Kairi was starting to understand how Ruby must have felt. It had only been a few days, but the idea of waiting, anxious for the next thing but never knowing when it would happen, was already starting to fray her nerves. And unlike Ruby, she didn't have classes, family, or friends on-world to help distract her. At least she had been given her own private room, so she had a safe place to speak when Ruby finally called her with an update on her mission.
"- and then I decide to call Mickey to see if it worked, but you answered instead. That pretty much catches us up," Ruby concluded.
"The King gave me his gummiphone so I could stay in contact with you. It wouldn't work in the Realm of Darkness anyway. And if you were able to call, then you're back in the proper reality," Kairi confirmed.
"Is it always like this?" Ruby suddenly asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I only came here to pick up Chloe, but now I've gotten myself involved in a crazy conspiracy and I can't just leave without helping…"
"It does seem to happen that way a lot," Kairi nodded.
"I just feel bad… I should be back on Remnant with everybody by now, but I haven't even left Arcadia Bay."
"Perhaps. But Arcadia Bay needs your help, too."
"Yeah… I guess I'll keep at it. We've got a bunch of information now, so we're going to make a conspiracy board and try to figure stuff out."
"Good luck, and give Chloe my best." Kairi signed off and ended the call. She sighed. Back to waiting.
Knock knock knock
Kairi answered, opening the door to reveal a tall and slightly disheveled huntsman. "Qrow, right?" she guessed based on the stories her student had told her. "Ruby's uncle?"
"That's right," Qrow nodded. "Keyblade Master Kairi."
"Are you here to ask after Ruby?" Kairi asked.
Qrow raised a brow in surprise. "Have you talked to her? I can't get her on my scroll."
"She's been delayed a little, but she's fine. She's doing great even," Kairi passed on with a smile.
"Good to hear," Qrow smiled too. "But I actually came for you."
"Me?" Kairi asked.
"Yeah. I thought I'd never meet one of Ruby's teachers, how can I pass this up?"
Kairi frowned. She had no reason not to trust Qrow, but something felt off.
Qrow sighed. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but it's not hard to figure out something big is happening with you lot. Ruby's out doing stuff and you're stuck here. I figured, I don't know, you must be getting antsy?"
"Just checking up, then? Thank you for the thought, but I wouldn't really know what there is to do around here."
"We can spar?" Qrow mentioned casually.
Kairi found her smile again. "You've seen Ruby in action. You sure you want to challenge the girl who taught her?"
"Hey, I might not have your magic, but I can hold my own!" Qrow immediately defended. "You scared this lil' huntsman can beat ya?"
Kairi wasn't about to fall for such a transparent goad. Though she could tell that Qrow was just trying to get her out of her room, so she played along with a smirk. "We'll see."
As they made their way through Beacon's halls, they happened to pass Yang who asked, "what are you two doing together?"
"I'm going to see if Ruby's Master is all she's cracked up to be," Qrow smirked.
"Well, he's going to try," Kairi rebutted.
Yang stared after them, stunned still for a few moments. "Oh, this I gotta see," Yang decided before pulling out her scroll and messaging her team.
Despite finding a place plenty out of the way, Kairi and Qrow still ended up with a small audience of Yang, Blake and Weiss, as well as Glynda Goodwitch who they also ran into in the halls. The two fighters squared off from opposite sides of a small clearing by the edge of the woods. Qrow kept Harbinger in its sword mode while Kairi summoned her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace.
Glynda turned to the younger students. "Shouldn't you all be in class?"
"And miss this?" Yang smiled.
"I would expect this from you, but Ms. Schnee?"
Weiss could only shrug. "It's not like I'm missing much in Port's."
As much as she wouldn't admit aloud, Glynda couldn't say she disagreed, so she let it go with only a slight narrowing of her eyes.
