Chapter 51:

"Hey! We're back," announced Yang, as she and the rest of the students strolled into the courtyard pavilion adjacent to the guest quarters.

Weiss, Neptune, and Hayate looked up from their seats. After finishing her conversation with Neptune, Weiss had taken him over to properly introduce him to Hayate. Both boys had apparently decided they were okay with each other, neither of them showing any signs of hostility. Instead, they had taken to chatting, Neptune actually showing a surprising amount of interest in Hayate's activities, particularly how he had been helping the faunus of Atlas. Weiss had been a bit uncomfortable at first, since her father's actions had been a part of the topic as a matter of course. However, she too was interested in the particulars of the operation the Mibu had used to support and help the faunus that Hayate rescued.

"Looks like you guys are hitting it off really well," noted Yang, grinning to see Weiss so comfortable with her ex-boyfriend and a boy she had been showing a considerable amount of interest in lately.

"It's been nice," said Neptune. He groaned and stretched. "So, is all the social stuff over for the day?"

"Yes," said Kyo. "That means we're free to change out of these clothes."

"Finally!" exclaimed Ruby, tottering off to her and Jaune's room, leaning on her boyfriend's arm the whole way.

"I guess we should change too," said Weiss, glancing at Neptune, who nodded. "We have a little time before dinner, right?"

"Going somewhere?" asked Yang.

"I wanted to visit Murasame," said Weiss. "I need to talk to him about something."

"Oh...Want us to come with you?"" asked Yang.

"If you want," said Weiss. "I just received something interesting and I wanted to ask him about it."

"Oh...?" Yang tilted her head.

"What did you get?" asked Kyo.

"I'll show you," said Weiss, getting up.

Most of the others had already gone to their rooms to change. The visiting students from both Haven and Vacuo had been assigned their own rooms and their luggage had already been deposited in each. Blake was not surprised to see that Sun's luggage had been brought into her room, suspecting that her parents might have had something to do with the arrangement, though she didn't complain either.

Weiss led Yang, Kyo, Neptune, and Hayate back to her room, where she showed them the small, fist-sized Etheric Core Crystal in its box.

"Wow! Haruka-sama actually gave you one of these?" asked Kyo, examining the crystal as best he could without touching it.

"Sort of," said Weiss. "I just came back one day to find it here with a note from her saying that something was wrong with it, so she'd just give to me. Do you have any idea?"

"I haven't the slightest," admitted Kyo. "The crystals are a field I've hardly studied at all. I don't know anything more than the absolute basics of them. The only oddity I can think of is that Haruka-sama gave you one at all. She typically guards them quite zealously. It's hard for me to imagine her parting with one that wasn't going to be put to use for the Clan, even if it is a flawed specimen, much less giving one to an outsider."

"Uh...so what is this thing?" asked Neptune. "It doesn't look like a Dust crystal."

The others exchanged glances, remembering that the students that had just arrived knew nothing about the Mibu Clan's Etheric Energy technology, though, presumably, the whole world would learn about it over the course of the conference.

Weiss and the others had to take a few minutes to explain the basics of Etheric Energy to Neptune, though they were only able to give him a brief rundown, repeating what they had heard from Saisei and what Weiss had heard from Haruka. Once they finished, Neptune sat dumbly on the bed. "Wow...this is a lot to take in," he admitted. "This could completely change the way the world works."

The others nodded. They had all found themselves pondering the ways in which the propagation of this power source could completely change the shape of the world and its current reliance on Dust technology.

"So you want Murasame to look at this?" asked Kyo. "Why him?"

"Well, from the way Haruka just sent it to me like this, I get the feeling she isn't interested in telling me why," said Weiss. "Hayate says that Murasame would be the next best choice as far as people to ask go."

Hayate nodded. Kyo also nodded in agreement with that idea. "Murasame-sama may not specialize in the crystals or their creation, but I do understand that he knows quite a bit about them."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" asked Yang. "Let's go get changed and ask him."

"Should I just stay here?" asked Neptune as Yang pulled Kyo out.

"You can if you want," said Weiss. "I don't want you to feel obligated to have to go everywhere with me."

"I'm really curious about these crystals too," said Neptune, once again examining the one Weiss had gotten.

"Well, I'll see if we can get someone to show you where they're made as well," said Weiss.

"That'd be great," said Neptune.


By this point, Yang had been to and from Murasame's quarters enough times that she was able to lead the group herself, with minimal guidance from Kyo. Neptune looked appreciatively baffled by the layout of the Palace complex, though he kept quiet as they moved along. When they finally left the complex of hallways and arrived at the meadow before Murasame's house, Neptune was looking considerably dizzy.

"Would it kill them to put up some signs or a directory of some kind?" he asked.

"That has been proposed before," said Kyo, "and struck down. Sadly, some of our Clan are quite proud of how hard it is to find your way around the Palace. I won't name names..." He sighed. "I think O-Kaa-san and Tou-san are eager to import outsider technology, as some of it is well suited to navigation."

"Yeah, you could outfit this place with wi-fi, input the schematics into a program, and set up an app to navigate," said Neptune. "That wouldn't be too hard to set up."

