Edited for grammatical errors, not a new upload, unfortunately.
As Blanc opened his eyes he saw a roof he recognized as belonging to one of the many tents in his tribe.
He tried to stand up but he felt debilitated to the point where he could barely stay awake.
Out of the corner of his vision, he saw someone come close to him.
"You're awake."
The voice of the Father reverberated in the small space, a little bit raspy as it deteriorated over time.
"I indeed am."
He replied with a slight smile.
Taking a deep breath and then sighing, the man proceeded to take a chair and put it at the side of his bed as he sat on it.
"After you passed out everyone told me they thought you were gonna die, Marina couldn't let that happen, that girl stood for hours using up all her aura just to heal you."
"I'll be sure to apologize and thank her next time I see her."
The Father looked at his face and saw the smile still on it.
"I recommend you get some sleep, tomorrow as soon as you're able to I need you to come to my tent to talk."
"Yessir."
With a nod from both parties the Father stood up and went to leave the tent, before he did so he spoke from the entrance of it.
"I'm really proud of what you did kid, I'm sure you're to become a great man."
Before he could reply the Father left the tent.
Slightly adjusting himself on the bed he was in he found sleep catch up to him quickly.
And so he closed his eyes.
The loud voice of a woman could be heard coming from a tent in the night.
"It's wrong!"
The man replied with calmness in his voice.
"It's necessary."
"There must be other options you're overlooking!"
"It's for the sake of everyone."
"To sacrifice one in exchange for many is not correct! I will not allow this!"
"He's a man now, he can make his own decisions."
"But-!"
The man stood up and put his palm up.
"It's a waste of time to discuss this between us, go back to your tent Sister, we will talk of this when he's awake."
With a face filled with complicated emotions, the woman stood up as the corner of her eyes began to water.
"You can't do this to someone who saved us, who saved YOU..."
Without waiting for a reply Marina walked out.
The Father simply sighed as he rubbed the spot between his eyebrows.
"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy, leading to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
The man spoke the verse out loud as his head was filled with his troubles and doubts.
"Tell me, Lord, am I doing the right thing?"
His voice softly dropped as no person replied.
Falling.
Void.
He couldn't see but he could feel.
Cold wind crashed against his body.
Suddenly a crash
Water.
Everywhere he looked.
Water.
Oceanic waves crashing.
Water.
Slowly he sank deeper and deeper, his vision blurring and all becoming dark.
Water.
Drowning, yet not.
A heavy feeling was pressing down on his chest as he slowly fell in a downwards spiral to the bottom of the seemingly endless sea.
Water.
Eyes.
Red eyes.
Soulless.
Staring.
Immobile.
Watching.
Smelling.
Wanting.
He fell.
A small blue light illuminated his surroundings.
Countless eyes staring at him.
Red eyes.
Predatory eyes.
He fell between them.
They didn't touch him.
He felt like he was reaching the bottom.
He came closer.
White.
Not light.
Death.
Pale.
Black and Red.
Witch.
Desire.
She didn't look at him.
She didn't know him.
She didn't care about him.
Darkness surrounded her.
She wasn't the darkness.
Behind her.
Bigger.
Massive.
Gigantic.
Destruction.
Rejection.
The End.
Its hand-like tendrils grabbed his neck.
Low, growl-like voice.
Sandpaper to the ears.
"Who are you...? A lost little lamb walking into the wolf's den...?"
He grabbed its shadowy hands but, as if they were made of smoke, his fingers just went through it.
"Ah... I see... An anomaly... I'll keep a close eye on you... Little Lamb..."
Drowning.
Drowning in Hatred.
Drowning in Sorrow.
Drowning in...
Vision darkening.
Vision.
Black.
With deep erratic breaths, he woke up.
Quickly he stands up and looks around.
Nothing.
"A dream..."
Realizing he must look like a crazy person, the white-haired man proceeded to clean off his face with a towel.
Putting his parka on, he began to walk outside his tent.
After a few steps, an older man seems to take notice of Blanc as he starts to slowly approach him.
"Blanc! Good morning! What you did yesterday was amazing! Well done kiddo!"
