*(A/N): Hey guys! So, there has been a slight change of plans. I have actually added one more chapter for now. The reason why is because this chapter and the next one was going to be one chapter but it is just so big I split it into two chapters. Also, I want to announce that for this story and all my other stories, the last STORY CHAPTER for that particular story will have the same name as the TITLE of said story. Just letting you guys know especially now that the chapter countdown is messed up.
Also, I want to warn you guys that this chapter is extremely dark, morbid, grimm, whatever you want to call it. But I warned you. A lot of you guys are really going to start questioning Ozpin's decision on making Okami leader of team OKAY. And a lot of you are going to have your questions answered about Okami's past.
I hope you guys enjoy and please leave a review!*
The others are lucky.
They're lucky because they didn't live the way I did. They didn't grow up fending for themselves. They didn't grow up being rejected by their own people. They didn't grow up feeling they don't belong anywhere in this world. They didn't grow up in fear of everyone and everything. They didn't grow up with hate and resentment. They didn't grow up in fear of hurting others. They didn't grow up knowing innocent blood was on their hands. They didn't grow up being continuously hunted by all the mistakes they made in their lives. But most importantly, their trails were easy…
…Easy because they were "what if" situations…
Their nightmares are situations they will never go through, but fear still haunts them.
…I am not lucky…
I have been through Hell and lived to tell the story of it. My fears and nightmares aren't from my imagination; my nightmare is my past, present, and future. I have learned to push past it so I wouldn't turn insane. But if I don't accept the course my life will take, I'll turn mad anyway. The others don't know about this, or at least don't understand…
…My reality is my nightmare…
~ Okami Kiba
…Fears and Nightmares."
~ Okami ~
"…Tsume…"
Okami quickly activated her weapons not bringing out her claws and got into her fighting stance. She stood there like that and grew nervous that her sister wasn't attacking.
"Stand down you mutt, I cannot hurt you nor could you hurt me." Tsume said as she calmly walked closer to Okami. "This mist is meant to put the body and soul of the person who is in it to sleep and tests their hearts. If you pass, you are awoken and may continue your life."
Okami deactivated her weapons but still kept her guard up. "And if you fail?"
Tsume looked at her directly in the eye and dropped her smile. "Then you will never wake up, or worse; your heart will be trapped in here forever."
Okami slowly lowered her guard and faced her enemy. "So you're saying I'm asleep and this is all a test? Then why are you here?"
"Yes and no…you have a very unique relationship with spirits. Inside you I sense your and another bright soul, your body sleeps but the other soul is what sleeps as well." Tsume said in a calm tone that Okami found disturbing. "Because of this, you can step into the others' trails as well. However, your trail will be far more intense and fearsome if you choose to help them pass. As for why I'm here, I am what you currently fear the most and I am the one who is to test you, I am not the real Tsume."
Okami turned and started to run in the direction she believed one of her friends to be. "Of course I choose to help my friends first."
"Okami." Tsume said causing her to stop. "If the person who is being tested dies, they fail the trail. Do you still want to help them even if a fake you is in there with you? If the fake is hurt, you will feel the pain."
Okami smiled and turned in the direction she was heading and took off running. Okami didn't know it, but the fake Tsume had an evil smile on her face.
"Fine by me… Now I'll get to torture her later."
…
"Ai!" Okami yelled over the wind. "Tell the others I'm fine and I'll make it out soon!"
Okami smiled at Ai one last time before Ai vanished inside of the mist, once she was gone Okami's smile turned into a frown. "If I ever make it out that is…"
Okami turned and walked out the door. Once she stepped outside, the room evaporated into white mist like many times before. But Okami didn't care, she kept walking towards the direction she last saw Tsume.
With every movement she winced. Her head was throbbing as if her head was slammed against something hard or beat up with some sort of object. There was a severe stabbing pain in her torso as if she was impaled with something sharp. Her wrists aced as if they were tied tightly to something high in the air and several parts of her limbs felt ready to fall right off. Her mussels were sore from fighting the grimm with Yang and te palms of her hands and knees were scraped up from tripping over a rock chasing down Ai. To say the wolf faunus was 'hurt' would be an understatement. She was ready to just roll over and die.
She kept walking despite the pain, there was only one more trial; her own.
