Interlude A: Shattered Beginnings

(Akira POV)

A small flash danced across my eyes as I saw the scene before me, a happy human couple with their children no younger than I am. They seemed happy, they didn't care to see me, and to them I was a lowly Wolf Faunus child who ran away from home and out in the rain as they were dry under their umbrellas. No matter where I went, I always saw this whenever I turned a corner, a happy couple, a lovely family, all of them, human. Every time I see this very type of moments passing by, all I ever do is turn and run away as far as I can. I can never really ever face anything like this at all. How long has it been, a year? Two? I left the White Fang on purpose; I didn't want to stay there when everything went down the dark path.

The rain, it sometimes taunts me since it could go whenever it could, but I can't, there are always reminders of my past no matter where I go. I never get it really, but whenever I was alone, the rain was there for me, comforting me as I silently cried myself to sleep.

I always had Jeweled Ventus with me no matter where I went. I always had one in each hand, yet no one seemed to notice. Maybe because I hid my wolf ears under my hood and tail curled around one of my legs. Maybe they thought I was an orphan human girl, an easy mistake since they couldn't see the truth. The Faunus deserve as much as they do, but how could I do anything to help without being mistaken as a Faunus sympathizer when I already was a Wolf Faunus.

I knew all this all too well.

It wasn't like I had a choice. It was either drown in the darkness that is to come from the White Fang or find my own way, my own path, my own freedom. My own redemption. Humans needed enough proof that the Faunus and humans are equals without the need of violence, that's what Grandfather had attempted to do. What Uncle has planned in his twisted mind, is different, straying from the path already ahead of us.

"Little girl," a man asked once when he found me asleep on a park bench with Jeweled Ventus underneath the bench, "Are you okay?"

"Who….who are you?" I asked.

"Just someone who wants to help you little wolf," he said as I noticed my hood had fallen from its usual place, exposing me as a Wolf Faunus to everyone in the park.

"What do you want?" I asked before noticing the stripes that danced across his skin and orange ears with the same stripes sticking out of his somewhat messed up hair that seemed to be kept in a ponytail.

"If it isn't obvious enough little wolf," he said, "My name is Tai; I'm here to help you. Can you trust me?"

Without knowing, I did trust him, he introduced me to Masumi, his human wife afterwards, and they took me in. As the years had passed by, I was training in combat school, attempting to live a normal life for a Faunus as the shadows of my past always crept up behind me and the birth of Felina. I knew it wasn't enough, when I heard of Beacon Academy, I knew that was where my future led to, to become a huntress and protect the world from one threat as society dealt with the other.

All of that was slipping past my fingers now, seeing the destruction in front of us, of what had happened to our room. That goal is now further away than ever before, without them how could we ever think of continuing on? All the hard work from even making our weapons, what was left?

On the floor in front of me, there were six tears. ASPR, Faunus, betrayal, hope, future and disappointment as what in front of us was the outcome of those six tears I've kept back for all these years.