The man puts his fist forward, he simply replies to the gesture with a fist bump and a greeting.
This scene was repeated about 6 times as he made his way to the Father's tent.
"You're the man!"
"I was so glad you were here..."
"You gotta teach me how to do that stuff!"
To most of these lines, the best he could reply with was a nod, a handshake or an awkward thank you, sudden adulation of people he knew but wasn't close with was an odd and new thing for him.
"It's embarra-"
"Shh! I hear another word and-!"
"B-but Sis!"
As he kept his pace in the direction of his objective, a girl and a boy came closer to him and stood in front of him.
The girl couldn't be older than 17 with her hair braided into a single copper ponytail while the boy he could recognize as the same little boy he gave his food to yesterday, he had the same copper hair colour but his hair was cut really short and by the looks of it looked around 9 or 10-ish.
"Hello, Blanc correct?"
"Yes, that's me."
"The name's Violet, this little rascal is Bruno."
"Well, hello to the both of you, as you already know I'm Blanc, a pleasure to meet you."
He shook her hand and gave a nod to the child.
"Well, I just wanted to thank you more properly for giving my little rat boy over here some help, I'm telling him if he doesn't cut down on the food he'll be the first fatty on Vacuo."
"Sis!"
The boy looked at his sister with a blush of embarrassment on his face while his sister just laughed it off.
"Umm, well anyways, this little dude just wanted to properly thank you but he was too embarrassed to do it on his own."
He looked towards the boy who slowly came closer and with a shy look gave him a canteen, he grabbed it from the boy's hands and shook it around.
"Water?"
"Yeah, we exchanged some a while ago, it might not be much but something without sand or possible hallucinogenics is sure to calm your thirst."
"Umm!"
The boy suddenly raised his voice and he looked towards him.
"W-what you did was really cool! B-but I'm going to be even stronger than you in the future big bro!"
Seeing his determination Blanc couldn't help but let a smile appear on his face.
"I'm sure you will."
With those words, the kid nodded and ran off.
"Men and power, can't they just like nice and normal things like building stuff or singing? Stuff like that?"
"I guess it really it's true what they say."
Violet raised one of her eyebrows.
"Oh? And what is it that they say?"
"Every man at least once in their life will dream to be the strongest man alive."
"Even you?"
"Hmmm, maybe?"
She tilted her head a bit.
"Maybe?"
"Yeah, a strong maybe."
She started giggling at his answer and he just smiled.
"Ehem, umm, I'm single if you were wondering by the way..."
He looked towards the boy's sister who was now playing with a small strand of her hair as she looked away, a small red blush could be seen on her sun-kissed skin.
Never being in these types of situations before, he simply awkwardly laughed as he said his goodbyes.
Finally reaching the Father's tent after talking to many people along the way, he proceeded to enter it.
The first thing he saw was Marina sitting on a chair while praying.
He silently stood next to her and waited for her to finish.
Eventually, she opened her eyes and saw him there, as she did so she got startled.
"Geez! Tell me if you came in! How embarrassing..."
"Sorry about that, I didn't want to interrupt you."
A small smile appeared on his face.
Marina stood up and got closer, slowly she started tracing her hands around his arm.
"How is it?"
"It's alright, itches a bit, nothing hurts."
"Thank the Light, I got Aura depleted twice healing you, I'm actually glad you weren't awake during the process, I had to arrange the bones in your arm as I was healing you, it was practically pulverized."
Hearing that made him wince a bit when being reminded of the backlash he got while using that skill.
"A good fookin skill if I might add! Lotta work was needed to make it that perfect!"
An Irish accented voice spoke, looking around he saw no one.
"Is everything okay?"
Marina looked at him with worry.
"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about it."
"If you have anything that's bothering you all you need to do is tell me and I'll try my best to help you, okay?"
The kindness from the woman brought a warm feeling to his heart making him smile.
"Yes."
As they were talking the stocky figure of the Father entered the room.
"Kid, sit down."
Without wasting any time he moved towards a chair as the Father sat in another chair in front of his.
"I'll be blunt, you need to leave."
