a/n well here we go, the next chapter of The Outcast Of Remnant. As always let me know what you think of it and any ways i can improve my writing.
cover image by Ren Lyles
Instagram: renlyles
Chapter Two: Training Begins
The ride back to patch was an awkward one, Yang uncharacteristically silent as her younger sister tries to get her to talk. Each new attempt failing which only caused Ruby to pout more and more, which normally I would find cute but given the situation I decided to not comment on it. After we landed Yang made the situation worse by telling us to head on home without her she needed some "yang time"
As she walks off Ruby looks up to me with a sigh before face planting softly onto my chest "hey Tyler you're an adult right?"
I muss her hair softly and chuckle to myself "well considering I am twenty I would hope that I am an adult. Otherwise I have some questions that need answered"
With a snort she looks up at me and steps back before a sigh escapes her lips "will she be okay?...".
"Well she needs to think some I'd imagine. I don't know the full story, but I have heard some of what happened between your father and mothers". With a solemn nod the little red head starts to head down the road that lead to their home
"C'mon lets get going, you can tell me about your weapon. Speaking of, what is its name of it?".
"well I don't have a name for it, I am not a hunter remember, naming a weapon is usually a hunter" my words trail off as I notice the expression on Ruby's face "what did I say something wrong"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVENT NAMED IT!!" she quickly gets in front of me with a storm of roses falling around her, letting me know she had used her semblance to do so.
"Well like I was trying to say, I am not a hunter I am a mercenary. Meaning that I have never been officially trained by any combat school or any trained huntsmen. Everything I know I taught myself". I hold my right arm out, allowing her to look at my gauntlet. A pout starts to form on her face making her look like a puppy that had lost its favorite toy.
"But still a weapon is an extension of its owner, naming it gives it its own personality and makes the hunt-I mean mercenary in this case". Grabbing my gauntlet she pulls it off my hand before dropping it with a small squawk. "How is it so heavy? What is it made of?" she watches me as I pick up the gauntlet with ease, putting it back on my hand and flexing the fingers.
"See it does have its own personality, only I can pick it up. As for what its made of…well me and Cindy, my weapon smith, made it with a technique we developed using my semblance". Seeing the confused look on her face I begin to explain my semblance in detail. "So remember when I said that people are afraid that my semblance comes from the darkness that creates the Grimm?". At her nod I continue on "well they would be somewhat right, at least from what I've been able to tell. I've had my semblance since I was born basically, so I've been able to learn and I even evolved it when I was ten. Needless to say I have learned a lot about this power of mine." Noticing that she had slowed her steps some I look back and see her looking at me with a quizzical look upon her face, which made her look like she was a puppy learning something new "What is it Ruby?"
With a frown she walks up and looks me up and down, not noticing how close she was to me "You don't look like a Grimm?" with that she pokes my stomach, causing me to wince with the pain still there from my healing injury. "And your blood was red, with the amount you lost..." her face grows pale as if she is about to be sick.
"Hey hey don't go throwing up on me now, lets just keep going and ill explain it better" the little red head nods and walks alongside me again as we make our way to her home once again. "Now back to what I was saying, I have learned many things about my semblance. One of these things being that if I focus my aura into the shadows I create, it can affect things around me in different ways. For instance if I send it into a dust crystal, I can corrupt the crystal for lack of a better word. This caused the crystal to become black in nature which makes its effects stronger. If I used it on blue dust the freezing power of the crystal would be even stronger and the ice it made would be black ice instead of the normal blue ice."
With a gasp ruby looks at me with stars in her eyes "you mean that you can make any type of dust stronger…I could find so many uses for that in my weapon" before she continues I put my finger to her mouth to stop her, knowing well her love of weapons.
"while yes I can do that, it is not all that safe. The dust becomes even more volatile and I don't think I need to tell you what that means. But anyway we got off track, since I am able to corrupt things like that I have figured out my semblance is basically an evil one" sighing inwardly I decide to leave out the worst part of my semblance since it could make her afraid of me.
"So how does all that come into your weapon?" she tilts her head as she ask, a finger to her chin.
