A/N: Hey! Um... I'm not dead!
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… so... it looks like this one's late too. I mean, Jesus, this took way longer to write than it should've. Crap. I really need to get back onto a reasonable schedule for this stuff. Urgh! Damn you, Depression, getting to me when I least expect it! And you too, Writer's Block, for jumping on the bandwagon! Shame on you both!
Anyway, despite the tardiness (which I won't allow to become a pattern beyond this point), I sincerely hope you all enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.
I do not own the cover image.
Chapter 66: Answers of A Sort
Half an hour before a reaper and a hero-to-be stepped through the doors of a hall of misfits and found families, droplets of sunlight fell onto the silhouette of a girl with hair as white as snow, a face like a doll's, and, as she woke from slumber, a sudden pain in her head that flared to life like wildfire in a bottle.
All in all, Weiss felt as though her head had been split by an axe and welded back together with a soldering iron. That was an improbable explanation for her splitting headache, but she didn't even get a chance to laugh at the ridiculousness of her thought before a sharp spike of pain caused her to let out an involuntary groan and raise her hand to her forehead, in a mostly fruitless effort to soothe it.
When she finally managed to get her eyes open, with great effort on her part, the white-haired heiress found that she was not, in fact, in a tent made of exposed hide and wooden support beams. Instead, she was in a room of polished oak wood, on a bed that she'd have expected to find in a hospital, with the scent of sterilizing agents and clean sheets overwhelming her, nearly causing her to gag.
Confused, she tried to push herself upwards, finding herself with stiff limbs and a case of cottonmouth. Moving too suddenly caused the pain in her head to flare up, but she wasn't dissuaded, and managed to sit herself upright and actually look around. There were beds lined through the long room, with most visibly empty and curtains drawn for a select few. There was a woman in blue scrubs and a lab coat making the rounds, with a stethoscope around her neck, and long, black hair held back in a tight tail. She was tall, and young for her general air of experience, maybe in her mid-thirties at most, with large, square-framed glasses that hid a pair of dark eyes as they darted about a chart she held in her hand.
Then she looked up and met Weiss' gaze. Quickly recognizing that the girl was indeed awake, she walked over to her, her shoes making a dull echo against the hardwood floor, and came up to the side of her bed, quickly grabbing a glass of water from the table off to her side and holding it in front of her. Weiss took the glass gratefully and quickly gulped the water down. It was painful to swallow, at first; her throat had become quite dry after that extended spell of unconsciousness, but her parched mouth was quickly cured.
"Thank you," she said, gently placing the glass on the table next to her bed.
"Don't mention it," the woman said, pulling a chair from the side and sitting on it, placing her old clipboard to the side and grabbing the one towards the foot of her bed. "Let's see here... Weiss Schnee, age nineteen, five foot three inches and approximately one hundred and ten pounds. Suffered a minor head injury and various other minor cuts during an airship crash. Does this sound correct to you?"
It took her a second to nod. That was... shocking, though she supposed she couldn't blame the woman for being thorough. Medical professionals were supposed to be, after all. What had surprised her was the weight thing, strangely enough. She'd been a hundred and fourteen the last time she'd checked. She supposed that training with Tenya and Momo had been better for more than just shaking off the rust from her combat skills.
Then, at the thought of her oldest friend, she also remembered the girl's letter, and quickly patted herself down for it. When she found that she couldn't find the thing, and realized she no longer had Myrtenaster with her, she started to go into a bit of a panic. That sword was basically her life – if she lost it...
But her sudden panic was put at ease when the doctor reached over and grabbed the thin blade by the hilt, a cumbersome thing in hands more used to pens and scalpels, and placed it on her lap. "It wouldn't have exactly been practical to put you on a bed while this thing was sheathed at your side. Don't worry, nothing happened to it while you were out.
"This also slipped out of your pocket, while you were asleep," the woman said, with Momo's letter to Shoto grasped between her fingers. "Seemed important, so..."
Weiss took it back gratefully. "Erm... I know I should've asked this question first, but... where exactly am I?"
"The Medical Wing of the M3C," she answered with a straight face.
"The... what?" Weiss asked, genuinely confused. "I'm sorry, but I don't really know a lot about Mistral."
"... well, I can't say I'm too surprised, but I'd have thought word of us would've reached Atlas by now, even in passing," the woman said. "That acronym's for the Merry Men Mercenary Company. We've got a hand in plenty of camps. Charity, volunteer projects, contracts, and the obvious stuff like mercenary work. We've even helped hunter groups from time to time."
"Oh. But... why am I... wait, is Tenya okay?! And the pilot?! Where-"
"They're fine," she reassured. "Your chair-bound friend's resting right now. He took the brunt of the landing, but he's fine now. The pilot should be waking up in about a day or two. The most you guys had were some minor head injuries and some broken bones. You should count yourselves unreasonably lucky that none of you died.
