Hello all you Boils and Ghouls!
I'm so glad that the last chapter was so successful despite how rushed it was. I'd also like to give a BIG shout-out to Swift56 and Timeless Dreamer Neo for all the support and help they've given me in making this story. That being said, there was some confusion going around so I'll clear the air before I move on to questions.
"Lucy, you've got some 'splainin' to do!" is a reference to an old 50's tv show called "I Love Lucy" where the main character, Lucy, usually did something that messes up everyone's day and the husband calls her out on it by saying "Alright, 'splain'" or something similar; though the actual quote never came from the show. Lucy is not Dichro's actual name. Speaking of Dichro, the color theme behind it is that Dichro is short for dichromatic which means representing or having two colors. Ergo, his alias helps blend in with everyone around him.
Now that we have all of that cleared up, let's start on the questions.
The Mind Master, Dichro WILL have a Semblance of his own but he needs to have his aura unlocked first. He WILL be getting a weapon that he can use outside of his Kamen Rider forms as well, but giving him the Gashacon Bugvisor is too dangerous; the Parabragun is going to be his weapon as Perfect Knock-out - I am not changing that for anything. As for leveling up, he will have a difficult time as he will be cut off from all Grimm so his leveling will be... halted... to some extent.
Tobi, I am not ENTIRELY sure what the Puzzle Barrier is; I tried looking it up and couldn't find it... If you mean the puzzle piece shield then that will come much later as he's still not able to figure out how to actually play the games. Also, level 55 will be the absolute max he will go in either form though level 50 will be the absolute minimum he needs to become Perfect Knock-out. I'm throwing around ideas about the Gashats but nothing is set in stone. As for averting cannon... Well, you have to remember he's already done that so there's no going back anymore.
Raidentensho... Unfortunately I am STILL up in the air with other Kamen Riders being brought into the story save for those from Ex-Aid, and even then I'm still trying to throw ideas around. As for the recover power-up... Well that would solve things a little TOO easily, now wouldn't it? XD
Ride player hary, they can TRY to use it but, with Dichro guarding it 24/7, they won't get the chance; and no he won't act like that psycho, but he will gain some rather silly quirks. As for the bugsters, that's too far ahead to worry about for now.
And with the questions done and out of the way, it's time to start a new chapter in the story of The Paradox of Remnant! I own nothing but Dichro and his alias.
)-Legend-(
"Yo!" - Speaking
'Is he an idiot?' - Thinking
"Dearest love," - Reading
"Kaishin no Ippatsu!" - Specials
)-Third Person PoV-(
With everything that had been going on, one would have assumed that having such a name would have been... 'normal'... But if one were to ask a certain headmaster at Beacon, his reply would have been that the name was 'too' normal to be coincidental. 'What are you playing at, Mr. Spectrum...?' the stoic professor asked in his thoughts as he continued to eye the stranger up and down. His clothes looked to be roughly worn as if he had spent the last few days in the forest and his body had slight scratches on it reminiscent of those found when someone without aura tried to forage or harvest plants; that meant this 'child' wasn't even a hunter-in-training. His hair also twitched every second or so despite there not being any wind; an odd trait for someone, even a faunus. Then came the matter of how he had single handedly dispatched that Nevermore; a rather large one at that. If he had no aura, then it wouldn't be his semblance he used. Last to note was his size... or in the poor boy's case...
A lack thereof...
Though he had a slightly muscular frame, his diminuitive stature more than made up as it's own weakness. If one had to guess, the aforementioned 'Dichro' would only be up to Yang's torso. He would have been easy bait for the Grimm had he remained in his humanoid form...
"Dichro... Spectrum..." Ozpin stated slowly as he nodded but before he could speak up, Yang interrupted him. "Wow, you are REALLY short!" she teased as she walked up to him.
"HEY! I AM NOT SHORT! EVERYONE ELSE IS JUST TOO DAMN TALL!"
"Hey, now; calm down..." she said calmly, despite flinching at his yelling. "Besides, you look cuter when you're small enough to put on my lap." Dichro simply harumphed as he crossed his arms and looked away with his cheeks puffed out. 'Well jeez, I thought only Ice Queen did that,' Yang thought to herself, 'Must be a hot head thing...'
"You know what they say - hehehe- BIG things come in TINY packages! Hehehehe!" Nora giggled out. This prompted both parties to blush scarlet they glared at the pink-loving hammer wielder until a cough from the headmaster caught their attention.
"Very well, you are to come with us as well." Dichro tilted his head before asking sarcastically, "So I take it this is the part where you tell me I have the right to remain silent?"
