he began to help Makoto make breakfast.
(8:08 am, the park, Izuku's POV)
Izuku sat against one of the several oak trees that dotted the landscape of Patch. In front of him was the same playground he'd seen yesterday, with the same kids from before playing in the same general area. He'd left soon after he and Makoto made and ate breakfast, excusing himself soon after to walk the island again to distract himself from the grief that he could never shake when he was near... the shrine. Anything would've been better to think about at this moment.
"Come on, Deku. You know you can't beat me. If you don't even have a quirk, you don't stand a snowball's chance in hell!" he recalled Bakugo saying in their younger days, a brief flash appearing before his eyes as he remembered getting the absolute crap beaten out of him.
… well, anything but that.
It was also at this time that he noticed the kids from the playground had suddenly stopped playing, instead looking over at something, or someone, within the tree line. It wasn't Izuku, he knew that much, since they were looking to his left and more than a few of them were glaring. He followed their sightlines to find that they were looking at a girl who was around their age, maybe a bit younger, judging by her height, who had chestnut brown hair in a short bob cut with large, bright blue eyes, wearing a pair of jean shorts, a long-sleeved, rusty orange shirt, and a pair of bright blue tennis shoes tied tightly on her feet. She was rather thin, and her skin only held light coloration from the island sun.
The leader of the now encroaching group, a tough looking girl with slicked back, slightly spiky black hair and a classic black skull shirt, standing a good three inches above the aforementioned girl as she asked in a sarcastic voice, "Who said you could come here, Horseface?"
"That's not my name! And I just wanted to use the swing set!" The girl said as bravely as she could, not yet noticing that she was trembling in fear.
The larger girl laughed at this and said, "You want to play? Fine, you can play.
"But you gotta pay the toll, Fractured!" She sent her fist towards the other girl's face with speed the wouldn't otherwise have come from a child unless she'd been trained. The girl across from her, however hardly even closed her eyes, as if she'd gotten used to this kind of treatment. And then, something unexpected happened.
Her fist had been caught by someone.
The black-haired girl whipped her head to the left with an angry glare in her eyes, only to find Izuku standing there, his left arm outstretched with a strangely disappointed look donning his face. After seeing what was about to happen, he'd tried to do the diplomatic approach and maybe talk her down, but after that punch, he almost had to use Full Cowl to get over here in time to stop the skull wearing girl from hurting the other. Then, in a strangely deadpan voice, he simply said, "Stop."
Now thoroughly intimidated, the black-haired girl stepped back with a shocked look, her eyes looking at the other girl once more before she pointed and said, "This isn't over!" as she walked away from the playground with an angry stomp in her step, her posse following soon after.
Izuku sighed in relief and turned to the chestnut-haired girl, who was now looking at him with what looked to be stars in her eyes. As if on cue, she zipped over to his left hand and practically latched onto it, shouting, "Oh my Oum, how did you do that! That was so cool!"
"Err... are you alright?"
"Oh, I'm fine, but you've gotta show me how to do that! It was awesome!"
Izuku eventually managed to get the now rather excited looking girl off his arm and placed her gently back on the ground, asking, "Do you always latch onto people can do martial arts?"
The girl flushed and apologized, "Sorry. I usually don't lose control of myself like that. But really, could you teach me?"
"Why do you want to learn?"
She looked at him with a 'really?' glare, seeing as he obviously knew what the answer to that question. Izuku then surprised her when he said, "No. Learning how to defend yourself is a good reason to learn, but it's not a good reason to remember. So, I'll ask again: why do you want to learn?"
This time, the girl was silent for several seconds, her eyes falling to the ground as though contemplating her answer. A rather serious look came onto he features as she looked up at Izuku once more with a determined gaze, saying, "Promise you won't laugh?"
"I won't."
She sat on the grassy ground, patting a spot near her for Izuku to sit on. He did so and listened as she told her reason.