Qrow and Kairi settled into their respective combat stances, carefully watching each other. Qrow made the first move, rushing in to strike quickly. Kairi stood her ground, easily deflecting the attack. Qrow was quick to follow up, pushing and keeping Kairi on the defensive. "I know you Keybladers hit hard!" Qrow shouted between strikes, "so I just gotta keep you from hitting at all!"
"Easier said than done!" Kairi taunted. She ducked under Qrow's latest swing and used a free hand to help push herself into a semi-circle slide around Qrow. She seemed to blur as she quickly appeared behind Qrow in the blink of an eye. Qrow quickly brought Harbinger behind him just in time to block Kairi's strike.
Kairi pushed her advantage, now placing Qrow on the backfoot. Despite the speed of the Reversal, Qrow still managed to block all of Kairi's attacks so far. "Good reflexes," Kairi praised. The fight carried on, the advantage occasionally changing but no attacks landing between them. It proved that the pair were equal is swordplay.
But Kairi was so much more than a swordswoman, and Qrow knew it. "C'mon, when are you gunna stop holding back!?"
"You want me to use magic?" Kairi questioned.
"Give me all ya got!" Qrow shouted as he brought his sword down.
Kairi obliged. "Reflaga!"
Qrow regretted his choice even before his sword hit the barrier. He recalled when Ruby had used that spell against Ironwood's Heartless, and he had a pretty good idea of what was next. True to his prediction, the barrier exploded outward shortly after his blade bounced off it. The shockwave dug into his aura and sent him flying toward the trees bordering their arena.
"Firaga!"
Kairi wasted no time casting her next spell and Qrow had to think quickly. While not as graceful as Ariel Recovery, he was able to correct himself in the air before slamming into a tree. He crashed feet-first and kicked off to one side, feeling the heat of the fireball as he narrowly avoided the blast. Kairi barely spotted the speedy gray blur fly toward another tree only to bounce off that one straight at her.
Qrow sped toward Kairi sword-first. Harbinger's tip crashed into Destiny's Embrace as Kairi raised her guard. Qrow's momentum forced Kairi back and allowed the huntsman to get his free hand into his opponent's bubble. Kairi tired to jump back, but Qrow had already gripped her collar. Held down and with Harbinger still locked with her Keyblade, Kairi could do nothing to stop Qrow's knee colliding with her stomach.
Qrow followed up with a strike from Harbinger's pommel across Kairi's face. This had the added consequence of freeing Destiny's Embrace, allowing Kairi to bring her Keyblade back up to block Qrow's following full-force strike. The impact still knocked her a distance back.
"Wow, Qrow's actually holding his own," Blake noted in surprise.
"He has known about the Maidens for years," Weiss reminded everyone. "If he already had a strategy for them, maybe he's using that here?"
"What do you think that strategy is?" Yang questioned.
"At a glance…" Weiss thought, "outmaneuver?"
It seemed a solid theory as Qrow began sprinting in circles around Kairi, shifting Harbinger to its scythe mode as he ran. Kairi watched carefully, gauging his movements. With a smirk, Qrow sliced through a tree near it's base mid-sprint. In spite of the odds, the tree immediately began falling straight for the Master Wielder. Kairi easily dodged out of the way, but that left her open for the huntsman quickly approaching her.
Harbinger's blade hooked around her midsection, and Qrow swung with all his might. Kairi felt a significant loss in her energy as she was thrown across the clearing. She managed to land on her feet and quickly tried to find Qrow again. It was easy, since he was leaping straight for her, intending for a heavy downward strike.
"Magnera!"
Harbinger missed Kairi's nose by mere inches as Qrow was suddenly pulled backward and back into the air, caught in a vortex of energy that nipped at his aura. Kairi jumped up to Qrow and landed a short series of strikes before the spell wore off. When it did, Qrow was already planning his next move for when he was back on his feet.
"Gravira!"
His planning was short lived. He hit the ground hard and couldn't get up. It was as though he weighed several times more than normal. The ground even cracked beneath his hands and knees as he struggled to raise himself. Kairi finally fell to the earth herself, bringing her Keyblade down on Qrow as she did. Qrow was laid out, and with the gravity spell still in effect, unable to move.
