["Bloody Stream" - JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE (English Cover by Y. Chang)]
From the darkness…
Strong and silent
Like pillars in the night they break the dawn
Hungry and violent
Scarlet rain falls
Hot and heavy
Show me that you've got the strength to fight
Boy, are you ready?
And so, may love guide your way through every last endless trial
Always tempt your fate with luck and a smile
Watch out for danger left and right it's just like dancing in the dark
You slip through like a knife and cut your way right to the heart
Let your path unfurl and the world will always sing your story
Like a bloody storm
It surges like a bloody storm
When destiny runs through your veins so wild and wet and warm
Fate may pull the strings and who knows what tomorrow brings
But, tonight we stand together!
残り:四の影/ Remnant's Four Shadows
Volume 3, Episode 11: Point Where It Breaks
Loss. That's what Yuki was feeling seeing Vale go straight to hell. He had tried his damnedest to save it, but alas, he got outplayed. Now? He was scrambling to save who he could.
[Cues: Sonic Advance 3 OST – Chaos Angel Zone, Act 3]
Here he was on Inferno tearing through the cracked streets to retrieve his friends. He was glad that Cologne had already made the go-ahead to get the tribe out of Vale, but not before rigging the Nekohaten to blow making sure to take out several hundred of the new Grimm seeping out from the portals. The Voyden Grimm came in many flavors namely sapient, beastlike, and humanoid.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but, Dad, the descriptions don't do justice. They're worse." Yuki said to himself.
He had already given the order for his own team to get their personal effects and get the hell out of Vale. They did not want to leave Yuki on his own, but he gave them the order. Now Yuki's first target was Neo and he skidded a stop not far from his apartment seeing that several Voyden Grimm had surrounded the place. They were large orange (some were a lighter shade, others were blue) dogs with no eyes, ears, nose, or tail. Their postures and movements are also more apelike with their sharp teeth are defined and stick out of their mouths. They had three gill-like nostrils located on each side of their necks and a pair of bull-like horns. What scared Yuki was Voyden Grimm did not always look like a typical Grimm, being black and covered in bones. It was becoming a sobering feeling to realize that the Grimm of his nightmares were not as bad as what he was seeing. Serena called them the Vulpi.
"Neo, where-"
BLAM!
[Cues: Castlevania II Simon's Quest OST – Monster Dance]
Yuki looked up to see Neo jump through her window with her duffel bag and purse before opening her umbrella to float away with the wind nearly getting tackled by one of those Vulpi where Serena pointed out was their Alpha. The Alpha Vulpi was significantly larger and more muscular than the regulars standing with maroon-red fur, four huge white spikes running down their backs that overlap starting out as a shark-like fin at the head rising almost into an arc over the back tapering near the rump, black lined lips, and a scorpion-like tail.
"Come back, you human!" The Alpha Vulpi screamed.
"Talking Grimm? Well fuck! Dad, I owe you an apologize for staying it was a cartoon all those years ago." Yuki thought before Neo landed on the other building. "Shit!"
"After her, first one to bring her to gets her other hole!" The Alpha Vulpi said as the other howled charging after her.
"Damn it!" Yuki said returning his bike it's microcube. "Serena, let's hope we can save her."
Using Peach's semblance, he sprouted out the "Boogie Pack", a jet with wide turbine engines which took his color scheme before he blasted off into the skies.
[Cues: Sonic Rush OST – Bomber Barbara]
Yuki blazed a trail of ice blue due to his jet pack as he soared. Sensing out Neo was not too hard but swooping in to sweep the cute mute off her feet was.
"And you and Roman always mocking the heroes." Yuki snarked.
If Neo were not just being chased by devil dogs and hundreds of feet in the air, she would hit him with her umbrella.
"Hey, that's my toy!" The Alpha Vulpi bellowed.
"Eat shit, mutt!" Yuki taunted taking off leaving the dogs in the dust.
They did give chase as best as they could as Yuki was having a hard time evading them.
"[Yuki, Vulpi use their sense of smell and their hearing to follow us! Disable one of them!]" Serena suggested.
