10: REFORGING BONDS - [Mysterious]
She'd won...
Even in her half-lucid state, traipsed over Nora's shoulder, Weiss was aglow with pride.
Even as the elevator rung, and they stepped out into the Headmaster's office, she was simply too tired to care. Too tired to feel afraid of any dire consequences she might be about to face. Not too tired, however, to ignore Nora unceremoniously dropping her to the glass floor.
"We're here, Weiss!" Nora announced cheerily.
"-Ack!" she yelped, planting face-first into the transparent pane. The vibrations of steady ticking reverberated into her face, until she pulled herself up annoyedly. "Watch yourself! I'm injured!"
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "You baby. You're not even bleeding out."
"I said injured, not dying!" she snapped, before clambering to her feet.
"Team Rowan?" Ozpin announced evenly, drawing all eyes to himself, sat at his desk. "...And Ichigo Kurosaki?" The others in the room were standing across from him, with Miss Goodwitch off to the side closer to the geared wall, her arms crossed.
The lights hadn't been switched on yet, leaving the office to bask in the molten-orange glow of the late sun. The afternoon shadows were drawn long and sharp from every figure in the lower light.
"So what brings you to my office at this hour?" his eyes flickered to the horned shinigami behind his dark spectacles, "Ichigo... another meeting so soon? And at nearly the exact same time of day as yesterday's, as well..."
"They've just blown the roof off of the third amphitheatre!" Ms Goodwitch cracked her riding crop in the air, gesticulating frantically. "On the first day, no less!"
"Ah, yes. That'll do it." Ozpin sighed, slumping back in his scorpion-chair. "It's a good thing you caught them, then. I can't quite sense the academy's grounds that well from here. One of the drawbacks of a mile-high office, you see." he smiled at the students lullingly.
Ichigo frowned shallowly. He couldn't for the life of him tell why someone would even disclose a weakness so casually like that. To get them to lower their guards, perhaps?
Was his sensory range really that limited? Or was he lying about it?
"How extensive is the damage?" Ozpin turned to his deputy.
"The entire glass panelling across the roof will need to be replaced. That's in the range of... forty thousand lien, by my rough estimate." she stated frankly, adjusting her glasses. "My semblance wouldn't work on this, as sections of it have been completely vaporised in their entirety."
"Hmm... I see. That's... quite substantial for a first day. Even by our standards." he rounded back on the students, and Ichigo, to his front. "And who is at fault, here?" A subtle litmus test, to gain a measure of their senses of responsibility.
After a few moments, Ruby and Weiss both weakly raised their arms and pointed their indexes betwixt each other... right at Ichigo.
"W-what!?" he exclaimed, before throwing his arms up into a cross. "It wasn't me! I didn't lay a finger on anything!" he twisted on the red-blue partners, growling at them. "You're supposed to be blaming each other, you damn half-pints! Or shouldn't one of you act all responsible and blame it all on yourself? They'd probably eat that right up. That's usually what aspiring super-police want to hear."
"It was all your idea, though." Ruby pointed out. She'd perked up a little after resting on Ren's back, but still had to lean between his and Nora's shoulders.
"Exactly." Weiss nodded along.
Ichigo tutted with an empty scowl, "You're getting along real well now all of a sudden, aren't you?" he craned his neck back at the Headteacher. "I don't have forty grand! I don't have any money at all! You're supposed to be paying me, remember?"
"-What!?-" Goodwitch remarked in surprise outrage.
"A little agreement between myself and Mr Kurosaki, don't fret over it, Glynda." Ozpin brushed off hastily.
"-Living expenses, don't worry about it..." Ichigo addressed. He ran his hand though his hair, before continuing. "Besides, I wasn't even the one who fought in there. No way I'm getting blamed for this. You can try punishing me, but then you wouldn't want me to up and leave Beacon, would you?" His amber-brown eyes narrowed, locked with Ozpin's hazel gaze. Gotcha.
"So it was a fight... though that much was obvious." Glynda muttered, "You all must know that the sparring halls are inaccessible to first years until after your first combat class with myself. You didn't even care to activate the hard-light dust shields! Those are specifically installed to protect the rest of the venue, and prevent this from happening. So who was it then, that was fighting?"
"You must already be able to tell, Ms Goodwitch." Ozpin interlaced his hands, leaning forwards in his seat. "From how tired they seem to be, it was most likely Miss Rose and Miss Schnee. It had something to do with the leadership of RWRN, did it not? Earlier this very morning, I spoke to Miss Rose after she'd just gotten into quite the quarrel with Miss Schnee."
"I agreed to it!" Ruby cut in. "It was just a spar!"
She's defending me? Weiss eyed the girl across the room from her, her ice-blue orbs widening an imperceptible amount. She knew she'd have to suppress her reactions here, donning the totemic Schnee mask that had been chiselled into her psyche from infancy. Fair enough, then.
"A simple spar? Excuse me, but it's a tad difficult to believe that you'd go to such lengths for one on the first day." he pressed.
"It was more a test, than just a spar, sir." Weiss partially admitted. "I wanted to see whether our leader's skills were enough to back up her title. Her skills... they are quite something."
"So you've finally accepted Miss Rose as your leader?" Ozpin affirmed. He watched the albino girl's face closely.
"We've reached an... agreement." Weiss replied. It didn't so much as twitch.
"Well that's good to hear then." Ozpin clapped his hands concludingly, sitting back from the desk. "Sharing the fault between the both of you is a start. But what shall be done about the third combat hall's rooftop?"
Idly, Ichigo noted that the headteacher had subtly shied from mentioning the fact that it was his idea in the first place. Looks like he knows I wasn't kidding. He couldn't risk pushing me. The realisation brought a small upwards tug to the corner of his lips.
"...I'll pay for the damages." Weiss avowed, with a hand over her chest.
"Yeah! She'll pay for it!" Ruby bobbed her head quickly, nudging the two at her sides.
"Cool! Can you pay for me too?" Nora chirped.
