RWBY: Revenant
Chapter 23: After – The Search for Liu
Being a bodyguard should be a nice and cushy job. Movies and TV shows always made it seem worse than it actually was. Especially becoming a bodyguard in the military? Why, that was the easiest job of all.
Then why was being Kang Xiu's bodyguard the worst thing to do? Josephine wondered this as she took cover behind a building, dodging the gunfire aimed in her direction. She scratched her dark blue, short hair, though her winter gloves provided no comfort for her itch.
"Ha, ha! What a surprise, huh?" her senior soldier said as he landed besides her, his thin, naturally grey hair flopping down as he created a small hole in the snow. He proceeded to run directly into the gunfire, his giant sword dragged by his side. Once in close distance to the bandits, he jumped in the air and threw his humongous sword into the ground. The impact created a large crater where the bandit wall once stood. At the sight of the explosion created by this man's awesome strength, the bandit guards started running towards the center of their base.
The older man, once he landed, pulled his sword out of the ground and turned back to where Josephine hid. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come on!"
Josephine groaned. It was cold. It was dark. Regardless, she consented and ran to her senior officer's position. She also snapped, activating her weapon, a set of ten, floating daggers that she controlled with a remote on her hand.
"We're going to get in, look around, and get out. Fighting is optional, but fun." The man was literally smiling.
"Captain Sagino, aren't we bodyguards? Why are we attacking a group of bandits?"
"We're under orders from Kang! Besides, we need to keep the peace!"
Josephine sighed and rolled her eyes at hearing him say the General's first name without a title. "You just like to fight."
The man laughed. "That I do!" He then proceeded to charge forward, followed by a hesitant Josephine. In a matter of seconds, however, the couple became surrounded in the base center, an unorganized mess of tents and crates. From every corner, these bandits appeared: the snow, the bushes, the watchtower, all of them with guns.
The leader of the bunch walked out from one of the tents nearby with a scowl. "May I ask under what jurisdiction my group deserved this attack?" she asked quietly.
Captain Sagino waved. "Hello! This is an attack under orders from General Kang. He's not too happy with what you're doing to the nearby villages. Besides, we're looking for someone. A kid by the name of 'Liu,' though apparently he calls himself 'Soul' now."
The woman pointed forward with rage in her eyes. "Shoot them!"
Upon orders, all of the guns pointed at the two fired at once. In the same amount of time, though, Josephine activated her plethora of daggers. Her speed didn't allow a single bullet to even graze her as she dodged and blocked them all. From her peripherals, she could see Sagino doing things his own way: blocking and taking every bullet, which he refused to let slow him down. In fact, it seemed as if he was getting faster. Once he got close to a bandit, he slammed the flat side of his sword into them, launching them several feet into the distance while breaking several bones in their body.
Josephine had to focus on her own issues at hand. She continued to skillfully move out of the way of the guns, waiting for the right moment to attack. She watched and waited, focus on one younger fighter with a machine gun who hid in the watchtower. He kept spraying without any sort of care, but that gave her what she needed. She watched and watched and…
There! Once the bandit had to reload his gun, Josephine shot one of her remote daggers at him. The blade pierced him in a non-lethal way, effectively incapacitating him. The distraction of the attack gave her the chance to move forward, and using the daggers as makeshift stairs, she climbed up onto the elevated watchtower where a group of five gunners were. Again, she used the surprise to her advantage, and shot five daggers out at once. Every single gunner fell to the ground, in pain but alive. With a snap of her remote finger, all the weapons she shot out returned to their sheaths lined all on her back. Even if she wanted a lazy life as a bodyguard, she worked hard for that life, so handling bandits proved no difficulty. It was just inconvenient to her.
With the gunner at the tower gone, she look down from her position to see the battlefield Captain Sagino had created. Any sort of bandit on the ground looked about as close to a corpse as they possibly could. Meanwhile, Sagino was covered in blood- both his and others- dashing from person to person. Some would try to fight him in hand to hand combat, but it proved fruitless as the Captain's iron-strength body only hurt to punch. Josephine had tried herself.
Josephine shook her head and looked around for the bandit leader, who was escaping at the back of the camp. With a snap from a different finger, Josephine released two daggers and jumped onto them. Using her hand as a controller, she flew out of the tower and chased the leader as fast as the daggers could fly, and snapped again to release two more daggers to fly at her side. Some bandits below tried to shoot at her, but her speed and distance gave her the cover she needed to keep from getting hit.
Once she came above the running leader, Josephine front-flipped in the air, grabbing the daggers she rode on, and dived below, directly towards her target. Such a fall could kill a person, even with snow to break their fall. It could even do major harm to a regular soldier. But Josephine's semblance strengthened her aura beyond what a regular soldier could do. In fact, if semblances were ranked from A to F, Josephine believed it was an A+. So, she confidently fell onto the bandit leader.
