Something I'm starting to wonder is whether or not I should keep these bonus chapters as extensions of this story, or move them to their own story, and just name it TSSC After or whatever. I guess that also depends on how long I want to keep this going. What do you all think?
After 4
"Well, I guess that answers some questions." Yang said, as she leaned her forehead into one of her hands. Her words reflected only half of what she really thought, and a more than mildly frustrated exhale reflected the other half. "And he didn't say anything else?"
"Nope. He completely ignored everything I said to him, and kept spouting off. It was like he was in his own little world of his, and then he really tried to kill me." Ruby said, sounding rather dejected.
"Wish I could've gotten a few good hits on him." Yang said, clapping her palm and her fist playfully.
On the contrary, Ruby was glad that she wasn't. Certainly, Yang was a powerhouse; a force to be reckoned with. Even so, Ruby knew her sister better than anyone else. She knew what she could and couldn't handle, and she didn't think Yang could win against the pale guy. Her own speed was barely enough to keep herself alive, and considering what the flames did to Crescent Rose, she shuddered to think of what it'd do to flesh and blood. She banished the thought as quickly as she blinked.
The biggest problem at hand though, was that they couldn't confirm his whereabouts. Ruby didn't disintegrate him with her technique; she was sure of at least that much. If what he said to Ruby was to be at all trusted, she needed to be on guard for a while longer. He'd be back for her life, to get rid of what he thought was a troublesome person with troublesome eyes. She wasn't alone either. As long as he was running free, anyone who came across him was in danger, with his apparent lack of regard for life.
She needed to clear her mind of the subject, for a little while at least. Nothing good was going to come of racking her brain needlessly. Luckily for her, her scroll suddenly buzzed, right on cue. She drew it from her pocket and saw a blinking light. It was a message from their dad, and contained an image of Zwei. Somehow, he managed to get himself stuck in one of the cabinets above the kitchen. It seemed that Tai and their dog weren't alone though, because in the second attached image, the strangely intelligent corgi was substituting an unconscious Qrow for a doggy bed. The sight made her giggle uncontrollably.
The much appreciated memory of home reminded Ruby. Tomorrow was going to be the day her family was back together for the first time in a few years. There was so much to catch up on, so many new things to show off, so many pent up emotions to let out, and even more questions to ask. There were always more questions to ask, and so few of them were ever answered. One above all the rest, though, was one she'd had even before they left.
"Something just dawned on me." Yang said suddenly. She had a slight grin on her face, and it was obvious that she was trying to hold it from getting wider. Ruby, who was chugging a bottle of water, glanced at her sister and grunted. "You, me, and Blake all graduated and got our hunter's licenses last year, right?"
Ruby nodded her head curiously and grunted again.
"But Weiss didn't finish the 3 next school years, which means…" Yang trailed, letting Ruby come to the realization on her own. Despite her best attempt to swallow the water first and foremost, some of it leaked out of her lips, and she surely felt some of it go down the wrong pipe too.
The idea that Weiss, who was always adamant that she was the most qualified amongst them to be a huntress, was the only one who wasn't, was as ironic as it was hilarious, and probably a reality. She didn't really care that Weiss probably got as much experience if not even more through her travels with Madara. The principle of the license was the important part.
"Hey Yang, where are we all supposed to meet up at again?" Ruby asked abruptly.
"Back home on Patch, of course. Where else?" Yang asked rhetorically.
"And its tomorrow right?"
"Yep."
"Okay, I was worried you didn't buy us tickets for an airbus home." Ruby said, feeling relieved. Unfortunately, the proceeding silence was quickly thinning that relief, as was Yang's not so subtle sidestep, turn and forward march.
"Yang?" Ruby called out, receiving no response from her sister as she kept walking. "Yang?!" She said much louder, but all it did was change Yang's walk to a full blown sprint.
She hardly needed her semblance to catch up to Yang, though it would just take a little bit longer. Instead, the two quickly and literally came crashing down, as the sisters struggled against each other. Their mindless scuffle threw them off course. Specifically, they went from the sidewalk to the inside of a store on the same sidewalk. Neither seemed to notice, as their aura blunted the impact and the showering of glass shards. It was only after they heard the panicked screams of a woman that they broke their own holds on each other. At first, they thought someone was under attack and in need of help, so they switched into professional mode and armed themselves. That was up until they realized that the woman wasn't a woman at all. In reality, she was a he, and he was an old friend to both of them. That short blond hair and those incredibly blue eyes, and that scream, belonged to none other than the former leader of the now graduated Team JNPR.