"Did you hear what Mari called me before you stopped her." Izuku nodded. "Well... that's why. Mostly, anyway. When I moved here from Mistral... well, we never actually got along. She showed off her quirk for show constantly, and I might've been a bit too hard on her for it. When she found out I was a Fractured... well, that only made things worse. It wasn't too bad at first, but once some gossipy bitch found out about it and spread the info throughout my school, I had a target pinned to my back."
"Wait, how did you learn to swear? Aren't you too young for that?"
"You'd be surprised how many people swear there. And FYI, I'm twelve. Mari... well, she got a few others to back her up, and she's been on my ass ever since."
"Well... jeez. Have you told your parents?"
"Obviously not," she sighed. "It's not that I don't want to tell them, they've just got a lot on their plates right now."
"You ought to. I've been down that road before, it only makes things worse."
The girl chuckled at that. "You're obviously an only child. My parents have got too many kids to deal with my problems. I'd ask dad for help, but he's occupied with Robby. I've gotta deal with this on my own."
Izuku contemplated doing this for a few seconds before deciding to go through with it. Maybe he couldn't teach her much, but he could at least teach her how to block properly. "Alright. But I'm only gonna teach you how to block."
"What? Why?!"
"Seeking to fight someone, for any reason at all, will cause more problems than it solves." Izuku gave his rather solid reasoning to the girl. He then stood up and offered the girl a hand, asking, "What's your name?"
After Izuku helped her to her feet, the girl in question answered, "Arya. Arya Stark."
(6:56 am, the next day, Patch Island Docks, Yang's POV)
"You know, you didn't have to come with me, sis. I know Patch like the back of my own hand!" Ruby said as she held her hand up for emphasis.
"Ruby, I love you to death, but your sense of direction is horrendous. Remember the last time I let you walk off alone?" Yang asked as she recalled her sister trying, and failing, to find her way to their house after she'd been let out of school early. She'd gotten lost and ended up killing a lot of Beowolves, even an Ursa. Well, she was only fourteen at the time, but still.
"I was fine!"
"Not taking the chance, little sis." Yang smiled coyly as she grabbed her sister in a headlock and gave her a nuggie, the likes of which the rose-themed girl had not received in quite some time.
"Augh! Why?!" Ruby said as she struggled to get free of the headlock, though she failed to do so. Yang had already had plenty of practice trapping Izuku, who'd proven to be much more elusive than her sister. They actually had a lot of fun with that.
(a few hours later, the park, Izuku's POV)
Arya, after a rather long time of trying to get her to listen, proved to actually be a very good student. Izuku had taught her some basic blocks and dodges, though he was fairly sure she wasn't cut out for hand to hand combat. Not that it was a bad thing, not everyone was cut out for it. Still, some basic knowledge of it could save her life one day.
"So, what are we doing today?" Arya said as she stretched her arms, then briefly bouncing from one foot to the next to warm up her muscles.
"As much as I might regret this later... I'm gonna teach you how to punch properly," Izuku said hesitantly. Arya stared at him with disbelief in her gaze, and after several seconds practically jumped for joy.
"Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Hold on!" Izuku got her attention once more. "I'm not teaching you this just so that you can use it in a fight with that Mari girl."
"I wouldn't get into a fight with her!"
Izuku gave her a doubtful look, and after a few seconds Arya scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and admitted,"… well, I wouldn't start it."
The green haired boy sighed at that, and then said, "I'm only teaching you this so that you'll know how to properly block an incoming punch. From what I understand, the best way to counter something is to know how it's done first."
"I... guess that makes sense?" Arya said, obviously confused.
"Yeah, it's not really that good of an explanation, is it?"
"Not really."
(a few hours later, a trail on Patch, Arya's POV)
Despite the shaky reasoning, Izuku did teach Arya how to throw a decent punch. Well, as decent as she could manage. She quickly found out after the hours they'd spent training that she wasn't quite cut out for punching. Or kicking. Or any hand to hand combat, really. Not that she didn't try, she just wasn't built for it. Literally, she was as skinny as a twig, metaphorically speaking, not bulky and well-built like Rob and Jon were. Lucky sods.