"Well as a mercenary I have certain…connections one of which allowed me to get a large chunk of a pure uncut white dust crystal" Ruby opens her mouth to speak but I cut her off. "White dust increases the affect of someone's aura" with a snap her mouth closes allowing me to continue on "with that in mind I turned the crystal into a pure black crystal, which we then ground into dust and melted the dust into the metal that was used to make my weapon. This had an affect that caused the weapon to only respond to my aura, if anyone besides me holds it the weapon increases its weight. As to exactly how it does this…well even me and Cindy do not know. We had only set out to make a weapon that would help me control my semblance."
"Does it do that?"
"yes it does, the white dust had its affect amplified when I turned it black. So now when I use my semblance with the gauntlet on, whatever I create is stronger and uses less of my aura to do so". Looking ahead I see my temporary home come into view "and it looks like we are here little red, so how about we talk about this later? All this walking has made my stomach start to act up and the fact someone poked it does not help it." With the decency to look sheepish she nods before rocketing off with a blast of roses towards the home. I wonder how her dad deals with her speed, hell how can he deal with a speedy daughter on top of a time bomb of a daughter. At the thought of Yang I begin to wonder when she will be back, mostly for Ruby's sake and for some of my own interest. Since these girls have been taking care of me I feel the need to do the same for them. You are lying to yourself. You are only using them. With a sigh I shake my head at the voice inside my head, a voice that comes from the darkness of my semblance I had not wanted to tell the little hunter in training. Sighing again I start to head into the home so I could rest in my borrowed room.
A knock comes from my door a few hours later, after saying come in I look up at Ruby who was wearing a sour expression. "Let me guess is it Yang?"
Nodding she looks at me frowning softly as she sits beside me " she has never been gone this long, can you go look for her?...i would but I need to stay here incase she comes home"
Reaching out I mussed her hair softy, causing a pout to form on her cheeks "Yeah ill go look for her, I have a good idea where she is." with a nod from her I make to the door. Now considering she had said she was looking for a drink, there is only one place in town for her to go to. After looking up to the setting sun I sigh softly to myself wondering if this was going to end well considering how temperamental she can be sober, a drunk her could be even worse. "Damn this is going to suck a major amount of ass" cursing aloud I begin to make my way into town on foot.
An old bar enters my vision, its dull neon lights letting all know its name "the broken patch, ah such an original name. now time to see if the yellow bombshell is in her-" my words are cut off at the scream of a man being threw through the door of the bar. "yep id say she is here" sighing to myself I walk inside readying myself for anything
"And that's what you get for slapping my ass like th- oh heyyy wolfy boy. What are you doin here" the slurred voice of yang greets me as I walk in, she walks or rather stumbles to me and falls into my chest. "ooh you are as muscled as I thought~ how about you treat me to a good time". She laughs huskily before tracing my chest softly. The action doing some interesting things in my mind, but no I cant do that it would only cause problems in the future.
"No im here to take you home, your sister is worried about you" with a groan from the drunken blond I lift her over my shoulder, a small lance of pain goes through my stomach at the action. I hope this heals soon, im tired of this pain. "Hey barkeep just put her drinks on my tab, you know im good for it" with a thumbs up from the barkeeper I begin to walk out the door carrying the now passed out with a drunken Yang. "Damn yang how are you this heavy, must come from your boobs" the girl snorting in her sleep was my only response. "well now lets get you home girly".
As the house comes into view I notice Ruby running to me using her semblance. "you found her thank you Tyler thank you so much!! Uh I guess you can put her into her room since shes asleep" Ruby pokes her sisters nose while she speaks, causing a giggle to escape her lips
"okay I will, then I am ready to sleep the night away." We walk into the house and I carry yang up into her room. Feeling hands grip my ass roughly I gasp loudly and throw yang across the room into her bed, her laughs echoing loudly as I do
"haha that was fun lets do it again, nice ass by the way wolfy boy" her lips curl up into a smirk before she winks and proceeds to take her shirt off. With that I back out of the room and close the door turning to the red faced little sister who was staring dumbfounded at the door.
"is she always like that when she is drunk?" I ask her before staring to head to my temporary room.
