Hello there, I'm back from the dead.
For some reason writing this chapter proved to be really hard, like I re-wrote it many times but somehow I made this version in 3 days, guess it's mostly about inspiration and motivation. I really hope it won't take as long for the next one.
They travelled through sand and dust, over the dunes and under the sun, all in hope to finally reach a safe haven. To Vacuo they headed, a place of scum and villainy, where the rule of law had become a myth. A land of opportunities for a few, and the ground in which they would be buried for most.
When they finally reached the city, if it could be called that, their first reaction was amazement. Like a mirror of Atlas, the city in the skies, Vacuo was more akin to a giant hole in which a city had been carved. A seemingly bottomless pit absorbing all light into it, its darkness only rarely broken by a few houselights standing proudly against the abyss.
Next to this disproportionate hole stood a way more regular desert mountain, probably the source of water for the entirety of the kingdom. Despite the crushing heat, the area was bustling with activity. Truck could be seen moving in convoys between the pit and the mountain, while an industrial amount of smoke escaped the hole.
The airship they were in was now lowering itself, and the abyss was getting nearer and nearer. Thankfully they ended up landing at the edge of the pit, near enough to see the city below. One of the huntsmen who had picked them up addressed to them.
"I know the view's pretty, but you should go down if getting roasted isn't your fetish." Griza turned around in time to see him signal them to follow him. He was a relatively young man, with long black hair that reached his shoulders while his amber eyes seemed to reflect sunlight.
All in all, he would have been handsome if it hadn't been for his rugged look, the armor he was wearing looked to be put together from scratch with a minimal amount of effort, his hair was dirty and he had a permanently tired face, with dark circles adorning his beautiful eyes. His voice let through an infinite amount of fatigue even while he tried to put as much excitement and joy into it as he could.
Eventuality they entered the city, the shadow granted by the underground nature of the city greatly reduced the heat and allowed them to breathe in relief at the feeling of a livable environment. The huntsman led them through a relatively straightforward path, the hole to their right making orientation far easier than in their own academy's corridors.
Their guide finally made them enter what looked like an ancient Valean arena, in which a strange spectacle appeared. In the middle of the fighting area stood a lone man, fully clad in armor and with his weapon to his side, reading a piece of paper.
"... Evil isn't something that can be killed, it isn't something to be killed. It exists through everyone and yet it is nowhere. Like an hydra, if you cut off one head, another will grown in it's place, stronger and nastier than the one before. Everyone here came to fight evil, each in his own way, each by his own perception. Those that came here expecting some grand victory against the forces of evil, you are going to be disappointed, for the struggle for good is an eternal one. The only way to defeat evil is to let him defeat us, without sentient being to judge him as such, it shall cease to exist. But I don't believe anyone here sees this as a worthwhile ending. I am going to leave you here today, don't forget to think about this on your own and to give me your personal interpretation before next week. I bid you all Goodbye, and until next week."
The man started to leave the arena, heading to where the three of them were waiting. As he was approaching Griza got a better look at him. He had this particular look of youthful oldness, similar to Six. She guessed his age was around fifty, a few locks being white in his otherwise brown hair. Wrinkles were beginning to grow on his face but a subtle twinkling in his violet eyes betrayed the presence of an undying energy.
Something strange suddenly happened, as Griza felt the chess piece in her trousers pocket starting to heat up just as the armored man stopped in his tracks. Surprised, Griza took her hand out of the pocket and instinctively put it over the outside side of the same pocket. To her growing suspicion, none of the warmth could be felt from the outside, nor through the clothing with her leg.
All of this happened in less than a second, and before anyone else had noticed anything, the man resumed his advance as if nothing had happened. When he was finally standing in front of them, he first exchanged a quick nod with the huntsman accompanying them, before offering a handshake to Griza.
Expecting something like that, Griza quickly shaked his hand without him breaking eye contact. For what seemed like an eternity he stared at her, visibly judging her, before finally breaking eye contact to greet Six, who had been lagging behind due to her still recent injuries, in a similar way, though with less suspicion.
