A/N: This is a good day. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is coming out at the end of the month, I'm steadily making my way through A Song of Ice and Fire (hoping against hope that Winds of Winter will be out by the time I'm done with A Dance with Dragons [a long way off to say the least]), my passion for classic anime was recently reawakened with Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, and we've now passed 700 reviews.
These are several things that I never thought would happen in my life, especially when I started writing this story. At this point, all the bombastic praise available to my still expanding vocabulary wouldn't be enough to show just how much that means to me. So... thank you. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and have a wonderful day.
Also: Gore and Violence warning for the flashback scene in this chapter. Viewer discretion is advised. If you're uncomfortable with that kind of thing, this is one of two warnings.
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 54: Cautious Respite
Izuku had awoken with a murky mind, disoriented as to just where he was. With a great deal of effort, he lifted himself from where he laid with his eyes half-opened, bringing a hand up to rub his face and return blood flow to his eyelids. That was also when his free hand shot down to his side to clutch at a particularly sore spot on his lower torso, the clouds in his mind slightly parting at the suddenness of the pain.
Kinda regretting going after that Beowolf pack right now, he thought to himself. It wasn't as though he and Yang hadn't been unprepared to deal with them. Hell, from the vantage point they initially had, it would've seemed foolish not to pounce on the opportunity that had appeared before them. However, that never meant they could be prepared for absolutely everything. Namely the fact that the pack had been much larger than they'd thought, with two Alphas in the main group and a Great Alpha almost the size of an Ursa to bring them all in line.
That had been a hard fight. But there had been a town not far from where the pack was. It would've had to be a fairly mid-sized rural community, and quite closely knit with a few veteran hunters and soldiers at hand if they'd managed to survive this long without help from Mistral. At least, that's what they had guessed at a first glance. They didn't really know how the town worked, not even the name of the place was known to them. Yet they decided to protect them all the same.
And still Izuku lifted himself from the bed and dragged himself to the door of this strange place, the details of the room he'd been lifted into already fading from his mind. He needed to make sure she was alright. There was no way she was dead, Yang was too damn stubborn and too damn tough to let herself get killed by Beowolves, but he felt an overwhelming need to see her face. Then he could let himself rest properly.
There was a problem with this plan, however. Izuku's sense of balance seemed to have left him in his sleep, as his wounds ached badly enough to almost deliberately keep him at as slow a pace as possible. Every third step with his right foot demanded that he lean against the wall for support. He didn't regret trying out that new technique, since it had succeeded in what it was meant to do, but he had not thought through how exactly he was going to land afterward.
The sound of feet clattering up the stairs didn't stop Izuku's slow but steady forward progress. However, whoever had come up did save him from a painful fall, though they groaned under their breath with the effort it took them to sit him in a stool that had been left in the hallway.
The boy who had helped him was now clearly visible to him now, with black hair and a thin frame edging towards lean from what he assumed to be farm work. He only got the slightest glance at his mixed hazel eyes, though he could see flecks of green within both of his pupils. In fact, it was upon seeing those for even the barest second that activated Process for the first time in days. The gaps between activations, conscious or otherwise, were slowly but surely starting to get closer together.
The boy's soul seemed normal at a glance, the almost metallic hazel coloration he saw emanating from the sphere telling him that this boy already had quite the strength of character. He might make a good hunter, but that wasn't for Izuku to decide. But then he saw a second orb overtake the first, a light green hue, familiar yet foreign, emanating from it.
It didn't take him much longer than that to realize they were circling each other, always staying within the confines of the boy's chest. He had two souls. At the very least, that was what it appeared to be. Izuku didn't have much longer to observe this, the boy rushing downstairs to alert everyone to his awakening, but the green-haired inheritor would have to ask him about what he'd just seen later. Process had never failed him once, but that didn't mean he understood all the ins and outs of how it worked.
Not yet, at least.
