Ch.12 - Phantom Menace

It's already been a couple hours since classes ended for the day, the sun began drawing closer to the horizon. Warm orange coated the afternoon sky as a cool wind swept across the school campus. A leaf flew from one of the tree and traveled to one of Beacon's towers, ending it's journey with—

"Blah! Leaf!" Its journey unfortunately ended when it acquainted itself with Sora's face. Feeling the edge of the tower behind him, it wasn't long before he was trying to keep his balance. Fate would not be his ally as the majority of his body weight began leaning towards a fall. In a thought of deja vu–or rather a memory shared directly with him– a shocked Sora could only think of that before feeling a tugging sensation. The pulling force was mostly felt at his jacket zipper and buttons. A sense of relief was all Sora felt when he grabbed the hand of his savior.

"Phew, thanks a ton Pyrrha!"

"The mighty Sora, beaten by a single leaf." Pyrrha let out a small laugh after saying that and Sora shared a sheepish laugh. From the side, the members of RWBY, JNPR, and Charlemagne filed onto the tower outlook, originally being led by Sora up here. Weiss made her way to Sora as Pyrrha helped him back onto stable footing.

"Don't make me start feeling worse about myself losing to someone who got one-up'ed by a stray leaf in the wind."

The leaf in question floated around for a bit before Ren grabbed it, "Hopefully this is a one-off occurrence. You wouldn't want the school closing this viewpoint off for being a falling hazard."

"He would've survived! We did have to prepare our own landing strategy to get into this school."

"Ehhhh I don't think that's the point, Yang." Ruby said.

The teams settled onto their spots and managed to fit the space with enough room where no one felt cramped. For a moment, everyone fell into a comfortable silence as most of them took in the view for the very first time.

"You're right Sora… this view…", the normally exuberant Ruby couldn't help but be a bit speechless.

"I'm glad Patch isn't the only place in Vale with a killer view, and that's a view I will see tomorrow for winter break" Yang said, noticing Ruby's thousand mile stare. Seeing her sister like this softened her expression. She was most likely thinking of that one place on Patch with a view like this…

"I wonder how many people would be able to notice us from up here? Lemme get their attention!"

"Let's not do that Nora." Her leader had to cover her mouth in order to maintain the mood.

She resigned as he removed his hand from her face, "Bleh, fine. Anyways, this view is great!… Anything else in mind?"

"Ah! The other part of this tradition… 'the icing on the cake.' Charlie, do the honors!" Sora signaled the group to look Charlemagne's way. He put a box that he had been carrying onto his lap and opened the lid.

Some of them recognized the contents of the box, "Sea salt ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" Ruby, the resident sweets devourer, had stars in her eyes.

"Our treat! After a hard day's work, it's great to just enjoy a cool snack while admiring the sunset. Luckily we just received a new batch of boxes as our ice cream supply was almost drained entirely!" Sora gave a brief description of what they were meant to do as the group passed the ice cream down.

The gang who've yet to try sea salt ice cream inspected their ice cream for a few seconds, wondering about the prospects of sea salt on ice cream. They noticed how Sora, Charlemagne, and Blake were already beginning to eat from their sticks. Some of them noticed Blake's expression of slight bliss as her ears wagged about.

"Adorable!!!" Ruby mentally etched that into her memory and with bated breath, she took a bite out of the ice cream. Her face tightened from the initial saltiness.

"Jeez, the salt—" the sweetness hit right after, prompting Ruby to put a hand on her cheek, "…oohhhhh yeah that does it."

With generally favorable reactions, everyone enjoyed their ice cream and engaged in friendly discussions with one another. Being in the center, Sora looked at both sides and smiled with the thought that he had finally achieved this one goal in mind. It has already been about four months since he arrived to Remnant, a world he's been on far longer than any other minus Destiny Islands and Twilight Town.

In almost every world he has been to, he appreciated and has had the fortunate to connect with so many friends along the way. Time wasn't exactly the luxury he had as a Keyblade wielder though, he had the duty to maintain order throughout the Realm of Light. He had to constantly bounce around different worlds with a handful of worlds revisited.

But now this was an entirely different case, he was now assigned to save one world. His time is all invested into Remnant. He has gotten to know the friends he has met here with much more intimacy. As technology ridden as this world is, Sora felt extremely comfortable and part of this world.