"Pay for what?" Ren glanced at her questioningly.
"The sink, of course!"
"The sink? In our dorm?" Ren tilted his head. "It's fine though, isn't it? It's only the first day."
"A-ah... so you haven't seen it..." Nora turned away nervously, twiddling her fingers. "-forget I said anything!" she blurted.
"...Glad to see you're backing my decisions so loyally already..." Weiss grit out under her breath, her face drawn tight in a pointlessly fake cheshire-grin. She couldn't even muster the will to be openly angry at this point. This was going to be a long four years...
"Hold on a minute... you can dump forty grand, just like that? Won't your parents say anything?" Ichigo commented in concern.
Weiss raised a scarred eyebrow at him, but before she could open her mouth, Ozpin answered. "Miss Schnee is the current heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. The Atlesian SDC is the chief distributor of the ubiquitous energy propellant, dust, globally." Weiss had gone from confusion at Ichigo not recognising such a household-name, to a subdued proud preening as her family's business was described. "Her father, Jacques, is one of the most powerful and influential men on the planet."
Ichigo let out a low whistle, reassessing the girl across from him. Her prideful countenance, he noticed, had dulled ever so slightly at the mention of her father's name. "So he's like a billionaire tycoon, then?"
"Multi-billionaire." Ozpin corrected. "Are you wondering now, why a young woman of such stock would seek to join the ranks of the guardians of society, rather than practice in a private business school back home?" Another small test of character, laid in plain sight.
Weiss stiffened abruptly at the Headteacher's question. Why would he ask something like that? Still, she turned her head upwards, crossing her arms snootily, daring Ichigo to think less of her now for the 'silver spoon' in her mouth.
"...Nah, not really. She wouldn't be the first noble I know who gets their hands dirty, anyway." Ichigo waved off the question dismissively as he spoke. "Being rich doesn't automatically make you evil, or anything. It just makes it easier to get away with it and wash your hands afterwards."
Weiss switched back to the orange haired teen at his unique reply. It wasn't sucking-up, but nor was it spitting down. Ichigo was... honest with his words. It was nice to hear, for once. But... not the first noble? That was a tad archaic of a term, wasn't it? Who else could he possibly be referring to?
The Deputy Head stepped forwards. "That covers the repair expenses... but what of the consequences for the students?"
"That is up to you, Miss Goodwitch." Ozpin directed. "However, leave Mr Kurosaki separate. We will speak with him afterwards."
"Fair enough." She cracked the riding-crop, as distilled austerity embalmed her expression. Ichigo could feel a very subtle reiatsu leaking out from her unconsciously as she doled out the punishment- she was absolutely ticked-off. "Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Until the reconstruction of the roof you've destroyed is complete, neither of you are allowed outside of the castle grounds. In addition to this, you will both be attending detentions every day until the repairs are finished. Is that clear?"
"...Yes, Miss Goodwitch." Ruby drooped her head, unable to meet her piercing jade-green eyes.
"Yes, Miss Goodwitch." Weiss nodded firmly, meeting the spotlight-glare head-on.
"Thank you. Your team may leave." As they turned for the lift, the teacher's voice softened as she added, "Also, make sure you see a nurse before you turn in for the night, please? Just to make sure that you're alright."
"We'll make sure they go, Miss." Ren affirmed, as the metallic doors slid shut with an electric ring.
It was just Ichigo in the room now, with the Headmaster and his deputy. Huh, guess she has a caring side to her too...
"Kurosaki." Goodwitch rounded on him as soon as the door closed.
"-Yes?" Ichigo asked as she peered right into the horned teen. Right through, it almost felt like.
"Your scroll should be delivered to your room tonight. The passcode PIN will be on an attached piece of paper. Our lesson together is at the end of the week, and on the first day after that, will be the 'test' that Headteacher Ozpin has tasked me with arranging. I look forward to seeing you then."
"I also look forward to it. If you don't have any questions, you may leave." Ozpin agreed.
Ichigo's head flickered between the two of them like a rubberneck-chicken.
"-What?" he sputtered. "I thought you were gonna at least suspend someone for a month, or something?" he cocked his head incredulously. "We literally destroyed the roof of an entire building, and that was pretty much just a slap on the wrist?" he trailed off, "Not that I'm complaining... but you seemed really mad."
He was kind of glad, honestly. He didn't want to leave Beacon just yet, but the notion of potentially doing detention when he was finally supposed to be done with school really would push him to walk out on the spot.
"I am mad. This much destruction, from a first-year scuffle on the first day is... hah... borderline unheard of..." she sighed, rubbing her right palm at her forehead.
"...But it's not the worst thing that has happened on a first day. At least they weren't actually attempting to fight to the death, according to their words." Ozpin finished.
"That's happened before?" Ichigo spouted disbelievingly. -No, wait, he could totally believe it. Imagine all of the schoolboy punks of Karakura, but now with swords that turned into guns...
"Oh yes. Ruby Rose's father and uncle's team, STRQ, were quite the handful. Especially in the years before Miss Goodwitch became my Deputy." Ozpin confirmed with a reminiscent lilt. He adjusted his spectacles, concealing his probing gaze behind the tinted lenses. "...Is there anything else you wish to ask?" It was clear the question was directed at more than just a 'prospective visitor'.
A half-dead girl, laid trapped beneath a castle flashed across Ichigo's vision.
"...Nothing. It can wait." Not yet. He needed to wait for Amber to tell him where her body was laid. Without the soul, a vessel lacked a spiritual pressure he could track. She did say it would take a couple days... it was probably a little tricky to follow a chain for a few miles though walls and floors in the dark.
"That's alright. Goodbye, Mr Kurosaki." the Headteacher waved him off.
"'Bye." Ichigo waved back over his shoulder as he entered the lift. The polished metal of the luxurious elevator slid shut behind him.
"...Thank you, for back there." a quiet voice forced out.
"Huh?" Ruby turned to partner, trudging along just behind her. They were both wearing a few plasters and bandages, after RWRN's visit to the medical building.
