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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 15: No Answers, More Questions
The home of Qrow Branwen was a small estate nestled in a forest clearing, some ways outside Vale. It was a small family sized home with a shed for storing firewood behind the building. Qrow Branwen himself, watching Ozpin and myself in my disguise approach. The huntsman leaned against his weapon. A large broadsword with evenly placed slits running the length of the blade. The cross guard was just a little too bulky, and the blade itself just a little too thick for it to be an ordinary blade.
Personally, I much prefer more classical weapons with a single form to the standard fair of mechashift weapons that most huntsmen and huntresses use. Thine End only has one form. As does Ruby's scythe, Death's Thorn, and Keira's, Execution. It was interesting to note the cluster of throwing knives on a belt attached to Qrow's left leg.
"Ozzy." Qrow greeted the headmaster. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? And who's your friend?"
"I'd hardly call him a friend." Oz protested. "No offense."
"None taken." I replied. "Only fools and the ignorant call me a friend."
"He is the one I told with information regarding Raven." Ozpin said, turning to Qrow.
"That's what I figured, doesn't tell me who he is." Qrow responded.
"You can call me R." I answered him.
"R? That short for something?" Qrow questioned.
"Yes." I replied. "Are you going to invite us in to talk, or are we just going to stand around wasting time?"
"I don't know. Wasting time seems like a good idea." Qrow retorted with a smirk.
I frowned. "Funny. I almost forgot to laugh."
"Alright, alright. No need to be testy." Qrow said and beckoned us to enter.
The inside of his house was surprisingly nice. We entered into a furnished living room and followed Qrow through to his dining room. I took note of the inside of the building. Now, Ruby doesn't remember much of Qrow from before I took her in. But what she did remember was that Qrow Branwen was a drunk, a womanizer and a bit of a slob. Of course, when she was young, she didn't know for certain… or at all, but hindsight is twenty/ twenty, so they say. And Ruby does have some memories for her youth. But the inside of his house surprised me. For one it was clean, well furnished, and showed evidence of a small family living in the house for some time.
A staircase lead up to the second story of the building. On the wall below the staircase were a smattering of pictures. Most of the earliest pictures only showed Qrow and Yang. The earliest image I could find was one of Qrow, Taiyang, Yang, and Summer Rose smiling, while Summer held a baby Ruby. I smiled at the framed image. A small note was written on the corner. The scrawl was rather messy, and slightly smudged.
It read: 'I won't forget any of you. I'm sorry I wasn't there.'
I moved past the family picture and continued to inspect each picture. They were standard family pictures. However, there were several pictures that included a woman who looked shockingly familiar. She had a wild head of red hair, a belt of throwing knives around her waist, and a manic gleam in her eyes that certainly resembled a few people I know. Keira and Ruby used to both get similar manic gleams whenever War would begin the instruction of new weapon arts with them. Overall, the family looked happy.
"That's Minerva." Ozpin spoke up from behind me.
"Girlfriend?" I questioned.
"Wife." Ozpin corrected. "They met about a year after Ruby vanished. Married another two years later."
"They seem happy." I muttered as we entered the dining room.
"Can I get you anything to drink? We got water, coffee, beer…" Qrow questioned as Oz and I sat down.
"I'm fine." I responded.
"I'll-" Ozpin began.
"Coffee, no sugar, some cream." Qrow interrupted. "I know."
Qrow brought over the coffee for Ozpin and a bottle of beer for himself. I noted that it was a light beer.
"So, what'd you find?" Qrow asked.
"An anomaly." I answered.
Qrow merely raised an eyebrow and gestured for me to continue.
"Before that though, there are some things you need to know. I work with an agency that monitors and records the souls of aura users of Remnant." I lied. "My semblance is uniquely suited to my job. You see, whenever I interact with a person in any way, whether that be meeting them personally, or simply seeing them across the street, a file is created that details important information regarding the aura. These soul files are catalogued and stored."
"And what is your agency's purpose?" Qrow asked with a glare.
"To find and eliminate soul thieves." I lied again."
"Ok, and what does this have to do with Raven?" Qrow asked.
