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Neo and I made our way through the streets without anyone bothering us in the slightest. We passed tan buildings of brick and gray concrete ones with slanted roofs.
A drunkard of a man hobbled towards us but unlike in my halcyon days I feared men little. There was nothing a civilian could possibly do to me. Or do to Neo for that matter.
So we walked together. I was moving in the general direction of the Beacon shipyard but I moved without any real urgency. Neo pranced beside me, as elegant as always and full of supernatural grace.
"So Neo, where have you been staying?" I didn't really expect an answer. I was mostly talking to myself.
She gave a petite shrug. 'Oh here and there,' she seemed to say.
"I'm sure you would let me know if you weren't comfortable."
She nodded happily along. She was slightly buzzed to my eye. I was hardly feeling my drinks at all and I'd done six shots of hard liquor.
"I could arrange something for you easily enough. It would be no trouble."
She flicked my shoulder with the back of her hand dismissively.
"You must not need some crusty huntsman stomping around your grounds. Fair enough, I suppose."
She rolled her eyes up at me but I just took it.
"You ought to be more polite to little old me. I'm probably not long for this world, you know."
She positively glowered at me for that one.
"Well I am. Sorry to remind you but the sooner everyone gets used to the notion the better."
She gave me this quizzical look.
"Better for you and better for Ruby and Weiss as well. They still just refuse to get how much of a mess I am. And I am a mess. Somehow I don't come across that way. You see it though. You just don't care because you're also fucked up."
She looked away and nibbled on her lip like she wasn't sure how she felt about me calling her out on it. But she was a sadistic little monster and I was no better. I knew her. She knew me. She knew I liked killing people. There was no escaping that. I was a bit like a mad dog, rabid and biting.
She had been there with me at my lowest moment. She knew.
She made no indication of her response. She wouldn't really look at me.
"Yeah, see? That's what I thought. If only Ruby and Weiss knew about me the way you do. They might know better that way. But they are almost willfully blind to the real danger."
She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. I knew she wasn't sure what I was looking for but I really wasn't looking for anything. It's not like there was anything Neo could 'say' that would console me. I was this unanswerable question. Mother was sprinting while I was just jogging. I felt like I had little chance in a sprint and even less chance in a marathon. And the longer the timetable of that marathon the worse it would be. Mother was immortal. I was falling apart from the height of my power. I needed to end things now. Soon, before things got even worse. I had to make my move. I had so much yet to take care of and here I was bogging myself down with more responsibilities. I seemed to be constantly looking for more and more responsibilities and that was a problem. My bucket list kept growing and it would only get harder as things progressed and I declined.
Neo reached up high and patted me on the back.
I laughed out loud. She wasn't very good at consoling me but she was trying her best.
"I don't want to make myself sound unhappy. I'm about as happy as I've ever been. Times with Ruby and Weiss and at Beacon before were better but this is still pretty good. Things could be so much worse for me. I feel as though I've finally mastered myself. And I have in many ways."
It was true. Mother was kept at bay out of my mind. Her tendrils didn't constantly reach and penetrate and stretch my brain anymore. There was a little relief. My razor kept her on watch. I had weaponized my fear of her into something that sliced at both of us. Life had been scary enough before Mother. Now I was always afraid. But my fear had led me to this new path. I had conquered myself a little.
This was the way I would overcome my Mother. It was the only way. I had to move forward. And if I ever wanted a taste of Ruby's sweet, sweet dreams I needed to keep going. I couldn't afford to stop now.
There were things I needed to leave in order before I faced my Mother.
"What will you do when I'm gone? You have money but that isn't always enough."
She looked away quickly. She wasn't sure what she would do. She liked playing second fiddle to somebody. Without me to play around with the edges of her life it was a mystery what she would do, even to her. She would go back to the way things were when Roman had died only without a quest for vengeance. She couldn't get revenge against my Mother. That was who would be my killer.
"Don't know? I'd like to set something up for you but I'm honestly not sure what you want."
She pointed at me.
"Me? Well I'm sorry but I'm going to disappear. That's just the hand we've been dealt. I'm uncomfortable with it too. Death is scary. Literally nobody knows what happens to you when you die but I figure it'll probably be like before I was born. Just blank nothingness for eternity after eternity. That's not any less scary. I'm not sure which is worse: the thought it will end or the thought that it won't. You know what I mean? What if it's like this just forever? Nothing but fear and angst and dread unending. That would suck. Sometimes I want it to be over for gods' sake. But that's scary too. It's a catch twenty-two. I really just don't even know what I would prefer. Oblivion or more of the same. And what if it's awful? The gods are cruel. What if it's absolutely horrific and so much worse than I can even know. It could literally be anything. Death is a one way gateway to forever."
Neo gave me this long look.
"Yeah maybe I'm a bit too much in my own head. I really have enough problems without hypothesising my way into more. Can't really help it. It's the way I'm wired up. And don't I wish it was some other way. I really sometimes believe that all my problems are my own fault."
She shook her head.
"I know that they aren't. Mother is the cause of a lot of them. But even before her I was always capable of finding ways to torture myself. Like my blood thirst. I could probably blame that on Mother but I probably shouldn't. That's all me, babe. Or at least it has the potential to be all me. So it might as well be. Don't you think? What are we if we aren't our sins?"
She shadow puppetted the classic dog with her thumb and pinky.
"Just dogs? I suppose so." We waltzed around a corner, pacing the outline of a big tan building with a grey cobblestone bottom around the base. The green and blue holographic lights lit our way. They were soft and cast our shadows long into giants.
