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The last two times I had killed people it had arguably been self defense. This time it was going to be anything but. I was going out of my way to find this person, Eminence, and kill them on some gang lord's orders.
It was dirty.
I… I didn't really care. I mean I did but only so far as Ruby was going to care when she found out. You know what I mean? I wasn't sorry. I was sorry I was going to get caught. And that was hard in its own right in its own way. But it wasn't quite the same as feeling genuinely guilty.
I tried to imagine the last time I felt genuinely guilty for something I had done. Letting Pyrrha die was an ongoing guilt. It didn't really count. When I told Pyrrha I faked my way into Beacon. That counted. When I stole the sword and left my family behind to go to Beacon. That too made me feel guilty. But this? Killing someone I had never met for reasons I didn't really care for? Nah. I didn't feel a thing.
I would like to say it was different because I knew her name but it really wasn't. Really I just felt empty inside as I led the way outside the house we called base. The heavy brown doors swung shut behind Qrow and I.
"You alright kid?" Qrow asked from the chair. "Listen, I'm going to go looking for other huntsman to help us. This job will be up to you."
I wasn't, really. Doing alright, I mean. But it was a high functioning 'not alright' so it passed. I was… I was going to go to hell for this. The last ones. Maybe. Sure. But this was real murder not 'outlaw justice.' And who was I really kidding before with the talk of self defense and common good. Only Ruby was fooled by that I guess. And that wasn't much. "Guess I don't like the idea of being some glorified hit man. When I kill I want to know and mean it. And I will kill again. Was always going to. But I want it to matter to me personally. This ain't it chief."
"I've killed in situations like this before." Qrow confessed to me. "The odd job for the occasional gang lord. A murderer out in the woods that needed to be put down. That sort of thing."
"Killing doesn't make me uncomfortable. What makes me uncomfortable is that killing doesn't make me uncomfortable. Does that make sense?"
"That's a good thing, I'd argue. I'd hardly want you around my niece if you were comfortable with the idea of killing so casually. And you seem to want to feel guilty. That means something."
"Does it really?" I asked with some venom. "It won't matter when Ruby finds out."
"Just don't tell her. What's so hard about that? It's literally the opposite of doing something."
"I guess I wish you had something more comforting to tell me."
"Well do you want to be comforted or do you want the truth? You struck me as a 'truth' kind of guy."
"Well ideally I'd like the truth to be comforting. Is that too much to ask for?"
He laughed. "Well me fucking too. You think I want to believe Leonardo is turning on us but you heard Ozpin. He's going against the orders he was given. We have to assume the worst about him. You know how it is. Better than my niece does. I know you do." There seemed to be something desperate in Qrow that wanted to relate to me. He wanted to make sure someone else was seeing what he was seeing. A lot of things were like that.
I remember a heated argument I once had with Saphron about which color we were seeing. Was it a shade of orange or red? It mattered to people that other people saw what they saw. That was true instinctually. I could see the evolutionary drive for a mechanic like that. Did the other people around you see the same danger you did? That mattered to your immediate survival.
I did see it, though. I did see what Qrow was seeing.
Ruby wanted to believe the best in people. She wanted to even though it hurt her to. It took so much effort from her to do it. To even look for the best in me took so much out of her but she kept doing it. I think that's why I loved her. Not just because she saw the best in me but because I knew how much work it must take to do that. Then keep doing it over and over again. I didn't make it easy on her. Not one iota.
Me, though, I knew and saw the minds of monsters. I got into the Nuckelavee's head. I got into Vernal's headspace too.
Here I was trying to dodge Ruby's questions about the favors we were asked in order to get the job done. Here I was about to murder some girl right behind my girlfriend's back. I knew she would disapprove. She'd want us to find another way but there wasn't one. Not one on a good enough time frame. I had to do this and I had to make it work. And you know what else? I probably had to do it right the first time because there wouldn't be a good second chance.
It was like that with Cinder too. It was going to come down to one of us killing her, she was too dangerous to take prisoner or to fight with anything less than lethal intent. Would Ruby see it that way? Did Pyrrha see it before the end?
Did it matter? It certainly left me feeling hole hearted.
It wasn't a point of pride for me as I pulled up Eminance's last known location on my scroll and the bars and places she frequented.