"This." I slapped a folder on the table. "The relevant information is in there. The first page is taken from Raven's soul file, with only the relevant information. You'll find a date of birth, date of death, aura unlocked date, semblance information, and the status of her soul. For our purposes, I have censored most of the information that we know. The second page is the anomaly."
Qrow opened the file and began to read.
"There's an error here." Qrow said. "According to this, and correct me if I'm wrong, Raven died about a month before we were initiated into Beacon."
"Really?" I asked, as Qrow handed the paper to Ozpin.
"He's right." Ozpin confirmed looking over the paper. "According to this, Raven Branwen died one month and nine days before she was initiated into Beacon."
"And this second one is even stranger." Qrow said. "According to this, Raven didn't unlock her aura until sometime after she graduated."
"Impossible." Ozpin spoke up. "I remember your team, Raven was alive, well and had an unlocked aura when you all attended Beacon."
"Not impossible." I countered. "I believe someone has found a way to mimic souls. Identity theft of the soul, if you will. That's the only explanation that I can think of."
"Or your files are wrong." Qrow countered.
"Could it not be a filing error?" Ozpin questioned.
"Not possible." I spoke. "For one, my semblance is infallible when it comes to these. For another, one person simply does not generate two distinct separate files. I wouldn't have originally brought this up, but from the information that I haven't presented, you should know that it matches in both files, save for one or two lines."
"And how do I know I can trust you?" Qrow asked.
"You have so far, but you can't know for certain." I replied.
"However, I can vouch for R's integrity. You can trust what he says is real." Ozpin said.
"How?" Qrow asked.
"He knows of my immortality." Ozpin answered.
A moment of silence stretched between the three of us.
"So…" Qrow hesitated. "I never actually went to school with Raven?"
"It would appear not." I answered.
Qrow sighed deeply. He got up and walked back into his kitchen. A moment later he returned with a bottle of whiskey. He didn't even bother to pour a glass. Qrow simply opened the bottle and took a long swig of the strong drink.
"Holy crap." He said, putting the bottle down. "My sister has been since before Beacon and I didn't even know it. I've only got Minerva and Yang."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking back up. I could see grief in his eyes.
"What about your other niece, Ruby?" Ozpin asked.
"She's alive?" Qrow asked, hopeful yet disbelieving.
"Yang didn't tell you?" Ozpin questioned. "They're teammates at Beacon."
"I have to go…" Qrow started.
I swiftly stopped him.
"Mr. Branwen, I am not quite done with you. I understand your eagerness to see your long-lost niece, but this must be taken care of." I stopped him.
"What else do you want to know?" Qrow asked.
"I want to know what exactly happened to Raven Branwen." I answered.
He was annoyed, but he still sat back down.
"What can I say? Two months before initiation she said she had business to take care of. Raven never told me what it was, where she was going, or even how long she'll be. I never worried, because she was strong. Two months later she shows up for initiation at Beacon academy." Qrow answered.
"So… it was business as usual as far as you knew?" Ozpin asked.
"Mostly." Qrow answered, taking another swig of whiskey. "There were some odd things during our time at Beacon regarding Raven. I did notice that she was different. Not physically, but how she acted."
"Care to elaborate?" I prodded.
"Well… if she was dead and someone really did take her place, then it would explain certain… things. You would never have known about them unless you grew up with her." Qrow said.
"Like you?" I stated.
"Yes." Qrow said. "The first thing I noticed was that she was… softer. Growing up, Raven was a bit of a hard ass. At Beacon, she wasn't. She smiled more; she was relatively friendly. But every so often, the Raven I remembered would show up. She was immensely private, and had a burning rage that only Taiyang could ever match."
"Any other oddities?" I prodded.
"Probably the strangest, she slept with Taiyang." Qrow answered.
"That was strange?" Ozpin asked. "I had assumed that she loved and married him."
"That was the story he came up with for Yang's benefit." Qrow replied. "The Raven I grew up with would never have married Taiyang Xiao Long, nor even slept with him."
"And you can say that for certain?" I asked.
"Raven always believed that romance and love were for the weak." Qrow answered.
"If that's the case, then is there anything you know about the night she slept with Taiyang?" I asked. "Not necessarily the intercourse but her actions leading up to it."