The first to come back up the stairs looked battle-hardened enough, with a jagged scar that ran from her right temple to just below her left eye marring her otherwise average face. Her skin was lightly tanned and splattered with freckles that were particularly intense around the bridge of her nose and shoulders. She had bright red hair was held in a high, short tail, which, in addition to a pair of worn jeans dotted with holes and a similarly weathered tank top, gave an air of preparedness, even in what he assumed was her home. Izuku did not want to cross this woman, despite her shorter than average stature and seemingly thin but lean frame. Literally everything else about her were signs pointed towards an experienced fighter. Maybe even a huntress at some point.
However, she was also the first to check his pulse and test his senses, and went through a few other quick checks that Izuku knew weren't in the first aid training he and some of the others had undergone. She had probably been the one to bandage him up like this. He could only assume that Yang was in a similar boat, wherever she was at the moment.
The second woman who came up the staircase looked to be of a similar age of the woman who had finished making sure he wasn't in any danger; late-twenties to early thirties; with a head of brown-red hair done in a chin-length bob cut and a pair of thin, diagonal scars lined with almost perfect symmetry across her cheekbones, nearly invisible to an untrained eye. She stood a head and a half taller than the other, and in contrast wore a dark brown turtleneck sweater and form-fitting black pants, in addition to heeled leather shoes. One of her arms was actually in a cast, and judging from the fact that she seemed unfamiliar with navigating with only her other arm, it was definitely her dominant one.
"How's he doing?" she asked.
The one who checked him quickly stood back up and answered, "A bit out of it for now, but otherwise he seems fine."
Izuku tried to speak, nervous about the whereabouts of his blonde partner, but his voice was weak, and barely left his throat in a slight rasp. His throat felt parched and dry, as though he hadn't drunk anything for at least a full three days.
"Hey, relax," the taller woman said as she handed him a glass of water. "Drink it slowly. Don't want you retching it up."
Despite his apparent and immediate dehydration, Izuku did as she asked and drank it slowly, the coolness clearing his head as he finally had a clear mind and a wet throat to speak.
"Well... guess we should get introductions out of the way. I'm Beth," the shorter woman said. "The idiot with the cast is Shino."
"Hey..." Shino said in mock-threat while Beth held a sly smirk on her face. "... fine, I'll give you that one."
"... it's nice to meet you. I'm Izuku," the green-haired inheritor replied. "Sorry to be so abrupt, but is Yang okay?"
"The blonde one? As far as we know, she's still in the room we put her in," Shino said. "She'll probably be up soon if she's not awake already."
"Can I see her?"
"Sure. But once she's up, we're going to ask you some questions," Beth said. "You know, the standard 'why are you here' stuff."
After that, Izuku was led to where Yang was currently resting, a room on the same floor near the mid-point of the hallway. The caretakers allowing him to enter the room alone, as they sensed he wished to. The room itself was fairly simple: smoothed over oak wood with a few decorations and features scattered scarcely about it, and a single bookshelf that barely came up to his waist. Two moderately sized windows sat at the edge of the room, letting sunlight filter in and catch the dust particles in the air, making them look as though they were glowing gold in the soft rays.
And in the bed placed in one of the far corners of the room, staring down at the blankets that still covered her lower half, was Yang, who was currently covering the scar on her right arm with her other hand, as though she was afraid someone might come in and ask questions once they saw it. Luckily, it didn't take more than a second for Izuku to find the rust-colored bandanna on a small table against the wall, his footsteps quiet as he plucked it from the surface and made his way over to the blonde brawler.
"I believe this is yours?" Izuku asked, a smile inching its way across his face when Yang turned to him, almost sighing in relief as she gave a similar smile.
"It is indeed, my good sir. It's got plus five resistance to flame damage, so I would much appreciate having it back on my arm," Yang quickly quipped back, referencing her unusual comfort with hot temperatures over the past few months.
The bandanna was quickly exchanged, and Yang wasted no time in tying it over her scar. Or she would've if not for the fact that, thanks to the bandages, her movements were pretty stiff, making her unable to finish the knot.
"You... need some help with that?" Izuku quietly offered.
"No, thanks. I can... do thish myshelf..." she responded as she finally got the other end in her mouth. This also caused a needle of pain to suddenly lodge itself in her neck, causing her to drop the bandanna as her hand moved to where she felt it spring from. "Damnit!"