With a nod Ruby sighs before closing her eyes no doudt trying to erase the image from her mind "yeah she gets…strippy when she is drunk. Although she never has done that with anyone around her that wasn't someone close to her". With a beaming grin she looks up at me "I guess this means she does like you more than she lets on". Feeling my lips curl up softly I walk into my room before answering her
"well for what its worth, I am growing fond of you two, and I will stay here for a bit longer. Its not like I have a home to go to or anything like that".
Her eyes turn curious as she tilts her head from side to side, looking like a puppy trying to figure out what to do. "what do you mean you do not have a home?"
"well being a mercenary means I travel all over the four kingdoms, so im never usually in one place for more than a few months at a time. If I had a home of my own it would be neglected most of the time". Her mouth opens in an oh shape before she nods and starts to walk to her room which was beside my own.
"well see you in the morning, goodnight tyler"
"good night little red" with a beaming smile she closes her door as I close my own to get ready for bed. Take her and break the trust of the little flower. "why don't you shut the hell up?" I ask the voice, silence being my only response. Mumbling to myself I pull my shirt off and look at the wound on my stomach "well since your back I guess my aura has done all it wanted to for the internal damage". With a grumble to myself I lay on the bed, wondering about the voice. It had been with me for as long as I can remember, the one thing I hate about my semblance. The one part that makes me think that my semblance comes from darkness, a memory flashes in my mind.
A young ten year old boy kneels over the body of a deer, blood soaking his hands as they tear into the meat of the freshly slain animal. With a twitch of the wolf ears atop his head, he starts to run on all fours to the source of the sound that had caught his interest. A young fawn bleats as a hand covered in darkness slashes through its neck, causing blood to spray onto the boy. Yes more, feed me more. Let your emotions out. Let the darkness flow into you and take you over. A growl escapes the boys throat as anger seeks out of him directed at the voice that had been causing him to follow his more animal instincts. Voices surround him as two people come into his vision. A man and a woman scream a name that sounds familiar to the boy, the name making his anger grow as he runs at the pair. Darkness covers the boy making him look as if he was made of pure shadows, the woman of the pair screams as the man grabs the boy.
With a gasp I open my eyes at the memory turned dream, just when had I fallen asleep? With a groan I start to raise up before feeling a weight on my chest, looking down I see a black and white ball of fur "ah hello there Zwei, I was wondering where you were" with a yawn the corgi looks up at me before laying its head back onto my chest. The little corgi was the family pet of the household and it had seemingly taken a liking to me almost automatically, which I had chalked up to my wolf blood making the dog feel like it had found another of its kind. Tonight was gong to be a long night of darkness fueled dreams it seems, patting the little dogs head I close my eyes to try and fall back asleep.
The sound of light breathing wakes me up from a nightmare filled slumber, groaning I look around to see what the source of the sound was. Looking down I notice the little red flower cuddled up to my side, her face in a comfortable slumber. This had become a regular occurrence from the girl, while she slept she would often sleep walk into her fathers room to cuddle up to him. Since I was using his room this had caused some interesting mornings in the house, more than often Yang would take pictures to use as blackmail before taking her sister back into her room. But this morning it seemed that the blonde was still asleep, more than likely a result from her drunken state of last night. "hey, Ruby wake up I need to get up" I tell her attempting to wake her up. A small grumble and an increased hold onto my right arm was the response. Thinking of a way to wake her up I smirk softly to myself as I flick her nose hard, causing the girl to snap awake her silver eyes look up at me with a wide stare. As her brain wakes up a blush forms on her cheek before she jumps back and onto the floor.
"aheheh um…hi" she says shyly as she looks down to the floor, her blush now matching her hair.
With a laugh I look back at her noticing how adorable she was at the moment "hello there little sleep walker, were you comfy?" her mouth opens to respond but she quickly closes it, choosing to slowly creep to the door before shooting out of it using her semblance. "well that was entertaining, I guess ill get breakfast started" another common thing of staying in this house was for me to cook some type of breakfast, to me it was the least I could do considering they are letting me stay there. Looking around the refrigerator I decided to start cooking some bacon and eggs. As the meal starts to smell up the house a groan catches my ears as Yang walks into the kitchen.