When Kyo knocked, the door was answered by Penny, whose face lit up when she saw everyone there. "Hi!" she said eagerly. "Papa said you'd be coming sometime this evening."

"What the-?" Neptune yelped and jumped back, actually falling backwards off the raised porch of the house.

"Oops," said Yang, blinking in surprise at the reaction. "We forgot to tell him about Penny."

Penny quickly dropped over the side of the porch to land next to Neptune. "Are you all right?" she asked, bending over him, innocent concern on her face.

"Y-y-y-you're supposed to be d-dead, aren't you?" asked Neptune, staring up at her with wide eyes.

Penny blinked in confusion for a second. "Oh! That..." She smiled radiantly. "Kyo saved me, and the Mibu made a new body for me. Now I'm a real person like you, the squishy kind."

Yang couldn't help but giggle at Penny's use of Ruby's descriptor for what used to set them apart.

Neptune sat up, still staring in awe at Penny. After a second, he rallied and managed a grin. "Well, you were always a real person," he said, reaching up and gently prodding her cheek with a finger. "So...this is an organic body now."

"Yep," said Penny, giggling as Neptune gently poked her. Then, slowly, Neptune switched, gently cupping her cheek. Penny began to blush, suddenly feeling very strange as he continued to look at her.

"Uh...Neptune?" asked Weiss, watching them with a mixture of confusion and amusement.

Neptune froze, blinking for a second, then jumped up with his second yelp of the evening. "Oh my God! Sorry!"

Penny couldn't help but giggle at his antics. "It's all right," she said, standing up as well. "Come on, Papa's waiting for you all."

She led them inside, where Murasame waited patiently, his serene smile in place.

"Now then," he said, looking straight at Weiss, "how can I be of assistance."

Weiss took a deep breath. "The other day, Saisei took me and Hayate to see the crystal vats. We met Haruka there, and she showed us around."

Murasame nodded. "And...?" he prompted.

Weiss set the box on the floor and in front of her. "Yesterday, after our meeting with Blake's parents, we came back to our rooms and I found this in mine." She opened it, displaying the Etheric Core Crystal.

Murasame's eyes widened and he leaned forward. "It was just sitting there...like this?" he asked.

Weiss nodded. "There was a note from Haruka. She said that there was some sort of defect or something with the crystal. Since she didn't have any use for it, she sent it to me."

Murasame frowned and carefully picked up the crystal from its padded nest, turning it in his hands and examining it. He was silent for several minutes, examining the crystal from every conceivable angle. "That's odd..."

"What is?" asked Weiss.

"As far as I can tell, there is no defect that I can see," said Murasame. "This is a flawless specimen. It's young, of course. Now that it's been removed from the vat, there's no further growth possible, even if you were to place it back in one. However, there is no defect that I can find. It appears to be perfectly functional."

"Then why would Haruka send it to me?" asked Weiss.

"Hmm..." Murasame looked away from the crystal and at Weiss. "Is there anything unusual that you can connect to your experience with this crystal in particular?"

"Well..." Weiss hesitated, then explained the mysterious sensations that she had when she had looked at the crystal, the way she felt drawn to it, which was how she had been able to tell it was the same crystal that she had seen in the vats.

When she finished, Murasame looked considerably less confused. "Aha!" he said. "That explains it. You inadvertently bonded with it."

"What does that mean?" asked Weiss.

"Remember, Etheric crystals, and the energy they produce, are extremely responsive to Aura," said Murasame. "They are shaped, sculpted, and nurtured by Aura, from the moment they are seeded within the vats. Because of that, they become attuned to the presence of Aura. A person can bond with a particular crystal, making it so that it responds to their Aura in particular."

"So...I was the defect then," said Weiss, feeling mortified by the idea. Even without touching the crystal, she'd apparently tainted it in some fashion.

"No! No!" said Murasame quickly, raising his hand to forestall her fears. "You didn't do anything wrong. Believe me, Haruka would have let you know if you had. She is very protective of her creations, the Core Crystals in particular. They are as much her children as the blades I forge are mine. There's no way she would allow them to come to harm through careless meddling."

"But what about the bonding then?" asked Yang.

"It's a fairly common occurrence, actually," said Murasame. "The crystals will bond to individual workers manning the vats. The bond can be...reset...in a sense, quite easily. But Haruka has found it useful, because it allows the workers to better feel the crystals and guide their growth, which reduces the instance of defects emerging and minimizes the chance of errors."

"So...there's nothing wrong with it?" asked Weiss.

"At least nothing that I can sense," said Murasame. "It seems unlikely. Haruka would never allow a flawed crystal to leave her vats, unless she believed that the flaw gave it some unique or special quality. That is the only possibility I can think of."

"So she lied?" asked Weiss.

"More or less," said Murasame with a shrug.

"Then why send it to me and why lie about it?" asked Weiss.

"Haruka probably noticed that the crystal had bonded to you," said Murasame. "She probably decided that it might be something that would prove useful to you, so she decided to send it to you. She lied about it having a defect because she's shy like that."

"Shy?" asked Weiss.