Even after the gravity spell faded, Qrow still didn't get up. He rolled on to his back and slowly caught his breath. A few paces away, Kairi relaxed her stance. "Are you done?"
"Yup. I know when I'm beat," Qrow responded. "To be honest, I didn't think I stood a chance."
"You got a few good hits in," Kairi reminded him.
"One or two," Qrow shrugged, "but my strategy was kinda bum from the start. Kinda hard to overwhelm someone without backup."
Weiss could barely be heard silently cursing herself.
Kairi helped Qrow onto his feet with a smile. "Thank you for this. It felt good to get my blood pumping."
"Yup. Now, earlier you mentioned Ruby…"
Before Qrow could ask, they were interrupted by all their scrolls sounding off at once. The group collectively checked their devices before looking to each other to silently confirm. Kairi, the only person there without a scroll, had to ask, "what's happening?"
A few minutes before
Ozpin was, in a word, bored. Looking through the files of hundreds of students, searching for the smallest of discrepancies, was a tediously arduous affair. But it had to be done, if they had any hope of uncovering their Maiden Thief's identity before it was too late.
He was so lost in his search that when an alert came about a visitor requesting access to his elevator, he accepted without really looking to see who it was. He had nearly forgotten he even had a visitor by the time the elevator opened in his office. "I'll be with you in just a moment," Ozpin announced, looking for an easy place to bookmark his search.
"As you wish," a familiar voice accepted in a monotone.
Ozpin looked up to his guest in surprise. "James?"
James Ironwood looked as though he had seen better days. He was disheveled, wearing an odd set of casual clothes, and a completely blank expression that made it hard to read his intentions.
"Why are you here?" Ozpin asked him plainly.
Ironwood seemed to take a moment to think. "I need to speak to Ms. Rose."
"'Speak' to her, it is?" Ozpin accused.
"I mean no harm," Ironwood promised, "I was thinking she could explain what's happened to me."
Ozpin remained cautious, but he also didn't want to risk turning away someone in genuine need. If Ironwood was purged of his darkness, perhaps his paranoia and control issues had lessened. At least somewhat. "And what exactly has happened to you?"
Ironwood struggled to find the words. "I don't… feel anything. I'm not angry, or happy. I'm not even afraid. I only feel… empty."
"Well, the poor news is that Ruby has already left us," Ozpin informed him. "The good news, as it is, is that another of Ruby's Masters has taken her place in our circle. I'll see if I can summon a meeting."
While most of the group was acquainted enough by now, the air was made slightly awkward when Winter joined them in the elevator up. In the last few days she had busied herself searching Atlas's student files for clues on the Maiden Thief, and had yet to speak more than a few words to anyone since Ruby had left. This was, in fact, the first time she even shared the same space as Master Kairi.
"So… you are one of Ms. Rose's teachers?" Winter opened carefully.
"And you're the one who was ready to attack my student after your general failed to heed her expertise," Kairi retorted without hesitation.
Winter flinched. "So it would seem… although, the past few days without him have allowed me time to… reevaluate how I approach certain aspects of my life."
Qrow but in, "actions speak louder than words, Schnee. And even if you're on the level, we still gotta worry about Jimmy."
"Who is back, after disappearing, after becoming a giant monster dog, and is now waiting in Ozpin's office," Weiss added.
Kairi looked up to the dial showing their proximity to the top, her mind whirling. "So it would seem…"
They reached the top, the full Circle in one admittedly large office. Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Winter, Kairi, and Ironwood.
Or at least someone who looks like him, Kairi thought to herself.
"General!" Winter called out first.
'Ironwood' looked to her. "Specialist Schnee? What are you doing here?"
"After you vanished, I was sent to investigate," Winter explained.
"I see. Well, I guess you found me."
Winter cocked her head. "Are you feeling alright, General? You are acting… odd."