"You are 'not' under arrest, Mr. Spectrum..." Glynda answered before giving him a stern glare and continuing, "You ARE, however, an unknown factor that needs to be removed." At this, Dichro threw his hands up at them, shaking his open palms as if in a mocking tone as he called out, "Oh HELL no, you ain't gonna kill me!" His reaction prompted a literal facepalm from Weiss before she said, "You idiot! She means you need to leave the Emerald Forest."
"Oh..." was his only reply before turning to Glynda once more. "Well why didn't you say that in the first place?! Let's go." He walked up to the Bullhead before a riding crop stopped him. Glynda merely looked at Weiss before Dichro slapped his forehead. "Oh, right; Elsa over there's still injured."
"Elsa?" Weiss repeated in confusion before asking, "What kind of name is that?"
"The name of a literal queen of ice, though nowhere near as 'cold' a personality as you." Dichro answered as he smirked. Poor Yang was snickering her head off trying to keep her laughter under control while Blake simply pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Oh Oum, there's two of them..."
"In any case... Professor Goodwitch, if you could retreive Ms. Schnee so that Ms. Rose and Mr. Spectrum can board the Bullhead?" Ozpin requested before Yang practically stormed up to him. "Hey, hold on a minute!" she called out to the man, "I'm not letting you just take Ruby away without dragging me with her; she did nothing wrong."
"Ms. Xiao Long! You WILL adhere to the rules of conduct when addressing the headmas-" Glynda started to rant before Ozpin's reply to her stopped her.
"I had no intentions of doing so, Ms. Xiao Long."
Glynda and everyone present, save for Dichro, simply stared at the man in shock before he continued. "You are, afterall, direct family to Ms. Rose and as such are entitled to join us. And Ms. Belladonna, seeing as you are Ms. Xiao Long's partner, you'll be allowed to accompany us as well... The rest of you, however, will find there is hardly enough space as it is and will have to find your way back to Beacon on your own."
"Well... Alright, I guess," Jaune said as he grabbed the golden Rook piece from it's pedestal, "See you guys back at the cliff?" At that, the girls of the future team RWBY nodded as they got into the Bullhead with Weiss being carried onboard by Glynda.
)-First Person PoV-(
That first introduction... could have gone better...
I mean I'm not without fault, mind you, but Yang didn't have to call me fraggin' short! That's the main reason it hit me so hard; my favorite character just called me short...
Just friggin' peachy...
I was the last to climb aboard the Bullhead and found it to be... rather plain. I had never seen the inside of any aircraft, in all honesty, but it just was all different shades of gray with very dark gray seats along the walls of the craft. Weiss had been secured between Ruby and Ozpin on one side of the craft while across from them Yang and Blake sat with an empty seat next to Blake. While I was initially upset that I couldn't sit by Yang, I knew this was going to be my chance at figuring out what all went wrong for her to not hide her faunus side. After I took my seat and strapped myself in, Ozpin signaled for Glynda to take off as the latch closed by itself. While they were soft sounding compared to some of the noises I've heard aircraft make in videos, I could still hear the engines come to life as we lifted off. A little while passed before I got the courage to sate my curiosity as I turned to Blake ready to ask my question, but was halted as Weiss beat me to the punch with a question of her own. "So Blake," she began, "How DID you know about that Grimm that attacked me and Ruby? Or the fact that one such Grimm attacked a Schnee Dust Company cargo train?"
The faunus girl looked at Weiss for a moment before looking down in shame as she replied, "... Because I was there when it attacked..."
"That's impossible!" the heiress interrupted, "The only way you would have been there was if either you were part of the guard forces OR..."
"I was there... to hijack the train..."
Everyone save for me and Ozpin looked to Blake in shock. Ozpin remained stoic as usual whereas I looked at her in pity knowing she would have to do this eventually; otherwise, they can't trust her if she isn't open enough to speak of her past, but talking about it must not be easy.
"I was a part of the White Fang, since way back when I was little," Blake said as she began her tale, "I was there at every rally and every boycott the White Fang held... Back then, the White Fang were more peaceful... But that was before their leader stepped down, and a more violent one took his place... That's when the White Fang turned from peaceful protests to more violent methods..." The girls listened on with rapt attention whereas Ozpin and I merely nodded. "We resorted to stealing from those that had wronged us and attacking everyone that went against us... And you know what the worst part is?"
"It was working."
Everyone looked at me in shock before I had realized what I had said. Trying to save face, I quickly replied, "Well you have to admit, fear is a pretty good deterrent."
