Ch.13 - Kurai Ryōshi
Sora had trouble sleeping, but it didn't seem to be a problem exclusive to him. The events of today were rather rough for everyone present and provided a dose of the reality of their dream profession to some. The disheveled living room they decided to camp in was a reminder of that.
He took a glance at where the doorway was, where Ren was sitting on the porch keeping watch. Sora recalled what Nora mentioned on the tower that day, how she and Ren lost their home to a Grimm attack and especially that Ren lost his parents in that same tragedy. The loss of his parents was something that definitely worried him before Destiny Islands was able to be restored.
Now he wondered what his parents might've thought, learning that they might never see their son again…
Loss could either be the biggest motivator or detractor and it seems Ren has taken loss as motivation to become a Huntsmen. It does seem, however, being reminded about what he's lost sends Ren into a wired state Sora has never seen until today. If one word usually described Ren, it was composure.
Sora could only put a hand to his head and sighed, "What a first mission this is…"
He and Charlemagne contemplated ending the mission early and calling a Bullhead back to Beacon. They've lost their intel man and it frankly didn't initially seem like the team morale was in no condition to continue. Yet once Sora found the notebook, they felt something needed to be done.
Reaching for one of his pockets, he grabbed the notebook and examined it. This was their key to solving this mystery, to bring justice for the innocent lives lost. Whatever this Grimm is, it is a powerful one and it would be good to have everyone geared up and motivated. He looked back at the doorway only to see something was amiss.
"Ren?"
Sora did not see Ren sitting on the porch, and he didn't recall Ren getting back inside the house or anything either. He stood up and looked around just in case; his sleeping bag next to Nora was vacant. He walked out of the house and looked around for Ren. Was he wandering around the immediate area? Did he just find another place to use the restroom? Or…
He looked at the direction of the forest to see the person in question jogging into the tree line.
"This guy!" Sora wasted no time running after Ren.
"I should do one last check on teams before heading to bed."
Ozpin was doing some late night paperwork before deciding to view the current status of each first year team that was assigned to head out today, one of them being Team JNPR led by Team King.
The headmaster did a thorough scan of each team, observing their Aura levels, team logs, and locations. He saved Team JNPR/King for last as he wanted the most time to analyze them.
"…What?" Ozpin could only stare in befuddlement as not only was there a lack of anything written in the logs, but it seems their location bubbles are all right outside the location of the village. There was no way their squad would've had minimal activity within the day. Something was just wrong. He reached to his Scoll and tried contacting Green immediately, as the veteran Huntsman should've notified Ozpin about contact with the students. When the call failed to connect, Ozpin cursed under his breath. He can definitely confirm that there was something directly interfering with the signals between Beacon and that certain village. Ozpin didn't think he had to resort to using a little magic, but this looked desperate. Setting his hands on his desk and pumped magical energy into the interface, boosting the signal and bypassing any obstructions. The influx of updates and what he found could only make Ozpin fall into his chair.
Updated environmental scans and images of a destroyed village beyond recognition. A makeshift cemetery no doubt for the recently deceased. Messages confirming his worst fears.
"Possible Grimm invasion, massive Grimm threat around the village."
"No signs of survivors."
"Sean Green has been found, unfortunately we were too late. We are without his intel."
Ozpin took off his glasses and had to massage his head. This was an unforeseen mistake, like many in his lifetimes. His heart weighed heavy to discover the truth of Sean, as fine of a Huntsman as there is. He looked at more images and his attention was captured by a series of images from Sora which included pages from a journal. Reading the contents written by the local village hunter sent alarms in Ozpin's mind and he quickly looked at the location of the students. Sora and Ren were heading straight into the forest, where the potential Grimm threat might be.
Wanting to risk nothing, Ozpin sent a special message to Glynda before heading over to his desk to contact any student that wasn't Sora nor Ren. The message on Ozpin's scroll read:
"Code Rose, head to the Bullhead docks ASAP."
The sound of multiple jingles woke up the people sleeping in the house. Pyrrha was the first to grab her Scroll and was surprised to see Ozpin on the line. She picked up the call as the others did as well.