Yuki dived down for the ground landing as he turned to face the ongoing horde of mutts. Neo got behind him as the build on his back returned into his back as he took a deep breath. Channeling both Puce and Jaune, he unleashed a torrent of supercharged soundwaves from his mouth. The Vulpi screeched in agony, but the Alpha pushed on clawing the ground to force himself forward.
Neo opened her purse to get out a dust grenade before pulling the pin and throwing it. The grenade flew over Yuki before the soundwaves propelled it to slam into the Alpha's face sending him hurdling into the wall. Yuki let up panting and realizing why Kelly always told him to pack something for his throat. Or why he really should not use Jaune's semblance to supercharge Puce's.
"We need to run, I don't think I can rip off another one." Yuki said eyeing a car. "Come on!"
Neo helped picked the lock, and Yuki used his semblance to hijack the car before speeding off. He'd upgrade it, but he wanted to save as much aura as he could. Serena made the call to the twins hopefully to find both of them alive which she did found, but…there was a death.
"[Yuki, I'm sorry to say. Miss Prisma died…sacrificed herself to save the twins.]" Serena said as tears ran down Yuki's face. "[But I have some good news…they managed to get out of the club and to your lab. Just the twins and Junior.]
[Music Ends]
With that notion, he pulled the car to a stop only to see something unholy. It was a tall, muscular, minotaur-like black skinned beast with two dark grey horns, a cybernetic right leg, a large rocket launcher mounted on its left arm, red wiring on its lower torso, as well as patches of metal and wires on its right arm. A skull like-mask was on his face as its girth dangled between its legs. Yuki facepalmed.
"Oh, come on!" Yuki inwardly screamed. "Well, why don't have more of them show up?"
Ten more came out of a building to join its cybernetic comrade all turning to look at Yuki.
"Neo, if we survive and I got the energy, I'm going to have to get shitfaced. Because with all this stress, I think I'm close to having a breakdown." Yuki said frazzled as Neo put an assuring hand on his shoulder. "You're right, we will survive, and I need to keep my shit together!"
Yuki peeled out of there as they opened fire on them. He was swerving left and right to evade, but a spot of bad luck got his car hit causing him to crash…into a mattress store. Yuki and Neo stumbled out before running for the back room.
"Serena, am I good to make a portal?" Yuki asked as Serena gave them the go ahead.
Firstly, Yuki and Neo barricaded the door before he tore open a portal. They dived into it just as the cyber Grimm smashed through.
"Give my regards to your boss!" Yuki said firing a blast of aura with a touch of fire dust.
Yuki shut it just as it exploded and stumbled back into the arms of the twins.
"You okay, Yuki?" Melanie asked.
"No, Vale's coming back, and we're low on time!" Yuki said going up to his supercomputer. "This place will be secure, but I'm ensuring all the data I have here will be copied straight away to my supercomputer in Crossroad. I may even have to make a kill code for this place."
Yuki had stored a few notable inventions in mircocubes before telling everyone to hold his shoulders. Once they did, he used the lava lamp to teleport them back to the Dragon's Den. The place was empty as his teammates got there first, but his things were already packed in a duffel bag.
"Thanks, girls." Yuki said slinging it over his back.
He used the lava lamp again to go back to lab and portaled back with the Lab's lava lamp turned off. He also turned the dorm's lava lamp before putting them both away.
"Ok, we can go…where's Roman?!" Yuki said before Serena informed him that he hijacked an airship. "Whew."
It was not before long as Roman swooped in to pick them up as Yuki took control to get them out of Vale. Yuki thought it was smooth sailing, but the universe reminded how him this is Remnant where it's a depressing cesspit. Thus, they were attack with what grey winged Vulpi but with tentacles for legs. And they were spitting out blasts of red plasma. Yuki had enough.
"That's it!" Yuki screamed. "Neo, take the wheel!"
Yuki took a breath as he got of the pilot seat before using Peach's semblance on the airship upgrading it as light blue circuity lines flashed up on it as it took a black and blue appearances boosting the engines to outrace the winged Grimm to crash into the floating Grimm King.
"Oh, come the fuck on!" Yuki screamed as Noire looked annoyed.
