Okay, so this chapter is gonna be as large as is in recent memory, mostly due to a series of situations when it came to work.
That, helping someone move, moving horribly heavy furniture, and just spending damn near my whole day over at another place just kind of sapped my strength, gosh damn.
Nothing to really add here, have some fun.
~NRK~
Night had fallen, Obito could see the darkness of it from his window.
Good, he'd need not just that window open but the moon high in the sky for being able to tell time once he got out of his room..
The day had come to an end rather easily, Qrow said that he'd be taking up a room in Beacon. Yang and Ruby he'd taken to their hotel room where their father was.
Velvet and her siblings had retired to the female Faunus's room while Coco did the same with her room. The fact she was about one room down was news to him.
But now, with all other familiar people gone or asleep, he had his chance.
He'd spoken to Olivia a bit more about the patrolling cycles of the medical ward's employees.
He'd have an opening of about an hour before he was checked up on again, the idle clacking of a nurse distancing itself from his room.
Since he was off of any IVs and/or needles in his arms, getting up and out of his bed was easy. The more annoying part were the cameras in the room. Or, really, they should have been.
He stretched as he watched the cameras slowly moved about the room before stopping and then going back in the other direction.
Warmed up enough, even though his body felt light enough as is, he went back to bed and pulled the sheets over his head.
The cameras continued their slow swivel and were none the wiser as the lumps under the sheets shrunk slightly.
~NRK~
He appeared in his training ground and nodded at the silence that greeted him.
With everything that happened, Junior closed the place down for a bit to not call any attention to himself. For the best, really, as anybody looking into downtown would be more vigilant. Best not to have his men loitering about and possibly causing trouble.
Obito moved to the target station of his training ground before standing in front of one of targets within.
He raised a hand and looked down at it, remembering the event from yesterday.
What had this transformation done to him? Everything about it was confusing him.
From what the doctor said, he was going to have some form of flight, essentially turning into a Faunus. What were the repercussions of this? The new nerves bothered him as is because he had to train to lower his pain tolerance around those.
That Fire MOD had sort of summoned something into his very soul. The idea was… not unfamiliar to the former Uchiha.
All he had to think of was Orochimaru, the man's machinations weren't unknown to Obito. Hell, he doubted they went unknown by damn near everybody.
That aside, the man's Curse Seal of Heaven came to mind upon learning more of his current predicament. Was it like that? Likely not so, he was literally being changed on a cellular level…
His eyes widened as his Sharingan sprung to life before he looked down at his bandaged arms and grimaced.
Every time he looked at them… he got this feeling of anxiousness. Something was off about his body and he'd already seen the signs in his teeth.
What was he to see when he unfurled his bandages? Would he learn more of his current transformation? Or would it confuse him further?
So many questions held behind a few layers of binding cloth. He… He needed to know. He couldn't let this information shock him later.
He reached for the bind on his bandaged right arm and pulled it away before slowly unwrapping himself.
The action was simple, quick if he wanted but something about this single thing felt like it went on forever.
He unraveled the brown bandages, being mindful to remember the Dust string Vallen had tied to his middle finger.
When he began to reveal his skin, he stared.
He stared hard.
Black skin, literal black skin, looked back at him. His Sharingan focused and widened further as he observed the phenomenon that was his arm.
Red vapors seemed to leak out of the appendage and surrounded the arm not unlike a flame. If he turned his doujutsu off, he'd see nothing but a black arm but the moment he turned them back on?
He was seeing a rather blatant example of the changes pervading his body. Blatant to his eyes but he didn't doubt that Beacon had some form of machinery that would note these changes.
"Dammit…" he cursed under his breath as he unfurled the bandage further until he was looking at his literal all black arm, putting down the wraps in a pile with the Dust string on top. "This makes my entire situation much worse."
Was he able to rescind these changes? Raven was able to turn into a literal bird! Could whatever was happening to him be similar in form?
He flexed his hand tightly, watching as veins popped up at the bottom of his wrist.
So it was certainly skin, at least. He frowned at it before looking at his other arm. He didn't undo the bandages flexed it all the same. The tautness of the medical wraps not bothering him in the least.
He looked back up towards the target and furrowed his brow as he turned his right side towards it, hand stretched out with the fingers splayed.
He held that stance for a few seconds, mulling over his next action before he breathed in.
His Aura flew to the surface of his skin and he watched his arm intently.