She finally made it back to the spot where she last saw her sister and saw the stone leading into the tomb. She knelt down in front of the stone and closed her eyes to meditate until she heard someone call her name.
"…Okami!..."
Okami jumped up at the sound of her name and turned to the direction it came from. To her surprise, she saw all her friends running towards her.
Okami smiled and ran towards them as well. Suddenly she saw a reflection in the trees behind them and by the time she realized what was happening it was too late.
She heard the snap of a bow string and a split second later an arrow struck her in the shoulder.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Purple dust started to flow out of the arrow and bound her arms to her side and her legs together causing her to land on her face. She quickly looked up to warn her friends but it was too late. A second arrow was shot and it struck the ground right in front of her friends and exploded on impact.
"NOOOO!" Okami cried close to tears. "Ai, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang! Answer me!"
There was no response and Okami rested her head on the ground. A moment of silence pasted until it finally sunk in and she didn't hold back her sobs. She looked up once more and her eyes widened in shock.
The smoke was gone and she was unbound; it was just an illusion.
She slowly got back on her feet and looked around, no one was around. She took a few steps forwards and jumped when she heard someone speak.
"You must be more gullible than I thought if you were so easily fooled by that display."
Okami turned and growled at Tsume. "That wasn't exactly pleasant."
"I never said it was." Tsume said with an evil chuckle. "However, your trial is similar."
"Hit me with your best shot." Okami said readying herself for a fight. "I'm ready for whatever you throw at me!"
"Are you sure about that?"
Okami looked at Tsume confused.
"Okami," Tsume started in a serious voice. "if you do defeat me, do you honestly believe you can lead the wolf people? What about the people of the White Fang? Wouldn't you snap under all that pressure?"
"No." Okami replied with a glare.
"Oh really?" Tsume said with a smug look on her face. She then snapped her fingers and the mist around her blocked Okami's vision.
When she was finally able to see again, Okami instantly knew where she was and what was happening. In front of her was a large building with tall doors and engravings of wolves in the wood. She looked to her right and sure enough there was a twelve year old Okami.
There was snow covering the streets and the cold air would make anyone shiver, but the young Okami knelt down in the street motionless waiting patently.
Okami stood there watching her younger self for what felt like an hour. Her ears twitched as a cool breeze drifted by and Okami noticed her younger self didn't move an inch. Okami felt the cold stinging her tail and she looked at the base of the back of her younger self and noticed there was no tail.
"…I guess I have changed a lot since then…"
A moment later, a tall man with white hair and greenish eyes slid open the door causing the younger Okami to raise her head. Okami recognized the man and it caused her stomach to churn; it was Yukimoto-kun.
"He is ready to see you." Yukimoto-kun said with venom lacing every word. "Though why he would want to see a disgrace like you is beyond me."
The younger Okami stood and followed Yukimoto-kun into the palace, Okami tried to follow herself but she couldn't move. She waited outside for what felt like forever, finally the door slammed open and the younger Okami ran out and into the woods. This time Okami was able to follow and did so until she reached a clearing with the younger girl standing in the middle crying.
"WHY?!" The young Okami screamed with tears running wildly down her face. "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?! HOW CAN HE DO THIS TO ME?! I THOUGHT HE WAS A HERO, HOW CAN A HERO DO THIS TO HIS 'DAUGHTER'?!"
The present Okami stood there in silence as she watched her younger self throw a rampage she remembered and was not so proud of. Soon, a young girl with white hair and wolf ears wearing a light blue scarf appeared in the clearing as well. It was a younger version of Ai.
"Okami?" Ai spoke softly as she watched the young Okami cry her eyes out. "Look at the bright side. We can hang out in public now; you don't have to sneak around to be with me. You can now have a real home and not have to live in that shelter you built in a tree. You won't be an outcast anymore!"
"Ai," Okami said loudly over her sobs. "I AM an outcast! I'm actually WORSE than an outcast! I'm not NORMAL, like you. You heard what my so called 'father' said! My mother was a HUMAN! That's why he ABANDONED me! I'm a freak!"
"No you're not!" Ai said trying to calm her down. "Okami, I'm here for you! You are a Kiba, you can't change that and neither can the rest of our people!"