Murasame chuckled. "Haruka is probably one of the most awkward people I've ever known," he said. "She's perfectly fine when it comes to talking shop. However, when it comes to more regular forms of socializing, she's hopeless."

Weiss remembered how Haruka had sat next to her during brunch. She'd gotten the impression that the Eder had done so to help protect Weiss from her father. But she hadn't said a word during the meal. Weiss had tried on a couple of occasions to start up a conversation, which were met with curt, one word responses that led Weiss to believe that leaving Haruka alone was the wiser course, and had decided to take up conversing with the two girls from NDGO on her other side. After that, she couldn't even recall seeing Haruka at the social event in the courtyard.

"I can see your point," she said. "But why would she want to help me? I thought she hated outsiders."

Murasame laughed. "Haruka doesn't hate outsiders," he said. "She's completely neutral in regard to them."

"Huh...But wasn't she the most stubborn opponent of the Opening?" asked Kyo in surprise.

"Because that's the duty assigned to her other position within the Taishiro," said Murasame with a chuckle. "Haruka is the official Dissenter of the Taishiro."

"Dissenter?" Penny canted her head at Murasame's words. "What's that?"

"When the Taishiro are in total agreement with one another, it is Haruka's official duty to dissent, to attack our reasoning, to undermine our arguments, to point out every single flaw and folly that she can," explained Murasame.

"Why in the world would anyone make that an official duty?" asked Yang.

"Because it's all too easy to arrive at a consensus at times," said Murasame. "An idea can seem wonderful on the surface, when it is a truly flawed thing that doesn't hold up under detailed examination. Haruka's work ensures that we are made to fully examine any course of action that we decide upon, to ensure that we have undertaken it with full consideration of the advantages and risks it represents. It isn't all that often that we need to make use of her station like this, as it is rare for us to all be in agreement right off the bat. But, when it happens, Haruka executes her duty to the fullest. That she held out as long as she did is a testament to her dedication."

"Wow," said Yang. "But I bet that looks weird to everyone else if they don't understand it."

"It can," said Murasame. "Because her position as the Taishiro's Dissenter hasn't been publicly disclosed, her behavior makes her seem contrary, untrusting, and confrontational. But she carries it out with impressive zeal, largely because it is a position that Sora created for her."

"Mother did?" asked Kyo.

Murasame nodded. "After Sora, Haruka is the youngest Taishiro. When Sora became the head of the Taishiro, she created the position and entrusted it to Haruka, because she believed that Haruka was the one who could best fulfill it. Because of that, Haruka is the member of the Taishiro most deeply loyal to Sora."

"Wow...that's kinda neat," said Yang.

"So then...how can I use this?" asked Weiss, gesturing to the crystal that Murasame still held.

"Hmm..." Murasame once again began turning the crystal in his grip, examining it. "It's hard to say. The primary purpose of the Core Crystals is to convert Etheric Energy into electricity. However, that is carried out through the use of a special array that handles the conversion. The actual energy that the crystal produces, in its raw form, has some very interesting properties."

"What kind of properties?" asked Weiss.

"It is highly responsive to Aura," said Murasame. "With use of Aura, it can be converted into a variety of forces and effects without the assistance of the conversion crystal types that are typically needed."

"Then why use conversion crystals at all?" asked Weiss.

"Because such conversion can only be done through Aura," said Murasame. "Converting the energy into electricity is the only way it can be used to expand and maintain the effects without having a person maintain it constantly. Imagine someone doing that on the airship that brought you here. They would have had to manually maintain the effect for the entire four-day trip."

"Oh…" said Weiss. She hadn't thought of that. "So maybe...I could use it...with my weapon?" she asked, her eyes going to the hilt of Myrtenaser. "Would that be the right thing to do?"

"I would say that it's not wrong," said Murasame. "We Mibu have no moral qualms about the power of our crystals being weaponized. When we introduce the technology to the rest of Remnant at large, we expect it to be only a matter of time. We simply haven't seen the need to do it ourselves."

"So it would be okay for me to do that?" asked Weiss.

"Perhaps," said Murasame. "I believe that it says something that this was the idea you immediately came to."

Weiss looked down, feeling slightly ashamed of herself.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of," said Murasame. "You are a Huntress, after all. It's only natural that your first thoughts would go towards using the crystal to further that goal. I cannot say that it is a bad idea." His eyes focused on Myrtenaster. "May I see it?"

Weiss drew her blade and handed it over to Murasame, who began to inspect it, turning it over in his hands. "This is a fine weapon," he said, "very well made...but..."

"I guess it's like mine," said Yang, holding up her left arm.

"Very similar, yes," agreed Murasame. "Which doesn't mean that the potential doesn't exist."

"What do you mean?" asked Weiss.

"Something like this is most definitely more familiar to me than Xiao Long-dono's kind of weapon," said Murasame. "I know nothing about the components that utilize Dust. However, the blade itself...that is something I can work with."

"What are you suggesting?" asked Weiss.

"I'd have review the materials I have concerning Haruka's crystals," said Murasame. "But I believe it is within the realm of possibility to integrate the crystal into your blade, so that you might be able to employ its power to fight."

"But I only just got it!" protested Weiss. "I don't have even the vaguest idea of how to use it."