"Go to the forest this instant", Ozpin had an extremely worried tone, "Sora and Ren are heading into the forest right now. Retrieve them at all cost, Professor Goodwitch and I are heading over to your location ASAP."
The call ended immediately as the group had a second of shock before Nora bolted out of the house, weapon in hand. Her usually cheery demeanor was completely gone, replaced with panic.
"Ren… Ren! Don't think you have to deal with this alone!" It didn't take much longer for the rest of the squad to follow Nora.
In the forest, Sora was running in the direction he thought Ren headed. As he ran, he took quick observations of the forest. Signs of a massive beast dotted the environment just like the village. He quickened the pace and the forest began getting darker the deeper he went. It got to the point that the shrubbery and foliage were definitely not the sole cause of the darkness; the environment genuinely seemed to be coated in black fog that blocked even the moonlight of the full moon.
"Ren! Ren!"
In the midst of the darkness, Ren walked in an unspecified direction in which he hoped it was the direction he came from. In his quiet rage, he left the group to track down the beast. If it was that monster, he wanted to get rid of it. He did not want to wait until the morning to track it down lest it potentially killed more. What he saw in the village was the final straw for him, but seeing how this predicament has gone is a definite sign he is way too over his head.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He immediately twirled around and pointed his guns out. Something was there. The man tried controlling his breaths to calm down, thinking it would be the best time to use his Semblance. He closed his eyes and activated his Aura, feeling the Semblance develop around his body. Ren made sure it was all a success before he started a light jog in hopes to break a forest line.
"I really need to apologize to them for how I've been behaving—"
Every nerve in his body told him to get the hell out of the way as his body instinctually told him to guard. Ren was launched straight into a tree and he got partially embedded into the trunk.
"I–Impossible! How did a Grimm detect me?!" Ren's eyes darted around before he saw a pair of red orbs fly around the darkness. He quickly ran away from the eyes as fast as possible, remembering the listed attributes of the mysterious beast. The clearing Ren ran into only provided him temporary relief before hearing the loud thumps of a large beast and shot Dust Rounds at the direction of the beast. It would all be in vain as he did not anticipate a tail whip that sent him careening back and falling on the floor. He could only watch as a shadowy mass ran towards him with the intent to maul.
"Fire!"
With impeccable timing, Sora landed in front of Ren and casted a Fira spell which impacted the beast. With a growl it jumped back into the shadows of the treeline. Sora prepped a Keyblade look Ren wasn't familiar with. The handle and base had a door with two canisters acting as the guard The blade was a mechanical aesthetic that led to a helmet-wearing robot head with a claw acting as the key teeth.
"Ren, what were you thinking?!" Sora scanned the surrounding area as he berated Ren. "We don't know what this Grimm is fully capable of!"
Ren slowly stood up and felt a lot of his Aura chipped away from those two attacks. "Sora… my Semblance did not work."
"What?" Sora gulped at what Ren said, his body language becoming more tense. "Ren…"
Surprised by the sudden shift in Sora's tone, he could only get into a battle stance as the red eyes began darting around the forest again.
"Stay close to me." That was the only thing Sora said before the red eyes disappeared. Ren covered Sora's 6 o'clock and they waited with baited breath for the attack to come. The red eyes appeared at their side and the shadowy mass charged at them. The boys rolled out of the way and Sora immediately went on the offensive. He went straight for the eyes and narrowly grazed a part of its head as it growled in pain and swiped at Sora with its claws. Evading each attack, Sora could only think of an experience Aqua told him when they took her to Castle Oblivion to retrieve Ven.
"A denizen of the dark that became one with it, a creature fiercer than any I had encountered in the Realm of Darkness."
The creature got into the habit of repeatedly employing hit and run tactics trying to catch Sora and Ren off guard to no avail. Sora was operating on max alertness to ward off the creature. It became more desperate as its attacks became more frantic and to Ren's awareness, more aggressive towards Sora specifically. Ren made sure to fully take advantage of the next time the creature appeared. As soon as the creature made another charge towards Sora, Ren targeted the middle of the eyes.
"Ice rounds unloading!" Ren shot a multitude of Ice Dust rounds at the creature as ice began to develop on its face which occluded some of its vision. The temporary distraction gave Sora the window to unleash a combo and knock it back.