In a millisecond, Josephine slashed her daggers vertically and back flipped in order to land on her feet just behind the bandit leader. She didn't need to see that her target was hit, she just had to listen to the leader scream in pain as her hands fell off from her arms. That was enough.
"Congratulations on your successful mission, captain!" one soldier said to Josephine as she walked through the occupied camp. All bandits were alive, albeit heavily injured, giving the military the ability to come into their base. She didn't want to end this with fighting, but it had happened anyways.
Josephine simply nodded to the soldier. To the military, she was a genius, managing to become one of the General's bodyguards in only a year after graduation. Of course, that didn't give justice to the amount of work she put into her school life. Work that was meant for an easy and well-paying job.
Captain Sagino, wrapped with bandages like a mummy, walked towards Josephine and sat down beside her. "Kid! You did a great job last battle."
"I'm not a kid! And we wouldn't have gotten into that battle if you didn't go running in!"
Sagino just laughed. "Oh, come on, as if you didn't enjoy yourself!"
Josephine grunted. She did not imagine her job would turn out like this. She got promoted to the job of her dreams, and the first thing she has to do is go searching for the General's brat? If it didn't jeopardize her job, she would kill General Xiu's kid once they found him.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered as she saw General Kang walk towards them. He had a persistent look of worry on his face, perhaps due to his missing child, but it didn't stop anything he did, especially his job as the country's general.
"Sagino. Josephine. I heard your success here."
Josephine stood up and saluted. "Yes, sir!"
Sagino, however, simply nodded. "I'm sorry, general, but we didn't find Liu here."
Josephine gave Sagino a stare for mentioning that, but Sagino had a worried look rather than a relaxed look. As laid back as the man was, he genuinely cared for General Kang, in more than just physical protection.
Kang nodded back. "Well, don't worry. We've saved several villagers because of this mission."
Now that the topic was brought up, Josephine mustered the courage to ask. "Sorry, general, but have you heard anything about Liu's whereabouts? It's only been a few days since we went to the port he was supposed to be at."
Kang shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I received word from Belladonna confirming that he did take the boat back, and the captain told me he landed in the port only a day before we arrived. Liu must have run away the instant the boat dropped him off."
Josephine nodded. "I'm sorry, general."
Kang gave a forced smile. "Don't worry, Josephine. We'll find him. I just worry what condition he'll be in, both physically and mentally."
With that said, Kang left without even saying goodbye. Yet, an anger rose in Josephine. Anger towards this kid she had never met. Why did she have to watch as Liu made his father suffer? It confounded Josephine, and her anger was apparent through her clinched fist.
"Captain," she asked, "Why are we looking for this kid? Why is General Kang looking for him?"
Sagino frowned. "He's the son of Kang. Why wouldn't we?"
Josephine gritted her teeth. "He's also killed and harmed several people, hiding behind the name of Soul. Belladonna even told the general how violent Liu got in Menagerie. Knowing that, should we even look for this kid? He's-"
"Josephine," he replied, "Shut up."
She nearly recoiled at her elder captain's unusual response. Sagino sighed when he saw her do so.
"Liu is Kang's child. You don't understand the strength a bond between a parent and a child can be."
Josephine tapped her foot in confusion.
Sagino continued, "Do you know why Liu is doing this?"
Josephine shook her head. "What is it that warrants his actions?"
"Liu was a student at Beacon Academy, Josephine."
Just that sentence stopped Josephine's foot tap.
"He wasn't a student before the fall happened. No, he was a student exactly when it occurred. He had friends die- no, he watched friends die. In fact, he himself nearly died. After the fall, he was in the hospital for a few months, completely asleep."
Sagino looked down. "But when he awoke, Liu was completely different. It was more than just PTSD. It was like… a great emptiness consumed everything inside him. No more happiness. No more sadness. Just… emptiness. Kang believes, then, that Liu hopes getting revenge on those behind the fall of Beacon will fill that emptiness."
Sagino put his hand on Josephine's shoulders and looked her in the eyes with a hopeful smile. "It's our job to stop Liu before he discovers the truth."
"What truth?" Josephine asked.
"The horrible truth behind revenge."
Josephine stood in front of Kang's office door upon orders from Sagino as they rode the general's airship back to the capital. When she started only a few months ago, she always stood at attention, believing it would be the most physical work her job would force upon her. As proven by Sagino, however, body guarding never required that level of formalities. So, she simply listened to music in one ear while doing a large amount of random activities, usually involving her daggers. For today, she was practicing balancing all of them on her ten fingers.
Carefully, she counted in her head, as if a single thought would have blown the daggers away. Two-hundred forty-five, two-hundred forty-six, two-hundred forty-seven…
Without warning, a hand touched Josephine's shoulder. Rather than jump in surprise, though, she channeled her training, and immediately threw all ten of the daggers in the air. With a quick snap and a twirl, she took control of her weapons and directed them at the one who touched her.
