The Secret
Heavy panting came from the arena as Jaune hunched over his sword as he tried to catch his breath however Cardin WInchester seemed to be completely unscathed. He laughed at Jaune a bit as he muttered words of encouragement to himself; without warning Jaune pulled his sword from the ground and charged at his opponent, who simply side stepped to avoid his overhead strike before launching Jaune a few feet away with a simple swing of his mace however Jaune wouldn't let himself admit defeat. Without any warning, Jaune once again charged at Cardin this time putting all of his weight behind the strike. Crocea Mors collided against Cardin's mace causing a slight struggle but in the span of a few seconds Cardin managed to nearly overwhelm Jaune.
"This is the part where you lose," said Cardin as he further pressured Jaune.
"Over my dead bod-", Jaune's statement was cut short as Cardin delivered a sharp knee into his abdomen causing him to kneel over from the pain before Cardin went to deliver the final blow. A buzzer was heard as the lights turned on.
"Cardin, that's enough," Cardin looked back at Jaune, who was still on the floor, before walking away.
"Students, as you can see Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red in a tournament-style duel. This would indicated that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match," Jaune struggled to get up as Glynda turned her head towards him.
"Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now, please try to refer to your scroll during combat gauging your Aura will help you to decide when it is appropriate to attack and or when it is better to move towards a more...defensive strategy," Jaune simply stared at his scroll and sighed as she began to speak again, "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf. now would we?"
"Speak for yourself", Cardin spoke in a bitter voice as he picked up his mace.
Team RIOT simply stood there as Cardin spoke these words, Rukia and Tatsuki were disgusted by Cardin's attitude while Orihime felt bad for Jaune however Ichigo was...in simple terms he was pissed, he hated people like Cardin with every fiber of his being.
"What an asshole!", Ichigo was fairly loud with his remark due to his rage causing quite a few people to hear him...including Glynda.
"What was that Mr. Kurosaki?", there was a bit of venom behind her words due to being interrupted by Ichigo's sudden outburst but he didn't even seem to care.
"I said that I want to fight Cardin," Glynda sighed as she gave him a stern look.
"We don't have the time for that tod-"
"C'mon let me fight him," she turned her head towards Cardin, I mean someone's gotta put carrot top in his place," she sighed heavily as she began to tinker on her tablet for a few seconds before a picture of Ichigo along with an Aura gauge replaced Jaune's.
"Alright you two have five minutes any longer than that and I will reprimand the both of you, do I make myself clear?", Cardin nodded as Ichigo spoke with a bitter tone.
"I'll make sure I'm done long before than."
Ichigo, now in his battle gear, walked towards the stage of the amphitheater as the students in the crowd made way for him. He drew Zangetsu from his back as he walked and with a deep scowl he muttered.
"Bankai," nearly everyone around him was shocked as black and red Aura covered the blade before revealing that it had morphed into a slightly smaller black katana; he hopped onto the stage and glared daggers at Cardin, who was currently waiting for Glynda to allow them to start the match.
"Begin," Cardin smirked as he heard these words, he beckoned for Ichigo to make the first move before resting his mace on his shoulder. Ichigo sighed as he glared more intensely at Cardin.
"You know," he spoke with a bitter tone behind his words, "I would just fight you as is but...you did quite a top notch job on royally pissed me off!", Ichigo proceeded to slightly crouch before bringing his hand to his face as Aura began to pour out from him. It took a moment but the black and red substance that inhabited the air but not a second ago was now nowhere to seen; Ichigo stood up as he removed his hand from his face revealed a mask that was eerily similar to that of bone like armor on a Grimm's body, from the bone like structure of it to the red markings that adorned it. While the mask alone was enough to send a shiver up Cardin's spine the most terrifying part however was Ichigo's eyes, the deep brown color was now replaced by a golden color surrounded by a black border.
"What's wrong?", the double toned voice came across as mocking as Ichigo cracked his neck, "If I didn't know better than I'd say you look scared Winchester. Well…", he darted at Cardin with his blade raised to strike.
"You should be," the force behind the blow nearly brought Cardin to his knees, quickly breaking away from the small clash Ichigo delivered a horizontal strike to his jaw causing him to be thrown across the arena. He scurried to his feet as he saw the orange haired figure approaching before swinging his mace towards Ichigo,who effortlessly parried it before delivering a diagonal strike down his chest and then proceeding to strike him with a sharp left hook to his jaw followed by quick kick in his abdomen; Ichigo sighed as he watched Cardin attempt to catch his breath.