He made sure his Aura flowed over his body slowly with his arms being last and blinked.
A series of hexagonal shapes formed over his blackened skin, the surface a black background for the interlocking hexagon diamonds to lock together and show easily. The sight shocked him a bit but the next thing he was urged to do was touch it.
Once his other hand made contact, he frowned. The shapes were outlined by a dim dark blue light that emanated from each 'crease' so to speak.
No… Why was his mind telling him something was amiss? The more he stared at his arm, the further that feeling increased.
Why? What was compelling him to feel this way? What the hell was wrong with his body?
He moved his fingers around his patterned arm, passing all the segments with little difference offered to his touch.
He finished his prodding and stared at the arm once more before grunting and turning it back towards the bulls-eye.
His Aura coalesced into a throbbing ball of black at the front of his palm and he frowned as that change happened again.
The black ball darkened before becoming a ball of flames, the color tinting blue as he held it in front of his hand.
He closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose and then opened his eyes once more before pushing with his outward hand.
That ball of flames shot forward at a sad speed before slamming into the target.
The fireball expanded on contact before spiraling into an explosion of blue that barely covered the, three foot in diameter, bulls-eye.
The flames rampaged in a circular fashion for a bit before dissipating, the target burnt to a crisp.
He frowned as he kept his gaze on the destroyed bulls-eye before moving his hand in front of his face again.
That fire… what was the cause of it? Was it this supposed Dust in his veins? So was it just a normal reaction like when one used Aura with Dust?
No, that wasn't right. If it had been, he'd always be on fire if his Aura was up right?
Something about this reaction wasn't normal… Or was it?
Was it normal for whatever he was turning into? Was that it? What had Ozpin said… Something about mythical creatures, right?
Dammit, he'd left his Scroll in his room due to the cameras. He didn't know too many of Remnant's mythical creatures.
What he did know were the creatures from his world.
He mulled over the choices… and felt some of his nerves tighten.
He only could think of five creatures who used fire as a main element.
The Matatabi, the two-tailed nekomata.
The Yonbi, the four-tailed monkey.
The salamander Summons, though the type were rare.
Of those first three, though, none had the ability of flight… Which left his last two options as the only possible ones, at least from his world.
The phoenix, for one, was notable. It was an avian, was made of fire, and could use fire attacks.
And last… were dragons. Those fire-breathing terrors of the earth, air, and sea. Scales that were more durable than enhanced steel, great physical prowess, had the ability of flight, and had fire breath.
He looked back at his patterned arm and felt a slight bit of anxiety take ahold of his heart.
If… if either of those last two options were true… What did that mean for him?
If anyone found out, there were no if's, and's, or but's his life was over. The phoenix was known as the immortal bird. If it died, it would rise again.
Was that even applicable to him? He… He wasn't going to lie, the thought terrified him.
Obito Uchiha was terrified of such an eternal life. He didn't wish for it for it begged the question of what such a thing would do to him. A sort of holdover from his childhood.
The thoughts and emotions of Rin dying before his eyes, the world feeling like hell… His mind went to dark places in that moment, thinking that such a thing was to be his reality forever.
So yes, Obito Uchiha despised immortality for the facts that it reminded him of the types of pains he'd feel. The mental scar hadn't left him even now.
Then there were the facts that if somebody did find out, they'd have no such reservations. They'd just see a phoenix and follow the myth if they were of more malignant persuasions.
He didn't want anything to do with the path of a phoenix… But being a dragon made his entire brain hurt.
Dragons were legends in Remnant like his own world but they were far more numerous in type and myth.
Who wouldn't want to take on a dragon? He'd seen how the bijuu and their containers were both considered and treated. He knew that, on a personal level, he was fine. His connections with people were few but most know how to take care of themselves.
Though, he'd essentially live a life of eternal battle should this transformation be permanent. Not only that, dragons lived damn near immortal lives. He didn't want any part of this!
"Fuck," he cursed as he pinched his nose. "This entire situation is horrible."
No… he could find a way out of this. He had one of the most powerful artes in the world on his side, of course!
If sealing could seal what accounted to essentially demons, it could allow him to die. If not remove his immortality.
Not just that… He had to look at the positives.
Dragons were known as creatures of might. Perhaps he could harness that power for himself and use it for his own reasons.
The image of a chuckling, ponytailed, man entered his mind and he tightened his fists.
Yes, he'd make this power his own and kill him.
