33: April Showers - [Destiny Awaits]
A new one-shot story to commemorate MHA's glorious 10/10 Shakespearean ending is now up on my profile! check it out!
"That felt really freakin' good..." Yang breathed.
She held her smoking fist out still for a few seconds more, before she straightened up and rocked her head round to face Ichigo. "Say... how do you know about Ruby's Mom?"
Ichigo let out a veiled truth. "When I first showed up on Remnant, the first guy I met was your dad. He let me stay at your house for a little while, at least until I got the idea to head to Beacon. We talked."
Technically, it was true. Taiyang was the first guy he'd met on this plane of existence– not including women.
"Get them!" a bandit shouted.
"Haah!" another man roared as he rushed the group of huntsmen guarding Amber. He raised a gnarled polearm over his head, before two sharp bangs cut through the noise. His aura shattered into immaterial white shards, and Emerald kept her guns trained on the man as he staggered back, his eyes widening as he realised what that meant.
"Hold on, his aura's—" Pyrrha started.
Before anyone could do anything else though, Mercury darted forwards, and nailed a spinning heel-kick right into the bandit's chest. He twisted his foot, and the hot yellow flash of Talaria's inbuilt gun barrels tore straight through the tribesman's solar plexus, sending him sailing back into the dirt. A sickening red welt quickly seeped across his clothes, and the nameless bandit wasn't moving.
"He's– he's dead!" one of the Branwens cried.
"Mercury... you..." Jaune couldn't find the words to finish the sentence.
"What?" Mercury's face remained unbothered. His steely eyes were hard, and trained on the rest of the enemy. He slowly swung his raised foot round, back down from his kick stance.
"Well, I'll be! A Huntsman with guts!" Vernal grit, then turned on the rest of her tribe. "Let this remind all of you! Fight or die!"
It was right then that the air broke apart. Static crawled along and pulled the rug out from under reality. Sight became warped and blurry, and the air was filled with a head-ringing buzz. Within moments, merely drawing breath became arduous, and standing became an impossibility beneath the all-encompassing invisible pressure hammering down from all sides like deep undersea pressure. Sweat trailed down their faces, before even that began to evaporate from their skin.
Vernal fell to all fours, droplets hissing off her nose as she stared into the matted tangles of mountain grass on the ground. She craned her head up, astonishment overtaking her at the sight of the Huntsmen and Huntresses left unaffected, spared from whatever the hell was going on.
As suddenly as it came, the crushing imperceivable weight peeled back, and Vernal managed to drag herself back to her feet. She was in the minority; only about a third of the tribesmen were still conscious. In front of her, stood Ichigo Kurosaki.
"It's not fight or die; it's fight and die." Ichigo stated coldly, his eyes tinged a lurid yellow, "If any of you feel like trying again, then I'll raise my spiritual pressure until all your souls are ground to dust."
"What!? Where's Chief Raven?"
"I beat her. And if I'm stronger than her, then that means I can beat all of you here without breaking a sweat, doesn't it?" Ichigo pointed at her as he spoke.
And then she saw the blonde Huntress, the Chief's own daughter, carrying her over her back. A traitor to her own blood. Raven had lost the battle. It wasn't something Vernal could have ever even imagined.
"You– you couldn't have— ack!" she was punched in the face, hard enough to send her rolling over and smashing through a tent. She wasn't getting back up.
"Sorry, but you really left yourself wide open." Ichigo remarked, then he raised his voice until it carried loud and strong across the mountain. "Listen up! All of you! We can't carry all of you to jail, so it's your lucky break! Try farming, selling crap, whatever it takes to run a normal freaking village. But if I ever hear anything, and I mean anything about the Branwen bandits again, I'll come back to finish the job. And you'll all end up like him."
His index finger pointed down towards the ground, over at the bled-out corpse of the bandit Mercury had killed. It was an open death threat.
"Now take your overblown evil gypsy caravan and scram!" he kicked up a gale of wind with a stomp, and the tribesmen still awake backed away into the very corners and hidden tents of their own camp. Scurrying away like spiders under a floodlight.
"Pffft. You called them tipsy?" Yang snickered.
"Yeah, let's go with that..." Ichigo absently nodded.
He immediately turned on his feet, and strode over to the group standing over Amber. Her eyes were closed, and she lay flat on the grass, her head propped up on a coarse sack. A shallow burnt-in gash ran down her front, over the left side of her chest, shoulder and stomach.
"How is she?"
"Her wound is shallow, but she's out cold." Blake assessed. "It might be down to how it was burned shut from the heat; the shock must've made her black out. It's a good thing you blocked most of it."
"We have bandages and a medkit, but I don't really know what else we can do..." Pyrrha frowned. "She needs proper help."
Ichigo was quiet for a short while, as he was consumed by thought. Then recalled something useful.
"Gimme a minute." he stalked off, reached into his shihakushō's inner pocket, and pulled out his denreishinki.
"So he won, huh?" Sun held a finger to his chin as he watched Ichigo impatiently dial a phone number.
"As if there was ever any doubt." Neptune nodded.
"...She is knocked out, right?" Jaune eyed Raven's slumped form warily. Unlike Amber, she wasn't given anything to rest her head on.
"'Course she is." Yang told them, "Might need an idea for when she wakes up though, she'll be mega-pissed."
Ichigo grumbled as he tapped his foot. "C'mon, pick up, you useless—" *click* "—finally."
#"Ichigo? What's got you calling?"# Urahara greeted.
"Kisuke, I've got a friend here– an Arrancar, she needs medical help."
#"An Arrancar? On Remnant~?"# he definitely sounded interested now, #"How'd you come across one of them, eh?"#
"It's a long story—"
#"—One that you'll tell me soon, right?"# his curiosity was piqued, and once that happened, Urahara wouldn't let something like that go.
"Sure, whatever." Ichigo waved him off, "How close are you to being able to send things through to me?"
#"Uwah, that's a big ask, isn't it? Good thing I'm me, heh."# he could hear the smug smile in his voice.
Ichigo's eyes narrowed a touch. "I'm guessing you already can, can't you?"
#"You know, we were planning on contacting you ourselves pretty soon."# Urahara revealed, #"You still have that Hell Butterfly, don't you?"#
Ichigo flicked his arm out, and from within his sleeve, a pitch-black swallowtail butterfly flew free. His friends behind him watched it flutter out with disbelieving confusion.
"Was that in there the whole time? Didn't he just have a massive fight? How the heck is it still okay?" Jaune muttered.
"Eh, I just don't expect anything he does to make sense anymore." Yang shrugged, "I just roll with it, it's a whole lot easier that way."
#"Alright, now open a Senkaimon."# he instructed.
"Wait, you've figured out how to get here?" That was a pretty big deal.
#"Of course! What the hell do you think I've been doing all this time?"#
"Scamming people?"
#"You know, I could just hang up..."#
"Alright already, just chill out!"
Ichigo reached out with his shikai's longsword, letting its sharp point slip between reality like a smooth letter-opener. Just, instead of paper, he was cutting space itself. Twisting it like a key, the half-invisible sword etched out an eerie sound like a ghostly sigh. He pulled it back, and as he did, a pair of shōji doors appeared out of thin air with the echo of a wooden-sounding clack. The doors slid open, and the Hell Butterfly flapped inside.
"What the heck!? How'd you make those?" Neptune exclaimed.
He pulled the soul phone away from his ear to speak over his shoulder, "This is a gateway back to my world. But I don't think it's a good idea for anyone but me to try going through..." Ichigo paused, then considered something, "Wait, Kisuke, is this connected to the Soul Society or the World of the Living?"