"Wow, I didn't you to be such a let down. What happened to 'putting carrot top in his place'?", he shrugged as he grasped Tensa Zangetsu with a two hands , "I guess it doesn't matter though. I'm ending this now," Ichigo rushed forward catching Cardin off guard as he proceeded striking him at least 10 times in row, the last one was particularly devastating. The well placed horizontal strike closed lined Cardin as he tried to hit Ichigo with an heavy overhead strike.
"Getsuga Tensho," Ichigo's blade was quickly swarmed as black and red Aura manifested around it as he raised it above his head before striking down, releasing an enormous crescent of Aura that exploded upon contact with Cardin.
The lights came on soon after a buzzer announced Ichigo's victory, he turned away from Cardin as he went to walk off of the stage.
"Here's a tip," Ichigo reached towards his face as the mask quickly dissipated in a few strands of Aura, "If you want to act like the strong can do whatever they please, then actually be strong," he spoke in a bitter tone as he removed himself from the stage as Glynda cleared her throat.
"Now then back to what I was going to say," she looked towards the mass of students in front of her as she spoke.
"Remember everyone! The Vytal Festival is only a few months away it won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale," a bell went off signaling Ichigo to leave.
Ichigo was relaxing in the team's dorm as Rukia flung the door open as she shouted.
"What the hell was that?". Ichigo looked at her with a slightly confused look on his face as he went to speak but was instead was cut off by Rukia once more, "Don't even ask what I'm talking about! The mask Ichigo, what was with the mask?", the orange haired teen sighed before speaking.
"Do remember when I muttered about that girl being a Vizard?", Rukia looked around and Tatsuki and Orihime staring at her as he spoke.
"What the hell are you thinking? Ozpin told us not to say anything about that and you're just blurting it out in fro-"
"They already know Rukia," Ichigo spoke with a stern tone as Rukia glared at him intensely.
"You told them! Why the hell would you do such a thing?!", Orihime chimed in as soon as Rukia finished yelling.
"Because We already knew about Ichigo," Rukia stared at her with a dumbfounded expression on her face as Tatsuki began to speak.
"We've both known Ichigo since we were really young so when that ability manifested we were there with him," Ichigo stood up and sighed.
"Look, we were in the forest one day and we ran into an Ursa. We were around ten years old so I all I had at the time was a bokken and let me tell you that didn't work out too well for me. But after Tatsuki was also flung into a tree and Orihime was trying desperately to defend from that thing, I just kinda snapped out, according to them my eyes changed color and I had a quarter of a mask formed on my face when I killed it," he shooted a glance at Rukia, who currently wore a worried expression.
"If you're worried about me going berserk like that girl in the forest don't be. Ole' goat chin talked to Kisuke and he knew a group of people who were also Vizards and they helped me get my powers under control," Rukia smiled slightly.
"Well that's a relief," she said in a slightly cheerful tone before her smile was replaced by a serious expression once more.
"While we're on the subject. Do you have any idea why that girl was like that when we found her?", she stared at Ichigo with a curious expression on her face.
"She probably was starving or something," he sat back down on his bed before continuing.
"The group of Vizards explained it to me during training. A Vizard's power stems from our instincts as well as negative emotions, so as I was said before that girl was probably lost in the Emerald Forest, scared out of her mind on top of starving," he laid back on his bed and stared at the ceiling.
"Can we just stop talking about this? Everyone is probably going to be interrogating me about my bankai and the mask," Rukia looked at Tatsuki and Orihime, who just simply nodded at her, before she looked back over at Ichigo.
"Of course. We need our rest after all," she walked over to turn the lights off before laying down as her teammates fell asleep.
Being the center of attention was not his intention at all but with the little stunt he pulled yesterday what else did he expect? Being asked by Professor Port to stand in front of the entire class was certainly not one of those things; Ichigo groaned as he watched the eyes of the students glued themselves upon him as the Professor entered the room.
"Now, I'm sure some of you may be wondering why Mr. Kurosaki is standing in front of the class," he began in a hearty tone, "Well allow me to answer that question! Class we are in the presence of an extremely rare phenomenon… a Vizard!", the students began to murmur to one another before one of them decided to raise their hand.
"Excuse me Professor, but aren't Vizards just a myth?", Port chuckled at the student's inquiry.