"Jaune!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping onto her fellow team leader.
"H-Hey Ruby!" He replied briefly, still recovering from his shock. He felt Ruby hugging him, so he did the same. "It's great to see you guys again. How long's it been, a year?"
"Sounds about right." Yang chimed in, before joining in on the hug and nearly strangling the life out of Jaune. "Been a little more than a year since graduation, yeah? What have you guys been up to?"
"Well what about you two? I heard you made first contact with an alien or something." Jaune asked curiously. "The newscast said they were grey skinned and had horns, and attacked Ruby on sight."
"Yeah." Ruby sighed, "it happened twice, before and after they were brought to the hospital."
"Second time?" Jaune repeated, before a light bulb seemingly turned on above his head. "Oh! So you were the lightning bolt they said that struck the area, right?"
"Y-yeah," Ruby mumbled, sheepishly accepting what she thought to be praise and trying to hide her embarrassment.
"And the huge sea of fire too?" He asked, but received the complete opposite reaction. Ruby switched on a dime from proud but modest, to completely dejected. "Or not?"
"That… was the alien guy…" Ruby said grimly, much to Jaune's confusion.
"Ruby's precious little Crescent Rose melted in that fire." Yang chimed in, smirking as Ruby visibly shrunk in place.
"Oh, sorry to hear that." Jaune said as sincerely as he could. "I can't imagine what that guy must have been like. I don't know a lot of people that can keep up with Ruby, and definitely none of them are aliens. It's crazy to even think about, you know? What if there's more of them out there? And what if more come here?"
"Then I'm going to beat them all up," Yang declared with utmost confidence. "For thinking they can just waltz into our world and do whatever they want."
"I wish I could join you, but I have my own stuff to worry about." Jaune remarked, momentarily glancing down at the bag he was holding in one hand.
"Don't worry about it. It's better to avoid getting involved." Ruby assured.
"Anyways, I have to get going, or I'll be late for my flight back to Mistral." Jaune blurted out, which caused the sisters to freeze in place. They slowly turned their heads to look at each other, before in perfect unison they bolted back out of the door. Ruby even picked up Yang with her semblance and coated them in a cloak of lightning. Jaune was only able to watch, breathless and confused at their frantic haste, before he finished paying for what he bought and left the shop in turn. As he stepped out the door, he felt his chest pumping. He was glad that to see his old friends, and even more glad that they seemed way too distracted to read the proverbial room. They didn't even notice that the three of them were in a jewelry store. They didn't even glance at the various glass-encased items made of rare metals and gemstones. They especially didn't ask about what was in the bag he was holding, so he didn't have to let them be the first girls to know that he just bought a very special type of ring.
Towards the southernmost peninsula of Sanus, where the only traces of civilization only ruins that were no doubt centuries old, there was a large gathering of Grimm. Hundreds to thousands of humanity's predators were accumulating their numbers in preparation for some kind of attack. Who or what could have been responsible for this was anybody guess, with the long absence of their former master. Most of them were small and young, months at most in age and lacking even the smallest pieces of armor. Yet some who'd only reached a few years were showing more growth than usual. They were larger and more equipped than they should have been for their age. They could still be taken out by the more common weaponry of hunters, but their rate of growth would've concerned anyone who know what they were looking at.
They weren't close enough to any settlement to be noticed, nor had they grown enough to be overwhelming for a hunter of any worth. They would be before long, however, if they were allowed to continue to amass their strength. Yet even so, they were all but inconsequential, not even worth acknowledging, when they were about to be eclipsed.
Suddenly, there was a massive rumbling on the ground just a couple hundred meters from their position, followed by a massive explosion. Only a second or two later, there was a second explosion, only so close that the soulless monsters could feel the heat of the fire. Moments later, a flaming body flew into the flank of the gathering, and before the dust could settle even slightly, two intersecting walls of lava erupted from the ground and split their ranks into quadrants. The culprit dashed from one point to another, wasting no time and with all haste. Yet the Grimm weren't even their target. They had just been unfortunate to be caught in the crossfire.
Balls of molten lava few through the air in every direction. Hundreds would have been fired, given the chance, but it wasn't possible. Not a single one hit what they were supposed to. They'd been carefully avoided, and in a single momentary lapse in focus, the lava maker was struck from behind and knocked down into the ground.