#"I'm in my shop's basement right about now. I think you can try coming in. I've made sure the place is secure."#
"Really?" Ichigo was surprised, but didn't hesitate for a second to try it. "Get ready, then."
He stepped inside, a white flash enclosing him as he entered the senkaimon... and another white flash as he was spat right back out.
"Huh?"
He tried again, and as soon as he went in, he came out again. It was as if he wasn't even going through, but instead being reversed as soon as he touched the portal.
"What the heck? Kisuke, I can't go through. It's like I'm just walking in a circle."
#"Crap, I half-expected this..."# he sighed, #"You're not allowed to come back. Ichigo, can you remind me how you ended up on Remnant in the first place?"#
"Yhwach was about to die, and he..." his voice stalled as it dawned on him what that meant, "...The Almighty."
#"Yhwach's lingering will chose a future where you're fated to never return..."#
Ichigo was silent, before his eyes took on a determined glint. "So what? I'll just have to shatter that fate."
#"Oh really now?"# Urahara sounded like he almost expected that comeback, #"Yeah, that's the Ichigo I know all right. But hold on, if you do that, you might break off from where you are completely. You can't come back until you're finished with Remnant."#
Ichigo glanced over his shoulder, at the friends he'd made, the allies he'd gotten to know thanks to his unfortunate circumstances. "Hmph, well I'm not the type to retreat anyway. We still need that Relic, don't we?"
#"Right you are. You need a healer, right? Well I've got a little helper visiting that might be able to sort you out. Turn on the hologram."#
Ichigo was pleasantly surprised. He switched the denreishinki to its holographic mode, and the upper half of the flip-phone unfolded into an intricate projector. "Wait, you mean Orihime's—"
["Waah!"]
A small figure came crashing into the hologram's frame, yanked in by Urahara's arm. Now it was just him alone in the frame.
"Hey! Some kid just rolled in there!" Sun and the others watched on curiously.
The new arrival resembled a short boy with lilac-blue eyes and chin-length black bangs framing the sides of his face. He was scrawny, but had the sort of sorry look to him that didn't make you really want to call him that out loud. A black robe just like Ichigo's covered his body, and a shield-shaped badge on a white sash was wrapped loosely around his left bicep. A turquoise strap was slung across his chest, holding a white bag with a flower symbol to his back. Around his waist, hooked to a white sash, was a rough rope that trailed back into the gateway Ichigo had opened.
"Oh... so it's just Hanatarō..." Ichigo rolled his eyes.
["Why'd you sound so disappointed!?"] the smaller shinigami whined.
["Sorry, but Orihime's not here. Remember Ichigo, your presence on Remnant is supposed to be a secret. Lil' Lieutenant Yamada here was already visiting my shop, so it's not too much of a stretch if he takes a while."]
"Wait, lieutenant? Isn't it pretty risky to bring someone close to the captains in on this?"
["Simple! Who the heck would notice that he's missing, or ask him? Even if he's a Lieutenant now, he's as plain and forgettable as a plank of wood!"]
"Damn! You're right!" Ichigo smacked his fist down into his palm as he got it.
["Hey! I'm right here!"] Hanatarō protested. ["You're forgetting about me right now!"]
"Awww, he's so cute!" Yang fawned, "He's so little!"
"So... why'd some kid just show up?" Mercury wondered aloud.
["I'm not a kid!"] he cried, ["I'm a hundred-and-forty years old!"]
"What the..." Yang's brain fizzled out.
"What happened to 'I just roll with it?' " Blake jabbed.
["I mean, sure, that's young for shinigami, but I bet none of you ningens are even fifty!"] he rambled on, ["Plus—"]
"—Hanatarō! You can help her, right?" Ichigo pulled his attention back to the matter at hand.
["I– who?"] Then he spotted the girl on the ground through the phone's camera, ["Oh, yeah, right. Let me take a look at her..."]
As Ichigo sidled down to kneel beside Amber, pointing the phone at her, the others bombarded him with questions of their own.
"So where're you from?" Pyrrha asked.
["The Soul Society."] he said simply.
"So what's it like?" Jaune added.
["Dangerous. There's a ton of super-tall towers, but they're all smashed to bits right now, and we're still rebuilding the whole thing."]
"How'd that happen?"
["A war."]
"A war?"
["An army of Quincies emerged from the shadows, and started another Blood War in retaliation for one a thousand years ago. It ended with the Gotei 13's victory a few months ago."]
"Ichigo, did you fight in—"
"–I did." He answered with his arms crossed. "We won. Thanks to yours truly." he smirked.
["We all tried our best!"] Hanatarō rebutted.
"I was kidding." Ichigo admitted, "Everyone I know gave it their all. And a lot of people I know didn't make it."
["They didn't die for nothing."] the Fourth Division shinigami's inspected the footage intently. It was a testament to his expertise that he was able to maintain a conversation whilst he worked. ["Nobody did."]
"I'm sure you're right!" Pyrrha nodded, "You're all heroes!"
Jaune and the others regarded Ichigo with new eyes. "You're only a couple years older than us, and you've fought in a war?"
"What can I say? It is what it is." Ichigo shrugged, "Battles are the number one constant everywhere you go."
"That's depressing..." Jaune sighed.
"Eh, not really. It's just how the world works."
Hanatarō turned away, to ask Urahara something. He was out-of-frame, so it was unclear. Whatever it was, Urahara delivered– literally.
Out from the shoji doors of the senkaimon, a Hell Butterfly carried through a small glass bottle. It was filled with a grass-green slime, and the butterfly fluttered over Ichigo's hand. He caught what it dropped, weighing the smooth cool glass in his palm.
["This is some of the healing fluid from Captain Unohana's shikai. She'd been storing a surplus of it for centuries."]
"So you're her lieutenant now?" Ichigo hazarded.
Hanataro's expression was a sombre shallow smile, yet he blushed slightly. A warm pride tainted with cold loss. ["Captain Unohana's gone. Isane's the new Captain of Squad Four now, and I guess I was the default choice for second-in-command."]
He unconsciously tugged at the band on his arm. The bellflower symbol of the Fourth Division was engraved into the leather. Or at least it looked like leather. Whatever reishi materials they used in shihakushōs, anyway.
"Unohana as well?" Ichigo frowned. He had only spoken to her the once, but she seemed like a nice lady. Maybe he didn't know enough about her. "I'm sorry. But don't sell yourself short. You're one of the best healers I know. We'd never have rescued Rukia if it wasn't for you."
Ichigo poured the viscous slime over Amber's burn like green honey, and watched the wound visibly close up in real time. The warped skin smoothened out, back to its fair, soft tone, and the gnarly marks were reduced to a neat, thin line. The liquid was absorbed into her body with a viridian light that soon faded. "There." The Maiden remained unconscious.
"It's like magic..." Pyrrha murmured.
Mercury watched with great interest. Slowly, he opened his mouth, "Can you..." The rest of the words didn't come out, but the small Soul Reaper turned to face him anyway.
"You want some?" He held the bottle out, offering it to the younger teen.
"What am I supposed to do with it?" he made a face. Put it on his legs? No, that'd be ridiculous.
"Drink up, dumbass. Ingesting it is the only way to get it close enough fix you."
"Gross." Mercury pinched his nose, then took a swift swig of the mysterious elixir, pulling the bottle away from his lips. He tried to ignore the taste, like cucumbers and stale celery. He wasn't sure how this was supposed to help, but he didn't know anything about this stuff, so he just did what Ichigo told him.
The same spiritual light shone again, only this time it wasn't healing his body, but instead his soul.
