Chapter Four
I sighed, "So... that was unexpected."
"You can say that again," Yang agreed as we headed to our assigned room, coming off the high of the selection process.
"So-" I started.
"I was joking," she interrupted, though that did get a small smile out of her.
Shrugging as all eight of us walked, both Team RRWN and team ABYN, I couldn't help but point out, "Didn't you say you'd rather you and Ruby be on different teams? Besides, it's not like we can't still all be friends and work together. We'll have the same classes, with the same teachers, at the same time."
"Yeah!" Ruby agreed, perking up, having gotten a little dispirited once she realized she wouldn't be on the same team as Yang. "We can be sisters with sister teams! That's, like twice the friends, and twice the team-mates!"
"Wooo! Friends!" cheered Nora.
"Oh god, there's two of them," Yang observed, deadpan, shaking her head, "and suddenly I'm totally okay with this!"
"Yaaaaaaang," Ruby pouted, blushing in embarrassment as her sister reached over and messed up her hair.
"Classes start in two days," I observed, looking through my scroll. "I think we can safely take the rest of today off, but we need to start training tomorrow."
"But it's the weekend," Ruby whined, "can't we have a single day off?"
Weiss objected as well, "And what are we going to do on our own? This is Beacon Academy. We have teachers for a reason."
"You're telling me that there's nothing any of us can learn from each other?" I asked in return. "That you know just as much about weaponry as Ruby, that she's learned just as much about Dust as you have, that either of you know enough as much about stealth as Ren, or about improvisational tactics as Nora?"
"My Ren is pretty much a ninja," the orange haired girl agreed as we entered the dorms. The man in question gave a silent, noncommittal shrug, just like a ninja would.
However Weiss wasn't letting it end there. "Fine, that's our team, but what makes your team so special?"
"Hey!" Ruby started to object, likely to defend her sister, but I held up a forestalling palm.
"Hand to hand," I said, pointing at Yang, who nodded with a grin, slamming her fists together. "Three dimensional movement," was Blake, the cat-Faunus who hid her ears behind a large bow, and who'd faded into the background for the most part. She blinked, considered it, then nodded. "Do I even need to say it?" I asked, jerking a thumb at Pyrrha, who blushed a little, but didn't deny it.
"Okay, that's them, but what about you?" The Schnee heiress pressed.
I considered it, shrugging. "Nothing. I'm physically stronger than all of you, and I have more Aura than all of you, but, those are inherent traits, not skills I can teach. I don't think I'm anything special, I'm just-"
"Leadership," Pyrrha interrupted. "His skill is leadership. Without him we likely would not have been able to defeat the Death Stalker."
Shaking my head, I argued, "I just got lucky." That hadn't been me, just my trying to copy the original Jaune's techniques.
"If you teach us to be that lucky," Ren offered," "I'd say that's a trait worth having."
"And I'm gonna need to test that claim, fearless leader," Yang challenged. "'Cause I'm pretty sure sure I'm stronger."
Nora sprang up between us. "Arm wrestle?"
And thus, as soon as we got to our rooms, across the hall from each other, I found myself seated at a desk that'd been pulled away from the wall and used as a table, the blonde brawler across from me. "Ready to lose?" she smirked, offering her arm.
"No," was my honest answer as I took it.
That just got me an unimpressed look, before she yelled, "Loser does laundry!" and immediately started to try to push my arm back, getting it a third of the way over before I realized what she was doing and stopped her.
Without my Aura, she might've been stronger, but with it, and with me fully committing to this test of might, there was no contest.
I didn't flip her back in an instant, the girl was monstrously strong, and had far better technique at me with this sort of thing, but power was often a crutch to overcome skill, and I had power. Slowly, even as Weiss commanded Yang to 'show him he's wrong', Pyrrha informed me that she had confidence in me, and Ruby kept trying to cheer us both on at the same time, I moved our hands back to center. Then, slowly, my face kept neutral as I focused on my muscles while Yang gritted her teeth, I pressed her back, further and further, until the back of her hand touched the wood, then loosened my grip, but let her move my hand back so the impressive amounts of force we were putting out was slowly lessened and not let go in an instant, which would've sent one of us flying.
"Not bad Arc-li-oof!" Yang started to comment only to get shoved out of her chair by Nora, who slid in her place going, "Me next!"