Which did nothing to comfort his thoughts about what Young Xehanort said in that recording.

Was Xehanort aware of what laid ahead for this world? Why was this world not worth saving? In what regard does he mean "reality." No… this was a Xehanort with an old mindset, misguided until his old friend had to call a checkmate. Sora will strive to be better.

Sora bit the last piece of his ice cream, searching for "Winner" on the stick to no avail.

"Anyone have 'Winner' on their stick?" Charlemagne finished his already as he sighed right after for not finding it.

"No luck today it seems." Sora looked around to see various "no's" and shaking of heads as they still munched down on their ice cream.

"What do you get for the 'Winner' anyways?" Yang wondered.

"I did order these from back home, so there's probably some reward there."

"Man if there's a Lien reward, count me in!" Jaune chimed in, intrigued about winning for some potential reward.

"Hey Weiss, why don't you order these then? We can probably rack up a lot of 'Winner' sticks if you use all that cash you got!" Yang nudged at Weiss.

"No way I'm wasting a ton of Lien on ice cream! We don't have a refrigerator in our room!"

"I'm sure we don't need one, Ruby might eat all of them quickly."

"Very tempted, Blake!" Said the cheerful leader.

"Don't encourage this Blake!"

"I can help!" Nora offered a helping hand and she and Ruby gave each other a cheer.

"And maybe you can bring those sticks back whenever you go back to Atlas and redeem some prizes for all of us, Weiss! How about that?" Ruby said with stars in her eyes.

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "That's if I want to go home anytime soon. Not really an environment I'd want to be in at the moment."

The mention of home brought a varying degree of emotions from the group. Happiness, nostalgia… regret, pain, longing. Home had different meanings for each person, and it was Sora who felt the need to share his.

"I would be the happiest person to see my home again. Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy… all of my friends. Wish we could spend more time together, but I'm unsure if I could see them again…"

Everyone saw their rather jovial friend age about 20 years with the somber face he sported. No one really knew how much Sora had experienced before even being sent to this world. As much of a dream his life was, he'd also had to witness loss and tragedy. He felt firsthand the despair Aqua felt being lost in the darkness.

But losing the ability to even remain in his original realm? That was brutal and he did it on HIMSELF.

He was so in his thoughts he didn't notice someone walking to his spot to hold his hands. Imagine his shock when he found that it was Nora of all people to be the comforter of this topic.

With levity that no one but Ren imagined coming from her, she said this to Sora, "Having to live with the thought that your home is gone is… the worst. Ren and I know this very well."

Nora looked at Ren with what seemed like a silent conversation, seeming to ask for permission. The man in question only nodded.

"We both lost everyone we knew from that village. Ren lost his mom and dad, and well I was an orphan so I had a head start with loss. The pain is something that never goes away. In a way, you can see my bubbly personality as a defense mechanism to subdue that pain, but there are times where I am reminded of it and it hurts."

"Nora…"

The girl tightened her hold on Sora's hands, "But what is broken could be healed, as what is lost could be found. Ren and I found each other to keep each other happy, and we found all of you. Take each moment of hope and happiness and hold to it! I believe you will see your home and friends again, and if I find out a person was responsible for this and I meet them, you know what I'll do!"

This got the group in a collective laugh. It was nice to see that Nora had this side to her while still reminding them about who she is.

"Ahahaha! Ha! Ahhh," Sora gave it another few seconds to compose himself, "…I truly mean this, thank you, Nora. This was something I really needed to be reminded about. Home isn't something you can only designate to one place."

The group heard a distant Bullhead take off from the docks as they fell into a comfortable silence. With all of them done with their ice cream, all three teams can simply focus on enjoying the sunset. With his doubts erased for now, Sora only thought of ways to move forward. He knew deep down the others back in his original realm were trying their absolute hardest to find him as well.

Like Riku said, he was stronger than that.

- A couple weeks later -

Winter break has just passed and all students returned to Beacon by yesterday. All first year students were notified with the same message to head to the auditorium after classes were done. What was it for?

"I hope you have all enjoyed your winter break. As important as obtaining your education as aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses is, it's also imperative to savor times of reprieve. Opportunities of relaxation come fewer once you are in the workforce. With that in mind, here is what I have gathered you all for." Ozpin gave a tap of his cane before multiple screens slowly came through from the ground around the student crowd.