"... I'll take that help now," Yang relented as she massaged the spot of pain on her neck.
Izuku chuckled at that as he moved to put the bandanna back onto her arm, wrapping it twice over and gently giving it a neat knot. "There we are. Good as new."
"Thanks," Yang said. "... so, can we both agree that not having a full grasp of the pack's size was kinda stupid on our part?"
"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I shouldn't have jumped the gun," Izuku apologized. He hadn't exactly been thinking straight when they realized the potential threat the pack posed, and he wanted to deal with them as quickly as possible.
"It's not like I exactly helped with the situation. I think I might've pulled a couple more of them with all the screaming," Yang admitted. Their battle had been rather earsplitting, but her fighting style was simply a lot louder than his by design, despite the fact that they both used a form of buckshot.
"That uppercut was pretty impressive, though. I think you flew at least fifteen feet and blew that Beowolf's skull to bits! Although I think keeping the name is going to raise a few eyebrows. And you could definitely work on the landing," Izuku mentioned.
Yang gave a bashful smile. "Well, I always wanted to say it at least once. And like you're one to talk about landings, Mr. No-Tuck and Roll."
"Touche," Izuku responded. The two of them then had a chuckle at their respective screwups. It felt good to look back on that kind of thing every once in a while, and maybe have a laugh or two at your own expense. Even though this did take place yesterday, it was still kinda funny in retrospect.
"... let's never do something that stupid ever again," Yang said.
"At this point, we can only try," Izuku pointed out, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before they got into something equally dangerous. They'd be more prepared next time, though.
"Touche."
After a few more seconds of awkward silence, Izuku quickly realized just how close he was in proximity to Yang. Worried about how much weirder this would make things between them, he started to back away, only for Yang to grasp at his hand as it left the bedside. It was gentle, but also firm. She gave enough leave for him to get out of it if he wanted to, but tight enough to give her some reassurance.
Izuku gently squeezed back and helped Yang out of the bed, the covers falling away to reveal that she was still wearing some of the same clothes she had previously, only missing her signature jacket and boots, leaving her with plain bandages and her crop top to keep her modesty intact. He was in a similar boat, having only his slacks to his person, his cloak, vest, bits and pieces of armor, boots, and shirt currently nowhere to be seen. They'd have to ask after their clothes once they got through answering Beth and Shino's questions.
But, as Izuku was going through that train of thought, Yang had chosen that moment to pull him into a full-on hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaving no space between them. The warmth she seemed to generate was something to behold, soothing the sore spots still present under his bandages by sheer proximity. Izuku slowly let himself relax into it and gently put his own hands around her hips, and causing his already rapid heartbeat to ever so slightly spike.
"Thanks... for talking to me," she whispered in his ear, tightening her hug slightly in accompaniment of the scarcely heard shake in her voice. "It's good to... feel like some stuff is still normal."
That was when Izuku realized Yang had almost had a panic attack. Waking up alone, not knowing where she was despite the peaceful atmosphere... he would've been similarly off-put if he hadn't been so determined to make sure she was alright. It was one of the reasons no one in the group liked to leave her alone for too long.
Was she having thoughts similar to his about this kind of intimate physical contact? Maybe. But right now, she needed to feel like something was still normal. Even when their breaths were hitched and shaky, and their heartbeats were going so fast they were practically in synch.
Izuku didn't know how long it took for them to disentangle themselves from that embrace. It felt like hours, and each move away from it felt... wrong, somehow. But they had to focus. They could deal with their confused feelings later. Right now, they had some questions to answer. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too specific.
Slowly, Izuku led Yang from the room she'd been kept in, his hand in hers as their footsteps quietly echoed against the smooth wooden floor. Beth and Shino, noticing Yang's uncharacteristically timid nature, let them take their time getting downstairs, briefly disappearing to hand the both of them plain white t-shirts to further protect their modesty. Luckily, it didn't take very long for them to throw the shirts on, though they did help each other out a bit due to the stiffness their bandages left them with.
It didn't exactly help that Izuku could swear Beth had a teasing gleam in her eye for no longer than a moment before reverting back to her default stone-faced expression.