I grabbed her hand, copying what Yang had done to me in her positioning and application of pressure, and met the other girl's strength head on. She was stronger than Yang, not by much, but by enough to make a difference. If I'd gone against her, having no idea how to properly arm wrestle, I might've lost.
However, while power could be a crutch to make up for a lack of skill, power and skill were multiplicative, and I returned our hands to a neutral position after she started to move mine over, even as Nora grunted and growled, trying her best to win.
"C'mon Jaune!" Ruby cheered me in. "You can't lose to a girl in a skirt!"
"You're wearing a skirt," Weiss pointed out, arms folded, trying to pretend she wasn't watching with interest. and failing. "And shouldn't you be cheering on yourown team-mate?"
"Oh god, I'm a terrible leader!" the young girl gasped in horror. "Kick his butt, Nora! I believe in you!"
"Fickle," Ren noted, watching us struggle.
Nora was doing well, but I was pushing her back, slowly. Glancing up at me, she knew she was losing, so with a cry of "Never surrender!" she used her other hand to reach up and grab my own, trying her hardest to force me down.
"That's nor very sportsmanlike," Pyrrha chided, but the others cheered, even as I had to grit my teeth, talons digging into the wood of the desk as I was pushed back, forcing the Aura into my muscles to make them stronger.
It didn't really work, either not working that way or messing up the technique, but my own passively-Aura-assisted draconic muscles were enough to slow her down enough so I could move rise off the chair and lean forward to stand in a half-crouch, Using my legs to help me stay upright, twisting my entire body against our conjoined hands, I stood fully and, with a roar, slammed her to the side, sending her flying into Yang, the pair tumbling to the ground.
I flexed my sore hand, rotating my arm. "Like I said," I stated, a little out of breath from the sudden exertion. "Strongest one here." I looked at the long gouges I'd torn out of the desk, and grimaced. "And let's say this one's mine, considering I've already marked it."
"Now," I sighed, easily moving the desk back, "I'm gonna go for a walk, and check on some things. See you all later."
Exiting on a high note, I left the others, walking out the door, down the hall, and, summoning my scroll, opened a portal and stepped through it, back to my own pocket dimension.
Entering the large chamber, I sagged in exhaustion, and relief. That had been... tense, the entire thing, and acting that confident had been fucking tiring. Also the threat of death. Mainly the threat of death.
I could feel my Aura, an ocean of power within me, though one that'd been taxed during the fighting. It had filled back up, leaving me feeling a bit antsy, but I could work with antsy. Finding my way back to the surface from the underground gate room it was mid-afternoon, the time here matching where I'd just left, which was likely on purpose. Regardless, it was good to step out into the open air, the feeling just indescribably better than on Remnant.
It felt cleaner, lighter, like I'd been in a smoky room for so long I'd gotten used to it, and finally gotten out. Breathing deep, I mentally flicked the switch, sprouting wings, my clothing rearranging itself to fit in a way that had to be magic.
Letting out that breath, and taking another, I pushed further. My flesh started to shift, pale skin darkening as scales sprouted down my arms, my talons lengthening as my hands shifted, naturally curling inwards into claws. I grew, almost doubling in height as my clothing disappeared. However, the scales of my form were small and numerous, more like scale mail then full plate, form-fitting and without the expected spiky protrusions. Thin twisting lines, almost reminiscent of fiddlehead ferns, decorated my limbs. I'd been worried that my appearance would scare others if I needed to change, but that was seeming like it may be less of an issue.
Still an issue, I wasn't stupid, but less of one than I'd worried.
Turning I found I had a tail, a long, sinuous thing. It was almost prehensile, able to to twist it around to get a better look at it. Again, the armored scales were small and tight to my skin, giving my tail an almost saurian appearance, like a dinosaur's might look like, though the scales were slightly more pronounced. Interestingly, it was striped, thin blue lines running down its length that seemed to glow with a faint inner light, as did the designs on my arms as I turned around, my back to the sun.
Taking a careful step, I was worried that I'd have to get used to my new form, but it felt natural, just like moving with Jaune's body had, or as using my wings had despite never having had any before.
With a jump, I launched myself into the air, wings spreading and flapping powerfully as I rose even higher, the sense of freedom I'd momentarily had at the beginning of the initiation back once more. Tilting myself forward, tail flicking out to help shift my center of balance, I took off, flying over the mansion and above the forests behind it. Speeding over them, the temperature cooled, and lush tropical forests gave way to temperate ones, mountains easily visible in the distance.
