[YOU DIED!]

[Level: 1] - [Kills: 0] - [Coins: 1 (11)] - [Gems: 1 (1)] - [Story Cleared: 1]

[Give Up?] - [Retry?]

What?

Is this a dream?

I did feel sleepy… ah, that's right, and then some masked people with guns broke into Weiss' room. I felt some pain in my chest, so I was probably shot.

I died.

Wait.

Retry?

Hey System, can you explain this?

[Give Up: Your soul will be cleansed of your memories and be sent off into the cycle of reincarnation.]

[Retry: Keep your memories and be sent back into your body before your death. Choosing this option will consume 1 Gem.]

I have a Gem.

How did I get a Gem? Is it a freebie?

[You earn 1 Gem when a Subordinate reaches Max Trust: 200%]

Cool, so my time building a bond with Weiss hasn't been a waste. It would've sucked to die without doing anything in this world.

Oh hey, while I'm here, I'd like to voice some complaints. My System hasn't really helped me at all so far, can I exchange it for something else, preferably something without an installation time.

[Negative.]

[However, it has been 18 years. Things have changed. Your old OS: Status Report, is now compatible with your current OS: Support.]

[Would you like to Reinstall it?]

If there's no issues, then sure.

[OS: 'Status Report' Reinstalled!]

[Update: 'Status Report' can now report on the status of allies and enemies!]

Sweet.

Now, before I go back, I should probably come up with a plan.

Considering I've literally can't recall any mention of Weiss being attacked on her way to Beacon, this was probably a new event.

I had thought my birth was the only thing different in this world, but now it's apparent that other changes might occur.

The people who killed me were undoubtedly White Fang members. Even though I was sleepy, I can recognize their uniform anywhere.

The reason I had felt sleepy was probably because of some poison gas or someone's Semblance. Either way they wanted to weaken us, a couple of teenagers, before attacking us, so they probably weren't that strong.

They could just be cautious, but well considering they attacked a transport headed to Argus, they probably weren't that smart.

How far will I be sent back?

I didn't get a response.

When I had gone to Weiss' room for safety, it had been in a moment of panic and I had left behind my sword, gun, and Dust in my room.

Stupid, I know.

But my weapons didn't provide me with a sense of calm, I had sought Weiss not only to protect me but also because I felt safe when she was around.

I definitely think I screwed up somewhere in my mental development. My constant belief that this world would be destroyed someday, and that only Weiss could protect me, had made me depend on her for my peace of mind.

My life was safe with her, and without her I would die. That conviction had been imprinted onto my brain with how much I had convinced myself that it was the truth.

It was sickening to think about how weak I was, to realize that my life was in the hands of a young girl, to know that I was the one who handed it over.

Well, I died.

She failed to protect me.

I failed to protect myself.

This was wrong. I had trained to be able to protect myself, but she was stronger and a faster learner so I stopped training as hard.

My reliance on her strength had turned into dependence, and I had just accepted that. No more. If this wasn't a sneak attack, and if my life was in danger, I would've cowered behind her. Using her as a meat shield, and if she died, I died.

My younger sister, I was counting on her to risk her life for mine.

How pathetic.

We're twins aren't we? We grew up together for eighteen years, the idea of her death sickens me even more than my own death. Especially if she would die protecting me.

It was odd.

I just noticed that in my mind, the weight of her life was heavier than my own. The reason should be obvious, if she died, I died.

That reason had a slightly different meaning than I realized. Even if the cause of her death didn't kill me, Noire Schnee, her older brother, the person I was now would cease to be.

Ah, eighteen years I've spent with her. She wasn't Weiss Schnee, the cold girl from a web show, no, she was my sweet little sister.

Still, this train of thought was fucking embarrassing. Not just my issues, but also how much I actually cared for the girl.

I've heard that trust is a two-way street. I don't know that the fuck that sentence means, but I understand the sentiment.

The trust she has in me, all 200% of it, only exists because I reciprocate that trust in her. I have complete faith in her, it probably wasn't a pure trust on her part, but rather a blind trust.

Of course, I'd rather die than ever admit this.

Calling this cringe would be an understatement.

Hey, System, just send me back. I can't deal with just my thoughts and nothing else.

…

…

…

With just a slight migraine, I realized I was sitting in a chair reading a book.

I was alive again.

I had felt tired after reading a few chapters of the book, but now it was opened to the page where Bran caught the twins, Jamie and Cersei, in a tower.

So I had some time to prepare for the attack.

But first, I looked up at my sister and squinted at her a bit. She was awake and staring at me pretty intensely as she sat on her temporary bed.

[Human - Name: Weiss Schnee.]

[Rank: C (LV10) - HP: 200 - AP: 8000]

[Trust: 200%] - [Cost: 5/20]

[STR: C - END: D - AGI: C - MGI: B - CHA: C - LUK: A]

[Skills: Aura (LV6), Glyphs (LV5), Dust (LV5).]

[Weapons: Myrtenaster (LV5).]

[Equipped: Ice Fairy (RK1 / C5).]

[Ice Fairy - Name: Noelle - Rank: 1 - Cost: 5]

[Skills: Orbiting Ice (LV1), Ice Dust Generation (LV1).]