Each screen had a list of teams with times of departure and what dock they were assigned to. Teachers and available Huntsmen/Huntresses were additionally listed to supervise their assigned teams.

"Missions are an essential factor of a Huntsman and Huntress' job. Teams would be expected to carry out a variety of different missions such as Grimm extermination, intel gathering, and escort. As first years, do not expect to be given highly important missions as those are to be completed by second or even third year teams. Your teams are assigned to head out throughout the week so for teams leaving tomorrow, be on top of preparation. I hope none will disappoint and best of luck with you all." With that final statement, Ozpin left the podium with the students left to their devices.

Glynda walked up to the mic, "Make sure to double check all the relevant info for your team. Other than that, you are all dismissed."

It didn't take long for our fellow gang to convene at a screen to scour for their info.

"Team JNPR, scheduled for a mission tomorrow morning…" Jaune read off.

"Aww really? You guys get to head out a couple days sooner than us!" Ruby exclaimed.

"How about Team King?" Blake inquired, but none of the boys responded as if they were waiting on something.

Jaune paused reading something, to which Nora decided to read what Jaune was, "our supervisor…Team King?!"

"Yep!" Charlemagne popped the 'p'.

The confusion was an initial reaction until Weiss remembered something, "That's right. Team King is able to tag along with other teams on missions."

"No fair, y'all got the sensational heart throb duo first amirite?!" Yang hung both her arms around Charlemagne and Sora as their response was to just laugh it off.

"Don't make it weird, Yang." Blake said.

"What would a name for you two be as a two-man boy band?" Jaune decided to add to this topic. Team King just stood there in silence as their friends were actually seeming to think up names. Ideas ranged from "Two Directions", "King Heartthrobs", and "Kings of Beacon". Amidst the suggestions, Sora threw in his own as a joke.

"How about 'Kingdom Hearts'?"

There was a brief moment of silence before a snort was heard from Ruby and Nora.

"What a name." Pyrrha chuckled.

"You know what? It's a kinda cool name." Charlemagne voiced his opinion.

"But it doesn't beat King Heartthrobs." Yang defended her suggestion.

"Anyyyyways strange we got on that tangent!" Sora decided it was time to steer the topic back to the original one, "we were assigned by Ozpin to head out with you four on your mission."

Blake pondered on the status of Team King in this arrangement, "I'm wondering if Ozpin thinks you two are the equivalent of an experienced Huntsman."

"Probably moreso in terms of combat ability. If you think about it, the three best first years are assembled together. Call it a stretch, but that's a bit excessive for a simple mission." Weiss pointed this out.

"Mind telling us what we're doing?" Nora went to ask Team King.

Charlemagne crossed his arms, "We weren't told a lot, only that our full mission disclosure was to be briefed on site."

Ruby tilted her head, "For what?"

Sora and Charlemagne could only think about earlier before this assembly happened.

"Headmaster, we are here as you have requested!"

"Heya!"

The enthusiasm of both Atlas formality and casual islander both greeted Ozpin. Glynda was very slightly taken aback by them both seeing that first years usually all carry varying forms of gravitas with Ozpin.

The Headmaster, however, thought that trait was amusing. Sure it could be considered rude to not initially give due respect to higher authority, but Ozpin didn't have an issue with it.

"Apologies for calling you both on short notice, but today is one with a major announcement for first years." This got Sora and Charlemagne to look at each other.

"Which is?" Sora tilted his head while waiting for a response.

"Missions. I will announce the first round of missions for all first year students."

"Oh sweet! We're gonna go on our first mission as a team!" Sora was quite excited to explore what was outside the city and Beacon.

"Awesome, I've been wondering when we could stretch our legs!" Charlemagne received an energetic nod from Sora.

Ozpin looked at Glynda, "If you will, Glynda." The vice-Headmaster nodded and placed her Scroll on top of Ozpin's desk. It interacted with Ozpin's desk and loaded an operation before a holographic display of a map showed up.

"Tomorrow, you will embark on your mission and fly to a village outside the city walls. There you will meet an associate of ours, an old alumni of Beacon Academy named Sean Green, who will fill you in more on your mission details. Oh, and this is not a mission for just you two, though." Glynda tapped a few more buttons to display the roster for the mission.

"We're tagging along with Team JNPR?"