"Wow, I knew something was bugging me about your reiryoku." Ichigo nodded, "It's like somebody took a bite outta it. It's coming back pretty quickly." he observed his soul restore itself, right before his eyes.
"My what? I wasn't–" He cut himself off. He hadn't meant to ask about whatever Ichigo was talking about. He'd meant his legs. But now he couldn't bring himself to say it in front of everyone. He grit his teeth.
The students watched in awe as Mercury's aura flared up around him, a radiant shield of white that was growing brighter and stronger before their eyes. His eyes were like lanterns, filling with the dazzling glow. The young Huntsman inspected himself, turning his hands over as the light faded.
"Feel any different?"
"Yeah," Mercury sounded sure, "Feels a lot different."
"Good. Don't let it go to waste." He turned back to face the hologram. "Hanataro... thanks."
Hanataro smiled brightly, ["Right. You're welcome, Ichigo. But can I just ask..."]
"Yeah?"
["...What the heck is up with that woman you've got tied up over there?"] he pointed at the passed-out woman in the back of the frame blankly. She'd been tied up by Yang and Blake with some loose rope the bandits had left lying around.
"Oh, her?" Ichigo jabbed a thumb at her slumped-over form casually. "She's someone we've taken hostage. She's got a tricky ability though, so I'm trying to figure how to stop her from escaping..."
["You kidnapped someone!?"] he shook his head, ["Uhm, I guess I might have something to help you out."] he reached over his shoulder, and pulled another tiny vial of snot-green fluid from the bag on his back. ["Remember this? It's shinten, an anaesthetic. I used it on Yumichika when we first met. Just one drop will knock out anyone with low enough reiatsu."] he lowered his voice, ["Which, uh, counts as pretty much everyone here, from what I can sense. No offense."]
"Well you don't look so tough yourself either, pipsqueak!" Emerald leered.
["Sorry!"] he shrieked. ["I'm sending it over now!"]
Another Hell Butterfly fluttered out of the doors before they closed with a wooden shunk. The senkaimon soon faded away as if it was never there. Ichigo caught the vial, and tossed it to Yang, who caught it and understood what that meant. Raven was her responsibility.
"Huh..." Jaune rubbed his eyes, and checked again. "Yeah, I wasn't seeing things..."
"At least the butterflies are cute..." Pyrrha giggled, as one landed on her palm. She held out her hand to let it sit.
Boom! An explosion erupted on the other side of the display, and Hanataro disappeared in a veil of thick smoke.
"Holy crap!" Jaune jerked back. Ichigo hardly reacted at all, as if he wasn't surprised at all something like this would happen around this Kisuke guy.
["The butterflies are part of our method to find a connection to Remnant."] Urahara explained, stepping out of the ashes and back into the hologram's display without a care in the world, ["I'm still gathering data, so until then our only option is to try and use the Hell butterflies to find a path, and reel them back in."]
"So you're telling me the only thing that's stopping me from being lost between dimensions forever are a couple of bugs?"
["C'mon, Ichigo~ You think this is my only idea? You'd really think that of me? The great Kisuke Urahara?"]
"Yes I freakin' would!" he snapped. "...I guess that means I shouldn't expect anyone else to show up?"
["I wouldn't keep your hopes up. The best we can do for now are just small items."]
"Fine... besides, I think me and Zangetsu are more than enough for this place." Ichigo let his arm rest upon the sheathed hilt at his side as he said so.
["But just in case you ever do need a hand... it didn't hurt to test this. Well, it didn't hurt me or you. It looks like it hurt Hanataro a lot, he's covered in burns and bruises from the minefield I planted down here. Yeash, I should probably dig those up."]
"Why'd you plant a minefield in your—?"
#"'Till next time, Ichigo~o!"# Click.
"Tch." Ichigo snapped the denreishinki shut. Looks like there really wasn't a guarantee he'd see another face from back home anytime soon.
"Uh... you sure was it okay for you to do that out in the middle of a bandit camp?" Neptune glanced left and right.
"What are these losers gonna do about it?" Ichigo reasoned.
"Huh, fair enough." Neptune shrugged. There wasn't even a scroll reception out here.
"So, Merc, what'd he do to you?" Emerald asked. "He didn't fix your footsies, did he?" she guessed cryptically.
"No, it's my..." he closed his hand, then opened it again, finding a white flare inside it, "My aura's grown, and I think maybe..."
"Wow, congrats." Sun clapped sarcastically, "That was almost worth killing that guy over."
"You're really hung up on that? Who the hell cares?" Mercury raised an eyebrow. He was at a loss. Did they really have an issue if some nobody bought it?
"We all care." Pyrrha said firmly, "Huntsmen and Huntresses shouldn't just up and kill people."
"As if!" Emerald bit back, "They do it all the time!"
"Not for willy-nilly reasons, though." Jaune pointed out.
"He was trying to kill us. Isn't that reason enough?" Mercury reminded.
"He didn't have any aura, he wasn't a threat at all!" Blake stepped forwards.
"Oh c'mon, these losers are all murderers. I did the world a favour, y'know." Mercury disagreed.
"How were you even allowed into Beacon?" Blake's bow was flat against her head, "You sound just like—" –like him– "—just crazy!"
A small bluster of mountainous wind curled over the camp, streaming in through the new holes in the log-walls. Emerald and Mercury stood away from the rest of the group, side-on to the normal students.
Ichigo spoke up. "If someone's trying to kill you, it's your choice whether you return the favour. I've made that call before."
Pyrrha's eyes widened, "You mean you—?"
"Yeah, I've offed guys before. They had it coming, trust me."
"You—you've killed people?" Jaune said weakly.
"He did say he'd fought in a war..." Sun pointed out.
"Why'd you sound so surprised? It's part and parcel of our line of work, even if you don't like it." Mercury stated coldly.
"Yes, we get that, but, it's, well—" Pyrrha muddled, "it's just—"
"You might not like thinking of it, and I get that. I have a close friend who's the same way. She doesn't even like fighting in general. But she knows as well as I do there are times where it's necessary." Ichigo continued. "If blood's gonna spill, I'll make sure it's not mine."
"...What happened to your words on the docks? You stopped Penny from hurting any of the White Fang members!" Blake retorted.
"I stand by what I said back then. If someone doesn't have to die, then they shouldn't– and the guys I've iced absolutely had to go, trust me."
"I can appreciate it." Neptune nodded. When all eyes shifted to him, he was taken aback. "What're you looking at me for? It kind of makes sense to me. We had an ethics class on this stuff last month, anyway."
"Uncle Qrow has kinda warned me a little about this before... it just feels weird to hear it from someone only a couple years older." Yang shifted awkwardly.
"But that doesn't mean I'm not going to say anything to you two, either." Ichigo rounded on Mercury and Emerald. "You do realise, this was probably the first time they've ever seen anyone get killed?"
"..." Mercury's eyes widened a touch at the realisation. Damn. He couldn't even remember when he'd seen his first murder. The deaths he'd witnessed were too many to recount. It truly struck him, then, the sheer difference in the lives they'd led. He couldn't even be angry at them for that. No wonder they were so shocked. He wanted to brand it as weakness, but like Ichigo had told him before, maybe he was just screwed up? He didn't like that thought.
"...I get it." Mercury spoke. That was all they got out of him, before he clammed up again.
"At least he... almost apologised." Jaune sighed. That had to count for something.
"Good." Ichigo nodded, "Let's move out. I'll carry Amber and Raven, and we'll get back to Yang's motorcycle and the horse. Next stop, Mistral."
He turned on his feet, the white waistcloth of his shikai billowing out behind him like a cape.
