I sighed as Blake blew out the candle, it had been a rather hectic day and half of me wanted it to be over already.
The other half of me was dreading the entrance exam that was suppose to happen tomorrow.
As I laid my head on my pillow to go to sleep, I couldn't help but think about the conversation that I had with Ozpin earlier.
"I, I need some advice. It's about the entrance exam tomorrow. I'm not afraid I'll fail or something! I'm, I'm afraid of what might happen if I become a leader of a team."
Ozpin stared at me, not quite sure what to make of what I just said.
"Miss Xiao Long, in all of my years, I've heard many a student trying to persuade me to make them the leader of their teams, yet here you are trying to persuade me of the opposite."
"Wha- No!" I begin, before seeing the look on Ozpin's face.
He was giving me a big smirk.
'Oh gods, he having fun at my expense.'
I shot him an annoyed glare and received a small chuckle for my efforts. "Now now Miss Xiao Long, it was just a small joke to help ease the stress that you clearly put yourself through."
He decided to take a drink, not a sip but a drink, of his coffee. Not going to lie, I don't remember any of the times that he actually drunk his coffee, and he did it here, in my presence. Yeah, I was rather spooked, but I thought I hid it rather well, well until Ozpin commented on it.
"You look rather frightened, is something the matter?"
"No, not really." I started to lie, but remembered that this was Ozpin. Lying to him was possible, just really, really difficult. "Seeing you drink your coffee like that sorta threw off balance I guess. I mean, you are known for sipping your coffee, so seeing you drink it like that, again just caught me off guard."
Ozpin chuckled at my comment. "I suppose that's fair. Doing any one thing long enough to where people tend to get accustomed to you doing that one particular thing only to no longer do it would raise a few eyebrows. I was simply taking a drink to help me focus so I can help you with your issue."
'Oh no.'
"Thank you Headmaster."
'I now have his full undivided attention now.'
"It's no problem. Though, I am curious, what is your issue with possibly becoming a team leader?"
'Besides derailing everything so severely and possibly painting a target on my back, many things!'
"...I just don't think it is the role I'm meant to play." I answered truthfully.
"Oh?" Ozpin asked raising an eyebrow.
"If I'm my team's leader, then if the others have an issue they want/need to talk about, there would a sense of obligation from either person to talk to the other. If I'm not..."
"Then there is no sense of obligation, so it seems more genuine and sincere, if I had to guess?"
I nodded in response.
"A unusually wise decision, Miss Xiao Long." Ozpin said, smiling.
'Sadly, I can't tell if that is genuine or sincere.'
"Thank you, Headmaster."
"However, I'm afraid I might have to decline your request."
' I'M SORRY!? '
As I started to say something in response, Ozpin cut me off.
"Miss Xiao Long, I do understand your concerns and will take them into consideration, but you will form into your teams tomorrow, if you pass initiation anyways. So, if I deem you to be the best leader amongst your potential teammates, I will make you the leader of your team. As headmaster, I have to make the best decisions for my students, even if it seems it's against their better interests."
I nodded in defeat.
Suddenly, I saw that I was surround by Grimm that seemed to tower over me. I backed up in surprise, not understanding what had just happened, when I bumped into something. I spun around to look what I bumped into and see that it is a red wagon with a young Ruby in it.
My eyes widen as I realized what this was.
This was the worst mistake of Yang's life.
As I began to call out to Ruby to warn her of the Grimm, when I felt myself crashing into the ground with a searing hot pain running across my back. Slowly the heat from my back began to cool and it suddenly began to grow colder and colder as my vision began to grow darker and darker until it was completely swallowed by the black void.
I laid there for what seemed to be eons, but couldn't have been more than seconds when I felt a presence that seemed unnatural.
"While I'm not suppose to interfere, you are one of the champions of man. It is your destiny to shape the future, but only when the time is right. Go forth and do your duty, my chosen."
As the Presence finished speaking I felt it put a hand over my chest and it seemed to pull something out, a small black wisp that seemed to be growing smaller and smaller by the minute. I wasn't sure how I could see the wisp, probably the Presence's doing no doubt, but I began to understand what the wisp was.
It was Yang's soul, and she was dying.
The Presence pulled out another wisp, which seemed to lack a color. Somehow, I could tell that wisp was 'bright' and 'healthy' unlike Yang's. However, what the Presence did next rattled me.
It took the colorless wisp and stuffed it into the black wisp, causing the black wisp to grow in size and slowly turn into a bright yellow instead. After making sure there didn't seem to be any issues with it's work, the Presence placed the soul back into my body and it seemed to disappear.
Slowly the cold was being replace with a subtle warmth, then a searing heat as my vision slowly began to return. Tears began to form in my eyes as the searing heat was growing unbearable, but it then began to fade to a subtle warmth again. My aura, my soul, was healing my fatal injuries, which isn't possible normally, but due to the soul shenanigans that the Presence had pulled, I had an overcharged soul plus whatever the Presence decided to do on top of that.
As I began to try to pick myself up, I could hear someone call my name.\
"Yang? YANG!"
Suddenly, I felt myself shoot up from my spot on the floor. I swore I heard someone gasp, but I feel it might've been me. Thankfully, no one was really up at that point, and those who were clearly wasn't interested on figuring out what happened.
...Not that I wanted to talk about it anyways, but I was glad I didn't have to try to explain myself to anyone.
To be honest,... that was quite a bit to unpack there. I had come back from the dead, apparently in more ways than one as I realized I was originally the colorless soul the Presence used to reignite Yang's soul. And yet, I couldn't help but care less about that revelation.
I wanted to be concerned at my apparent apathy of the situation, but I realized why I felt this way. Whoever and whatever I was prior didn't change who I was. In fact I was rather relieved at the revelation if anything! Well, it was more bittersweet really.
It was upsetting to learn that without my unwilling involvement, Yang would've died so young, but I felt a weigh lift off my shoulders as I realized I didn't, even unintentionally, steal Yang's life. Well, I guess my life now, as our souls fused….
Yeah… that's going to take a while to process.
Yang's- my memories, my emotions, my hopes and aspirations. They were all mine. I wasn't someone who was trying to pretend to be Yang anymore, for about the maybe 20 hours that lasted anyways. I am Yang. And I think that scared me more than anything.
This was going to be one hell of a year…