14: Unlikely Proof - [Orihime's Line]
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"...and that's how I won't be eating the REF-mandated locust flour. Seriously, check the back of the boxes they're selling in Mantle. 'They're already planning to sneak it into the food supply."
Out of the corner of his vision, Ichigo saw Cardin rolling his eyes, even as he nodded along to Sky Lark's latest tirade on government aliens or whatever. Turns out Cardin was right, the navy-haired guy was a complete conspiracy nut, and that was putting it loosely. It was a little endearing really, at least his antics kept conversations interesting.
Ichigo wasn't actually sitting at their table, instead taking his seat with RWRN and JPYB as he had been for every lunch of the first week, on the next table over. Still, with his back right up against their side, he couldn't really help but overhear their one-sided conversation.
"...Riiight." Cardin drawled. "And I bet ghosts are real too?"
Sky nodded without hesitating, and opened his mouth-
"-'Course they are."
Ichigo spun around in his seat, putting down the cheap carton of juice he'd picked up as he cut in. Hey, fizzy drinks weren't exactly something you acquired a taste for, when you were raised by a doctor.
Beside him, Jaune tugged at his sleeve, but he shrugged him off.
"Really Kurosaki?" Cardin raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious right now?"
At DRCL's table, the quartet were arranged so that Cardin had turned around to face him, sitting next to Russel Thrush, who was simply tuning them out and still eating his food. Across the table, Dove, as usual, had his head face down against the wood. Whether the leader was actually asleep or just pretending to be was ambiguous, but Ichigo didn't really care either way. Next to his dozing teammate, Sky was watching him with sparkles in his eyes, as if he'd just found a kindred spirit. Uh oh.
On his own table, Jaune and Ren sat at his sides, and he felt their idle tension bristle slightly even as he spoke amicably. On the other side sat the girls, whose expressions he couldn't see, barring Nora, who was chomping down on her own lunch next to Ren, ignoring the world at large. All of them were in their school uniforms, as usual.
Ichigo huffed. He wouldn't exactly be telling them about the afterlife, or anything that was actually real, so he should be good to talk a little. And hey, if they ended up being a bit more thoughtful around graves in the future, then that was all the better. Too many people disrespected the dead, in his experience, especially considering the feelings of the dead that can still hear you.
"Look, you've literally got proof that the soul exists, don't you?" Ichigo laid out.
"What, you mean aura?"
"Yup. If your soul exists, then what happens to it when you die?" he asked rhetorically. "Some of 'em have gotta stick around for a while, right? You ever felt a chill in a graveyard?"
"So? You think that means ghosts exist? That is such a leap." Cardin groused. "You sure that horn's not sticking into your brain or something?"
"Eh, makes sense to me." Sky commented cheerily. He raised his glass to Ichigo in a mock-toast. (Glass, not BPA-laden plastic, he made sure to remind everyone regularly, whether they cared or not).
"Nice that someone's finally on your side." Cardin snarked with a turn of his head.
Ichigo felt an elbow in his side, and this time he finally twisted around to face the elbow-er. It was Jaune. He leaned over, to whisper in his ear. Why he even bothered to whisper was lost on Ichigo, considering the fact that this was pretty much smack-bang in the middle of everyone, and everyone could see him do it.
"Why are you chatting with them?" he needled in a thin tone, spiked with equal parts confusion and animosity.
"What's the problem?" Ichigo asked right back in at his normal volume, because come on, everyone was right there like a metre away at most.
"They're... you know?" Jaune leaned back, seemingly giving up on whispering. Huh, maybe he was finally becoming self-aware. Out loud, he faced both Cardin and Ichigo. "Didn't you two fight or something like two days ago? We literally saw you carry out his limp body like a caveman. Next time we saw Cardin he was all bruised and barely standing."
"So?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. In his experience, fighting and friendship weren't mutually exclusive. More like hand-in-hand, really.
Pyrrha broke in, "He was bullying that girl as well. You stopped him, don't you remember?"
"She dropped my lunch!" Cardin growled. "You'd feel the same way!"
"Yeah, seems pretty justified to me." Russel replied as he dabbed off his hands with a tissue.