"I said thank you. For hiding what I was fighting for." Weiss reinforced uncomfortably. Her ice-blue eyes darted to the side.
Ruby considered for a few moments, before responding. "Well duh. I can't just say that we fought over leadership on the first day. That'd sound terrible."
Weiss ventured, "So you'll listen, then?"
Ruby waited a good few seconds to respond. "...I will. I don't have to like it, but I agreed to it, and you won fair and square." She sighed wistfully, "Honestly... I don't even want to be leader all that much, anyway. I've got too much to catch up on; watching Jaune break his arm and not being able to do anything at all woke me up to that. You still have to pay me for breaking Crescent Rose, though."
Weiss stumbled at the demand, before recomposing herself. "...fine. I have more than enough to spare. I'll admit, I did misjudge you slightly. I'll try being... nicer."
Ruby straightened cautiously. "You don't just think I'm a kid anymore?"
"Oh heavens, no." Weiss riposted immediately. "You are so childish it's unreal. Dimwitted, too."
"...This doesn't sound like you're trying to be nice at all." Ruby muttered dryly.
"-But, as Ichigo pointed out, age on that small scale has nothing to do with your fighting style. You fight incredibly well." she paused, as if weighing whether or not to continue with her next point. "Do you know how I got this scar?"
"The one on your eye?" Ruby examined the left side of Weiss's face, and scratched at her own cheek. It was a thin, almost bone-white neat line from the middle of her forehead, all the way to just above her chin. The scar tissue was pale enough that it even stood out against her snow-white complexion. "Why would I? That question makes no sense. I'm not some stalker."
"It was rhetorical! I was about to explain it!" she stomped her foot exasperatedly. "Listen... It's from an Arma Gigas."
Ruby stared at her expectantly.
"...An extreme sub-type of Geist. Multiple specimens of a possession-type grimm all piled into one massive suit of armour. I fought it as a test, before coming to Beacon, and it gave me this scar."
"A test?" Ruby repeated quizzically.
"From my father, before I could leave. I defeated it, and here I am." Weiss stated in a very manner-of-fact, detached way.
Ruby uttered lowly. "...That's... a bit extreme, isn't it? Your own dad?" Ruby couldn't imagine her own father pulling any 'test' as risky as that. She felt a wad of sympathy for Weiss entrench itself in her heart, but didn't speak on it further.
"Extreme or not, I won. The thing is, however, that you were a harder foe." Weiss emphasised.
"Me?" Ruby pointed to herself confusedly.
"Yes, really. You put up a much harder, more challenging fight. Your style is... well it's something else. -Nothing I couldn't handle-, but I will admit that you are more than worthy of being my right-hand woman. I look forward to working with you." she concluded.
"As long as you ease up a little. Otherwise I might just lead a reverse-mutiny and take back my spot." Ruby gazed upwards, to the starry night sky. It was recently-past sunset now. "Heh... I guess Ichigo was right... fighting really did make me respect you too a bit more, weirdly enough... mostly... I still don't really like you that much though."
"...Mostly yes, I suppose you're right." Weiss smiled contentedly, in contrast to her following words. "I still don't like you either, but I can put up with you."
Ren kicked a stone down the twilit path, walking up to them from behind. "What's our plans now?" The streetlamps were on, bathing the tiled path leading from the CCT in pale light.
"Bed, of course. We'll sort things out tomorrow. How bad is the sink, Nora?" Weiss braced herself internally. She would've scolded her for it, but could she really speak after destroying that roof?
"It's... there, I guess! Mostly." she skipped along behind the rest.
Weiss groaned. "We'll have to ask your sister's team to use theirs, Ruby. Or maybe Ichigo could spare his?"
"Use my what?" Weiss halted at the voice behind her.
"Ichigo! Hi!" Nora sang out, twirling around to face him, waltzing up behind them with his hands in his pockets.
"Can we use your sink?" Ruby asked, with a small yawn. "I really don't want Yang to see me with all these bandages like this. They said our aura'll heal them by tomorrow."
Ichigo fiddled around for the keycard to his room in his pocket. "Sure thing. I don't see why not."
- –—{}—– -
"Anyone know how these things work?" Ichigo muttered in frustration as he fiddled with the small black smooth metal bar that he opened from the box left on his bed. He was sat on the red covers, cross-legged, as he raised his head to meet Ren's voice, who was leaning against the cream wallpaper.
"Let me see it," he took the device, and pressed the glossy red diamond set in its onyx middle at its top, then the bottom, then the sides. "-here." Ren handed it back. "You can set your fingerprint or your own touch combination for it. I just used the usual default factory one. You're welcome."
As Ichigo grasped it in his palm, he opened his hand at the feeling of the scroll pushing against the fingers in his grasp. The twin black bars split apart, pushed apart by the transparent white-tinted glass that emerged from between them. The glass lit up with an electronic display, which bore a striking resemblance to a smartphone, only without a wallpaper. The lower bar kept the red diamond attached to it, presumably as a sort of home button. "Thanks. I can figure it out, from here."
"Hey! No fair! How come you got a black and red one!" Ruby whined from a cushioned chair on the other end of the room. The other two members of RWRN were still in the bathroom, using Ichigo's sink to brush their teeth.
"I didn't get to choose..." Ichigo replied as he tapped at it, going through the English setup menus, "...although I kinda noticed, it does suit my taste, doesn't it?" He turned to her, eyeing her huntress outfit. "Yours too, from all the red and black getup. You know, for someone who dresses like a goth, your vibe sure doesn't match it..."
"I'm not a poser!" Ruby huffed, crossing her arms self-consciously. "I just like the colours!"
"Never said you were. Being cheerful isn't a bad thing, really. It's nice..." that you're able to stay this way, he refrained from finishing.
She reminded him of himself, before his mother passed. But Mrs Rose was gone too... at least to her. How'd she stay so upbeat, when he couldn't? Maybe because she would've been too young, like Yuzu and Karin? But Karin changed too afterwards... Hmph, he shouldn't think too hard on it. It was good for her, and he didn't need to dwell on it.
