A/N: Over a hundred followers on some dumb writing exercise. Words could not even begin to describe my confusion.
Well, I can at least say thank you for showing interest in this story. All things considered, you guys rock.
Here's a long chapter. A thank you of sorts.
Finally, the day of the acquisition had come.
Kaneki stood in the shadows of some freight containers, observing the procedure but keeping his distance as to not distract the white fang. It had been a couple months since his last mission. Curiously enough, he hadn't received anything as risky as that until now, having to stay content with looking at property in Vale. Not that he minded.
But now the mission arrived, at the specified time on the dot. Schnee Dust Company must have a low tolerance for tardiness. Which is good because Torchwick had been insufferable for the past few days.
Kaneki knew that the group he was apart of had criminal intent, he had accepted that when he first learned of Cinder's goals.
That did not change the fact that he saw Roman as barely anything more than scum. His feelings were known to the crook, but he didn't really care as evidenced by the way he treated the White Fang grunts in Kaneki's presence.
Kaneki could respect the White Fang. The way society treated faunus was appalling and the SDC mines were abhorrent, at best. They weren't even a threat like ghouls so the discrimination didn't make any sense to him. Really, at the end of the day, they were just people doing what they thought was right. Fighting to claim their place in the world.
Kind of contrasting from him fighting to keep his place in his own.
He respected them, so he didn't care for how Roman treated them. The yelling, the threatening, the harassment and worse, it all grated on Kaneki. However, knowledge of his presence would impede work due to the fact that the faunus seemed scared of him. So he took to staying in the shadows, able to keep an eye on Torchwick without causing incident.
And in his experience, incidents normally end up in chaos.
"Hey! What's the holdup!?" The crook yelled at the grunts unloading crates from the containers. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" Kaneki rolled his open eye, becoming increasingly irritated. He would be more so, had he not just smelt someone new approaching fast. Roman didn't however as he was busy berating someone else.
"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" A few moments passed before he found a blade at his throat. "What the-" It did take a moment for his predicament to sink in. "Oh, for f-"
"Nobody move!" The female assailant behind him shouted at the grunts now aiming rifles at her. That assailant turned out to be that faunus off of Team RWBY. Something Belladonna, Kaneki couldn't quite remember.
"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady." Roman said.
She undid her bow in a fluid motion, revealing a pair of black cat ears. "Brothers of the White Fang! why are you aiding this scum?" She asked them.
Kaneki quickly made the connection easily with it being flung into his face. It wasn't expected but that didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that his mission required him to intervene, unfortunately. Torchwick smirked at the smaller girl. The ghoul zipped up his hoodie.
"Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?" He asked rhetorically.
"What are you talking about?" The cat faunus didn't seem to quite understand the current situation. However, considering the look the crook had on his face, that would be remedied in a less than subtle fashion.
"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!" The girl brought the blade closer to his neck.
"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation." She all but growled at him. Torchwick's smirk just grew. Suddenly, all the bullheads in the area started rising. The girl's eyes widened in shock.
"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation." The crook said teasingly. After flipping up his hood he realised that this was where he stepped in.
While the Belladonna girl was distracted, he sprinted over. Before the the girl could react, he moved the blade away from Torchwick's neck, and kicked her in the stomach.
Her aura protected her somewhat, but it didn't stop her from flying off. Or landing painfully. She looked up at her assailant, bristling at his lack of any discernible aura.
Kaneki looked at his hand, observing a cut left by the blade with some surprise. He turned his head by a fraction towards Roman.
"Please leave." The ghoul said, eye returning to the now healed cut. The crook shrugged half-heartedly.
"Hey, who am I to question such a solid plan?" He said before walking off to a bullhead that hadn't risen yet. The girl hopped of and started running at him.
"Get back here!" She shouted. Kaneki lazily kicked her, forcing her back and away from Torchwick. "Out of my way!" She yelled at him.
"I apologise, Ms. Belladonna, but that won't be possible." The ghoul droned. Her eyes widened.
"How do y-" Her question was cut short when some blonde faunus with a monkey tail descended onto Kaneki, rushing forward and swinging a staff which forced the ghoul to retreat a short distance.
"Need some help?" The blonde asked the ravenette, a smirk on his face. She nodded towards him before turning back to Kaneki, shivering slightly but readying her weapon nonetheless. The monkey faunus looked the ghoul before shivering himself. "Well aren't you freaky?"
