RWBY: Revenant
By Endbeats
Chapter 25: Before – Team Assignments
Liu sat in the same, foggy meadow as before, only this time, he was the visitor. He walked towards the same rock he had always sat on, finding the usual black-haired woman he talked with in his dream. Upon seeing him, the woman's face lit up and she patted beside her.
"Ah, Liu! Come sit down! I'm just admiring the sights of Mistral. At least, what your mind conjures."
Liu nodded and sat down to the left of her. "Strange you're here first."
"I'm an early-bird, I guess you could say. Anyways, how are you?"
Liu smiled. "Good."
"I suppose you worked out the issue that was going on."
He nodded again. "My team is back together again."
The woman chuckled. "That's great. And what about you?"
Liu looked at his hands in reflection. "I think for the first time since I've come to Beacon I've come to realize how important my friends are. I don't think I can give up on them anymore, so I'm going to get stronger. I need to get stronger."
The woman laughed. "That's more like it! I have high hopes for you then." With that, she suddenly touched his back, which made him jolt off of the rock.
"Ah! That scared me! What was that for?"
The woman tilted her head before realizing what happened. "Oh! I'm sorry, you just remind me so much of…"
In the distance, a set of mushroom clouds rose from the ground at a constant pace, the sound nearly deafening to Liu. He looked to the woman, who could only wave goodbye as she disappeared into the mist. Liu was then left alone as the wind's pace grew ever faster. His feet, as strong as they were, could do nothing as he was eventually blasted away with the rubble and rocks that flew past him.
Liu awoke to the sound of cymbals, played by Sagitari and accompanied by the fast-paced assault from Orphiucha against that team leader as she screamed curses.
"You… idiot! Why did you wake me up like that?" Orphiucha yelled.
Ursus had a sleepy look just like Liu's. Both of them had no idea what to think. At the very least, they were far too tired to get angry at Sagitari.
"I can't help it," she responded to Orphiucha, "Today is the day we get our team assignments!"
"Team… what?" Liu mumbled.
"Team assignments! We'll be tasked to work alongside hunters and huntresses across the kingdom of Vale! We're pretty much just shadowing their work and seeing what they do! It's like an extended field trip!"
"So you bought cymbals in anticipation," Ursus pieced together.
"Yep!"
In this small distraction, Orphiucha grabbed the cymbals from Sagitari's hands and proceeded to throw them out the window. A delayed and muffled sound of a cymbal crash resounded from down below. With that accomplished, Orphiucha jumped back into bed and said, "We have a few more hours before we go. Just let me sleep."
Sagitari, however, was not the kind of person to give up. With Orphiucha laying down, Sagitari jumped onto her bed, encircled her hands around Orphiucha's laying torso, and threw her backwards off the bed in a suplex. She then stood back up triumphantly over the unconscious faunus. "Anyone else want to go back to sleep?" Sagitari said with a mischievous smile.
Needless to say, Ursus and Liu dashed to the bathroom.
Liu froze in front of the screen that listed every team's assignment. He read his team's line just about twenty times before the reality of the situation really sunk in.
Team SOUL: Grimm Tracking and Hunting – Eastern Vale
Assigned Hunters: Kang Xiu, Sagino Euro, Cameron Cid
It was rare to get more than one hunter for a team. This was an exception, though. They weren't following a hunter.
It was Liu's dad, and his bodyguards, Uncle Sagino and Uncle Cam. If this wasn't supreme embarrassment, Liu didn't know what was.
"Did you find our team, Liu?" Sagitari inquired from behind.
At the sound of that, Liu jumped in front of the screen, not just confounding his team, but aggravating the other students who tried to look. "There's nothing to see here!"
"What's going on?" Orphiucha asked
"Get out of the way, idiot!" a random student yelled.
Before any more arguments could occur, Sagitari came forward and pulled Liu aside. Try as he might, he could not fight back against her strength. A sound of relief came from the crowd once he was removed, but it did not reflect Liu's tense feelings.
"You know, we should use a different TV! This one is a little messed up. How about that one, or that…?"
The distractions proved fruitless and his team members' faces showed great excitement.
"No way! We get to shadow one of the great generals of Mistral?!" Sagitari cheered, literally jumping for joy.
"Not only that, we get to meet Liu's dad," Ursus added.
Orphiucha smiled and chuckled a bit, eyeing Liu with pleasure in his embarrassment.
Liu looked down in defeat.
"Oh, don't be like that, Liu! I'm sure we'll have a great time, and your dad will love to see your progress. Maybe he can even give you tips on how to use your scarf!"