Heading towards them, rising and dipping, I couldn't help but give a roar of draconic joy at the feeling of flight, promising myself that I'd figure out how to do so in my humanoid form as well. Tactically, it was important, but more than that it was fucking fun.
Spiralling up a stone spire, flapping heavily, I found a large calm pond at the mountaintop, steam rising from the enormous natural hot spring that was so conveniently placed and shaped that it was obviously anything but natural.
Landing with a soft thunk, which was practically feather-soft for my current bulk, I strode forward to look at my reflection.
My face looked. . . odd. Less draconic, and more like that of a fox, or a deer. It was still scaled, still a deep blue, but the structure of my snout was slim. Interestingly, my eyes were twin pools of golden-white, without any pupils, though the only difference was that my eyesight was maybe a little sharper. More striking than either of those, though, was the crown of horns that framed my face. Small spurs ran along my lower jaw, with two longer horns extending outwards where the back of my jaw ended. Small spurs ran up the back of my face, another pair of larger horns above my ears, facing backwards, and my antlers above those, twisting up into two separate points, all of my horns arranged symmetrical.
Centered on my forehead was a light blue circle, a single dot dead center, and, twisting to see it better, I caught sight of a glowing blue fringe that extended from the back of my head to my mid back. I noted that, while this form was not as intimidating as I'd worried, it also wasn't subtle in the slightest.
Speaking of not subtle, I shifted again, pushing myself to full dragon for the first time, I roared as a feeling of POWER, filled me, growing explosively upwards as my neck lengthened, my wings flaring outwards as every part of me became more.
The mountaintop, a wide plateau, seemed to shrink as my form stabilized once more and I settled down on all four legs. The energy in me built, and built, and built, until I through my head back and let it go, brilliantly vivid prismatic flames erupting from my mouth, a scintillating rainbow of energy that spread upwards as they stretched out, setting the sky alight until the blaze reached the horizon, the inferno fading into the evening sky all at once, the colors of the evening sky somehow richer than they'd been a moment ago.
Turning back to the small pool at my feet, that had seemed so large a moment ago, I twisted back and forth to better see my new form.
So, I thought, appreciating the look, that's what a Dragon of Creation looks like.
Almost a hundred feet tall, and a hundred feet long, three times the size of the giant Nevermore that Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Yang had killed a few hours ago, I was definitely not subtle.
Had I changed, I could've handled the creature. Easily. But I would've outed myself as something deeply, deeply out of place in an instant.
Low level Grimm, I could take like this, the creatures being minor annoyances at best. Medium level Grimm, like the enormous Nevermore or the ancient Death Stalker I could take. High level Grimm, like the Wyvern surely was? As I was now, I didn't like my odds. I might be able to kill it, but there was also a good chance I couldn't, and the problem with Grimm was that they were like pringles, you could never have just one.
And if I managed to attract the attention of Salem, Immortal Queen of the Grimm? I would be buried under a tide of darkness. While I could run back here, to my 'home', likely able to take a few people with me, wherever I was would be destroyed, everyone that lived there lost. Worse, without unlocking more of the portal room's features, we'd be forced to fight our way out the moment we returned to Remnant, assuming that Salem, magic user that she was, didn't find a way to force her way in here after us.
Not launching myself, not wanting to damage the mountaintop, though I wasn't sure if that was something I could do, yet, I ran off the edge of the cliff, titanic wings wings flapping hard, and rose up in the air, stretching out as I gained speed. I'd thought I was fast before, but compare to as I was now, as the trees streaked past below me, I might've been standing still.
Pushing myself to move even swifter, Aura assisted muscles working hard, I flew faster, and faster, until I passed by the mansion in an instant, streaking over water, my own private ocean, before hitting the opposite, mountainous shore, then a temperate forest, then a tropical forest, then my house once again, traveling the thirty miles of the pocket dimension in half a minute, then a handful of seconds, then only a few.
Letting myself glide, I looped several more times, slowing, before lazily covering the last bit of distance, my wings a little sore, but in a good way. Coming down to the ground, I didn't try to stick the landing, but continued in a trot that slowed until I was standing next to the mansion, a nice spot of grass in the courtyard looking like it would be a wonderful spot to curl up on and take a nap.