He flicked the ship off sending it hurdling into the ground as the passengers all got out.
"Yuki, do you really think it would be ea…Oh wait, Roman's still alive." Noire taunted.
"So, you're this Grimm King? I'll give you this, you're scarier than Salem." Roman said with his usual snark. "An honor to know my infamy even reaches you."
"Always so entertaining. It's a shame I want to kill you to make better use of you. But I'll get over it!" Noire said firing a black energy beam out from his pointer finger. "Void Razor!"
"Get down!" Yuki said tackling Roman to the ground narrowly missing the blast which hit the ground. "Not going to let you do that, Noire."
[Cues: Sonic X OST – Sonic's Fight]
Leaping up, Yuki fired his pistols as opening shots giving several rounds of ice dust rounds. Noire simply had a barrier formed him asking what the hell was Yuki's attack. Noire swatted the dust away to reveal Yuki flew in close to smash Noire in the face before using his other arm to slice at the king's face. Noire had dodged the swipe in face only to kick Yuki into the air. Focusing the aura into his eyes, Yuki fired down an eye blast that surprised Noire putting him in a small crater as Yuki regained his footing floating in the air.
"Not bad, kid, but not enough!" Sayah said in distance as Yuki got out of the way to dodge a razor-sharp disc of energy that nicked his cheek. "You may want to focus on walking away from us alive! Because…"
She appeared in front of him as Sayah had him by the throat.
"You simply aren't ready for us." Sayah said only to get a tapping on a shoulder. "Hm?"
She turned to get a knife slammed into her eye getting Sayah to scream as Serena had slashed her face.
"If you're going to look like that whore, Cinder, you may as well look just as ugly as her!" Serena said before returning to Yuki's mindscape.
Yuki caught the knife and stabbed her shoulder before tripping the hidden explosive in the knife before punched away as Noire flew out of the crater.
"Sorry to say that I can't stay but…" Yuki said using Ivory's semblance to produce a bright flash of light.
Given that the Grimm King and Queen were used to darkness, the brightness got them reeling in pain long enough to Yuki tear a portal to shove himself and his friends into to escape.
[Music Ends]
Yuki was never so glad to hit the dirt of his home village now more than ever. Melanie and Miltiades helped Yuki up as out from his home came his worried teammates.
"I told you, I wasn't going to let them die." Yuki said feeling sore.
They carried them inside were the others were waiting. Teams RWBY and JPNR, most of the Beacon staff, Ozpin, the Amazons, and….
"What the fuck is she doing here?" Yuki hissed gesturing to Salem who was laying on the couch. "And please don't tell me if you took her allies as well."
"No. Ironwood imprisoned them and took them with him to Atlas." Ozpin said as Yuki breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where's Team CFVY?" Yuki asked.
"On route to Vacuo." Peach remarked. "They wanted to assist over there, but they did return your ship."
Yuki looked over at the couch to see Salem was on it, completely unconscious.
"Someone wants to explain why the absolute shit did you think I would be cool with bring that madwoman into my house?" Yuki asked.
"Look, I couldn't just leave her to the Grimm King or…Ironwood." Ozpin admitted.
"You're thinking with your fucking dick, Oz." Yuki snarled. "Did you forget that the whole reason that cult was manipulated was because Salem decided to be Queen Asshole for millennia?"
"She wasn't always like this." Ozpin said tiredly.
"To be fair, what we see of her, show she's pretty much a brat or a sociopathic twat. Or both." Yuki said as his team and Peach agreed.
Serena reported to Yuki that Salem was essentially in a coma with her aura slowly healing what physical damage tearing out her Grimm powers did to her even raising the possibility of mental damage. Yuki was at least relived that, now, Salem was no longer a pressing issue. Pyrrha flat out asked what they are going to do now.
"I don't…even know. I did not plan for the Grimm King to be freed. As far as I know, we're all flying blind. But from what I recall about my dad's book, the Grimm King isn't like Salem. He prefers to not hang around the castle all, he'll be out training or fighting. I theorize he may leave Vale allowing it to recover because what he truly wants is…..the Grimmlands back." Yuki explained. "This guy treats it all like a giant game, and we're his new opponents."