Glynda adjusted her glasses, "You two will be in charge of Team JNPR in lieu of a professional Huntsman."

This news was met with the wide eyes of Team King, not expecting to have the responsibility of another team's wellbeing on their first mission.

"That's…! Umm… Any reason why this was decided?" Sora was one to communicate his curiosity.

Ozpin leaned forward and clasped both of his hands together, "Team King holds a very special role in this school, and not just in the perspective of this year but our history as an established Huntsman Academy. We have found our fair share of extraordinary talents over the years, but something tells me that you two are cut above the rest. You two are given the opportunity at Beacon to really let your talents be truly realized; afterall, how many two-man student teams are there that can exceed the abilities of a team of generational talent like Team RWBY?"

"If I may, Headmaster…", Charlemagne moved to speak, "what you've said sounds more like our combat talent. How can we make up for a veteran's leadership and wisdom?"

"As the first two-man team in Beacon's history, I've kept close watch on your developments ever since Initiation. You two have met my expectations so far and at times even surpassed them considering the intended status of this team. Barring the general education of Remnant, I have deemed both of your combined leadership and combat skills equivalent to a professional Huntsman. I have high hopes for you two, is that understood?"

The two boys gave a salute, "Yes, Headmaster!"

Talk about being on the same wavelength. Without further talk, the boys left the Headmaster's office to head for the amphitheater. The old Headmaster felt that the other person in the room had something to say.

"Seems like you want to say something to me, Glynda. What's on your mind? Do you have reservations about them supervising Team JNPR?"

"I'd normally consider it outrageous to even consider putting first years in charge of a team under the role of a professional. That's "normally". Team King is clearly an exception."

"Ah, glad to see we are seeing the same thing." Ozpin can feel a "but" coming through.

"But was it really wise to keep this debrief vague?"

Ozpin held his mug tighter with both hands, "For this mission, yes. I'd rather not risk this information being leaked out accidentally too early. That would be saved for when they actually meet up with Sean Green."

The wizard stood up and walked towards the window, staring at the campus. "It's also a mission to see what Team JNPR, specifically Miss Nikos, is made of."

Glynda's eyes looked down briefly, "Yes, her successor."

Recognizing the tone she used, Ozpin also let out a sigh, "A day I don't look forward to myself, but her condition is worsening. We must prepare Miss Nikos for the threats beyond the Grimm, something that she might face very soon."

"The dropoff location is upon us, I suggest you guys double check on all of your essentials."

"Thanks Cap!" Sora got up from the shotgun seat he occupied on the Bullhead. "Everybody good to go?"

Everyone checked their gear and weapons to make sure they were functioning and in good condition.

"All ready!" Charlemagne said.

"Everything checks out on our end." Jaune confirmed with the rest of his team. "And anything to debrief us on, Sora and Charlie?"

With a prideful tone, Sora put his hands on his hips, "Absolutely nothing at all!"

Nora pointed at Sora, "How is that assuring?!"

"Ozpin told us to meet up with this Huntsman named Sean Green so he could debrief us."

"Surely more was said by Ozpin, something we can use to plan out how to go about this mission…" Pyrrha looked at Charlemagne for anything.

The man in question thought for a moment before striking the same pose as Sora, "Let's use our awesome teamwork and we will prevail no problem!"

"NOT YOU TOO!!!"

The pilot comms interrupted their conversation, "Alright Teams King and JNPR, we are landing right now." Both teams held onto their seats as the Bullhead descended onto a forest clearing, making a successful landing.

"We have safely landed. Good luck to you all, and happy hunting."

and

"Thanks, Chief!" Charlemagne and Sora gave their thanks to the pilot and both teams soon departed the vehicle. The Bullhead took off shortly after.

Sora spoke up first, "So, based on our current mission assignment, we are to head to this village outpost."

"Sora, the Scroll is upside down." His teammate flipped the Scroll in his hands.

"Ahem! Anyways, it looks like we are heading north from here. Not a long walk from the looks of it. Everyone ready?" All nods and confirmations.

"Then let's roll out, JNPR!" Charlemagne pumped his fist in the air.

"Yeah!"/"You gotcha!" Nora/Sora exclaimed.

For about 10 minutes, the group had a rather peaceful and uneventful trek towards their destination. Sora and Charlemagne were at the front of the group, exchanging cheerful banter as this was their first mission. Nora was talking with Pyrrha and that left Jaune with Ren.