"Oh! I should introduce myself. My name's Dr. Marian Shuzenji. I'm the head of medical operations in the M3C. It's nice to meet you," she said, extending her hand to the young woman.
"Weiss Schnee," the white-haired heiress replied, taking Marian's hand and giving it a light shake. "But you already knew that."
"It's nice to meet you regardless," the dark-haired doctor replied. "Now, I know that you won't want to hear this, but I'll need you to stay here while I get Robin. You'll be okay to walk, but please be patient. I'll be back in just a minute."
With that, Marian stood, adjusted her glasses, and calmly walked out of the room to find this "Robin" she had mentioned. Weiss, however, couldn't sit still. She was in Mistral, she knew that much for sure, but there were a few problems that needed to be addressed immediately. The first and foremost being their nonexistent funds. Sure, they had some Lien lying around, but it wasn't going to do for a long-term stay in Mistral. The prices here would definitely be different than they were in Vale. She'd heard tell of prices being raised for almost everything in the wake of the kingdom's fall, but she wasn't sure of how much.
Secondly, there was the problem of bounty hunters, or, more directly, the agents of the White Fang. Both would be bad to deal with on their own, but one would be a far more pressing issue than the other. Weiss knew that Mistral was one of the kingdoms that hadn't taken to faunus equality nearly as well as Vacuo or Vale, the only one that responded even worse being Atlas. If there was word of a Schnee in town without substantial protection, they'd likely take that opportunity to try and kidnap her, and either ransom her off to Jacque or simply execute her. Neither of those prospects were particularly appealing.
I need to find out where my allies are. I know that Winter's up in Argus, but that might not last with the troop withdrawal Ironwood's planning on. Still... I should try to contact her, let her know where I am, and that I'm fine. Then I'll have to find out who else is here. Shoto said he would visit his mother after the festival was over. Let's hope he stuck to that plan.
And so, as quietly as she could, Weiss lifted herself from the hospital bed and sheathed Myrtenaster at her side, glancing around the room to find where Tenya slept. I'll be back as soon as I can, Tenya. I'm not leaving anyone behind.
Not again.
(meanwhile, Branwen Tribe Camp, Yang's POV)
The tea had grown lukewarm as the tension continued to build between mother and daughter, the latter glaring daggers while the former put up a shield of cool indifference. Raven sipped from her cup calmly while Yang's remained untouched. A brief breeze fluttered the tent flap open ever so slightly, letting the auburn sunset trickle in from the outside before leaving them in the light of candles once more.
"So... it's clear now that you at least know about Ozpin," Raven said, referring to one of Yang's deflections earlier. "But what else?"
"I know that the Grimm have a Queen. I know that she's after four relics with the potential to destroy the world. And I also know that she's after my sister because of her eyes, and after my boyfriend because of his powers," she answered, gruffly.
"... you know he has One for All?" Raven asked, genuinely surprised.
"You're not asking the questions here, Raven," Yang replied.
"But-"
"He told me, okay?! I don't see how discussing what my boyfriend can and can't do is relevant to this fucking discussion," Yang said, her temper flaring briefly before she took a breath, calming herself.
"... it might have more to do with it than you think," Raven said, not sounding entirely sure of that herself.
"Stop that. Stop... stop moving away from it. You know why I'm actually here," Yang said.
The sudden tension in Raven's back confirmed her suspicions. It wasn't an easy subject. It wasn't something that either of them really wanted to talk about, or even acknowledge. But it still hung there, waiting, like a headsman at the chopping black.
"Yang... I..." Raven began, uncertain, almost scared, before she took a breath, and steadied herself. "If you really want to understand, then... I'll have to start from the beginning. Okay?"
Apprehensive, impatient, and more than a little annoyed and angry, Yang gave a slow nod. As much as she might dislike this woman, this seemed to be the only way she would ever get her answer. So, against most of the natural instincts fighting to be freed within her body, she waited.
"... Qrow and I... we weren't born into the tribe. We were prizes, of a sort. Taken in a raid from a mother who died from a drug overdose almost a week earlier. I don't remember much of my life before the tribe. All I knew for certain was that Qrow was... all I had. My little brother. He was my entire world, for a while. Then... Starling Branwen declared us her own. Some of the men had planned on killing Qrow, because they couldn't be bothered with him. And I knew that whatever they had planned for me wouldn't have been much better. She killed them. Without mercy. She cut down each and every one of them. Said that if they could say such things about children, about those who could not understand their situation, then they had no right to draw breath in this world.