"ugh what happened last night, how did I end up here? Oh hey wolfy what are you cooking" with a hungry lick of her lips she reaches for a piece of bacon but a slap to her wrist stops her before she can. "hey! Whats that for?" with a grin I thump her head softly before responding
"Wait till its all done, you know my rules. Also you might want to go get your sister, she is in her room possibly embarrassed beyond what her tiny self can take" with a nod she starts to walk to her sisters room before looking back at me with a question on her lips.
"Wait why would she be embarrassed?"
"Well since little old you was asleep from her drunk self, she found out what she does in her sleep while she sleep walks".
"Oh boy time for mama Yang to have some fun" with a shit eating grin she barges into her sisters room, causing the little flower to squeak in surprise.
Laughing to myself softly I finish up the breakfast as the girls argue for a few minutes before Yang ends up placing down Ruby into a chair. "Well here is our resident sleep cuddler in the flesh"
"Yang!!" Ruby squawks out before covering her face in her hood as I slide a plate along the table to her and her sister.
As we start to dig in I feel a buzzing from my pocket, pulling out my scroll I read over a text from an unknown number "hey Tyler, this is tyler right? I hope it is. Um this is velvet the girl you met at Cindys yesterday. I was wondering if you would like to hang out today. Each of my team members have their own things planned so I am bored. Oh please let this be the right number". Laughing softly to myself I respond telling her I am free if she wants to come down to patch, after giving her the address I slide my scroll back into my pocket. "well two things, one it seems the local tower is up and two would it be okay if a friend comes over? I met her yesterday and she wants to hang out"
The shine in Ruby's eyes gives me her answer before her voice does "yes if she is nice I would like to meet a new friend. Come on Yang say yes pleasssseeee" she begins to shake her sisters arm roughly before Yang nods and looks at me with her signature shit eating grin.
"No adult fun I hope, we don't need any wolf puppies running around here now do we. Especially since me and Rubes here are gong out back to Vale, our uncle Qrow is back in town".
Shaking my head I look over at them and notice Ruby looking at me with a thoughtful expression "no that is not possible, any children I have would be a faunus like me, not an animal" she nods and goes back to eating her food. This girl is really to innocent for the line of work she is wanting to go into. "And I imagine she is going to want to train some, she has a weapon that is essentially a watered down version of my semblance. I told her I would help her with it since ive basically had her weapon all my life"
At the mention of a possibly new weapon Ruby shoots up and over to me, leaning in close before speaking "oh oh oh tell me about it please Tyler please" she pouts as I push her away shutting her down before she ends up speaking about a weapon for hours like she is known to do.
"No if you two are back before she leaves then I will let her tell you about it, besides from what I can tell she I the shy type of person"
"Oh fine then…hmpf cmon sis lets go, Tyler is being a meanie " with this yang laughs and scarfs down the rest of her plate before her and Ruby make to the door.
"hey sis we can ride on my motorcycle, bumblebee if you want to" the excited shriek from the red head could be heard all the way to the shed where I imagined the motorcycle to be stored. Ill need to make sure and ask Yang about her bike later, after all I always have had an interest in them myself. It took only a few seconds for the sound of an engine revving up to let me know they had left for the town.
About an hour later I get a text from the little rabbit telling me she just got into Patch and was on her way over to the address I had given her, which was the start of the road that leads to the Xio-Long household. "well guess I better head out to meet her, otherwise she might get lost in the woods and meet a big bad wolf" laughing at my own joke I start walking out the door, locking it as I do. Within a half hour I see a pair of large bunny ears looking around nervously as Velvet comes into sight. Seeing me she walks over quickly, almost as if she was hopping over to me
"h-hey there Tyler, I didn't know that there were any woods like this in Patch. The last I heard it was mostly fields and the like" tilting her head she looks at me, which caused her ears to droop to one side in a look that made her seem even more adorable than she already was.
"That is true for the northern parts of Patch but this part is a dense forest with only one home inside it. That home being where we are heading to, I have been staying there for about a week now recovering from an injury I had on a mission."
"Oh! A mission, are you a hunter?"
"No im not that lucky, im actually a mercenary for hire. The last mission turned into a situation that went south and resulted in an injury I am still healing from" I rub my stomach softly where the wound was. It had healed almost completely, the only pain being if I hit it hard with something. My aura had always healed my injuries faster than most with it unlocked which I had attributed to my semblance.