"They were thought to be, however Mr. Kurosaki is living proof that they are very much real," he turned to Ichigo as he cleared his throat.
"Mr. Kurosaki if you would," Ichigo sighed as he brought his hand to his face, summoning the mask. The appearance of his mask caused another round of side discussions to emerge, however they only last for about a minute or so due to Professor Port speaking.
"Now before we go over the history of Vizards, does anyone have any questions for Ichigo?", Ruby's hand shot up like lightning at the mention of questions.
"Is it normal for your mask to change like that?", Ichigo tilted his head in confusion and beckoned for her to elaborate a bit.
"Like the red markings on it, they look like they got bigger," Ichigo shrugged as began to speak.
"Yea, I'm pretty sure it's normal. I mean they started off as a few stray markings but eventually they developed into a pattern or something. Anything else?", Ruby shook her head as a few more students raised their hands causing Ichigo to sigh.
"And what do you want to know?"
"Class that is enough questions for now," Ichigo seemed a bit exhausted from the barrage of questions that he was currently recovering from.
'They are way too curious," Ichigo turned to Professor Port and pointed to his mask.
"Can I take this off and go back to my seat now?", Port simply nodded as Ichigo simply walked back to his seat as he dematerialized the mask.
"Now, we will begin discussing the history of the Vizards. Most of you know the Vizards from legends and fairytales however we will not be talking about such things. No, today we will focus on the confirmed facts about the Vizards!", the professor kept his enthusiastic tone as he spoke.
'This is going to be a long day isn't it?", Ichigo simply let his head thump against the desk as he groaned.
"So, there we were in the middle of the night," Nora spoke in a suspenseful tone as she told a story...a story that Ren would be correcting constantly.
"It was day," said Ren in a bored tone.
"We were surrounded by Ursai."
"They were Beowolves,"
"Dozens of them!", shouted Nora as she nearly leaped from her seat.
"Two of 'em," Ren spoke in a tone they completely contrasted the excitement from Nora's voice.
"But they were no match and in the end...Ren and I took them down and made a boat load of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" Ren sighed as Nora said back down.
"She's been having this reoccurring dream for the nearly a month now," Pyrrah turned to Jaune who was picking at his food.
"Jaune...are you okay?", Jaune looked over at her slightly surprised as he was brought out of his daze.
"Huh. Oh, yeah why?", he said in a slightly worried tone as Ruby looked over at him.
"It's just that you seem a little...not okay..."
"Eh, guys, I'm fine...seriously look!", he nervously laughed as he spoke, they were cut off by a commotion going on a few tables away from them. Team CRDL was currently mocking a Faunus girl who was simply minding her own business.
"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school," Jaune looked back at Pyrrah.
"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah… he just likes to mess around, you know…practical jokes!", he said as he waved his hand dismissively before Ruby leaned in slightly.
"He's a bully," Ruby spoke in a low voice as Jaune nervously chuckled.
"Oh please...name one time he's 'bullied' me," the group went on to recall on times such as Cardin activating Jaune's shield so he'd get stuck in a doorway or when he pushed into a locker and launched away from the school.
"I didn't land far from the school…"
'Jaune you know if you ever need our help you can just ask," Pyrrah said in a concerned tone as Nora leapt up from her seat once more.
"OHH! We'll break his legs!", Nora exclaimed with a tad bit too much enthusiasm.
"Guys, really it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone," Jaune got up with his tray as the commotion grew louder.
"Oww, that hurts!", Cardin was now yanking the girl's rabbit ear whilst him and his team laughed.
"Please, stop…", she spoke in an irritated tone as Cardin pulled on her ear some more.
"I told you it was real!", Cardin spoke as he slowly stopped laughing.
"What a freak!', said Russel as they started to laugh once again.
"That's it, I'm done," Ichigo spoke in an aggravated tone as he stood from his seat and began to walk over towards the table; Cardin felt a tight grip on his wrist as he went to pull on the girl's ear again, turning his head, he saw a certain scowling orange haired teen. Ichigo drew his arm back before punching him in the jaw, knocking him from his seat before stomping his foot down on his chest.
"I thought I said this kind of behavior got under my skin, yet here you are trying to act tough. Boy, you must really want to embarrass you like I did back at the amphitheater," Cardin shook his head as Ichigo glared down.