"It's a pleasure meet you two, I've heard about what caused you to end up here, truly a tragic story. But I believe that proper introduction are in order, so if you would please follow me to my office, we will be more at ease to speak buisness."
Only around a minute later, they entered the strange man's office. The room was more akin to a museum than any real workplace, with exotic animal skeletons littering the walls and even some avian looking like a small Nevermore hanging to the roof, like some grim mockery of a chandelier.
"Now that we are safe from any prying hears, let me introduce myself. I am Yang Jingyu, headmaster of Shade academy, the pleasure is all mine."
"I am known by the name of Six, and this is my apprentice... Seven. We have been sent to your kingdom to deal with an international terrorist which we have successfully eliminated yesterday."
The so called Yang visibly frowned at Six's words, before continuing in a slightly irritated tone.
"Yes I know why you are here, and while I am thankful for your help in destroying this menace, I would like to remind you that we are between friends here." The last part was said with him staring enigmatically at Griza, all while putting a hand in his pocket.
Without anyone answering, he doubled down with a question. "I would like to know my dear, what are you fighting for ?"
"I fight to protect my home, to maintain unity and safety inside and outside the borders of Atlas." Six said like she was reciting out of a manual.
The headmaster let out an audible sigh, temporarily closing his eyes and massaging his head. When he opened them again, a sudden pressure fell on the duo, the room seemed to darken while their interlocutor's shadow grew on the wall behind him. They were both frozen in place, unable to move even a finger, as he started to speak in an unnaturally deep voice.
"You are greatly disappointing me, I only asked for your honesty and yet you were unable to do even just that. I will not punish you if the truth displease me, none of what is said here will come out of these walls. Don't think of me as some kind of fool, but remember, I am not your enemy, but your friend. So please, will you tell what lies in the deepest parts of your heart ?"
By the end of his speech, Six was violently trembling and as the pressure lightened she fell on her knees while gasping. Her breathing was loud and erratic. She was staring emptily at the ground with fear filled eyes and her hands were hanging slightly under her face, as if not daring to touch it. Eventually she mumbled something barely audible.
"The truth... That's what matters the most to me, to know what really happened to my family, to know what else they are hiding from us."
"I see. I understand why he would have chosen someone like you. In time, when you are ready, he shall tell you the truth too."
He continued to look pensively at Six for a few moments before turning around to face Griza. Immediately all air disappeared from her lungs only with the memory of the ungodly pressure which she wasn't even the main target.
"But you, you are the most interesting, he choose you over your master for a reason, so please enlighten me, tell me what you fight for."
The simple idea of lying barely entered her minds before being kicked out by the immeasurable fear she had felt only a moment ago.
"At the time I thought it was my only choice, and maybe it was, but now I think, the reason why I kept going, is because I keep hoping, that in the end... I will be free, master of my destiny, able to choose without any sword hanging over my head."
"How strange... You are a peculiar one, I don't think I've seen anyone like you among us before, but the pieces don't lie, I shall watch your career with great interest little one."
"Now that this has been made, you should be able to..." A powerful blast interrupted the headmaster, the ground started shaking and screams could be heard thorough the building. Yang reacted quickly and pressed a button on his desk which caused alarms to start blaring and pre-recorded instructions about evacuation began to loop.
The huntsman who had stayed silent until now ordered the duo to follow him. As the door closed behind them Griza catched a glimpse of the headmaster still in his office frantically rummaging through his possessions for some unknown reason.
"What the hell is happening ? You guys seemed way to prepared for this kind of situation, is this something common here ?" Griza exclaimed while looking at the still unnamed huntsman in hope of getting an answer.
"It's complicated, for now we have to get away from here, and find a place to hide."
Griza didn't have time to retord before another explosion came, more distant this time. Dark clouds were rising on the horizon while the sound of hundreds of people running in panic could be heard.
When they finally got out of the building, the full scale of the tragedy was unveiled. On the other side of the hole buildings could be seen crumbling and falling into the abyss or colliding with the constructions beneath, causing a chain reaction producing a even greater amount of death and destruction in this avalanche of stone.