The Headquarters of the Mistralian Branch of the White Fang had a throne room.
It hadn't been built by the White Fang; it was an old subterranean cathedral hall dedicated to the Brothers, owned by the faunus that had fallen to the wayside. The entire thing was carved out underground, and was the central bulb of a rootlike network that formed the headquarters of the White Fang in Anima, like a great ant's nest. But after the schism with the Belladonnas, a throne had been added a decade ago, one that seated the true leader of the White Fang.
The hall was long with a high-ceiling, held up by hewn pillars of solid rock, carved out long ago. A relief design was etched into the walls, a set of tall outlined rectangles filled with smaller squares in an oriental pattern. The floor was a plane of smooth, flat stone bricks, and in the hollow niches in the walls between the pillars ponderous statues of great faunus stood at least six meters high, each. Cardinal-red banners hung down the length of the pillars, centred with the lupine symbol of the White Fang, a wolf's head over three claws. Matching the scarlet banners, a gold-fringed damask carpet stretched from the three double-doorways straight to the back of the hall, where it spread out and covered the rest of the floor. The stairs that rose above the red carpet were hard-edged rock, dark slate in colour and eight steps up. They surrounded the throne, raising it upon a rectangular plinth high above the rest of the hall, surrounded by steps on all three open sides. The throne itself was made out of red velvet and finely-carved wood in the traditional Menagerie style, with crossed spears affixed to its back. The lighting was warm, dim and eerie, provided not from the ceiling, but from flaming dust-torches hanging from the pillars.
On that throne, looking down at Adam, sat Sienna Khan.
A Tiger Faunus, the only one one he had ever met. Her orange-furred ears sat on top of her head, with two golden rings piercing the left one. Around her lap curled a tail, a orange-black banded appendage that slowly moved in her seat. Stripes covered her arms, exposed to the warm air. Her amber eyes were like pools of fire in the dim torchlight, and her hair was wild, barely tamed by an asymmetrical bob.
A form-fitting sleeveless black dress, trimmed with white, left a diamond cut-out over the peak of her bosom, and the dress itself was backless, exposing more dark stripes running down her spine. A grey waist cinchier, edged with blood red, was buckled with gold, holding a dust holster to her left hip. On the right side, fastened with red rope, was a golden bell. Her wrists were adorned with shining gold bangles. Her legs were covered by a long open skirt, white in the middle, black at the sides, split down the centre to leave her legs free. Knee-high black stockings were hooked to grey wedged sandals by red laces criss-crossing up her calves. She wore a deep-red cape that draped off the back of her neck and upper arms, letting the rear of her shoulders remain exposed. In the centre of her forehead, a red jewel was set as a bindhi.
"Adam. What you're doing in Atlas... it's as if you have completely forgotten what we stand for!" she declared. A set of masked guards, all armed with spears, stood one-by-one in front of each pillar.
"High Leader, you should know that this is all part of my plan. I am gathering a powerbase in Atlas, in such a way where the humans cannot stop me without dishonouring the representative system they're so proud of."
"What do you know of honour?" Sienna sneered, "Our base in Vale, you scuttled and abandoned it to play hero for the news with that Huntsman!"
"Ichigo Kurosaki opened my eyes to new possibilities. A new path, to faunus victory. Atlas is the most powerful human kingdom on Remnant. If I can find a way inside, then the faunus and humanity will be on a level playing field. From there, we can– will win."
Sienna wasn't impressed. "Do you really have a grand plan, Adam, or are you merely covering your own rear by playing both sides?"
Adam was outraged, his fingers balling into tight fists. "Do you really think that of me!? You've seen what's under my mask yourself!"
"I have," she nodded, "–which is why I am being lenient. Prove yourself once more, Adam. There is someone I would like you to meet."
The doors opened, and in walked...
"...Who... who is this?" Adam grit his teeth.
"Apologies. I don't aim to cause any trouble." Hazel Rainart loomed in the room. Atop his head, a pair of horns curled out of his hair. He'd have to acknowledge Watt's skill in fashioning these false prosthetics, and the prospect of that annoyed him. They were good enough to fool even the White Fang. He had nothing to fear from them, but the disguise would make negotiating their support much easier.
"Hazel Rainhart. Is it true, then? About what you've told us lies under Haven?" Sienna bid him to explain.
His hulking body kneeled down on one leg. "Yes. All of it, with the power of a Maiden of the Seasons, you will be able to retrieve a Relic of divine power."
Sienna went on. "Adam. What I want, is for humanity to fear the Faunus, to know that we demand respect! I do not want to worm our way in to attack like parasites! We will avoid a war with humans we cannot win, but that doesn't mean we'll stand back and work passively. My orders are for you to infiltrate Haven academy, and obtain this Relic with me. It will be a boon for faunus liberation."
Liberation. Such a weak way of putting it. Like they were victims, and needed freeing. He hated it.
"If I go with you, if I'm seen doing this... it will raze all my efforts in Atlas, destroying what I've been building up for months." Adam said slowly.
Sienna smiled. "Precisely. You will discard your petty aspirations, and if we run into Ichigo Kurosaki in Mistral, we will kill him."
Adam's eyes narrowed. Sienna wanted him to stay pressed under her thumb. She saw what he was doing in Atlas, the support he was garnering, and saw it as a threat to her own authority. His head tracked to the guardsmen, and he was about to give the signal then and there. He was so tempted. He almost reached for his sword, but something within himself stopped him then and there. It was something instinctual; a feeling rooted deep within his nerves that told him not to try it, because it would only end with his death. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.
Why? Why did he feel like he couldn't win? He was strong, he knew it. But he didn't feel strong enough. Not yet. Was it because of the newcomer, Hazel? Was it because of Sienna? Was it the both of them at once? He didn't know what to do.
But then...
Ichigo. His friend. He knew how strong he was. So he was in Haven now, was he? If Sienna wanted to try her hand at slaying him, then she could be his guest. He could just stand back, and watch the sparks fly. He wouldn't even need to do the deed himself. After all, what were friends for?
He'd bank on it.
Adam put on a smile of his own, and nodded surely. "Yes, Ma'am."
𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐩...
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫, 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥...
"Ngh... nm..." Amber's eyes creaked open, a thin slit of ruddy colour before the bright fresh-orange orb blinked open in full. She rubbed at her face, feeling her smooth mask, then sat up, fully awake. That voice...
She spent the next few moments staring at the sword propped up in the corner of the room. Her sword. She found herself in an unfamiliar room filled with unfamiliar cluttered wooden furniture, and unfamiliar photos hanging from the painted walls. She stepped out of bed, picked up her sheathed sword and and slipped over to the door, testing the handle and opening it with a smooth push.
On the other side was a living room, and there she found...
"Ichigo!" she cried, and leapt over the couch to barrel into his chest.
"Gah!" he fell back into the hard wooden floor, rolling over to find her sitting on him now. "Oh, you're awake? That's good."
"Have some enthusiasm!" she pouted. "Where the heck are we? Where is everyone?"
"What? Half of them are right here!" Ichigo waved his arms. Amber looked left, then right, then scratched her head sheepishly.
"O-oh, yeah..." she apologised as she clambered off of him, "I just had tunnel-vision, I guess."
"You've been asleep for the about a day-and-a-half." Blake explained.
The students were sitting on a set of red-fabric couches, around a oval-shaped glass coffee table. Shelves and shelves of certificates, medals, trophies and other shiny paraphernalia lined the walls. All of them had Pyrrha's name on them. Sunlight filtered in through a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a balcony, and an archway led into another room she couldn't see. The floor was a dark, polished wood.