"Good, now how about you go piss off!", Ichigo lifted his foot as Cardin got up and quickly walked away whilst beckoning for his team to follow.
"Umm, thank you," Ichigo turned around to see that the timid voice belonged to the Faunus girl causing him shrug before responding.
"You're welcome, guys like him just piss me off," Ichigo sighed and waved at the girl before walking back to his table.
"Well, have a nice day."
Ruby was trying to contain her excitement as Ichigo sat down...failing to do so.
"That was so cool!", Ruby nearly shouted right in his face, startling him a bit, right before she went on to list the reasons for her statement.
"You just walked up there and were like BAM! Just socked him right in the mouth!", Ichigo look extremely confused at her little speech as Yang laughed a bit before explaining.
"She thinks it was cool because you helped that girl and punched Cardin in the mouth,"
"Eh, it was nothing. As I said before I just don't like people like that," Orihime smiled a bit as he spoke.
"Ichigo has always been like that. When he sees someone in trouble, he helps them," she spoke in a cheerful voice as she reminisced about the past before Tatsuki decided to chime in.
"Most of the adults thought he was a delinquent though. Probably because he would get into a fight with a group of bullies every other week," Tatsuki started laughing as Ichigo scowled at her upon mention of his former reputation.
"By the way Ichigo, I've been meaning to ask but...how does your weapon work?", unsurprisingly Ruby decided to ask this question despite what was going on.
"Well, for starters, my semblance is offensive aura projection," Ichigo spoke as Ruby listened intently.
"Zangetsu has an aura conduit which reacts to my aura, allowing me to use my semblance more effectively, as well a voice recognition device which activates with a release command, in this case it's 'Bankai'. After the Aura conduit has my my Aura running through it and I say the release command, Zangetsu will transform into it's Bankai from, which I call Tensa Zangetsu, causing my semblance to be further amplify," Ruby squealed a bit after hearing his explanation causing him to simply stare at her.
"I don't know what you're getting all excited for, Rukia's weapon does something similar," Rukia glared at him as Ruby darted over to her.
"Rukia, please tell me!", Ruby was currently shaking Rukia by the shoulders.
"Fine, just please stop shaking me!"
"Sorry," Ruby stopped and chuckled a little before Rukia began.
"My Sode no Shirayuki is built using the same engineering as Ichigo's Zangetsu since they're both the same type of weapon," Ruby looked a bit confused as she said this.
"Let me explain. Now I'm not sure if you heard of the Shinigami faction before?", Ruby got a bit closer and stared at her.
"You mean the faction of hunters, who were nearly impossible to match on the battlefield?"
"Well yes...You see Ichigo and I both have family members who are Shinigami, so our weapons were forged by the same smiths from that faction. These weapons are called Zanpakutos, they are forged to amplify a person's semblance. They are forge in two different models, a Shikai model, which looks like a normal sword until it is released, and the one Ichigo has is the Bankai model, they are also in their Shikai form until the Bankai form is activated," Ruby was beaming at Rukia as she explained all of this.
"Is there any advantage of upgrading from a Shikai to a Banaki?", Ruby asked with a curious expression on her face.
"Of course! A Zanpakuto's Bankai is about 2x stronger overall and the amplification of your semblance increases by at least 39%," Ruby would then go on to tell Rukia all about her baby:Crescent Rose.
Jaune was fast asleep as Professor Oobleck zipped around the room giving a lecture on the history of faunus rights.
"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was kind quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie," he spoke extremely fast as he pointed to location on his map of the world before he proceeded to start zipping around the room at incredible speeds once more.
"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to most of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!", he took a slight break to sip from his coffee cup.
"Now have any among you been subjugated or discriminated against due to your Faunus heritage?", a few students raised their hands before Velvet decided to raise her's, very reluctantly at that,
"Dreadful! Simply dreadful! Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence! I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?", Weiss quickly raised her hand as the Professor called on her.
"The battle at Fort Castle!"
"Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?", as he was speaking Cardin flicked a hornet at the back of Jaune's head causing him to awake.
"Hey!", Jaune blurted this out as he was rudely awoken causing Oobleck to zip over to him.
"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class. This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"
"Uhh...the answer is…", Jaune had no clue what is was and looked around at teammates and friends, hoping for some sort of clue.
"The advantage...of the Faunus...had over that guy's stuff…", Pyrrah attempted to give him a clue by making a few gestures before finally cupping her hands around her eyes.