"Have you practiced with it, anyways?" Orphiucha asked.
Liu grabbed the end of the scarf on his neck and pulled it off. "I've tried a bit, but…"
He summoned his semblance and pushed it in the direction of his hand. Involuntarily, the electricity jumped into the scarf and shot it around like flag in the wind, though nowhere near as strong as on the roof after the dance.
"I can limit the electricity a bit, but it's still nearly impossible to move the scarf like how I want it to."
"Well, we'll figure it out these next two weeks," Sagitari said.
Liu nodded as he sucked the electricity back. "There is one thing I can do, though."
Before he could explain his findings, his scroll suddenly rang in his pocket. Hesitantly, he looked down at the screen, and saw his father's text: Come to the docks with your team. We're gonna do some pre-trip preparations.
Liu and his team came up to the Mistral-colored airship at the end of the port, where his father and the two bodyguards stood. Sagitari was at the forefront of the group, jogging her way to Kang Xiu while Liu and the others walked over calmly. Of course, Liu complained to himself, Dad just had to bring out his personal airship. Unlike when he first came to Beacon, Kang wore combat equipment, perhaps clothing that he had desired to put on since he accepted the position of general. Attached to his back was a two-handed metallic claymore, enchantingly named Wind's Thunder. He and his bodyguards were passing money between one another, which Liu guessed could be about who was the strongest member. Though he wasn't a betting man, Kang Xiu was always open to new things, and Liu could guess Sagino was the one who brought it up.
"S-sir!" Sagitari spoke in between breaths as she arrived in front of Kang. "I'm very pleased to meet you!" Liu face-palmed seeing Sagitari practically droll in amazement at his father.
Very seriously, Kang looked down at her and said in a grim tone, "Isn't it customary to salute or bow to the general?"
Sagitari's expression quickly did reversed, and she bowed. "I'm very sorry, sir!"
Liu stopped himself as he saw his father stare angrily at the girl in front of him. He was flabbergasted. Never before had Kang ever acted like this. Perhaps he was having a tough time at work, or he didn't sleep well, or…
The general's straight mouth slowly started to curl as sounds of chuckling escaped from his closed lips. Then, like a fountain, he started laughing, followed by his bodyguards. "I'm just messing around! Sorry…"
"S… Sagitari."
"Sorry, Sagitari! Man, you should have seen the look on your face!"
Sagitari stood there speechless. "Well, look here," Orphiucha kidded as she arrived beside their team leader, "It's not every day that you see Sagitari become the butt of the joke."
"Dad! What was that for?" Liu groaned once he finally arrived near the airship.
Kang turned towards Liu, and expertly grabbed his son and rubbed his head. "Son! How's my champ doing? Sleep well last night?"
"Dad! Seriously? Not here!" Liu pushed his father away in embarrassment. "Hello, Uncle Sagino, Uncle Cam."
Uncle Sagino was still laughing like the jolly guy he was. "Hey there, Liu! Haven't seen you in a long time!"
Cam slightly chuckled. He was the most elegant and calm of the three, though he still took part in their shenanigans. "Don't you remember when we traveled with them just a few months ago?"
"Oh! Forgive this old man, Liu! I seem to be losing my memory."
Kang laughed and moved beside Sagino and Cameron. "Yeah, if only you were a bit less careless, then you'd be able to remember those twenty lien I let you borrow!"
Sagino still kept chuckled. "Oh, no! I'm not falling for that again!"
After Kang got his laughter under control, he turned to the four students. "Well, nice to meet you all! I'm glad to finally see the team members I've heard so much about! Can you all tell me your names?"
Sagitari started. "Sagitari Kaus!"
"Ursus Polaris."
"Dad, you know me already!"
"Orphiucha Rasalhague"
Kang Xiu stopped at Orphiucha and looked very closely at her. "You… look very familiar. Who are your parents?"
Once Orphiucha started to make a worried face, Sagitari reflexively spoke up. "Sir! Do you want to see our weapons?"
Kang shook himself out of his stupor and nodded. "Great idea, Sagitari! Actually, before we leave, why don't we have a friendly game?"
"Dad, are you really doing this?" Liu grumbled.
Kang laughed. "Come on, this is important for the mission! I want to see how all of you fight. So, anyone want to go first?"
Immediately, Sagitari raised her hand. "Oh! Me! Me!"
"Alright then, let's start!"
At the edge of the port, Sagitari and Kang sparred, though a game of tag was more like it. Sagitari punched all she could in order to hit Kang, but his experience allowed him to dodge all of the attacks with ease. This had been going on for nearly five minutes.