"So... we were raised in the tribe. We were taught how to hunt, how to fight, how to read and write, everything that we might need to help us survive. And the Branwen Tribe hadn't been doing so well for a long while. We were under constant threat of hunters who wouldn't let up. Who wouldn't let us rest. Qrow and I had just turned seventeen when Starling gave us a mission. Infiltrate Beacon Academy. Pretend that we'd cut all ties with the tribe, and spy on them. Learn their tactics, their techniques, their methods, and to bring that knowledge back to the tribe so that it might be strong again. That was the original reason we went to Beacon at all.
"If we'd known that we were going to be put into teams, we probably wouldn't have risked it. But we were already there, and we couldn't back out without looking suspicious. It was... a strange time, for me. I'd never met anyone outside of the tribe before, and truth be told, I had never planned on making friends, even after the team announcement. Then those two just wormed their way into our lives. Qrow took to it easily. I... didn't. Not at first. But Summer didn't stop trying to be my friend. And Tai was... well, Tai.
"I was twenty-three when you were conceived. At that point, I'd almost forgotten about the mission. About going back. And then, when you were born... I think that might have been the happiest day of my life. I thought that things could work out. That I wouldn't have to choose between my families.
"... then Starling died. Not as a warrior, fighting the good fight in the field, but as tired, world-weary old woman, succumbing to natural causes. And in the wake of that, infighting had started. They didn't know who was going to lead them, and Qrow and I had effectively been gone for years. I got the news six months after you were born. I told Qrow about it, but he... he didn't want to go. He'd grown to love his life, and what he did. He could never get past the fact that the family that had raised him were... well, evil, from a certain perspective. And he wasn't entirely wrong to think that. But I can't forgive the fact that he just... no. No, I don't have any right to say that," Raven said, muttering the last part beneath her breath.
"You were seven months old when I talked to Tai about it. I'd already delayed going because... I didn't really know what to do. At that point, I really did have a choice to make. You and Tai, or the tribe that raised me. I talked to him about it. I wanted you two to come with me. I didn't want everything to fall apart. But Tai... he didn't want that life for you. He knew how I'd been raised, and he felt it was his responsibility to raise you... better. Another month went by... and I made my choice. I left. I chose my tribe, and I didn't look back."
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"... that doesn't change much," Yang said, surprised at just how hollow her own voice sounded. "Even if there was a reason... you still left. Nineteen years, Raven. You were gone for nineteen years, and I can't just let that go."
"And I don't expect you to," Raven said, finally putting down her tea cup. "I wouldn't have been able to keep you in my life, even if that was my choice to make. I'm not a good person, Yang. I've killed, I've stolen, I've razed entire villages to the ground... I even tortured a man, once. Slowly. Even now, I'm not entirely sure I regret that. I know that most people would call me barbaric. Sadistic. Evil. And... you can't be what I am and expect good things to come your way. I never expected..."
I never expected you. The sentence was unspoken, invisible in the air, yet it didn't really need to be voiced. And Yang didn't want to hear it. She was having a hard enough time keeping it together as it was. And she wouldn't let Raven see her break. Not now, not ever.
"... why the hell do you hate Ozpin so much?" Yang asked. It was really the only other question that she had on her mind. One that she wasn't sure she needed, or wanted, an answer to.
Slowly, Raven answered, her eyes downturned and practically drilling holes into the floor. "... that... that's a very complicated and touchy subject. One that I... don't want to get into right now.
"... you were probably headed to Mistral before this, right?" Raven asked.
Desperate for a different subject, to distract from the whirlwind of emotions, Yang gave a short, curt nod.
"... alright. Get your bike. I'll send you there."
With nothing more spoken between them, Yang left the tent, making her way through the rows of tents and the number of bandits within the place. Some only glanced at her and walked with a faster gait to their step. Others leered at her unabashedly, at her bust, her hips, and her legs. She kept walking. She'd gotten the latter often enough when she was in Vale, especially during high school. It still made her feeling disgusted. But she kept walking.
What did throw her off, however, were the accusatory looks, the hateful glares. As though she had dared to come into their territory uninvited. She had done that quite literally, but before, these same people had simply looked at her with interest, or annoyance. Now, they looked at her as if she were a Grimm in human skin. Yang almost let her rage at this show on her face. They wouldn't understand. They hadn't lived her life. They hadn't grown close to a mother figure for so long only to lose her, to see her go out on a mission and never come back. They hadn't then learned that their real mother had abandoned them, had stayed away from them for nineteen fucking years and never bothered to visit even once. They hadn't had to keep a household together practically singlehandedly while their father grieved, hadn't had to raise their little sister for almost two years. They hadn't-
She let her rant die out. She breathed, and calmed herself, running her hands through her blonde tresses. Yes. They hadn't lived her life. But that was no fault of theirs. And she hadn't lived theirs either. She didn't have a right to judge them for that. Yang ignored the stares and looks the rest of the way to her bike.