Marina quickly steps in and starts talking loudly.
"Father! I don't think it's right to treat someone who saved us this way!"
The Father puts his hand up.
"Let me explain myself."
As the Father said those words Marina decided that the right thing would be to at least hear him out.
"The kid awoke his aura, but he is different than you and I."
Blanc interjected feeling himself get confused more and more by the second.
"What do you mean by that?"
Standing up the Father walked over to a pitch of cactus water, slowly he poured it into a glass.
"This."
He raised the glass to view.
"Is the normal person's aura."
Continuing the demonstration, he poured some back into the pitch leaving the glass half-empty.
"This is my aura level."
With his other hand, he grabbed the pitch.
"This is Sister Marina's aura level."
He put both down.
"And yours... Yours is an ocean without end, and the Grimm, they want a taste of that sweet water."
"My aura attracts the Grimm..?"
"Not just yours, every aura attracts the Grimm like flies to food, but someone with an aura as massive as yours, I've never seen it before."
The overbearing silence in the tent was suddenly broken by the low tone of Marina.
"It's still not right..."
The Father takes a seat as he replies.
"That, it is not, but it is necessary."
"If I stayed, would more Grimm come after the group?"
A solemn nod was given by the Father.
"I'm 97% sure of it."
The silence continued in the room for a few minutes, after a while, Blanc nods at the words of the Father.
"I will leave."
The sound of sobbing could be heard from Marina as her face was hidden by her hands.
"You can't do that... You're sending him out to die!"
Blanc moves next to the Sister and puts a hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay... It would weigh more on my heart that I caused the loss of someone's life rather than to leave."
After a few more minutes of consoling Marina, Blanc decides that it's best to return to his tent and start preparing to leave the tribe.
"Wait."
Intercepted by the Father, a wooden chest is shoved on his hands.
"It will help you on your journey, this is all I can do for you."
Blanc opened the box, inside it were multiple items, one of them seemed to be a scroll and a piece of paper but the most eye-catching thing inside the box was a pair of long black gloves that went up to the elbow.
"What are these..?"
"These, are Grimm Gauntlets."
A shocked expression could be seen on Blanc's face as the Father smirked.
"I know, they disappear, but this one, it was special, after me and my team killed the damn thing it didn't disappear, apparently with time some Grimm evolve, this one was one of those Grimms, huge thing, shaped like a hummingbird and almost drained one of my friends dry."
The Father rattled on about his hunter days with a grin as Blanc quietly listened to him.
"But, I guess that doesn't matter anymore, the Gauntlets absorb aura and harden when you pour it in, hope they are as useful to you as they were for me."
Blanc gave a slight bow as he was taught as a way to show reverence to one's teacher.
"Thank you for all your help Father, I will be sure you hear of me again."
Hearing this the Father snorted and laughed.
"Kid, I'm basically throwing you out, I was expecting at least to get punched or something."
Blanc smiled lightly at him.
"Ungratefulness is a sin if I'm correct, plus, were I to throw a punch you'd probably die."
After saying those words a loud belly laugh could be heard coming from the Father.
"This shitty brat, if I was 30 years younger I'd kick your insolent ass."
"I'm glad you're not then."
Sharing a small laugh the Father moved on to the next item.
"That's a scroll, use the number on the paper to call the person, they will give you a place to stay or even a job in a safe place, tell them you're talking on my behalf."
"Yessir."
Nodding at him, Blanc starts to walk away as the Father goes back into his tent.
"May the Light protect you in your journey, my son..."
"Same to you Father..."
A small dink sound appeared on Blanc's mind as an odd voice spoke.
《Nihil Gloves have been acquired!》
Guess he will have to find out what that meant later.
But first, he had a call to make.
Behind a mountain of papers sat a man, slowly and carefully looking at each of them, in his hand a cup of coffee.
The man sighs to himself as he continues to read meaningless reports about the current situation.
"These don't possess anything of help..."
As he continued reading them over he felt a slight humming.
"Hm?"
Confused as to where the sound was coming from he quickly realized it was his personal scroll on the desk.
