The perspectives for this chapter bounce around a bit, but it's all still pretty comprehensible. I hope.
Also, I have been keeping up with Volume 9. And let me just say:
Holy fuck.
"Drink it."
"But I hate coffee."
"Drink. It."
"I like tea way more-owowow ok!" A young boy drank from the mug before him, wincing and trying to ignore the migraine the annoying voice that had decided to take up residence in his head sent his way.
"Ah. That's much better." The voice, who claimed to be the deceased Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy, let out a sigh within his head. "Thank you, Oscar. It has been much too long since I've had a good cup of coffee."
Oscar Pine sighed as he couldn't believe his life ended up looking like something out of a divine comedy. "I will thank you to not reference anything 'divine' while we are travelling. Anything of that nature has long abandoned this world."
"That's easy for you to say." Oscar frowned at the mug before him. The dark brown liquid swirled like the world's most uninviting whirlpool. "I've got a wizard in my head. How is this not a God making fun of me?"
"Well for one, the Gods had no sense of humour." A disembodied chuckle echoed in his head, causing Oscar's hazel-green eyes to frown. "And I am not a wizard. That term is outdated by several thousand years."
Oscar took another sip of the coffee, wincing at the bitter taste. He looked around the small coffee shop that 'Ozpin' had told him to stop at. It was bad enough that the voice had suddenly appeared and told him to run from home, but now he was dealing with another person's coffee addiction.
"It is not an addiction. I simply wish to share my exquisite taste with you." "If you want taste then why don't you drink some tea-eow!" He clutched his head, as the barista looked over to him with some concern.
He gave an awkward smile, before bringing the mug up and taking a deep gulp, hopefully shutting up the voice in his head for a brief moment. "Ahh. That's the stuff. I do not understand the youth's obsession with tea is nowadays. You would have gotten along well with Mr. Cullen."
"Who?" Oscar asked, setting the mug down and raising an eyebrow.
"Crue Cullen is a student at Beacon Academy. Or, was now that it has fallen. A rather good one, I am happy to say, despite his belief that tea was better than coffee." Oscar agreed with this student and felt the annoyance of Ozpin make itself known within his head.
"And, I think he might have known more than he wished to tell me about the Fall." Ozpin's words were quiet. Contemplating. Oscar listened to the man with a grain of salt, still not completely certain he hadn't gone insane.
"That name sounds familiar." He muttered. His home didn't have a tv, but they did have a radio. While it took away some of the spectacle, listening to the Vytal Festival was the only way he had to appreciate it.
Oscar's imagination had run wild at the descriptions of Huntsmen and Huntresses duking it out to claim the title of strongest Hunter in Remnant. "Strongest Hunter-in-training." Came Ozpin's correcting voice. "As strong as I would like to say my students were, a fully fledged Huntsman who had been in the field for several years would mop the floor with them."
Well, that made sense to Oscar. The older you got the stronger you got. And if you spent all that time fighting Grimm and other Huntsmen you would definitely be able to beat some students. He tried to remember all of the names of the competitors that had fought, but being on a farm in the middle of nowhere meant that he wasn't all that caught up on famous fighters.
"Did he fight in the tournament?" Oscar asked, bringing the coffee up once more.
"Not willingly." He heard Ozpin sigh. "Something he was keen to remind me of. I should have seen the signs and listened to him when he asked me to stop the festival." Despite the fact that Oscar should probably not show sympathy to some strange voice in his head, he found himself feeling sorry for him.
"He asked you to stop it?"
"Yes. After a dear friend of his had been tricked into attacking someone when they had no Aura, and he himself had nearly been tricked into attacking a friend of his own." Oscar knew what Ozpin was talking about.
It was all the people on the radio could talk about, a competitor called 'Yang Xiao-Long' had attacked her opponent after already beating him, breaking his leg and crippling him. "I can assure you, that is not what truly happened."
"Someone with a hallucinatory Semblance tricked her. The same person who tried to trick Mr. Cullen." Oscar finally realised where he recognised the name from. That was the person who cursed live on air for all of Remnant to hear!
A laugh sounded out within his head. "Of course, that's what made him so memorable." He had an image of Ozpin wiping a tear from his eye, granted he didn't know what the man actually looked like, so he had to think something up.
"I assure you, I do not look like the mentor character from that strange magical girl comic you read." A blush spread over Oscar as he hunched his shoulders and stared downward. How was it Ozpin could see his memories without trying, but he had to concentrate to even think of one.
