Ephemeral Dream

Summary: Jaune Arc isn't strong, smart, or skilled. Even so, he dreams of a future in which he is a Huntsman. He dreams of friendship, combat, and love. But every dreamer must wake. "Not yet…" He whispered, tears of blood streaking down his cheeks. "I can't let this dream end… Until I've turned it to reality." Gamer Jaune!

Warnings: Crossovers, strong and smart Jaune, later quite OP. Possible Harem.

XVI: Ripper

"FUCK!" I screamed as I kicked a trash can. "FUCK! SHIT! CUNT! FUCK!"

I was angry.

No, scratch that.

I was livid.

I was in the fucking past!

Eight years in the god damn past!

More than that, I was in a time when Jack the Ripper was still on the streets and at large!

My only saving grace on that front was that Jack the Ripper only targeted women!

"Deep breaths Jaune, calm down…" I mumbled to myself, slowly taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. What I needed to do now was not panic, and think things through.

First and foremost, I couldn't be Jaune Arc in the past.

I didn't like time travel movies very much, but I knew being myself in the past was a bad idea. There shouldn't be a second Jaune Arc present, in case I ended up fucking up the timeline somehow.

I mean, I was probably going to be doing that anyway… But better I do it as someone else than Jaune Arc!

I opened up my store, scrolling down through the options until I found what I was looking for.

[Would you like to purchase Black Hair (Cosmetic) and Red Eyes (Cosmetic)?]

… God, I was going to look like such an edge lord.

[You have purchased Black Hair (Cosmetic) and Red Eyes (Cosmetic).]

I let out a small groan because of how edgy I was going to look, before I equipped them. I felt a small breeze rush through my hair, and a slight itching of my eyes, before it settled down.

I brought a lock of my short hair in front of my eyes…

Black.

"Well, good to know that worked…"

Still, I was weary… I couldn't change my facial structure, not that I knew, so there was too much leading me back to my younger self in case things went south.

That was when an idea hit me.

[The Black Sun in the Morning Sky]

Effect: Turns the Player's into Faunus (Dragon) while equipped.

I let out a small gasp as I felt an itching at the bottom of my back, before I heard a slithering sound. I looked back, seeing a long, black, draconic tail now coming out of me. I could even move it a little by concentrating.

Black hair, red eyes, and a faunus… The facial structure may be the same but nobody would even try to link me to Jaune Arc if I was walking around as a faunus.

Still, I couldn't be too cautious…

I purchased a coat from the store, a large one made of fur. I slipped it on, and sighed contently as I felt myself warming up in the cold Atlas weather. I brought the hood over my head, bringing it low to obscure my face from view, though my tail poked out the bottom of the coat.

Now, I needed a name…

The name 'Hei Long' jumped to my mind, but I immediately discarded it. Too obvious, and I didn't want to cause Tai's family worry with the name. It could fuck up the past if I did so.

I leaned against the wall, eyes closing as I tried to think of a good name to use…

As I thought, my mind drifted around the name of various gods in religions. In particular, one name stood out to me. One name called out to me, almost sang to me in a strange way.

Zeies; The God of Death.

"Not a colour…" I chuckled softly to myself. "But since when has stuff like that bothered me…" I pulled my hood over my head, glancing at the mini-map as I stepped out of the alley and began to make my way through town, storing my scroll in my inventory.

I needed a new scroll. I couldn't use my old one, in case my younger self got a call. I didn't know what would happen if two numbers existed in the same timeline, but I wasn't going to risk even the slightest chance of tipping anyone off that I could be Jaune Arc.

No, it was in my best interest to not be seen at all… A ghost, if I could be one.

As I made my way through the streets, I heard various whispers directed at me.

"Look… A filthy animal…"

"I can't believe they let that thing out of its cage..."

"Keep an eye on him, he's probably going to do something illegal…"

"Honestly, why don't they have all those filthy animals executed?"