What little of the ghoul's visible expression didn't change. Instead he simply extended his arm, beckoning them forward. Then he cracked a finger.
The monkey faunus rushed forward with staff collapsed in two nunchakus. Kaneki would have been a bit more aggressive had he not noticed the gun barrels at the last second. The shots forced him to dodge faster while staying his ground. After several seconds of close calls however, a large enough opening emerged for a vicious kick. The force sent the faunus flying, landing gracefully on his feet before clutching his side with a wince
"Sun! You alright?" The Belladonna girl asked. The boy named Sun raised a single hand, giving a shaky wave of dismissal. She nodded, turning away from him to focus on the ghoul. Her eyes hardened, readying her weapon.
And then she began bouncing off some shadow clones.
The ghoul recoiled, barely dodging an attack that would have rendered his throat rather useless.
The cat faunus refused to let up. Attack after attack came in, blade and gun. Kaneki was able to dodge the attacks however, and was even able to throw in a few dead-on hits. But they were too light to do any significant damage to the girl's aura, and slowly she was beginning to push him back. And it was at this moment that the monkey faunus had decided to jump back into the fight.
Bullet after bullet whizzed passed the ghoul's face, his insane reflexes keeping him from getting brain all over the floor. The faunus pair were putting on more pressure and were gonna push him into a wall if he didn't do something soon.
So, he went on the offensive.
When another swing of one of the monkey faunus' nunchucks came down upon him, the ghoul grabbed it and pulled, yanking the blonde in his direction and a kick to the stomach. The first direct hit was his, and it was time to push the advantage.
Painful attacks wailed on the monkey faunus. When he seemed dazed enough, Kaneki did one of the cruellest things you can do to a man with your foot. And the force of said attack sent the monkey flying like a massive bullet right into the Belladonna girl.
Who 'shadow-stepped' above said bullet.
"Sorry." She called behind her.
Kaneki scowled at the ravenette. His mask did a good job of hiding his annoyance. It was a good thing he had thought of a way deal with the cat faunus.
He started running towards her, feigning a direct charge. She unknowingly did the same thing. Unlike the last time however, Kaneki was ready.
Time slowed as she hopped left, leaving a clone in her wake. The ghoul raised his right arm, aiming at the now dissipating shadow. The cat faunus stabbed at him from
And thatwas when he raised his left arm and punched her in the face.
He thought he heard her nose break but he wasn't quite sure. The sounds she was making supported the possibility. Sounds that were replaced with a pained groan. He sighed as he cracked another finger. He would have rather not fought her, but that would have led to her facing Roman.
"Hey!" A young female voice cried from a distance. Kaneki turns to the source to find the Rose girl on top of some containers. Kaneki was lucky enough to find a sizeable chunk of debris at his feet. The small red-head turned to talk to someone.
The ghoul murmured something before picking up the debris and flinging it at high speeds towards the cloaked girl, who turned at just the right moment to get it straight to the side of her face. The rock knocked her away a bit just as another person appeared in his line of view, some ginger with green eyes he had never seen before. Whoever she was, she wasn't happy with what he just did.
Suddenly, several swords appeared from behind her, each appearing to be floating but actually. Kaneki did a brief scan of the area. The White Fang and Roman were leaving, that meant that some of the dust was on the bullheads. The girl, whoever she was, would more than likely be a detriment to his mission and attack his charge.
It seemed like now was a good time to actually get serious. It also helped that he still needed to test those patches.
He had a few of the purple purple patches in the slots on his arms. Why not try those out?
The ghoul took his hoodie of in order to decrease the chance of ripping it. And from behind him appeared a purple tentacle rather than the usual red one, with a gray tip.
The ghoul awed at the 'upgrade' to his kagune, before turning back to see several swords fly at him. Instinctively he started dodging the blades, his exposed kagune increasing his agility to the point where he was bouncing off the swords to avoid them.
A new blade came rushing towards him. But instead of dodging like before, he hopped into the air, landed on the blade, and sprung at the one who was controlling them.
More blades rushed towards him, yet he continued to jump between them, getting closer to his attacker, who's hard glare remained unchanged as he neared.
He did one final leap before finding himself in the air high above the sword girl. He didn't see the Rose girl though. Maybe he knocked her back further than he had intended. It didn't really matter.
