Here we are again. As a short explanation, I'll say that the next few chapters are going to be short. I am doing this to give myself more time to plan what happens to our main cast immediately after the events that had just transpired, as well as giving myself a bit more breathing room when it comes to my other stories. I actually just started writing a story that I have been planning with my beta and co-writer in some cases, CrowSkull, for about a year or so, and that is going to be the beginning of my original series. I'm pretty sure that a small little break like that is warranted after the row of chapters I had just created the past few weeks Lol.

Beta: CrowSkull

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 96

Volume 3, Episode 15

Oscar Pine

Oscar Pine woke up in a haze of sweat and a mind full of questions. He clapped a hand against the side of his head and simply breathed. Rapidly and without rest. What had he just seen… in his dreams? A nightmare, it had to be. He'd never even been to Beacon before, much less Vale or Saunus as a whole. He'd only ever been on the farm, which was located far beyond the walls of Mistral. It wasn't even marked on any map, but it was close to a few towns that he has been to once or twice.

"W-What time is it?" He asked himself as he looked over to the ticking clock to his left. Upon seeing it, Oscar winced. "Two in the afternoon? How? I've never slept that long before…"

"Oscar Pine!" And there came his aunt's voice next, making him grimace a second time. "Wake the hell up boy! You have work to do, and you ain't going to get any of it done sleeping like a log!"

"Y-Yes auntie!" Oscar called back as he threw the covers off his body and swung his legs over the side. He quickly made his way over to the small dresser in his room and opened one of the drawers and pulled out the white collared shirt with a deep V going down the middle that he always wore for work. The bandages still around his neck made him wince as they shifted and moved, covering the bruises and scratch marks he'd received when that tiny fox Grimm surprised attacked him in the melon field when he had his recently unlocked aura down. He'd manage to kill it with the metal rake he had, but it had taken pretty much all of his stamina.

Still weak… He thought to himself as he adjusted the bandages, he'd need to change them before heading back out to work.

"Being without aura and for your age, you are actually quite strong."

"Ah!" Oscar screamed the minute he looked in the mirror. Green eyes similar to his but not quite looking back at him. "W-What?" He inquired, shocked by what he had just heard. "N-No… I must be talking to myself. There's just no way…"

Standing back up and making his way back to the dresser to get his pants, he made a special effort not to look back at the mirror. As his legs slipped into the torn and extremely discolored jeans that were passed down to him by his late father, however, he couldn't help but try and see again what that voice was.

He peered deeply at himself in the mirror. Squinting his eyes and trying to see through it as if there was anything on the other side. Nothing, however. Oscar sighed to himself and shook his head. He was just being paranoid, surely.

"We need to move," The strange voice in his head piped up again suddenly. Oscar gasped and fell back onto his bed, eyes wide and mouth agape as he looked into the mirror. It wasn't his own reflection, but the reflection of a man that he had never seen before. His skin was dark and his hair darker, and he was wearing a full set of armour. Armour didn't make sense in a time that aura existed. Dark brown eyes which certainly didn't match his own stared back at him with a great sense of urgency. "It isn't safe here anymore."

Oscar shook his head and rubbed at his eyes, trying to trick his brain back into realizing that this was nothing but an illusion or that he may still be dreaming. However, he was not so fortunate.

"W-Who are you?" Oscar asked the reflection after finally regaining his composure even the slightest amount.

The reflection moved to speak.

"I am the-"

"Pine!" Oscar jumped when his aunt barraged her fists against his door, startling him back up to his feet as he made to cautiously open it for her. "What the hell are y' doing boy? We have work to do! I already let you sleep in since you were clearly tired, so don't let me ruin that for both of us!"

"Y-Yes auntie, I'm sorry auntie," Oscar replied, bowing his head apologetically.

His aunt raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, letting out a soft sigh from her nose as she looked down at him. "Are you okay?" She asked, reaching a hand out to press against his forehead. "Dear Lord, you're burning up. Maybe you should take it easy again, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you like that…"

"N-No, no, it's okay," Oscar was burning up, he couldn't tell before but since he was sweating so much even though he was out of the covers and it was just beginning to get into winter, it made sense. "I have to pull my own weight like I promised I would when you took me in."

"That doesn't mean that you have to work yourself to death," Auntie pushed her way in his room and clasped her hands on his shoulders, pushing him back to his bed. "Rest for today and see how you feel on the morrow. I'd rather you not hurt yourself working sick, understand me, boy?"

"Y-Yes… auntie." Oscar yawned, tired again all of a sudden.