Shaking my head at the odd thought, I moved the mental slider back, first to the midform, then to my winged humanoid, and then all the way down to 'I'm a Faunus, I swear' normal.
Looking at the time, my clothing having returned, and with it my phone, I was surprised to see my little escapade had taken over an hour, realizing I must've gotten lost in the feeling of flying. Hurrying to grab a pair of pajamas that weren't a crime against decency and good taste, I jogged down to the Portal Room, re-emerging into the hallway.
Other than dodging around a student, who had her face in her scroll, no one seemed to notice my arrival, and I was able to drop my clothes off. Pyrrha was gone, Blake didn't look up from her book, and, from the sound of her laughter, Yang was across the hall hanging out with her sister.
Emasculation avoided, I headed off on my next self-appointed task.
DR
"A single Ursa."
"A single Ursa to you too, boss-man!" Yang greeted me with double finger-guns from where she sat in the cafeteria, both teams having taken over one of the long wooden tables.
"That's the worst thing anyone else had to fight," I explained as I sat beside her with my own tray of food, nodding to Pyrrha who gave me an incredulous look. "A single Ursa, and it was a team of four that'd grouped together. Everyone else just had a few Beowolfs, and maybe a few Nevermores. Regular ones, the size of large crows, not freaking mini kaiju. Do you know how big a Death Stalker normally is?"
Ruby held up a hand, like she was in class. "Smaller than the one we fought?"
"No, it's... okay, yes," I hastily corrected. "They start out as big as a plate. Grimm get larger, and stronger, and smarter, and more powerful as they age. And we fought two old ones, at once, and won. Do you know what that means?" I whispered just loud enough for the others to hear me.
"That we're awesome?" Yang offered, grinning.
I paused, thinking, "Compared to the others in our class? Yeah. They might as well be civilians. But we got damn lucky, and that means we need to get a lot better. Because either our security is shit, or the staff set us up against mid-level Grimm on purpose."
"Mid-level Grimm?" Ruby asked, eyes wide. "You mean they get bigger?"
Thinking of the Wyvern, the one that rained Grimm-spawning darkness across Beacon and the city of Vale, I just nodded.
"So, training?" She asked.
"Training," I agreed. "We're not shooting to be the best in the class, we're probably already there. Well, you guys are," I amended. "I don't know what you guys did before coming here to get this good, but I'll do my best to get on your level as fast as I can."
Yang rolled her yes, "Okay, we get it, you're worried about us, and feeling the pressure after bein' in charge for, like, a couple hours. Just don't buckle under it, Arc-light. You're supposed be our... Beacon, after all."
"That was bad and you should feel bad," Weiss remarked, getting a serious nod from Blake, and the rest of us laughed as Yang feigned injury, before we all turned to our dinner.
DR
Waking up the next morning, everyone having headed to bed early after the day's fight, I woke to a pair of yellow, lambent eyes staring at me. "Hi Blake. Can I help you?" I asked,
The girl was standing next to my bed, like a psycho, staring at me while I slept. She blinked, eyes narrowing. "You smell wrong," she observed.
Sitting up, I saw that Pyrrha was already in the shower, Yang was still asleep, and dawn was slowly breaking. "You know, if you're supposed to not be a Faunus, maybe don't comment on how I smell." The girl froze, her bow twitching as her ears likely went down and back in surprise, and maybe fear. It was incredibly subtle, and I only spotted it because I knew what to look for. "Also get a slightly bigger bow so it doesn't twitch."
"You're not a lizard. I've been around lizard Faunus, and they smell different," she deflected, dodging the issue.
I shrugged, standing up, the dark blue pajamas, with golden lining, making me look like a princeling, instead of the onesies, which just made me look weak. "I keep telling everyone I'm a Dragon."
"Mythical Faunus don't exist," the girl shot back. "Even if your Semblance makes you look like one."
Mentally flicking the switch, I raised an eyebrow as my wings extended. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
She took a step back, nostrils flaring as her pupils expanded just a hair as she hissed, "What are you?"
At her reaction, I remembered a key aspect of what came with being a Dragon. To those with enough power, which included everyone on both teams, my scent would be... attractive. It wasn't mind control, or else I wouldn't've touched it, just like I hadn't even considered that stupid 'love spot' power, obviously copied from the TYPE-MOON universe. Only a particularly appealing cologne.