Aaah… They, despite being covered in a special and powerful armor, groaned and winced from the impact. It wasn't painful, at least. Still, it wasn't quite fruitless. A physical attack on them was always an instant counterattack, and it showed. The leg of the person who hit them was smoking, and was burned where it had made contact with their armor.
"You're quite annoying with that lava armor, more annoying than any other human I've come across thus far." Their enemy said nonchalantly.
"We tend to be like that." The lava maker replied, as she stood up.
"This would be over much quicker if you'd just surrender. But I suppose that's not possible, even when you know you can't win."
"Call me weak, why don't you? I might not be able to knock you flat on your ass, but I'm at least going to break that horn of yours."
"Is that so?" They asked, pointing at the single horn that protruded from their forehead. "So insolent, but I'll allow it from one who's about to die."
"Like I'd let anyone kill me again." The lava maker lowered herself into an offensive posture, and charged towards her attacker.
Her attacker, a pale unicorn of a man, clapped his hands together and made a perfectly straight line between his palms and fingers. The veins around his eyes bulged, and several parts of his body began to deform and visibly writhe. A shadowy mass exploded from him, but not to hit her like projectiles. She met the man in close quarters, punching and kicking mote violently than before. Many of the strikes failed to land, as her opponent knew better than to touch her body at any point, but there were a few that he couldn't avoid and was forced to block. The burns quickly began to accumulate, and a dull sensation of pain arose in his mind.
But no later had a third person entered the fray. Their white skinned hand was so stiff and moved with such speed that the girl couldn't react, and despite the inevitable consequences, it pierced the side of her head as a spear would have a regular human. Her head quite literally exploded, and her body fell to the ground lifelessly. What remained of her head was small fragments that were slowly falling to the ground. Her assailant, now assailants, examined their injuries and their success, although they did so with identically disappointed looks.
"I will have to wait until that chakra is recycled and becomes ready for collection." One of them said.
"It was the only way, for I who am without the elements. It cannot be helped." The other replied.
"Indeed. Still, this is strange, don't I think?"
"What do I mean?"
"The heads of this world's inhabitants don't normally explode like this, do they? They asked, holding out their hand and catching one of the smaller pieces of what used to be her head.
"This world is strange, more than any that I have seen before. We drew a short straw, as it were. Much of this world's energy is poisoned. Growing a tree will be difficult with so much pollutant."
"I will have ever observant Fuushiki oversee its growth."
"I should find him soon. I lost contact with him once we entered this space."
"Then, I shall go." They said, but before they could make any move, they witnessed something for the first time. The countless paper-like fragments that composed the lava maker's head were suddenly pulled together on top of her neck, coalescing into the shape of her head before its destruction. The paper then changed into various colors, and just as if nothing happened her head, full of white hair and green eyes, was returned to pristine condition. That is, with the exception of darkened sclera and a few unnatural cracks that littered her face.
The two identical men stared at the phenomena with amazement, leaving them just vulnerable enough for her to take advantage of. She shot forward, throwing a punch at one of their faces. Even though they moved to dodge, her fist emitted a powerful pulse of her weaponized aura. Combined with the strength of her chakra, it produced enough force to crack and sever his horn from his head, leaving behind just a short stump.
The two quickly jumped back to avoid any further damage, let alone surprises.
"Like I said. I won't be dying to the likes of you. You'll have to try a lot harder." She declared, punching her fists together and triggering lava to coat her body again.
The two merely stared at her, either still recovering from their shock or processing what they were witnessing. Then, they looked at each other.
"Immortal?" One of them asked the other, sounding almost hopeful that he was correct.
However, the other shook his head. "No, undead. Their body is fake. Only chakra holds it together. The higher ups could destroy this easily, I'm certain. It is not what we are looking for."
"But how will I do now? Can her chakre be collected this way?"
"Not as I am now." They raised one of their hands, and counted four small dark red pills.
"I don't have enough. If Fuushiki were here, perhaps, but for now, I must retreat until I can acquire a Rinnegan."
"Agreed."
The two disappeared before her very eyes. A strange portal appeared between them, and it disappeared right after they entered, not giving her the chance to follow. The lava on her body similarly disappeared, and she sighed relieved, yet not completely at ease. They were going to return, if their own words were anything to go by. Once they found this "Rinnegan" they were talking about, that is.
She felt certain, for whatever reason, that she was not their only objective. She needed to warn someone, anyone, everyone and soon.
END