"Good lad. Let me get some food for ya' and then I'll go see what I can do for the crops. I may be gettin' up there in the years, but I know how to work a hoe better than you ever would, hehe." Oscar laughed at his aunties stupid joke as he sat back down on his bed, thanking her one last time as she made to leave, but left his door barely cracked open just in case she needed to get in there quickly.

Alone once again, Oscar sighed and lied back down. He felt so tired all of a sudden… and his head was beginning to pound harder than it ever has before. How'd he get sick like this so quickly? Just yesterday he was fine and now he felt like he was going to die if he so much stands on his own two feet for too long.

So tired… He thought to himself as another long yawn built up from within his chest. Maybe I should sleep some more…

When he woke up he was still damp with sweat, and the sun had long since gone down outside his window. Oscar felt his own forehead and felt disgusted when he realized that his shirt was sticking to his chest, back, arms, and wherever it could stick. The same went for his pants. He wanted to take it off but thought against it. He has had fevers like this before, and even if he felt so hot that his body was sweating so much he knew that lying half-naked in his bed would only make it worse.

His stomach growled, and Oscar looked hungrily at the bowl of cooked lamb, potatoes, and eggs set upon a small chest that normally resided under his bed. Oscar sat up and reached for it and ravenously devoured it, not even bothering to use the utensils that were left for him on either side of the bowl. It left his hands greasy and full of chunks of food of each kind, but it made his belly full and him a much happier boy. Oscar sighed happily as he gulped the last chunk of lamb combined with mashed potato and set the bowl off to the side. He rubbed his stomach and felt a belch stop halfway before it could escape his mouth. The funny feeling made him chuckle.

"Hah… I'm already starting to feel better…"

"Oscar, please, you have to listen to me."

"What the hell!?" Oscar almost shouted, jumping back and leaning against the wall just adjacent to his bed. "Who are you!? Why do you keep talking to me!?"

"In time, you will understand." The voice replied for once. Oscar pressed a hand against his chest, feeling his heartbeat rapidly and reminding him that he was still very much alive and hadn't actually died from this sudden illness. "I am sorry for bringing this on to you so soon, I normally keep myself in the back of my vessel's mind for as long as I can, and subtly try and prepare them for a revelation that they would come to expect in time. I simply cannot rely on such a tactic now, however. You are not safe, Oscar, and neither is your auntie."

"H-How would you know that?" Oscar asked, already untrusting of the reflection in the mirror and the voice that came with it. "H-How would you know any of this?"

"Simple, our souls now share the same body. If you do not believe me, I understand. All you need to do to know that I am telling the truth is to remember. What happened yesterday at nine in the evening?"

"I-I don't understand what you're-" Oscar screamed and clutched his head as memories he swore were not his filled his mind. He writhed in mental pain as it hit him almost all at once the minute he started thinking about it. No, this couldn't be right! Yesterday at that time he was eating with his auntie and talking about the fox Grimm that attacked him!

"That is no longer your truth," the specter told him. "Or, well, it still is, but there is another truth merged with it. Now tell yourself, what happened?"

"I-I…" Oscar stammered. "I was in a cave? No… a basement? In Beacon? How is that possible? I was here last night!"

"You were, and were not," the voice replied. "Keep remembering."

"A-Ah… Hah…" Oscar kept doing so. The memory kept expanding as he thought about it. There was… fire? A battle, for certain, and he was fighting it? What was he fighting? The second he thought of it an image appeared in his mind, a woman? Not just any woman, but one that seemed to have unbelievable abilities and powers. Half of her body was not her own, and as he fought her with prowess Oscar was definitely sure he did not have, he also started remembering the feeling of getting weaker and weaker as the seconds ticked by.

Then the arrow skewered his chest, piercing his lungs and heart. The blood that came spilling out of his mouth had Oscar widening his eyes suddenly and screaming.

"No!" Oscar screamed, reaching up to his chest in an effort to stop the bleeding of a wound that wasn't there anymore. "No, no, no, no, this isn't true… none of this is happening!"

"Oscar!?" His auntie screamed up at him from downstairs. "What's wrong? Is everything okay? Why are you screaming?"

"Tell her you're okay."

"I-I'm okay!" Oscar glared at the reflection that was still there. "I'm sorry, I just had a bad dream," He lied. "Thanks for the food!"

"Well… alright," his Auntie didn't look entirely convinced as she poked her head through the opening in his door. "Just don't scare me like that again, boy. I thought a damn Grimm was breaking through your window or something."