The houses left standing weren't doing a lot better with fire engulfing them and a panicked crowd fleeing the collapsing area through them. The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard just as the huntsman dragged them in an adjacent alley.
Now that they were hidden from the growing crowd next to the academy, a group of heavily armed soldiers pushed through the mass of people before approaching the exit that had finished letting out the last civilians, around which they formed an semi circle, pointing their weapons towards it.
A tense minute passed during which nothing happened, until a familiar figure came out of the academy in the form of headmaster himself. Taking a step forward, every soldier aimed at him and put their fingers on the trigger, which caused Yang to pause. Without speaking a word, he crossed his arms behind his back, while staring obsessively at his assailants, as if daring them to speak.
After what seemed like an eternity, one of the soldiers dared himself to speak. "Sir Jingyu, headmaster of Shade and third councilman of Vacuo, you are under formal arrest for mass killing of Vacuo's citizens and destruction of property belonging to Western Sanus Company. Please do not resist."
"I suppose it is useless to say that this is an error ?" Yang asked, to which the soldier who had spoken before responded with a short nod. A long sigh escaped the headmaster's lips as he raised his hands over his head.
The crowd watched silently as Yang was escorted away, some of them lowering their head in shame when he passed in front of them. As the armed men walked away however, whispers started to agitate the crowd, whispers soon became standard speech, which rapidly evolved into shouts and yells, and it wasn't long before the crowd began to violently tear at each other.
As Griza and Six watched the unfolding events with confusion, their accompanying huntsman dragged them out of their stupor. Refusing to answer any questions, he led them further away from the center of city, deep under the surface, in a maze of what was probably a mine a long time ago, eventually they settled into an alcove slightly over the city, giving them an impressive view of the abyss just a few steps away from them.
"Okay, I know you've got a lot of questions and now that we're somewhat safe I will gladly answer them." The huntsman said before inviting them to speak.
Six took the lead, and not without a certain anger asked. "First who were those armed men, secondly what do you know about those explosions, thirdly why was the headmaster acting like he was expecting this and why was he accused of causing them ?"
"Those men you've seen are officially Vacuo's army, but are in fact little more than glorified mercenaries for the Western Sanus Company, which is, to put it simply, a very old Valean corporation that's been here since the great war, they own most of the city as well as two of Vacuo's three counsil seats. To answer your second question Yang was expecting the company to make a move against him sooner or later, it's the reason the academy has been prepared for this, but he wasn't expecting them to bomb the city and put the blame on him."
"How comes a corporation managed to get the majority of your council's seats ?" Asked Griza.
"As I've told before, they are here since the great war, since before we had anything remotely like a government, the company was fundamental to building the Vacuo you know today, that's why they have a seat in the council. But I addition to this, the third seat belongs to our equivalent of your army a mix of independent huntsmen and militias, most of which have contract with the company. Since his ascension to the rank of headmaster, Yang has done his best to fight back against Valean influence and the company in particular, they probably had enough and decided to get rid of him by throwing him in prison."
"And what's our role in all of this, why did you drag us here and tell us this ?"
"Because we need your help. I know it's all lot to ask, risking your lives for someone you barely know, but I assure you that it's for the best. The people here, they trust the headmaster, they've seen what he did for them, and they know what the alternative means, an eternity of slavery under a foreign power."
"What if we refuse ? I don't have any reason to believe you, this could all be a lie for all I know. And don't forget that we're here in an official capacity, whatever we do here is going to have repercussions at home. So I'm sorry, but it will be without us." Was Six's answer.
"I... I'm sorry to hear this. But very well, I can't and won't force you to help us. You should at least wear something more discrete, the company don't see Atlesian in high regard." The huntsman told while handing them a bunch of civilian clothes.
Six hesitated for a moment, before taking them. When she did, it was unceremoniously and just before turning around to leave, only giving a slight nod as goodbye. As Six leaved, Griza found herself in an embarrassing situation, eventually she managed to ask the man a simple question.