"I have had an unfortunate amount of practice in this scenario. You are not the first to be in this position, Oscar. But you are the first to not share my love of coffee." His voice took on a humorous edge, as Oscar reluctantly drank more of the coffee.
He willed himself through the rest of the drink, before standing up and brushing down his scuffed shirt. He wanted to leave a tip, but he had barely enough Lien to get the coffee in the first place. He personally found it a waste of money.
"Say what you will, but it will help fuel you to your next destination. If I recall correctly, the next town over has a train station." Oscar nodded to himself as he exited the coffeeshop. It was the nearest town to his farm. His home.
His home and Aunt that he abandoned because of the man in his head telling him to. "I would like to apologise, but I am afraid this is a necessity. One born of time running out." Ozpin explained gently in his head.
Oscar said nothing as he walked through the town. A part of him, a very small part, had always wanted to be like the Heroes he had read about in his stories and comics. But he had always imagined it happening like one would the heavens deciding to suddenly rain Lien.
A dream, one unobtainable for a simple farmhand. Even if he had killed the occasional smaller Grimm with a pitchfork on his farm, this was so far out of his depth that he would probably be more comfortable at the bottom of the Everest Trench.
"Believe me, you would not want to be down there. Some of the largest and most dangerous Grimm known to Remnant call that place their home." Ozpin's voice warned.
Oscar gulped slightly, imagining what monsters he might have to face on his journey. "Do not worry, Oscar. I will be able to protect us."
"You're a disembodied voice in a fourteen-year-old's head." He countered. When Ozpin said nothing, he was a bit worried that he might have actually had a point.
"Could you take a few paces back, Oscar?" Ozpin requested. Oscar frowned in confusion briefly, but did so, wondering what it was he wanted. He felt his eyes move, not of his own accord, to an electronic display in a shop window.
It showed a news bulletin, a rather pretty girl with red hair and green eyes staring out under a headline, next to a Faunus with dirty blonde hair and piercing steel blue eyes. Oscar felt himself shiver involuntarily. He had heard the howls of wolves while working on the farm during the later hours, and they always made his hair stand on end.
The eyes of the Faunus had the same effect. Like he was being hunted. He broke eye contact from the picture to read the headline. "Nikos Speaks Out: Cullen Not Behind Fall Of Beacon" Well, that was a good thing, Oscar figured.
"Oh." Oscar wondered what had Ozpin so down, before he read the quote under her picture. "Gave his life to save me." Oscar felt Ozpin's presence briefly dim, as if he was trying not to let his host know how much the words affected him.
Oscar himself felt a shared sense of sadness. He wondered if it was Ozpin's memories and feelings of Crue leaking in, or his own empathy for the fact someone died. "It's not just that." Came Ozpin's voice, surprisingly quiet.
"A student lost their life, while under my care. While I ignored his requests to prevent it. How can I call myself a teacher when I allowed such a thing to happen." Oscar didn't know how many people died at the Fall of Beacon, from what he'd heard on the radio the death count was surprisingly low for such a tragedy.
A combination of the Huntsmen presence, the Atlesian robots returning to normal, and a mob boss of all things, meant Vale was left practically untouched from the attack. "These deaths are still on my hands."
Oscar didn't know what to say. If there was anything he even could say. To help ease Ozpin's burden. "Most of all…" He continued unprompted. "I feel as though I have betrayed an old friend." Oscar tilted his head in confusion.
"You were friends with your student?" He asked. It would make sense, he supposed. Teachers are meant to be nice to their pupils.
"Not exactly." Ozpin didn't want to seem to elaborate, so he let it go. Oscar continued to read the bulletin, wondering if there was anything that would make things seem a bit brighter.
"Well, at least Pyrrha Nikos is alive. Was she your student too?" He asked. He knew of Pyrrha Nikos, of course. But, in the same way one might know an actor starred in a lot of movies, without having seen any of them.
"Yes. She was. And I am grateful that she is alive. Though it appears her attackers are still at large." Ozpin said, reading more. Cinder Fall, Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai had survived the Fall. Oscar found the images off to the side as a set of wanted posters.
Three faces looked at him, each with a bounty listed beneath but a warning that they were extremely dangerous criminals. The bounties were promised to be fulfilled by the Council of Mistral and Vale. And also, Atlas, curiously enough.