Sitting near where she'd parked the thing was Shay in all of his pathetic glory. Front tooth still chipped, eye still blackened, grin still of the shit-eating variety. It only took a blank stare and a single cracking of her knuckles to get him to lose his composure and run off to Oum knows where. Good. If she had to deal with that perverted jackass one more time, she might lose what little composure she had left.
Yang checked what pieces of her bike she could without dismantling it. So far, everything looked to be in order, and nothing was missing. Good.
"I thought your hair would be darker," a rough, but distinctly feminine, voice said.
Yang turned and saw a short haired girl with piercing blue eyes staring at her, leaning against a nearby post with a cocky, self-assured smirk on her face. Vernal, Yang though her name was.
"Well, it's not," Yang said, matter-of-factly, not willing to even humor the notion of deliberately looking similar to her mother.
Vernal nodded. "It's not.
"... I didn't hear what you two were talking about, but... I honestly don't understand why you hate her."
Yang held her tongue, despite her immediate instinct to punch the short-haired girl in the face. Instead, she gripped a nearby wooden pole, to balance herself. And Vernal went on. "We might be bandits, but we're a lot better than most are. And that's mostly thanks to Raven. And she might not be perfect, but she's still one of the best people I've ever met. She never turns anyone away without reason, and she always makes sure everyone's looked after. She cares-"
And suddenly, without warning, the pole that Yang was gripping shattered into a shower of splinters. She hadn't really noticed that. But, to be honest, she didn't care. She said... she had the audacity to tell Yang, to her face, that Raven... cared? That she had the capacity to care?
Her voice shook as she responded. "... you may have had that. You may have had her here, tending to her people, caring about them. Because they're family to her. Because you're family to her. You had that. I had nineteen years of nothing. No good, no bad; nothing. So don't you dare tell me that she cared deep down, because she still wasn't there. That's not going to make me forget that she wasn't there for me. That she'll never be there for me. Don't have the audacity to think you understand what I've been through because of that fact; you just don't. You don't understand, and I sincerely hope you never know what that kind of nothing feels like."
Vernal watched her leave with her bike in stunned silence. There were no stares after that.
Raven stood behind her tent, saying nothing as she silently drew her blade, and cut through the air, leaving a seeping red gash along her stroke. A portal to Mistral. To Qrow. To Izuku. To everyone she cared about. To the mission they had pledged themselves to.
"Yang," Raven said, her voice even. "The next time we meet, it will likely not be under the banner of family."
"That banner was never there to begin with. Why pretend that it is now?" Yang said back, undeterred as she kept on towards the portal. She wouldn't let her see the tears rolling down her face. She wouldn't let her see that their conversation hurt. Not in the scathing way she had expected, but in the mournful way that she hadn't. Yang hadn't expected genuine conflict. She had painted her mother as a monster who had abandoned her. In a sense, she was still that.
But this monster had turned out to be human. Complicated, contradictory, inconsistent, and so painfully, achingly understandable. It didn't make it hurt any less. In fact, it only made the hurt worse.
And still, she walked on. Yang walked through the portal, to a guild hall filled with people, music, and the smell of various brands and blends of alcohol, and never looked back.
(Raven's POV)
The second Yang was through, Raven closed her portal. As quickly as it had appeared, it stitched itself shut. The dark-haired woman wiped the tears from her cheeks. She had no right to cry. Not for this.
She quickly made her way back inside her tent, and found herself in the only chair the room held, staring up at her trophies. It was customary, in the Branwen Tribe, to give the chief the grandest prize of the spoils. A product of a time long past, but one that stayed prevalent in their day to day lives. There were numerous things upon her trophy wall. Some she could recall with perfect clarity. They had taken an urn of solid gold from another bandit camp that had taken to razing the countryside. They had raided it when they were drunk and tired. The skull of a Goliath hung from the wall, still chipped where Raven's blades had made their marks. They had killed it when it had gotten in the way of a planned raid. The gun of a soldier who believed he could take on the world by himself. She'd killed the man because of his hypocritical stances regarding... well, too many things to reasonably list.
But she knew that those explanations were just excuses. The other camp they had raided had a reputation for horrific acts, including cannibalism. Killing that Goliath had both reminded her of her short-lived days as a genuine huntress, and gave her an excuse to spare that town in its path. And that soldier was quite literally out of his mind; borderline psychotic, really. Would've only been a matter of time before he snapped and killed someone else. It was better for everyone that the man was dead.
And those were a number of the very few good things she had done when she had taken over as Chief of the Branwens. And, at the moment, it was all she could recall. Most of the memories she had were bloodstained, and filled with smoke. She had to do right by the tribe. That was what she had told herself. That was always her response to whenever people asked her the simple question of "Why?"