The hazel-eyed boy from earlier was sitting at a mid-sized table downstairs, with a boy with dark hair and a brass horned red hat sitting across from him, the former anxiously tapping his foot against the floor while the latter glared daggers into the wood in front of him.
When they approached, the hazel-eyed boy straightened his back, keeping his eyes on them the entire time. The other boy gave a passing glare, like they were something he considered unwelcome, but made no move to otherwise acknowledge their presence.
Shino and Beth took the two spots directly across from where Izuku and Yang chose to sit, with the hazel-eyed boy directly to the green haired inheritor's right.
"So... let's start with the obvious. Why are you here, specifically?" Beth said, leading to a long few minutes of question after question after question. The two hadn't let their fingers separate, even once they'd sat down, but Izuku knew that probably meant the world to Yang once they'd started talking. He was nervous too, especially since they couldn't exactly give them clear answers to some of the questions without telling them... well, basically everything, and putting them in even more danger than they were already in.
They did, however, tell them everything they could about the bare basics and left out as many of the finer details as they could. They about their travels through Anima as hunters in training to the city of Mistral, and told a minorly modified story of the attack that happened in Oniyuri, that they'd been on the run from one the assailants but hadn't seen him in days, and how they'd inadvertently underestimated a Beowolf pack because they hadn't seen its full size. And that was where their story caught up to the part at the farmhouse. It was relatively short, but it had to be. Any more details would've given the chance for further questions.
"... well, that at least clears a few things up. You're free to stay here as long as you need to recover, but we're going to have to keep vigilant for this person that's after you. It'd probably be ideal for you to leave as soon as you're fully recovered," Beth said with an almost uncanny understanding of their situation despite lacking most of the details.
"That's actually what we were thinking too. Thanks for having us," Izuku said.
"We'll do what we can to help out while we're here," Yang offered.
"We'll let you know if anything like that comes up. In the meantime, I suppose it's about time we introduced you to our nephews," Shino said as she stood and walked to the head of the table. "The tense one to your right is Oscar. The younger one is Kota. I hope you'll get along with them."
The now named Oscar gave his aunt a brief glare, seemingly embarrassed by his descriptor. Izuku took pity on him and held out his hand, saying, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Izuku Midoriya."
That was when the boy looked down at Izuku's and, then up to his face, then down to his hand again as he finally realized what was happening and shakily grabbed it and shook. "I-I-it's nice to m-meet you!"
Izuku felt a pang of DeJa'Vu as he realized Oscar's fear. It was similar to his own when he first met All Might and most of his friends. Wait... did he... no way, that couldn't be possible. He hadn't even made his debut yet.
"I'm Yang. Ditto to what greenie said," the blonde brawler introduced herself in kind, holding up a peace sign with her left hand and a cheeky grin across her face. She briefly squeezed Izuku's finger lightly before letting go of the handhold.
"Kota? C'mon. At least introduce yourself to them," Beth said with a hand on the boy's shoulder, though it looked as though he were having none of it. Still, Izuku tried his best to not be one who judged by appearances, and rose from his place to greet the now named Kota.
"Hey there. I'm Izuku Midoriya. I'm a hunter in-"
And suddenly, in a flash so quick that not even he could predict it, Kota's hand formed a fist and buried itself just below his navel in a blinding jab of a punch. It hadn't been as low or as damaging as it could've been, but Oum damn did it hurt.
He stumbled back as Yang rushed from her chair to his side, easing him into a sitting position on the floor before turning back to Kota, a hint of red beginning to overtake the normal shade of lilac. "What the hell is wrong with you?! He's already injured, and all he did was try to introduce himself!"
"Hmph. Hunter? Don't make me puke," they heard him retort with a coldness that a child should never possess. "You're just-"
"Kota. Room," Beth said with an eerie calm in her tone with an edge iced just enough for him to have no real choice but obey, loudly stomping up the stairs with the short woman at his heels, slamming the door to his room behind him as Beth waited at the entrance.
"I'm sorry about Kota. He's... complicated," Shino said as she came to Izuku's side, helping Yang raise him from the ground and put him back on his feet.