"But that's exactly the problem; it isn't out of respect - its out of fear," Blake interjected as she continued, "Eventually, the White Fang started targeting cargo supplies like the Cargo train I was sent to hijack. Me and my ex-partner, Adam Taurus, were sent to take the train and we nearly succeeded... But I was ready to stop the violence; to leave Adam and the White Fang behind... I was ready to cut the cargo loose from the engine..."
"But that's when the Grimm attacked... isn't it?" the heiress asked. I couldn't tell exactly what was going on in her head, but I could definitely see that ol' Snow White was pushing something back.
Blake nodded before she continued her story. "They came in droves as they launched themselves onto the the train engine trying to get inside. I tried to get on top of the engine when I heard the connection between the dust carts and the engine itself break. That's how I saw Adam standing there - just smirking at me as the train pulled away... I fought off as many as I could when some... thing... attacked the engine itself and knocked it clear off the rails; that flung me off the train entirely.."
"What happened?" Ruby asked... Poor girl's curiosity will get her killed if she doesn't curb it soon - if not lose her innocence before then...
"After I recovered, I saw it..." was the faunus girl's reply, her face becoming one of someone who had seen a Nightmare come to life. "A Grimm with two sickle blades on each arm... Armor covering it's entire thorax... Mandables that were ready to rip flesh to shreds... But the part that I will NEVER forget were it's eyes... Large, angry orange eyes that always followed you no matter where you were."
I stared at her in wide-eyed shock as she described the beast. It couldn't be... She fought the Kamakiri that I killed? And then those Grimm... If what she said was true, then I found out where the Grimm in the Emerald Forest went... I was disturbed from my thoughts as she continued.
"I tried to fight it... I tried to fend it off and make it retreat, but it was too fast even for my semblance... I tripped and that was all it needed before it..." she stopped as she gripped the seat's armrests clearly upset by whatever happened.
"It got you... didn't it..." I didn't so much ask as I had stated that happened. She didn't even look at me or respond as she simply nodded. That got me to thinking just when did all this happen? I got my answer when she finally continued.
"I woke up in a hospital the next day... The doctors told me I was the epitome of luck since I would be able to walk and do what I was able to without any negative effects... The only downside was a scar that I would always carry... After I was released, I had been brought to the authorities because of my affiliation with the White Fang and interrogated for information. They told me that in light of what I had done and the fact that I was ready to leave them that my sentence would be 4 years imprisonment with no chance of parol... Professor Ozpin came up to me by the time they told me this and gave me an ultimatum; spend those years in jail or spend it where I had intended to - at Beacon Academy, learning to become a huntress to help people, with the stipulation that I am not allowed to leave the premises without any member of my future team. You can see which choice I made, obviously."
This had me worried... 'Everything is lining up too easily,' I thought to myself in contemplation, 'the Grimm appearing at that heist, the lack of Grimm in the Emerald Forest until today, Blake's heritage and history practically being worn on her sleeve the moment she enters Beacon... And then there's that new Grimm; the Kamakiri... Problem is, I don't know exactly WHEN the heist took place; maybe it was just co-incidence? Or I could just be thinking that in some vain hope that I'm wrong... Either way, I have to know...' I turned back to Blake and asked, "I need to know... WHEN was the train hijacking supposed to be?"
She looked at me curiously before giving me an answer I was SO not wanting, "Two days ago... Why?"
I couldn't hold it in any longer... I gripped the armrests of my seat as I closed my eyes with my head held low; teeth gritting hard enough that I thought for a moment that they would shatter under the force. That was the exact day I started having trouble finding the Grimm - that means that I drove them from the Emerald Forest to Forever Fall Forest...
That means that Blake was hurt because of my actions...
That it was my fault...
I barely heard someone call my pseudo name as I slammed a fist into the armrest it was on with a yell of "DAMNIT!"
)-Third Person PoV-(
Blake wasn't normally one to pry into a stranger's personal space, but she saw it in her fellow passenger's eyes that something was wrong - something involving her - as she answered him with "Two days ago... Why?" He suddenly looked down at the floor with his eyes cinched shut as he gripped the armrests of his seat. "Dichro?" she called to him softly at first, "Are you alright, Dichro?"
"DAMNIT!" was his reply as he slammed a fist into the armrest; denting it in the process. The noise startled all aboard, even Glynda and Ozpin, as all but Glynda looked at him in confusion and worry. "It's all MY fault..." he whispered but Blake heard it clearly.