His eyes scanned the other bounties, and they landed on the one with the highest reward. There was no face or name, simply a helmet and an epithet. Oscar wondered what this person called 'The Wolf' did to get such a high bounty.
Ozpin did not hold such wonder, as Oscar suddenly felt his anger skyrocket. "Oh, James you mother-"
…
"-fucker!" "RUBY!" "Eep! I'm sorry!"
Ruby covered her mouth, and briefly considered washing it out with soap as her three companions stared at her in shock. They knew where she had acquired such a colourful vocab, of course, but it was still a surprise to see cute and innocent Ruby Rose cursing in a way that would leave sailors impressed.
"It's just, how could Atlas endorse this!?" She asked angrily, staring at the wanted poster of 'The Wolf'. "He's dead! It's like they're mocking him!" She ground her teeth together angrily, her silver eyes glaring at the image.
Jaune, Ren and Nora all glanced to each other. Ruby had shared with them that Crue had apparently been working against Cinder for long before the Fall, using the disguise of The Wolf to stop her without drawing attention to himself.
"Maybe it's an old poster?" Jaune tried, giving an awkward scratch of his head. Ruby didn't seem to agree, if the way she pouted and crossed her arms was any indication. Jaune sighed, letting his hand fall and rest on the hilt of his newly upgraded sword.
"I think Crue'd be happy with it." Nora said, bringing a hand to her chin and looking thoughtfully at the poster. The rest of Team 'RNJR' looked at her in some amount of confusion.
"Why do you think that, Nora?" Ren asked, raising a raven eyebrow.
"Cause look!" She pointed to the reward for The Wolf's capture. "It's higher than hers!" She gave a dismissive gesture towards the other posters, pointedly ignoring the image of the ones who tried to destroy their school. "Can you imagine how much that would annoy her?"
Ruby re-examined the poster, and found that Nora was right. Surprisingly. The Wolf's bounty was several thousand higher than Cinder, and it gave her a feeling of hollowed vindication. Even in death, Crue managed to somehow do something that would piss off Cinder.
Ruby let out a sigh and a nod. "Yeah. He'd probably hold it over her and make fun of her for it." She still couldn't believe that Crue had been The Wolf all along. "And I shot him in the faaaace." She groaned mentally.
She doubted Crue held it against her, seeing as he was literally with her the next day and acted as though nothing was wrong. Also, she didn't know it was Crue at the time! So yeah! There was no way her brother would hold her accountable for shooting him!
At least, she hoped not in whatever afterlife Crue was in. She knew that he didn't believe in a god, and she didn't blame him after he explained his reasons. Watching his family be torn apart in front of him, Ruby would imagine there wouldn't be a lot of people who turned away from religion after that.
"No one else knew of his persona, correct?" Ren spoke up, shaking Ruby from her thoughts. When she nodded, the boy grew a small smile. "Then it makes sense. They do not know Crue was The Wolf. In their eyes, they are simply warning people of a dangerous criminal."
Ruby didn't hate Ren. She didn't think it physically possible to hate him, considering his kind demeanour and voice. But that didn't mean she didn't hate the fact he could usually find a logical answer for anything.
Ruby grumbled, crossing her arms and gently laying a hand on the sunglasses that hung from her corset. She let out a breath, before nodding. "I'm still gonna get mad at whoever put that up there." She decided.
Considering an angry Ruby Rose would probably just pout and give whoever caused her anger a set of puppy dog eyes, the others nodded in acceptance. They were fairly annoyed at whoever put a bounty on him as well, and probably would have some choice words for the person in question.
Regardless of their current anger at wanted posters, they had completed their goal within Gipan. It had taken a few days to find the Gheist, but once they did, they had done their job as Huntsmen and slayed the Grimm.
Idly, Jaune looked down at his new armour. A pure white chest plate with silver trimmings and gauntlets in a similar style. Other than his sword and shield, he hadn't made many changes to his outfit. Certainly not to the scale his friends had.
Jaune took out a map to make sure they knew where they were going before leaving Gipan. "Ok, the next town should be… Shion."
…
"Oh ho! What a strike! And Sun bounces back once more! But what's this?! It's Crue Cullen with a Nikos Necktrap!"
"Whitely?"
The youngest Schnee panicked, immediately switching off the television to whirl around and see who had called him. To his surprise, his sister was standing in the doorway to the massive living room within the Schnee Manor.