"... yeah, I noticed," Yang said, the statement void of any sarcastic tone it would've otherwise held.
After Izuku could stand on his own, Shino stepped back and said, "Please don't hold it against him. He... he hasn't liked hunters of any kind for a really long time. He doesn't even like me and Beth very much. I think the only reason he bothers staying around is that he has nowhere else to go."
That was unusual. Izuku couldn't think of a single kid from his entire childhood that didn't want to be a hunter someday. Sure, there were those who eventually lost interest, or, rarely, scoffed at the very notion; but someone Kota's age? In his experience, Kota would've been like him and Bakugo, eating up everything about hunters they possibly could. Clothing, weapons, fighting styles, semblances. There was literally nothing more enticing during that time in their lives.
Even though his curiosity and worry about this boy burned with the intensity of a massive inferno, he held his tongue. It wasn't his place to pry. If someone wanted to tell them, then they'd tell them.
"I-I'll... uh, check on the roots," Oscar said, excusing himself from the table and the awkward situation it had brought not a minute earlier.
That was when Beth came back downstairs, a sigh heavy on her lips as she smoothed over her fiery red hair. "He's not coming out of there for a while. Best to just... leave him to his devices, for now."
And that was where the conversation surrounding their stay ended, an ominous note in the air.
(meanwhile, the Belladonna household, Sun's POV)
Sun's eyes fluttered open involuntarily the first time, having had just enough rest to let the light peek through his eyelids. He was about to close them once more and return to the hold of slumber, but a sharp pain in his shoulder suddenly sent endorphins rushing towards his head.
Clutching at the wound in an attempt to dull the pain, Sun tried to lift himself up from wherever he was laying, barely raising his back two inches from the mattress only for a firm hand to grasp his shoulder and push him back down. "Easy there, gunchucks. Don't hurt yourself right after you woke up. Besides, you've got some questions to answer."
That voice could only have belonged to Bakugo, though the tone he used was softer than he was usually used to hearing from the boy. Sun then noticed that Neo was currently peaking over the ashen blonde direwolf's shoulder to look at him with a curious but still concerned gleam in her eye. The fact that her eyes seemed to change color every time she blinked didn't help with the growing headache.
"Keep him here, okay Minty? I'll get Ghira and the medics," Bakugo said as he walked towards the entrance to the room, briefly stopping before turning back to say, "And wake up Blake too. She's gonna want to hear whatever his answer is."
The blonde monkey faunus was left temporarily confused as he tried to lift his other hand and respond, only to feel it being burdened by something atop it. That prompted him to actually turn to his left and see that Blake had fallen asleep on it. In most other situations, he would've woken her up and teased her about it, maybe make her blush in that adorable way that really brought out the amber of her eyes.
Now, when he looked at Blake, eyes peacefully closed, a stream of saliva lulling down the side of her cheek and onto the sheets; all he could focus on were the deep but fading bags beneath her eyes. How badly had she been worried? Had his injuries really been that bad?
Damnit. Stupid, impulsive hypocrite, he told himself. He was supposed to be helping her get over her troubles, and here he was, making her worry about him instead.
By the time Sun had finally worked up the nerve to wake her up, Blake had already begun to rouse on her own accord. Slowly, she lifted her head from its former place on the bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then stretching her arms over her head and giving a long yawn to further relate her to her faunus counterpart. It was honestly kinda adorable.
Then, lazily, with eyes half opened and sleep still hanging about her head, Blake glanced around the room, only half paying attention until she finally saw him. There was a brief spark of recognition at first, followed by a hand further wiping away what sleep remained in her eyes and allowing them to fully open and see to what lay before her: Sun, injured and recovering in bed. But alive and well all the same.
Rather suddenly, tears began to line her eyes as she reached forward and grabbed him by the chest, pulling him close to her as she could in a firm but still moderately comfortable embrace. This was also when he noticed that Neo happened to slink back to the further reaches of the room and let them have some modicum of privacy. Even if that wasn't exactly at the top of Sun's priorities at the moment.
"Thank you. Thank you for waking up," Blake said buried her face further into his uninjured shoulder.