They noticed a sudden change in its behavior as the creature opted to idle in that one spot for a moment as to seemingly contemplate for a moment. A low growl transformed into an immense roar, the ground vibrated and the shadows began to recede. Ren could only stare in shock as he saw more and more of the profile of the beast. Sora glared.
A massive beast wild dark magenta hide and tail, jagged maw and dark violet claws with stains of dried blood. The lack of bone armor you'd typically see on Grimm, especially Alpha Grimm of similar size. Instead, chains with grapple hooks were present on the forearms. While Ren was taken aback by the feral gaze of its now yellow eyes that flickered with red, it was something Sora was accustomed to.
"A Hunter of the Dark. The Dark Hide, a beast of what you call 'Heartless'".
"Sora... what the hell… is that? Is that even a Grimm?"
Sora did not respond as he rushed the Heartless immediately. His outfit transitioned into more shades of red as Happy Gear's robot head began spinning. The Dark Hide charged at Sora with its forearms extended out to pounce at the boy. Two pairs of claws clashed as Sora extended the claws produced from Happy Gear's transformation. Both combatants backed off and the Dark Hide, for as massive as it was, had insane agility as it bounced around. It leapt high in the air and embedded the chains into the ground before using the reversal in force to launch itself at Ren spinning like a buzzsaw. Ren rolled out of the way and scored a few swipes at the legs.
It felt Ren's attacks and retaliated by shooting a dark orb that eventually stopped in place. Debris and air began being pulled into the orb as if it was some kind of miniature black hole. Sora dug his claws into the ground and Ren embedded his guns into a tree trunk to hang on. As the orb exploded, the Dark Hide swerved around the explosion and made a flank towards the two. Sora hastily dug his claws out of the dirt and flung the debris at the Dark Hide while spinning to the side in order to get to Ren. The projectiles did nothing to impede the beast's charge as it continued barrelling towards Sora and Ren. Sora braced his arms in front of his body as he took the impact which sent Sora and Ren skidding backwards, with the latter providing support as they grinded to a halt.
"Sora, this is unlike any Grimm we've ever faced…" Ren said with great uncertainty in his voice.
Sora just responded with a rather cryptic response, "Unfortunately it's a step above your typical Grimm." That was mainly all Sora was going to disclose on the matter, because he wasn't sure this world was ready to even have a discussion about the Heartless yet when the Grimm ALONE were causing this many issues on Remnant. The problems of this world just got worse tenfold.
The Keyblade wielder tensed as the Dark Hide began prepping up a special move of its own. A loud roar boomed from the maw of the beast and iridescent afterimages began shimmering on the beast. The Dark Hide made a beeline towards the two which forced them to move out the way. It pivoted back and began to lash out its claws, but the two were surprised when the afterimages began attacking the same way the Dark Hide was.
"Ren!" Sora reacted quickly and shielded the attack with his large Happy Gear claws. "Tsk, that's it!" Sora snapped as he back flipped and Happy Gear transformed from the claws to the yo-yos. Dark Hide roared in defiance and charged at Sora with more claw swipes, which Sora zipped away with the yo-yo. With his repositioning, Sora began pelting the Dark Hide with a barrage of attacks while maintaining a sort of mid-ranged offense just outside the range of the claws. Ren went back into the role of playing support and strafing the Dark Hide to divide the attention of the Heartless.
"AWOOOOOOOOO!" The Dark Hide bellowed, having enough of the constant barrage of multi-angled attacks from the two. The winds picked up in the area and the Dark Hide began running around the clearing extremely quickly. Sora and Ren stood back-to-back in the center, barely being able to move out of the way when after-images began flying out from the edges of the clearing to fly at them.
"Dammit, what the—?!" Ren, not being familiar with how Heartless operate, was completely thrown out of the loop from such erratic behavior that this enemy was able to fight with and the moves it was able to throw out.
Sora had a split second to push Ren out of the way as the beast came crashing down on them, knocking them apart from one another. "Gah!" Sora roughly slid on the floor and Keyblade temporarily out of his possession, the Dark Hide roared in triumph and looked at a prone Ren who had the wind blown out of him and was slowly propping himself on his elbow. The Dark Hide was ready to pounce at Ren, determined to add more to its body count.