That said, he'd need to figure out where this power was going. From what the doctor and Ozpin had said, this was taking time to transform him.
It'd already done his teeth and arms, yes? It was working on his back as we speak and had numerous extra nerves set up about his body.
How long would it take? Days, weeks, months… Years? He didn't know, this case was never seen or could have been predicted before. His arms and teeth had been done in a matter of days, so surely the rest would come along.
He thought it over and simply tested himself.
First came the normal exercises he was used to but, with his time restrictions, he'd have to make these rather quick.
He disregarded his physical exercises, seeing as that was something he didn't mind Ozpin and anyone else knowing. No, what he was going to focus on were Aura exercises.
With how this thing started affecting him, he'd go to the source and see what had changed there as far as he could.
An errant thought popped into his head to possibly go and see Raven and he filed that away for later.
Moving away from his target range, he moved to the wooden pillars in Training Ground 1. He sat down at the base of one before pulling his knees up enough for him to rest his arms on and closing his eyes.
'Focus,' he thought as he dived deep. 'Feel the rhythm and memorize it.'
He felt and 'watched' his Aura move throughout his body, the sensation not unfamiliar to him up until he focused on his arms.
That 'warmth' he felt days before was still there but now it felt exacerbated, likely by his active use of his Aura this time around.
He frowned as he watched his Aura circulate, this anomaly blatant as it stuck out on his very soul. He messed with the flow of Aura around that part of his body, bunching it up a bit before letting it flood his arms.
There was a hiss from his left arm and he tuned back into the world around him to start patting out any flames that began to engulf his bandages before he grimaced at the burnt wraps.
"Dammit," he muttered as the smell of smoke filled his nostrils. "That's going to bring up questions."
Nothing he could do about it, now, he'd just have to undo it and rewrap whatever was left.
He finished taking off the slightly burnt bandages, looked at his other black arm for a bit and then sighed before focusing back in on his exercises.
With the bandages away, he approached his exercises a bit more liberally.
He crossed his legs, mindful of his arms, as he held said appendages out in front of him.
He repeated the process he did earlier and felt the slight change in heat contact his face.
Opening his eyes, he saw those patterns along his arm burning a brighter blue than before but saw no flames.
No fire that would have caused his bandages to catch a flame. What had burned his bandages?
He looked back at the burnt bandages and huffed slightly.
Well, not like he wasn't already going to be under suspicion with them being burnt like that, might as well go all in.
He picked up a piece of the bandages, ripped off a three-inch piece from the end and held it over his arm.
The reaction was immediate, the cloth beginning to smoke before burning at the end. Obito's Sharingan activated and he watched the phenomenon before him.
'Invisible flames?' he thought in confusion. 'No, that can't be right.'
Sure, it certainly explained the earlier event but the fire was visible. It burned like anything normally set a flame and looked the same.
His tomoe spun and his eyes widened slowly as he looked on as little things began to fly out of the brightly burning lines on his arm upward, contacting the cloth he held above his appendage.
"What are these?" he wondered aloud as he moved the bandage away and watched it burn for a bit before clenching it shut in his other hand. "… These aren't Dust particles…"
He'd seen Dust particles before, many times actually, and these looked similar but not the same. What the hell were these? His doctor had said that it was similar but different as well.
What did that mean exactly? What were these particles in his blood? What was his blood?
He honestly didn't have an answer for this. Dust were considered Nature's Wraths, you could even call it Natural Element Energy.
But he knew what Natural Energy felt like, what with his transformation into the Juubi's jinchuuruki, and this wasn't Natural energy.
He looked at his palm and looked along its surface with his doujutsu.
Nothing but extra nerves… His blood glowed, though, so there was that.
Seeing no answers resulting from his current experiments, Obito focused on something else.
This incident had introduced him to a Kuchiyose technique, though that might not have been what this was called, 'summoning' was simply the best term.
And when it came to summoning, the only word he could use was Kuchiyose.
He wondered if he could also summon like Danzo had. He'd seen the creatures coming about, what with Danzo discarding some miscellaneous material from that arm of his to give the Dust Summon some form.
Now, with his current situation, where did that leave him?
Could he remove this pervading influence on his soul? Or was that the wrong way of thinking about it?
Danzo wasn't like the other bosses, he'd seen that Esparza woman still had hers implanted. He hadn't seen Collbrand but neither of the bosses's Summons besides Danzo's had their Dust in their bodies.