"But you have time to find out," said Murasame. "I need time to go over the materials I have and work out how such a modification is possible. There's certainly no rush. I'll be slowed up by the conference. You'll have plenty of time to explore how to use the crystal."

"What if you go through all that trouble and I decide not to use it like that?" asked Weiss. "I don't want you to waste your time on my account."

"It would hardly be a waste, Schnee-dono," said Murasame with a chuckle. "It's something that would be worth researching for its own sake. Now that the idea is in my mind, it's made me immensely curious."

"Well, if you're sure..." said Weiss uncertainly.

"I am," said Murasame with a smile. He handed Myrtenaster back to Weiss, and she sheathed it as he returned the crystal to its box and Weiss closed the lid. "Take your time with it," he suggested. "Get to know it, and its capabilities, and decide how you wish to apply them."

"All right," said Weiss. "Thank you for your advice."


"YOU'RE JUST GOING TO SIT THERE AND DO NOTHING?" roared Jacques, his face practically crimson with fury. "After that faunus witch humiliated us, you're just going to sit back and pretend nothing happened?"

"I told you not to act out," said Ironwood. "By doing so, you undermined my authority in front of representatives of the other three Kingdoms, to say nothing of those who are watching the broadcast. You've practically handed the Mibu the upper hand in negotiations."

"Hang the negotiations!" snapped Jacques. "These backwoods savages stole away my workers, out from under your nose no less. Because of them, I've lost millions of lien and consumers across the globe are losing confidence in the SDC, because I've had to raise our prices to compensate."

"You think I don't realize that?" demanded Ironwood. "If those fools had just stayed put, rather than letting some fool terrorist's honeyed words sway them, we wouldn't have this problem."

"It just goes to show you can't trust the faunus," said Jacques. "They talk about loyalty and equal treatment. But they crack under the slightest pressure, and turn to bite the hand that feeds them without reservation. That's why you can't allow that woman to dictate terms. She'll maneuver us until her fangs are right at our throats."

"I have no intention of allowing that to happen," said Ironwood. "But, in order to do this right, I need to maintain Atlas' face in front of the other Kingdoms. That means doing things their way for now. Unfortunately, that also means that you will have to stay on the ship from now on. The Mibu have made their terms clear."

Jacques snorted. "If I go down with a pair of the new Paladins and a platoon of Jaegers, we'll see just what their terms are worth."

"No," said Ironwood. "That will just be playing into their hands. Stay. Put." He turned and headed for the stateroom door. "If you make it necessary, I will order you confined to quarters for the duration. Don't force my hand." The door slid shut behind him.

Jacques growled and settled into his chair. "Only if you don't force mine," he muttered under his breath.


"Well, that was interesting," said Neptune as he, Weiss, Yang, and Kyo made their way back to the guest quarters. Penny was accompanying them so that they would be able to reintroduce her to the other visiting students. After seeing Neptune's reaction, they had decided that it was best to just get it over with.

"Yeah," said Weiss, considering the box she carried under one arm. Even though she didn't want to jump to conclusions and recklessly modify her weapon, she was already beginning to think about how Myrtenaster's design could be modified to incorporate the Etheric Crystal. I'd probably have to discard the Dust assembly. Attaching it anywhere else would make it too bulky. But... She was reluctant to remove the Dust chambers from her weapon. After all, they had been a major part of her final vision of Myrtenaster.

But was that vision applicable to her anymore? She had designed Myrtenaster to showcase her mastery in the usage of Dust, to prove her worth as the heir of the SDC. But now...she felt as though her dependency on Dust just held her back. In recent months, she had seen so much of what a person could accomplish without Dust. The more she looked at it, the more it felt like a crutch, something that kept her from truly excelling. More importantly, it felt like a tether that kept her from breaking out of her father's control.

At the same time though, switching over to using Etheric Energy made Weiss feel like she would be traveling down a road she couldn't turn back from. There was no way her father would accept her as an heir, if she abandoned Dust for this new power source. Even worse, he would probably see it as her aligning with the Mibu, though Weiss had no intention of doing so. Either way, it would be a betrayal, as far as he was concerned. Weiss didn't doubt that the inheritance would go to Whitley then.

It wasn't often that Weiss had thought of her youngest brother. Neither she nor Winter had gotten on all that well with him, primarily because, of the three of them, he seemed the one most at home in the Schnee manor. Even from an extremely young age, Whitely had mastered the art of being evasive, to the point where it was virtually impossible for anyone to tell what he was thinking. He was cunning and manipulative, and neither Weiss nor Winter could ever fully understand what lay behind that smiling mask of his. He was most definitely the favored child, even though Weiss was currently the one in line to inherit the family business, probably because he was the one best able to adapt to the conditions of the Schnee family's home, able to thrive, even in the presence of their father, unlike Weiss and Winter, who had gone through the effort of getting away from it as best as they possibly could.