I frowned as I heard their whispers while I walked down the street… I knew discrimination against Faunus was very bad in Atlas, but I didn't know it was so bad that they'd talk shit about any faunus walking down the street… Then again, I had to keep in mind this was also in the time of Jack the Ripper, meaning equality wasn't being pushed as hard yet. Jack the Ripper, after her capture, caused a lot of people to open their eyes and see the bigger picture, which led to pushes for equality.

Of course, people still pushed against Faunus rights in Atlas even now- such as Jacques Schnee- but, with the rest of the world starting to accept Faunus as a whole, Atlas was going to be forced to accept Faunus as having equal rights sooner rather than later.

I let out a sigh and shook my head as I entered a store to buy a new scroll.

"Welcome-!" A cheerful voice greeted right up until they saw my tail and scowled. "What are you doing in here, you filthy animal? Get out, I don't need you dirtying my store!"

"I need a scroll," I told him, keeping my face hidden by my hood.

"Didn't you hear me?" He snarled. "I said get out-!"

He was driven to silence when I pulled a fat wad of Lien out of my coat pocket and placed it down on the table. Easily five times what a scroll was actually worth.

"I said I need a scroll," I told him again. "Just give me the scroll, and this money is yours. None of it is illegally obtained, nobody is going to come trying to take it."

I saw him thinking about it, before he grunted and grabbed a scroll and put it on the desk, snatching the money away. "Take the scroll and get out, filthy animal," he snarled.

"Gladly," I snatched the scroll off the table and talked out of the store, filling the scroll with the bare amount of information needed. I also used Structural Analysis and Alteration on the scroll to change the GPS chip so that my scroll couldn't be tracked.

Call me paranoid if you must, but I was in a foreign land and a foreign time. I wasn't going to take any risks.

I brought up the news, checking out anything I should take note of, trying to figure out my purpose.

Kurumi sent me here for a reason, I knew that much. Whatever objective it was the System had set up for me, I had to start investigating just what I had to do somewhere.

'Right, let's see here… Jacques Schnee being a prick… Various racial propaganda… More Jacques Schnee being a prick… Atlas Academy Propaganda… Hm? News on Jack the Ripper…'

My eyes scoured the news article of Jack the Ripper. Despite being a serial murderer, I honestly felt bad for the girl, and I connected with her even more now that my own mother had tried to seal my own aura. I was lucky, I was blessed by the planet and thus healed.

Jack had no such fortune.

'Maybe I'm supposed to change that,' I thought to myself. 'Maybe I'm supposed to help her…?' I shook my head. 'No, I can't do that. If I change the past too much, I could end up destroying the future I know, which means I may not take the actions that lead me to becoming the person I am now… There must be something…'

I sighed and shook my head. If the game wanted me to know what I had to do, it would have told me from the start like it did in most quests. It was being cryptic and vague for a reason, and I would have to deal with that.

'Well, I have a scroll, and thus information, I suppose I should find a place to get some rest, and a place to train my flames… I'll need all the strength I can get…'

~~Ephemeral Dream~~

A week passed by before I knew it, and I was starting to get used to the racism, strange as that sounded.

Honestly, it was pretty tame compared to things I'd been called by bullies in the past, though I wasn't trying to understate how bad the racism was. I knew some people had to experience it their whole lives, which would no doubt mess up someone. Neo was a perfect example of that, not even willing to speak.

'Neo…' I sighed as I remembered the others as I looked at the news on my scroll.

How were they? How would they react when I got back? Would time have passed when I returned? Would Neo think I had abandoned her? Would Blake think I was ignoring her?

I let out a sigh and shook my head, telling myself to not be stupid. Of course, Yang and Ruby would explain the situation to everyone, and Miyuki would contact Blake to explain things.

Right now, I couldn't let myself be distracted with 'what ifs' or 'what will they thinks.' I just had to focus on what I could do right now, and not on anything else.