Captain Sagino chuckled fearlessly as he looked around at the daggers surrounding him. "You got some reflexes, kid."
In his hands were two plastic bowls of soup, one of which he raised towards his fellow bodyguard. Josephine snapped her fingers and sheathed her daggers, then grabbed the bowl. "You left me in charge of guarding the general, just for you to go to the cafeteria? What if he was attacked?"
Sagino laughed. "Please. Even if you were beaten, the attacker would still have to deal with the general, and you know that he's no pushover."
Josephine nodded. It was true that the general was, quite honestly, the strongest person she had ever met. A powerful weapon. A powerful semblance. Reflexes quick enough to cut a bullet in half. Even when he held back in sparring with Sagino and Josephine, General Kang won a majority of the time. That was, after all, the reason she thought being a body-guard for him was the perfect job. Nothing to guard. Of course, her expectations were shattered, and it became apparent to her that this job was more akin to a direct subordinate rather than a body-guard.
Sagino calmed himself and patted for her to sit down beside her. "Take a seat, kid."
Josephine obediently sat down beside him quietly. Sagino slowly stirred his soup. "I'm sorry for telling you to shut up before."
Josephine shook her head. "Don't apologize. I understand why you were so serious."
Sagino shook his head as well. "No, I hate those kind of people who are too serious," he sighed, "Did you know that the general and I were best friends back in the day? There were three of us: The general, me, and Cam. We were in the same classes in primary school and the same team in our academy days. We vowed to compete for the position of general, and the losers would be their guards. Kang won without any sort of competition from us. So, we became his personal guards."
Josephine looked down once she saw the look of pain on Sagino's face. She knew she was replacing the position of Cam. "I'm sorry."
However, Sagino just chuckled his sadness away. "What are you sorry for? You didn't do anything! I'm sure he would consent to you taking his position, Josephine, so look up!"
Josephine looked up to see Sagino's eyes glitter slightly in the light. "Besides, the past can't be changed. Of course we shouldn't forget him, but we shouldn't focus on the past either. All we can do is focus on what we have now. Kang knows this, too, and that's why he's trying to get Liu. Because he's something that's in the present, not in the past."
Josephine nodded. "I'll… remember that. I'm sorry for my frustrations, captain."
Sagino grinned. "It's Sagino, Josephine. You often forget we're the same rank. I'm just a little older is all."
Josephine smiled back. Before they could relax, however, a messenger dashed towards their position.
"Captain Josephine! Captain Sagino! I have a message for the General!"
Sagino slowly got up. "Hold your horses. What's going on?"
The messenger gave a tablet to the man. With a few careful swipes, he got to the message that was of great concern for the general.
Josephine pulled herself up as well, asking, "What's the message about?"
Sagino made no response. His eyes moved left to right as he read the message, and soon his expression changed from confusion to gleeful surprise.
"We need to tell the general!"
Kang Xiu crossed off another position on the Mistral map, ticking off where he predicted Liu would not be. In frustration, he slammed the pen on the table and walked towards the window, looking out towards the distant ground of Mistral. "Where are you, Liu?" he muttered to himself.
It had already been four months since he search had begun, or at least his scouts searched for him. It pained Kang that he couldn't go out himself, but under law, such an act by the general was not allowed, especially when it involved the land of other kingdoms. Thus, all he could do was receive reports and arrive after the fighting had occurred.
Kang pushed his fingers through his black hair and returned back to the table where his tablet and map lay. He had to keep looking through his scout reports, checking what areas could and could not be where Liu was. Before he could pick his pen back up, however, a knock came at the door, followed by the entrance of Sagino and Josephine. Both smiled.
"General," Sagino said before Kang could even respond, "Liu's in Mistral."
General Kang sighed. "Is this a joke, Sagino? We know this!"
"Err, sir, we don't mean that," Josephine said. "He's in Mistral. As in, the city."
"Mistral City?" Kang checked.
Sagino nodded. "Yep! Mistral City!"
Without a moment's thought, he grabbed the intercom. "Whoever is piloting, turn our position to Mistral City!"
"General, sir," Josephine said again, "We're already en route there."
"Oh," General Kang said in forgetfulness.
(Author's Note: Hello! Thank you for reading this current chapter! Follow, favorite, do what you want. I do hope you enjoy it, though! Anyways, I wanted to say how my idea for this story started. Usually when I play games or watch TV, I always seem to unintentionally create original characters in that certain universe, always separating them from the path of the actual main characters, and just try to imagine how their story goes on. Some of those stories, I wouldn't mind writing on this website, but for now, I'm focusing on RWBY: Revenant. I started with just Liu post-fall of Beacon. I didn't even give him a voice in his head when I first imagined the story, but slowly, I started to develop him into the character he is now. Then, when that was done, I created his teammates, then all their backstories, and I realized writing a double-plot story from different times would be very interesting. Anyways, see y'all and God bless!)