"What's there to thank me for about that? All I did was have a good rest, right?" Sun said, trying his best to recapture some of the humor and optimism he was known for, and actively failing in that regard.
If Blake noticed this, she made no mention of it. It didn't stop her from continuing. "You... damnit, Sun, that wasn't just a rest! Your internals were so screwed up you were having constant seizures before we got any medical people over here, and your heart kept stopping and starting and stopping again and... I didn't know if you were going to live through it or not, and I... damnit, I can't..."
That was all she could manage to say before she broke down in tears once again. Sun mentally slapped himself twice over, once for making light of the implications of his own death to someone who was deathly worried about him, and the other for being so reckless with his own life and temperament in the first place.
Slowly, with all the patience and caution of one handling a bear, Sun put his good arm around her, returning her hug in kind as he tried the best he could to reassure her despite his own doubts weighing heavily on his mind. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not the easiest person to deal with, friend or otherwise. So, I won't say 'don't worry about me,' because I know you won't listen to that. Not after... everything that's happened. I should've told you guys when you first started getting concerned. Would've made this a lot simpler. But... here we are anyway. Sorry."
A whimper escaped Blake's lips as her tears wet his shoulder. They stayed for what felt like an eternity. There was no passion, no anger, only a mutual moment of understanding and regret between two souls who desperately needed to become fully stable. Perhaps this could help to reach that end in some way, shape, or form yet unknown to the two. Time would only tell.
It didn't take long afterward for the medical staff to enter the room along with Ghira and Bakugo, giving him all the basic tests to make sure that he was indeed okay.
"He'll have to recover for the next few days, but otherwise he'll be back to normal in no time. Make sure you don't strain yourself during that timeframe, alright young man? That means no training, no running, no lifting. Just rest and recover for now," the medic said with all the sternness of one with an abundance of experience dealing with his type: one who thought they could work through the pain and get even stronger because of it.
Of course, Sun had more than realized by this point that not listening to advice from a majority of medical professionals would be incredibly stupid, and simply gave a firm nod.
And so, with eyes on him from every which way, he breathed a sigh. He'd honestly hoped he wouldn't have to tell the story... at all, really. Hope being the key term. And so, the story began, and all the unpleasant memories it held came with it.
"It started the moment I got back down to Vale. There was fire everywhere, to the point that the smoke began to blot out the night sky..."
(five months ago, Vale under siege, Sun's POV) (GORE AND VIOLENCE TOWARDS THE END. FINAL WARNING)
He hadn't expected everything to be as bad off as it was. Yeah, he knew there'd be damage, maybe some injuries ranging from minor to major, but he knew that they could handle this. All Might, the Black Reaper, and Endeavor were all here, in the same place, after all. The biggest gathering of Big Four members in years would surely be enough to keep everyone safe.
How naive that hope had been.
Instead, the first thing he was greeted by was the heat, both literal in temperature and metaphorical in battle. Gunfire could be heard in both the distance and nearby, and screams of both fright and pain filled the air. Orders bellied and reactions came and went. And this was supposed to be the end of the battle.
Yet still, despite his own fear and trepidation at this, Sun still kept moving forward, through flame and rubble, through Grimm and gunfire. He wouldn't stop until he'd found all of them. Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune. He couldn't stop.
As fast as his legs would let him, he wound his way through the city, calling out their names whenever he could. The blonde monkey faunus had no idea how long he'd been searching for, but it still felt far too long. He should've found them by now. What happened? Were they okay?
Still, he pushed on, making his way into a damaged building that had faint embers licking at the woodwork. Oum, he hoped the building wouldn't catch fire. The first floor was bare and empty, save a few dissolving Beowolf corpses alongside on of an Ursa, and the bodies of a few of the several dozen AK units he'd seen backing up security during the festival and attacking students outright shortly after the fighting had started.
And the blood. Dear Oum, there was so much blood. It had been splattered onto the walls like paint from a bucket, covering some part of every surface in the room. The corpses of the Atlas military personnel didn't bode well for whoever was upstairs.