Arya was then pulled from her thoughts when she saw Mari with her normal, cocky grin spread across her lips with the other members of her posse flanking and blocking her off. Crap, how long had she been here for?
"Well well well, look who took the wrong road home today," Mari said with all the sarcasm of a thirteen-year-old which, despite her age, was quite a bit.
"I'm not looking for a fight today, Mari," Arya said as sternly as she could, hoping that some her father's intimidation factor had somehow been passed down to her. "I just want to go home. Let me through, and we can pretend this never happened."
Mari gave her a blank, emotionless stare for a few seconds before bursting into laughter, her posse doing the same just to make a mockery out of Arya's peace offering, which made her all the angrier. "Are... Are you serious right now?! Wa ha ha ha ha ha!"
"I am. Please. I just want to go home," she repeated to no avail once more, and once Mari stopped laughing, she decided to go on a bit of a villainous speech.
"You know, Horseface, I've been pissed at you ever since you came to Patch. I mean, I know your family were kinda big shots back in Mistral, but that doesn't give you any right to lord yourself over the rest of us like you're some sort of Princess."
"I'm not! And I never tried to control any of you! You're the one that started this whole thing!"
Mari didn't even listen as she continued, "And when I found out you were a Fractured, it was all the reason and more to never let you forget. I was born gifted and you were born with nothing. What gives you the right to judge me for something I was born with, huh?"
"You were hurting kids that couldn't even defend themselves! Someone had to stand up to you!"
"Stand up to me? Horseface, I don't think you understand: there's no one to stand up to. I just reacted to your pushy as hell authority complex that no one asked to deal with."
"Authority complex?! Try looking in the mirror, you power hungry, sadistically cruel, superiority obsessed bitch!"
That got all of them to stop in their tracks, with various nearly dropped jaws and dinner plate sized eyes ranging throughout the group. Mari, in particular, looked the most surprised. In all the time she'd known the chestnut-haired girl, never once had she used any swears against her. What had changed? Mari shook herself out of her daze and continued, "Well, that was just uncalled for.
"Guess I'm gonna have to teach you the meaning of your words," Mari said as she made a right hook at a high speed towards Arya's unguarded face. However, the blow never made it to her cheek, and unlike last time, instead of being saved by some unknown stranger, the girl managed to block the blow herself. She lowered the intended blow from a face with a 'try that again, I dare you' glare practically shooting daggers into Mari and managed to lower it to near her mid-torso before she continued, "I know what they mean. Otherwise, I wouldn't have used them." Arya let go of Mari's fist and asked once more, "Can I please just go home?"
Mari contemplated this for a few seconds before kneeing Arya straight in her undefended stomach, the pain of which made the chestnut-haired girl keel over as she clutched her lower torso, strangled gurgling noises emerging from her throat as she struggled for air. By the time she managed to catch her breath, she was now re-flanked on either side by a member of Mari's posse.
"No, you may not. Not until I give you that lesson I promised you the other day," she said before she snapped her fingers, causing the aforementioned two members of her posse to grab Arya by the arms and hoisted her onto her knees. She took the chestnut-haired girl's chin into her hand, forcing her gaze upwards as she continued, "I'm incredibly pissed right now, and justifiably so, I believe. For the past few days, you've been unwilling to even respond to me. I thought this was just because you'd finally gone mute or deaf like I'd hoped; but no, you were outright ignoring me. I don't like being ignored."
"E-e-err... Boss..." One of the lookouts said with a nervous look as a distant howl rang throughout the clearing where the group surrounded Arya. "I-I think there might be something-"
"Be quiet, dammit! Don't interrupt me again!" Mari stood to her full height, letting go of Arya's chin as she berated her underling for doing one of the only things that could set her off: disturbing her fun. She then turned back to Arya, who hadn't stopped glaring in seething rage in the slightest, as she continued, "You know, I hate you. I've hated you since the moment I laid eyes on you. Maybe not as much as I do now, but the seed was planted. So, here's what I'm going to do.