"Uhh, b-binoculars!", the students around him laughed a bit as Oobleck took another sip from his cup.
"Very funny, Mr. Arc. Cardin, perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"
"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier," Cardin replied in a very condescending tone causing Pyrrah to speak up.
"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you Cardin?"
"What? You got a problem?", Cardin responded in a slightly irritated voice.
"No, I have the answer! It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sights in the dark," Cardin groaned a bit as Pyrrah spoke before Blake followed up on Pyrrah's answer.
"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatch and the General was captured. Perhaps if he had paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure," Cardin got up from his seat with a clenched fist as he heard Blake's snarky comment.
"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat," Jaune started laughing at the sight of Cardin being scolded as Professor Oobleck dashed over towards him.
"You and Mr. Arc can both see me after for additional readings," Jaune groaned as he zipped away shouting.
"Now moving on!"
Ichigo and Orihime were walking along with some drinks in hand as they heard the sound of Jaune falling followed by Cardin laughing. Cardin's footsteps approached as they heard Pyrrah speak.
"You know, I really will break his legs," she said in a disdainful tone as the footsteps got closer to the two . As he turned the corner, Cardin went stark white as he saw a scowling Ichigo and Orihime with a disapproving look on her face; Without warning Ichigo delivered a sharp right hook to his jaw causing him to stumble back a few feet, he then walked past Cardin as Orihime smacked Cardin right across the face, sending him to the ground.
"Damn, has Tatsuki been having you work out with her?", Ichigo asked as Orihime catched up to him with a smirk on her face.
"Well, yea I figured it'd be good to train with her, After all it did help me get into Beacon," The two chuckled a bit as they walked towards their dorm room.
Upon arriving at their team's dorm, they were greeted by the sight of Rukia and Tatsuki being interrogated by two students.
"He's not here right now! Look I'll let you kn-... Oi Ichigo! You have visitors!", Rukia screamed upon seeing Ichigo and beckoned for him to keep over.
"Uhh, what's going on?", Ichigo asked with a deadpan expression on his face, as he said this a brown haired girl wearing sunglasses and an expensive looking outfit got close to him… a bit too close.
"So you're Ichigo Kurosaki?", Ichigo stared at the girl a few seconds before even attempting to reply.
"Uhh, yea...why?", the girl stuck her hand out, Ichigo reluctantly shook it as she spoke.
"I'm Coco and that's my teammate Yatsuhira," she gestured to the extremely tall guy behind wearing some green armor as he simply waved at Ichigo.
"I just wanted to thank you helping out Velvet. She's really timid and refused to tell us anything about it," Ichigo chuckled lightly as he realized that the two weren't here to pick a fight with him.
"Oh, that! Look it's no problem, you really don't even have to thank me for that," Coco shook her head.
"Even so, I just wanted to express our gratitude."
"Oh, uh, no problem. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go into my dorm now," he walked by the two and entered the dorm.
"Have a nice night," he said before closing the door and handing out the drinks he and Orihime purchased for the others.
"Anyone else get a Chad vibe from that big guy?", Ichigo asked in a curious tone, his teammates quickly agreed with him before Tatsuki decided to ask everyone a question.
"Putting that aside. Do you guys think Jaune's alright now?", Rukia was the first to answer.
"I honestly don't know. I hope he is though...no one should have to be treated like that," team RIOT unanimously agreed on Rukia's point; Ichigo looked around the room.
"Anyone up for a movie or something?", Rukia shrugged.
"That sounds good right about now," Tatsuki and Orihime quickly agreed with her.
"You and Rukia have to go get the snacks and drinks this time. Ichigo and I went last time," the two groaned a bit before leaving the dorm, announcing on their way out that they would be about ten minutes.
AN: Six chapters in and I finally disclosed on how the Shikai and Bankai works in this story (as well as Zanpakutos in general). The Vizard scenes were honestly pretty fun to write if I'm being honest here. One more thing though I'm going to put up a poll asking if you guys think it would be a good idea to introduce an encyclopedia side story, so I may better explain things such as the Vizards, Shinigamis or even the Zanpakuto. The poll will also be asking if you would like to see "trailers" for team RIOT, similar to the RWBY trailers they would give insight to what the members were doing before they came to Beacon. Now, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, 'till next time.(Edit: I forgot to mention the poll is located at my profile so if you wish to vote just visit my page)