What mattered was the sword flying in the towards his chest. He couldn't dodge, It was too close for him to move in time. All he really had access to was his kagune. It seemed like it was time to find out exactly what had changed. He didn't have much choice in the matter.
He covered his chest with his kagune, and as the blade zoomed closer, some sort of rock-type substance formed around the tip and went downward, covering a large strip of the tentacle. The blade smacked against the substance before rebounding off and flying into the ginger girl's hand. The rock disintegrated, leaving him open but unharmed.
The ghoul had landed on the container. Another blade whizzed over his head, whizzing past his hair by an inch or so. The blade came around again, aiming for his back. With a flick of his tentacle another strip of rock formed on it and batted the sword off course leaving it to fly into the girl's other free hand expertly. The rest of the swords formed a floating, compact semicircle at her back, keeping them all close to her.
Kaneki let out a soft, tuneless hum before cracking a finger.
Four blades came rushing from behind the girl. As did another purple tentacle from the ghoul. Each sword bounced off of the hard cracked surface before floating behind the girl again.
"I apologise for attacking your friend, but no one can interfere." The ghoul said. "Please, leave." The first of the bullheads started leaving.
"You hurt her, I feel it's only right if I reciprocate." The girl said. The blades at her back flourishing.
"Then I also apologise for what happens next." The rock on Kaneki's kagune formed a sharp point as it stabbed at the girl who skilfully dived out of the way. She sent out her own barrage of swing blade while sprinting directly at him. The ghoul did the same.
Sparks flew as metal and rock clashed. The girl could hit harder than the ghoul had expected. She blew through his blocks, leaving him open for a heavier attacks. Kaneki was annoyed of aura-boosted strength as he dodged a would be disembowelment. The flying swords and rocky kagune slammed into each other above, delivering and deflecting removing any advantage either opponent had.
The girl had the advantage of aura shielding though, meaning even with the heavy damage Kaneki was dealing, she was shrugging it all off.
That is until Kaneki saw the girl's eyes widen and pupils dilate as she took the heaviest punch Kaneki had dealt that day. She was knocked back considerably, her swords were falling out of the air, and she appeared to have the wind knocked out of her. The ghouls saw the opportunity and undid the zip on his mask and went to bite her. Just as his teeth were mere centimetres away, he realised that he couldn't actually smell her.
But it was too late.
Chomp, smash, an almost immediate pain.
"AHH!" The ghoul yelled after recoiling, the inside of his mouth visibly cut up on jagged metal. "fffff-ARGH!" He looked upward and saw the 'girl' hold her now exposed metal shoulder as she worriedly checked the wiring in it.
It would make sense, kind of. The heaviness of her hits, his inability to move her. It didn't explain why it felt like he was hitting a regular person. Did her aura do that? Was a robot even capable of generating aura? Now that he though about it, Cinder mentioned the military working on artificial aura...
The ghoul made in animalistic growl as he zipped up his mask. The cuts in his mouth had healed but blood continued to run from his mouth and out of his mask.
Bullets whizzed passed the ghouls head. Turning towards the source revealed the Belladonna girl had fired the from her weapon. It also revealed that she had quite the black-eye.
The cat faunus fired several more rounds that Kaneki blocked with his rock kagune.
The same kagune that was quickly turning red.
Kaneki checked his forearm to find the dust patches almost completely drained, sans a few slithers of purple. It was also at this time that he heard sirens.
"I should leave." The ghoul's kagune retreated, as he ran to pull his hood over his head. Several more bullets were fired at him until he kicked the cat faunus' weapon away from. "Give my apologies to Miss Rose." And then he leapt from container to container, leaving the docks.
The first thing that came to Ruby's mind as she regained consciousness was 'Blake.'
The second was 'Oww!'
The red-head groaned as she rose off of the tarmac. Pretty weird as she remembered being on top of a container talking to someone before-
she looked next to her see a large rock covered in blood.
Oh right.
She half opened Crescent Rose to look at her own reflection. What she unfortunately found was lip bloodies, her cheek swollen and purple, and her eye bruised and bloodshot. She didn't dare touch it, the risk of pain was best avoided.
"Ruby!" She heard a familiar voice call. Turning to see Blake, her recently revealed cat faunus friend, who seemed to be in similar bad shape. Shining black eye, nose bent out of place; All marks that get left by a brutal beating. It really upset Ruby.