But... was that all she'd done right by? Yes, she loved her tribe, her people. Raven would gladly die for any of them. But... what about Tai? When he had offered an alternative, she ran back to what she knew best. She was terrified of something new. And what about Qrow? He had taken the path she could've taken. One much more free than the one she had placed herself upon. The path of a hunter. A path she didn't wish to take. And Yang... she had done two things right by Yang. Saving her on the train, and giving her a path to Mistral. That was it. That was all the good she had done for her own flesh and blood. Because she was terrified of being a mother. And she ended up being worse than the one who hadn't cared for her and her brother at all.
And Summer... oh Oum, Summer...
It's not my fault. It's Ozpin's, some distant corner of her thought.
But was it really? She had known what Summer would be walking into. She'd known that it was practically a suicide mission.
It's not my fault. Ozpin sent her off to die.
Had he? Had he made such a deliberate move to send one of his most valuable, trusted, and powerful confidants and agents into the depths of the Grimmlands to die? Who would do such a moronic thing?
He sent her off to die.
She could have used her Bond Path to find her. To help her, somehow. Maybe go with her, like they used to.
He sent her off to die!
She could've checked on her at some point. Not for long, just to see-
HE SENT HER OFF TO DIE!
SHE COULD'VE DONE SOMETHING!
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…
… Raven looked up at her collection of trophies once more, her internal debate at an impasse. With the power of Spring, she swept her hand across mounted displays. Each and every one toppled to the floor of her tent with a brief gust of wind. She could care less about the damned things.
And so, she sat, and hung her head low, hoping, praying, that for once in her life, she had made the right choice.
(meanwhile, Sherwood Guild Hall, Izuku's POV)
That... that was not what he had been expecting to hear. He'd expected his father to have worked with the M3C in passing, maybe make a few friends and contacts. It was just... how he'd always seen the man. Someone with no real connection to the world of Remnant other than a few close friends and his family. This was...
"W-wait! You knew my dad?!" Izuku said, straining not to yell out in surprise.
"I'd like to think so. We worked together for almost seven years, and-"
Before the redheaded fox faunus could respond at any length, however, Izuku quickly spiraled into a serious of questions that began to mesh together to the point that he couldn't rightly distinguish where one ended and the other began. Everything from something a mundane as his favorite foods to something as specific as the way he fought certain kinds of Grimm. Everything about this kid reminded him of Hisashi in one way or another.
Some traits seemed to be genetic despite all evidence to the contrary.
"Kid! Slow down. I can't answer your questions if I can't understand what you're trying to ask," Robin asked, a small, amused smile crossing his lips. Izuku, rather self consciously, decided to become suddenly quiet.
"Well, I did catch that you wanted to know how he talked. Well, he was just as weird as you are, but not shy about it in the slightest," Robin explained. "It... well, it could make him a bit hard to approach, or even understand, but he wore his heart on his sleeve, and he never apologized for that.
"And before you get it in your head, I just want to say that there's absolutely nothing wrong with being shy. Sure, Hisashi was outgoing about his interests, but being quiet isn't a flaw. Honestly, knowing when not to speak was one of his... well, he never quite got the hang of that."
Izuku listened with vested interest, his eyes unwaveringly wide as a smile threatened to split his face. Then, he asked the next question. As before, he started off with the mundane things. Favorite foods; steak and pasta; some hobbies; strategy games and various RPGs; and even what his favorite classes were; History, Advanced Tactics, and Combat.
Then he simply asked for a story. Nothing in particular. Just a story involving his dad.
"Well, we were in our final year when Hisashi had one of the strangest ideas he's ever had. Get piss drunk and see what happens. It was one of the most bizarre experiences I've ever had in my entire life. I planned on staying sober for it, but I think that just made everything even weirder. So, the plan was to start bar hopping through town, and for a while, it was actually going pretty well.
"Then we got to the third place, and stuff just started... happening. RUSH was a weird team, but this just cemented that fact for me. Hisashi was a lightweight, so he started doing weird stuff a lot sooner than the others. Before I knew it, he had the whole bar dancing to some shitty jingle that happened to be playing at that moment. He was... by Oum, his dancing was atrocious. Umber and Swan weren't much better, and it was a pure mess of disorganized movement.
"So, I decided to be the bigger man and show them how it was done," Robin continued. "And that's when the night went from good to great! I started killing it, and then Hisashi somehow matched up with me, and before we knew it the whole team was dancing in perfect sync. To this day, I have no clue how the hell it happened, or how we managed it, but we did.
