The airship wasn't that large, just enough for twenty passengers to have their own cabins, and the twisting narrowing corridors made it seem even smaller.
I ran through tight corners at full speed, it wasn't even a hassle to deal with the grunts around every one of them.
After I entered a new hall, I used my momentum to charge at the nearest person and I took them out with a single slice to their neck. I then used their body as a bullet shield and battering ram against anyone that had been behind them.
I only had to deal with three corners before I arrived at the hall to the cockpit, and metal clashing against metal echoed down towards me. My feet suddenly had more power as I rushed towards the origin of the sounds.
There were four people already there when I entered the room. The pilot was clutching a bleeding side as he sat against a wall, a Faunus woman with sloth-like arms collapsed on the floor, a Faunus man covered in quills, and my sister locked in battle with him.
Weiss was using her rapier, but there was also a floating armored arm holding a greatsword beside her, and there were also blue icicles trailing snow-flakes as they orbited her.
The quill covered Faunus was fighting bare-handed, but his body was shining a metallic gray as if he'd been turned into metal.
Within a second of my arrival, I noticed a trail of blood flowing down my sister's cheek like red tears.
A crimson line started from her brow and reached her cheek.
Her perfect porcelain pale skin, marred by a vibrant hue of freshly fallen blood.
Skin torn open, an eye sliced apart, an eyelid screwed shut, a face twisted with pain.
Ah, I forgot to pull the hammer back first, so the weight of my trigger was a bit heavier than anticipated. Still, considering I hadn't even noticed I was holding my gun, and that my other hand was still wielding a sword, not much I could do about it.
The sound of an explosive bang echoed within the small cockpit, but the following screech of metal and scream almost drowned out the accompanying ringing.
An eye for an eye.
I didn't feel too bad about shooting my anti-material round into a man's eye, even as he howled in agony.
Considering my regular bullets could punch through most steel plating, the fact that the man was alive spoke wonders of his Aura and his metal skin.
Weiss lunged at the man, the greatsword behind her swung at the man's legs, and as she stabbed her rapier forth, the orbiting icicles also dove with her strike.
As the man's legs were swept out from under him, and six black intersecting Glyphs caught him midair and trapped him as he was struck. The blue icicles lodged themselves inside the man's quill and expanded until he was almost completely frozen.
The airship lurched again, this time upwards as if it was bobbing along a wave.
Was this man the source of the turbulence? Was that metal body of his that dense that he was weighing down this entire airship? If so, then just using six Glyphs to hold him was really impressive.
"You Schnee bastards will pay for this! The death of my comrades has driven me this far, and my death shall drive our comrades even farther! Our claws will tear you apart! Our fangs will rip you to shreds! Our wrath lives on! Our ever-burning vengeance shall swallow your lives!"
He shouted with ferocity and a deep seated hatred. He glared at Weiss with one eye screwed shut, a mirror to the eye across from him.
The sword in Weiss' hand was quivering, and considering the snarl her face was twisted in, it probably wasn't fear or regret. She dismissed the sword floating behind her, and from the base of the fading armor that held it, Noelle emerged.
[Side Story] - [Weiss' Path (1): To Spare or Slay the Faunus Man.]
[Spare] - [5 Coins.]
[Slay] - [Steel Heart Charm (5): x2 DEF.]
Oh. So the main story and gacha isn't the only way to get coins and items.
I looked around the room as Weiss made her decision.
Ah.
"Weiss, the pilot's dead." I called out as I noticed the pilot's chest no longer moved, and their arms had gone limp.
Her head slowly turned around, and she saw the dead body laying against a wall.
More black Glyphs materialized with the Faunus as their focus point, layers and layers piled atop one another as they slowly filled out a sideways hourglass shape.
The sound of groaning metal, of cracking and snapping metal echoed beneath even more screams from the man as his dense body was becoming even denser as it was compressed at the convergence points of Glyphs.
I don't know much of the science behind my sister's Semblance. I know she could use her black ones to contain or repel objects, but it wasn't like I had studied which vectors she calculated and used.
With the sound of shattering, the screams came to an end as the man was obliterated.
With a gray flash, metal debris turned to red flesh and white bone.
My sister stood among the carnage, her pale skin, her white hair and outfit now painted red with freshly made gore.
[Result] — [Steel Heart Charm (Cost: 5).]
[Select Subordinate] — [Weiss Schnee (Cost: 5/20).]
"Weiss." I called out as I approached her and put away my weapons.
"Noire…" A single hollow yet cold eye looked at me,
"Weiss, I'm glad you're alive. I have another gift for you." I selected my sister's name once more.
A silver charm shaped like a heart materialized with a small chain around Weiss' red stained wrist.
She looked down in confusion, and her one eye widened as she saw what it was.
"Noire…" Even her voice sounded hollow.