However, more than that, it was extra alluring to other women who had draconic, serpentine, or, oddly enough, feline traits. Blake wasn't my favorite character, what little I'd seen defined her as a literal 'scaredy-cat', and a self-righteous one at that. However she wasn't a bad person, as far as I knew, just an unreliable one.
Nothing for it, I decided, stepping past her towards the small kitchenette each dorm-room had, through the door opposite the door to the bathroom. Opening the door, I turned back to her, smiling, "I told you. Right now though, I'm making breakfast, as I don't think any of us has unpacked yet, and we really should do so before class starts. Wake Yang up when Pyrrha's out, and have the both of you get ready, please," I requested. "I need to shower too, as I apparently 'smell', and I know from personal experience how long that can take, especially if you have hair like hers."
Blake said nothing, still staring as I closed the door, opened up a portal, and went home.
Sighing in relief, and wanting to sleep here, but unable to, I instead moved to the kitchen. There were two different talents that I was going to be putting to good use. The first, Faerie Feast, made me supernaturally good at cooking. So good that I could make my dishes psychologically addictive, luring in my prey and using operant condition to get them to do anything, even enslave themselves, just to get another bite. Because of course a power I purchased from The Company could be taken to that horrifying extreme.
However it was also explicitly scale-able, so I could tone it down from 'Ambrosia that ruins normal food for you forever' to 'world-class five star chef' if need be, which was going to be the highest I was ever going to push that particular skill, thank you very much.
While that ability cost a paltry twenty points, it was the other one, the one that cost me two-hundred points to acquire that I was going to be using the most: Dragonblood.
It was a power separate from the capture system, infusing every part of me with my draconic power, and thus requiring me to already be a dragon before I could gain it. By drinking my fluids, others could gain in power. The wording was vague, but it never specified it only worked on those that I'd captured, only making the assumption that they would be, because what kind of crazy person would give power to someone who they didn't have the complete loyalty of? Similarly, it was also worded in such a way to suggest it was meant for sexual fluids, but, again, it didn't say that, and the wording was very specific when it mattered, so I had to assume that it wasn't being vague, it was being accurate.
As such, I found myself in the mansion's kitchen, knife in hand, not particularly looking forward to what I was about to do. Aura could heal, it'd healed a punctured wing in seconds with a lot left over, so I knew I wasn't being completely stupid. That said, at least this first time, I was going to take it slow.
Moving my arm over the bowl, I grit my teeth, mentally pulled back my Aura, and cut my arm. I'd like to say I withstood it manfully, bleeding with silent, stoic determination.
However that would be a lie.
Crying like a little bitch, I swore every time a bit of Aura would slip through my control, healing my flesh, and I'd need to cut myself again. Eventually I just left the fucking knife in, just so I'd have less to cut once more. The sixth time it happened, and I could feel my reserves having barely dipped, I just said fuck it and slit my wrists.
Blood, red, but with a tinge of blue shimmering through it, poured out, and I let it keep going, and going, and going, only stopping when I got a little light headed. A few minutes and some water, and I was back at it, until the damn bowl was full.
Straining it, I poured the collected fluids into two jugs and slipped one into the mansion's fridge while I left the other out, preparing the other ingredients. Letting my hands work with very little direction from the rest of me, keeping what I wanted in mind, I started to mix up my shakes.
It took one-hundred and twenty-five milliliters of my fluid to take a Tier One person to Tier Two. Tier Ones were the npc's running away in terror, those with no combat capability whatsoever. Sansa Stark, the ramen girl from Naruto, the nurse from High School of the Dead, people like that. Tier Two was better, having some kind of combat capability or an undeveloped power. Misato from Evangelion, Mulan, all the moms from My Hero Academia, it was a small but tangible difference. From there they progressed, each higher Tier twice as dangerous, or more, than the level below it. Black Widow was Tier Three, for example, any woman from Overwatch was Tier Four, and Tier Five? That was my team.
While it only took a little more than half a cup of my lifeblood to bump someone up from Tier One to Two, each level higher took five times as much as the last. That meant while a single shake would turn a 'designated kidnapping victim' to 'kitty has claws' levels of danger, to help my team would take a whopping three hundred and thirty cups of fluid, almost twenty one gallons, per person.