Not everyone was there, though. Yang, Sun, Neptune and most notably of all, Raven weren't there.
"Where's the crazy hag?" she wondered out loud.
"Ms Branwen's with Yang." Pyrrha explained, "They have a lot to talk about. Sun and Neptune are out meeting some friends of theirs in Haven."
"Wait, Yang's alone with her?" Amber double-took, "Isn't that really dangerous? Like, what's stopping her from getting away?"
"A buddy of Ichigo dropped off some juice that'll knock anyone out cold. We used it to drag her all the way here. All Yang has to do is just splash some on her and that's that. Plus she's got handcuffs on, has no weapon, and Ichigo's here. She doesn't like being around him at all. Raven knows all this, so she'll keep quiet." Jaune reassured.
"Ichigo got a... delivery?" she said hesitantly.
"It healed you up good." Ichigo elaborated, "A friend of mine was testing whether he could find a way to send stuff here. Turns out he could, but it wasn't a very stable or safe one."
"I guess I missed him..." she huffed, "...and one last thing, since when did Jaune have a kid?"
"Oh, her?" Jaune was leaning back, holding a toddler in the air over his lap. A red-haired little girl in a frilly dress. She giggled, and reached for his face. "She's Pyrrha's little sister."
Pyrrha watched with stars in her eyes, before she shook her head briskly. "This is my house. My dad's at work, so until then it's just me, my sister, and—"
"It's ready!" an aproned woman walked in through the archway, holding a hot tray of cookies. She wore a brick-red sweater under her dark apron, and had round-framed glasses over her bright green eyes. Her red hair was braided over her shoulder. "Oh? Your friend woke up?"
"Thanks for letting my friends stay here, Mama." Pyrrha beamed.
"I wouldn't dream of turning you away, not when you've come so far to get here. Not when you brought such a nice boy with you.~" she cooed as she set down the tray.
"I know!" Pyrrha gushed happily, leaning into Jaune.
"Usually you'd get embarrassed if your parents did this sort of thing..." Blake mused, "But Pyrrha just seems proud..."
"Honestly I didn't expect Pyr's parents to be cool with me." he set the child down between them. "I mean, she's a super-famous cereal mascot, and I'm just... me."
"You're plenty fine!" the older woman clasped her hands together sweetly, a tic they'd seen Pyrrha do herself before, "Pyrrha's already amazing enough, she'll just be good enough for the both of you~!"
"M-Mama..." Pyrrha grumbled. Now she was uncomfortable. Praise really was her Achille's heel.
"I'm surprised it's okay for us to keep Raven cuffed up in here." Mercury helped himself to one of the biscuits. "Hey, these are pretty good. Thanks, lady."
"You're welcome! As for your friend's mother, it's not my place to get in between you and saving an entire 'nother world." she deigned.
"Wait, what?" Amber's eye twitched, "You told her everything? Is that okay?"
"Why wouldn't it be? We're using her house, it's only fair." Ichigo reasoned as he reached over the freshly-baked tray, "Besides, what's the problem with telling her about magic and all that junk? It's not as if anyone else'll hear. You guys already know." he took a bite.
"And it took you so long to open up to us..." Blake rolled her eyes.
Right then, Yang led her Raven in from the open archway Pyrrha's mother had walked in through. Both had a pissed-off look clouding their faces, but the anger vanished from Yang's expression upon seeing Amber.
"You're awake? Great, now we can talk about what we're supposed to do at Haven next." Yang resolutely marched over to the cookies, and double-fisted two straight from the foil. "The sooner we can get rid of Mom, the better."
"Stress eating is a bad habit, Yang..." Raven drawled. "If you're not careful, it'll show on your figure."
"Hmph. I bet you've never baked cookies in your life." Yang mouthed off snidely, "You're not getting any, by the way."
"How am I supposed to eat anything with my hands cuffed behind my back?" she wiggled. They were locked behind her on purpose. If she tried turning into a bird like that, her wings would snap.
"Can we please get some direction already?" Yang pleaded, "What's the plan, Ichigo?"
Ichigo clapped the crumbs off his hands, "I've got the gist of an idea. Let's go to the balcony first. It'll help."
The floor-to-ceiling windows slid apart, letting the group stand out on the stone platform, protected by a rail of dark varnished wood.
The upper levels of the Kingdom of Mistral sprawled before them, houses, shops and buildings built out of white stone, capped with red and orange gabled roofs of curved tiles. The oriental buildings were situated on the steep slopes of two close mountains, the rocky faces close enough that several buildings bridged the gap between their sheer cliffs, suspended over the dizzying heights. The mountains were curvingly sloped on the outside, yet the inside area where they faced each other was so steep it was vertical. It almost gave the Kingdom the appearance of a multi-tiered cake, with the cherry on top being Haven Academy, lording over the entire city with its fortified appearance resembling a Far-Eastern castle. Silvery clouds curled around its upper area, flowing under the boughs of its suspended bridges and making it appear as though the academy was resting amongst the heavens themselves. A hot sun bathed the scene in a warm light, giving the mountainous air its nigh-tropical climate. Leaning on the balcony, Ichigo could see hanging baskets of flowers adorning the architecture, and blooming trees decorating the streets. Cascading spring waterfalls fed into wells and reservoirs, and the largest waterfall of all fell between the two mountains, probably the thing that had worn them apart in the first place. It was so high up that it became a fine white mist by the time it reached the bottom. Everywhere he looked, he could see people going about their lives, climbing up the stone stairways and myriad of open-air railed elevators that seemed to be the main ways of getting around the city. Landing pads for bullheads could be spotted across the city, since roads weren't so viable on the mountain range. The skies were filled with a spell of colourful songbirds, airships, kites and tethered lanterns.
Ichigo found it somewhat like the Seireitei, but more... vibrant. –Plus it wasn't rubble, so there was that, too.
"Whoa..." Amber breathed, "I've never been to Mistral before..."
"That's our goal." Ichigo pointed up, right up at the academy in the sky. "We need to get into Haven and find the vault, so that's where Sun and Neptune come in. They're gonna go back to their school, and snoop around until they figure out where the vault is. Then we swoop with Raven and crack it open. Oh, plus we might have to snag the Head Teacher too."
""We've got to what!?"" they exploded.
Ichigo flinched, "Dammit, I thought you told them, Amber!"
"You thought I told them!? But I thought you told them!" she flapped her arms wildly.
"Ichigo, you keep hiding these mega-important details from us, and we'll have a problem." Yang crossed her arms. "First Salem, now this."
"Ha! Remember what I told you about Ozpin, Yang?" Raven snorted, "He's falling into the very same follies!"
"Not really." Jaune discerned, "Ichigo's leaving out details because they're pretty much below his notice, whilst Ozpin had his whole secret-society type deal going on."
"Isn't that even worse?" Blake's eyebrow rose incredulously. "Ichigo, the Grimm might not matter to you, but we actually live here. If you found out they have a leader, then of course stopping her is our top priority. So tell us right now: do you have a plan to go after Headmaster Lionheart?"
"Not really, no." Ichigo admitted freely. They all stared at him blankly. "What? You wanted me to be honest."
"We can't just rush in there!" Blake hissed. "It's an academy, full of people each as strong as us! And he's a famous public figure! We need to plan this out!"
"That's where you're wrong. They can't figure out our plan if we don't have one." Yang reasoned, smacking her fist into her palm.
"Just saying, there's a reason why you're not team leader." Blake said flatly.