"So, I suppose this is the best you can do?"
"Not yet!" Sagitari smiled. She then activated her semblance, giving her a higher level of strength and speed. "Now you'll have no way to dodge!" Bringing her fists together in excitement, she dashed towards Liu's father once more with triple the speed from before.
The challenge made Kang grin a bit, who finally pulled the sword off his back. This time, he was finally forced to block attacks with his sword as well as dodge, though Liu still knew he wasn't being pushed to his limits. Besides, he didn't even try to attack back, instead testing Sagitari's strength by playing defensively.
That was until she began a new strategy. A rare sight, the team leader jumped backwards and changed her brass-knuckles into mini-pistol form. Once at a far distance, she changed her direction and came forward again, this time shooting as well. Ranged-attacks, however, proved little challenge to Kang, who blocked, slashed, and dodged every single bullet that came towards him.
That was what she wanted, however. Resetting her left weapon into a brass knuckle once more, she-
With speed faster than experienced by Sagitari, Kang came forward, just in front of her. The teleportation-like movement shocked everyone, even Sagitari. The result forced her to panic, and caused her to switch back into close-ranged mode. She threw her usual barrage of punches, but they instead became more erratic, some even missing. In this moment, Kang hardly had to move, letting the punches move around him, or misdirect them with his sword. This exchange showed that he had this in the bag.
Or at least what's what Liu thought.
No one noticed when Sagitari's missing punches redirected themselves into hooks, but they almost caught Kang by surprise. His expression reflected shock when her left hand grazed his cheek, and forced him to dodge backwards. Such a loss of ground, however, allowed Sagitari to gain the rhythm of the battle, and she hardly gave the general a time to relax. She sprinted forward with no reservations, as Kang kept smiling.
Then, Kang put away his sword. The action confused Sagitari who, in a mere few milliseconds, faltered, and her punches lost the strategic level of movement they had before. Seeing this, Liu already knew who would win. Kang put his hands into the shape of c's and held them out at the incoming combination of punches.
Sagitari threw a light jab.
Kang redirected it to the left.
Sagitari threw two quick jabs.
Kang redirected both at the same speed.
Sagitari threw a strong punch with her right arm.
Kang moved aside, grabbed her bicep and forearm, and threw her over his shoulders.
Sagitari landed and dashed forward yet again, and threw out a running hook.
Kang didn't move, and the hook passed the front of his face. Then, grabbed Sagitari's
face, kicked the back of her legs, and threw her down into the ground. Finally, he pulled his sword out and stabbed into the ground, beside her head.
"Good, good," Kang said as he patted the dust off his hands, "You almost surprised me."
He held his hand out to Sagitari, who laid on the ground, still shocked. She took a while to accept it. "Th-thank you, sir!"
"Think nothing of it," he then turned to the three others. "Now, who will go next?"
Ursus was quick to raise his hand in anticipation.
After the best member of the team went down quickly, Liu assumed Ursus would fall far more easily. Still, Ursus was not one to give up. The instant the spar started, he stabbed his spear into the ground, raising the concrete floor around Kang and trapping him in a circle. Ursus himself stood on top of the perimeter that he had just created, a good fifteen feet in the air. With another stab, the circle speedily shrunk, hoping to crush Kang in the center of it all. What occurred next, though, Liu easily predicted: his father jumped out of the top with ease as the floor crumpled under him. While his opponent was in the air, however, Ursus released the chained blade out from the shaft and threw it into the air. The blade quickly whipped around in the air, hoping to get a successful hit on the general.
Liu sighed.
"What's up?" Sagitari asked. She and Orphiucha had a puzzled look.
"I've just seen my father fight long enough to know that that attack won't work."
Sagino and Cam snickered at that. They, too, knew how the fight would end.
Still in the air, Kang took his claymore from his back and blocked every single time the blade came towards him. Then when the chance presented himself, he intentionally caught his sword inside of Ursus's chain. Sure, it did look like it was all of part of Ursus's plan, but Liu knew his father could never fall for such a plot.
Ursus tapped his spear once more, activating the chain to come back. As expected, Kang's sword, and effectively Kang himself, were pulled to the ground with it. Ursus grinned and put his hand on the ground, changing the floor into a quicksand pit. Then, the true plan of the general occurred: Kang gave a quick yank then let go of the sword, letting him land to the left of his team SOUL opponent. Without any time to rest, Kang kicked Ursus' stomach, grabbed his sword once it was in range, pulled it out of the chain, and finally put the flat end of the weapon on the back of Ursus' neck. It was absolutely flawless.