"Anyway, we'd gone on and off the dance floor a couple of times, I'm downing my fourth beer, and I'm starting to black out. And then, somebody in there said something to the effect of 'something, something, Mafia!' And in a brilliant moment of word association, I yelled 'FUCK THE MAFIA!' And then, for some reason I will never begin to understand, literally everybody else in the bar joined in. A sea of drunk, dumb as shit bar goers yelling 'fuck the mafia' with all the confidence of people who have already been to jail! It was stupid, but in a kind of way that some people could actually get behind.
"Anyways, the reason that people had been saying 'something, something Mafia,' was because the mafia had just shown up. And this guy in a cheap suit just looked out over a sea of drunken dumbasses, yelling 'fuck the mafia,' in his face... and I swear to Oum, he was almost impressed with that. He was just like 'wow'... And then he leaned into a burner, and said 'get the bruisers.'
"We then did what any reasonable civil servant would do and proceeded to kick mafia ass! And Hisashi, the quietest, calmest, most calculated little bastard I have ever known, just grabbed a forty, threw it at one of the mafia guys, and yelled 'FUCK 'EM UP!' Then we all went in different directions. I punched out a couple of the guys on the edge of the main group and then started looking for stuff that I could throw, and then this big ass motherfucker came up right in front of me and I thought 'I've never fought a guy this big before'... and the I woke up in our dorm."
The last part was so abrupt yet so appropriate that Izuku couldn't help but laugh at it. It was ridiculous, really, but it also made so much sense.
"The next day, our hangovers were so damn bad that none of us could actually move that much. And we spent the rest of the day regretting every single life decision we'd ever made up until that point," Robin said, a comfortable, fond smile now gracing his face.
Izuku's laughter, which had been a constant throughout the entire story, faded into a warm chuckle, a small smile still on his face. "Thank you. I... I really needed that. It's been... it's been a tough few weeks."
"A hunter's life is always hectic in some capacity or another. I mean, hell, I'm getting married in, like, a month, and I've been prepping for that almost non-stop. But enough about that. Want me to show you around the place?" Robin asked, his arm sweeping through the hall, filled to the brim with jovial laughter and smiling faces. A family, so large he couldn't count it's true size, stretched out before him. Not a family by blood, but by choice and battle. It reminded him of RNJRSIY and STIK, just a little bit. In some capacity, those guys were family to him. Even Bakugo; though the hard ass would surely deny it.
"I think I'd like that," he said, allowing himself to be led around the place. He was only introduced to people in passing, really, but he was shown various places the rather large guild hall housed within. The bottom portion, with tables and chairs strewn about, a bar in at the furthest edge, with large job boards across each side, was the main area of the hall simply called The Pit, for obvious reasons. On the second floor, there were a few rooms that led to various places of miscellaneous importance, like an information archive, dust holt, armory, things like that. The third floor was dedicated almost entirely to being their barracks, filled with rooms upon rooms that lined the whole floor.
"And on the top floor, we've got our infirmary. Now, you might be wondering why the hell this place is so big, but you'd be surprised just how often we get injured. No deaths, though; there hasn't been a single death here in almost two years. And running this place is-"
Robin suddenly cut off as he heard a hushed conversation carry out from just inside the infirmary. Izuku knew that Qrow was one of the ones talking; the gravely nature of his voice made him easy to distinguish, but the other was... familiar. Crisp, and straightforward, with an air of dignity and distinct cordiality.
It... It couldn't be... no way!
Without waiting for Robin to say anything else, Izuku shot off into the infirmary, Full Cowl activated through sheer instinct, zipping past a dark haired woman in a lab coat and rectangular glasses, passing various beds with sterile white sheets until he came upon the one that Qrow stood at, his arms crossed, with a slight smile on his face.
And sitting there, injured but alive, was Tenya.
Without a single word, Izuku ran to his side and hugged him. He and Tenya, while not the closest in the group, were still very good friends. He had helped him to develop his secondary fighting style, and had been a consistent voice of reason alongside Shoto. Izuku hadn't seen what had happened to him, but he had heard enough to be vicariously horrified at it. But right now, he was just happy that his friend was alive.
Tenya, dazed for the first few moments, eventually returned the hug, separating from it after a few seconds. His dark blue hair, somewhat ruffled by sleep, had grown a bit longer then he remembered it being, and his new apparel somewhat ruffled by what seemed to be an extended sleep. As Tenya can him a cursory glance, he said, "You seem... much more battle hardened since last I saw you."
"Yeah, I suppose that happens when you travel through the wilderness for almost half a year," Izuku answered with a sheepish smile, his hand rising to scratch the back of his head.
"As it should! I think most people would die otherwise," Tenya replied, a smile crossing his face.
"Well, I suppose I should let you two..." Qrow began, trying to extricate himself from the conversation before suddenly stopping. Then, there, in the middle of the infirmary, was Robin "Hood" Vulpes, staring at the red-eyed reaper as though he were seeing the ghost of an old friend.