I did my best to train what abilities I could, deciding to primarily focus on using Storm Flames, though I trained my Sun Flames as well for the purposes of healing. Storm and Sky Flames were close enough to normal fire that people would believe I was using some kind of dust, and Storm Flames had the destructive force of normal flames, if a bit more exaggerated. My storm flames hit Level 43, and my sun flames were sitting at Level 31. Not quite on the level of my Sky Flames, but rapidly approaching

The place I'd found to stay was a run down, abandoned building that was, to put it simply, a fucking dump… But it was nothing my shadows couldn't clean up and make a bit bearable.

I also trained up reinforcement as high as I could, using mana potions whenever my MP ran dry to get it to Level Max so I could use it at full potential on my body.

I wasn't going to let something like pride of 'not wanting to be pay to play' cause me issues now. This was real life, not a game, despite what the system might make me believe. I wasn't going to risk my life any longer by not training as best I could.

Training it up also got my Magic Circuits Quality up to Level 74, meaning my Magecraft related spells were increased in efficiency and power by 74%.

In other words, it was fucking. Broken.

Honestly, at this point, I was just going to stop saying that. I'd already come to realise that, by the time I fulfilled whatever purpose the system had for me I was going to be the most broken son of a bitch in terms of raw power.

Though if anybody dared call me a Gary Stu, I would go full villain and burn this world to the ground, damn the consequences.

I let out a sigh as I left my temporary accommodations, making my way down the streets and ignoring the snide and rude comments being directed at me as I turned my focus to my scroll, looking for any information I could that would help me out.

I let out a mildly annoyed sigh as I found nothing… A week of looking, but it was all the same. Clearly, following the news in Atlas wasn't going to be doing me any favours. I should have known better, I supposed, worthless propaganda. Only letting the people see what they wanted them too.

The loud sound of police sirens in the distance caught my interest. I would have avoided it, were it not for the fact my intuition was going crazy…

'Come on, what's so important that I need to go there…?' I grumbled to myself mentally, before I took off towards the sirens through back alleys and the shadows in order to stay hidden. God, I should look into an invisibility cloak or something, make it easier to avoid people…

I soon arrived at the place where a bunch of police cars were piled up and…

Oh my god.

It was a bloody massacre.

Blood was fucking everywhere! On the buildings, covering the streets, the side walk, even some of the cars!

And, in the middle of the massacre, stood a young girl several years younger than me, with short silver hair and vicious pale green eyes. She wore very little, just a small black vest that showed off her midriff, thigh high black boots, and…

Was that a fucking thong?

I shook my head, focusing up as I took in more details of her appearance. Her body looked a fair bit malnourished; I could tell from how thin she was and the fact I could see her ribs. Her skin had a pale tint that spoke of little sun, and little food.

One of her arms was wrapped up in bandages, and she had a scar on her eye and a cross shaped one on her cheek.

I remembered it from the news highlights I saw years ago. That was a face I would never be able to forget for as long as I lived.

The face of Jack the Ripper.

'This must be the day they capture her then,' I thought to myself. I didn't remember the exact date she was captured, but I supposed this must have been it. There was nowhere else for her to run, after all.

'I guess I should just leave it…'

And then I saw.

I saw the twisted grins on the faces of the police as they loaded their guns.

I saw Jack's eyes go wide in complete terror as she realised what was about to happen, throwing her head back and screaming "MOMMY!"

I watched as the bullets tore through her flesh, pumping the young girl full of holes.

I watched as blood poured from her body, blank eyes staring into nothingness as she slowly collapsed on the ground, never to move again.

My eyes widened as I watched the cops loading their guns, ready to shoot her down, just like in my brief vision.

I watched Jack's eyes widen in fear, the girl throwing her head back and closing her eyes. "MOMMY!"

My body moved before I even realised it was.

I crashed down between the cops and the Serial Killer, wrapping my arms around her and holding her against my chest as the bullets splattered harmlessly against my back as my aura took care of the bullets.

"What the-!" One of the cops exclaimed in shock. "You! Who are you!?"

I ignored him, instead staring down at the young girl in my arms, who slowly looked up at me as she realised that she wasn't dead, and was instead pressed against me.