"If I was feeling merciful, I would've maybe given you a few extra bruises to hide when you got home. I'm not feeling so merciful at the moment. So, instead, I'm gonna beat you until you spit blood, and if you're lucky, that's where I'll stop."
"Boss..." The same lackey called again, only this time was outright ignored by Mari as she continued her tirade.
"And if you're not, I might just break one of your arms, to remind you of just how weak you really are. Never assume that you have any chance of becoming a huntress ever again. If either of us are going to become that, it's going to be me, not you. I'll get the glory, the fame, the money... the power! Once I unlock my Aura, I'll be the greatest huntress in the world!" Mari looked down at Arya once more, who hadn't stopped her seething glare the entire time she'd been talking. In fact, it looked to be even angrier. And still, she finished her egotistical speech, "You should just accept your place now, and fade into obscurity with the rest of that fallen family of yours!"
"Boss! Beowolves!"
Mari's attention finally shifted to her calling lackey, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates when she saw that they weren't lying. The two holding Arya dropped the girl's arms and ran for their lives with the aforementioned lookout hot on their heels, screaming their heads off as they went. Mari, however, didn't move a single muscle. Her whole body had frozen up, half in terror and half in misplaced excitement. Mari knew that these things were more often than not the easiest Grimm to kill after Creeps. But if she could kill one right here and now, with nothing but her bare hands and her quirk, she could easily gain favor with a Signal and maybe even apply early!
"Come one you-" she stopped midsentence when she saw exactly how deadly they looked. Jaws with rows of nearly serrated fangs lining the insides of their lips from top to bottom, the hardly grown bone plating and spikes that looked as though they could run a grown man through given the correct angle, and those haunting, full red eyes that went straight through her, as if they were salivating at the prospect of devouring her very soul.
Her momentary courage had run out, and though she asked, demanded her limbs to move and get her away from this monster, her legs simply would not listen, not even as the juvenile Beowolf in front of her lifted its claw, aiming to swipe it through her currently still figure. And yet, when it swept at Mari, the only thing it managed to maul was the air that the girl once occupied.
Arya, despite her problems with the punky girl, didn't want to see her die to a Grimm. When she actually managed to start thinking again, she'd already tackled Mari out of the way of the Beowolf. They landed on the ground in a bit of a heap, the aforementioned chestnut-haired girl groaning in slight pain as she stood up and grabbed Mari by the collar of her shirt, aiming to get away from the encroaching Beowolf pack, but she was too heavy for the small framed girl of twelve years to carry quickly. And so, here they stood, about to be mauled to death by creatures they couldn't even hope to fight at the moment. As a Beowolf raised its claw once more, this time sure to smear and drench it with blood, Arya threw herself in front of Mari, despite herself, trying the best she could to shield her before-
SLICE! WHOOM! BAM! CRASH!
… the blow never came. When a few more, long seconds passed, Arya worked up the nerve to finally peek at what had become of the pack. What she found was her temporary teacher, Izuku, with a weapon in a sword form and an older man standing beside him with a large, steel spiked Kanabo club slung over his shoulder, the two standing side by side as five Beowolf bodies lay dead and scattering at their feet. After taking a few seconds to catch his breath, he turned back to the two young girls that now laid behind him, asking without hesitation, "Are you alright?"
Arya could do nothing but stare at her saviors. In a flash, she was brought back to a moment with her father as he stood over a slain Ursa, his greatsword Ice gripped tightly in both hands. He was gasping for breath, a fresh scar that crossed from the top right of his forehead to the tip of his left cheekbone, now joining the others that already littered his body as he asked his family, "Are you alright?"