"Hello, Weiss." Whitley stood up calmly, linking his hands behind his back in an attempt to hide his shaking hands. The room was rarely used, as no one in the Schnee family usually wanted to spend time with one another.
So, Whitley thought it was safe to do some research and spend some time in. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Weiss' pale blue eyes flickered to the turned off projector. "Why were you watching that?" She asked. "I thought you considered the Huntsman lifestyle 'barbaric'."
Whitely swallowed, having been caught out. "I, I do. Completely barbaric." He said, trying to regain some composure. "I just, wanted to see what kind of a person the one you held so dear was like." His eyes glanced back to where the projection had been.
"I did not realise he was a Faunus."
"Is that a problem?" Weiss' scowl was nothing new to Whitley, but he was happy to say that he hadn't seen it much since she had come home. Since she had begun to actually treat him like a brother.
Whitely wanted to say 'No'. But, being left alone with Father and his views made it somewhat difficult to let them go. "I'm just surprised." He decided on. "With everything that our company has done, to think a Faunus would be friends with a Schnee is… strange."
"He's not the only Faunus friend I made in Beacon." Weiss said, crossing her arms and looking off into the distance. "But, he was probably the only one to not know who I was, or what our family has done."
"He had amnesia." Whitley said before he could stop himself. When he saw Weiss' look of surprise and questioning, the younger Schnee swallowed. "I, also watched the final fight." Went unsaid was what came after it.
"If you believe that bitch Cinder Fall-" "I don't!" Whitely said quickly, backing up and falling onto the sofa with wide blue eyes. His expression told Weiss that he didn't, and she relented. Her own eyes blinked as she realised what she had said.
A faint blush sprang across her cheeks. "Please do not tell Father I swore." She requested.
Whitely nodded. "I can see where you got it from." He said, a slight laugh in his words. "I do not know the man well, but based on what you have told me, I get the feeling he would be quite happy that he managed to insult the one behind the attack in front of the entire world."
"He probably would." Weiss let out a sigh as she smiled. "I apologise for before. He, he has been under intense scrutiny from the rest of the world. And I did not want to find out you agreed with them."
"I believe you to be of sound judgement, Weiss." Whitely said. "Though, mayhaps not of sound vocabulary." He smirked as Weiss rolled her eyes and let out a small laugh.
A knocking on the door caught both their attention, as two sets of white hair turned. "Master Whitely. Miss Weiss." A short, somewhat heavyset man stood in the doorway, a smile playing beneath a large brown moustache. "Dinner is ready."
"Thank you, Klein." The two said as one, before looking at another in surprise.
"It is good to see the two of you getting along once more." Klein's eyes were yellow as he held both his hands together with a tilt of his head.
"Will Mother and Father be joining us?" Whitely asked, though it was more a pleasantry than anything else.
"I'm afraid not." Klein's eyes were downcast as he gave his answer. "They have both taken their meals in their respective rooms."
Both Schnee children nodded. It was to be expected, but that didn't help it hurt any less. They followed Klein out of the room, the butler leading the way. "If I may ask, Master Whitely, what were you watching? I could hear it from the kitchen."
"One of the fights of the Vytal Festival." Whitely answered. "Between Sun Wukong and Crue Cullen."
"Ah." Klein nodded. "The young lad with the hurley."
"You know what a hurley is?" Weiss spoke up, unable to keep the shock out of her voice. Her tone caused Klein to pause and turn around, looking at Weiss with an eyebrow raised over light brown eyes.
"Yes. It's used in hurling. The national sport of Hibernia." Klein explained. "Though I will say, they are commonly made out of wood. Very much unlike the one you have, Miss Weiss."
"I, I didn't know that." Weiss' hand automatically went to her side, despite the fact she had left her weapons in her room.
"How do you know this, Klein?" Whitely asked, a pure white eyebrow raised in curiosity.
The butler stood a bit straighter as his moustache bristled amusingly. "I will have you know, Master Whitely, that I used to be quite the deft hand with a hurley in my day." His eyes briefly turned red, as his expression turned into a frown. "Not that it mattered. I played against some dirty feckin' hurlers."
Weiss' eyes widened. The accent that Klein had just imitated was the same as Crue's. "You know how to use a hurley? Can, can you teach me?" Weiss looked at Klein with a determination in her eyes that surprised the butler.
"It, is quite the violent sport, Miss Weiss." Klein said slowly. "And I say that being fully aware of your training."