"I'm not feeling at all, Winter," Ironwood explained. "That's why I wanted to speak to Ms. Rose."
"You're not feeling anything?" Kairi asked suddenly. "Would you say you seem to have lost access to your emotions?"
"I suppose that's one way to put it. So you do know what's happened?"
Kairi stepped toward him, holding her hand out as if to place it on his chest. "May I?" 'Ironwood' nodded. Kairi placed her hand against his chest and closed her eyes, spending a moment searching. Eventually she opened her eyes and backed away. "I see."
"See what?" Winter pressed impatiently, "what has happened with the General?"
"This isn't your General," Kairi announced. She looked up to the eyes of the being in front of her. "You are a Nobody."
"Bit rude…"
"Yang!"
"What?"
Blake shook her head incredulously. "With everything we already know, do you really think Kairi is being rude rather than using some new magic term?"
"Oh, good point…" Yang conceded awkwardly. "In that case… what is a Nobody?"
Kairi turned to address the entire room. "When somebody with a strong heart becomes a Heartless, there's a chance their will alone could animate the vessel left behind. But it's still just an empty vessel. This is Ironwood's body, but without his heart, this isn't really Ironwood. Without a heart, Nobodies don't truly exist."
Yang was the one to point out, "but we can see him?"
Kairi groaned. "Yes, there is an entity standing before us, but without a heart it can't feel. Without a heart, it can't be touched by Light or Darkness. Without a heart, it shouldn't even be possible for it to walk around to speak to us."
Ozpin seemed to pick up on things. "To say it doesn't exist is to say it doesn't experience existence the same way people do. It's a kind way of saying it's an aberration of nature."
Qrow thought for a moment. "So, a Heartless is a corrupt heart without a body… and a Nobody is a corrupt body without a heart? What kinda topsy-turvy moron named this crap!?"
"Technically…" Kairi groaned again, "Pureblood Heartless are pure Darkness with no trace of a heart, and even Emblem Heartless don't have hearts of their own. You wouldn't say an empty container contains itself. The term Nobody is derived from the idea that Nobodies don't truly exist. The names are still accurate."
"If you say so," Qrow shrugged, unconvinced.
"Hold on," Weiss interrupted this time, "Ruby destroyed the General's heartless, right? She said that freed his heart. If his body is available, why hasn't his heart returned?"
"It can't return to a body that doesn't 'exist'." Ozpin theorized. "Whatever it is that allows a Nobody to manifest traps the body on our plane. It can't go to wherever his heart is waiting in order to reunite, can it?"
Kairi smiled, pleasantly surprised. "I see your reputation is well earned. I suppose I should have expected you to get it before anyone else, Headmaster."
"If destroying an Emblem Heartless frees its trapped heart, I'm guessing we could free the General's body be destroying the Nobody," Blake deduced.
"That's correct," Kairi nodded. "We call it 'recompletion'. When the Heartless and the connected Nobody are destroyed, the original Somebody is recompleted. They usually wake up in the same location they were originally separated. If I'm not mistaken, that would mean this very office."
"Or the courtyard outside," Qrow pointed out.
The Nobody the wore Ironwood's face finally spoke again, "so, I have to be destroyed."
The room was eerily quiet. Yang was the first one to break it after several moments. "We're not really considering that, right?" she questioned the room.
Winter stepped forward. "Master Kairi said this is the only way to get the General back."
Yang was aghast. "So what? Maybe it would, maybe this 'Nobody' thing doesn't 'exist' or whatever, but it's still here! Breathing, thinking, talking to us! It's a living thing and you're just going to kill it!?"
"I don't feel comfortable with it either," Glynda spoke up, "but, what kind life will this Nobody even live? Never being able to feel anything? No fear or anger, but also no love or hope?"
"I'm afraid it still isn't that simple," Kairi interjected. "I know this will only make your decision harder, but you deserve to have the whole truth before you decide."