"I'm sorry for all of this Sir... I don't believe I've catched your name, do you mind telling me ?"
"Of course I don't mind, name's Ember, Ember Fall."
"Very masculine..." She said chuckling while Ember seemed embarrassed. "Don't worry I'm just teasing you, it's really cute actually, you should be proud of it. Mine's Griza by the way, a pleasure to meet you properly."
"I don't know what to say, thanks I guess. Try to bring some life in your master's stone heart. Good luck." Said Ember as they bid each other farewell before Griza rushed to catch up with Six.
They walked awkwardly for a few minutes before finding a remote location in which to change. It quickly became apparent that of the two sets of clothes, one was for men and the other for women, but in the most impractical way possible. The man set was something similar to a buisness attire while the other was looking like it came straight out of a fairytale, it was a voluptuous dress with many extravagant accessories and all of this in a mixture of vibrant colors.
A dispute started about who should wear what, dispute rapidly resolved after Six used her master's authority to get the men ones, arguing that as she was obviously the best fighter of the two, it was primordial for her not to be restricted in her movements. In the end the buisness attire ended up to small to be comfortable for Six, but she kept wearing it anyway arguing that they had already lost enough time.
The worst of it all, was that they had to put all their stuff in massive backpacks which ended up destroying all subtlety and discretion for their attires. To their surprise however, when they reached once again the city, no one spared them a second glance despite their ridiculous costumes. But to be honest everyone seemed too preoccupied to care about two weird people, Griza could see people running hurriedly in the narrow streets, fire was burning in the distance while black smoke was blocking the moon. Night had already fallen over Vacuo.
Eventuality someone crashed into Six, a young boy by the look of it, he tried to get up and continue on his course, but Six grabbed him by the neck before raising him to her height.
"Do you mind telling me what's happening ?" The child answered with confused gasping and mumbling. "Are you deaf or something, I asked you a question, a you will answer, Now !" Six continued with an unusual brutality.
"I don't really know miss, please don't hurt me, but from what I know the adults are very angry at the company, people started attacking their employees. I'm just trying to steal what I can while nobody's watching."
Six answered by unceremoniously dropping the kid on the ground, after which he somehow ran away even faster than he had arrived.
"Are you alright Six, it's not like you to act like this, at least I think so." Griza asked, realizing that she didn't knew her master all that much.
"I'm fine.. It's just... I don't know, maybe I'm just tired. It's like there's a hundred voices in my head all yelling at the same time, it's hard to remain calm. And we still have to find an airship able to get us to Atlas, what a pain in the ass."
"You should take it lightly, you will be able to rest for days once we get this airship, so just hold on a little longer, please."
"He, don't think that you won't have work when we're on the airship, even if I sleep half the day I will make sure to give you homework." Six answered with a chuckle.
"But to come back to what the boy said, I think that they will try to break Yang out of prison with or without our help. It has already started, we can't stop it from happening, all we can do is reduce the damages. Please, these people, they need us."
"You aren't taking this seriously at all Griza, we are here in the name of Atlas, if we intervene now it could lead to war ! We should use this opportunity to steal the airship with need."
"No you're the one that doesn't understand anything ! People are dead, and even more are on the way. Whose side do you think those soldiers will pick ? It will all end in a bloodbath if we don't do anything. I know you prefer to choose the safer option, to turn a blind eye, and to a degree I understand. But if you don't draw the line now, when are you going to ? When will you say 'Stop, this is enough !'. If you don't do anything now, then what are you fighting for ?"
The lack of air in her lungs caused Griza to stop her plea, while hoping that she had chosen the good words, that she managed to convince Six, that Six was the person she wanted her to be, and not some uncaring cold blooded monster.
"You know Griza..." The rest of the sentence was drowned by a sound which they had both grown accustomed to, but whose implications were horrifying, the sound of gunfire. At first it was one lone crack, resonating through the entire cave system, every sound of screaming, crumbling, building on fire, seemed to cease, as complete silence fell over the city, and then another followed. Soon the cave was drowned by the combined audio of screams and gunfire, while the panic earlier that day seemed to happen once again, with herds of panicked people fleed through the city in search of safety.