For Jaune, it was a perfect time to talk to Ren since he noticed Ren looking like he had a lot of thoughts left unsaid during their ride. Jaune had a sigh to compose himself, "Team captain, time to be team captain."

Ren noticed Jaune approaching him, "Hey Ren! Uh… is there anything wrong with— erm, I mean it looks like there's something on your mind, hehe…" Jaune's attempt to channel his leadership role didn't go unnoticed, but it was something that Ren found amusing and made a small smile on his face.

"Thanks for your concern, Jaune. I've just been thinking about what we know about this mission… and what I'm having to assume."

"Oh?"

"I don't like how little we know about this mission, even more concerning that even those two aren't fully in the know.

Jaune thought for a bit before responding, "Well, we have Pyrrha, Sora, and Charlie. I think we are gonna be fine with whatever comes our way, right?"

Ren remained silent after that, focused on his thoughts. Jaune just let out a sheepish chuckle. Having the three best first-years on their first mission was another reason Ren couldn't help but feel on guard. If Team King was considered an elite team, why were they assigned to look over their team — a team also highly regarded amongst the first-years — instead of partaking in their own mission?

"Hold on." Sora suddenly said and that halted everyone. It wasn't long until the sound of many footsteps were getting louder.

"Grimm?!" Jaune squeaked as he brought out his sword as fast as possible.

A very large pack of Beowolves were seen running towards a specific direction, not focused on their group. It was honestly a bit confusing that the Beowolves acted like the team did not exist and it wasn't like Ren was using his Semblance.

"Do they not see us?" Nora was even trying to wave at them but to no avail.

"Wait…" Sora looked at the Scroll map before his eyes widened. He ran for a clearer view of where the Beowolves were going so the treeline was less obstructive. What greeted him was smoke rising in the distance. Charlemagne and the rest caught up to Sora with similar feelings of shock.

"Sora, Team JNPR! We must make haste now!" They all rushed to the source of the smoke. The negative emotions the team felt such as fear, worry, and anxiousness weren't enough to attract the Grimm. Whatever was happening to that settlement… it wasn't good. As the team got closer to their destination, they noticed that the Grimm not only began stopping, but some Grimm like the Alphas started running the opposite direction.

"Umm, that's a lot of Grimm that could maybe turn their attention to us!"

Pyrrha responded to Jaune, "Good point, Jaune. But we need to help those townsfolk." As they approached the village gates, the team could only stop in horror as they witnessed the scene in front of them.

Carnage. The results of absolute carnage. There was nothing but completely demolished houses and bodies; humans, Faunus, and Grimm.

Sora fell to one knee, "No…"

He remembered back in the Land of Dragons when their company had encountered the village destroyed by the Huns. It was disheartening remembering that memory, but for this village he felt even worse. He could've honestly helped this village, they were undeterred and nearby. If only he got there faster—

He definitely could've. Gliding would've cut time since he wouldn't have had to follow the forest path. But… that would've compromised his secret. Sora hit the ground with a fist, frustrated with this internal dilemma. How much longer did he feel obligated to keep his full abilities under wraps? Did he even need to when the Foretellers and the Black Coat Man seemingly did not restrict themselves?

The group took a minute to process everything. Pyrrha couldn't take her eyes off the scene, holding a hand to her mouth as tears began falling. Jaune couldn't even bear to look, sitting down and curling into his knees. Charlemagne looked in sorrow as he made a prayer that seemingly looked like he made a cross with his hand motions. The ones who looked the most affected were Nora and Ren. A normally stoic guy, Ren was visibly shaking with a cold rage in his eyes. Without Aura, he would've definitely bled from his lips with how hard he was biting them. It took Nora quietly holding his hands to subside some of his quiet rage. He looked at his normally hyperactive childhood friend, who was on the verge of tears.

"We have a job to do." Ren, with a bit of edge in his voice, simply started walking into the small village. The rest were a bit taken aback and Sora went to go approach Ren.

"Wait!" Sora rested a hand on Ren's shoulder and the man abruptly turned towards Sora with a light glare. The spikey haired teen paused under that glare for a moment before composing himself, "Use your Semblance so we can walk undisturbed by Grimm."

"Our group is a bit too big for me to accommodate everybody. My current max is just four people for a brief moment."