Glynda reeled at the thought of even more complexity. "What is the truth, then?"
"That just because this Nobody doesn't have a heart now, doesn't mean it never will," Kairi clarified. "The body cannot exist without a heart. In this rare instance where a body does finds itself without a heart, it will seek a replacement. Failing that, it may even begin to grow a new heart from scratch. If a Nobody obtains a heart they can call their own, they begin to feel again. They begin to exist again, and they become their own person. No longer a Nobody, and still distinct from the original Somebody."
"If a Nobody reaches this point, is the original Somebody lost forever?" Ozpin asked.
Kairi frowned. "We actually don't know. Our knowledge on Nobodies mostly comes from those we've fought, and for what I hope are obvious reasons, we've never been keen on performing our own experiments."
"So… what do we do?"
Glynda's question was followed by more soundless, heavy air.
Ozpin leaned forward, his hands clasped in deep thought. "Ironwood's Nobody may not be able to feel, but it is clearly still able to think. It has logic and reason. It can't be our place to make decisions for it."
"You're saying that it's up to me if I want to try existing for myself, or I want to give it up to come back… I mean, to bring back Ironwood?" The Nobody asked.
"Until you decide, it may be best to stay out of public eye," Ozpin suggested.
"Yeah," Qrow agreed, "if Jimmy's not really back, it would make things complicated if the world started thinking he was."
Winter approached the Nobody. "Are you sure about this General?"
The Nobody looked to Winter with the same emotionless stare he had maintained the entire time. "I'm not your General, Specialist Schnee."
Winter took a step back, her face fallen. "I see…"
"I guess the only question I got left is 'what are we gunna call ya?'" Qrow asked casually.
"'Ironwood's Nobody' does seem a bit of a mouthful," the Nobody conceded. He turned to Kairi and asked, "is there some kind of naming convention you've used in the past?"
"Technically our enemies once had one, but I'm not going to use it here for reasons I'm not going to get into," Kairi explained.
"I don't think I could take another three-paragraph lecture anyhow," Qrow shrugged, "how about we call ya' Ji?"
"Like 'gee wilikers'?" Yang giggled.
"Like J.I., but if it were a name and not initials," Qrow clarified. "Calling him J.I. while wearing Ironwood's face could blow up on us, but Ji is a bit more subtle."
"If it helps," The Nobody, now 'Ji', nodded.
"Then... I suppose this is meeting adjourned," Ozpin announced. "Unless anyone has any updates on another topic?"
Winter shook her head. "So far, I see nothing noteworthy in the Atlas student records."
"I myself have been looking over Vacuo's," Ozpin added, "though I haven't managed to break into Mistral's just yet. Students?"
Weiss perked up. "Well, we've been keeping an eye out, but there's only so much we can even see. If we got worked up over every student that missed a class, we'd never get our own work done. Nothing noteworthy yet."
"There is that team from Mistral," Blake brought up. "One of their members has been absent for several days straight now."
"I asked his partner," Yang cut in, "and she said he got really sick. He's hanging out in the dorm, waiting to see if he's going to recover or be sent home."
"I'm sorry we don't have more…" Weiss offered solemnly.
"Don't worry about the size of your contributions. We appreciate your efforts regardless," Ozpin assured. He looked to Kairi next. "I suppose even if you did have an update on Ruby, you couldn't tell us?"
"She's encountered a bit of a delay, but nothing serious. She just can't help herself from helping others," Kairi passed on.
"Way to go, kiddo," Qrow mumbled with a smile.
With nothing else to say, the meeting was called to an end, and the various parties filed out to their individual tasks. Ozpin and Winter returned to their respective searches while Ji looked for a quiet corner to begin his contemplations. Qrow and Glynda had more mundane daily tasks to attend to. Weiss, Blake, and Yang returned to their dorm, with only Yang taking a moment to look up toward the sky. "Hope you're doing well and kicking butt, sis. May our hearts be our guiding key."