"But it's true. If Ichigo wanted to, he could totally just fly into Haven and blow the place up." Amber observed, then a mental lightbulb flashed in her head, and she stuck her finger in the air like a teen idol having a eureka moment. "Then we can claim Lionheart died in a random gas leak!"
"And that would totally cause the Kingdom to collapse in panic!" Blake stamped. "Are you serious right now!?"
"Relaaax Blake, it was just a suggestion." Yang deflected, "Ichigo wasn't gonna try that, was he?"
"Damn, there goes plan A." Ichigo swore.
"See!?" Blake snapped back, throwing her arms up in the air. "I'm not about to relax!"
"Well why do we even need to arrest him in the first place?" Pyrrha asked.
"Uhm, that'd be... because, well..." Amber tapped the tips of her index fingers together guiltily.
"He's working for Salem." Ichigo revealed with an even voice. They were right, maybe he was too used to going in blind with people who were either already well aware of the situation, or didn't care what was going on so long as they could bust a few heads. Things on Remnant worked a little differently, evidently. People thought differently, too.
"He's working for— how!?" Pyrrha shook.
"How'd he even get that far up the chain?" Yang pondered.
"It's because he's so far up the chain that he got brought under Salem's wing." Emerald stepped in to explain, "I'm sure that, whoever the Head of Haven would be, they'd have gotten targeted by her."
"And you know this, how exactly?"
"Cinder." she gingerly put all the heat on Amber.
She sweat under the weight of all eyes falling on her, except for Ichigo. "U-uhm—"
"—That doesn't matter right now." Ichigo shielded her. "What we have to do now is figure out a way into Haven's vault. After that, we can come up with a way to arrest Lionheart without causing a massive freak-out."
"Right, maybe we can even ask the Relic for an idea?" Amber nodded, "It's the Relic of Knowledge, isn't it?"
"But who knows how long it'll take until Neptune and Sun find out where it is? I bet they're doing their lame-ass 'Junior Detective' shtick again..." Yang harrumphed.
"We're in a new Kingdom. Can't we just wander around?" Jaune suggested.
"Eh? That's a great idea!" Amber tugged on Ichigo's arm, and climbed atop the balcony's rail. "C'mon, let's go!" she leapt over, down into the rising city's winding streets.
"Gah!" Ichigo gasped as he fell out of sight.
"Bye-bye!" Pyrrha's sister cheered.
"Sweet!" Yang grinned.
"Yang, don't you dare—" Raven warned.
Yang uncorked the vial of shinten, and splashed half of what was left over her mother. As Raven dropped like a log, falling fast asleep and about to flop over, Yang grabbed her then vaulted over the balcony right after. Blake facepalmed, but jumped along anyways to follow.
"Stay safe!" Pyrrha's mother called after them.
"Um... I think I'll just take the front door..." Jaune stared blankly.
- –—{}—– -
Mistral's streets were mostly narrow, but every now and then it would open up into square courtyards, filled with market stalls and shops selling fresh fruit, clothes, food and other trinkets.
"Pfft, it's one of those shops that sell horoscope junk." Amber tugged on his sleeve, pointing at the wares hanging from a purple-tented stand. Dreamcatchers, crystals, and an assortment of other faux-spiritual items filled the racks.
"You have horoscopes here?" Ichigo was surprised. What were the odds of that? Probably the same odds as sharing the same calendar and days of the week, he thought dryly.
"Yeah, and I hate 'em!" Amber puffed, "It was supposed to be a lucky day for Deathstalkers the night I got jumped by Cinder! Total B.S!"
Deathstalkers? The star signs were Grimm here, weren't they? So she was a... Scorpio? He was a Cancer, wasn't he?
"That's something we've got in common. I hate astrology crap too." Ichigo remarked, "Psychics, fortune-telling, anything that makes money by exploiting the hopes of the gullible. The worst part is that I can't even say I one-hundred-percent don't believe in it anymore, which somehow makes me hate these scams even more..."
Truly, the worst fortunes were the real ones. How ironic that his last foe was the greatest sooth-seer of all...
They turned away, but as they did a gruff voice called out to the duo.
"Hey, I heard that!" the man running the faux-mystic stand snarled. Ichigo stopped, then spun on his feet.
"What're you gonna do about it?" he asked plainly.
"You know what? You're banned!" the man declared loudly.
Amber gasped. "No way!"
"I'm... banned from your shack?" Ichigo said slowly.
"Yes! Banned!"
Tears welled up in Amber's eyes as she clutched his arm. "Nooo! Ichigo!"
"Is this really that big of a deal?" he peeled her off gently.
"Wait, Ichigo?" the vendor froze, "You're Ichigo Kurosaki? The guy who saved Mountain Glenn with Adam Taurus? Where's your horns?"
"They fall off every now and then. What's it to you?"
His eyes shifted left and right cautiously. "You'd better take this..."
It was a piece of paper with a long number scrawled onto it in spidery handwriting. He didn't know what to make of it, before Amber peered over his shoulder.
"A scroll number?"
"It's Adam's." the man clarified, "He wanted you to have it, so he sent out a message to all agents to give it to you."
"You're White Fang?" Ichigo's eyes narrowed a touch. "You look just as human as I do."
"I'm a covert agent, a platypus faunus. I've got venomous ankle barbs, want to see?"
Ichigo looked disgusted. "No thanks. I do not want to see your feet dude, trust me."
"What's got you here in Mistral, anyway?" the vendor asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know." he turned on his feet, and began to stride away, when the man yelled after him.
"Make sure you contact him!"
"Yeah, sure, whatever." he waved him off over his shoulder without looking back. It looked to him, like the White Fang were less of an organisation, and more of a loose movement. One the one hand, you had a crack squad of international terrorists, then on the other, you had... street swindlers? Perhaps the Valean branch was just more extreme than the Mistrali one.
Soon enough, it was noon. Ichigo walked along, hands in the pockets of his blue jacket. The mountain air was fresh, if a bit thin, but that wasn't an issue for someone like him. The people here seemed adapted to it.
"You think we could get lunch?" Amber weaved around an oblivious passer-by. If they didn't have aura, they wouldn't be able to see her spiritual body. Which must've meant that Pyrrha's mother had hers unlocked. Appearances sure could be deceiving...
"There's a place right there." he pointed across the street. Open to the air, sheets of cloth hung down over the entrance at waist-length, stools lined a metal counter and savoury scents wafted outside. It was a place that looked like it sold ramen. They had ramen on Remnant? What were the odds? About the same as having an identical calendar, he guessed.
As they approached the shop, Ichigo spotted someone outside. She was smoking, taking brief drags of a cigarette, and puffing out little wreath-rings of wispy smoke that carried the acrid scent of not-quite tobacco. Whatever they smoked on Remnant, it wasn't completely the same as home.
"Aren't you a little young to be smoking?"
"Whah!" she jumped, then stifled her reaction and scowled. Then she seemed to remember herself, and stifled the scowl too. All that was left on her tan face was a neutral, stony expression. "Actually, I am of legal age to smoke fags in Atlas, Ichigo Kurosaki."
"She smokes what in Atlas!? Who is this girl?" Amber leaned in, hands on her wide hips. She had a curious, slightly-cross look on her face, and the girl was a decent bit shorter than her, only slightly taller than Ruby and Weiss. "If you smoke so young, you'll get bad breath! Then you won't be able to pick up a hot guy like me~!" she wagged her finger scoldingly.
Pick up a hot guy? Before Ichigo could say what he thought of that, the Atlesian spoke with a frown.
"Ciel Soleil." the girl with the aqua-blue beret answered matter-of-factly. "That term was an Atlesian colloquialism. Also I practice proper oral hygiene, thank you very much."