"… Mommy?" She asked.

"… No," I told her. "Not mommy… But a friend." I didn't know why I said that, but it felt right.

[You have forged a Friendship Bond with Jack.]

Her eyes lit up and she hugged me tighter, showing that my response was clearly a good answer.

"I won't ask you again!" The cop snapped. "Who are you?"

"… Who am I?" I intoned in a soft voice, my anger slowly bubbling. "Who are you to shoot down this girl, this child, with those twisted looks on your faces, not a hint of remorse for a girl who has suffered so?"

"That's no child, that's a monster!" The cop snapped. "Now move! Your aura can't last forever! If you get in the way, we'll gun you down too, you filthy animal!"

Usually, I was able to keep fairly calm, able to keep my head clear in a decent number of situations.

Right now, was not one of those times

Right now, I knew only anger and rage.

Even knowing the atrocities that the girl in my arms committed, she was still just a child. An emotionally scarred child who just wanted someone to love her.

And they would gun her down? They would erase her, uncaring of her side of the story, uncaring of the pain and suffering she had gone through at the hands of others?

I let the rage swell up within me, envelop me, consume me, fuelled by my disgust.

If they wanted a monster…!

[You have found your resolution.]

Then I would inflict despair upon them!

[Due to finding your resolution, you have unlocked 'Flames of Night.']

My eyes were locked on the ground and an inky blackness began to spread from my body. It wasn't like the arrival of my shadows, but it was no less ominous to witness.

[Due to your anger and hatred, Flames of Night will begin at Level 25.]

"W- What the hell…?" I heard a policewoman murmur with fear in her voice.

"Jack," I said softly. "Stay behind me. I'm going to deal with the meanies behind me, okay?"

"Okay!" She said cheerfully, nodding at my words.

I slowly turned around to face the cops, quickly bringing up the skill list and speed reading the information for the Flames of Night.

[Flames of Night – Rank D – Lv. 25]

Dying Will Flames of the Night. A unique flame created by a bitter and hate filled man, but obtainable by those who possess great anger and hatred. Flames of Night possess the factor of 'Transportation.' They can also be used to augment the user's physical abilities. The more powerful the will, the more intensely the flames burn.

"You wanted to know who I am, didn't you?" I asked softly, glaring at them from beneath the shadow of my hood. "I am a man who seeks true justice, true fairness in this world. I am a man who seeks a world where nobody is punished for acts that are ultimately not their fault… I am the man who will lead you corrupt cops to your deaths.

"My name is Zeies."

I placed a hand on the ground as the inky blackness rushed across the ground, coiling around all the cops.

I knew I would regret what I was about to do later…

But right now, I simply couldn't find it within myself to care.

I clenched my fist.

Squelch!

The screams of the cops died down instantly.

The inky blackness faded away, causing blood to splatter down on the street with not even bones left, and screams to echo all around as the civilians realised the reality of what was happening.

They all ran, not wanting to be anywhere near the scene of this crime.

I slowly turned back to Jack. "Would you like to come with me?" I asked her gently.

She nodded rapidly. "Mhm!"

I held a hand to the side, visualising my hideout in my mind, before the Flames of Night drifted from my hand, creating an inky black portal.

I stepped through with Jack, the portal snapping shut behind us.

~~Ephemeral Dream~~

The two of us stepped out the other side, and I flopped down onto the couch as Jack looked around with awe on her face now that we were back in the building that I'd commandeered.

"This is where you live?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yes, yes, it is. Now, Jack, I'd like you to sit with me," I pat the spot beside me.

"Okay!" She chirped and sat beside me.

… Yeah, I couldn't do this. "Are you cold at all, Jack?"

"Mm, kind of," she admitted. "We couldn't find any skirts or pants that felt comfortable…"

'We?'

How fractured was her psyche that she referred to herself as 'we?'

"I'll get you a comfortable pair," I promised her. "For now…" I opened up the store, buying a fur coat like mine and removing it from my inventory. "For now, wear this."