"But, don't sports usually disallow those with Aura?" Whitely spoke up. While it was a definite fact that the Vytal Festival, as well as the various tournaments between Huntsmen were a very popular thing to watch, sometimes people wanted to see a sport that didn't involve bullets and blades going every which way.
"You are correct, Master Whitley." Klein nodded with a smile to the youngest Schnee. "Hurley is included in that. But, you would be surprised to see how alike the sport is to a battle." He brought a hand up to his chin as he thought.
"I do believe I might have some videos of a few matches, if you would be interested." He offered.
"I would be very interested!" Weiss said, clasping her hands together as she smiled.
"I am quite intrigued, myself." Whitely gave a slow nod. Klein's moustache brimmed with happiness, seeing the two children agreeing on something. His yellow eyes twinkled as he turned on his heel and continued onward.
"Tonight's dinner is a savoury Mistralian dish known as 'Spanakopita'. It is a crispy dough with spinach and feta." He listed off the ingredients, before turning his head with a slight smile. "And for dessert, crepes!"
Weiss' and Whitley's smiles were shining as they glanced at each other in glee.
…
"I. Am. Bored. Out. Of. My. Fucking. Nut." Crue punctuated each word with a push of his arms as he continued to exercise. He had never been one for working out before, but he needed to keep in shape if he was to stand a chance against his enemies.
Plus, it helped distract him and prevent him from sleeping. He frowned as he ceased his push-ups, lying flat against the metal of the container and rolling over.
He stared upward into the night sky. He couldn't see the moon from his position, but he could make out the multitude of stars above him. "I wonder what the constellations are here…" He tried to make his own, connecting various stars together into vague shapes.
"The Reaper. The Princess. The Panther. The Dragon." He pointed from star to star as he let his head rest against his pack, the only thing he could rest his head on that wasn't metallic or straight. "The Knight. The Viking. The Warrior. The Ninja."
More and more constellations came into being, each a representation of those he missed. His eyes fell on a set of stars that seemed to swirl in on each other. A part of him wanted to call it 'The Lover', but he felt he might die a little inside if Neo ever found out about it.
"The Path." He decided, watching the stars spiral into darkness. The one he was hopefully on. The one that would lead him to her. His eyes flit to another set of stars, and immediately connected them almost unwillingly.
A simple circle with a line running halfway through it. Crue didn't need to think of a name for that one. He didn't need a reminder of his failure every time he looked into the night sky. Especially not when she was already looking to him.
He glanced to the side, seeing the girl he had failed. It was bad enough that she looked exactly the same as how she died. But, because this was Remnant, a world of Magic, Men and Monsters…
"I don't know if you're real. Or if you're just my own god damn guilt." Crue stared through the semi-transparent form of Penny Polendina. The figure stared back. Dull green eyes meeting his own of steel blue.
It didn't answer his question. It simply tilted its head to one side, unblinking, and spoke. No sound came from its mouth, but Crue felt his body shake as he understood the words. "I know it's my fault." He turned away, focusing on the grooves in one of the containers.
"That's why I'm here. Everything is… it's always my fault." His friends were scattered because of him. His family died because of him. All those years ago. Because he was stupid enough to hit his hurley where it shouldn't. Because he wasn't strong enough to stop them.
His eye studied the various bumps and lines and defects that the manufacturers probably looked over in an attempt to distract his mind. He shrugged off his tattered cloak and wrapped it over himself, not unlike a blanket.
He wouldn't be sleeping, however. Crue let out a long breath as his eyelid felt heavy. He ignored it, like he had since he had crawled out of the Emerald Forest. Every time he gave in and slept, he would see the faces of those lost.
He scowled as he stifled a yawn. It wasn't like he hadn't experienced all this before. When his family died, he had been unable to sleep properly for months. "Guess that's the same no matter what world I'm in."
Nothing but nightmares awaited him when he would sleep. Maybe it would be different this time, Crue thought as he finally gave in and let nearly a weeks' worth of sleepless nights catch up with him.
When he awoke barely an hour later, drenched in a cold sweat with his claws shooting out, he realised he was wrong.
Not a lot to say about this chapter, some check ins to try and show where the rest of the cast is in terms of the timeline. Also some sappiness and sadness from Crue in multiple forms. The guy has not been sleeping well. I tried to hint at that with him taking watch for Vermillion but I think this shows it better.
The next chapter will have Crue arriving at Mistral, and we can finally see what he gets up to.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know if you did, and as always...
Until Next Time
-Friday