"Why'd you get to get a special one, then?" Ruby lamented, dragging her chair over for a better look.
"Probably to do with me being a 'special visitor'." he lifted it closer to his face, inspecting the front and the back. He could sense the intricate reishi circuitry running on dust inside of it. "Shame that means this thing is probably tracked, too."
Ruby shrugged. "Obviously. It's given out by the school to anyone who didn't have one. Those things are always proprietary and probably linked to their location network, too. The first thing I did when I got mine was crack it and install an open-source OS ROM."
"Excuse me?" Ren scratched at his pink-streaked head, lost. "I... never really got a chance to learn any of this stuff."
Ichigo snorted. "Relax. IT class never taught us how to do anything like that either. I kinda get the gist of it, though. Ruby, so you're good with computers, then?"
Ruby blinked hesitantly. "Sort of? I mainly just got these things off of CCTnet videos on the fly."
"You got anything you need to do tomorrow?" he queried lightly.
"We can't leave Beacon, remember." Weiss reminded as she stepped back in from the bathroom, with Nora at her side.
"I'm not asking her for that." Ichigo leaned back, digging his palm into the soft covers behind him. "I just wanna know if you've got some free time."
Ruby frowned as she folded her hands in her lap. "Not really, sorry. I've got to repair Crescent Rose in the forges."
"Repair? You mean yourself?" he asked, slightly impressed.
"Don't you know? We make all our weapons ourselves!" Nora informed, gesturing proudly over to her hammer laid up in the corner.
"How'd you not know? The forging of a weapon is one of the biggest events in a huntsman's career." Ren inquired from the wall.
Ichigo took a few moments, before he answered. "I didn't completely forge my own weapon, I had quite a lot of help. I guess I'm a bit out of the loop with the more conventional stuff."
"You're talking about your massive sword?" Nora tapped a finger to her chin curiously. "That thing's even bigger than my Magnhild! Where'd it go, anyway?"
"Yeah, Zangetsu. I put him away somewhere. I like to think I still did most of the effort forging him, though." his small smile was laced with heartfelt pride.
"...him?" Ren hitched a brow.
"There's nothing wrong with that!" Ruby jumped to her feet. "Er..." she shrank back into her chair awkwardly under the suddenly-stifling atmosphere of the room. "Ah-ha..."
Weiss spoke up, with a false cough. "A-hem. I, also did that, too. The help, with the forging, I mean. Not whatever... that was about. My weapon was built by others, but I still helped with the process. My... elder sister made sure of it." she blushed a touch at the last sentence.
"Myrtenaster's pretty good. You can cast glyphs with it like a wand, right? It gave me a lot of trouble." Ruby reflected, before amending. "Of course, Crescent Rose is better."
"Hah?" Weiss grumbled, putting her fists on her hips. "Your scythe broke on contact with my blade's fine tip. It wasn't even a contest."
"Oh yeah?" Ruby growled daringly, "I remember how much dust you dumped on it only for me to easily get it back working straight away. Tell me, how much lien did you burn on that?"
"As if that matters to me- hey!" Weiss cried, just as a pillow was thrown square in her face.
"Haha!" Nora giggled playfully.
"Ehehe- oof!" Ruby's spiteful laugh was interrupted as another hit her in the jaw. "Ew! It's in my mouth!"
"Save it. I thought you were supposed to be getting along now?" Ichigo scolded from the bed, his arms outstretched in a pitching position. "Anyway... so Ruby, that means you know electronics and metalworking stuff, too? Like soldering, and all that?"
"Bleh." She pulled the pillow out, as she replied. "Yeah, I um... like weapons... like, a lot."
"Then you think you can help me with- you better not have gotten drool on that by the way- you think you can help me with this?" he reached deep into his blazer pocket to draw out his brushed-silver smartphone.
"What's that?" she frowned, "Some kind of knock-off Vacuo scroll? It's backlit too, instead of holo-glass... so weird."
"...Something like that." Ichigo jumped on the suggested bluff. "You said that you're gonna be at the forges tomorrow. Can I join you? I want a way for this to be charged, here, without frying it. I can help you with Crescent Rose too."
Ruby beamed at him, "Sure! I'll see you after school. We can figure something out." she waved as she got up, "See you tomorrow!"
"Goodnight!" Nora pranced out first, followed closely by Ren.
" 'Night."
Weiss made her way to the door, before turning back. "Sleep well."
"You too. And Weiss?" Ichigo met her eyes with a firm, hard look.
"Yes?" she hung in the white-painted doorway.
Ichigo pointed to the corner of his mouth. "You have a glob of toothpaste stuck there. It's been there a while."
"Geh!"
The lunch hall of Beacon was just as grand and impressive as the rest of the fantastical castle academy.
Diamond-grilled arched casement windows lined the walls on either side between great square pillars, with lamps suspended from them. Two giant arches made up the back of the hall, to the outside corridors, with warm sunlight filtering in and brightening the grey-coloured stone. The tables themselves were all real wood, laser-carved to such a fine degree that they all ended in perfect right-angles. Intricate black cast-metal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, brightening the room further, along with the small azure-blue bulbs embedded into the floor. Seafoam-green banners hung from the main twin arches, baring the academy's circular emblem, where the four circles within the larger one represented the spirit of four-man teamwork that Beacon was founded on.
Ichigo strolled along with his metal tray, sitting down at the table where he'd spotted RWRN and PJYB. "Yo."
"Hi, Ichigo. You're staying here for a while, then?" Jaune greeted cheerily. He still had the cast, but it no longer seemed to be causing him any discomfort.
"Yeah. Looks like it might be a while. A good few weeks, at least." He took a sizeable bite out of the sandwich. "Wow... this is pretty good, for school food."
"It is one of the most prestigious academies for a reason." Pyrrha reminded, spearing at her plate with a fork.