Weiss shook her head, trying to dislodge those thoughts. This wasn't the time or place to worry about such things. Right now, she needed to focus on what she should do from here. At least she had something she could work on in the meantime. Even without Murasame's advice, she had intended to experiment with the crystal, if only to fully understand its capabilities. She would need to understand those, one way or another. The Mibu clearly intended to debut their crystals as a competitor to Dust-based technology, which, if Weiss did take over the SDC, would mean the crystals would be her company's competitors as well. At the very least, she intended to build an understanding of what that entailed.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Hayate brushed his fingers against the back of her free hand. She flinched sharply and looked at him abruptly. Hayate had said nothing throughout their meeting with Murasame, simply waiting in the background, to the point that Weiss had almost forgotten that he was there at all.

"Sorry," said Hayate, apologizing for startling her. "You looked like you had a lot on your mind."

Weiss hesitated, then took a breath to relax herself. "I guess I do," she said. "Maybe I'm overthinking things. There's a lot I have to think about, when it comes to this, though."

Hayate nodded. "I can understand that," he said.

Weiss looked around, wondering if the others were worried about her too. However, they all seemed to be wrapped up in their own conversations. Kyo and Yang were chatting happily with each other as they walked ahead of everyone else. In the meantime, Penny and Neptune brought up the rear, both of them talking about potential modifications to Neptune's weapon. Weiss had to stifle a giggle at that. Given Penny's cheerful nature, it was easy to forget her background as an android, and that she had a large amount of technical knowledge, which she seemed to have carried over with her, when her Aura was transferred into its new body.

"So you'll be practicing with that?" asked Hayate, pointing at the box.

"I guess," said Weiss. "I honestly have no idea where to begin though."

"Well...probably the best thing to do is just to start with what you already know," said Hayate. "Try using your Aura to manipulate its energy as though it were Dust."

"What type of Dust though?" asked Weiss. Each type of Dust had different properties and responded differently to manipulation. It had taken Weiss years to get the art down for each of the varieties she typically wielded.

Hayate shrugged. "You should probably just start to experiment and find out," he said. "However, since Etheric Energy is...well...energy...it probably stands to reason that you should start with the Dust types that produce energy, rather than matter, like fire or lightning. Aside from that, you should probably try inputting it into your glyphs and see what happens."

"That makes sense," said Weiss.

"Actually...when it comes to glyphs, I have a question," said Hayate.

"What is it?"

"You've always used the same ones, haven't you?" he asked.

"Of course," said Weiss, "although I only picked up summoning more recently."

"Have you ever tried to create your own glyphs?" asked Hayate.

Weiss stopped, blinking in surprise, before she had to start walking again to keep Neptune or Penny from bumping into her from behind. "N-no," she said. "I've never even thought about it. The Schnee hereditary Semblance has always consisted of those three patterns: propulsion, time dilation, and summoning. Those are the components of our family's Semblance. I don't think anyone has ever even conceived of the idea."

"Really?" asked Hayate. "That strikes me as odd. I'd always thought they'd been crafted by someone in your family's past."

"What do you mean?" asked Weiss.

"When it comes to a Semblance, it's always some sort of power," said Hayate, "like Yang's recoil effect, Ruby's speed, Neo's refraction, or Nora's electricity absorption. However, not only does your family's Semblance have specific designs for its effects, but it also employs three of them. Furthermore, based on how you use them, there are numerous potential permutations to how you can apply it."

"I..." Weiss had never really considered it.

"For example, during our sparring matches, I noticed that you can turn a propulsion glyph black and reverse its effects, so that it pulls, rather than pushes," said Hayate. "Have you ever tried applying that to your other glyphs and their effects? For example, what if you used that on your time dilation glyph?"

Weiss blinked. She'd never considered that before. She' always used time dilation as an enhancer, to speed up herself or an ally. What if she reversed it and applied it to an enemy? Could she slow a faster opponent down?

"Not to mention that almost no other Semblance is hereditary," added Hayate. "A Semblance, at least according to common logic in the wider world, is shaped completely by a person's individual nature. It isn't something that's passed down through blood."

"That's..." Weiss honestly didn't know what to say. She had always believed that the Schnee Family Semblance was like that because that was what she had been taught all her life. She had been taught the shape of her family's glyphs with the expectation that that was how they should look, and the effects that they should have. But now that she thought about it...

"If you ask me, I don't think your family's Semblance is a Semblance at all," said Hayate.

"Then what is it?" asked Weiss.

"Isn't it obvious?" inquired Hayate. "It's a Manifestation, like my lightning or Keikoku's fire. You were taught how to use it, made to produce certain forms with certain effects, which makes it a type of school, like Kyo's Mumyo Jinpu or Kaito's Mumyo Saigyo. Someone in the Schnee Family's past must have developed that Manifestation and taught it to his or her successors. Over time, the family forgot its origins and began to regard it as a Semblance, one that was passed down through their family line, because the techniques of that Manifestation were taught only within the family."

"But our family has no ties to the Mibu!" protested Weiss.

Hayate shrugged. "That's hardly a prerequisite," he said. "The Mibu are definitely the main practitioners of that kind of advanced Aura-manipulation, but they've never had a monopoly on it. Nigel mastered Manifestation well before we met him. Kyo just arranged for him to get the tool that would allow him to best apply it…and Nigel was self-taught."