She marched right across the street, all the way to a public bin, then dropped her cigarette inside, then turned back. They watched her go, posture rigid and stiff all the way. She seemed almost robotic.
"If she's here, then that might mean..." Ichigo shifted, his ears picked up the conversation at the counter inside the restaurant.
"Mister, are you certain that you can't serve it?"
"Of course I can't give you a bowl of motor oil! I'm a chef, not a mechanic!" the owner raved, "Are you trying to kill yourself, or something?"
"No? Why would I?" she asked innocently.
Ichigo swiped aside the cloth and walked inside. It was Penny, and she was giving the poor guy his most bizarre order he'd ever received.
"Friend Ichigo!" she waved excitedly.
"Penny? Didn't expect to see you, here. Why'd you need oil?"
"I wanted to try buying food from a restaurant, like everyone else does intermittently!" she hopped in place, then stopped, and rounded on Amber. "Oh, and who is she? Is this another friend like you?"
"Sort of." Ichigo half-summarised. She hadn't really answered his question at all, but he let it slide.
"I'm Amber!" she greeted. "What's your name?"
"I am Penny Polendina." she bobbed as she introduced herself. "I am here with another friend of my own, and she has brought me here for undisclosable reasons I cannot tell you about, even if you are a friend, sorry!"
Amber blinked. "...Okay?"
"Speaking of friends, here she comes!" Penny cheered.
In walked Ciel, her face a mask of impassive-passivity.
"But I thought she wasn't your friend?" Ichigo recalled. "Doesn't she just follow you around?"
Penny closed her eyes and placed her hand on her chest proudly, "Yes, but I am applying your advice on proper human fraternising, Ichigo. I believe I meet the stipulations required to consider myself a friend of Ciel, without even needing to verbally confirm it! Isn't that adventurous?"
"...Uh, I guess so?" Amber tried.
"I have just contacted our overseer." Ciel revealed as she put away her scroll, "She should be here any moment now."
"Why'd you need to do that?" Amber piqued. "Aren't we just talking?"
"At least you told us." Ichigo acknowledged, "Gotta appreciate that. A lot of the time your type would call for someone and hide it."
"Hn." Ciel responded mutely. It wasn't long before company arrived.
Into the ramen stand, walked Weiss? No, she looked like... Weiss 2.0. Her ice-blue eyes rove over the occupants of the stand, before she spoke.
"Penny, Ciel, I received your message." Her voice was formal, but not in the business-like sense like Weiss's, but moreso like that of a military officer. "Come along now, we have places to be."
"Okay!" Penny agreed, then curtsied facing Ichigo and the Autumn Maiden. "Sorry, friend Ichigo, friend-of-friend Amber, but I must go with Miss Winter."
"...Ichigo?" Winter stopped, and her eyes widened, before they narrowed as she re-assessed the situation. "Ichigo Kurosaki? Ciel, why didn't you tell me he was already here?"
"I thought that it would be best to see for yourself, Ma'am." she inclined her head slightly.
"Everyone wants a piece of me, huh?" Ichigo smirked, leaning back against the counter. "Who're you supposed to be?"
"Specialist Winter Schnee." she gave her title a weighty emphasis. "You must be the new Huntsman licenced by Headmaster Ozpin."
"Yeah, so?" Schnee? Was this Weiss's sister? Hadn't she mentioned her one time?
"Let's take this outside." she directed, walking out from the shop. She was several steps ahead, when she realised Ichigo wasn't following. "Hmph?"
Instead, she tracked back in, and found him and the woman eating noodles from a bowl at the counter.
"You're... ignoring me?" she frowned. "Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"Well, yeah, a little." Ichigo admitted. "But we came in here to get lunch. If it's between listening to whatever you're about to say, or getting some food..."
Winter was left in disbelief. Her face must've shown it, because the woman beside him chucked at her consternation.
"Listen, if you're gonna get in our way, then we'll just smash right through you. If you're here to help, then thanks, but we don't need it. Either way, I don't care one bit." Ichigo laid it out for her abrasively.
Amber giggled. "Heh, she looks just like Weiss when she's ticked off. You're her older sister, aren't you?"
"Why yes, I am."
"Then shouldn't you be in Atlas?" she presumed, "What're you doing out here in Mistral?"
"I'll tell you if you follow me." she grit. "So follow me!"
"Alright, alright already." Ichigo stood up, "Don't get your panties in a twist, lady. Don't think you can order us around like Penny."
"Plus we're like, the same age as you, too!" Amber added. "Probably."
"I'm not ordering her around–" she tutted, "Do you even know who Penny is?"
"A student from Atlas, right?" Ichigo asked her directly.
"That is officially correct!" Penny agreed, "–Officially speaking!"
They walked outside, finding a secluded alley to speak in. The sun cast a warm, clandestine shadow between the oriental buildings. The hub-bub chatter of the bustling crowds cast a blanket of white noise that ensured their confidential words wouldn't carry too far through the air.
"You were briefed by Ozpin before coming here," Winter went right into it. "You're aware of the situation with Haven's Headmaster, aren't you?"
"That he's a snake?" Ichigo leaned up against the wall, and folded his arms. "Of course we know."
"We knew before Ironwood did." Amber pointed out smugly, "You're late to the party."
"There's a party on?" Penny frowned, "What a shame we missed it..."
Winter put on a bitter frown. "Last I saw, the turncoat Lionheart was still kicking. I believe we're right on time."
"What do you even want to do with him, anyway?" Ichigo needled.
"That isn't for you to—" Ciel began, before Winter held up a hand.
"No, Ciel, we should let them know; they should have no objections. We want the same as you." Winter let her hand rest on the hilt of the silver sword at her side. "Leonardo Lionheart is a traitor to every man, woman and child on Remnant. He's sided with the Creatures of Grimm, and is guilty of high treason against humanity. There's only one penalty fitting of a crime as severe as that. We will dole it out, away from the eyes of a world that won't understand why. Then we'll seize the Relic he guards, for safekeeping and use in the war against the Grimm."
"You feel like iceing him?" Ichigo surmised. "Then be our guests."
Winter was surprised, before she schooled herself and kept a cool face on. "Your professionalism doesn't befit your manners."
"What, you think this is a competition, or something?" Ichigo stepped away from the wall, and turned out, to face the street. "Just make sure you don't screw things up, or else we'll have to clean up your mess. You know how big of a deal the death of a Huntsman Academy's Headteacher will be."
If Weiss's big sister took care of Lionheart, then they could go straight after the vault without having to worry about anything else. Ichigo didn't care that they practically declared they'd planned an assassination. He trusted Amber, and from what Amber had told him using Cinder's memories, Lionheart was one of the types of people he hated the most. A coward, and a traitor. The world would be a better place without a backstabber like him. But there was one thing Winter mentioned, that didn't sit right with him...
"Do you even know how to find Haven's Relic?" Ichigo pressed, even as he looked away and outwards.
"Locating the Maiden of Spring is our secondary objective." Winter stated. "Of course we would know how to open a vault. Atlas is well aware of our own Maiden's capabilities."
Briefly, Amber and Winter's eyes met. Ichigo frowned subtly, even as his face was hidden from view. If they wanted the relic, then too bad for them. Looks like this was a competition, after all...
"Bye Ichigo, bye Amber!" Penny waved after them.
Ichigo smiled over his shoulder as he waved her off. They stepped back out onto the busy street, and the two were lost in the crowd.
Back in the alleyway, Winter spun on her feet at the approach of another set of feet. She rested her hand on her sword, until she saw who it was, walking down from the other side of the alleyway.