"Don't be ridiculous. None of us would throw someone to the floor over something like that." Pyrrha paused, "...Well, maybe Yang and Nora would, but that's besides the point-"
"-Actually, I think that was your entire point-" Russel interrupted.
"-Well, the real point is that Cardin openly hates faunus. He's brought it up multiple times in our classes. He calls it 'dropping Remnpills' whenever he randomly quotes crime statistics nobody asked for." she crossed her arms. "Honestly, if you put the same memory skills to use in your schoolwork..."
"Well I'm not a teacher, so what do you want me to do about it? Beat him up again? I already spent an entire afternoon doing that. Just do it yourself, next time..." Ichigo muttered, leaning his head on his right hand, propped up by an elbow on the smooth tabletop. "Did he try and kill any of you?"
"What!?"
"I just asked if he tried to kill any of you. Stabbing, poisoning, all that. That might be a problem..." Ichigo remarked casually. "...if he didn't apologise." He added calmly. As if this was a minor deal for him. Knowing him so far, it probably was.
"No way." Cardin retorted. "Not yet, anyway. If I could kill anyone here, it'd probably be you, for chatting so much crap, you spastic."
"How on Remnant is an apology supposed to solve attempted murder? Would you accept it if someone put on puppy-eyes and said they're 'very sorry' after stabbing you?" Weiss exclaimed.
"...Yeah. Probably." Ichigo answered flatly.
At this point the puppy-eyes probably weren't even necessary. He'd honestly lost count of the number of future 'allies' who'd shanked him by now.
Weiss glared at him like she was willing her pale eyeballs to turn into icicles.
"...The worst part is that you're probably telling the truth. Well then, what about if innocents were involved? Would you, as a huntsman, forgive someone for attacking your family, just like that?"
Ichigo didn't even have to think. "Hell no. I'm ending that guy on the spot. Instant kill."
"W-well," Weiss coughed, "that may be a bit far, but I hope you see what I'm getting at, now." That was hyperbole on Ichigo's part, hopefully. Wasn't it?
Ichigo scratched at his cheek idly, as he raised his fork to his mouth. "What are we 'getting at', again? You kinda lost me now." Chomp.
Blake spoke up, finally. She was gripping her spoon tightly. "Ichigo, Cardin says faunus with a hard-R. That's not even a thing, and I'm pretty sure he admitted he made it up. That's how bad he is. He's inventing slurs."
Ichigo blinked, and swallowed his food. "I... heh, guess that does sound pretty bad..."
"If you think that, then why are you on the verge of laughing?" Blake snapped.
"I am not."
"Are too!"
He pulled a hand to his mouth to suppress the grin he didn't even know was there. "...Oh, c'mon! It's kinda funny as hell too." he pointed his fork at his fellow ginger, who shot him a dirty look in response. "That's frickin' next level dedication right there..."
"I have a reason you know..." Cardin scowled under his breath. He needn't have bothered quieting it, because, again, everyone was right there. When they all looked at him expectantly, apart from Dove of course, Nora who was still eating, and a tired Ruby, who was just daydreaming airily, he realised this and elaborated.
"What?" he grumbled. "The White Fang kill people all the time. They kinda openly want to exterminate humanity, you know? International terrorist organisation, and all. I'd say that's a solid reason as any."
Cardin ran a hand though his burnt-orange hair, darker than Ichigo's fresh-apricot coloured fringe. His narrow indigo gaze scanned over the tables, taller than the rest. He saw Blake stiffen, and Weiss squirm, but didn't comment further. Looking back, Weiss hadn't really spoken about him, more so than just call out Kurosaki's general ridiculousness. -And his homicidal streak, apparently.
Ichigo, meanwhile, took in what he heard with interest. An international terrorist organisation? So that was what they were generally thought of as... He'd partially wondered if the ghost in the alley was just bigging them up, since he was a member of them and all. Cardin's words confirmed that they really must be the real deal, then.
