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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 12: An Unexplainable Anomaly
Now, the rest of Ruby's day was not the most interesting. She attended the rest of her classes, after remembering she didn't have history until the next day. The rest of her classes were of little note. Combat class was probably the most boring for her. It was little more than an introduction to what they would be doing, and a laying down of the rules. The only other aspect of note for her, was the simmering anger that followed her. It was clear to Ruby that it would take some time for Weiss to get over it.
The next day, things hadn't improved much. The only thing that Ruby could say was truly better was that the heiress wasn't 'whining like a petulant child who found out that daddy got the wrong car for her birthday'. Ruby's words, not mine. Though I did share the sentiment.
Her history class went off without a hitch. It wasn't until it came time for her aura class that eyebrows were raised. The most vocal of those eyebrows belonged to the Schnee.
"Are you seriously childish enough to think that you can be a huntress without learning the most important aspect of being a huntress?" She interrogated Ruby.
"No." Ruby replied, not looking up from her textbook. "I have my reasons."
"This is why the headmaster shouldn't have made you a leader." Weiss spat.
When Ruby didn't respond any further, Weiss huffed and left the room. Ruby just watched her go.
"Really? Just gonna let her go?" Yang questioned.
"She wouldn't listen to me no matter what I say." Ruby replied, nonchalantly.
"Will you tell us why you aren't going to class?" Blake asked.
"Maybe later. You should go now though." Ruby responded.
Blake nodded and left. Yang hung back.
"Are you going to tell Blake?" Yang asked.
"Don't know." Ruby answered honestly. "I don't trust Weiss with it, and I'm unsure about Blake."
"Why?" Yang asked.
"Ask her why she hides." Ruby replied simply.
"You know, trust is a two-way street." Yang said.
Ruby sighed and closed her book. "Yeah. I know. Tell you what. After class, if you think Blake can be trusted to not reveal what I have to say to anyone, then bring her by. I'll be on the roof."
She spent much of that class time drawing some diagrams for Yang and studying. True to her word, she waited on the roof for her teammates. Yang showed up with a wary Blake in tow. Ruby raised an eyebrow at Blake's appearance.
"So, you know." Blake said.
"That you're a faunus?" Ruby asked.
Blake nodded.
"Yep." Ruby replied.
"How?" Blake asked.
"Your bow twitches too much for it to just be air currents. I've noticed you perk up at random times, almost as if hearing your name called, despite the fact that there are no sounds, except maybe the air vents or the wind. AND you are far too sure of your movements in the dark. The most logical explanation, at least to me, is that you're a faunus." Ruby replied.
"She's too sure of her movements in the dark?" Yang questioned.
"She got up late last night, presumably to use the bathroom. Being as it was our first night in the room, I would have expected her to bump into something, or run a hand along the wall to find the bathroom without getting lost." Ruby explained. "I distinctly saw you cross right through the room straight for the bathroom."
"How did you see that?" Blake asked.
"Dad taught me well." Ruby replied.
"Ok, enough dilly dallying." Yang interjected. "What is that you wanted to tell us and why do we have to be here to do it? I get that it's a sensitive issue, but how does that relate to you not taking aura classes?"
"It has to do with that day." Ruby replied, before taking a deep breath. "I am a very special case when it comes to my aura."
"How special are we talking about?" Blake asked, leaning against one of the air conditioning units.
"I only have half a soul." Ruby simply answered.
Blake and Yang gasped at that revelation. Yang's eyes widened.
"How?" Yang almost whispered.
"The man who killed our father was what dad calls a soul thief." Ruby answered.
"Soul thief?" Yang questioned.
"I've heard about them." Blake said. "Stories say that they can take the life force of other living things."
"Yeah. And the one that killed our dad in front of me, and almost got me was a true soul thief. His ability literally pulled the souls from our bodies." Ruby answered.
"So… was that thing during initiating…" Yang began.
"Yeah." Ruby replied. "That is what I remember from that night. My music boxes help me sleep."
"Is that what you were winding up last night?" Blake asked.
"Told you she was a faunus." Ruby smirked before turning to Blake. "Yeah. That one is called Stargazer. The boxes are gifts from my dad. They help me sleep."
"It is a very calming tune." Blake stated.
"Yeah." Ruby agreed.
"Wait, how does having only half a soul equate to not having to attend aura classes?" Yang asked. "I'm not an expert, but wouldn't Beacon have a contingency plan for students that suffer such an affliction?"
"They do." Blake answered.
"But not for the way I lost half of my soul." Ruby added. "Beacon's contingency is for Grimm related incidents, not soul thieves."
"Ah… what's the difference?" Yang asked.
Ruby frowned. She pulled the diagrams from earlier out of her pocket and handed them to the girls.
On three pages were crude diagrams of the human body. Around the first body was an outline that Ruby had drawn in red. It matched the contours of the body rather closely, just about a centimeter away from the body itself. Around the second was a warped outline that was just missing sections. Around the third was a ring covered in jagged thorns.
"A normal soul, whole and uninjured." Ruby explained pointing to the first diagram. "The second one is a soul injury due to a Grimm attack. They are beasts that target us because of our souls. As such, they have the ability to directly harm it. However, humans and faunus do not naturally have the ability. That third diagram is what happens to souls pulled out by soul thieves when the process is interrupted."
"That looks painful." Yang stated.
"All the time." Ruby muttered.
"It's so… barbed." Blake muttered.
"More or less, that is the appearance of my soul." Ruby said.
"How do you know?" Yang asked.
"Dad told me. He can see it." Ruby answered. "Dad says I am one of the only survivors of a soul thief. He hasn't heard of any others. As such we call the jagged edges thorns. Actually…"
Ruby snapped her hand to the side, in much the same manner she did in Port's classroom. Death's Thorn materialized in her hand.