"They're not OUR people, Ai!" Okami yelled in outrage. "They're YOUR people, KENJI'S people, the FAUNUS people! I'M NOT one of you! Growing up I always felt like I was always left behind by everyone for no reason! I would ask for help and yet I would only see everyone's back turned towards me! That I was alone for no reason! But now I know there was a reason! NO ONE WANTED ME!"
When she was done yelling, the young Okami turned towards a tree and slammed her fist into a tree so hard the trunk cracked and some branches fell off. The young Okami's eyes were wide full of shock of the power she just had.
"…Okami?" Ai said causing Okami to see the fear in her eyes. "…How did you…"
Okami pulled her fist away from the tree and flinched in pain seeing her fist bloodied and trunks of tree jagging out of her skin.
The present Okami felt something running down her fist to see the same exact thing with her hand.
"Tsume warned me that if the mist Okami is hurt I would feel the same pain as well… I guess that applies to my own trial as well…"
The young Okami quickly hid her wound from Ai. "I guess I was wrong, I'm not a freak… I'm a monster."
The young Okami then ran into the deep forest and Okami knew she wouldn't come back until two months later and during that time she was alone.
"You didn't even show up to his funeral." Said Tsume startling Okami. "The whole village was there to say goodbye. Everyone said their final farewell… Everyone but you."
Okami turned away from Tsume to see that she was surrounded by the mist once again. "What do you want from me, Tsume?"
"I want you to open your eyes." Tsume said with an evil grin. "I want you to realize you don't stand a chance against the real me."
"That's not true!" Okami yelled. "I do stand a chance!"
"Fine, let's say you don't snap under the pressure. Will you take responsibility for the death of your people and still lead?"
Okami knew where this was going, but before she could beg Tsume to not put her through it, the mist cleared and the young Okami appeared before her again. Only this time, she didn't have any ears and wore a hunter's uniform.
She and many other wolf faunus were running through the forest when she suddenly stopped. One of the faunus noticed this and asked, "what's wrong?"
The young Okami turned toward him. "I thing I saw something heading towards the village. Whether it was a person or a grimm, I don't know. I'm going to make sure it isn't a threat to the village."
"Would you like us to come with you?" The same faunus asked.
"No." Okami replied. "I want you to continue the mission, but don't engage until I return."
The faunus nodded and led the others deeper into the forest while Okami ran after the thing she saw. Okami followed herself to the shrine where she lost her target. The younger Okami searched desperately until a sent caught her attention. She looked to the sky and saw smoke coming from the village.
Both Okami's ran back to the village to find humans attacking the villagers. The younger Okami was fighting off humans when something caught her attention. Okami followed her younger self's gaze and stared in awe.
There was a beowolf, but not an ordinary beowolf. This one had glowing blue eyes and white fur. It was fighting off humans with inhuman strength and beautiful grace. It was the alpha himself, Kenji Kiba.
While Okami was staring at her father in awe, a blood curling scream brought her attention back to her younger self just in time to collapse to the ground from the burning pain on her back.
When Okami looked back up, the fires were out and the fighting had stopped but there was a passed out Okami with her chest and back wrapped. Ai was leaning over her crying holding a small wolf cub, which Okami knew was Urufu, until the younger Okami woke up.
Okami couldn't hear what they were saying this time but she already knew. A cool breeze blew by once again causing Okami to shiver. She crossed her arms to keep warm when she realized that she wasn't wearing a shirt. She looked down to see her chest was also wrapped just like the younger Okami, she then felt a tug on her ears and realized her younger self found out about them.
She looked back up to see her younger self with a terrified expression on her face. Ai was hugging her trying to calm her down and Okami heard herself ask one question. "Where is my team?"
The younger Okami saw the expression on Ai's face and she shook her head mouthing one word over and over. "…No…"
The young Okami quickly got on her feet; she stumbled a little at first but then took off running into the forest. Okami ran in the direction she last saw her team and when she got there she followed a strong metallic sent and stopped at the destination it took her to. The site before her almost made her vomit.
Dead bodies of her team were everywhere. Some were missing limbs, some were missing their faunus traits, and others looked like they were tortured. The young Okami fell to her knees and screamed.
"You resigned from being a hunter the next day." Tsume said with hate lacing every word. "You gave up, you took responsibility for their deaths but you didn't have the courage to keep leading! You're not the one in the prophecy, you're not a hero!"