"Sorry," Oscar waved her off. Watching her leave and shut the door tightly this time after muttering something he couldn't quite hear. "I never lied to her before… Not once…"

"And yet you did it without hesitation just now, and without an ounce of guilt to go along with it." The voice pointed out. "That's because of my influence, I presume. I apologize for that, I had done some… questionable things in my time."

"Who are you?" Oscar asked at last. "What do you want from me?"

"You may have heard of me before," The Spectre explained. "In my previous life, I was known as Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon. Now… I am merely Ozma once more."

"The headmaster?" Oscar's eyes were wide, as they have been ever since the Specter came to him. "That's impossible, he's on the other side of the world."

"He was on the other side of the world," Ozma pointed out. "He is dead now, and once again I've reincarnated. It seems that on this entire remnant of a planet, you are the one who is the most like of mind to my original life."

"Original life?" Oscar asked. When he thought about it, his head hurt ten times as hard as it did when he thought of the events of yesterday. Before he could even attempt it, he somehow felt some kind of block preventing him from remembering that far in the past.

"You are not ready for those memories, just yet," Ozma said, stepping through the mirror and in front of him. Oscar tried to get away from the Spector, but the wall behind him stopped him from going any further. "I will not hurt you, not ever," Ozma promised. "And I know that what I am going to ask of you may seem impossible to you, you may even start perceiving yourself as going insane. But I promise you, this is not insanity. This is the magic of a deity from a time long past, and right now, I need you, and you need me."

"I need you to find a man called Kai Matsuoka."

"M-Matsuoka?" Oscar's eyes lit with recognition. "I've heard of him before… he's the blind huntsman, right? But… why do I feel like I know him even though I never met him?"

"That's because you have," Ozma explained. "In my past life, anyway. You will meet him in time, and we will find him in Mistral. I know that is where he'll most likely go next."

"I don't understand any of this!" Oscar exclaimed, clenching his head between his hands and shaking it wildly. "None of this makes any sense. Mistral is so far away, why would I want to go there? My auntie, the farm, they need me here."

"And the world could quite well be in need of you as well," Ozma replied. He seemed to peer into his mind, narrowing his eyes as he leaned closer. "And you wanted to be a huntsman some time ago. But you never got the chance to because of your sense of obligation here."

"H-How do you know that!?"

"It works both ways, Oscar Pine. You can see my memories, and I can see yours. I've learned this over the course of my very… very long life."

"I-I can't just leave all of a sudden," Oscar said, looking up at a face he'd never seen before but at the same time somehow recognized. "My aunt, everything here, you're asking me to leave everything I know behind and go on some crazy quest that you can't prove is real."

"I can prove that is real-"

"Let me think about it, please," Oscar said, waving his hands through the air and dispelling the character that was sharing his room. "Please… I can't make a decision like that so suddenly without thinking about it. First, I need to figure out if you're actually real or not! I could be going crazy for all I know…"

"Hmm…" Ozma sighed mentally. "I understand. But I suggest that you make a decision swiftly. You will not be safe here forever, not after Vale has fallen. I will give you three days to make a decision, by then, I hope that you will have chosen the right one."

When Oscar's eyes opened again, the night was gone. Had he fallen asleep instantly right then and there? He may have, but he couldn't quite remember. No… he did remember. Everything that had happened last night, Ozma, Vale, Kai Matsuoka… He didn't have any obligation to actually listen to what the strange man had said, but for some reason, he was thinking about it.

"Three days…" Oscar muttered as he looked down at his body, noticing a distinct lack of sweat and the slightest more definition to his body. "Three days to decide."

He didn't feel sick anymore, so that was good. But it was strange to think about. One day he was fine, the next day he was so sick he couldn't move, and the next day he felt even better than before? Oscar didn't know what to make of it.

"Oscar!" What he knew what to make of at this moment, however, was that he was a simple farm boy with a lot of work that needed to be done. He swung his legs off his bed, put on a fresh pair of working clothes, and went down the stairs to meet his aunt at the table for breakfast.

"You're looking better this morning," his auntie pointed out. "Feel better?"

"Much," Oscar said as he sat down. As he ravenously ate through breakfast, a thought passed through his mind. "Auntie… after the work is done today, I want to talk to you about something important. I… it will sound crazy, and I'll probably need all day to think about how to explain it to you."

"Is that so?" His auntie seemed amused with him. "Well, take your time boy. I won't rush you."

Take his time…

Why oh why did those words make him feel uncomfortable?

And there we go, part 1 of a series of small epilogue chapters. I'm pretty much doing this to end V3 officially on Chapter 100, but as I said before it served another purpose as well.

Tell me what you think!