"I'm not sure that's much better. I certainly do feel like a dog sometimes. Is Mother just training me and tricking me? It's always possible. The thought keeps me on my toes. And you and I still have one adventure left. Finding my fucking father and murdering him in the coldest of blood. Blood so cold I could give a vampire brain freeze."
I was not dead yet. I was not done yet. I had a checklist of stupid bullshit I had to finish. At least one year at Beacon and then I was gone. I could hardly afford to stay so long but I made a promise and I would keep my word. Goodwitch really had to be thinking about my replacement.
I walked up to the shuttle waiting area and braced my stomach. It was a building hanging over a cliff where the giant ships could arrive and depart. It was a floating quay of sorts really.
"This is where I leave you. Don't get into any trouble you can avoid and if you do, then don't get caught. Sound fair?"
Neo walked up and hugged me. It startled the shit out of me but I hugged her back.
"Come see me soon and we'll have a little match. Okay? And hang out and get something to eat together. That will be nice," I said while patting her on the back. She released me and stepped back. She turned around to walk away. She gave one parting look backwards before she faced forward and marched away. Then she shattered like glass into nothingness. She was gone. I was alone.
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I had an animal to take care of and classes to teach. My routine flowed like normal. It was carelessly easy to balance that with running Vale's criminal underground. My students would be shocked to learn how deep in the rabbit hole I was.
I was deep in it. I had all the dealings and the threats of murder and violence to my name that anybody running the mean streets of Vale would. But would that be a difference maker in my war against Mother? Was the juice worth the squeeze? Or was I just blowing into the wind?
I wouldn't know until my contacts turned up results and they might never. They may turn on me or Mother may just never make her move on Vale once more. I mostly doubted that last one but my Mother's machinations were an enigma to all men.
First class in the morning I taught the fourth years. Don't ask me why. That's just the way things planned out. And some of them thought they had big pants and we're ready for the big time. It was my job to knock them down to size a little.
I had them spar against one another but the best of them grew confident and lazy. One team in particular was like that.
"Team CRDL," I addressed. "Your opponent today will not be one of your peers. You will face me in the ring. Ready yourselves up."
I watched my old tormentors go to the locker room. I pulled my sword from my back and held it in an easy grip. It was unusual teaching people the same age as me. Probably not as weird as being taught by someone their own age though. Me in particular.
"Piece of cake," Cardin shot at me. They never learned. Almost none of the fourth years took me up on my offer of private lessons. That left this ignorance about me where my former peers thought that they were on my level. That changed today.
Cardin Winchester entered the ring. He was still enormous and taller than me. That hadn't changed. I was taller than all the other members of the team however. Sky Lark, Dove Bronzewing, Russel Thrush were all shorter than me. My sword was nearly longer than Sky's halberd. And it provided me with more reach than Carson's mace and especially Russel's daggers and Dove's sword.
On go, I jumped back and charged my semblance to full. I floated in on Cardin and one shot his aura to zero and knocked him out of the ring before he could blink. The nearly complete Omni-slash was a hell of a thing. I didn't actually complete it and kill him. I just swept my blade into his chest and flung him bodily away. I left an enormous dent in his armor but fuck him.
Then I flew away from Dove's bullets and swept into Sky's range. He tried to block with his halberd but I brought my blade horizontally at him and the force of it rang him like a bell and knocked him back a step or two. I stepped inside and thrust upwards caught him by the chest. I dragged him into the air and reversed. I slammed him all the way back to the ground from a twenty foot height. I slammed him enormously hard into the ring floor.
Russel tried to approach me with his daggers but I swept my blade in several horizontal arcs at him to ward him away. I back-flipped to dodge more of Dove's bullets and threw a blade-beam at Russel as I retreated. The blade-beam covered me a little and kept me safe from any approach options
Sky swept his halberd at me but I blocked and cast my blade from shoulder height to hip level in a diagonal stroke. It slammed him across the chest and knocked him to the floor again. I was ripping them all to pieces and they really couldn't stop me. I was a terror on the battlefield and they were experiencing it for real right here and now.
In an arcing front-flip forward I brought my blade down on Dove. It slammed him into the ground even though he blocked with enough force to bounce him. The massive two hand attack was too much for him to bear. It had all the force behind it of a truck barreling down the highway. Then I side-flipped and brought my blade from low to high into his chest. I kept the combo going with a flying approach. I swung up with my blade and flung him higher into the air.
I flew after him swinging my blade horizontally and knocking him back further before he could touch the ground. I continued my assault and flew over him and stabbed my blade down on him. I spiked him hard into the floor outside of the ring. I landed and paused to charge my semblance. I stared the last two down. I dated them to approach me or else. My semblance always forced my enemy to approach sooner or later.
Sky approached me and I made him pay for it with a leaping horizontal kick that caught him in the chest. He brought his weapon around and slammed me into the floor but I just floated back to my feet easily. I hardly tumbled because of my float. I blocked his next strike gliding backwards on a pocket of air and I turned to deflect every single cut in an eight string rush my Russel. I popped him into the air with an upwards swing and reversed my blade and slammed him hard into the floor with a spike.
That activated my semblance and I wasted no time in Cross slashing him before he could even get to his feet.
That just left Sky and I. He was low on aura and I was nearly full. I hovered towards him in a too-long roll. I came to my feet swinging upwards in a golf swing that caught him all across the front of his body and launched him backwards out of the ring and into the red.
I really took no pride in it. It was easy. I was terrible. That's the way it worked.
So I called the next team down and I beat the shit out of them too. Then the next.
By the end of today they would realize their mortality and that I was a joke no longer.
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-WG