Then there was Cinder's! He'd forgotten for a moment. Yes, her Summon had gone into her back, into that weird tattoo…
He lifted his medical top and stared at his hips where a pair of seals appeared.
He'd have to deal with these, lest he have them appear in his trials and have even further questions added to his testimony.
They'd already sworn Qrow and Glynda to secrecy, so he had to do his part to NOT get himself ousted about this little skill he and Kakashi shared.
Speaking of, he'd need to go and talk to Kakashi… If not for some brainstorming than just for some good ol' camaraderie.
Comrades… He hadn't thought of that word in such a way in a long time. It used to be his favorite too…
He held the bottom of his top in his left hand and made to bite down on his right only to freeze.
Wait… was his blood the catalyst?
Blood seals required your blood as a catalyst to release… Was his blood his catalyst in his Summoning idea? Better yet…
Would his new blood affect his sealing techniques? Good Lord, he hoped not. The last thing he needed was to redo all his seals with such a thing.
He looked at his thumb and brought it to his mouth before placing his incisor against the little joint and biting down slightly.
It split as easily as it always did and he made to wipe the blood before stopping the action and instead watching his thumb.
The wound hissed for a bit before he was staring at slowly knitting skin.
This…! His previous hypothesis was right! He did have increased healing!
His Aura wasn't even a part of this process either, seeing as he always kept his Aura away for the blood to flow. So he was right that his healing was more akin to having the Hashirama cells…
He touched his right eye, mind spinning at the possibilities, before he grinned.
If this came with enough positives… Obito Uchiha may very well rise back to power… No…
He'd be better than that. No longer the man chasing an impossible dream through deplorable means.
He'd be the man he was supposed to be.
'Now,' he looked down at his hands as he sent another surge of Aura into them, those patterns coming to the surface once more. 'What more can I do?'
He had half an hour left, best use to the fullest.
~NRK~
She groaned as she came back to consciousness, the soft chirping of the birds outside her window…!
She shot up, blanket falling to the side, before groaning and holding onto her head.
"What… Oooohhh," she tried to think and a soreness all about her body greeted her.
What had happened… She couldn't remember, everything hurt so much.
There was a creak of hinges being swung inward and she blinked through the aches and pains of her body to look up from the bed she was in.
"Oz…pin?" she whispered, voice ragged and throat in desperate need of water. "Kaugh! Kaugh!" she held her throat, eyes closed as she coughed.
"Take it easy, Amber," Ozpin said to the bronze-skinned woman in the bed. "Remember what I taught you… Or what you learned before taking off…" he looked at her sternly.
It was a look she'd not seen in so long… She coughed a bit before grimacing.
Remembering what he taught her, huh? Of course she had, she'd had to use it damn near every waking day out on the roads of the Kingdoms.
She looked down at her hands, opening and closing them before closing her eyes.
She felt her switch and prodded it 'ON'.
She felt all the pathways open up… No… Her eyes shot open in horror.
Ozpin shook his head. "Focus, Amber. Right now, focus on what you can still use. We'll talk about what happened afterwards."
She grit her teeth slightly before closing her eyes again.
To use magic was both simple and difficult. To use the power was easy, to use efficiently was more complex and required training of a rigorous sort.
She pulled on the power within her and thought of water. Cool, wet, liquid. Give it form and make it real…
In her cupped hands was some of the pooling liquid, it's crystal clear surface held within her fingers and kept from spilling by a liberal application of Aura to give her a sort of 'bowl'.
She sent it straight into her throat in an instant, forming a sort of funnel with her Aura to allow all of that liquid to slide into her mouth.
"Kaugh! Kaugh! Kaugh!" it was a cough but one filled with relief from the dryness in her gullet. "…Ggggrr! Hhhrrrmmm!" she cleared her throat twice, slapping on her chest just as many times.
"Ha…"
"I'm glad to see that your affinity for Water is still there," Ozpin said, some amusement slipping into his voice. "Take your time, remember your meditative breaths. Those work for both the powers you wield. Not just Aura."
Amber… Amber White slowly nodded, her head of brown hair bobbing with the motion.
She wiped her eyes, more liquid slipping from her fingers easily to clean her face before she cupped it in her hand and boiled it into nothingness.
Ozpin slowly nodded as he watched her frown, hand coming at her face but coming away with nothing. Her hand shook and she shivered at the sight of it.