"Good try," Kang said as he returned his sword to his back, "You still have a lot of potential."
Ursus bowed. "Thank you, sir!"
Sagino cursed and whispered to Cam, "Looks like I owe you fifteen lien."
"Now," Kang looked at the two remaining students, "Which one will go next?"
Neither Orphiucha, nor Liu dared raise their hand.
"Okay, then let's go, Liu!"
Liu took his scarf and wrapped it around his left forearm before the fight started, just past where the short sleeves of his shirt ended. Even if his control over the scarf was weak, there was one thing he could make it do, and that was constriction. He had discovered this by accident only last week. Once his scarf was completely surrounding his arm, he could inject his semblance into it. Liu didn't understand too much, but it seemed the scarf hardened significantly when he put his electricity into it and pulled on it just ever so slightly. Through tests that gradually used more force, Liu found that the metallic scarf acted like a shield in this form. This would be a good time to test it out in battle.
The start of the battle made Liu realize how much he had grown. His pose reflected the confidence he had gained since the start of the semester. He now held his one-handed leaf sword with one hand rather than both, instead relying on his left hand for blocking attacks with his scarf. His dominant foot stood outwards while his left foot aimed perpendicular to where he was looking. His left arm was slightly tucked into his body while its hand was curled into a fist as if he were going to use it to punch. It was a stance that felt very comfortable, as well as revealed to Liu what his fighting style could potentially become.
Liu shook his head. He couldn't think too much about that. He knew his father would not be the one to attack first, so he charged forward, sword and scarf at his side. He had to show his father how far he had come.
Once in distance, Liu started with a wide, very predictable, vertical slash, and though Kang moved away with no difficulty, he had a big grin on his face. Perhaps he was pleasantly surprised to find his son could attack now. Liu couldn't let that go to his head, though; he came forward once again and released a quick set of slashes, none of which had the same speed as Sagitari, nor the strength of Ursus. This allowed his father to dodge all of the attacks with ease.
Liu couldn't leave it like this, though. He had to get an attack out of his father, and he had an idea how to do so. He continued to attack more and more, which his father reacted against by simply dodging backwards. Yet, that was what he wanted. Just a few more and steps, and…
His father's eyes widened when he stepped into something soft: The quicksand pit left behind by Ursus' fight. Liu had no doubt his father could get out of the sand, but the delay gave him the chance he needed to bait his father to use the sword.
Liu unleashed a strong horizontal strike. Seeing the blade coming his way, Kang took out his claymore and held it vertically to block the attack. Once Liu's sword bounced back at the larger weapon, Kang then brought his sword down on his son, lacking the strength he would have used in a true battle. But, Liu wanted this test. He expectantly held his covered left forearm against the incoming blade. Once the sword met with the scarf, Liu was surprised to find that the scarf managed to block the strike, with Liu only feeling the slight touch of pins and needles through his arm. His father seemed surprised too, but he didn't let that stop him.
Instead, Kang back-flipped out of the sand, and landed on the other side of the sandpit. Liu tried to release his scarf in the hopes of grabbing him, but like before, the scarf just simply flapped around like a flag. His father looked at the scarf in confusion.
"S-sorry," Liu muttered as he pulled the scarf back.
Kang, perhaps ready for the fight to end, jumped over the pit and started his own attack against Liu, just after his son managed to wrap the scarf back around his left forearm. Seeing the sword come towards him horizontally, Liu held his armored arm forward, pushing the claymore away. Again, his father came back with three more quick strikes, which Liu blocked once more. Strangely, each hit seemed to bounce off of his scarf as if Kang's sword was being pushed away. That, however, did not prevent the pins and needles feeling, which got stronger and more prominent each time he successfully blocked a slash.
Finally, his father brought his sword back with a serious amount of force that frightened Liu a bit. That being said, Liu was confident in his arm, so he felt it up once more, even if the next attack would be powerful. Once the claymore came into contact with his arm, however, the pins and needles feeling peaked, and after the sword was bounced back one more time, Liu felt his semblance shoot back into his body and leave the scarf limp. The feeling of such a sudden change made him shiver, and he could barely move. Like all the fights before, his father took this advantage and put the flat end of the blade against the side of Liu's torso.
"I'm impressed," Kang said with a smile.
"I didn't do well, though." Liu's shaking stopped quickly, allowing him to move and put the scarf back around his neck. He still felt the feeling of disappointment coming from his father, hidden behind the prideful smile.