"You're right!" Okami shouted getting Tsume to shut up and listen to her. "I'm not a hero, I'm not a leader, hell, I'm not even a good person. I'm not strong enough, I get scared, and I've made many mistakes… But you know what? I'm still a better person than you!"
Okami then looked up and glared Tsume right in the eye and was surprised to see the shock on her face. However, that shock didn't last long.
"Do you even hear what you are saying right now?" Tsume said in a deadly angry voice. "Do you honestly believe that?"
Okami nodded. "Yes, I do."
Tsume shook her head. "Okami, I know you have looked past many of your mistakes by telling others and sharing your pain or blaming it on others. But I know one thing you were too terrified to tell others that has an even stronger impact on you than when Kira attacked Aleks."
Okami felt her face make a terrified expression. "Please don't make me go back there…"
Tsume smiled. "You should know me by now; I don't show mercy to anyone, especially to a mutt like you."
The mist then cleared once again and Okami saw her fifteen year old self passed out in a snow drift. The younger Okami woke up to the sight of blood on the white snow surrounding her.
"Aleks?" The young Okami called, but there was no response. "Aleks!"
She looked around the area for a while, she found Urufu but there was no sign of her human friend. After three hours of searching, she broke down and cried. She was crying so much that she didn't notice the tall male humans surround her until it was too late.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" One of the men said causing Okami to jump to her feet scared. "Looks like that chick was right about a young dog being out here."
Okami looked back and forward between all the men terrified. Then another man spoke. "I bet you we can sell this one for a lot of money."
"Yeah," Said another man. "for some reason people sure do like the dog ones as sex slaves."
Okami then became even more terrified. She took off running but her foot got caught in a trap causing her to hang up-side-down from a tree. Urufu tried to bite one in the ankle but the man easily caught the wolf in a bag while another man took a large stick and hit Okami over the head with it knocking her out.
When the young Okami came to, she was in an old run down building. Surrounding her was thick metal bars on all four sides like a cage yet as big as a prison cell. The sell was barely wide enough for her to lie down and on the floor was a pile of rags to be her bed. In the back of the cell was a large bucket for her to use for the bathroom and towards the front of the cell was a small metal dish with barely any water and had some dirt in it. There was also a metal collar around her neck with a chain connected to the cell door. The building was dark even with the small light bulbs that hung over each cell and the air was murky with a weird smell the young Okami didn't know what it was.
The young Okami curled up in a corner and was startled when a hand tapped her on the shoulder. Okami looked over to see another faunus in the cell next to her. She was a cat faunus with a black tail that matched her short black hair and had bright yellow eyes.
"Who are you?" The young Okami asked scared.
The cat girl smiled. "I'm Sam; you don't need to be scared of me. What's your name?"
"Okami…" Okami said less scared. "Where are we?"
Sam then frowned. "Not a good place. Look, if you do what these people tell you, then they will let you live to see another day. If you don't struggle against them, then they won't hurt you. Also, if you see one, don't say a word."
"Why?" Okami asked.
The door to the room of cells then opened and Sam didn't say another word. A man walked in and looked into each cell he passed. In his hand was a shotgun and he dragged the barrel of the gun across the cell doors to intimidate its occupant.
The man kept walking and stopped in front of Okami's cell. He got down to be eye level with Okami and had a kind smile on his face, but his eyes said something else.
"Looks like we got some new merchandise." The man said evilly. "Are you comfortable in there, mutt?"
The man then slipped his hand through the bars to touch Okami's face. Okami growled and when his hand got close enough she bit him hard. She knew she broke skin because she was able to taste his blood.
The man squirmed and was able to get his hand away from Okami. He glared at her and started to unlock her cell while Okami was trying to spit the taste of blood out of her mouth. The man got the door unlocked and slipped into her cell where he started to beat her up. When the man was finished she was now spitting up her own blood. The man started to leave but then he looked at her and grinned.
"You know…" The man started. "It wouldn't hurt to get you ready for what you will be doing for the rest of your miserable life."
The man then unzipped his pants and pulled then down to show his boxers. Okami tried to get away from him, but he got a hold of her and started to tear her clothes off of her while she cried.