"I see, so it was 'Wind' that was lost," her head snapped in his direction as he said this. "… Here, look for yourself…" he pulled a small hand mirror off the nightstand to the right of her bed and handed it to her.
She held it up to her face and stared.
Chocolate-colored skin was marked by straps of black along the left side of her face. Her brown hair that fell to her shoulders doing nothing to take away from the marks If anything, they seemed to exacerbate the lines as her brown eyes trembled in her sockets.
"Qrow informed me of what happened," Ozpin said. "Know that you're situation is fragile…"
~NRK~
Obito Uchiha stretched in the early morning rays that clipped through his blinds, mind ready for the days ahead.
There was a knocking at his door. "Come in."
It slid open a second later revealing a familiar doctor. "Good morning, Mr. Midoriya," Olivia Parch, his fox Faunus doctor, said with a cheery smile.
"Good morning, Dr. Parch," Obito reciprocated as he stretched his arms. "I'm assuming that my medical trials will be happening soon?"
"Yes, give us an hour and we'll be ready," she said as she stepped in before looking at his arms with a quirked brow. "I hope there hasn't been any… flaming discharge as you slept…" she trailed off as she looked at his sheets.
"A little," Obito said simply, his nonchalant attitude not tricking her in the slightest. "I might have breathed a bit oddly as I slept."
The two of them looked at one another for what felt like a whole minute before she hummed. "Mmmmm, alright," she grinned. "As long as nothing went awry, we'll be continuing with our schedule exams in about an hour. Though," she shot him a sly grin.
"Want some extra bandages?"
With her dressing his arms, he watched her expressions as her tail and hand went to work.
Every little scrap against his skin caused her to stop, even if only for a fraction of a second, and stare before going back to work. She was sensing something off, he wondered how far that went.
She tied a little ribbon on the top of left arm before nodding to him, patting his shoulders. "Good to go! I'll be back in about half an hour, just relax a bit," she said as she got up and left.
Obito hummed to himself as he stared at his bandaged arm.
At least she seemed like his type of people, knew when to ask and when not to.
Coco stood outside her room door, leaning against the wall beside said door and thinking over everything she was about to do.
"Maybe I should keep this to myself?" she asked herself, lost in thought. "But why though?"
She'd been having a lot of weird thoughts lately. Like, was all of this a weird dream…
She felt like there were a series of feelings and stuff locked in her head that wanted to get out but she couldn't figure them out.
What was up with her? What was with her Semblance?
"Ah, Coco!" she heard and blinked at the sound of the voice as her head snapped up. "Ms. Hawks?!" Coco blinked at the woman, currently dressed in a series of black slacks, an auburn dress shirt, and a large white coat.
"Hello!" the amazon-like woman waved at the younger female as she came up on her room. "I'm glad to see you're alright."
Coco blinked. How long had it been since she'd seen her teacher? Wait, what was she talking about 'How long?'?"
It hadn't been that long, right? It'd been about five days.
Why did it feel like it'd been weeks?
"Hmm," Elena Hawks stared down at her student for a bit before smiling softly. "I see, you've gone through a lot in these past five days."
"Huh?" Coco blinked at her. "What do you mean?"
"Elena!" the two heard behind the tall Huntress who grinned widely as she turned. "Long time no s-hurf!"
Olivia had been jogging to her, the tall woman an old friend she'd not seen in so long.
That said, she should have remembered how touchy-feely Elena was as she was suffocated by both the tall woman's chest and hug.
"Huh… So it's a thing she does," Coco observed as Elena dropped her shorter, fox Faunus friend. "So you two know each other?"
Olivia steadied herself with a slight smile. "We used to be on the same team."
"Team PECH!" Elena said with a grin. "We were the more research heavy teams at Beacon."
"Research heavy?" Coco frowned. "What do ya mean, teach?"
"Well," Olivia began. "Some teams at Beacon can become specialists in certain fields."
"Grimm study, Dust research, Medical," Elena ticked off. "How do you think we know so much about Grimm?"
"Word of mouth?" Coco suggested.
"Yes and no, it's a bit more complex than that," Olivia said before turning to her old teammate. "We should check in on Celestia soon but that's for later, I called you here to help us with some trials we're having."
"Wait, teach is gonna help me and Obi figure things out?" Coco asked incredulously as Elena shot her a curious look.
"Mr. Midoriya? He's involved? And you as well, Coco?" the tall woman looked at the Adel with confusion. "What is going on, Olivia?"
