Location: Jujutsu Academy
Like a vice grip little Kara held on tightly to her father, who returned an affectionate embrace himself. Weiss at the same time hugged them both tightly. For little Kara it had felt like eons had passed since she last saw them.
"You're back!" she yapped happily as both her parents embraced her.
From the hallway, young adult Kara was watching the sight from a safe distance. People always said time travel was a surreal experience, having such a glimpse into your own past or those of your parents was an almost out of bounds experience. She had been warned multiple times by her trainers to never attempt to use time travel to meddle in your own life for you could risk affecting your present.
Kara didn't think she had changed much by revealing herself to her father in the prison realm. In fact if she hadn't helped her father escape that place, who knows how her present would've changed without him as a stable presence in her life.
That was at least until what Gojo had said. Yuta wasn't supposed to be dead, in her future he was married to her aunt Ruby. The revelation of his death made her shudder to think what could've changed in her future now that he was gone, how much would've changed?
As she watched the scene unfold she noticed from the corner of her eye Yang and Blake walk over to her. Kara chuckled thinking about the future they had in store for me.
"So…you're Kara from the future?" Yang said somewhat nonchalantly.
Kara chuckled and turned to them, standing straight "yup, all grown up and badass" she said with a confident smirk. Blake and Yang turned to each other before giggling as Kara began to blush from embarrassment.
"Oh come on aunt Yang don't laugh at me" she said as she began to pout while trying to become one with the wall.
"I'm sorry," Yang said as she tried to stop giggling "but the way you said it reminded me of your dad."
"And the way you're pouting right now looks like your mom" Blake continued.
Despite the embarrassment, Kara found some solace in hearing that. She looked back at her parents hugging her younger self and felt blessed to have been raised by them, as well as the extended family standing beside her giggling.
"So tell me am I still kicking butt in the future?" Yang asked cocking her eyebrow and crossing her arms.
"Oh yes aunt Yang you absolutely are!" Kara responded.
The trio erupted into laughter, with Yang looking satisfied that years from now she could still kick anyone upside the room at a moment's notice. Kara through her giggling saw her father come out of the room.
"Thank goodness Kara is okay, I mean little Kara I mean…you get it," Jaune said looking confused. Kara shot him a raised eyebrow, fully aware of the confusion her travelling to this period of time had caused.
"Well I'm glad that I'm alright but…" Kara said biting her lip "I'm sorry but I kind of have to get back to my own time."
A mixture of disappointment and understanding glossed across Jaune's face "are you sure? After all we've been through you already have to go back?"
Kara solemnly nodded "I am. I need to make sure no major things have changed in the future. Considering we where trapped in a dimension beyond space and time I doubt there will be much changed but still I got to check regardless."
"I understand."
Jaune moved closer and embraced Kara, whispering in her ear "please be careful and come back if all is fine. We could really use your help around here."
"I promise dad."
With that father and daughter split and Kara took a few steps backward, grabbing her dagger from her hilt she made a vertical slash in front of her, and an orange tinted portal opened up in front of her. She turned her head towards her dad and two aunts and smiled.
"I'll see you all soon again."
"Wait just one minute young lady," a voice boomed throughout the hall. Gojo suddenly turned the corner and pointed at Kara as she was about to step through the portal "where do you think you're going? You still have a lot of explaining to do."
Kara simply shrugged her shoulders "well if you say so. I will absolutely do so…when I get back bye!" she said before waving sarcastically at Gojo and jumping backwards into the portal which soon after disappeared into nothing.
Slightly dazed by her exit, Gojo quickly regained his composure and then turned his gaze onto Jaune "don't think you're off the hook yet Arc. You are going to tell me everything that happened in that Prison Realm and you will tell it now or…."
"LEAVE HIM ALONE GOJO!"
A large shout erupted through the entire hallway, it even caused Weiss who was holding young Kara to step out of the room and they all watched as an angry, distraught and frightened Qrow entered their line of sight, holding up something in his hand.
"We have bigger things to worry about! Megumi and Power! They're gone!"
Even Gojo's stoic gaze faltered as he looked at the device in Qrow's hand. He walked over and snatched it out of the frantic man's hand, examining it ever so closely.
"This is their portal device and it's in pieces…which means…"
"They're gone to another world most likely, with no way back and no way for us to track them down" Qrow stated as he turned to look at the rest in the hallway.
The seriousness of the situation was settling in on Jaune, Weiss, Blake and Yang as they all realized what Qrow was trying to convey. Their friends where lost in the vastness in the multiverse.
"But how….this is Megumi he wouldn't just go off to another world and allow his way back to be broken, that's just not like him" Jaune spoke.
Qrow nodded in response "exactly and that's what scares me. What or who could've possibly caused Megumi to become so careless that he drop his portal device to pieces."
A silence overtook the crowd as they became unsure on how to proceed. With their friend lost to the vastness of the multiverse.
Collective headquarters:
A portal opened in the giant farmhouse and the figure of the ice queen of Atlas Weiss Schnee walked forward, her eyes covered by her blue shades, her ponytail center, the clicking of her heels walking over the floor as she placed the object in her hand on the table.