All at once, it'd be hell for everyone involved, but I didn't need it to be all at once, I just needed to get them there by the Vytal festival, the tournament arc of RWBY, because apparently every show needs one. I hadn't watched it, losing interest before it started, but I knew that sometime after it happened everything went to hell. It was March Fifth today, and the festival started on October Eighteenth.
That meant I had seven months, a little over two-hundred days, to make this work. At two cups of blood a day, assuming a lost day here and there, they'd get the boost a month or so before the tournament. Enough time to get a handle on it, and enough time to deal with the shitshow that'd follow.
But how to get the others to drink just short of a gallon of my blood, divided between them? That's where Faerie Feast came in, and my offer of 'breakfast shakes', using my ability to make it not only palatable, but good, though not that good, for the good of all. Drinking that much blood would've been unhealthy, causing iron poisoning, were it not for the nature of the blood actively empowering them, even in small amounts. Thoughts of doing something similar with blood not my own had my gifted culinary skills do the mental equivalent of 'LOL, no.'
Making eight servings in tall cups, including one for myself to help sell the con (though was it really a con when you were helping others?), I started to clean the kitchen, only for the surfaces to start to clean themselves, the mixer returning itself as the mess left inside vanished. "Well, that's useful," I commented. "Um, thanks?"
Pausing to wash the dried blood off my arm, I grabbed all eight cups, secured the lids, put them on a tray, and walked to the portal room. Stepping through the doorway, back onto Remnant, I turned around and opened the door again, and walked into our shared bedroom.
"Ah, there you are. Good morning Jaune!" Pyrrha welcomed me brightly, giving me a cheery wave as I found myself completely unsurprised that she was a morning person. "Blake said something about breakfast smoothies?"
Yang, who was putting up a poster of some vapid looking boy-band, glanced over. "Really? Score! Any meal I don't have to make is a win in my books! But why so many?" she asked, looking at the tray full of cups.
"It's easy to bump up the recipe from four to eight, and I figured your sister's team would appreciate it," I shrugged.
Yang's eyes narrowed in a teasing way as she smiled, "Aw, is someone sweet on my little sis?"
I returned her gaze with a flat stare, "She's fifteen."
"Good answer!" she grinned, turning back and finished securing her poster, which was at a slight angle, likely on purpose.
Rolling my eyes I set the tray down, passing one to Pyrrha, who nodded in thanks, Yang bounding over and taking one of her own. The redhead took a sip, eyes widening in surprise before humming happily as she continued to drink.
Yang, likewise, took a sip, swallowing my fluids with a gulp and grinning. "Chocolate for breakfast? Gotta say, I like your taste!"
I just rolled my eyes, marveling that, even when she didn't know what was going on, she still managed to make puns. The other door opened and Blake walked out, toweling off her hair. She paused, sniffing, staring at me.
"I know, I need to take a shower, no need to make a big deal of it," I teased, grabbing a cup and holding it out for her. "Breakfast shake?"
Walking past me, she grabbed one of the others, looking intently at my own cup in a blatant 'I'm not drinking this until you drink that' gesture.
I took a sip, and it was way better than something that was sixty percent blood by volume had any right to be so. The chocolate and cream worked well to mask it, the little bit matcha powder just further muddying the culinary waters, but still working together.
Hesitantly taking a sip, Blake's bow twitched, and I had the feeling that, if she had a tail, it'd be waving in appreciation. Looking at me, she commented, deadpan, "High in minerals."
"I know!" Pyrrha agreed. "It reminds me a little of the drinks my coaches gave me after a particularly draining training session, only much better. If being a huntsman does not work for you, Jaune, I'm sure you could make a living as a chef!"
"Or a house-husband," Yang teased. "But seriously, what's in this? I could have another, but I don't want to take sis'."
"Family recipe," I replied, shaking my head as I grabbed my uniform and headed towards the bathroom. "Its name is pretentious as hell, but if you drink it, you might even be as strong as me one day."
Pyrrha, taking small sips, seeming to try to make it last, cocked her head, asking, "And what is its name?"
Smiling, and making sure to take my shake with me (as Yang eyed it like a hungry dog), I called over my shoulder, "Sang d'Création."
AN: And with that, the prologue/beginning is done. I'll probably do the same with MHA next, and then update them both when the muse strikes.