"Winter!" the tall man greeted, "I was just out on a walk, guess it's just luck I'd run into you. Hell-o Ciel, Penny."
"Friend Clover!" Penny greeted cheerily.
"I'm guessing that was Beacon's dispatch?" he sidled up and put his fists on his hips.
He'd been watching, then. Did Kurosaki notice? A part of Winter wagered he did.
"You're correct." she folded her hands behind her back as she stood rod-straight. "That was Ichigo Kurosaki."
"The hero of Mountain Glenn, eh?" Clover grinned. "Now that's someone I'd like to share a drink with."
"Not on this mission." Winter refused, "It'd be foolish to make any more contact with anyone who could recognise us, with the strike plan we have. I only met him to find out if he was going to get in our way."
"And will he?" Clover asked simply.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Ciel requested.
"Granted, –forever. You don't really have to ask, you know..." Clover scratched at his cheek.
"I believe they will get in the way." Ciel decided. "In fact, I believe they already have."
"Oh? And what would you suggest we do about it, then?" Clover cocked his head. "We aren't starting a fight, you know. That'd be a terrible idea."
"I do not wish to fight my friends, pretty please!" Penny pleaded, "I would really prefer otherwise, friend Clover!"
"Don't worry about it. We won't let it get to that point. Right, Winter?"
"Hm?" Winter's gaze was ripped away from the street Ichigo and his masked partner had exited into. "Yes, it wouldn't do to muddy things up like that. Imagine what Ironwood would have to say."
As they turned to leave, Winter let one last look linger on where Amber had been. That woman...
- –—{}—– -
"That woman..." Amber uttered softly to herself. Too bad Ichigo was right next to her, so he heard it too.
"What about her?"
"Gah? Uh, Weiss's sister, she just gave me some... vibes? Not bad vibes, but it was like I was feeling something familiar about her."
"Hmm... You should be able to see souls." Ichigo looked up at the sky in thought, "Try use a pequisa next time you see her."
"A what?"
"Pulse your reiatsu, and feel what it resonates with. You'll know it when you try; it's all instinctual."
"I'll give it a shot. But that's not the only thing about her that bugged me." Amber added, "You heard what she said, Ichigo. She's planning out a hit. Are you really about to let an assassination happen when we're right here?"
"..." Ichigo felt the weight of her pleas. He realised then, that Amber hadn't been awake to see what Mercury had done to that one bandit, nor had she heard his speech about his own track record with life and death. What would she think of him? He wasn't about to compromise his ideals for her, but he did feel the slightest hint of uncomfortableness under her wide-eyed gaze.
"Ichigo," she stopped, and brought herself around, holding both his hands with her own as she stood across from him. The people parted around him, ignoring the young woman most of them couldn't see. "Don't tell me that you think that's alright..."
"You won't like my answer." he pulled his hands away, and frowned. "You were fine with ending Cinder, I don't get what's so wrong with letting some Atlas lapdogs do their job. That guy sounds like bad news. Why should I give a damn if he bites it?"
"Cinder was different! There wasn't any other choice, and even then I'm not so sure she's..." her half-masked eyes flicked to her sword, "...anyway, it just feels so cold! We have a choice here, don't we? What if it was against his will? Whenever Cinder met him, there always seemed to be a horrible well of shame in his eyes..." she recalled.
Ichigo didn't verbalise how that made his opinion sink even lower. If Lionheart was aware of his own wrongdoings, and still did them anyway, then that meant he did what he did out of weakness, not even out of a place of strength. And he found that just disgusting. If you were gonna be evil, you should at least own it.
Amber fought as a Huntress. She aimed to arrest, and fought within the law. Ichigo had, from day one, battled to the death. Sparing your opponent was an option, but it wasn't a given. From the outset, their mindsets were alien to one another. But he was still human, at least partly. So he could at least try...
"...First, we get the relic, then we'll see." Ichigo allowed. If he didn't like what he found, then Lionheart's days were numbered. But if Amber was right, then—
#Now you feel like number one, Shining bright for everyone#
#Living out your fantasy, The brightest star for all to see!#
"Whoa, that's so catchy! What's it called?" Amber perked up as she heard his ringtone.
"I know, right?" At least someone here appreciated it. And it felt nice that it was her. "Sorry though, it's not from Remnant. You won't hear it anywhere else."
"Not a problem, that just makes it more special~!" she leaned over to listen in close.
He pulled out his scroll, and the red holographic display lit up as it unfurled. He held it to his ear, and answered the call. It was Sun.
#"Yo, Ichigo! We found it, we found the vault!"#
NEXT: 34 - STAIRWAY TO HAVEN - [Pray That You Always Understand Me - Tony's Cello]
Author's notes:
It's all coming together. Everyone's going to Haven now. Raven doesn't say much in this chapter, but she'll do more soon. She just did a ton, after all. Consider it her 'cooldown'.
First things first, shinten is an actual thing all the way back from the Soul Society arc. It was either that, or kido, but having Ichigo just learn and cast it on the spot didn't sit right because I wanted a restraining method that can 'run out'. They can't reasonably take the entire tribe with them to prison, so they just scatter them to the wind... or do they? Ciel smokes here to make her a little bit more... 'standy outy', also cause I thought it'd be a funny contrast her by-the-book personality. As for what Adam's doing, this is something I've left very vague on purpose so he can explain it himself to Ichigo (and You, the reader) when they next meet. Has he lightened up? Has he doubled down? You'll see. I've 'reversed' the scene where Hazel goes into the throne room, but importantly Sienna doesn't know about Salem, all she knows about are the Relics and Maidens. Adam was in fact weaker than at least one of them in that room, which is why he stopped himself. As to who it was, will be revealed in due time.
A lot of writers give Pyrrha overbearing parents who are BAD because they TRAIN HER TOO HARD and stuff, but from the way she acts I think it fits way more for her to have a happy home life. Also why tf would I inject 'le family drama' if I have the option not to, lol. Simplicity is key. I want the plot very streamlined here; Ichigo has Raven + wants the Relic, Lionheart has the Relic, Winter has none of those but wants Lionheart + Relic + Maiden, Adam doesn't want any of that but is being forced along, and Salem has Lionheart but wants the Relic + Maiden. There. Now fight!
Winter and the Atlesians show up, and Penny was the special agent I mentioned back in CH 27. One thing I should admit is that I don't give a CRAP about the Ace-Ops, and I'm pretty sure nobody really likes them that much compared to guys like Ironwood, Winter, Penny etc. Clover seemed fairly cool though, so he's the exception. Even Ciel was just there for like 5 minutes and people still like her more than those feds lol. Hence they won't eat up too much screentime, but they'll be there. They won't be evil, they just... glow in the dark.
I think it's totally in-character for Ichigo to not give a crap if someone pretty evil dies, I mean he never blinked when his friends and allies killed Arrancars/Sternritters. So that's why he disagrees with Amber here, who's more 'conventionally moral'. Yeah, he saved Grimmjow, but it's not as if he stopped Kenpachi from cutting Noitorra and his Fracción to bits. Grimmjow had a twisted sense of honour, and wasn't a coward. But if someone tells him to not let someone die, he won't just ignore them, either. He'll spare henchmen and stuff, but will go for the kill when it comes to the important bad guys. And if someone he knows isn't sparing henchmen, he won't cut ties with them over it, but he might call them out. Hence me giving Mercury and Emerald another chance to show how they differ from the 'good' students.
Someone got pissed that Ichigo called Raven a hoe last chapter btw. My response is threefold: 1) I was simply writing Ichigo in-character, 2) It was funny and 3) lol sneed, get fucked
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