The gunfire was getting closer, and before anyone could react a group of soldiers came out of a bordering alley, shooting at everyone indistinctly. They weren't aiming for the duo as for now, yet Griza could see Six clenching her fists to the point where her aura had to activate to avoid any serious damage. Griza noticed a small cloud of fog forming in front of her mouth, something that should have been impossible in Vacuo's climate.
Griza seized her weapon in preparation, and cut more or less randomly at her dress in hope of making it more combat appropriate, unconsciously letting some parts of the uniform she was wearing under it show, all of this while Six was still fuming next to her. Just as Griza was starting to get anxious about her master's state, the latter slowly pulled out her weapon in its claymore form, and began to approach the soldiers while dragging the sword with one hand. The clattering of the sword against the ground rapidly got the attention of the armed group, whose members quickly aimed at their first adversary.
At the exact moment the first of them pulled the trigger, Six punched the ground with her foot while letting out a powerful roar, and everything was suddenly engulfed in a white fog. As visibility returned to her, an impossible view appeared to Griza. Where Six had been standing just an instant before, now stood a massive spike of ice, stretching from Six's foot to her opponent's bodies. In the middle of this almost completely transparent ice, a few bullets could be seen, stopped in their tracks by this extraordinary occurrence.
Griza cautiously approached Six, and while she was still relatively far away, spoke to her. "Are you alright Six ? Did you do this ? Six ?"
"Six... That's what I'm called... But my name... I don't remember..."
Griza rapidly closed the distance and carelessly seized Six shoulders and started violently shaking her in an effort to make her come back to her senses.
"Ouch, it's alright Griza you can stop. Gods this was very weird, like smoking something not recommendable, but with hearing voices added to the mix." Six said, sounding more like she was talking to herself than to Griza.
Six picked up her sword that fell on the floor sometime during her ice attack. She started walking away before remembering that her apprentice existed, which caused her to turn around to address her.
"I feel like I need to tell you, despite all our disagreements, thank you. If feel like I was forcing myself to continue my life, ignoring everything wrong around me, all of the under the pretense of finding the truth. But the truth is, it doesn't matter what the truth is, whatever lies at the end of this path isn't worth all the lives that have to be sacrificed to reach it. These soldiers, they reminded me of what you said, when they appeared I saw my reflection, something I wouldn't admit I had become. So let's do the best out of this shitty situation."
Griza was almost crying in joy and pride by the end of it, and in a moment of blissful euphoria, the two partners shared a powerful hug, conveying way more than what could ever be said with words.
"You're right Six, let's kick those snobby rich's asses."
Just as their small celebration ended, what looked like a group of ragtag militiamen arrived, the only thing they had in common being a piece of clothing colored in vibrant yellow.
"You two, did you kill those companymen ?" Asked one of them very inquisitively, while the other tightened their grips on their weapons.
"Yes, I did, do you have a problem with it ?"
"You must be a foreigner then, that would explain why you didn't recognize us." Explained the group's leader while his comrades visibly relaxed. "We are the headmaster's men, and the time has come for us to take arms against the foreign invaders, nothing against you, but if you are against them, I hope this means you are with us ?"
"I mean, we were having a talk with the man himself when all the bombing happened, and from what we have gathered he seems innocent. So what do you think Griza, should we help them ?"
"I think it's the best for everyone, yes, we should help them."
"Fantastic, you seem like trained huntresses at that, we could frankly use more people like you, but most sided with the company." He let out a short sigh. "This will be a hard fight."
Those words soon proved to be true, with brutal street to street fighting ensuing. Even the houses weren't safe, with militiamen and companymen using them as vantage point and hideouts. Eventually they fought opponents who had their aura awakened, but what would have been a long and dangerous fight only a few days ago, was there resolved unilaterally and in an instant thanks to Six's newfound powers.