Yang piped in, "Did you do anything, yesterday? Our classes didn't line up all that much. Did you hear that thunder though? Apparently some students dumped a crap-ton of lighting dust and blew a hole in a sparring hall, hah! On the first day too, can you imagine?"
Ichigo checked Ruby's suddenly-anxious face, before denying, "...I heard it. I didn't really get up to much yesterday, though. I did figure that I'd like to get some dust tomorrow, though. It's a free day, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Yang leaned her face to the side, into her hand lazily. "They told us we get a free day each week. It changes every now and then, but tomorrow, it's on Thursday."
"Thursday?"
"Yeah? I just told you. Fers-day." she confirmed, breaking the word in two. It made it clear she was pronouncing it slightly differently.
Right, different planet. It did sound practically identical phonetically, though. Strange how the months and seasons were pretty much the same, though... or was only September like that? That was the only one Cardin mentioned by name... looks like July and August probably were named differently, after all.
"Great!" Pyrrha clapped excitedly. "Let's all go to Vale tomorrow! It can be our first outing as a team! Ichigo, you said you wanted dust, didn't you? We can go together, Ruby's team too!"
It was true, he did want to get his hands on some of the stuff. Want, not need. It was more of something to mess around with, and entertain himself until he heard back from Amber. So he didn't really see an issue with going out with all of them, right now. Plus, he was curious about the city he'd seen from the tower-top. It would be nice to explore a new world without its inhabitants trying their utmost to kill him, for once. "Sure."
"My cast should be coming off then, so I'm up for it." Jaune agreed.
"Woohoo!" Nora threw her hands up in the air. "Weiss, lend me some cash! You're our team treasurer! I'm investing in-"
"-No, no you're not." Ren cut her off reprimandingly. "Not after last time."
"We survived!" Nora refuted.
"Umm... about that..." Ruby began nervously.
"We're unable to leave the castle grounds for the foreseeable future. One of our punishments, for breaking the sink in our dorm on the first day. At least, myself and Ruby are." Weiss finished handily, keeping her pale eyes on her food as she dined.
"On the first day!?" Yang cried disbelievingly. "Weiss-cream and Ruby, I can't believe it! I thought that I'd be the troublemaker, here! Don't tell me that I've actually got to start acting like the responsible one..." she sunk low on the bench in her faux-identity crisis.
"...cream?" Weiss's eyebrow twitched irritably at the nickname. It was only the second day, and they weren't even on the same team...
Ichigo stared at Yang flatly. "Why're you making that out like it's a bad thing?"
"There're worse ways to cause trouble in the first week." Ren pointed out, whilst physically pointing across the hall.
A loud clattering of metal and food resounded though the room as Cardin Winchester's lunch was splattered to the floor, along with a long-brown-haired girl's. "Watch it, you pest!"
"S-sorry..." she uttered timidly, backing up against one of the square pillars. Her face was pale and anxious, and her brown eyes were wide and flighty. She, like everyone else in the hall, was wearing the Beacon uniform. Unlike most, however, she had a second pair of ears atop her head, tall rabbit-like ones that were brown-furred and pink on the inside. A faunus.
"Atrocious. I can't stand people like him." Pyrrha condemned, staring daggers. The others at the table were taken aback slightly, at such harsh words leaving her otherwise-kind mouth.
Blake's vision was burning a hole into Cardin's back. "He's not the only one..." It was the first time she'd spoken up over the lunch break, but no one paid it much heed with the scene still unfolding.
Yang was still leaning on her hand disheartenedly, but didn't move. "It must be hard to be a Faunus." she paused, "Oh, uh, no offense, Ichigo... Ichigo?"
Ichigo, meanwhile, had already stood up and strode across the hall. Tapping Cardin on the shoulder just as he reached for her ears, he whirled round with a furious vigour, only to lose it the moment his eyes landed on the one-horned boy.
"You again?" he cursed. "Where'd your other horn go? Up your-"
"Doesn't matter." Ichigo reached up with a curled finger, and flicked him in the forehead once again.
"Ouch!" he grunted, staggering back and rubbing at it. "Hey... I'm not knocked out?" his voice swelled with confidence. "I'm up! I've taken the best you got!"
Oh, right, I'm in my body. Ichigo mused absentmindedly. "Suuure. Can I just ask, are you sure you're not retarded?"
"This again? You're the one who didn't know what month it was!" he retorted.
Ichigo gestured to the wary girl in front of them. "And you're the one who's about to beat a girl up in front of the entire school on the second day. That's how you get expelled, idiot."
"As if! This is a combat academy! The council want new huntsmen fodder, no matter what. People do way worse and get away with it, like those psychos who blew up that sparring hall yesterday." Cardin argued.
Ichigo slumped, feeling the weight of irony on his back. "Uh, right. Well... you want to be better than those people, don't you?"
"Exactly! I'm a person." he reinforced. She isn't, and neither are you, but I don't want you to cave my head in so I won't say that. "I gotta eat, but now I can't. Someone's gotta pay"
"Whoa, what did she do, kill your parents?" Ichigo scratched at his head. "It's only some lunch. She lost hers, too."
"And I was gonna eat mine! Not as if I can just eat it off the floor, like some farm animal." he huffed. "Dove! Back me up here!"
"...Nah, I think you're all good." the other teen blaisely replied, lounging at a nearby bench with the other members of DRCL. "Not my problem."
"...Whatever. I'm not even hungry anymore." Cardin deflated depressingly. Ichigo watched him, and contemplated his next words carefully.
"Hey Dove, can I borrow him for a second?" he turned to his right.
"Knock yourself out." the light-brunette waved him off.
"Sweet." Ichigo grinned, and dropped into a swift sweep-kick to get Cardin off of his brown-shoed feet, before catching him and hefting him over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"Ack! H-Hey!" He yelled, facing behind, his legs dangling over Ichigo's chest. Cardin tried to kick at him, but was caught by Ichigo's other hand.