"No!"
In desperation, Sora reached his hand out. The Keyblade glowed and reappeared in Sora's hand… but for some reason on a reversed grip where the Keychain was facing the Dark Hide. Sora didn't have the time to question it and before he could even think, the Keychain glowed and a golden chain shot out and wrapped itself around the neck of the Dark Hide. The Heartless groaned in protest as the unexpected presence of the chain caught it off-guard and it even was strong enough to restrain it. "Ren, run!"
Utterly confused yet with no time to waste, Ren picked himself up and ran towards Sora as Sora was getting up and struggling to keep the Dark Hide in place. A shield then flew from the trees and bonked the Dark Hide in the head before it returned to the sender. The rest of JNPR and Charlemagne finally arrived to witness the sight of the Dark Hide in all of its glory.
"I-Is that the Grimm that killed everyone?!" Jaune was positively pissing himself with the sight of the Dark Hide, the red trails the eyes left unnerving him and the features just being unlike any Grimm they've all seen.
"Holy freakin shi—!"
"Language!" Pyrrha interrupted Charlemagne and Nora, "We need to end this thing now!"
"Quickly!" Sora was struggling to keep the Dark Hide still. He did not know how he conjured the chain nor how to properly utilize it at the moment. The Dark hide wrangled out of the chain and sent Sora towards it. Happy Gear transformed back to the yo yos and a flying blitz from Charlemagne deflected the bite aimed at Sora as Sora used his momentum of being pulled to swing the yo yos and deliver a whipping smack at the Dark Hide.
Sora noticed throughout the fight that the Dark Hide loved to bounce around when under duress of constant attacks. He decided it was time to apply even more pressure. There was a certain application of Fire he learned from Aqua because she noticed this spell helped her with her fight against a Dark Hide.
"Ignite!" Sora casted and a more subtle yet persistent flame was conjured on the Dark Hide. The beast roared in indignation before it just began bouncing all around the place, barely attacking the crew outside of just trying to trample and roll on them. With more people to fight with them came more openings and opportunities to attack. This Heartless brought out the fighting spirit in everyone; a spirit born out of avenging all of those dead from its terror.
"Eat this!" Nora shot a handful of explosive rounds where the Dark Hide would land after it jumped into the air. The detonations blasted the beasts a bit into the air where it lost its balance temporarily. Ren then swiftly went to the underside of the beast and focused Aura onto his fists before launching an upward doublefist thrust to its belly to launch it even more upwards. "This is for the villagers!"
The Dark Hide howled in pain, but couldn't get another second of reprieve as Charlemagne appeared from up high with a summoned halberd and pierced its back. "Down you go, mutt!" He shouted. Pyrrha and Jaune were on the ground, her hand extended to the beast and Jaune channeled his Semblance onto Pyrrha. The girl focused on the metal shackles and chains on the beast before using her enhanced magnetism to drive the Dark Hide to the ground with extreme force. Charlemagne was even shaken up a bit from how fast and sudden the descent was.
"GRRAAHHHHHHH—MRMMMMPPHHHH!" The Dark Hide's roar was cut short as the two yo-yos from Happy Gear forcefully shut its maw and increased in size. Sora, with resolute fury in his eyes, began the final move against the Dark Hide. "This ends now!" Sora exclaimed before the two yo-yos began clamping down onto the head of the Dark Hide repeatedly like a vicious set of jaws. The roars and growls got weaker until Sora ended it with a final crunch, ending the beast. The group gathered around Sora as they watched the Dark Hide begin to dissipate with light shining from its chest. Everyone but Sora couldn't believe what they were seeing once a glowing heart emerged from the Dark Hide and just floated into the air before disappearing.
As everyone was taking their deep breaths, Pyrrha looked to Sora and Ren. Ren clearly looked guilty since he led everyone to this forest out of his impulsiveness. He was currently being comforted by Nora. Sora was just staring at the spot where the Dark Hide was with absolute anger in his eyes, albeit it was like he knew this thing and hated it with all of his being. "Sora…"
"Why now… why here?" Sora muttered to himself and noticed Pyrrha was approaching him.