"... Qrow..." Robin said, hesitantly, no emotion evident in any part of his voice.
"... Robin..." Qrow replied, just as hesitantly, with regret palpable in everything. He hung his head a bit lower, and his eyes had suddenly lost most of their luster.
The red-haired man slowly walked toward him, each footfall echoing through the oaken hall of recovery. Izuku felt his breath catch, and Tenya unconsciously did the same. It seemed, for a moment, to be a clash of wills between two warriors. Then, the truth was revealed to be a thing far less intense, but no less daunting. A reunion of old friends. Friends who hadn't seen each other in a long, long time. Who weren't sure how to approach or speak to one another.
Then, suddenly, Robin closed the distance and pulled Qrow into a warm embrace. The dark-haired man, shocked at this sudden, kind action, didn't react at first. His body seemed to tense at the sudden contact, and he didn't relax for several seconds.
"I... I don't... why-"
"Don't you start with your self-deprecating bullshit, alright? What happened on that mission wasn't your fault; it was never your fault." Robin separated from the embrace, and looked Qrow dead in the eye. "And I think we both know, for a fact, that if Hisashi were here, he'd agree. You just... you kept putting too much responsibility on yourself, man. You're allowed to share that weight. I'm just sorry it took me this long to tell you that."
Izuku stared at the two men in shocked silence. He knew a lot more about his father than he had before. That he'd been on the same team as the founder of the M3C, and that he had been something of a genius tactician. Who his father was as a person still seemed to escape him, but he thought that could be remedied with some other stories. But... Qrow knew something. Something that he was clearly uncomfortable with, that haunted him day in and day out. A guilt of failure, it seemed. What that failure was, whether it was cumulative or singular, he had yet to find out.
"... why do you always make it so hard for me to hate myself?" Qrow asked, bewildered.
"Cause you're my friend. And you're a much better person than you give yourself credit for," Robin answered, a sly smile on his lips once again.
"... well, I hate to interrupt a reunion of old friends," Tenya said apologetically, "but as I was saying beforehand, Weiss has likely gone to the Mistral Communications Tower to contact either her sister or Shoto. She can defend herself quite well, but it's also very likely that we have some form of bounty hunter on our trail, and they likely know this place far better than either of us do. I haven't really been in Mistral itself since my brother died, and before she went to Vale, Weiss had never been outside of Atlas. So-"
Then, interrupting him mid-suggestion, a crimson gash appeared behind Qrow, the sounds of parting reality echoing through the infirmary as everyone prepared for combat. Izuku had only heard a single description of Raven's semblance from Yang, but that was still more than enough to know that this was, indeed, the same kind of portal.
Everyone drew weapons. Qrow drew Harbinger from his back, Robin drew the scimitars that had been sheathed at his side, and Tenya pulled a heavy caliber pistol from the holster that sat on the table next to his bed while Izuku unsheathed Tempest from his back. Tension filled the air as they waited, staring at the portal, waiting for one enemy or another to come through and attack.
Then, to their complete surprise, Yang stepped through, guiding her motorcycle through the portal with her eyes downcast and fresh tears spilling to the floor, drop by drop.
A collective sigh of relief filled the room as everyone put away their weapons, the portal quickly closing behind the blonde brawler as Qrow quickly walked up to her, concern evident in his body language and on his face. Without a word spoked between them, she pulled the man into a hug, buried her face into his shoulder, and began to cry. It was a quiet thing. Izuku almost couldn't hear the sobs. But she was shaking. Shaking as though she had been told a family member had died horrifically.
Izuku, despite his concern, simply watched with worry as Qrow returned the hug and whispered assurances to Yang that she was okay. He wasn't sure what to do. So, he waited. Just in case. For the moment, it was all he could do.
Never before, and never again, would Izuku feel so uniquely powerless.
A/N: IT! IS! DONE!
Oh man, you would not believe how unreasonably difficult this was to write. I was actually halfway through this chapter when, literally out of nowhere, I was hit with a major bout of depression that lasted for almost a month. I couldn't bring myself to write anything for way longer than I should've. And then, after that, I somehow got into a serious case of writer's block for the scene with Izuku and Robin for an unreasonably long while (seriously, that conversation was so hard to write). And then, my two problems combined into a thing I have now dubbed Writer's Depression, a combination of two of the things I hate the most in this world, and stumped me on the hospital scene for almost two weeks.
Anyways, needless to say, I am so glad this chapter is finally finished, and I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for so long. The next one should be out in a more timely fashion. But, for now:
Review Responses:
Shadow Joestar: I hope it was worth the wait! It took me a while, but I finally got it to a place I was satisfied with.