Present Okami tried to walk out of the room, but her legs refused to move. So she closed her eyes and looked away, soon she felt a sharp pain around her stomach the same time her younger self let out a loud cry of pain. The present Okami kept her eyes shut and tried to block out what was happening, but she couldn't. She heard the repeating rhythm of the chain clanging against the metal bars, she heard the disgusting panting and moaning of the man that raped her repeatedly, and she heard the desperate cries her younger self screamed that no one answered.
Okami listened to this for what felt like an hour and opened her eyes when the sounds stopped. She now knew that the Okami she was seeing was a few months older because her hair was slightly longer and messy and her clothes were gone and was replaced with rags.
The younger Okami was sitting in the back corner of her cell in the fetal position. The door to the room slammed open and the man from before stepped in. He had his shotgun with him again and was walking down the rows of cells. He stopped in front of Okami and saw her in the corner and smiled.
"Get up." The man said but Okami didn't respond at all pissing him off. "I said get up!"
Okami didn't move an inch and the man growled. He unlocked her cell and started to beat her up. The man smiled with satisfaction but soon dropped the smile when he heard Okami laughing.
"What the hell do you think is so funny?" The man said angrily.
Okami then raised her hand, which was bloodied and bruised, to show she was holding the metal collar snapped in half.
The man then gulped. "How did you get that off?"
"It was simple really." The young Okami said in a deep voice that didn't sound like her at all. "I used one of Sam's bones to saw off some of it."
The man then looked at the cell next to them and saw that the cat faunus was dead and that her chest was ripped open and was missing some ribs.
The man then looked back at Okami with a shocked look. "You murdered her so you could escape?!"
"No." The young Okami finally looked up at the man and the sight even frightened Okami. "She was already dead, I just used her demise to prosper."
Young Okami's eyes were neither blue nor red, they were purple. A mix of both herself and Kira at perfect balance due to a common goal…vengeance.
Okami grabbed the man and with incredible strength, smashed his head into the concrete ground breaking his skull and killing him on impact. The other prisoners began to scream causing more men to come see all the commotion. The younger Okami turned towards them and slowly turned into a beowolf and this time her eyes were completely red.
Present Okami closed her eyes again as the screams of pain and suffering got louder and louder and slowly died off. When Okami opened her eyes, everyone in the room was dead. She walked over to the door and reached to open it when she noticed her hands were covered in blood. She opened the door and walked down the stairs where she passed ten more rooms down the hall with cells and five floors with more rooms and knew everyone in there was dead.
On the bottom floor she passed several rooms that had dog crates in them and noticed one was missing. She walked out of the building and not far from the entrance was a torn up crate and foot prints leading out into the forest. Okami followed them and found herself in a tree holding Urufu crying and repeating a question over and over again. "What have I done?"
"You gave in and teamed with Kira." Tsume said while the real Okami was starting to cry. "You murdered everyone; not just your captures, but the innocent too."
"I didn't mean to hurt them." Okami said crying. "I didn't want to hurt any of them!"
"But you did." Tsume said telling Okami the cruel truth.
"When will this trial end?" Okami asked.
"You will pass if you can answer one question correctly." Tsume said, Okami nodded telling her to go on. "Where does 'the strength of the wolf' come from?"
Okami thought hard about it but she couldn't think of an answer. She turned towards Tsume to see her with an evil smile and her sword drawn.
"Okami Kiba of the wolf village; you have failed your trial."
Tsume then raised her sword ready to strike Okami, but then a hand that glowed light blue popped out of the mist behind Tsume and when it touched her, Tsume collapsed passed out.
Okami looked at her savior to see a woman half a head shorter that her. The woman had long flowing brown hair with blond highlights and sky blue eyes. She wore black boots and blue worn jeans that were ripped up at the knees, her shirt was white and hung down low, the also wore a white leather jacket and around her neck was a sky blue infinity scarf.
"Who are you?" Okami asked while mesmerized by the woman's beauty.
"I am Elizabeth Woods." The woman said with a loving smile.
"Okami… We have a lot to talk about."
*(A/N): Who is this woman? Find out next chapter!
So, I've been wondering and I want to know what your guys' favorite quote is from this story. So please leave it in the reviews! Also, do you still think Okami would make a good leader and Ozpin was correct in having Okami lead. Please tell me your opinion on that subject.
Thank you all for your support, and I will see you next chapter!
~ Okami The Blue Wolf*