"So you're saying that what I've been doing all along is what we've been trying to learn here?" asked Weiss incredulously. "How could we have ever forgotten something so important? If my Semblance really is a kind of Manifestation, why would we ever come to think of it as a Semblance?"

Hayate shrugged again. "There could be any number of possible reasons why," he said. "At least one that comes to me off the top of my head is that someone, sometime, got the idea to actively suppress the knowledge of your family's Manifestation, and label it as a Semblance instead…mainly because of your family's association with a certain critical product."

Weiss blinked, shocked by the notion, even though it made sense. Further developing Manifestation, as she had seen with the Mibu, allowed for the development of abilities that matched, or even surpassed, even the greatest applications of Dust-tech and Dustweaving. However, Dust was her family's trade. If they continued to develop abilities that only made them less dependent on their signature product, they would undermine the very source of their prosperity.

"In any case," continued Hayate, "if what I think is true, then that means you've already developed a Manifestation, which means you can take it even further."

"How?" asked Weiss.

"By creating your own glyphs," said Hayate.

"I…could do that?" asked Weiss, mystified by the idea. "I have no idea how to even begin."

"Well…I have a few," said Hayate. "I'll show you when we get back."

Unconsciously, Weiss began to walk a bit faster, eager to see what Hayate had come up with.


When they got back to the guest quarters, Hayate led Weiss to a small alcove within the section, where another common area of sorts had been set up. It wasn't a courtyard, just a section of open space between rooms; where a table, chairs, and a couple couches had been set up. Weiss sat at the table, while Hayate went to retrieve a few things, returning with paper and pencils.

"Do me a favor and draw out all the glyphs you use," said Hayate.

Weiss nodded and did as she was told. First, she drew the snowflake glyph that she used most frequently, the propulsion glyph. Then she drew the clock-faced time dilation glyph. Finally, she drew the sword-wheel of the summoning glyph.

"So these are your three main glyphs," said Hayate, looking them over.

Weiss nodded. "How do you think I can create my own?" she asked.

Hayate grinned. "Well, the time dilation and summoning ones look like they would make sense, but I wonder what a snowflake has to do with pushing things."

"Um..." It seemed like a nonsensical tangent, but Hayate's question made a certain amount of sense. The design of the other two glyphs appeared to correspond, either directly or indirectly with their purpose. The clock-face of her time dilation glyph corresponded to time, in her case, speeding it up for whoever was affected by it. The summoning glyph made sense in a symbolic way, as Weiss' summons served as her metaphorical sword against her foes. However, there wasn't really anything about a snowflake that equated with pushing or propelling something.

"Therein lies the key," said Hayate. "It does that, even though its shape is not evocative of such an effect, because you were taught to associate that power with that effect, and that association became natural for you."

"What do you mean?" asked Weiss.

"Hmm...Let me see if I can come up with a good analogy," said Hayate, thinking for a minute. Then his eyes lit up. "Aha!" He grinned, then set out a fresh sheet of paper and drew a single line on it. "What is this?"

"A line..." said Weiss, wondering what he was getting at.

Hayate nodded. "That's right. And this...?" He drew a second line, which met the end of the other line at an angle, so that the two of them formed a wedge on the paper.

"A chevron...I guess," said Weiss.

Hayate nodded and drew a third line, partway up the chevron, bridging the gap between the two lines. "And this...?"

"The letter, A," said Weiss simply.

"Wrong!" said Hayate, speaking so sharply that Weiss nearly jumped out of her seat. "It's a triangle with legs!"

"H-huh, but..." Weiss blinked completely confused by the point of this.

Hayate grinned again. "This is just a collection of three lines on paper. When I set them out individually, they were just some shape. Put them together and you suddenly saw a letter. But do you remember a time when this would have just been another bunch of lines on paper to you?"

"You mean before I learned to read?" asked Weiss.

Hayate nodded.

"I...can't remember that," admitted Weiss.

"You've done it so much, and for so long, that it's become natural to you," said Hayate. "Now you can't look at this collection of lines without seeing the letter, A. The association is automatic. The same with other letters. You learned to associate them with particular sets of sounds, then to combine those symbols representing sounds to form more complex sounds, called words. Then you started doing that automatically too."

Weiss nodded.

"What about this?" asked Hayate, inscribing a character, lines meeting at angles on the page, forming a shape that was completely unrecognizable.

"I have no idea," said Weiss. "That's the Mibu's Old Tongue, right?"

"That's right," said Hayate. "Their writing system is called kanji. It's a logographic writing system, where a symbol like this represents a word or concept."

Weiss nodded.

"This symbol means 'strength,'" said Hayate. "It's one of the few I've learned here. I admit that I don't know a lot about their old language, so I only know a few symbols, like this one. But, to you, it's just a collection of lines, right?"

"Yes," agreed Weiss.

"But any Mibu learned in the old tongue would be able to read it automatically," said Hayate, "because they've learned to associate that shape and collection of lines with a particular set of sounds and meaning."

"But what does this all have to do with my glyphs?" asked Weiss.