When they finally arrived at the company's headquarters, a sight that wouldn't have been out of place in war time greeted them. A dozen or so companymen were stubbornly holding they ground there, using every window to rain down fire on their enemies, making many pay the supreme price for each corridor, each crate, and each office. Six's ice soon found itself blocking those pesky windows, granting a much needed relief to her allies.
Clearing the building was now made almost easy thanks to two huntresses acting as glorified meat shields, and it wasn't long before the group reached the headmaster's prison. But they didn't have time to rejoice as a strange woman entered the room, her hostile intent obvious to all.
She was wearing something similar to black leather as an armor, with some pieces of pristine steel scattered here and there. A strange mask hid her face, it was of some unknown metal, it's sleek form seeming to have been directly molded by it's wearer's face. The two holes placed where the woman's eyes should have been instead only leading to endless pits of darkness. It's last distinguishing feature was a mysterious pentagram on the forehead.
"Well, well, well... What do we have here, the flock of sheep is saving their shepherd, how cute. Some of you have potential, I can feel it, you could be so much more, if you simply break your chains, and let the whole world know who you really are. But instead you choose to take refuge into your pitiful morality, I don't know why I'm wasting my time with this lost cause."
During their supposed opponent's speech, the group had started slowly encircling her, preparing themselves for the upcoming clash, however, nothing could prepare them for what was to come. When the woman finally finished her speech, she took a long look at everyone around her, before disappearing.
An instant latter she reappeared behind the group of militiamen, and without her doing anything, they collapsed on the ground one by one, dead. A wicked laughter came out of their opponent's mask, while she used a yellow clothing to clean her bloody knife.
"Now that those pesky kids are out of the way, we can get down to the real business. As you may have guessed my semblance allows me to stop time, so in my infinite generosity I am willing to grant you a first and only chance to surrender, drop your weapons now and you may survive."
Least to say, even with Six icy powers they weren't estimating their survival chances as very high. Nonetheless, they steeled themselves in preparation for what could very well be their last stand. However Six managed to get Griza attention, and with a hand behind her back, signaled her to go free the headmaster while she will try to hold back their opponent.
"I guess this is a no ? How sad, you would have made for some wonderful pets." Said their enemy just before once again disappearing.
She reappeared right between the two of them, and before they had time to react, used her leg to launch a powerful kick against Six's head, catapulting her against the wall and causing it to start collapsing.
Griza didn't have time to focus on the collapsing wall as in an instant all her world became pain. Her body hurt everywhere, it felt like she had been an Ursa's punching bag for a week and half at least. She had also fallen on the ground at one moment or another, and her aura was almost gone. Simply keeping her eye open was incredibly painful, and without being able to turn her head she could only stare at the collapsed wall anyway.
She could faintly hear the masked woman brutalizing her mentor in real time. Suddenly, the prison's door was blown open from the inside, and in some lucky turn of fate, crashed into their opponent. Out of the dust cloud clothing the doorway, came two familiar figures.
"Had a change of your stone heart ? Just kidding, I knew we could count on you." Exclaimed Ember, in a voice that seemed to have regained its youthful energy. "Thank you for your help, if we survive this, Vacuo will forever be grateful to you."
"If we survive..." Managed to utter Griza while getting up thanks to Ember's offered hand. Their opponent was slowly getting up, they had to organize themselves. "She said that her semblance allows her to stop time."
"Seems doubtful, I think we would have heard of it if someone had a semblance this powerful without any drawback."
"She can attack us while time is stopped, but I think there's some kind time limit or drawbacks if she uses it too much." An idea entered Griza's mind, it was probably reckless but it could also lead them to victory, all over the literal flip of a coin.
In her pocket were a few of those coin, holding little to no value in a monetary sense, but in this situation could very well make the difference between life and death. Slowly approaching her now standing opponent, she took a coin in her hand and launched it far into the air in a seemingly careless manner, just as the masked woman used her semblance.
As expected Griza instantly found herself inside the opposing wall, with her aura completely annihilated and a nasty injury at the back of her head. Forcing her eye open, she found the coin to be already on the floor, her theory had been confirmed.