Forcing down his growing sense of nausea, Sun raced up the flight of stairs, his shoes audibly stepping into wet spots and even a puddle of what he knew to be blood. Still, on he went, prepared to help any survivors who'd managed to make it upstairs.
He wasn't prepared for what he found.
A last stand had been fought up here. Brutal, long, and bloody was the tale that the room told, with Grimm fading left and right, and even a few bodies of White Fang Elites were littered about here and there. This had been about survival. Not honor, not glory; survival, at any cost.
And it had been for naught. In the middle of the room, impaled on his own sword, was Sage, his once glowing, golden eyes glazed over and as dead as he was, blood sticking to his dark skin, matting his hair, and staining his coat as he shielded another body. He couldn't tell if his sacrifice had been worth it. Nor did he care. His friend was...
Why... why do I feel so hollow? Sun asked himself as he walked towards his fallen friend. Why am I not... why can't I...
Sage was supposed to be their strongest. The bloodbath that led here more than proved that. But it shouldn't have cost him his life. Not with the sheer density of his aura.
Then, he heard a cough not ten feet away from where Sage laid. Struggling to their feet was a manic looking Fang elite, their mask cracked and ready to fall to the floor and shatter into shards, the only expression Sun was canny to being the satisfied smile that graced a mouth of twin rows filled with serrated teeth. But the only thing that Sun felt when he saw that look was nothing but pure, unfiltered rage.
Suddenly, he was across the room with his fist buried in the elite's face, sending them into the wall they'd been leaning against. "WHY?!" he heard himself scream, grabbing the elite by the neck and hoisting them up by a single hand with strength he didn't know he had. "WHY?!"
A cough escaped the elite's lips before and explanation did. "Why?" asked a baritone but distinctly feminine voice. "You should know why, dear brother-"
A gut punch silenced her, causing a fit of coughing as Sun's glare somehow hardened even further. "You're no sibling of mine! Now answer the damn question!"
"... because, this is our first step. To getting what we want. If humans will not respect us, then they shall learn to fear us! As they should! Why do you think the faunus were given these abilities that humans were not? Keen senses, innate weapons, the silence of a shadow and so much more! Do you not see? We were never made inferior! We were better than them all along! And it is time they learned their place-"
Another punch to the gut. "I said... Answer. The damn. Question."
"What... *hack* … what does it matter? The reason should not matter to those of greater birth, brother. Why would we bother remembering? They're all scum anyway."
…
GRIP!
With a firm, torturously painful grip on the elite's face, Sun slowly lifted her even higher, tightening his grip ever so slightly as he suddenly, and swiftly, smashed her head into the wall, causing blood to start trickling from her head. Then again. Harder. More blood. Anger, boiling in his stomach and clawing its way up his throat like a parasite. One that he welcomed.
"HE!" SLAM! "WAS NOT!" SLAM! "SCUM!" SLAM!
"MY FRIEND!" SMASH! "WAS NOT!" WOOSH! "SCUUUUUUUUUUM!"
And with that final cry, he brought his hand down and slammed the elite into the floor, her head exploding into a bloody mess as it finally split open with a sickening, wet crack. Emotions welled and mixed inside his mind. Was he guilty? Disgusted? Or, worst of all, was he satisfied with what he had just done?
He didn't know the answer to that. All Sun did know was that his friend, his teammate, was dead. And he couldn't stop it.
But then, cutting through the haze and the confused feelings, he heard someone cough. It came from right next to where Sage lay dead, and then he knew, he knew, that his death wasn't for nothing. He had to save this person, no matter who they were. He wasn't going to let his friend's death be in vain.
He hadn't realized until later that the one Sage had saved was Neptune, who was now in a months-long coma and showed no signs of waking up. And he could never find Scarlet in all the wreckage, even long after Sage's body had been recovered and sent back to Mistral. By all accounts, he felt that he was truly alone in the world.
(the Belladonna household, Blake's POV)
Blake... had nothing to say. She'd suffered hardship, racism, violence, manipulation, betrayal... but dear Oum, what she just heard from Sun was something she wouldn't wish on anyone. Not even the worst of the worst.