And in an instant, she was brought out of the memory, and answered Izuku with the same answer she'd given to her father all those years ago back in Mistral, saying, "I'll be fine."
(fifteen minutes later, the road to Arya's house, Izuku's POV)
They delivered Arya and Mari back to their respective households, though the latter was far less talkative than the former. She'd been pretty shaken up; nearly getting killed would do that to almost anyone. Still, while she didn't deserve to die, Izuku was brought back to the times when he and Bakugo were still young and the ashen blonde direwolf faunus bullied him on a daily basis. Mari was going down a dark path, and hopefully, his grandfather could steer her off of it. Hopefully.
Still, the two girls wouldn't be that lucky again. He'd agreed to go on one of his grandfather's early evening patrols, more to let off steam than anything else. Well, not that he was angry, he simply had a lot of pent-up energy despite teaching Arya for a good portion of the day. That and he just... he couldn't stay at his grandparent's house for too long. Not without feeling as though something vital was missing. And that... it was his fault.
He shook himself out of his contemplation, now looking upon the rather large, almost medieval style household. Outside of it was a pacing man with shaggy, shoulder-length brown hair the same shade as Arya's with a long, black trench coat and a greatsword as large as he was slung over his right shoulder. On his feet were black combat boots, and though they were freshly shined they'd already been worn and used. At least the man took care of his things, an opinion that was reinforced be his shining, steel colored gauntlets and similarly colored chest plate, the symbol of a right facing direwolf adorning the center of it. His bright blue eyes were filled with concern as he waited anxiously for his daughter to return.
"C'mon Ned, calm down. I'm sure she'll be fine," said a familiar looking blonde man who leaned against the wall with similar but strikingly different azure colored eyes with a soul patch and slight stubble along his jawline, with a tattoo that looked like a heart adorning his right bicep in fading, dark crimson ink. He wore brown cargo shorts with a dark brown belt, black shoes, a red bandana on his left arm, and a brown leather vest over a tan dress shirt with the right sleeve cut off. For armor, he wore a double plated metal spaulder, a leather vambrace, and a brown fingerless glove, all on his right arm. That was odd. He'd never seen the man before, but... something about him felt familiar. Moving on!
"You'd be just as worried if it was one of your daughters, Taiyang. She's never this late. Always comes home by four thirty at the latest; practically like clockwork," the other man, now known as Ned, said back to the blonde man, now known as Taiyang.
"Well, it looks like you won't have to worry for much longer," Taiyang said as he nodded over to where Izuku and Arya now stood, the latter looking overly nervous when she eyed her father's pacing.
"What's wrong?" Izuku said as he noticed Arya's uncommonly anxious face.
"Dad's got that look. I'm gonna get it tonight," Arya said in defeat.
"Well, doesn't that just mean that he cares?"
"Maybe. Doesn't make it any less terrifying."
Izuku sighed and said, "Well, it's better to own up to it than to just pretend it never happened at all, isn't it?"
Arya contemplated this for a few short seconds, and as she walked over to her father, said over her shoulder, "Yeah, I suppose you're right."
She and her father stood opposing oneanother, and Taiyang, sensing he was no longer needed, slipped back from the wall and walked over to where Izuku was currently standing. He stepped next to the aforementioned green haired boy as Ned brought his daughter into a tight, almost painful looking bear hug. It was rather sweet.
Izuku felt a pang of jealousy for the girl, having a father to confide and take comfort in. He wished that he'd had the chance to even talk to his own father. However, this jealous thought was quickly stamped out, and his attention was brought back to reality as Taiyang addressed him, "Thanks for finding my friend's kid. He's been worried sick for the past half hour. Hmm... say, what's your name? You look kinda familiar..."
Izuku responded, "My name's Izuku," he held his hand out to properly introduce himself. "Izuku Midoriya. It's nice to meet you, sir."