"Why do you want to know?" Qrow asked.
"If we know about the woman who masqueraded as your sister for five or six years, we might be able to find her." I answered.
An awkward silence fell upon us.
"I only know what Tai told me after the fact." Qrow relented. "According to him, she showed up and was incredibly frustrated, somewhat angry, and drunk. He talked with her for a bit, next thing he knows, Raven is making out with him, clothes start flying off, and the rest is history. He always thought Raven was rather impulsive."
"An oddity for you sister, I presume?" I questioned.
"Indeed." Qrow confirmed. "Raven never drank and was anything but impulsive."
I sighed and closed the folder.
"Do you have any questions?" I asked.
"Lot's." Qrow asked. "First and foremost, though, who is Yang's actual mother?"
"I don't know. I hope to find out soon." I responded. "I'll tell you when I get an answer."
Another moment of silence passed.
"Is that all?" Qrow asked eventually.
"Unfortunately, yes." I responded. "If I find anything more, I will be sure to return."
Qrow nodded and rapidly prepared to make his exit. With a tired sigh I exited the man's home and walked into the forest. Once I was out of sight, I portaled home. Ozark was waiting for me in my study when I arrived. He didn't say anything as I sat down behind my desk with another frustrated sigh.
"I take it that you didn't learn anything?" Ozark asked.
"I learned a little. But most of what I learned was already known." I answered. "But I did learn a little about Raven Branwen's replacement. Apparently, she was softer, more impulsive, and mimicked the original Raven rather well."
"That's not much to go on." Joseph responded.
"I also got a date range for when the mimic could have taken over. The actual Raven Branwen, if the soul files say what I think they say, had soul stolen one month and nine days before she was initiated into Beacon academy." I replied.
"Do you think Grimshaw got her?" Ozark asked.
"Probably. According to Qrow, Raven Branwen, like Summer Rose, was just not someone who would easily be caught off guard. A soul thief would unbalance most anyone." I replied.
"So, what now?" Ozark asked.
"I… don't know. Take the librarian and see if you can find any more anomalies, either soul thief or otherwise." I commanded.
"And if we find something that matches the data given by Raven's mimic?" Ozark questioned.
"Inform me immediately." I said.
"And what do you plan to do?" Ozark asked.
"Rest, for now. Then I follow the threads these other files reveal." I answered.
If you haven't figured it out yet, my day was not going well. Ruby's day was progressing as per the usual. Much better than mine. I will admit that her life at Beacon seemed rather easy and I was jealous.
This particular day started off with a standard combat lesson. As had become routine, Glynda would regularly have two or more students spar at one time and inform them of what they were doing wrong in terms of their fighting styles. Not necessarily the method that War or I employed with the girls, but it worked… mostly.
Good evidence to the contrary of Glynda's style of teaching just so happened to be in the ring right now. Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR, was facing off with Cardin Winchester, and Jaune was failing miserably. Ruby told me that Jaune almost looked like a child swinging a toy around with how little technique there was to his style. Admittedly though, Cardin wasn't much better. He preferred to just brute force his way through any defenses. Good against opponents like Jaune, not so against opponents like Ruby.
Skill triumphs over brute force.
After the class, Ruby and her team made their way to the cafeteria for lunch. They were soon joined by the aforementioned team JNPR.
"Ruby, girls." Ren greeted as he and the rest of his team sat down.
"Team JNPR." Ruby greeted in kind. "What brings you over?"
"We wanted to sit with friends." Nora said.
Ruby shrugged and returned to her meal and her practice with calling forth her power. Pyrrha and Ren interacted with Ruby's team while Nora prattled on about a dream she had. Jaune just played with his food.
Eventually, Pyrrha noticed a look of intense concentration on Ruby's face.
"Ruby, what are you doing?" Pyrrha asked.
"Trying to call my power." Ruby answered vaguely.
"What?" Pyrrha asked.
"Here, watch. My sister helped me last night." Ruby said.