Judging by the silence that the others held with sealed lips, clenched fists, and grit teeth, they felt similarly. Even Bakugo; the hardass, ever taunting, ever infuriating Bakugo, felt the need to put a hand on Sun's shoulder, a physical show of his support, before whispering "I'm sorry," under his breath before he turned and slowly left the room. Neo had no words to type or sign, and she too left the room shortly after the ashen blonde direwolf did. It seemed that Sun's story had brought about some unpleasant memories for them.
Her own father had sat down next to Sun; a boy that, until now, he had only tolerated because of her insistence, and simply waited, a silent understanding seeming to form between the two of them.
Blake's own feelings on the matter, however, seemed to range from wanting to burst into tears to giving Sun a death-hug. But her shock at what she'd just learned prevented her from doing either.
But something, she didn't know what, urged Blake to comfort him however she could. So slowly, with a tender but hesitant touch, she brought Sun's head to her shoulder, as he had done for her just minutes before. He had a sudden breath at that, as though he were surprised she would do so.
"I... there are no words in this world that can lessen the pain you've gone through. For that, and so, so much more, I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry," Blake said as she let her hug tighten a bit. "We're here for you. All of us. Even when it feels like you're the only person in the world. So please... please stay with us."
A few seconds of deafening silence. A slight shake from Sun's body, followed by a wet sensation on her shoulder. He was crying. Had she any more tears to spare from her eyes, she'd give them, despite the fact they were red, puffy, and dry.
"O-okay," he said, his voice holding the same shake as his body. "B-but... t-that goes for you too."
"... you got it," Blake said as her chin rested top Sun's shoulder, her eyes deciding to grant her wish as a single tear ran down the corner of her eye. She wasn't going to let her friend suffer in silence anymore. She wouldn't let him make the same mistake.
A/N: And that's all we got for this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I had one heck of a time writing it, especially the flashback scene. Yes, I am indeed a sick and demented soul. I am a DM, after all. And now:
Review Responses:
Uruk-Hai: Very true on both accounts! I hope this was satisfying! And I will say that reasoning does make sense for Smaug. There's a reason dragons don't exactly band together a whole lot.
Odin's Eye: Glad you enjoyed Whitely! I may have had a bit too much fun writing Sun's flashback scene. I'm not entirely sure why outside of the possibility of my DM persona.
KongKing94: Yes, indeed it was. The White Fang are now an active presence in Menagerie and no longer just a rumor, so I'm hoping that'll shake things up a bit. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless of the lack of fight scenes.
Gojifreak: Indeed.
Black Fang: Well, less pissed and more silently understanding, a far cry from who he was at the beginning.
Madmagusmax: During his next fight scene.
DD Lore Nerd: I hope it will be too, especially after that... more than tense and awkward introduction to Kota.
Thunder Dragon: Of course I don't hate him! (he says after he just finished writing one of the most brutal scenes in the entire story thus far) I just thought a shift in motivation could really help his presence in Menagerie. Doesn't mean it's gonna be pretty, though.
Guest: Thank you!
HumbleBee 1: Yeah, that was one of my favorites to write out. Bakugo really doesn't give a flying f*ck at the start of the story.
HumbleBee 2: That was just something I liked to write down every now and again. I've always imagined Iida as left-handed for some odd reason. I'm actually a righty myself.
Leviathan's Heir: Well... they didn't go that far. Heck, they didn't even kiss. There was a lot of emotional and sexual tension though, I can say that much.
Phoenix Wizard: Erm... I guess this chapter answered your question. I hope you enjoyed the flashback, however brutal it was!
King Ceasar Jr: They'll all get together by the end of the Mistral arc. If you're referring to Izuku and Ruby's groups specifically, they'll reunite towards the start of the arc.
Mecha Manda: Indeed! I always thought Whitley could make for a good anti-hero, so I did my best with him!
Kaiser Dragon: Hmm... take a bit of a raincheck on that one. Or... actually, just wait a bit longer! I haveth an idea most holy!
Alright! That's that dealt with. And now, this:
Next Chapter: Jul. 26th
Huh. That's pretty close to my birthday. Oh well! Seeya in the next one!