Six was only now managing to recover from her earlier beating, while Ember dragged Griza out of the wall. During this it was the headmaster turn to get beaten up in a slightly less unilateral way thanks to his semblance, but not helped by the fact that he was unarmed.
"Six ! Ice dome ! At my signal !" Griza yelled to her mentor, her hears damaged by her earlier meeting with the wall.
When she estimated that Six was near enough, Griza grabbed her weapon in its sword form and with all strength she had left, launched it at her opponent. The latter managed to see the attack coming, and dodged it with a minimal amount of effort, only for the sword to penetrate the damaged wall behind her, causing it to collapse, and ceiling too by extension.
"Now !" Yelled Griza, and Six thankfully understood this as the signal for the ice dome. As the former had expected, their opponent didn't use her semblance to evade the incoming debris, and had to jump off the building to avoid being crushed. When the crumbling ceased and the four of them got out of their icy protection, no sign of the masked woman could be seen, for all accounts, she had fled.
Once this was made clear, Six and Ember turned around to face Griza. "How did you know this would work ?" They asked in unison. "I think I understand..." Intervened Yang "... You launched that coin in the air and our enemy used her semblance to stop time, when time resumed the coin was already on the ground. This means that her semblance doesn't really stop time, it only stop our perception of time, as such she wouldn't have been able to use it to evade already launched attacks, like the collapse of a ceiling to name just one."
"Wow, yeah that's basically that, even if what gave me this idea at first was the crumbling of the wall after her first attack against Six, by the time she was done with me which seemed instantaneous to me, to wall was already done collapsing. The coin thing was only to verify this theory."
After this they tried to leave the building, only to be met with a ecstatic crowd right at the exit. Barely hesitating, Yang took the lead and approached the people.
"People of Vacuo. This day had started like so many others, few were those knowing what it would become, a day of blood, a day of the sword, a day for the people of Vacuo to let out all their anger accumulated during years of oppression. All of this was done thanks to you, those who won the day weren't huntsmen or soldiers, it was you, the blacksmith, the miner, the farmer, the people. Many traitors have perished today, but many more innocent did too. Today is a grim day, but tomorrow will be a day of hope. Today we mourn, tomorrow we rebuild, always strong on our path to build a better tomorrow."
The crowd erupted into furious clapping, people were hugging each other or swinging flags in the air.
"I would like to address special thanks to two individuals who have come all the way from Atlas to help us. Dear Griza, would you like to say a word ?"
The crowd instantly quieted, whispers growing between its members. Griza had been taken completely aback by the headmaster's offer, but judging from the way he stared at her, it wasn't an offer she could refuse. Timidly, she approached the headmaster, until he stepped back to let her speak.
"Good evening everyone, as some of you may have guessed from my uniform, I am part of the Atlesian military." The whispers grew louder and angrier. "From where I'm from, we are tasked with many things but before all, our duty is the protect Atlas and its people. It would be a lie to pretend that everything is perfect there, we all had to do things we aren't proud of. But I believe, that if we keep the flame of rightness burning, the goodwill of our people may survive and thrive. When we arrived here we witnessed the lengths the company was ready to go to gain more power, we saw the suffering of your people, we saw innocent die. I believe from the deepest of my heart that we did the right choice by siding with the headmaster today. Thank you for listening."
For a fateful moment the crowd was completely silent, until a clapping sound echoed from behind her. Surprised, Griza turned around to see that the the headmaster himself was the one clapping. After a moment of hesitation he was joined by Ember and almost immediately after by Six. Then, one by one, the crowd started clapping, until the sound of clapping hands echoed through the entire city, reaching even the deepest part of the abyss.
Most of this chapter was written between midnight and 6 o'clock, yet I believe I've done a decent job and managed to introduce a lot of things about Vacuo.
Oh and by the way Vacuo's headmaster isn't some kind of goody two shoes, and all this story is less black and white than it looks like, I just thought that a more hopeful chapter would do some good to this story.
Anyway, I hope you liked it.