"Well… Ya know what, how about we actually do this as a group? I still need to go and confirm some things with the equipment so we can get this explanation out the way later with all interested parties."
"Gotcha!" Elena threw her a thumbs up. "Hmm… I'll be in the Waiting Room then."
Coco crossed her arms and blinked. "Huh, small world."
Olivia grinned. "Usually."
~NRK~
He looked over the text once more.
"Qrow, you can't honestly have me being an errand boy… But since this is important, I'll do it without issue," Kakashi Grey said as he clicked his Scroll closed before walking a bit further down the hall.
That Ozpin guy had given them all some free reign coming into here, what with everything that happened… suspicious. Maybe he was just being a bit paranoid, though.
With Obito's mastery over the Sharingan, he'd been able to view almost everything.
This whole Salem situation was rather concerning. Not that they hadn't fought a threat like that before but this was different.
They had no real idea of how powerful she was. And if what Raven, Obito's older sister, had seen was right… She was in a place that'd require an organization that Obito was planning for… Heh.
Once he was on the opposite side but now he was all for this one, both created by the same man. His former… Well, he guessed it was now 'current' friend.
If Rin had been here, it would have been nice to have them all back together. His Team 7.
Sadly, that wasn't the case. Though whatever gods this place had had a weird sense of humor.
Ochre and Coco Adel. Two women who looked so much like Rin it was actually kind of scary. Ochre didn't use to have long hair back in the day and was just as much as a spitting image of Rin as Coco was.
And wasn't Obito's situation… interesting? Poor guy had it rough. He actually had a feeling that Obito wouldn't have minded had she'd been a bit more… Rin-ish but here he was.
Kakashi had more than his own share of fun at his friend's expense. He'd simply watch from here.
There were a series of clacks from the hall he'd been waiting by and he smiled at the sight of Coco, Elena, Olivia, and Obito.
"Hey Scarecrow," Coco said with a wave and a grin as the detective formed up with, and followed, their little group. "Huh, you didn't strike me as the type of guy to get up bright and early."
Obito cracked a smirk as Kakashi chuckled abashedly. "Oh? So I'm not the only one who thinks that?"
Coco nodded. "I know right?"
The group continued like that a bit as they walked through the medical wing of Beacon. Small talk erupted between the members.
"So I hear you had a rather… interesting reaction to some Dust," Elena looked at the relaxed male brunette. "Olivia didn't give me all the details but said my expertise might be necessary?"
"It's a rather… unusual situation," Obito started. "You already knew I had Aura-"
"Wait, what?!" Coco balked as she looked back at the two. "W-When was this, teach?!"
"Oh about…" Hawks tapped her chin before holding it up with a smile. "Around when we first met but I couldn't be sure so when Ms. Goodwitch was called, I couldn't call that anything BUT good luck!" she grinned.
Coco was shocked. "Wait, if you could sense something, how come I couldn't?"
"Likely experience," Kakashi piped up. "I bet you don't use that ability often, yes?"
"Well… Not really," Coco admitted.
"It's not just that," Olivia said. "You might have heard this from Elena before but, sometimes, your Semblance has a way of… focusing your Aura."
"Is that so?" Obito asked with a frown. "I'm both familiar and unfamiliar with this idea."
"Well… Deciding on your Semblance, whether you have it or not, your abilities with your Aura can be either easier in some places or harder in others," the Faunus said. "I actually don't have a Semblance if you believe it. That said, I imagine it's something like a structural scan of some sort."
"Your hypersensitivity, yes?" Obito asked.
"Yes."
"Hehe~" Elena grinned. "I can't tell you how often people assumed that that was her Semblance. It was amusing for the longest time."
"Speaking of," Coco blinked before turning her gaze on Kakashi's nonchalant expression. "Did you get your Semblance, Kakashi?"
"Oh, the cop has Aura?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, I actually got mine during the whole mess we got into," he admitted with a shrug. "Was pretty weird for a bit before I got it down. And… yes, I did learn my Semblance."
Olivia stared at him, mind whirling at his previous insistence to keep things hush-hush when she'd met him and seen his situation.
Really, it was amazing to find him here, in Vale of all places. Getting everyone who knew about him, on the other hand, to stay quiet was a pain in the neck she never wanted to deal with again.
"Come on! Tell us!" Coco whined.
"Mmmm…. Nope!" Kakashi said as they came to a stop at an elevator.
"Come on!"