"Weiss." I called her name again and grabbed her head. Both of my palms were holding her cheeks and I was making her look me in the eyes. "I'm glad you're alive, no matter what else happens, so as long as you continue to live, I'll be glad. Weiss, you're the most important person in the world to me."
"N-Noire…" Emotion reignited in her eye and voice, as she looked at me completely dumbstruck.
"Listen up, I'm only going to say this once." I took a deep breath. "I love you."
Gah. I hate myself. I can't believe I actually love Weiss.
I'm not too great with emotions in the first place, if it wasn't apparent.
Even in my previous life, from what I could recall anyway, I've never had anyone that I genuinely loved. Not even my own mother, in fact my old mom wasn't much different than Willow but she had been a more violent drunk.
Ah. Weiss, my sweet little sister. I do love you, but I don't think I'll ever say it again, it's much too embarrassing and I'd rather die again.
You make me smile and laugh, I never bore or get tired of your actions. Every waking moment I'm not busy I'm thinking about you.
I don't even love myself as much as I love you. Screw my life and safety, as your big brother isn't it my job to make sure you stay safe?
Humans, Faunus, Grimm, immortals and gods, I won't let a single one of them harm you.
Whatever path you go down, know that I'll be right there beside you, supporting you.
Ah, so this is family.
Now, I understand what people say when they claim to feel unconditional love for members of their own blood.
Weiss hadn't said anything back yet, but she didn't appear to still be in shock after killing someone.
"Uh, uh, uh…" Her one good eye rolled back as her body fell limp.
I was still holding her face, so she didn't fall. And I checked her Status, and she was still healthy, so I let her rest, it had been a hard day for her.
I gently lifted her up in my arms before I sat her down in a pilot's chair.
After checking the auto-pilot to ensure our course hadn't been altered by the White Fang, I sent out an SOS signal to Argus.
"Watch her for me, okay?" I told Noelle as she perched herself on my sleeping sister's head.
The Ice Fairy chirped back what seemed to be an affirmative.
I nodded back, satisfied.
Then I went through the ship and gathered up all of the animals who dared to attack my sister.
How could they? What was wrong with them?
Weiss was practically an angel. Did they not see how cute her smile was? Ah, wait, of course not, they weren't blessed like I was to have her be born as my sister.
Claws, fangs and wrath? If those are what you embody, how are you any different than Grimm? They weren't really, the White Fang was filled with ravenous idiots craving destruction.
How am I supposed to sleep at night when there is a terrorist group who wants to kill Weiss?
I suppose I'll just have to get rid of them all so I can sleep soundly.
When I was going around collecting the attackers, I found a ladder leading up a hatch and a small airship docked atop this one. I checked it out, it definitely belonged to the White Fang, but it didn't have anything important.
I set the engine to hover, and the autopilot to drive into the sea once it got far enough, then I disengaged it. I had to hop down to the roof and fight against some heavy wind as I reentered and closed the hatch,
After dragging a couple of bodies down to the cargo bay of the airship. I used brute strength, empowered by Aura, to crack and break all of their necks, then I opened the cargo hatch and let the ocean swallow their corpses.
I had used my Status Report to make sure each of them was truly dead, so I didn't have to worry about any witnesses coming back.
When I was finished disposing of the filth, I returned to Weiss and then carried her back to her room. I brought her inside her shower and washed her clothes and body under some warm water. I had expected her to wake up, but she remained unconscious.
If she was really that exhausted, there was no real reason to wake her up.
After removing her clothes, I scrubbed her skin clean of blood, bile and bone fragments, then I brushed the same out of her hair.
I cleaned her face and saw a wide scar, the wound over her eye had been bigger and deeper than the one from the show.
Pressing my thumb under her scarred eye, and my index finger above it on her brow, I slowly pulled open her upper and lower eyelid. The two thin layers of skin were almost vertically torn in two.
Blood and other fluids leaked out from the eyeball, her sclera and iris had a deep gash running through. Again, I checked her Status, and felt a bit better when I saw that she wasn't in any danger. Her HP had only gone down by ten so far.
Her Aura would probably seal the wound, so I didn't need to do any emergency suturing. I was well-versed in first aid, living in a death world made it a necessity, but operating on an eye was delicate work and I would rather leave it to professionals.
After drying her off, I dressed her in her cute nightgown before tucking her in. I was a bit disappointed that I had to let her sleep on such an unsteady bed.
Luckily, her clothes were stain resistant, so the gore didn't latch on or seep in and was rather easy to wash away.
Even over the low rumble of the engines and the thick layer of deafening wind pressure surrounding the airship, I picked up on the sound of roaring engines rapidly approaching.
Looking over, I saw that Noelle was wide awake and still watching over Weiss. The Ice Fairy had kept its distance from the water that I had used to wash my sister, but that was probably out of consideration.
I ran back to the cockpit, and heard urgent requests for verification echoing from the radio. I grabbed a headset with a mic and racked my brain for the emergency communications that Atlesian aviators used.