Her friend walked briskly toward her. "Hey Ruby." The ravenette said curtly.
"Hi Blake." Ruby responded, a slight lisp to her words. "Oh great." She muttered.
She looked around to see some police arriving. "Think we'll get in trouble?" She asked.
"We're registered Huntresses-in-training." Blake said. She began grimacing for some reason. "As far as they're concerned, we saved the day." She lifted the cloaked girl to her feet, who did the best frown she could under the circumstances.
"We didn't?" Ruby asked. The faunus just shrugged.
"We really didn't." Blake looked at the sky for a bit. "Not only did Torchwick and the White Fang escape with a lot of dust, but there's also some out there who doesn't have any aura whatsoever and can still beat us." Ruby looked up as well.
"So..." Ruby started, wondering what to say.
"So..." Blake parroted.
"...You're a faunus." Ruby got a nod for confirmation. "What kind?" It didn't seem like a rude question to ask.
"Cat." Blake simply stated, wiggling her bow. Then she smiled. "Thanks for not freaking out." She said.
Ruby did her own smile. Well, half-smile. "It's no big deal." Blake didn't look convinced.
"I don't think Weiss shares your sentiment." Blake motions her to some boxes, where they promptly take a seat.
"She came looking as well, y'know." Ruby offered. "She may a little rough around the edges but considering her...background, can she really be blamed for that?"
"No, you're right." Blake looked at her feet sadly. "It's just that..."
"We can talk about this later." The cloaked girl told her. "Currently, I think your friend could use some help." The ravenette turned to see Sun walking towards them, limping slightly with a grimace on his face.
"You alright?" She asked the blonde. He gave a pained nod and waved in dismissal.
"I'll be fine. I'm just kinda pissed at that guy." Blake nodded slowly before noticing other faunus' look.
"I'm fine." She confirmed. "My aura should heal me by tomorrow." Sun nodded before excusing himself. "See you later."
"Ruby! Blake! What happened!?" Yang was barrelling down towards them at Mach speed, followed closely by Weiss, both looking mortified.
Blake stood to confront Weiss. "Weiss, I-"
"Look, Blake." Weiss interrupted her. "I've had a lot of time to think about this, and I've decided I don't care." Blake's non-swollen eye widened.
"You-"
"I don't, Blake." Weiss insisted. "If we must, we'll take about it later. After you received medical attention." Blake was about to protest, But crumbled under Ruby and Yang's puppy eyes.
Ruby sighed contently. Sure they may have not saved the day, but they did get Blake back and Weiss seemed to be acting fine around her. So all in all, everything seemed fine. Then her eyes shot up in realisation.
"Where's Penny?"
"You can't be blamed for the events that occurred. You should however be able to handle them." Two men sat in the car with Penny, each studying the large 'wound' in her shoulder.
"I know." The automaton looked down at her feet. "I was unprepared and put too much strain on my aura."
"You shouldn't get too upset. If your opponent was able to push you to the edge of your limits in the way you described, there was little you could do." The man wearing a lab coat began tinkering with a small cubic device of sorts. "The date we'll extract will allow you to effectively deal with them should another battle between you occur. An experienced opponent is still not a high level threat to you." Penny's eyes hardened, not actually focused on anything
"It's more than that." She insisted. "He was strong. And definitely faster than me. It also feels like...that wasn't his best."
"You believe he was being easy on you?" The second man asked. He was noticeably larger than the other man, sporting the uniform of an Atlesian officer.
"No, but..." Penny struggled to find the correct words. "He bit me."
"Bit you?"
"Because he thought I was human." She said. "What kind of person bites other people?"
"The mad kind." The man in the lab coat said. "And if he did it in the middle of battle, a very dangerous one."
"I feel like being ready next time won't keep me intact." Penny said. "I need to be stronger, and faster." The man in the officer uniform look expectantly at the other man, who sighed exasperatedly.
"I'll see what I can do." He said finally. "For the mean time Penny, I recommend avoiding him at all cost."
"Alright." She returned to her dejected state, slumping slightly in her seat. "Next time..." She muttered.
"Next time I will be able to protect my friend."
A/N: Things may or may not slow down, uploading wise. Many reasons as to why. I'm not going to dive into any of them.
Next chapter will bridge the gap between seasons 1 and 2, meaning something more like a regular sized chapter. It'll be good though, I promise.
Well, thank you for joining me. Hope to see you next time.