Taiyang shook the boy's outstretched hand with a firm grip of his own, saying, "I'm Taiyang Xiao Long, but most people just call me Tai. Say... do you know my daughter? Her name's Yang, and I'm fairly sure she's mentioned someone with your name and description more than a few times..." He said in an ominous tone, causing Izuku to realize that his answer to this man's question could mean life or death. Literally.
"W-well, yeah! S-she's one of my b-best friends at Beacon. S-she's also one of the strongest f-fighters I've ever met!" Izuku hastily explained as he noticed the ominous look that covered Tai's face
However, his explanation quickly caused Tai's early expression to brighten up, slapping his hand over Izuku's shoulder as he said, "Good to know!"
"Dad, stop trying to terrify him! I can have guy friends too, you know!" Yang said as she walked over to her dad, almost immediately noticing after she got there that he'd tried to probe Izuku for any pervy thoughts he might've had. The fact that Tai was now treating him like a friend showed that he found there were no such thoughts present in Izuku's mind at the moment.
"I'm just being careful! Besides, I think he's alright. Which is saying something." Tai put his hands above his head in emphasized self-defense.
Yang sighed and said, "Well, Ruby and I are gonna be leaving for Vale again soon, Greenie. You wanna come with? Torino was pretty mad when you left nothing but a note, and we got kinda worried too."
"Sure. Just... gotta do something first." Izuku said with his head held low as he walked towards his grandparent's house, leaving a confused Yang looking after him and a knowing Tai still standing there on that same patch of grassland, thinking, Huh. That's odd. For a second there, I could've sworn that kid looked just like Hisashi.
(ten minutes later, near Ryuji & Makoto's house, Izuku's POV)
It was always a bit of a different experience, every time he stayed with his grandparents. Sometimes it was quiet, sometimes it was rowdy, and sometimes it was an odd combination of the two. However, there was always one part about their stays that was never made easier. Saying their goodbyes and paying their respects. It was always the hardest part.
"Well, it's certainly been nice staying with you. Thank you again for letting us stay with you," Inko said as she bowed to Ryuji and Makoto as deeply as her gut would allow.
"Stand, stand. For the last time, the last person you should be bowing to is me," Makoto said as Inko slowly but surely came out of the position she'd placed herself into. Izuku was tempted to do the same as his mother had, but he'd quickly learned after his first stay that his grandparents hated formalities among family.
"We come? Is tradition, yes?" Ryuji said, knowing that this would likely be painful for them, as it was every time they said goodbye. But they needed to do it on their own. He wanted to help the two, but they wouldn't allow him. Especially Izuku. He wished his grandson would stop hesitating and see that he was already more than worthy to bare-
"Thank you, but we don't wish to trouble you any longer," Inko said with finality in her voice. If they weren't related, Makoto would've sworn that they were somehow related.
"See you next year!" Izuku said with fake enthusiasm and a forced smile. Ryuji and Makoto had come to know it well, despite their best efforts to help.
A few minutes passed before he and his mother stood before a thick trunked oak tree with a large, bristling overhead of dark green leaves. In the center of the trunk was an inscription in neat, surprisingly well carved Ancient Mistralian Script. Izuku did not know the whole of the language, but he did know what this particular carving read; Here lies Hisashi Midoriya. I am a Leaf on the Wind. Watch how I Soar.
Inko stood in front of the tree for a long, silent minute with her eyes closed tightly and her hands clasped in front of her, praying that the soul of her husband would hear her. Neither Izuku or his mother were particularly religious, but they were open to the possibility of an afterlife existing. If there was one... well, they just hoped that Hisashi was in the good place.
When she was finished with her prayer, she unclasped her hands and opened her eyes. Inko then looked back her son with a knowingness in her eyes, saying, "I'll... I'll leave you two alone," before she walked to sit beneath a fairly distant, shady tree, where Yang and Ruby too waited patiently for their friend. As Inko sat beside them, the blonde asked with a worried tone, "Will he be okay?"