"Simply put, your glyphs operate on the same logic," said Hayate. He pointed to the snowflake glyph Weiss had drawn. "There's nothing about this glyph that suggests propulsion. But it does so because that's what you learned it was for, and came to associate that with its effect, until it became automatic to your mind. You learned to 'read' glyphs, to associate their shape with a particular meaning and function, just as you learned how to read letters and words."

"Oh!" Weiss sat back in her seat, her eyes wide at the implications behind what Hayate had just told her. Her mind was catapulted back to her days of being tutored by her mother and Winter in the various Schnee glyphs. Even more recently, during the last Vytal Festival, she remembered Winter's efforts to instruct her in using the summoning glyphs. As far as she knew, none of her friends had needed to be instructed in their Semblances in such a manner. "So then...to make my own glyphs, I just have to design an image and associate it with a specific effect."

"Pretty much," said Hayate. "I mean, the range of abilities your glyph shows that, overall, your 'school's' potential is pretty broad. However, I suspect that, like your basic glyphs themselves, they fall within three particular categories..." He pointed to the snowflake glyph. "...the evocation of force..." His finger moved to the time dilation glyph. "...temporal distortion..." Then his finger moved to the summoning glyph. "...and the creation of artificial constructs from your Aura."

"That makes sense," said Weiss. She found herself actually smiling eagerly. "So...I can probably diversify the potential effects even further if I apply the crystal's Etheric Energy to them."

"That's right," said Hayate. "Although, to start, we should just apply Etheric Energy to your current set of glyphs and see what happens. Then we can begin experimenting with applying different effects and creating new glyphs to diversify your abilities."

Weiss nodded. Her heart was beating faster. She was eager to begin trying right away. It had been a long time since she'd felt so completely enthusiastic about her training. Even when Jaune had talked her into going back into training under Ozpin, she'd been doing it from a sense of obligation, obligation to herself as well as her friends of course, but obligation all the same. But now, she found herself truly wanting to experiment, and see the full potential of what she could create if she pushed the limits of her abilities, practicing what she had already learned and taking it to a new level.

"Unfortunately, it's getting late," said Hayate. "We'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to start with this."

"That's all right," said Weiss, smiling widely.

"I guess we should get back to the others," said Hayate. "It's almost dinnertime, I think."

They stood up, Hayate collecting the sheets of paper he and Weiss had been drawing on. Before they could start walking, Weiss abruptly seized Hayate in a hug. "Thank you for everything," she said, kissing his cheek.

Hayate blushed furiously, rubbing his cheek where Weiss' lips had been a second earlier. "I-it's n-not a problem," he stammered, his awkward behavior, after being so assured earlier, making Weiss giggle.

They made their way slowly in the direction of the courtyard. "I've been meaning to ask," said Weiss, "why have you been doing so much to help me?"

"I don't really know for sure," admitted Hayate. "I've seen you on television screens from time to time. I remember seeing a couple of your concerts and watching you fight in the Vytal Festival Tournament." He gave her a shy smile. "I really liked your singing."

Now it was Weiss' turn to blush. "Thanks," she said shyly.

"But I noticed that your songs always seemed kind of sad," said Hayate. "That...or angry."

Weiss blinked, her heart skipping a beat. She'd had people constantly praise her for her singing, for the beauty of her voice, for the brilliance of her compositions. They had all said countless things, but never those things, even though it should have been incredibly obvious. It seemed that most people were too afraid of her father to bring up how much her songs referred to the rift between them, and the negative effects he had on her life.

"I'd built up the SDC in my head as some kind of monolith," said Hayate. "I assumed that you were all the same, that you were all for exploiting the faunus, doing whatever it took to maximize your profits, even if it meant exploiting others. But, when I saw you up on stage, singing, I couldn't see that in you." His cheeks turned pink. "And I thought you were really pretty."

"Thank you," said Weiss.

"But, basically, I thought you reminded me of myself," said Hayate. "You had so much anger and sadness, but you didn't know what to do with it, so you let it out through your songs, or channeled it into your fighting."

"You were like that too?" asked Weiss.

Hayate nodded. "I was born in a small village in the north of Anima. We were a mixed settlement of humans and faunus, but there never seemed to be any sense of conflict between us. We didn't have a lot, but it was more than enough to suit our needs. We were well situated, which made it easy to keep the Grimm out without beefing up our defenses too much." He sighed despondently. "I guess that's what made us such an appealing target for the bandits."

"You were attacked by bandits?" said Weiss, the bottom dropping out of her stomach.

Hayate closed his eyes and nodded. "They came in the night. The few fighters we had tried to protect us. They held out for a while, because the same natural barriers that kept the Grimm out helped us keep the bandits out. But they were persistent and clever. By the time day broke, they had found a way into the village and began to ransack the town. They killed anybody who resisted and set fire to everything that would burn." He shivered. "I was too young to understand much about it. It seemed like they were doing it all just for the sake of killing and rampaging, for the sheer love of destruction. They were worse monsters than the Grimm."

Weiss paused. Grabbing Hayate by the shoulders, she hugged him from behind, pulling him against her chest and resting her chin on top his head.

