Notes: Been stalled on writing out the other fanfic, so here's this one. Lemme know how it is. Warning, this Hide is gonna seem a bit overpowered at first. She's an unknown for now
"If you do this, you'll never be able to come back.. You'll be a new seal that locks him away.. You understand that, yes?"
A woman wearing the mask of a snarling monster asked, her voice tinged with worry. Despite her own distrust of Yokai, she already knew the answer..
The woman in question nodded, eyes closed as she kneeled with a purple horn in hand. Her hair, once a burning red, had slowly faded to be mostly grey. While her friends were nearly their elderly age, her own face was closer to a woman in their thirties. Her almond colored skin had no blemishes beyond the scars from years of combat. But her most eye-catching feature was the horns on her head, massive crystal antlers that were impossible to ignore.
Opening her eyes, slit pupils surrounded by glowing blue looked at her friend.. Before smiling.
"Going to miss me, Mumyo? A shame you never got that second shot against me.."
Mumyo scoffed, moving to the door. Soon, the temple would be sealed again.. And she would be gone forever, feelings left unsaid.
"And waste my time finding another Shiftling? At least you're easy to convince.."
Hide only smirked in response, drawing the Sohayamaru from the scabbard on her back. With merely a thought, the Amrita grew brighter until the Seven Branced Sword was held in hand. Taking a deep breath, she raised the blade and slammed it into the horn.
Her vision erupted into stars, pain coursing through her as the repressed rage and sorrow of Otakemaru threatened to overwhelm the Shiftling. Memories of her own life suffusing her in agony.. But remembering her friend, even as he died in her arms, that damn monkey.. Tokichiro.. Was enough to force them back. She remembered when they first met, how he saved her from losing herself…
Otakemaru soon found his own will suppressed, until he was sealed within Hide's own body..
Soon, sleep overtook her.. And the dreams began.
In another time, another world.. A man who lived many lives was stirred from his musing in his clockwork tower, his skin prickling at the known-yet-unfamilar sense of the world shifting.. Magic, a spell of previously long forgotten power. The balance of power has just shifted radically, and he knew that it was nothing that his foe could use without obvious preparation..
Pressing a button on his deso, he spoke into a secure line..
"Qrow, I need you to investigate Anima.. Something has changed.."
Ozpin closed the message off and sipped his coffee, now awake and aware of how things could turn for the worst… he prayed this would not bode ill.