Grabbing the scroll he read the screen.
"Unknown number? Odd."
Answering the call he heard the voice of a young person on the other side.
"Headmaster Ozpin?"
"Yes, may I have the pleasure to know who I'm speaking to?"
"Ah, of course, excuse me for my bad manners, I'm Blanc, Father Alexander Knight told me you could help me."
Alexander Knight?
Now that's a name he hasn't heard in a long time, at least not since the tragedy that befell his team.
"Well, I hope Mister Knight is well, but you still haven't told me how I may be of help."
"I've awakened my aura and semblance, I need a place to stay."
Did Alexander give this child his number for this?
There must be something special about him, last time he checked on him he had become a priest on Vacuo.
Maybe this kid could help the fight against darkness, if not, another little hero with aura and a semblance could help a few small towns with Grimm extermination.
Ozpin smiled to himself.
"I see, well, since Mister Knight gave you my number there must be a reason for it, don't worry, send me your location and a bullhead will arrive by evening."
"I appreciate your help Headmaster Ozpin, I will be sure to pay you back eventually."
Completing their goodbyes, the call finished.
Ozpin stood pensive with a smile on his face, every now and then sipping on his coffee.
"Maybe now the side of good will have a little advantage."
Bursting through the door a woman of blond hair carrying a stack of papers came in, dropping them off at his desk she left from where she came.
A small silent tear fell from Ozpin's face.
"I'm gonna need more coffee..."
Sitting on his makeshift bed, Blanc finished sending the location where he wanted to be picked up to the Headmaster.
At first, he thought about sending his current location but after thinking it twice, a huge aerial vehicle coming down on a small tribe filled with tents is going to create a disaster, so instead, he decided on a location far away enough so the village wouldn't be harmed.
Pocketing the scroll, Blanc sighed.
A lot had happened in a very short while, the fact that he had to leave the tribe he had been raised in for most of his life left him hurting, he would never show it, he was trained not to after all, but the pain was still there.
A notification sound took him out of his musings, on his head, a message appeared.
《Gacha Available, 5 Normal Pulls and 1 Special Pull ready!》
"Gacha..?"
He was aware of the concept of Gacha, when he was little he saw those little machines all over Japan with the capsules and stuff, he still remembered the one time he tried his luck with one and got a Golden Sonic.
Before he could keep remembering another message was inserted into his brain.
《A Normal Gacha Ticket lets the user get a persona or item of the F-rank which corresponds to humans!》
《A Special Ticket is a ticket given to the user through the overcoming of enemies many times stronger or by defeating a special character, this ticket allows the user to get a persona or item from any tier!》
That was a lot of information getting suddenly thrown his way.
Slowly he processed what the message had said, just as he did so yet another message reached him.
《Do you wish to use your Gacha Tickets?》
Seeing no downside to it, he decided to accept.
"Yes, please."
《Rolling 5 Normal Pulls!》
A wooden sound like a wheel spinning could be heard within his mind, as he waited patiently with his eyes closed, another notification made itself known in his head.
《Rolls completed!》
《Roll #1: Ring of Thuggery has been acquired!》
《Roll #2: Cestvs Gladiatorial Gloves have been acquired!》
《Roll #3: Training Buddybag has been acquired!》
《Roll #4: Rare Candy has been acquired!》
The information flowed into his brain as the rolls continued, the last roll seemed to be special for some reason as it wasn't coupled with the items.
《Roll #5: High F Rank Persona《The Eagle》has been acquired!》
Like a bucket of cold water dropping on his body, he felt something change inside him.
"As-salamu Alaykum brother, with the power of wrestling there will be nothing to stop us inshallah."
A voice with a deep accent and cold demeanour spoke, as it did, another voice appeared on his mind, this one recognizable as the one with the Irish accent.
"Oh fook this! Not this fooking guy! Backwards little rat should go back wherever shit hole little mountain savage village he came from!"
A sigh was heard as the second voice spoke.
"I must admit, I did not expect loud drunk would be here, Allah willing you will soon be in hell."
"Fook you little twat! Wanna go again huh?! I'll crush your big neanderthal skull like a peanut!"