"This is one of my thorns." Ruby said, showing the two girls her main weapon.
"It's an aura construct?" Blake questioned in awe.
"Dad calls it a will-based aura construct." Ruby answered with pride.
"That's amazing." Yang said.
"And incredibly rare. Huntsmen and huntresses generally don't use their aura so actively. How does it not drain yours?"
"I don't know." Ruby lied. "Probably because it's one of those thorns."
The girls spent a little more time talking, and discussing the actual ramifications of Ruby's condition. In the end, it was little more than a small bump in the road. An obstacle of little consequence to Yang and Blake.
Overall, not much else happened, that day… at least, not much happened with Ruby. My investigation, on the other hand, was proving a fair bit more fruitful.
As I'm sure you may have surmised, the Oiriúnú was not the primary reason for me to convince Ozpin to alter the initiation. True to my word, I did investigate the forest. Honestly, I don't know what was worse. The fact that the rumors of its stirring were founded in fact, or the fact that I couldn't find it. I found evidence of it, but not the beast itself.
Now that I think about it, have I actually explained the danger of the Oiriúnú? No, I did. I know I did.
However, the Oiriúnú's stirring did prompt me to look into the other Omega Class Grimm. This I don't think I've divulged. There are a great many different types of Grimm. Obviously. There are far more Gamma class than Omega class Grimm. That being said, Omega V is the smallest grouping of Grimm. Only three Grimm in history have been given an Omega V rating, the Oiriúnú being the second to receive such a rank.
The first is a Grimm called the Obscuritas. A reality warping monster of the highest order. It is devilishly clever. It is a four-legged monster with four pointed claws on each of its feet. The body of the monster is rather crab-like in shape, complete with a double layered shell. It has twenty eyes, all along the edge of its body, in an indent created where the top and bottom halves of its shell connect. It has four arm-like appendages that extend from the top of the monster's shell. At the end of each appendage is a crab-like claw.
The real danger of this beast is not in its physical shape. The real danger lies in its reality warping abilities. No one can quite explain it, but this monster… I don't even know how to explain it. It has the ability to… change reality to what you don't want it to be? I guess? Honestly, I've never encountered one, and any souls I meet that have didn't explain what it does in any coherent manner. They didn't talk much about it. I was able to surmise that it is a unique experience to each person. So, mayhaps it only alters one's perception of reality? I think I'd actually have to encounter one to be able to tell you more about its reality warping capabilities.
Another ability I know it has, is the ability to obscure itself from reality… hence the name Obscuritas. I think Conquest helped name it.
The third and only other Omega V Grimm is one that is even harder to explain. Like I said, I've only ever truly encountered the Oiriúnú. I've met people who've encountered Obscuritases. But I don't think anyone's ever seen the third. It doesn't even have a proper name. No one knows what it looks like, what it can do, or even if it exists. The only thing I've been able to find out about is that there exists a group that calls it The Accursed. They said no more than that.
It almost seems like this one is more fiction than fact. A myth. But the group that gave it a title believe in its existence, so fervently, that I can't confidently say that it is a myth. Like I said, they are the only three Omega V Grimm. And one of them may not even exist.
Enough about that. My search for that thing that Conquest and I found had proven rather fruitful. Sort of. I was able to confirm that the monster is indeed a soul thief. An unstable soul thief. If you remember, what Conquest and I found was what appeared to be a human skeleton in the puddle of a melted Grimm, surrounded by dead forest.
Well, I found another place that looked like that. Though, this time, some of the melted Grimm flesh stayed behind. I gathered a sample and took it to Ozark. His findings were strange. That small piece of melted Grimm flesh was actually human in origin. Now, I'm no expert but human flesh doesn't MELT into black puddles! Even more confusing, but more easily explained is the soul amalgamation that was attached to it.
I had to explain to Ozark what I saw. He figured out quite quickly that a soul amalgam like that is only possible if the host is a true soul thief. Ozark kept the sample and is working on a way to allow me to track the wayward souls. The thief may have escaped me for now, but I would be able to find it soon.
But that still left me no closer to an identity. Fortunately, it isn't that hard to find a record of souls in the Necropolis. One wing of our library is devoted entirely to souls. Living or dead or somewhere in between. Only my reapers or I can access that wing. Even more secure is the section devoted to soul thieves. It is a single file folder. There have been that few.
I bring this up now, because the only thing we use the library for… usually… is the storage of actual literature. So, you can see how it slipped my mind to mention that we have a library. Even then, Ozark is really the only person to regularly visit the library. Even less used are the soul files. Not even I use them. It is so rarely used, that most forget they exist. It is an almost vestigial installment on the Necropolis. Almost.
Instances like this are why it has not, nor will it ever be removed.
So, I perused the files on soul thieves. The problem is, all of the dead ones were accounted for. None of them had escaped death or their afterlife. Consulting the files on the living soul thieves was more informative. Apparently, there are three currently living. Although, one of them is a civilian who has no plans to unlock their aura, and the other is a police officer in a medically induced coma. The third was where things got interesting. His name is Erebus Grimshaw, and unlike the files on the others, his date of birth was listed as unknown. Worse, he had a date of death. Most damning of all though, was the description of him. One single word: WANTED.
He had an actual death warrant.
However, the discovery of Erebus Grimshaw's soul file brought forth a massive concern. I have never encountered a soul, living or dead, past or present, named Erebus Grimshaw.
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Data Log DoD-012
Shorter chapter this week. Was helping my grandfather work on his suburban today. Also, the next scenes I have planned are long enough to be a chapter in and of themselves.
Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated. Feel free to leave ideas and recommendations for the future.
Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.
End Log S.T.K