"And you..." Ichigo faced the faunus, stock-still against the wall, observing the scuffle. "Hi there. You okay? First year, right? Can I ask you a question?"
"S-second, actually, thank you. Yes...?" she nodded shyly. He was a faunus, like her... but he'd actually stood up to him on her behalf... she felt a welt of shame at her helplessness.
"Was he about to grab you ears?" he broached.
"Yes... but you saved me, thank you." she smiled weakly at him.
"You shouldn't be happy about that." Ichigo spoke firmly. "And he shouldn't have been about to, then. You shouldn't have let it get to this point. You're all training to fight, aren't you? Not to mention that you're an entire year above him. I shouldn't have to step in like this. You've got to gain a sense of pride, to be able to fight for your own sake." He stood taller than her, shouldering a hulking man as if it was nothing, and she squirmed under his admonishing vision. "How can you protect anyone else, if you can't even protect yourself?"
"B-but... if I did... then he'd try again... or he'd get hurt." she mumbled. Some huntress she was...
"Hah? That's fine, it wouldn't matter if he got hurt-"
"Oi!" Cardin interrupted from his back.
"-because then he'd deserve it. The one thing you don't need at all in battle is fear. Fearing what he'd do in the future, fearing hurting him when he's trying to hurt you, none of that is relevant at all in the fight. You said that you're a second year?"
She swallowed, "I did..."
"Then I'll see you at the end of the week. The day after tomorrow is when I'm gonna have my first combat class. I wanna fight you. I can tell you're stronger than him." he jostled the young man on his shoulder to punctuate his point.
"M-me?" she squeaked uneasily, "B-but why?"
Ichigo turned away, making his way to the doors with his cargo in tow. "I just feel like it. Make sure you're ready. See you then."
- –—{}—– -
"Oof!"
Cardin was tossed onto a dry bed of grass, and rolled along a few meters, clumps of loose green blades sticking to his uniform.
"W-what's your problem, you spastic? I didn't even do anything to you!" he sat up haughtily, before palming his scroll and entering a code into it.
"Exactly." Ichigo rolled his shoulders, pulling off his sable-fabric blazer and carmine-red tie to expose his white cotton shirt. "That's why I'm helping you out. You'll be helping me, too."
"With what? My rocket-locker's already on its way. I'm gonna blow your brains out!" he proclaimed as he rose to his feet.
Ichigo inclined his head. "Your what?"
With a growling, burbling roar, a blue-flamed rocket streaked right into Ichigo and Cardin's field of view form above. They were standing in one of the many open fields of the academy, which Ichigo had chosen to use seeing as how things had turned out with the last indoor venue. Instead of crashing, it slowed and oriented itself perfectly vertical, before touching down on the scorched grass smoothly. Ichigo was mesmerised by the incredible sight.
"You... you have personal rockets? And they're that small? Does it go back?" He uttered in awe. The Soul Society had rockets too, to reach the Reiō's palace, but they were honestly kind of crude, in Ichigo's experience. Even though this was much smaller than the Tenchūren, it was far more impressive in the control and flexibility it had.
Cardin hurried over to his locker, and began rooting through it. "Why wouldn't it? You have one too, dumbass. All students do."
That was... wow. Reusable rocket technology was absolutely cutting edge, even by living-world standards, and to be able to control it to that degree, and for it to be so refined and commonplace that students could use it freely... it put even the likes of what the Squad Zero used to shame.
"Your space stations must be something crazy..." he tittered.
"Space stations...? You mean like in movies? Don't tell me you believe those crazy conspiracies that secretly dust actually works in space and 'they''re just covering it up. Sky tried to tell me about that, the guy's a nutcase. They've got proof it doesn't, on camera. Atlas posts tests all the time, and nothing works- aha!" Cardin yanked out his mace, along with his polished armour. "Now I'm ready to beat you to a pulp. It'll be different this time, seeing as how I took your flick just fine! Just let me... pull these on..." he tugged his armour on hastily.
Well that's kinda disappointing... Ichigo sighed. The cosmos would've been something he'd like to see here. Kenpachi had told him just before the final trip back to the Soul King's palace that he'd beaten a guy who'd thrown him into the literal vacuum of space right before he showed up... he felt jealous even now.
Cardin donned his chrome armour over his school shirt and trousers, discarding his black blazer and loose tie. "Alright, now tell me why you brought me out here."
Ichigo smirked at him. "Well, you're already playing along just fine. I wanna spar with you."
"Me? I hate you!" he exclaimed.
"So? Even better. I plan on fighting your entire team, as well. Dove, mainly." He began counting off his prospective opponents on his fingers, "And Ruby, and Weiss, Ren, Nora, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha too. I'm starting with you, because you feel like the weakest."
"Wha- what's your problem?" he growled.
Ichigo frowned placatingly. "Sorry... but I can judge these things. You can probably get a lot stronger, though. I would've started with Jaune, but his arm's broken. At least you're better than him, right?"
"You know what? Fine. How're we gonna start? I'm good with bashing your head in." he brandished his mace as he jeered.
Ichigo grew a wide, aggressive grin. "Sure, that sounds good. I need to train my semblance, anyway." He recalled how the deathstalker had pierced his blut. "It's too patchy. Go for it."
"You don't need to tell me!" Cardin wound back, then belted his black-flanged titanium mace full-speed at Ichigo's unhorned right side. It hit his head, just as a sparkling circuit flickered alive beneath his skin. On contact, a jutting flange was dented inwards, cracking the crimson dust crystal inside it, which crumbled out through the hollow mace's gaps.
"Whah..." Cardin jarred back, slack jawed, and inspected his mace, before looking closely at Ichigo's head, where only a small cut was visible.
"Oh crap... I'll uh... pay for that. I'll get paid at the end of the week, so you'll have to wait until then though." Ichigo rubbed at the cut with his thumb. Still too weak."Try coating it with aura next."
At least Cardin was a lot more enthusiastic about trying to hit him after that.