"Nah!" Kakashi grinned under his mask as he and Obito let the girls in. "Honestly, it's nothing important."
"I find myself curious as well," Obito said with a raised brow that Kakashi winked at.
"In time…"
Entering, they took the elevator down a good way before coming to a stop.
Once the doors opened, however, all people not involved with the medical wing via employment blinked at the sight of truly pristine white floors and walls.
"Interesting," Kakashi observed as they got out of the elevator towards the area proper. "Where are we, may I ask?"
"Beacon's Private Testing Center," Olivia said as a person passed them by. "Mainly used for studying purposes, Dust analyzing, and Huntsmen/Huntress practice."
"Wait, what?" Coco blinked at that last bit. "Why would anyone need to come down here?"
"Ms. Adel," Elena spoke up. "Surely, of the literal thousands of Semblances, you don't think that some of them would require a… more open space, no?"
Coco frowned along with Obito, though the latter was slowly nodding along with the idea.
"I understand what she means," Obito said with a cupped chin.
"What're ya on about?" Coco asked.
"Think of it like this," Kakashi said, raising a finger. "Coco, don't you think that Semblances are kind of too numerous?"
Now the girl was just confused. "What do you mean? You make it sound like a bad thing."
"Not exactly," Obito continued. "Imagine this, if you will. If there was a Semblance that produced acid, where would you even practice that?"
Coco opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut almost as quickly. "Oh…"
"Exactly but not something so extreme or, really, in such a way," Olivia said. "Semblances can't produce physical phenomenon like that but some enter the realm of conceptual things."
"My 'Switheroo', as the kids call it," Elena said. "Don't you find it kind of odd?"
"Well, you're just switchin' stuff," Coco said with a frown. "What's so weird about that?"
"Well yes but actually no," Kakashi said with interest. "If I'm understanding what you're saying, it's not like switching things is odd but what it's actually doing is."
"To be able to just manipulate space like that, with so few restrictions at that," Olivia said with a wide smile. "That's amazing no matter how you mix it. I've heard that, in Atlas, there's a young man who can freeze time! At least, in one direction."
"Marrow Amin," Kakashi said. "He's a Faunus on an up-and-coming team that General Ironwood, the headmaster of Atlas and military, is said to have made."
"Seriously?" Coco was gobsmacked. "You're joking! That sounds so broken!"
"Well, theoretically, it is," Elena said. "Imagine if his Semblance evolved to the point of him being able to freeze the area around himself? That'd be pushing the boundaries of everything we know. If he could make it so that anything that entered his range was stopped?"
"It'd be a rather amazing defense against a lot of the weapons of today and a lot of Grimm," Kakashi said. "That said, it's only theoretical 'brokenness' so there's only so much he can do."
"Semblance Evolution, the topic has been debated for years on how it comes about but no one fully understands it," Elena said as she gestured for them to walk towards a corridor. "There are only 100 known cases of it among the entirety of the Hunter populace."
"That said," Olivia said. "Those cases are far and wide across time and space. People in the past, across the different Kingdoms, in the wilderness, there simply aren't enough in a concentrated place for us to fully understand it."
Obito absorbed it all and wondered.
Did Kojiro Branwen have one of these Evolved Semblances?
~NRK~
That's it, was able to get some more writing into this chapter before sending it off to you all.
Yeah, Obito's not some ignorant anime protag. He's smart and knows how to put things together and cross reference his knowledge. It's easy to figure out after everything he'd been through.
Yep, I've essentially made Team PECH that Elena, Olivia, AND Professor Peach were on. I didn't plan on that, by the way. Things just worked out that way and I love it when a plan comes together in discovery writing. It's one of those most memorable feelings when you write this way.
Elena is back into the frey and her Dust Researcher attributes come into play for the story at large! Yep, this is another discovery writing miracle that came together as well.
We've introduced the idea of Semblance Evolution as well but it is just an introduction. We'll see when it becomes relevant. *shrug*
Academy Teams being specialized is an idea I had mid-process. I mean, it makes sense.
There are different types of Nen Hunters, ninjas, shinigami, and such. RWBY having teams that actually focus on different aspects of their world only make sense, especially for how much they don't know about their own world.
That's why the 'Specialist' title exists in Atlas and I'm gonna play with that bit of worldbuilding and stretch it for what it's worth.
Words: 6.7k+. Nothing unusual, I wanted to write more but whatever.
~NRK Out~