Ugh, ranks, letters and levels.

I slowly read the screen that popped up in front of my sister, but my mind resisted trying to memorize anything there.

The screen wasn't that large or opaque, so I could see Weiss' face flush as I stared at her.

"Weiss, I'm pretty sure we're about to be attacked."

"Who would attack us? This ship is communicating directly with Argus' control tower, don't they know reinforcements would catch them."

Immediately after my words left my mouth, Weiss stood up and unpacked her sword. A serious expression had dominated her face as she loaded Dust cartridges into the revolver part of her rapier.

I guess this is 200% trust at work.

Let's see, I felt sleepy before I felt any turbulence, and I didn't feel dizzy at all. I had hit my head, but I didn't feel any pain until I was shot in the chest.

It probably wasn't poison gas, but rather a Semblance that forced people to sleep by shutting down their brain activity, or something similar.

So the turbulence must have been caused by them abruptly boarding this airship.

"It's probably the White Fang."

I closed the book and returned it to her suitcase.

"Of course it would be them."

Oh yeah, something else I hadn't paid attention to and left untouched was her opinion on Faunus. In the show, she was supposed to bond with her team despite her prejudiced nature.

"Go secure the cockpit, I'll grab my sword and meet up with you there."

"Be quick, Noire."

I almost tripped as I realized I had failed.

With the threat of danger approaching, Weiss hadn't given second thought to us splitting up. She believed I could take care of myself, she didn't think I was weak and needed to be protected by her.

I shoved away the feeling of my failure, it was better this way, then I went to my room and retrieved my weapons.

A saber, an anti-materiel pistol, and some Dust magazines.

I didn't really use anything too crazy, it was just a plain sword for close combat and a gun for range and firepower.

[Next Step: Survive.]

After strapping on my scabbard, holster and pouch, I almost tripped again as my feet lagged behind my attempt to run back to my sister.

My body was slowly turning sluggish, and my mind was in a haze.

I couldn't die again, I didn't have any Gems to try again.

With each step forward I faltered, and then when the airship lurched I crashed into a wall as I tried to remain standing.

My eyelids felt heavier than lead, as I fell to my knees.

Then, in a snap, energy resurged through my body and the urge to fall asleep faded.

Did Weiss do something about the cause? But the airship still had some turbulence, so they were probably on board by now.

As I stood up, I heard the sound of heavy boots running my way.

A heavy set man, with a mask covering his eyes but leaving exposed a star pointed nose with whiskers, suddenly appeared across the hallway I was in.

Without a moment to process the fact that I was here, the man lifted his rifle and pulled the trigger with a bang.

I felt a shock travel up the bones in my arm as a ringing echoed in my ears, even though I had successfully deflected the bullet with the base of my blade, most of the force was still transferred to me.

Thankfully this world has Aura, otherwise even deflecting a bullet would cause me serious harm. Still, this caliber is too much for any sustained defense from me, but luckily that rifle seems to have a low RPM.

Guns, the most accessible and easy to use killing weapon. I mean, sure other weapons could be more dangerous, but it was the simplicity of pointing and pulling a trigger that made guns what they were.

And so, in a world filled with weapons that were also guns, odds were 100% that I would be shot at eventually. Odds, huh? Even in this life I had thought about my survival after being shot. Hmm, I was killed by bullets twice now.

Anyway, as soon as I started to learn how to use a sword, by watching videos and reading books, I bought an automatic turret spider that fired rubber bullets from different angles. I practiced deflecting them for hours a day even as my skin swelled up in purple hued bruises.

I hadn't used my Aura to shield my body, since I wanted the pain to push me further and so I could focus on healing up afterwards.

When I turned fifteen, I replaced rubber with low caliber bullets. After a few days of deflecting them, my sword snapped. And five rounds were lodged in my gut before I could shout out the shut off phrase.

I learned from that, and re-trained to deflect bullets with the densest part of my blade while keeping a firm grip.

I still was no good against guns with a high RPSs and wide spreads, as I mostly counted on lining my blade up with the barrel and predicting the trajectory of bullets.

But, I could handle deflecting rifle rounds fired slowly down a tight corridor. And I only had to deal with two more shots as I ran in close.

The man panicked as I was in front of him, behind the barrel of his gun, with my sword ready to attack.

Ah.

What should I do?

For sword practice, I eventually bought a batch of some old sword-droids to duel against, and since they were cheap, I destroyed them without much care.

Against Weiss, I only ever defensively sparred. I never attack her seriously, just light moves to point out any holes in her defenses, but I never capitalized on any of them.

It was ingrained in my fighting style to go for the kill.

My body was already in motion. My bones, ligaments, joints, muscles and nerves, my blood, my breathing, my being and blade, everything acted with a single intention.

To thrust a hole in this man's neck.

A brown shimmer around his neck flashed desperately as the tip of my silver sword pushed against a barrier. When the force behind my thrust reached the tip of my sword and met resistance, the penetrative power transformed into blunt force.

The man was sent flying backwards, with his neck intact, and crashed into a metal wall.

The airship lurched again, but this time I kept my balance.

Oh yeah, Aura. It should be safe to go all out against people, they probably won't die.