"Are you going to be alright going around the lower levels by yourself?" I asked Qrow a bit mindlessly as I scrolled through my scroll.
"I'm an experienced huntsman."
"That's not what has me worried. Our story is kinda bust if I was supposed to be watching over you and you go missing."
"You're going to break my heart. All this worry about me." He laughed at me. "Look, you should be concerned about your mission. I'll be amongst some of the finest huntsmen in Mistral."
"Right." I murmured. "Assuming you find them."
"What makes you think I won't."
"Has anything ever in your life gone your way?" I asked. "A single thing would do to prove me wrong. Go on. Say anything. Say one single thing that went in your favor with good fortune. I have like, three good things in my life. And that's it, bro. That's all I got. And I'm lying to one of them to make this shit happen."
Qrow said nothing.
"That's what I fuckin thought," I leveraged. "Guys like you and me don't get happy endings because you know why?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me. You really don't have to. I didn't get the girl either kid."
"We don't deserve them. We just don't. We're dirt bags."
"You focus on finding her and when you do just… I don't know. Find your happy place."
"Find my happy place?" Was he serious? I gave his chair a push away from me with my foot and set out with heavy boot falls, gray Mistral gravel giving way under me.
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I held up the photo of the dust witch I was given to two guys outside of a bar. "Either of you gentlemen seen this girl?" The bar didn't look like much but it was one of the places she was supposed to hang out. In fact, it looked like it was barely standing which I supposed differentiated it from the last few places I had been.
One of them peered closely while the other went for an immediate shrug without really looking. The guy who looked tapped the other one before he gave me a second look. Unlike the last few places I'd been I knew that they knew of her, even if they had no idea where she was.
I was certain of it as he gave my armor and clothes a second once over.
"Who's asking?" The one who looked close demanded.
"Just a fucking idiot, me." I clarified for him without lying in the slightest. "You know where she is or not?"
"Maybe we do, maybe we don't." The dude beside us both went not so subtly for a knife.
"I seriously don't want any trouble from the two of you."
"Well you are looking for trouble, ain't ya." The one with the knife sneered. "Do we look like a couple of snitches? Don't you know-"
"Yeah yeah I've heard that snitches get stitches." I continued. "But it seems like you two are looking for stitches and over a couple of witches? That makes no sense."
He jabbed his knife at me but I jumped in place, both to get out of the way and to pop him into the air with Crocea Mors in the bastard sword form which I fluidly drew.
Instead of colliding with aura I shredded his torso. I split him vertically at the collar bone and I swore out loud over the crack of his bones. He fell with scream and blood sprayed everywhere.
The other made to make a run for it but my semblance activated due to my attack. I'd spent all day walking around, asking questions; nothing to do but make it so my semblance was mostly charged up in case I found my target or got caught up in a fight.
I ran him down easily enough as people screamed and tried to back away from the bloodshed. I grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him around and picked him up into the air. "Just talk, man. It isn't worth it. I'm not worth it. She's not worth it." This whole thing wasn't worth any of it. Please just tell me.
He flailed in my grip for a moment before going limp like a fish out of water. He gasped for breath and, glowing all the while, I pressed the tip of my blade against his skin. No aura either. Just some dumbasses acting too tough.
I knew something about that. I was a lucky one, though. These guys weren't. I doubted Pyrrha was going to come save them when they were clearly in over their heads like she had saved me. I just had that feeling. You know?
"Okay, okay. She and her man come by sometimes. They have some place on the middle levels. I can give you directions. Just let me call some help for my friend. For fucks sake put me down."
"I need those directions." I pushed him harder against the cold grey wall. Down here on the lower levels people were content to stay out of a rogue huntsman's way. They wouldn't say much to some cop either. There was contraband being sold in broad daylight down here. No one would say shit, I bet. Even if I full on killed these two, no one would say anything.
Just two more corpses on the pile. It was a meat grinder out here and I was fortunate enough to be part of the grinder in that equation. Lucky me.
I wasn't a cop, too. That would work in my favor. As if to drive the point home, something inside me hungered for the violence. I drew blood again, I slid Crocea Mors against the flesh above his waist, threatening to disembowel him.
"Agh! Fuck okay, okay!"
He gave me directions and afterwards I let him down to take his friend wherever he was going to take him.