"Yes. It's hard on him, but... ever since he turned seven, he's always said goodbye to Hisashi alone. I didn't want him too, but he insisted," Inko briefly explained. Ruby then observed the freckled boy's expression, commenting, "He looks so sad."
"… he always does."
("Cold" from RWBY by Jeff Williams, feat. Casey Lee Williams. Warning: you're probably going to cry)
A slight push of wind swept through the grove, making Izuku's hair wave slightly in the wind as the leaves on top of the tree rustled loudly before calming as quickly as they'd been stirred. Izuku held one of his hands gingerly in a timid, meek grip, one that he hadn't used since before Initiation. Then, with a shaking but determined voice, he said, "H-hey... dad."
An awkward silence followed that single statement, as if he was expecting an answer that would never be voiced. The green haired boy then spoke again, "I... guess it's been a while. Again. I, uh... I got into Beacon! I made some awesome friends there too! My partner's always looking after me and the rest of my team. And making sure my other two teammates don't kill each other... I wasn't joking, they really have tried to do that before. I guess that's why he's our leader after all. His name's Shoto, and he's the best friend I could've asked for. He's a bit... odd, though. Well, not nearly as odd as Mei is, but still.
"Then there's Tenya and Bakugo. You already know about the latter, but the former is... he's very uptight and rule abiding, to say the least. He's related to Ingenium too, so it's not exactly surprising that he's a really fast and precise fighter. And yeah, I'm on the same team as that Bakugo. It was... pretty awkward, at first. But we came to terms with it. I... don't think we're friends. We're more like rivals at the moment. But all together, we're Team STIK! And yes, the spelling of our team name does tend confuse people. Oh! Speaking of which: I also met some other teams, JNPR and RWBY. We're a pretty tightly knit group of friends. I think at least some combination of our teams are always together. You'd like them. Especially Yang and Ruby. I think they'd have liked you too.
"It's been a pretty crazy year. We've stopped a lot of White Fang and a new bad guy group that formed recently. I think they're called The Lodge of Criminals. And we even stopped the Huntsman Hunter! It wasn't an easy fight, but we beat him. Even if it did take all four of us to take him out.
"I... erm..." Izuku struggled to say what came next, and after a few long seconds, said, "I hope I've been making you proud, wherever you are. I... I don't know what's going to come next, after the Vytal Tournament, but I'm kinda scared. And I don't know if... if I'll ever be able to live up to you. But..." his eyes began to well up with translucent tears as he continued on, "… but I'm gonna be okay. So you don't have to worry about me. I've got mom and the rest of my team to help me out. I hope-" he stopped as tears began to abruptly spill from his eyelids, causing him to wipe them off and say, "Dammit. I promised myself I wouldn't cry again," before continuing, "I hope you're happy, wherever you are. But I wish... I wish you were here to talk to me.
"… bye, dad. I'll see you next year." Izuku turned from the tree and began to walk towards where his mother, Yang and Ruby stood waiting for him. And then, out of the corner of his ear, so faint that he wasn't sure it was truly voiced, someone whispered to the green haired boy, "I'm proud of you, Izuku. More than you will ever know."
This caused him to stop in his tracks and slowly looked back to the tree, an expectant look in his gaze, only to find that his father was nowhere to be seen, and the oak tree stood as lonely as it had before, it's leaves gently waving in the wind. With this final look, Izuku slowly blinked before giving a final, now true smile, before turning back and walking with those waiting for him to the Patch docks, the Vytal Tournament now ready and ripe for the fighting.
A/N: *sniff* What? I'm not crying, you're crying!
Anyways guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's a bit of a bittersweet note to enter the Vytal Festival on, but I thought that it was appropriate. And for those of you who may be wondering: Ancient Mistralian Script is basically an older version of Japanese.
Anyhow, there's a tournament to be fought! Plus Ultra Style!
Next Chapter: Mar. 11th
Seeya in the next one!