Kang shook his head. "You did fine, and you've grown tremendously. I even remember when you couldn't hit someone! You're very different now, and that scarf of yours is helping immensely! May I see it?"
Liu nodded and removed the scarf from his left arm. He then handed it to his father, who closely evaluated the weapon. "It's interesting how it managed to block not just one, but five of my attacks."
After the quick check, Kang handed it back and turned to Orphiucha. "Alright, missy, are you ready?"
Orphiucha started her fight by slapping her batons together, changing their colors to red and blue. After noticing the three failing from trying to attack him directly, Orphiucha instead chose to attack at a distance, slashing waves of fire and ice at Kang.
This caught Kang off-guard, who for the first time had to actually run around in order to get away from the beams. Waves of red and blue passed through the dock, but none could hit him. Those that managed to get close enough were swiftly cut apart by his claymore. The general continued to run in a circle around Orphiucha, but each completed circumference seemed smaller than the one before. He slowly, but surely, was making his way towards the center, where Orphiucha continued to fire her dust waves.
However, Orphiucha quickly knew this was happening, and instead made the inevitable dash towards Kang. As she moved forward, though, she hit her batons together and changed them to yellow, indicating lightning.
The instant he saw that, Liu knew she was going to lose faster than any of the others.
"Orph! Don't use lightning!"
The warning came too late, and she had already swung her batons down on his sword. Once that happened, however, the light of her batons immediately disappeared, and Kang's sword instead glowed with the light yellow color.
"W-what's happening?" Sagitari stuttered.
"My father has one of the strongest lightning semblances you can find. When Orphiucha chose to use lightning, she unknowingly gave him her whole dust stash."
"No way…" Ursus muttered.
Kang held his sword up in the air, which continued to glow. Rather than use it, however, he slashed to the left, in the direction where no airships or people stood. While he released the energy the same way Orphiucha did, his wave of energy was several times larger than her's. The energy flew into the distance where it eventually dissipated, leaving Team SOUL stunned.
Well, save for Orphiucha. She was rarely fazed by anyone. Immediately after he released the lightning, the faunus girl came forward with her powerless weapons and slammed them against the man's sword once more. Using her fast speed, she jumped around, striking then jumping back and forth against the unmovable statue that was Kang. No matter where she attacked, however, the general easily blocked them all.
After several attacks proved fruitless, Kang grabbed the two batons in mid-attack and pulled them away. He then brought them forward against their user before stopping just before her face.
"Not bad," he said, "But why didn't you use your semblance?"
Orphiucha pulled her batons from his grip and blushed in embarrassment and how quickly she lost. "I don't have a semblance."
Kang gave a puzzled look. "I'm sure you do. Semblances always manifest in people. There's no case where someone isn't born without it."
"It… got stolen."
Kang nodded hesitantly. "Okay…"
With that ended, both walked back to the side of the airship. "Now, then, here's what we're going to do: For two weeks, we will be working in the Valeian forests hunting grimm, and relatively strong ones at that. That being said, I have confidence in all of you. The four of you will be going through intense training during our time out there to help with it. All of you have something that needs to be worked on, so I hope you all will-"
Suddenly, Kang stopped talking and looked at Orphiucha in shock. "Wait a second, your last name is Rasalhague?"
Orphiucha looked a bit flustered and looked away. "Y-yes?"
He then snapped his fingers. "That's how I knew you! You father married a faunus woman with the last name of Rasalhague! Isn't his name… Agustus?"
Finally, the cat was let out of the bag. Whatever unspoken deal Sagitari and Orphiucha had had failed, and the past, or at least some of it, had been revealed. Orphiucha immediately turned away without responding and entered into the airship, her facial expression completely blank except for her eyes, which spoke a million words of pain. Sagitari looked down in shock, as if her mission had failed.
Who was this man? Liu had no knowledge of Agustus, but one thing was true: He had brought pain to Orphiucha.
(Author's Note: Thanks for reading another long chapter! We're getting into another character arc, so I hope you'll enjoy it. If you like this series, favorite or follow it and give me a good review! Or not, either is okay. Anyways, have a good night and God bless! ...Oh, you're still here? Well... uhh, what's a good rwby OC fanfiction on this website? I must say, I kinda prefer OC fanfiction stuff. They don't contradict exist character qualities, and people have the creative liberties to do whatever they want. It even seems like the RWBY universe is kinda perfect for OC stuff. Anyways, THIS TIME, have a good night and God bless! ...are we off the air, now? Come on, shut that recorder off! Shut it o-)