Unless he got help quickly he would probably die. I mean serious help too. A hospital or… I watched him bleed into the dirt for a second before I knelt down and unlocked his aura. I didn't stay to watch my handiwork or see the wound start to close. I wasn't sure that it would but I gave him something of a fighting chance.
In my head I wrote him off, though, and added a digit to my mental body count.
Another one, gone.
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The place I found with the directions had the windows and doors boarded up. Literal boards nailed into place over the windows and what was once the double door at the entrance had a casket or wardrobe stripped to pieces over half of it, making it a single doored entrance now.
I'd fought dust witches before. Or at least I'd fought Weiss. Okay, that was generous. It might be best to say that Weiss fought me. She wasn't as merciful as Ruby was whenever we'd get paired up in Goodwitch's class. She usually took the opportunity to try out moves she couldn't against any other opponent so I'd spent some time trapped in her spells, at least. That counted. I wasn't sure how much it counted for, but it counted.
Plus I'd seen Ms. Goodwitch work. That together with Weiss that was the sum of what I called my experience with dust sorcery. It wasn't much but it was enough to grasp the concept of magic with dust.
It also gave me an idea of what to look out for so the first thing that stood out to me was the glyphs on the windows and walls, etched in dust. From that I was sure the house was booby trapped for an intruder. I'd been caught in enough dust glyphs to know one was bad news when I saw them.
It also made me rather certain I had the right place and the directions I was given weren't bogus. It was late, though, and a soft light from inside seemed to indicate my target was already indoors. Listen to me. 'My target.' Like I was some sophisticated hitman and not just another murderer loose on the streets.
I'd have rather ambushed her out here but if I had to go in then I had to go in. 'My target' and her man, whoever that was, were probably both inside. Her man… they might have to go, too. That was just the way the cookie was fit to crumble.
I grimaced at the bloodlust inside of me. It made me hesitate but there wasn't much to do and my mind was made up. Opportunity was knocking.
The front door looked clear enough. I gave it and the handle a second look over before I kicked it in.
Adrenaline rushed as I swept my gaze across the interior of the premises. A second floor with a staircase on my right, a dining hall which ran up to a fireplace on my left. Attached was a chimney which looked decrepit and might even bring the place down if someone started a fire there.
A man ate beside the girl who I immediately recognized as the target. They were eating dinner, I'd caught them by surprise.
I Limit blade-beamed them both and I didn't get any less aggressive from there as I prepared an assault with Crocea Mors in her full six-and-some-change foot form.
I barely let them get to their weapons and cursed myself for it.
Before they were even released from the bladebeam I struck. I hopped charging Limit as I rose and fell to get the next Limit all while praying she wouldn't call his name so I wouldn't have to know it.
Maybe that was cowardly of me but I was allowed that tiny bit of selfishness, wasn't I? Maybe not. Probably not. I deserved to hurt. I was the murderer in all this. I felt like a boogey-man, interrupting dinner like this. She swept a staff at me and though we were in a house the wind picked up. A sigil appeared next to me, green with wind dust and ready to burst and wash over me.
I shattered it with a swing of my sword and though fifteen feet separated us she stumbled, losing concentration on her spell.
Weirdly enough I wasn't shook up at all by what I was doing. I was ready to get intimate with it. "Seifer!" She shouted out.
I cursed at the knowledge of the man's name. I'll never be able to forget it. He wore a cape and cloak and had his hair in a tight military cut with a tiny cowlick.
He looked good, but not for long. At least not if I had anything to say about it.
I swept his blade out of the way as I landed on their dinner and kicked him in the chest, then I kicked him again in the side as he fell, then I brought my blade in a tight arc that clipped his aura as he stumbled backwards, flicking him rolling to the ground.
A sigil appeared under me, glowing brown and tinged with red and the table wood leapt up at me as it burned while she rotated her staff in my general direction. The stars of a pentagram collapsed on me and I felt my Limits Break. I shattered my way out of the splintered table with the strength it gave me and I spent it immediately, gliding towards her and bringing my sword down in a tremendous arc. It was a brave move, foolish if I didn't have Limit Break active.
She raised her staff and I brought my blade straight through it and all the aura between us. Purple flared to life as I pounded her into the ground then I caught her in a non-limit version of what my friends and I called the Cross Slash.