Yuki insisted that all get some rest and they were figure things out tomorrow. Ozpin let them know that he was going to go back to Beacon to ensure damage was not too extreme.
"JPNR should go with you then." Yuki mused. "Guard point."
Lapis gave Yuki a bit of mixed reaction at the suggestion, but begrudgingly tolerated it giving Yuki a look that said you're going to owe me for this. Yuki got out the lava lamp he had for the Dragon's Den to give to Jaune.
"Here, if you're going to stay back in your dorm. You can turn it on and use this to teleport to the other lava lamp." Yuki said explaining how it works. "I'll turn on the other one and set it here."
Jaune took it as Lapis kissed him goodbye which Pyrrha eye-rolled at. Ozpin would leave with the staff and JPNR, except for Peach.
"I'm sorry Oz, but I'll need to return to active Huntress duty. I need to keep an eye on things here." Peach said earnestly. "For Yuki's sake."
"Damn it, we may as well just plan what to do now." Yuki thought as Ozpin and the others left.
Once Ozpin was gone, making sure to take Salem's body, Yuki spoke up.
"Ok, listen up, I do have a plan, but you're not going to like it. Weiss, I need you to get your mother and brother to go back to Atlas with you. I need you to check on things with the country and the Maiden." Yuki said sternly before having Serena beam the information into her scroll. "Don't tell Ironwood that I sent you to spy on things. I don't want any more surprises in case anything happens. I gave him the basis, but I can't give him intimate details…as a precaution."
"Considering everything, we'll be pulling an Ozpin." Ivory said with a groan.
It was not like they had much options at this point. The Church of Salem had them realize they could not exactly be open of what they knew, especially with the Grimm King.
"Blake, you will be tasked to go to Menagerie to flush out any leftover White Fang or any cultists there in hiding. Lapis will go with you, considering her semblance will make her literally a force to be reckoned with. See if you could find Sun to go with you." Yuki said before turning to Ruby. "Ruby, when I am able, you and Yang will travel with me to Mistral. We're going to ensure the state of the relic and hunt down the Maiden."
"And what about Kelly and I?" Ivory asked.
"Ivory, you'll join us. Kelly, I…I need you to go with Weiss to Atlas. Check on Puce, especially." Yuki reaffirmed.
"I get it. I may as well make my grand return." Kelly remarked.
Yuki had asked Cologne what she was going to do, and she remarked that it would be best for her and the tribe to settle on Patch. She noted they had plenty money and enough materials to work to build a new means of travel. Roman remarked that he would stay in the village noting he could at the least monitor things from Vale from here with Neo by his side. As for the twins and Junior, they noted they would head to Patch. But they stated that they would stay until Yuki was better.
"I'll take him upstairs." Peach said tossing Yuki over her shoulder to take him upstairs.
"By the way, I suggest you all find a place to sleep, but not before someone cleans my couch. Salem was on it." Yuki said before disappearing upstairs.
"Shampoo, get Elena and clean that couch. We must purify it." Cologne said glaring at the couch like it killed her pets. "Just in case."
Peach got Yuki into head looking worriedly at she was patching him up. Neo came up to check up on him as Yuki looked conflicted.
"Yuki, get some sleep. Things will be…marginally better in the morning." Peach said ruffling his head.
"I feel like I failed…Vale still fell." Yuki said worriedly.
Serena pinged on top of Yuki's lap.
"But Beacon is still standing, Salem is out of the picture, and most importantly, Pyrrha, Penny, and Roman are still alive." Serena said encouraging.
Yuki was not all too convinced and asked to be alone for the moment. Neo and Peach left with her turning off the lights. Serena stroked Yuki's face before vanishing back to his mindscape. Yuki laid back looking over at a family photo. He wondered how his parents would have handled this or what they would even say.
(A/N: Volume 3 comes to a close at last, and things are looking rather dire. What's next for Team YUKI and everyone else? We're splitting up for Volume 4, and Yuki's on the road to recovery. At least Yang did not lose an arm. (11/16/2020 – I edited this chapter to make it clear what the goals of the team split up would be. I realized I was not so clear about it the first time around.)