"Ruby? Yo, Ruby?" Ichigo poked at her shoulder, making her jump startledly.
"Wha!? -Ichigo? What are you- oh right, right, the scroll thing, yeah." She pulled off her cross-lensed round goggles, baring her wide silver eyes.
The Beacon forges were hot. Even with the wavy air being funnelled away by the constant thrum of extractor vents, the sweltering heat permeated the room. But for trainee huntsmen with aura, such temperatures were only felt like the breeze on a warm summer's day. The floor was tiled with even marble squares, polished to such an extent that they reflected the furniture and lights embedded in the ceiling. There weren't any chandeliers here, instead the bulbs were circular, white and were flush with the light-grey roof. Pillars, square like the lunch hall's, broke up the spaces throughout the middle of the rooms, since this was underneath the rest of the academy. They had an array of racks and paraphernalia related to electronics and metallurgy mounted on them, with neon blue holographic panels.
The place was packed with students of all years, though most were crowded around the furnaces, which were giant blue metal cubes, with blue fire spurting from their tops directly into the diffusion vents. Ichigo had found Ruby sitting at a black-painted metal rectangular table, drawing up a revised blueprint of Crescent Rose with cherry-red headphones on. They were plastered with stickers on the sides, and she stuffed them away into her pocket quickly.
"So what're you doing here?" Ichigo leaned over her shoulder interestedly, taking a gander at her work so far.
Ruby stretched back and pumped her arms out. "Weiss agreed to pay for fixing Crescent Rose." she straightened up, "Thing is, she's a billionaire, so 'paying' to her meant to just tell me to get whatever I want. That means I ordered this."
She drew out a big black-leather briefcase from under the high table, and popped it open with a click to reveal a metal-edged glass cuboid container taking up its entire meter-long volume. It was filled with vibrant orange dust, as bright as Ichigo's hair.
"Dust?" Ichigo examined closer to the protective glass, at the shifting mass of powered reishi. "What type?"
Ruby puffed out her chest proudly, "It's metal dust. Not stone, but purified metal. They say this stuff is the best aura-conductor on Remnant. This'll also let me make any components as one piece, without having to make any unnecessary joints or welds that can fail..." she wilted a little, "...at least, if I can get it to work. I've never even seen the stuff in person before."
"Think we could try? I was there when Zangetsu was forged, so I think I could help you shape this one too." Ichigo suggested.
"As long as you're sure. Don't tell anyone, but to get this much cost more than a house." she whispered. Ichigo froze, his brown eyes widened a touch, then nodded resolutely, and Ruby nodded back. She then closed the heavy briefcase and carried it over to an active moulding station. It was chugging away, producing something inside a metallic cylinder. "I already put Crescent Rose and its complete blueprint inside of this a while ago, so it should be done any time now." A minute or so of waiting later, and it opened with a ding.
A jet of steam spouted out, and the cylinder opened from the top to reveal a hollow space inside a cast of metal. It was set down by the machine onto a trundle for them to tug along. The broken-bladed Crescent Rose tumbled out from the bottom of the machine. She picked it up, and it compacted down into a cylinder she clipped to her belt.
"How comes you're redoing the whole thing, then?" Ichigo asked as he pulled the cast along behind her. "I thought that you seemed pretty attached to yours."
Ruby walked along with a giddy spring in her step, navigating the throngs of students. "I am. He's- I mean it's- very important to me. But Crescent Rose mainly lives in here, and here." She tapped at her temple, and her plexus. Ichigo stared at her blankly. "My head and heart, I mean." she pouted embarrassedly.
"That's... the right idea." Ichigo settled on. "Your weapon is another part of you, after all."
"That's right. Crescent Rose has been broken before, anyway. It took a lot to refine the design this far. Turns out Weiss was right, after all. It can stand a load of heat, but to go from cutting ice to concentrated dust-fire and back in a few minutes was too much. That thermal shock has compromised it completely. She's given me more than just the chance to fix Crescent Rose now, but to improve and perfect it with her cash. Mechashift weapons are your lifeline, you know? I want to make mine the best."
Ichigo ducked past someone carrying a long, dripping pole. "So you're saying Weiss being the leader isn't as bad as you thought it'd be?"
Ruby laid out the cast in an open section of the floor, and crouched down next to it to adjust it. "She could be better, but she could be worse, too. She really calmed down after that fight. Although I still have to put up with her forced arguments every now and then." she reached up, and stretched to the tips of her toes, but failed to reach the extractor pipes hooked up in the ceiling. "Can you get that?"
"Here." Ichigo extended his right arm up to pull one of the dull metallic grey tubes down for her, and she switched it on. "That sounds more like half of those arguments are on you as well, though."
"Doesn't mean I can't blame her for her half." Ruby finished the preparations, and hopped in place eagerly. "You think you can help me? I need to pour the dust into the mould, and then I need to channel aura into it to activate the dust. It doesn't matter whose. After that I'll start carving apart the pieces."
"When I say..." Ichigo crouched down and held the cylinder firm, as Ruby filled the scythe's cast with the powdered reishi. "Stop!"
She ceased pouring the dust just as it reached the brim of the cast, leaving only a residue behind in the glass container. She closed it, and spoke, "We should let this sit for a minute, so let's see your scroll thing." Ruby directed them to the chairs at a table nearby. "You've got it on you, right?"
"Yeah, it's right... here." He pulled out his phone, and took it out of its blue fabric case. "I just want to be able to charge it, without frying it. You think you can figure it out?"
"Sure, we just need a power meter. Look, I'll just borrow one." She got up and strolled over to one of the pillars, and tapped at a neon blue holo-terminal on its side. A few moments later something tumbled into a dish at the base of the pillar, just below the neon panel.
She reached in, and pulled it out before returning to the seat besides the spellbound Ichigo.
"...How much funding does this place have, exactly?"
"Dunno, but it's gotta be a lot. More than most settlement towns, probably." Ruby replied offhandedly. "I've got to return this thing, anyhow." She opened the power meter and activated the device. Instead of a conventional LCD screen, it instead projected a hologram of the measurement 0 GRAMS.