She took a deep breath and released a quick, shrill, whistle. It wasn't particularly loud, so no one really heard it over the din of conversation in the cafeteria. And those that did hear it were either unbothered or Blake. The rest of Ruby's team and team JNPR watched as Ruby's eyes once more began to glow silver as they had the night before. Not as intense as when she tore into Weiss, but still noticeable. She whistled again, Blake flinched, and the glow vanished.
"What was that?" Nora asked. "And you I do that?"
"Probably not." Ruby answered. "And that was me calling on my… semblance… yeah."
"What is your semblance?" Pyrrha asked.
"So far, glowing eyes." Ruby answered.
"It's more intense than you might think." Weiss interjected.
"Ice Queen has a point." Yang said. "Glowstick is scary when her eyes go all white."
"Glowstick? Really?" Ruby questioned.
"What else am I gonna call you?" Yang asked.
"My name?" Ruby suggested.
A moment of silence passed. Nora broke it. She really isn't one for silence.
"Are you okay, fearless leader?" Nora asked.
"What?" Jaune questioned.
"She asked if you were ok." Pyrrha repeated.
"A rather pointless question, if you ask me." Ruby stated.
"How so?" Ren asked.
"Because it is very obvious that he's not okay." Ruby replied. "Why else would he be having a staring contest with his lunch?"
"She makes a good point." Yang said. "Is it Cardin?"
"Cardin?" Jaune repeated. "Naw, he's just joking around."
"Jaune, we've been here for barely two weeks and Cardin is very obviously bullying you." Wiess said.
"No, he isn't." Jaune denied.
"Jaune, he knocks your books out of your hands all the time, he purposely trips you up, insults you almost as much as the faunus, and let's not forget him stuffing you in a locker and launching it our third day here." Ren countered.
"That was you?" Ruby said. "I wondered what that was about. But Ren is right. You're weak and Cardin knows it."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Jaune replied, his gaze dropping lower.
"I mean, it's not that hard a problem to fix." Ruby stated.
"Then how do you fix it?" Jaune questioned.
"Fight back." Yang said.
"I asked Ruby." Jaune said.
"But Yang is right." Ruby replied. "He'd be less likely to pick on you if you started fighting back… or that might just paint a target on you…"
"Either way, if he fought back, at least he'd be defending himself." Yang said.
"Unlike her." Ruby stated pointing across the room.
They all looked to where Ruby was pointing. Several of them scowled as they saw Cardin pulling on the ear of a faunus girl with rabbit ears. She was pleading with him to stop, but Cardin and his friends just laughed and pulled harder.
"Someone should help her." Blake growled.
"Probably, but ask yourself, why doesn't she help herself?" Ruby said. "After all, she wasn't one of the students on stage during orientation, so I believe that it's safe to say that she's an upperclassman."
"What's your point?" Jaune asked.
"The point is that she should know how to fight and be strong enough to fight off that ass easily. Right?" Yang responded.
"Exactly. By not fighting, she's basically telling Cardin that he can get away with bullying her because she won't do anything about it." Ruby continued.
"But she's a faunus and he's a human." Blake countered.
"And that matters… why?" Ruby asked.
"Cardin could easily construe it as Velvet assaulting him. Courts would take his side." Blake said.
"Velvet is the bunny girl, yes?" Ruby asked.
"Yes." Blake confirmed.
"To answer that, they probably wouldn't. Velvet and Cardin are both in training to combat the Grimm. The courts wouldn't side with either and say it was more likely a sparring match. Then the case would be let go and nothing would change." Weiss answered.
"Maybe she's afraid that it would reflect badly on the rest of the faunus." Blake tried.
"Maybe, but that's pretty bad reasoning. The actions of one shouldn't be the brush that paints over all. Besides, I don't think I'd trust someone to watch my back when they won't stand up on their own." Ren countered.
"I agree with Ren." Ruby said as she finished her meal.
"So, what do you want me to do?" Jaune asked.
"Get help." Ruby replied. "It's pretty obvious that you don't know how to fight. I don't think your team would have any problems with helping you out. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to practice activating my semblance some more."
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Data Log DoD-015
Last week I was helping my grandfather get a load of firewood. Next week I'll be helping out at a youth camp that has no internet access. So, there won't be an update next week. Is having 2 consecutive Saturdays free too much to ask?
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.