She flew away from me glowing purple. She collided with the door frame and heavy refrigerator in the kitchen hard enough to put a person sized dent in it.
Seifer came at me, he hit me with his shoulder and slammed me into the lower part of the staircase hard enough to shake the whole house.
He punched me in the gut which I ate, then he hit me in the head. I ignored both of those attacks with a soft glow of golden aura. They would have to do better than that. I was always a bit on the tank side of things. So far they had barely scratched the surface of what I could do.
I reached out and grabbed him with one hand, lifted him by the shoulder and slammed him into the tiled floor. I picked my weapon up from where he made me drop it and I palmed my pocket.
I pulled a red dust crystal on us both and crushed it. His eyes went wide before we were both caught in a fireball.
My sword made several satisfying whooshing sounds through the air and at the end of each I was met with his darker red aura.
He tried to parry me with his shorter blade but it was little use. I outranged him and I was stronger than him. Plus I would wager I was also the better swordsman, even without Limit.
I really just whaled on him, like Cardin had once done to me but faster. More like how Pyrrha had whaled on Cardin, actually.
Thinking about her fucking hurt right now, though, it was a bit of a relief when I did enough damage to charge my semblance again, it cleared my head.
With my semblance, though, I was faster, stronger, taller, and could afford more to make more mistakes. I left an intentional opening and when he went for it, I nearly took his arm off.
I never let him out of the corner.
I beat him until he couldn't do little but raise his weapon. I kneed him in the chest to make him stumble back then I hopped and swept my blade at him knocking him back into the chimney. I jumped across the ruined table and brought my blade down on him, knocking him to the ground.
Then I did it again and bounced him actually into the floor. To follow up my savagery, I thrust my sword forward and with a burst carried us all the way to the second floor, then without stopping, I took us to the roof. I watched his aura pop and heard the girl scream "please," before I slammed him all the way back down to the first floor.
He fell down partially into a basement bleeding everywhere.
I ticked my mental body count to four. He wouldn't make it.
I turned to my real target. I knew any apology I made would just be empty for both of us, so I didn't bother. She in turn shouted and set me on fire. It was harsh enough that it forced me to roll past their splinted and crushed dining table to try and put some distance between myself and the intense heat.
I hopped charging my semblance as I rose and fell again before I swept the blade in a tight arc that she blocked with her staff. I landed and gave that baseball style swing which knocked her through a wall and back into their kitchen. She even put her staff between us.
I was just strong enough that it didn't matter. Was this what Ruby and Pyrrha and Weiss felt like?
Don't think about them; head in the game.
I slowly charged my semblance while she struggled to rise. I was nearly there. Once I had it, I'd Cross Slash her and end this.
She rotated her staff once she had her feet and purple light flicked into place below me. Gravity dust.
I felt myself go weightless and she charged me, she hit me with the long spear head on her staff. The staff rather reminded me of one I'd seen at Amity Arena. Sun's team fought them.
Unfortunately for her, I was familiar with gravity dust from my time spent as Weiss's chew toy. I balled myself up then kicked forward to rotate my way out of the circle without actually pushing off of anything.
A staff was a basic weapon, it was the versatility of the dust that gave away the user's strengths and there was purple dust at the head of this one.
Purple gathered behind me despite my attempts to dodge and she shouted as her spell was cast and she threw me out of the house and one of the sigils she left behind exploded on me, sending me bouncing out and into the courtyard in front of the place.
I rolled across the ground before I got back to my feet. All the pain I might have felt was hidden under adrenaline and the next Limit Break.
Was it strange I'd been sort of rooting for them to win in my head? Maybe a little. I hadn't exactly wanted to lose but I sort of wanted them to win or escape or something.
I advanced on her in a single jump which took me back to the building. She was trying to pull her friend out of the ground and put his arm around her shoulders in a classic carry.
She hardly had time to turn before I bust the Cross-Slash out on them both. Her aura popped after the third hit and after that I minced her. My blood roared with the success of it.
When it was done I picked up her broken staff, hafted from the Cross-Slash, the only sign I'd need that I had won the day for the Malachites.
With her that made five. Five people whose lives I'd stolen. Still I felt no sadness, no empathy for my common man. Just that same emptiness I set out with. A coldness in my stomach and a woman's laughter ringing in my ears.
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-WG