"I do not waste time with people I beat."
"You beat fookin nuttin'!"
The fighting kept escalating in Blanc's mind until his mood couldn't handle it anymore.
"Stop."
Suddenly, both voices became silent.
"I need to know who you people are, right now."
Silence reigned for a few minutes until someone spoke first.
"Well, suppose I'll have to go first."
The Irish voice started speaking, a few coughs could be heard beforehand.
"I am the fooking Greatest! Fighting is my bread and butter! The thing that gets me up in the morning! The G.O.A.T of the G.O.A.T's! The man who predicts it all! The Millionaire with the most famous walk and the juiciest fookin knockouts! They call me Mystic Mac cuz' guess what?! I predict these tings! The baddest motherfocker to ever set foot on the octagon! The Double Fookin Champ! The Notorious! Conor Fookin McGregor!"
Silence.
"Ok."
More silence.
"That's fookin all!? I gave it me all with my fookin introduction ya cunt! Bet Bruce Buffer couldn't have done it better!"
Silence.
"Anyway, the second voice, if you will, please introduce yourself."
"OI! YOU JUST GONNA FUCKING IGNORE ME!?"
"Khabib Nurmagomedov, two time Sambo world champion and UFC's Lightweight Champion."
Taking in all the information he had just gotten he understood bits and pieces of what had happened during his fight with the worm.
"So, Conor, you were the one to give me your assistance during my fight with the Grimm."
"Yup, that was me, you're welcome by the way lad."
Blanc sighed as he felt the energy drain from his interactions with the Irishman.
"It's really hard to not find you annoying."
"I understand pain brother."
Before the conversation deviated further, he decided to ask the question at the forefront of his mind.
"So what are you?"
A few minutes passed before the reply came.
"We're a part of you."
Confusion was apparent on Blanc's face.
"A part of me?"
"Yeah."
"Yes."
Silence.
"But also like a part of everyone."
"I don't get it."
"I don't either, to be honest."
"I not too."
With the discussion concluded and both the Personae not being able to truly explain anything to him, they receded to the back of his mind.
Thinking over what he had just learned he realized he knew less and less the more details he found out.
A dink sound startled him for a second.
In his mind, a notification appeared.
《You've got a Special Ticket, do you wish to use it?》
Seeing no reason why not to do it, he mentally accepted, after all...
"What could go wrong?"
The spinning continued on his head, slowly it started to slow down little by little.
And then, it stopped.
《Special Roll: High C Rank Persona《The Bringer of Pain》has been acquired!》
Before he could react, a splitting headache made itself present.
Sequentially, a siren started screeching loudly in his mind.
《WARNING: Current possessed Persona's Rank is too high for the user! Health will decrease gradually!》
A sudden spike of pain started on his whole body, the feeling was similar to having all his muscles compressed into themselves.
"Tell me, child, do you know pain?"
The headache he was feeling was enough to make him want to rip his own head off, pressure was coming from the inside like his brain was pushing trying to get out of his cranium.
《Does the user wish to seal this Persona at the cost of 15% of maximum Aura?》
《While the seal is in effect your aura capacity will be reduced, if broken the aura will return to normal.》
Unable to keep hearing more Blanc chose rapidly.
"Yes! Yes! Do it now!"
《Sealing in process please wait...》
Sudden all-consuming darkness smothered him, everything disappeared from his view as if he was going blind.
In that darkness, he felt pain like no other.
Every single muscle fibre in his body hurt, every single blood vessel felt like exploding, every single pore felt like it was stabbed by a needle.
Between the darkness and the pain, there was something that stood up, purple deep eyes, hypnotizing him with its rippled pattern.
"You're too weak, this way you will never protect anything..."
《Sealing has been completed!》
And like that, Blanc felt himself going back to reality.
He was currently with his hands on the floor as he recoiled from the feeling of pain he had felt.
Regaining a bit of his strength he manages to stand up from the sand-filled floor.
"I think I need a nap."
Like a sack of potatoes thrown from a second floor, Blanc fell on his makeshift bed as he drifted off to the land of dreams.