Hayate barely seemed to notice. "Of course, then the Grimm came. Our defenses had been wrecked, our defenders killed by the bandits. There was nothing to hold them back anymore. They swarmed in and started killing everyone. It was total chaos. The Grimm killed villagers and bandits alike. Bandits killed villagers, and villagers killed bandits. I think the bandits may have started turning on each other at some point...Everything just stopped making sense..."

Weiss hugged him a little tighter.

"Then Kyo and Sasame showed up," said Hayate. "They annihilated the Grimm. The bandits attacked them and died as well. I remember seeing them fight." His eyes became misty. "It was amazing. It was like they were a force of nature, and no one or nothing could stop them. By that point, I was the only villager left..."


"Well, what do we have here?" said Kyo, peering around a set of boards leaning up against the side of the burnt out husk of a building. "I've found a survivor."

A tiny boy with short, silver hair crouched behind the boards, brandishing the knife at Kyo, a look of quiet fury on his face.

"Is he hurt?" asked Sasame, peeking around the boards herself. Her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp at the sight of him and the myriad cuts and bruises that covered his body. "Oh, you poor thing. Come out and I'll see to those wounds."

The childlike girl reached towards the boy, only for him to slash at her fingers with the knife. The blade bit deep, nearly severing one of them. But the cut vanished almost instantly, making him reel back in surprise.

"Sorry, I'm not that easy to hurt," said the girl, beaming at him. "Won't you come out? I promise we won't hurt you."

The only response she got was a soft growl as the boy brandished the knife again. "I think there are some things you can't heal so easily," said Kyo. He gently pushed Sasame back. Then, in a sudden motion, he pulled the boards away, throwing them aside and exposing the boy. The boy flinched, but didn't lower his knife or try to run. Instead, he continued to level it at Kyo and Sasame with dark determination.

"This is no good," said Sasame, resting her hands on her hips, her fox-tail lashing in the air behind her. "He's lost everyone. There's no one else left in the village, nothing for him to take solace in." She sighed. "At the same time, we've already killed all the bandits and Grimm responsible. There's no one left for him to take revenge on either. At this rate, all that anger and sadness is just going to build up inside him. He'll be a ticking time bomb."

"Perhaps we should simply end his suffering," said Kyo, beginning to draw his sword.

The boy responded by snarling and holding up his knife, his arms shaking from a combination of nerves and exhaustion.

"Oh..." said Kyo, a smile appearing on his face. "It appears you're not quite ready to die then. You have strength." He slid the sword back into its sheath, and he turned to Sasame. "Let's take him with us."

"What?" yelped Sasame.

Kyo had already turned back to the boy. "If you come with us, you can become strong. You can gain the strength to change the world, to do something with the anger and sadness raging inside you, rather than drowning in it. Come with us and find your purpose."

Kyo stretched out his hand, holding it for the boy to take. The boy stared at the hand uncertainly, not sure what to do. The knife in his grip began to shake, its point wavering. Kyo merely waited, keeping his hand outstretched, meeting the boy's eyes, refusing to let his gaze to slip away.

Finally, the knife clattered to the ground and a small set of fingers closed around Kyo's own.


A lot of things to cover about this chapter. First and foremost, the bit about Haruka being the Dissenter of the Taishiro was inspired by the book, World War Z, and its accompanying film. In World War Z (tho book, at least), Israel manages to get through the zombie apocalypse by being the first country to take the threat of zombies seriously. And, even then, they initially didn't. However, thanks to the concept of the "Eighth Man" (I think that's what it was. It's been a while since I've read the book or seen the movie.) where, in their intelligence community, if the other seven people in the room are in agreement, then it's the eighth man's duty to disagree, they manage to learn about, then address the growing zombie crisis, and save their country. That was the kind of role I had in mind for Haruka, when I thought about her position in the Taishiro. It's more flavor-text than anything else, but something I thought would make a good addition to the backdrop of the story.

The concept behind Hayate's interpretation of Weiss' Semblance is actually based on something I'd come up for an original work I'd been planning, namely creating a system of magic based on the idea of essentially creating your own language, whereby you create your own letters, which have meaning, which then combine to become words, sentences, and so-on, with their overall meaning being the spells that are formed. Said story has never been written, largely because I have yet to come up with an actual plot for said magic to be used in. So I decided to put it to use in this one.

Hayate's history has some parallels to Akira, from the original Samurai Deeper Kyo. In the original manga series, Kyo (not the Kyo in this stories, but the original one) found Akira in a destroyed town...maybe one that Kyo destroyed himself, it's not all that clear, really, and basically adopts Akira into his retinue. What follows isn't of much interest to anyone but other SDK fans. I personally came to the conclusion that Kyo wasn't behind the destruction of Akira's hometown, but that Akira and his family might well have been targets of a religious purge, namely because Akira and his family were Kirishitan (the Japanese term for Christians). You can actually see that in Akira's actions through the series. Quite a few of Akira's higher-tier attacks reference crosses, Heaven, and Hell. His ultimate attack uses the image of Mary, the mother of Jesus herself. At one point, he even references the story of the Tower of Babel, which most Japanese people at the time would know nothing about. So my interpretation of Akira's background was that he and his family were part of a Japanese Christian community, which were subsequently purged, with Kyo wandering in in the aftermath, and finding and adopting him.