"Do you know what that thing was? That was clearly no Grimm. I don't recall any Grimm even having hearts that fly out when they die." She said, grabbing the attention of Ren and Nora.
"Sora, you know what that was? Also what was that chain you conjured up from your Keyblade?" Ren asked, the questions beginning to mount upon Sora. The spiky haired boy was clearly growing more uncomfortable with more eyes on him. It was becoming increasingly more difficult since that encounter with all of the Foretellers to dodge questions and answer with misinformation.
"I… I'm not sure how to explain this to y'all…"
Charlemagne butted in, "There's gotta be something you can tell us straight up."
"I…"
"Everyone, look!" Nora pointed towards the sky and everyone looked up to see Bullheads flying towards the village. The dark sky was beginning to brighten up a little bit as dawn was approaching. Before they could turn towards Sora, the boy already started making his way back to the village and they just followed him. The conversation can possibly continue another date.
Glynda walked around the village in dismay, seeing the absolute destruction of what used to be a humble village. The amount of blood on the floor was indicative of how many people were mercilessly slaughtered from what seemed to be a very sudden and horrible Grimm horde in her eyes. She's seen her fair share of wrecked villages and this might be up there with one of the worst.
"Glynda, this may be the worst state I've seen a Grimm invasion leave a village in." A man walked up from behind her, his tone grim and serious.
"Indeed it is, Ironwood." She replied with a somber tone before the two adults noticed Teams JNPR and King breaking the treeline of the forest. The two teams noticed the Bullheads and soldiers surveying the desolate ruins. They eventually reached Ironwood and Glynda, the two adults seeing the visible wear and tear in their eyes.
"G-General Ironwood?" Charlemagne stood a little straighter, seeing his fellow Atlessian and the General nonetheless.
"Charlemagne." Ironwood did a curt nod, "I take it Beacon has been well for you."
Meanwhile, Glynda took a look at each of the students before her with sympathy. It was quite clear that this one mission must've aged them considerably. She wasn't expecting the situation to become this dire, yet the fact Sean Green didn't respond to them in days should've indicated to her and Ozpin about a possible worst-case scenario.
"Was the village like this when you all arrived?" Glynda quietly asked.
"Yeah…" Jaune responded, his voice cracking a little bit.
"We…," Pyrrha choked up a little bit before continuing, "We gave all of the villagers we could find a proper burial. It's the least we could do for them."
Ren and Nora stayed quiet, having their own past demons to deal with since this day really brought back the trauma.
The normally bundle-of-sunshine named Sora was uncharacteristically extremely tense and seemingly preferred to stew in his own thoughts instead of initiating anything from his end. For those who've known Sora for a prolonged period of time already this was extremely concerning.
Sensing the group's state of mental fatigue, Glynda decided not to prod further. "Students… we will handle everything from here. Go to the Bullhead at the village gates and rest. You all deserve it."
She only received nods before the students just walked towards the direction of the Bullhead to return back to Beacon. Glynda felt extremely bad for them, having to face what could even make veteran Huntsmen distraught as just first-year students. She turned to look at Ironwood.
"We need to talk to Ozpin… and include Sora as well."
"The Keyblade wielder boy?"
"Yes… things may be moving much faster than we expected."
Life.
I really had the sudden urge to actually resume writing this story, or at the very least finish this chapter. What started as a writer's block turned into other obligations to prioritize. Now that it's been two years since the last chapter, much has changed with my aspirations and mindset. Although this story isn't exactly a priority to me as I've probably stated a few times before, I think this story is a good exercise for what I am trying to get into; a narrative design exercise if you will.
It's still amazing I'm still getting notifications about this story in my emails considering the two year hiatus and it's also fucking FUNNY that not much Kingdom Hearts news has been revealed between then and now. Fortunately we did have RWBY Volume 9 during that period which I actually thought was the best post-Volume 3 volume and it provides some amazing reference with how I can spin this narrative.
Who knows if I just disappear again like CoryxKenshin with YouTube but at least there's the conclusion to Sora and the gang finding and beating up Dark Hide :)
Peace!
- REternal