A duffel bag filled with clothes laid on the floor next to his bed, one by one he checked that no necessary item was missing from it.
"Seems like I'm good to go..."
Reading the scroll given to him, Blanc realized he had about 20 minutes before the bullhead arrived to pick him up.
A dink easily recognizable as one of the mind notifications was heard by Blanc.
《Do you wish to reclaim the items from your mind box?》
"Items? Oh, the gachapon items."
He mentally agreed to it and a couple of items were placed in the bed in front of him.
A ring, a miniature copy of a training dummy, something similar to leather wraps in the shape of gloves and a normal green candy.
Grabbing the ring first he wondered how he was supposed to know what they did.
In his mind, a message appeared and the information was received instantly.
《Ring Of Thuggery: Increases Attack by one during nighttime.》
"Oh~ Very interesting."
He equipped the ring and stored the rest of the items in the bag, taking the black Grimm gloves out of the box he also received information about it.
《Nihil Gloves: Absorbs aura and hardens accordingly|Can infuse personae into them》
"Infuse personae?"
Trying to think about the meaning of the words, he quickly came to realize it was a waste of time to try and figure out the meaning without more information.
As a precaution, Blanc also equipped the gloves which somehow seemed to fit snugly on his hands and forearms as if they were custom made.
Quietly, he took his things and headed out, before he could fully leave the village a hand stopped him.
"I came to say goodbye..."
Marina stood in front of him now as she still held his hand.
"I see."
Before he could say more, Marina hugged him.
"I'm going to miss you so much, please, please, I beg of you, be safe..."
Blanc could feel his shirt get wet with the tears of the Sister.
He hugged her back and consoled her.
"I promise."
After a few minutes, the Sister left, her head was down as she looked back at every three steps she took.
A heavy feeling was present in his heart as he walked through the desert.
Looking down at the scroll he saw a message.
Bullhead arrived 4 minutes ago.
"Guess I'll have to pick up the pace..."
As he speed-walked in the distance he could see light little by little approaching, assuming that to be light from the Bullhead he came close.
Slowly he started to climb a sandhill, on the other side, rays of light were visible making him believe he was close to his pick up point.
Little by little the Bullhead came into view, but as it did, Blanc felt his stomach drop.
"Hey, get that!"
"Fuck! These bastards didn't have anything important..."
The Bullhead was in flames, the pilot had been beheaded and there were ten men around it talking between each other, each one of them had patched up clothes and fire weapons, one even seemed to have a used RPG.
Blanc knew what these men were, they were a common occurrence in Vacuo.
"Bandits..."
"Hey! There's someone there!"
And now he had been spotted.
[Chapted One End]
helo
it me again
did u guys see UFC 264?
crazy how Conor broke his foot with an elbow block those are for sure op he need sum milk and to do some good ol karate bone training
NO PAIN NO GAIN !
anyway thanks for reading pls review and stuff
i will try to not take months for the next chapter tehee~
thanks for all the nice mesges and stuff it makes me feel very good bout myself i will write a lot more i promisee!
i love you all! (don't tell my gf she will kill me)
[btw don tell anione but i might upload a new story later in tha week! shhhh! supah secret!]
To Mr Shipwright
I appreciate your review and the short analysis you did, I spend most of my days writing professionally because of my environment, to me writing this way is a way to distance myself from that and let my imagination flow.
The reason I don't like to define my character from the start is so other people can get to know him from the perspective of others through conversation and third-person narration, slowly getting to know him and not as an infodump which they will probably forget within minutes of reading, this is merely personal taste and my way of seeing it.
While I agree with you about time skips I still felt it was necessary, most of the usual routine of the main character can be assessed from the first chapter, they eat, they trade, they train and they move as a tribe evading Grimms, there's not much else to add as this is Vacuo, not Vale, not Atlas, all around there's nothing but sand, I could have made something with Vacuo academy but I honestly thought too many OCs will end up with me making 2D cut off personalities instead of fleshed-out characters that people might enjoy more, quality over quantity and such.
Again, thank you for the review and I hope you can enjoy what I write.
Hope you have a great day!