"Wh-what?"
"I can't believe I was so... stupid!" the bi-colored young man continued to berate himself.
"Dichro..." Blake called out to him, but he ignored her.
"I was the one that drove the Grimm from the Emerald Forest to Forever Fall Forest..."
"Dichro!" she called again, but alas he ignored her still.
"The Kamakiri attacked because of me..."
"DICHRO!" this time, the faunus girl yelled at him, snapping him from his stupor of guilt and anger.
"Wh-what?" he said looking at her in confusion, "What's going o-?" he started to ask but looked at where his hand was and saw the armrest dented.
"Dichro, listen to me..." Blake started as calmly as she rubbed his back. "Whatever happened wasn't your fault-"
"It was," he interrupted as he turned to her before continuing, "I was hunting the Grimm in the Emerald Forest until today to level up my Kamen Rider forms. Because of me, they vacated the forest out of fear." Everyone looked at Dichro as if he had grown a second head.
)-First Person PoV-(
Looks like the cat's out of the bag now, so to speak; if I wanted to recover from this, I had to do something. So I decided to try and Grinch my way out of this. "I'm literally not supposed to be here; I don't belong in any of the four kingdoms. That Kamakiri that attacked you, Red-Riding-Hood and Snow White here wasn't supposed to be here either; that was made specifically to fight ME." Judging from the shocked looks on everyone but Ozpin's faces, they were not taking that bit of news lightly.
Weiss was the first to ask her question as she tried to pronounce the name. "Karma-keeree? What's that supposed to be?" I gave a swift reply by first correcting her pronunciation. "Kah-mah-kee-ree. In one of the languages where I'm from, it literally means 'Mantis'. It's the name I gave that Grimm you and Red fought earlier."
"About that..." Ruby butted-in as she asked, "What happened to it?"
"Simple; I killed it, though barely I might add." If they weren't shocked before, they were now. Even Ozpin seemed shocked and worried at this.
"How is it you were able to defeat a Grimm several of our best huntsmen and huntresses were unable to even visibly damage?" the Headmaster asked me.
"Tch... Sheer dumb luck; that's how," I answered curtly as I scoffed. Evidently Ozpin didn't like how I answered him as he visibly glared at me... which was kinda scary when you think about it. Yang, however, saved me when she asked "What's a Common Rider anyway?"
I couldn't help but chuckle at this as I tried to correct her as well. "Kah-men Rider. In that same language, Kamen means Masked; so effectively you could call me a Masked Rider. Kamen Riders are a type of super hero that protects the world, though not all of them are good; the bad apples are called Dark Riders."
At this, Yang simply made an "Oh," sound before shutting up again. This finally gave Ruby a chance to speak up. "Are you from outside the four kingdoms?" she asked me. My reply was a shrug of my shoulders before answering, "That's one way of putting it..." A thought hit me as I suddenly remembered I wasn't supposed to know any of their names yet so I decided to play it out and see how it goes. "By the way... I don't think I caught any of your names yet."
"Oh, I'm Ruby Rose."
"My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company."
"Blake Belladonna."
"Yang's my name, Xiao Long's... Also my name, but I'm Ruby's older sister."
"You don't look like sisters... Is one of you adopted or a halfa?" I had to ask... Oh god, Butch Hartman woud kill me if he knew I used that term like that.
"Ah... Halfa?" Yang looked pertubed to say the least, as did the others.
"Half-a-sister, half-a-stranger. A halfa." The poor blonde would have fallen to the floor laughing while clutching her sides had it not been for her safety belt. Blake simply stared at me in what I could only assume was a cross between disbelief and fear before speaking up. "Dear Oum, you are actually worse than Yang..."
I simply shrugged with a smile plastered on my face before Glynda told us that we were about to land. I felt a sudden jerk from the tension on the landing gear before the sound of the engines faded as they cut off. The professor-turned-pilot informed us that we had landed and that medical staff and personel would be waiting for us outside. Whoo boy... I do not do well with doctors. As we all unstrapped ourselves and the door opened, a woman dressed in a nurse's hospital outfit; NOT the kinky one, perverts, the one that's basically a green shirt with green pants, came in and picked up Weiss as best as she could considering the space constraint before carrying her back out. I looked to the professors to see if they wanted to leave first but Glynda motioned for the girls to go first. Eventually, we all piled out of the Bullhead and I got my first look at Beacon with my own eyes...
It... Was... Massive.