Even then, from what he knew of Cardin's personality, he didn't really seem to be the kind of guy who'd care all that much about foreign strangers biting it, even if it wasn't very 'heroic' of him. Either he was just justifying his hate, or... Ah. It's personal. From the telling fierce gleam in his purple eyes, Cardin truly despised that band of faunus in particular, and his disdain for the terrorist organisation bled out into an overall dislike for all faunus in general.
It kinda reminded him of the Quincy, and how they'd been honestly quite justified in their extreme hatred of all shinigami. Getting genocided in a supernatural race war twice would do that to ya.
In the Blood War, he hadn't really fought out of a dislike of the Quincies at all though, barring Yhwach. Instead it was more out of a need to defend existence itself. The multiverse is where his family and friends all live, after all, so he couldn't exactly let it get flushed down the drain. Stepping over a few bodies was part of the process, and a price he paid without hesitating- but without smiling, either.
Cardin had lost someone then. A family member, most likely. The last thing he wanted was to get lectured, obviously, and the others' words probably wouldn't get them anywhere. Time to change the subject. Not as if anyone at the table was even a faunus, anyway. Actually, hold on a minute...
"...Why're you all bringing the faunus up, anyway? Not as if there's any here. We're all human." Ichigo glanced at the rest searchingly.
They all stared at him.
Well, all of them except for Dove, Nora, and Ruby again. Ruby in particular just looked dazed. She must've had trouble sleeping lately.
"Ichigo...?" Yang pointed to the horn on his left temple.
His free hand rose up, and touched the smooth spiritual ivory. Oh, right. "Uh... apart from me, of course."
"How do you even..." Weiss uttered incredulously.
"Look, I just wasn't counting myself." Ichigo dismissed. "Now, what were we talking about before?"
"Ghosts?" Sky nudged helpfully. Hopefully too, from his expression. Ichigo frowned at the sight. Nuh-uh, I am not getting associated with this guy.
"Ichigo, man, I can't believe you seriously believe in that kinda stuff. I mean, this? On top of thinking Remnant is flat?" Jaune ribbed with a rue smile. Ichigo just scowled at him.
"-It's layered over a 4D magic dimension!" Nora chose that moment to begin paying attention. Right now, Ichigo chose not to pay attention to her, however. Maybe she was right, though? Heaven really could be layered over it... or something else?
"I do not think that Remnant is flat. It's just that..." His brown eyes rose to the high grey ceiling in thought. How could he explain himself here, without bringing up Hueco Mundo, or the Soul Society? "...listen, you know... uh..." crap... "...crap. I got nothing."
Yeah, he wasn't a theoretical spiritual physicist. Sue him. Maybe he could ask Urahara how it all worked, some time.
"Look, Ichigo, I'm just saying..." Jaune continued. Ichigo tuned him out. Seems he really did think he wasn't aware of basic toddler-level knowledge. At this point, Ichigo was tempted to just pretend to legitimately believe Remnant was flat, just to screw with him.
"...How would it work, otherwise?" the blond finished.
Actually... now that he thought about it, how did the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo work, then? If they were infinite landscapes, did they have infinite dirt, too? If you dug down, would you come out anywhere? Or just keep going forever?
Man, if he was the type to care, something like this would probably keep him up at night. It was kinda like how he'd blown his mind when he realised CDs somehow spun at different speeds on the inside and outside as a kid. Maybe he could use this to mess with Uryū, the next time he saw him. He'd definitely melt his brain overthinking it.
Weiss snorted. No, not quite. Something more ladylike, more cultured. Snooted? "Ghosts? What's next? Magic?"
"H-hey! Magic is totally real!" Ruby groggily argued. "I'm sure it is!"
"Yeah!" Sky cheered on.
Ichigo shook his head. "Nah, magic is one-hundred-percent real." he didn't even have to try covertly explaining kidō or Quincy spells, Remnant had all the proof he needed. "You literally cast spells and rune sigils, Weiss. I am not having this."
"That's different!" the albino girl crossed her arms. "My glyphs are my semblance. That's perfectly quantifiable."
"Perfectly quantifiable?" Ichigo repeated disbelievingly. "Weiss, you cast spell circles. Spell circles that somehow you can stand on in mid-air and do pretty much whatever the heck you want to with. Ruby turns into rose petals. Yesterday I fought a guy who can erase your memory without even touching you. Explain that with science."
