Chapter 22 Bittersweet Reunion
(Yoko POV)
Akira was going somewhere else while Nora and Ruby were playing with the puppies while I've been holding off the urges to tussle with the older wolves like Yang. Blake was reading in a tree with Weiss accompanying her and Ren, Jaune and Phyrra were training. Honestly why did they want Akira?
"Hey Yoko?" Blake said looking up from her book, "Akira will be fine."
(Akira POV)
"Gr…grandfather?" I asked.
"Akira, it's nice to see you again and healthy too," he said giving me that warm hug that I've missed for so long.
"But, you're supposed to be dead!" I said.
"Right supposed," he said.
"You faked your death?!" I asked.
"Yes, there was a reason, involving my son," he said, "He wanted to kill me and yourself with your parents."
"I knew he was power hungry but not that power hungry," I muttered.
"And to know that he was going to poison me as well," he said, "well then, my ailing friend was the one who offered to take my place as long as I remained in hiding, so here I am, living with a pack."
"Does that mean then, that my parents are here then?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Grandfather asked.
"Wait…are they really…dead?" I asked as Grandfather's tail was drooping now.
"I thought they were alive. I thought your mother became the new leader," Grandfather said.
"Well obviously she didn't," I said, "Uncle is leading the White Fang now. Well more or less bringing it to an end. I'm sorry for coming here, my team and friends will just be staying for the night and leave at morning after breakfast, that is if there is any." I was turning away from him now. The last off my family that I could trust.
"Wait Akira!" Grandfather said.
"No, it's okay, you seem to like your isolation," I said trying not to cry in front of him, "I understand, we'll set up camp outside your new pack's territory."
(Yoko POV)
Akira finally left the cave after what seemed like hours and something wasn't right.
"Everyone, we need to set up camp somewhere else, away from this pack," Akira said already leaving.
"Wha…what's wrong?" Nora asked.
"It's nothing," Akira said, "It's just, I think that it would be better if we were to camp out."
"You just want to get as far away possible in the Silver Woods from here," Shawn said.
"That's basically the reason why," Akira said, "Okay we'll find a way to get food until we make it back to the airship," Akira said, "We should head out now, back in the direction of how we got here."
Honestly, now she was just running as much as she could. I could tell Ren was already exhausted from all his panting and Jaune was about to pass out as we made it back to the clearing with the airship we were on was.
Ren was making dinner I suppose in a small, kitchen-like area while everyone else was doing something. I found Akira in a dark corner of what we made to be where the beds are, or as Yang called it, a big slumber party. Her wolf ears were drooping, tail wrapped around her ankles.
"Are you okay leader?" I asked sitting down next to her.
"Huh? Oh Yoko," Akira said looking up, "I don't know really."
"So what happened then?" I asked, "Earlier, when you went into that cave alone with the wolf?"
"Turns out my grandfather is still alive and my parents are still dead," Akira said, "Grandfather didn't want to accept death, so he had swapped places with another Wolf Faunus that looked almost identical to him with just the wolf tail. If only they had checked the blood, then I would have known he was still alive. He didn't even know his own daughter was dead."
"So your father took her last name then, isn't it usually the other way around?" I asked.
"Traditionally yes, but my parents agreed to use my mom's last name, otherwise then I'd be Akira Duncewood," Akira said, "But I'm also glad they didn't follow traditions, because I honestly prefer Akira Fang more."
"I do to," I said, "why don't we keep this as our little secret?"
"Sure," Akira said, "we should hurry if we want dinner."
"If you want to, or I could bring you dinner here, and we could have a moonlight dinner, it's not the same as candlelight, but we can't exactly light any candles here even if we wanted to," I said which caused her to laugh a little.
"I'll keep that in mind," Akira said, "but I'll be fine with eating with everyone else."
The evening was as energetic as whenever we had lunch, with Blake reading her book as usual, Nora retelling another one of her reoccurring dreams with Ren correcting her as everyone else was doing something. Akira was unlike usual, was more quiet than ever, maybe even quieter than Velvet herself, but she was listening at least. But she did acknowledge the others when they were talking to her. Afterwards, everyone was playing the games RWBY and JNPR brought and afterwards finally fell asleep. Before the sun even rose, the airship was already on its course back to Beacon Academy. Poor Jaune, he's going to have to wake up to having motion sickness.
Arriving back wasn't really much of an event except one thing, when we arrived back to the ASPR dorm room, Akira was shocked when she opened the door, when the rest of us saw what had happened it was what happened to our room. Everything was ruined, our weapons and armor, which I did remember being in our lockers, dented up, battered, shattered.
END OF FIRST ARC