The academy grounds looked less like a school, and more like an entire freakin' city! Towers and large buildings everywhere I looked with paved paths linking each other with green grass growing everywhere that a path or building wasn't placed. I couldn't believe I was seeing this through my own eyes; I had started to wander when one of the medical staff had told me to follow them. That's when I stiffened... You have no idea how much just visiting the school nurse frightened me, let alone a doctor. I felt someone tap my shoulder before looking over my shoulder to see who it was. Yang looked at me with a sort of concerned smile, if you will, and asked, "You okay, short stuff?"
)-Third Person PoV-(
Yang might not be rocket scientist of the year, but, due to being Ruby's big sister, the blonde brawler was a farcry from the dullest bulb in the lighthouse; she could tell something was going on with Dichro the moment he made his outburst. She had hoped that trying to distract him from whatever it was troubling him would work but it only got worse when Professor Goodwitch had mentioned medical personel. As soon as Weiss was picked up, they had been told to exit the Bullhead with Dichro practically being first off; his gaze drifting all over the place as if he had never seen Beacon before, though she assumed he probably hadn't in the first place. When one of the staff members tried to get him to follow, however, she saw his personality essentially do a full 180; he went from awe-struck to horrified in less than the blink of an eye. Her first instinct was to play the annoying big sister and slap him on the back to get him moving, but decided that wasn't the best course of action after seeing his gaze. 'Looks like this is a job for Mama Yang,' she thought to herself as she cautiously approached him and tapped his shoulder. Once his gaze made contact with hers, she smiled softly and asked, "You okay, short stuff?"
Dichro merely gazed at her more before shaking his head as his gaze returned to the medical staff, in which case Yang's smile vanished; in it's place was a look of understanding.
"Afraid of doctors, huh..." she stated rather than asked. Regardless, she got a reply when he nodded again. Once more, she resisted her instincts; though this one was to hug the little guy. Instead, she called for Ozpin and tried to explain what was going on.
"Professor Ozpin? I don't think Dichro should be checked on by one of the staff," she started as he looked questioningly at his student. When asked why this was the case, she replied, "I'm not ENTIRELY sure, but I'm willin' to bet lien that he's had very bad experiences with medics and the like... I'm not ENTIRELY sure what those were, though... So..."
"Perhaps a more informal approach is needed?" Ozpin interjected. She simply nodded at this. "Very well... I suppose I'll look into it myself."
"Thanks, Professor," was all she said before she ran off to check on her little sister. Ozpin himself turned to the bi-color-themed young man and cleared his throat. "Ahem, if you would, Mr. Spectrum, I'd like you to follow me to my office..." With that distraction being all that was needed, Dichro almost eagerly followed the headmaster as the walked to the largest tower in the academy; Beacon Tower itself.
)-First Person PoV-(
WHOOP! Professor Ozpin to the rescue!
Seriously, the man just saved me from an anxiety attack because of my iatrophobia... Only now that I'm away from the others, I'm starting to get the feeling he was looking for an excuse to have me pulled to his office as we went up the elevator. When the doors opened, I knew I felt like everything just suddenly turned surreal; the room itself was filled to the brim with clockwork cogs that clicked and clattered in the chambers above the actual office's windows and outside of the view of the outside, though that wouldn't matter considering I could see a cloud passing the window by...
In the center was an enlongated table held up by four slanted legs pointing in inverse directions with a chair behind it. The main window itself was decorated to look like the face of a clock as the hands moved to indicate the time like normal. How they moved without being directly connected to the clockwork escapes me but I filed it as simply Ozpin being the Dumbledore of Remnant; he can do whatever the frag he wants.
"Enjoying the view?" Speak of the devil and he shall appear; I kinda forgot he was still there. I looked for him and found him looking out of the side windows holding his cane before walking to his seat and sitting down. He motioned me to come up to the desk; which I reluctantly did so as he nodded. He looked me up and down in the way a skeptical policeman would before speaking again. "I hear you have... personal troubles with medical staff?" I only nodded as I tried to read what his stoic expression was trying to convey; yet I couldn't get a thing out of him. He simply nodded back before continuing. "Then perhaps I should ask you a few questions so that we can get a more familiarized staff member to see to you?"
Oh boy, this was it; he knows something's up with me and he wants answers. I simply nodded in agreement before he gave a small smirk in victory.
"Then let's get down to business... The first order is actually a question..." he started as the smirk vanished. "Would you mind telling me..." he paused as he spoke.
"Your 'real' name?"
xXx
Finally; done and done!
I know this chapter isn't as great as all the others but I hope you still get to enjoy it all the same! Until next chapter...
See ya next game!