The man at the table, Silco and Malthazard, one of the few remaining members of the Collective, looked at it and nodded.
"I see you have brought the Relic of Creation finally back to us boss" Silco spoke.
Weiss nodded and took of her shades, placing them on the table. There where noticeable bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in days, and on her necks still the remnants of her Nightmare possession, small black veins clearly visible.
"I did and it's important we use it to help my father wake up from his predicament…" Weiss shook her head, trying to bury the thoughts of her beloved father in such a state, a state he put himself in to save her life.
A state in which she slept for a long time yet even as she had awoken she was still tired, feeling the strain the infection left on her body, and now with her father's current state, her sisters death and her daughter gone, she was feeling more fatigued than ever before.
Yet nevertheless she persisted.
"But moving on, our potential new recruits. But first has anyone heard of Henry yet?" she asked.
Both men shook their head, but only Malthazard spoke "I'm afraid he's been awfully quiet. He's not in his realm so I assume he's on another world but I do not know which one."
Weiss sighed in frustration, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance.
"I'll deal with him shortly. For now what potential recruits have you found?"
Silco pushed a stack of documents forward and Weiss grabbed the top one and began reading it. In it was a photograph of a dapper gentleman with a handlebar mustache and slightly disheveled hair, he was dressed in red and his most noticeable feature was the hook that was his right hand.
"James Hook? A pirate with a thirst for revenge. I like it! Since Silver went AWOL we've been in need of a good captain."
She grabbed the next two documents and looked them over. Nothing to interesting. An sorceress obsessed with finding one unique dime, an angel with one arm with a thirst for blood. They looked like unlikely members but at this point, with their rosters so low they were barely in a position to decline.
"Send out invitations to these three. The usual, tell them we will offer them what they wish in exchange for them joining our Collective."
"As you wish my lady" Silco said with a bow as he walked off.
Weiss touched her neck, feeling the veins as she scowled. There was much that she needed to do and much she needed to accomplish. Replenish their ranks, save her father, avenge her sister and get her daughter and her man back.
A small town near the Academy
Kasumi Miwa was giggling as she read through the latest manga at her favorite book shop.
It was a quint little town near the Jujutsu Academy covered by the forests and she was just absolutely loving the book shop. Every time she was nearby she stopped by the book shop to see what was near. Sometimes like this particular occasion where she stayed until late in the evening.
Something the owner made her quite aware of as the old lady now approached her.
"Miwa-san, I appreciate you being here but it is late and I need to close up."
"Oh right I'm sorry I will leave and let you close up. Thank you for letting me read here" Miwa replied in her usual sweet and polite tone.
She then began to make her way towards the door, seeing how dark it had already become. As she was extending her hand to open the door and leave, it suddenly flung open and she took a few steps backwards.
A figure walked in, their face mostly obscured by the giant oversized grey cloak they where wearing. The figure barely acknowledged Miwa as they walked past her, and Miwa could swear she saw a feminine looking face underneath the hood of the cloak.
Still shaken she opened the door and walked out, but yet she stayed still outside the door as she heard the owner say "apologies but we are closed."
Miwa moved to the side of the shop and looked through the small window on the side to watch what happened. She couldn't explain it but she had a very nasty feeling in her gut that something was up.
"I'm sorry madam but I'm afraid you must leave" she heard the shop owner say to the stranger in a polite yet forceful tone.
A few seconds of silence came before the stranger spoke, in a somewhat deep voice "I want to know about the academy…."
The voice send chills down Miwa's spine, it was almost like the voice was simultaneously trying to speak and growl at the same time, she never heard anything like it before…
"I'm happy to tell you about it if you come back tomorrow. But for now I have to ask you to please leave my store and…"
The figure walked past her and went over to a nearby stock, grabbing a book from the shelf and reading it, its face still obscured by the cowl.
"Madam as I said before you need to leave as…"
Miwa's heart sunk in her shoes as she saw in an instant the figure move towards the shop owner and grab her by the throat with one hand and lifting her from the ground. Miwa clasped her hands over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming.
She could only look as the figure dropped the book and lifted the shop owner further of the ground, the poor old woman struggling desperately to keep breathing as the stranger lifted her with one hand, a hand Miwa noticed now had elongated nails.
"I told you I wanted to learn…." The figure spoke up as it's lifted its free arm "you annoy me…." And with that Miwa could only watch in horror as the strangers hand lit up and five small lightning shaped projectiles appeared from it and shot out in all directions, making not a single sound as they broke all the lamps in the building. Leaving the shop in almost complete darkness.
All Miwa could see now a single solitary light from the place where the two stood, it looked like a pair of venom green eyes staring deeply into the abyss.
What followed was a growl and a terrified scream soon muffled by a gurgling sound. Miwa stepped backwards in an instant and it was followed by a sudden rush of adrenaline as she ran as far as she could, in the direction of the academy in the dark of the night.