"If your injured are you sure you are up to this? I mean if not its fine I can train another way" Velvet starts to look around nervously before settling on looking at me.
"No no im fine, it is just about fully healed so I am down for some light training, have you ever trained with your weapon or?"
A blush I could only call embarrassing creeps on her face as she looks down shyly kicking her feet in the dust "actually this would be the first time I have even used it. It has taken all this summer to build it, and all of my student earnings from my first year to finance it. It is a complicated one after all"
We spend the next couple of minutes making small talk as we mad our way to the house. She told me about her team, named CVFY and about what missions she hoped to take as a second year in Beacon. At her questioning of what a mercenary was, I told her about how rough it could be but how the pay was good to me. I had left out some of the more morally grey jobs that also came with the territory, it seemed best to let her find out about that on her own. As the house came into view a sudden ball of fur comes shooting out from the door and into velvet, knocking her down. With a gasp of a surprise she looks at the ball of fur before seeing the face of Zwei panting on her chest. When he notices Velvets wide eyed stare he starts to lick her with the ferocity of an ursa major.
With her heavily accented voice she manages to gasp out between licks "oh hello there little guy, is he yours Tyler" she laughs as she starts to stand up. Zwei nestles himself into her arms as she looks up at me. The sight brought a small blush to my cheeks at how adorable it was.
Coughing into my hand to hide my blush I answer her "actually little old Zwei here is the pet of the owners of this house. He just so happens to have taken a shine to me. Isn't that right boy". With a bark Zwei jumps into my arms before quickly falling asleep. "See told you so, the girls who live here told me he was supposed to be a hunters dog but he failed training…probably due to him being so loveable." I look over to her and notice her staring at me with a blush that matched the color of my own hair. "Um are you okay Velvet?"
She quickly looks away and starts to skip ahead of me, trying to hide her embarrassment at having been caught. "Oh nothing um he is just so adorable". With a nervous chuckle she looks back at the house before looking back at me. "So shall we go into the backyard to train or do you have something else in mind?"
Setting the dog down on the ground despite his bark of irritation I start to walk to the backyard. "the backyard has a few training dummies we can warm up on, so mind telling me more about your weapon so I can get a better idea of how to help you out". She begins to tell me how her weapon, named Anesidora worked. The weapon had two forms it could switch to; a camera form and a compact box form that allowed her to create hard light copies of weapons that she had taken a picture of with the camera mode. The copies she created were almost as powerful as the real thing, the only caveat being dust based weapons being only half as effective. Another downside is she had to take a picture of a weapon she wanted to copy, a picture which was destroyed after a copy had been made of it. "So have you taken a picture of any weapons yet?" I ask the little rabbit which she nods and tells me she had taken a picture of her teammates weapons and a few other weapons she had seen around the city.
"Alright lets get to it then, pick a weapon and get into a fighting stance, ill see how you stand In combat. Although I feel like you will be how I am, a jack of all trades master of few type. Am I right?"
She shakes her head with a grin on her face "actually nope im a master of all due to my semblance, it allows me to copy the moves of anyone I see fight. So basically if I see someone fight I can be a master of that weapon they used". She grins wider when I look at her with wide eyes.
"Now that is just cheating, I've had to work and train with the weapons I create, and here you are able to use any of them at will". With a sigh I signal her to stay where she is as I walk ahead of her a few feet. Turning to face her I hold out my right hand, activating my semblance. My gauntlet takes on a dark purple hue as shadows form around in the palm of it, closing my eyes I focus on the image of the weapon I want to create. The shadow begins to form into a simple longsword with a double bladed edge, looking at her I hold the blade in a loose frontal guard "alright your turn little rabbit".
Blushing at the nickname she shakes her head before pressing a button on her weapon strapped to her side "well get ready big bad wolf, here I come" she holds her right arm straight out beside her. After a short moment lines of hard light dust start to shoot out of it and into her hand, forming the outline of a massive great sword in her right hand. The edge of the great sword curved upward into a nasty hook shape at the tip of it which was no doubt useful in a fight against grim but I was already planning on how to exploit it. The weapon finishes forming in her hand and she starts to run at me, dragging the weapon behind her. With a smirk I tighten my stance knowing this fight will end up being a good one.