MasterBlade47: Well, while I don't think their talk filled in all the gaps in the puzzle that is currently Hisashi's life, I think that story should serve as a jumping point for Hisashi's dynamic with his friends and teammates. Cloud and Tifa will certainly become more involved as the story progresses, as will Robin and, later down the line, Rin and Shirou, but Lucas was... well, it was honestly just a name I picked out at random. Sorry to all of the Earthbound fans in my audience! I wish were cool enough to have thought of that.
That is the way I've thought out the dynamic for Izuku and Oscar, primarily because they are so similar as characters. I can't wait to get deeper into it as the series progresses! It something I'm legitimately excited to write!
RHatch89: Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this one as well!
Triton0501: Thank you! I watch Abridged series on the regular, and SAO Abridged is one of my favorites. It's genuinely hilarious. And Red vs Blue was one of the first web series I ever watched, and it's made me laugh my ass off on more than one occasion. But, just because I have included this version of Robin Hood doesn't mean that Robyn Hill no longer exists. I actually wonder what it would be like for two characters derived from the same legend to meet face to face. It seems interesting.
JNDragneel: I do like Fairy Tail a lot. It was something of a gateway anime, for me, and I think you'll see it's influence in the chaotic bunch that is the M3C.
Konod0-Sensei: I mean, I have yet to read any of the supplemental books for the series, but I hope I'll get the chance soon! I also thought that the standoff with the bandits was the perfect setup for some comedy. I have to say, that was some of the most fun I've had while writing out a scene. I was actually laughing while I was writing this, which is strange because I usually only laugh at my own jokes in hindsight.
Most of the newer characters will be more involved in the upcoming arc with Overhaul, so I hope you enjoyed their introductions! I do plan on saving a few for later parts, though. And yeah, it can be weird to reconcile fanfiction canon with actual canon. There were a few points where I had to rewrite lines to line up with what I've already set up instead of with actual canon stuff.
And... yeah, while I overall enjoy Bakugo as a character, I still think he's a raging asshole who needs to be taken down a few pegs.
WriterForFun365: I too have played through the remake, and I loved every second of it. And somehow, for some reason (having no money to speak of at the moment), I still haven't seen Heroes Rising. And I really should! I've heard great things about it.
OceanLord2017: I always enjoy writing out her fights! They're so snappy and kinetic! I enjoyed writing out Izuku and Qrow's bond, as well as the worldbuilding for Mistral. I think it's probably one of the most interesting places in Remnant, but then Volume 5 happened and we barely got to see anything of the city. To this day, I still haven't gotten over than fact.
Nothingness93: I do love me some Abridged series! A lot of the well-done stuff is really, really damn funny. I can also see Qrow getting roped into a situation like that. It would be quite funny. I do plan on having Robin and Robyn meet at a later date. They're not related, they just come from the same legend. And yes, Izuku does, indeed, have a type.
SSDConker: Indeed I was, and I loved it to bits!
SaberFan117: I've actually wanted to put references to those two into the story for a while now! I hope I can keep up the hype train until they actually appear in person! It'll be fun to see them interact with different people from the cast, especially Izuku, Oscar, and Ruby. Unlimited Blade Works will be making its appearance, don't you fret about that.
Guest-Questioner: I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!
Godfather Pimpbury Doughboy: I think I'll have to, once I have enough time.
Rio Skyron: It would appear that way. It'll still mainly be focused on the MHA and RWBY cast, but I hope that I can do the other characters justice as well!
Thunder Dragon: Sorry for worrying you! I've also made cliffhangers something of a habit, though I'm trying my best to at least utilize them properly.
Kaiser Dragon: Indeed she is! I love writing any fight she's heavily involved in. While I don't think all of your questions about Hisashi have been answered, I hope to have answered at least one or two of them.
Ikki: Yeah, it does seem that way. I honestly never wrote it to be that way, it kinda just... happened! But it's still enjoyable nonetheless.
Madmagusmax: Oh god, those were horrible! I love it! And... I mean, kinda? It's more a personal preference than a fetish.
AcnologiaSlayer: Thank you! I actually enjoy calling them MTN much more than I would've enjoyed calling them MNT, it just suits them better. I've actually had the Dragon Pillar on the brain ever since I wrapped up writing on Volume 3, and I can't wait to actually get into it! I have heard of Tulok, and his videos are really good!
narutoxninetaileddemon: They are the pairing from Fate/Stay Night that I thought had, by far, the best chemistry. That and I think their dynamic is just great overall.
Reinkashi: I don't think I'll be able to do a Saber cameo, though that would certainly be a fun situation! And yes, I will be addressing the book stuff for Cloud! I've been sitting on that one since Volume 2! Don't worry, it's not the servant Robin Hood. I actually haven't seen what he looks like in the Nasuverse.
And this is now, officially, the single longest Review Response I have ever written. Well, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed!
Next Chapter: Sep. 12th
Seeya in the next one!