"Yeah, those do sound pretty magical. Honestly, cool." Jaune agreed. Then again, for a guy who didn't even know what aura was until this week, everything in Beacon must seem pretty magical. So his input wasn't so much as taken with a grain of salt, as much as the whole shaker instead.
"The mechanics behind semblances have been thoroughly studied in depth. They are too grounded, too usual to truly be classed as magic." she tapped her foot on the blue-lit grey floor. "Try reading a little, won't you?"
Ichigo opened his mouth to retort when someone spoke up first.
"I turn into rose petals?" Ruby asked confusedly.
"Yeah." Ichigo nodded. "Didn't you know? When you first activate your semblance, you disappear. I'm pretty sure you turn into those petals and reassemble with an altered velocity. Seems plenty magical to me. It's probably how you kept passing through things last time you fought... I mean, sparred with Weiss. Try moving as the petals next time. See what you can do."
"Try doing it on a windy day, that way you might be able to fly!" Nora suggested enthusiastically.
"Ruby, don't try that. Nora, please don't suggest things she might die from." Ren chastised. "We can't get blamed if she offs herself."
"What? I've never noticed this vanishing thing before." Yang frowned. "I've seen her use it for years."
"That's because you gotta have an eye that can perceive it." Ichigo tapped at the side of his head. "From one speedster to another. I'm telling the truth. You know how fast I am, don't you?"
"Are you sure? I'll definitely give it a go, then." Ruby nodded quickly. "Right now, I'm... er, trying to learn someone -something else! But you know, that'll really be interesting! It's crazy if I've actually got more to give. I wonder if I can get faster..." she trailed off, and yawned.
"Probably." Ichigo thought on it. "No, definitely." he concluded. She was only fifteen, after all. "What's got you so tired, anyway? Isn't it just the first week?"
"Rubes probably stayed up acting all stroppy after she got banned from one of her gun forums again. She always resets the router afterwards, but she can't do that here." Yang guessed. "You didn't post anything illegal, again, did you? Remember that time they came to our house?"
"Yang," Ruby rolled her eyes and raised her fingers to air-quote, "those 'death-threats' I made to those gun-control nuts weren't illegal at all, and they were also perfectly justified. Every toddler deserves the right to an RPG. I'm pretty sure I ran it through a proxy, too, no idea how they found me. OPSEC is an iffy business."
Silently, Weiss shuffled away from her.
Blake mumbled something about 'the real terrorists here' under her breath.
Ichigo raised a finger, but stopped short at the sound of the bell. Seeing as how he was the only one without a lesson here, he might as well leave too, and moved to pack up his stuff from the wooden table. The last to get up was Dove, who rubbed at his eyes drowsily and walked on after his team, meeting them in the doorway.
"Yo, Dove?" he asked at the main column, under the green banners with the school's emblem hanging from the entrance to the dining hall.
"Yeah?" the other teen asked, hands in his pockets.
"The library's open now, right?"
"Should be. They said it's open all day." he answered.
"Thanks." Ichigo side-eyed Cardin, only a few feet away, and smirked. "And house-train your partner, seriously. Get him to act like less of a spaz and you'll probably be able to leave your team on autopilot."
"Hey!" the tall boy fumed.
"Autopilot, huh?" Dove said breezily. "I like the sound of that." but his following words surprised them both. "On the other hand, I don't really want to force him to change like that. Can't have him do all the leader's work. Well, I would if I could honestly, but he wouldn't let me." he shrugged. "Guess I'll just have to ask him."
It was an... interesting stance to take. But Ichigo wouldn't police them on it; he wasn't their dad. It just wasn't his job to quell the root of Cardin's anger. That seemed way too personal. He seemed to be warming up, slowly but surely, anyway.
Now, Ichigo thought, I'm in a school. Time to actually learn something.
Beacon's library was, much like the rest of the school, extravagant.