"Well… aha! Jaune can help!" Hearing his name, Jaune slowly got up and walked towards Ren.

"Y-you need me?"

Charlemagne understood what Sora was thinking, "Yes! Ren, use your Semblance then activate yours, Jaune."

Ren closed his eyes and started breathing slowly. His appearance began shifting into a monotone gray. As the gray began spreading to the others, it began to flicker.

"I'm not focused enough. Dammit, these strong emotions are getting the best of me!"

As he continued struggling to even apply his Semblance to someone else, the team looked at him with worry and some looked around with caution in case Grimm showed up. It wasn't until Nora held his hand that the Semblance began showing progress.

"It's ok, Ren. It's ok…" Nora said fully knowing what Ren is going through. With his Semblance covering Team JNPR, Jaune channeled his Semblance and placed his hands on Ren's shoulder. The amplification qualities of Jaune's Semblance enabled Ren to temporarily push past his limits, and the gray eventually spread to Sora and Charlemagne. Checking themselves out to see their fully gray bodies, Team King was satisfied.

"Let's move. Hopefully we find Sean somewhere." Charlemagne said before the gang began walking further into the town. The co-leads of the mission tried their best to contact Sean with attempted calls and messages, but there was no response. Devastation was all around them and it was hard for any of them to look around, so Ren found it best to focus on someone's back so that an unpleasant sight didn't compromise the integrity of the Semblance.

They soon arrived at a certain house, the spot where they were assigned to meet Sean. There wasn't any need to knock on the door since it seemed only a quarter of the house remained standing that didn't include the door. The team walked in to try to locate Sean's whereabouts.

"Sean! It's us, Teams King and JNPR! Helloooo???" No response answered Sora.

Charlemagne shook his head, "This is not cool at all. He probably had to deal with this Grimm invasion."

"Possibly as the only professional Huntsman in this village." Pyrrha said with a grim expression. While making their way to this house, there was no indication from the bodies that anyone was a professional Huntsmen. Only a few had basic weapons or tools, the means of last resort self-defense.

"I didn't see any Grimm wandering around either. Is it fine if we let up our Semblances?" Jaune asked.

Sora nodded, "Save your energy guys. We might need it. Let's split up and try to find Sean! Send the group a message when you've found him!" Team JNPR split into pairs as Sora and Charlemagne each went alone to search the village.

While roaming the village, Sora couldn't help but notice something was off. The Grimm's behavior throughout their journey here was abnormal. In an environment where negativity would be festering, they are completely absent aside from all the fallen Grimm found in the village that have all almost completely faded by now. Traversing within the wreckage of houses, he felt something else caused this destruction. There were massive burn marks on the ground as if Firaga spells were casted, massive sections of houses swiped off that even a large amount of Beowolves are unlikely to have done, and lastly giant paw prints too big for even Alpha Beowolves marred the ruined landscape.

What Grimm was this? If it was Grimm…

A beeping sound was heard from his Scroll and Sora quickly opened it, receiving a message from Jaune that they found Sean. He left in a hurry to track them down using their marked location. He was the last person to reconvene with the group, but he soon knew there wasn't any good news. They stood in front of an older man who looked to be in his 50s-60s, his weapon broken into bits in his hands as he stared at the group with frozen, unmoving eyes.

"I need a minute…" Ren walked off in a random direction alone and this time Nora opted to not follow him.

"How could this be…?" Sora put a hand to his head.

Pyrrha put her hand to Sean's wrist then neck, she looked visibly distraught but all of her tears were used already. "Our source of intel is gone…"

"This is not any normal Grimm," Sora started to think about all the destruction he noticed, "all of this destruction I've seen? It seems like there was a giant fire-breathing dog that rampaged through here instead of just a horde of Beowolves."

"Are there Mishipeshus that breathe fire?" Jaune asked, remembering the massive feline Grimm they fought during Initiation.

"I don't think that's the case man," Charlemagne inspected one of the burn spots, "they live in the swamps of Anima, so they draw water from there to power their attacks."

"Then how was that big cat there during Initiation?" Nora was the one who asked.

Charlemagne could only frown, "Good question. I've also been trying to look for survivors, any luck with you guys?" Everyone stayed silent and that dampened the mood.