Her eyes lit up in awe as I pulled the coat from seemingly nowhere. "Wow! How did you do that, Mr Zeies?"

"Let's just say I'm very talented," I offered her the coat, which she took and wrapped around herself.

She sighed happily. "It's so warm! Like a mother's warmth…" I saw a slightly psychotic glint enter her eyes.

'Woah, gotta distract her.'

"Jack, I'd like to see if I can unseal your aura," I said to her. "Will you let me?"

She tilted her head as she stared at me. "Mmm? But mommy told us that we'd never be able to unlock our aura…"

"I just want to try, is that okay?"

"Okay!" She smiled.

"I want you to tell me right away if it hurts, okay?"

She nodded at me.

I placed one hand on her shoulder and another on her cheek and closed my eyes.

"For it is in passing-"

Jack immediately began screaming and I wretched my arms away from her instantly, quickly hugging her and whispering comforting things as she clung to me, whimpering in my arms.

Right, sealed aura couldn't be unlocked again so easily… I supposed there was a rule that it could only be unlocked by the person who sealed it in the first place. Of course, Jack's mother was dead, which left that out of the question.

"I'm sorry, Jack," I said to her softly. "I didn't know that would hurt you so much."

"I- It's fine," she whimpered softly, holding onto me tighter.

I nodded, buying an elixir from the store. They were a hefty 500,000 gold coins each, but they apparently healed all status conditions. I was hoping that 'Sealed Aura' was classified as one.

"Drink this," I offered it to her. "It will make you feel better."

She took it, and I watched as she drank it down slowly. The effect was immediate, as I saw some colour return to her pale face. I could also see that her stomach seemed to fill up a bit more, her ribs no longer visible like they had been before.

'So, her malnourishment was lost,' I noted. Good first step, it healed her physically. I doubted it would heal her mentally, she'd need a proper therapist for that one… But would it let me unlock her aura?

I didn't want to try again right away yet, purely because of the sheer agony that had been in Jack's voice when I attempted to unlock her aura like that.

"Wow, that tasted yummy," Jack said with a smile as she finished off the elixir. "Really, really yummy! We feel so much better now, Mr Zeies!"

"No need for Mr, just call me Zeies," I told her. "Or big brother, if it makes you more comfortable."

Her eyes lit up. "Big brother? We've never had a big brother before!" She held onto me tighter, rubbing her face against my chest. "Big brother! Big brother Zeies! Mm! It feels nice to call you that!"

I was somewhat surprised by how quickly and happily she decided to call me that, but I wasn't too shocked. My charisma was half way to being full, so it was natural that I'd end up drawing people towards me.

As Jack cuddled against me, I began to think on just what I was going to do from here.

I never remembered any news of Jack the Ripper having an accomplice but, then again, I never really paid attention to the news about Atlas, more focused on the news in Vale and Patch, and news about hunters in general. Jack's aura was sealed, meaning she was a civilian problem rather than a Hunter problem, so I skimmed over articles about her.

Not to mention, my parents hid the darker stuff on the news from the younger members of the family. If Jack did have an accomplice, there was no way I'd have heard of it without actively looking for it.

I gently ran my fingers through Jack's hair, making the girl hum happily as I did so, lost in my thoughts.

For the first time since I obtained my powers, I really and truly didn't have an answer for what I should do…

Well, regardless, the quest didn't have a time limit. So, for now, I would look after Jack and make sure she was happy.

The poor girl had been through enough as it was.

I BET YOU FUCKS DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING!

This chapter is several months in the making and- I think it's shit. I'm honestly not happy with this chapter at all, and I personally feel like it was rushed, but I honestly was running dry on inspiration and just wanted to end this chapter so I could move on and continue with the story.

Honestly am just happy that this chapter is fucking over and done with, hopefully the next one will be out sooner... Buuuut I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

No review responses this time, it's currently early in the morning and I need some more sleep.

So until next time, this is Ezras Hargrave signing off!