"Grams?" So they didn't use watts, either? Or would it be volts here?
"Yeah? We're measuring electricity, so it's got grams of electricity dust as the default unit setting." Ruby elaborated. "The plug socket you've got there is weird, but it can just use a wireless connection, like with wireless charging. Lemme just... yep!"
The number in the projection rose from a flat zero to an even 10 GRAMS.
"Ten grams, eh?" Ruby rubbed at her chin, "I can work with that. Can I open it up?"
"Go ahead. Just... don't break it, please." Ichigo winced at the thought.
Ruby fished her goggles out from her pocket, along with some utensils from her pouch. "I'll be careful. You can watch."
Although Ichigo observed the whole thing, he couldn't keep up at all. He recognised the soldering kit when she pulled it out, though. "What're you doing now?"
A small stream of smoke sizzled away as she worked. "I'm installing a port that'll actually work, and a lightning dust capacitor. No idea where you got that old thing from, or what that lithium rectangle was doing there. Was that a power source? So weird... anyhow, you can just charge it from any old outlet once I'm done."
A few minutes later, she handed him the finished phone, and he checked to make sure it was in working order. He switched it on, to find that it did surprisingly enough, function just fine, although it didn't have any signal. Figures that Wi-Fi doesn't work the same here. "Thanks a bunch. I owe you a ton."
"You can pay me back right now." She marched over to the sealed cast, and so did Ichigo. "Alright... you ready? The extractor fan is on... but... oh! Right! This stuff is toxic when it's activating, how could I forget!" she slapped her forehead.
"Seriously!?" Ichigo lurched away from the full dust cast. She really was as scatter-brained as her mother! "Why didn't you warn me!"
"It's fiiine... probably." Ruby waved away. "It'll only screw with your lungs when it's activated, so here, wear this!" she handed him a painting mask, with two respirators on either side of the mouthpiece. As Ichigo pulled it on carefully, she explained behind her mask, "It doesn't hurt your eyes 'cause of aura, so they're fine." They both placed their hands against the cast.
"You ready? We'll charge it with both our auras in three... two... one..."
Ichigo pulsed his reiatsu through his palms into the bed of powdered reishi, and so did Ruby. The dust activated, and Ichigo could feel the reishi being shaped and forged into a scythe's form. It resonated with his and Ruby's aura, but he soon pulled his back to allow Ruby's to be the vast majority of its imprint. Drawing on his Quincy side, he neatened out any roughness or faults that almost formed in the reishi's flow, until it was a perfect shape. The cast made it want to become a scythe, almost, and Ruby's aura seemed to help a lot here, too. After several minutes, the smithing reaction died down mostly to a low hum, and Ruby piped up.
"You can go now. I've got to stay here for a while, like almost an hour more at least. They say it doesn't matter much, but I want it to be my aura from here on out."
"Really? You helped me with my phon- scroll though." Ichigo prompted as he stepped back.
"It's fine, trust me. I'd like it to have my personal touch. Plus, I kinda just want to surprise you with it next time, you know?" she maintained.
Ichigo assented and stretched out languidly, before he turned away. " 'Kay then, see ya. Thanks for the help."
"You too!" Ruby hollered as he sauntered off back up to the ground level. In truth, there was another reason that she'd told Ichigo to leave. She'd simply felt it was wrong, to rely on him for the next part.
She remained there, concentrating, focusing for far, far longer than she'd judged it to be. She should've called it off ages ago, but something intrinsic within her heart told her that she should keep going. That she needed to keep focusing her aura, for hours on end, no matter what. It was long after dark when she finally knew that she'd finished, and exhaustedly cracked open the cast all alone in the now-empty forge.
"Whah!?"
Inside was the scythe, but instead of the rough aura-channelling metal that she'd expected that she still needed to cut and shape, it was already finished. It was wickedly sharp, black and red in its metallic sheen as her original was, but far more sleek and streamlined. It didn't match her blueprint at all, and yet... in her soul, she knew it was perfect. It called to her, and she hefted it free, immediately falling in love at first-sight with its diamond-patterned handle.
"Is... this how the dust's supposed to work...?" she stroked at its cool metal face, feeling the reflection of her own aura inside of it. Was it channelling her aura unconsciously? "So cool... you're the best thing ever, Crescent Rose the Fourteenth..."
𝐀𝐰𝐰... 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬~, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨𝐨.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
NEXT: 11 - IN THE VALE - [Hidden Situation]
Author's notes:
Whoa, Ruby is a schizo?
(The reason this happened is a big tease for much, much later. I won't be inserting that inner voice constantly into the story from now on, that sort of stuff always clutters up the writing. It was just shown here for this one twist at the end. I'll treat this like it is in Bleach, where they only speak rarely to make it very special).
Picture I used for the lunch hall:
[64DOTmediaDOTtumblrDOTcom/f599967cfbefa1468d17dc99ecb689fc/tumblr_msoenrVKdx1qgseqbo1_1280DOTpng]
First things first, almost everyone hated the idea last time, so I guess I won't be making semblances entirely hax-based. Divine stuff will be fair-game though. His human body will still be affected by things too, so I'll lean more into that. I'll be staying true to what I said in the opening chapter; this'll be more about how Ichigo influences the world instead. I've also changed my mind about something else pretty major too.
This is a big, hefty chapter to me, even though it has less words than some of the others, because of how much happens in it. Weiss and Ruby come to a sort-of agreement, because they've felt each other's strength. They're going to argue more in this, but they won't try and kill each other or anything now. I know people wanted more of PJYB next, so they're the focus for the first trip to Vale.
I have general plans for DRCL, so I'm keeping them in the picture. Cardin not being team leader meant he was one of the last to get lunch, so he bumps into Velvet a few weeks earlier than canon. Remember how he met Renji? Ichigo's standards for 'someone he would never befriend' are a lot more extreme than just a simple bully.
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