"We should give the people here a proper burial, they fought to the very end. My family believed in a Mistralian tradition that fallen warriors defending their village should be buried in the heart of the village, to respect the heart they had protecting their families." Pyrrha put a hand on Sean's heart.

And for the next couple hours, they searched the small village of every body they could find. No one had the heart to ask Ren if he wanted to help. Nora knew what he was going through so she advised the rest to give him space, which also made Nora feel extremely bad. How can she not? An unresolved issue weighed heavy in his mind for years and she knew she couldn't do much about it.

Sora found a man with claw marks on his back, clearly killed by a Beowolf. He went to pick up the body and in the midst of doing so a book dropped from his coat.

"Huh, what's this?" He placed the body down and picked up the mini notebook. Inspecting the front and back, he eventually opened the book. The contents of the book told Sora that this was a local village hunter keeping tabs and logs about his expeditions and general notes on the wildlife. As he flipped through the pages, he came across the more recent entries and it gave him pause. He decided to read it.

'Recently, I've been finding more wildlife mangled and slaughtered by an unknown predator. Grimm do not care about wildlife, strange…'

'I don't recall an Alpha Grimm sighted in this area ever, so the sight of MASSIVE paw prints is extremely concerning.'

'Bless the Elder, an experienced Huntsman has been on the case. I accompanied him on a couple incursions into the forest and we both felt at times we were being watched. Sean has requested more assistance from Headmaster Ozpin in hopes of solving this anomaly.'

Sora stopped for a moment to think, "Sean requested for more assistance and he sent us? Just students? Why would Ozpin think it's okay to send students rather than an actual professional team?"

His eyes focused on the last entry and this one gave him chills, 'THIS IS THE WORST OUTCOME. We've confirmed there's a beast in the darkness of the woods. Red. Eyes. I'm writing this quickly because I heard a loud howl coming from the forest, and the people are becoming uneasy. Grimm are beginning to show up and Sean's reinforcements are coming in about an hour. We must hold out until they arrive. Elder God, give us strength.'

Closing the book, Sora processed everything he read. This man, this whole village did not deserve this fate. The creature that he described also did not seem like Grimm at all as they mainly had yellow eyes while this man mentioned red eyes. Also, Sora couldn't help but notice when he had his Keyblade out earlier that it felt like there was some odd sensation with it. He couldn't put his finger on it too much, but he felt his Keyblade was responding to something.

He summoned his Keyblade in the form of Favorite Deputy before pointing it towards the direction of the forest. It wasn't long before he felt the Keyblade was providing some sort of feedback.

"Weird, this has never happened before. Whatever is in that forest, I'm starting to think it's not Grimm." Sora was very curious at this point, but for right now he needed to pay his respects for the fallen.

It took another hour to procure shovels and dig holes deep enough to place the bodies in. By the time they were done burying all the bodies, Ren finally reconvened with the group as they silently mourned.

Charlemagne stepped forward and began reciting a prayer, "In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but the fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen." He ended it by making the sign of the cross again.

As they stood there, Sora had his attention towards the forest. And for a split second, he thought he saw something rustle in the foliage. Charlemagne noticed his teammate's intense look.

"Woah man, are you all good? Lookin' kinda scary."

Sora turned his attention to the whole group with determination and he dug out the notebook he found from his pockets before displaying it to everyone.

"The forest. Our mission continues in the forest."

Thank goodness I finally got this chapter out. For this small arc, I want to introduce some heavier shit into this story. If Disney ain't gonna make Sora face the results of a freshly gruesome massacre, then I will :D

So ever since I uploaded last time, there has been some news that was announced. I think I heard there was a small indie game that I'm not sure everybody has heard of that was announced recently. I think it was called Kingdom Hearts 4. And their main character is also named Sora, huh funny how life works.

Alright I'll stop playing with you, I'm so FUCKING excited about the game. Very very interested in the direction this game would take, I'd like to see a more mature Sora as I feel this would be warranted (as this is something I'm somewhat also trying to do in this story.)

Also on the Fate side of things, Charlemagne. They. Finally. Added. This. Guy. Into. FGO! I woke up with the information since those livestreams happen too late at night and I JUMPED out of the bed. It took me 200 to roll a copy of him, but I wholeheartedly do not regret it.

The past two months have been great, and I hope it's been the same for you all, my readers.

Anyways, til next time!

Peace,

REternal