It had a soft arched ceiling, shaped like half a cylinder, lined with ribbed bows of pale stonework between intricate high curved windows. These were suspended high above the polished wood flooring, letting in light over the balconies of bookshelves, one level over the open spaced ground floor. Translucent banners hung from the ceiling, letting sunlight from the giant back window shine through their greenish thin cloth. The ground floor was lined with rows upon rows of clean, organised bookcases underneath the balconies, and the open space in the centre was filled with intermittent rows of white desks with freely available advanced holographic computers. There was a large gap between any two desks, to allow students to move freely, but it seemed at the end of the first schoolweek so early in the year there were barely any students present.
Ichigo tapped his scroll against the sign-in station, a small metallic pedestal near the entrance, and looked around. It felt more like a grand museum than a library, but maybe that was how all universities were? Somehow he doubted it. Beacon was just stacked, and decked out from the insane amount of funding they got. Grimm hunting clearly meant a lot to Vale's government.
First things first, an encyclopaedia. Those things would probably give him a pretty good rundown of Remnant as a whole. Finding the 'non-fiction' section was easy, what with how well-kept the place was. An upgrade from his own school, for sure.
A nice, big hard-cover simply titled REMNANT was just the ticket; he drew it out, and plopped down on a nearby sofa (they had sofas in this school?) to crack it open.
He leaned back into the light red fabric as he began reading through the table of contents. Clearly it wouldn't give him a complete in-depth dive into everything ever, but it seemed good enough to skim through until the school day ended and he could see Ozpin.
Alright, there were sections for each of the four kingdoms. A section for history, another for geography, then geology and one for biology, which itself was split between animals and grimm. He could flip though them all pretty quickly. Idly, he wondered about the English on the page. What were the chances of another planet just miraculously using an Earth language?
About the same as Hueco Mundo using Spanish, or the Schatten Bereich using German, he mused. Was there a deeper meaning behind it all? Both Old Man Zangetsu and Ichibē had told him about the power of names... so what about language, then?
Vale and Vacuo in Sanus, Mistral in Anima, Atlas in Solitas and Menagerie in the South. Wait a minute... what the hell?
Two of the continents were straight up shaped like dragons. The top left one even had wings on it. How did that even work? What were the chances of continental drift making those shapes? Did Remnant even have tectonic plates? There wasn't a mention of it here, but that could just be in a different section...
The timeframe outlined in the book started with the creation of the planet, general diagrams of stars and all that. Their astrology constellations were grimm-shaped, funnily enough.
Ichigo noted he was technically a Sabyr... whatever that was. Turns out they did have July and August after all, but they were spelt oddly, and named after kings of the past. Guess that answers that question. He'd always hated fortune-telling, anyway. He felt even worse about it now, after fighting The Almighty. Pretty ironic for a final foe, now that he thought about it.
Seems that even though they lacked space travel, the Remnantians (Remnanti? Remini?) knew basic space stuff, at least. The currently accepted explanation for their broken moon was a really big asteroid that missed the planet, but hit the moon instead, aiming outwards away from their world. That was why, they believed, the individual shards hadn't fallen and completely wrecked the surface.
Ichigo wasn't so convinced; something in his gut told him otherwise. He'd run into more than enough people who could easily fold entire dimensions; at this point, the moon was small fry, just a big rock. Even if he hadn't met anyone on Remnant so far who packed that much power, who's to say there couldn't have been someone that strong a few hundred thousand years ago?
-A few hundred thousand to tens of thousands of years ago was the timeframe the book gave for the 'Great Lunar Shattering'. It made sense; any longer back and the moon's gravity well would've pulled itself into a new sphere, and any sooner would be within the reach of Remnanti recorded history.
The book detailed a few dozen wars, which Ichigo skipped over. He wasn't all that surprised, wars happened all the time everywhere, after all. He should know. The last one, the 'Great War', seemed to be their equivalent to the World Wars. They promised 'never again', and 'peace', after that one. He snorted at the text. Yeah, right. Wouldn't that be nice?
After that, the huntsmen academies were set up, and they invented the internet. Their crappy version of an internet, anyway. Apparently the whole thing relied on just four big CCT towers in each major kingdom.
If one got blown up, would it shut down just one kingdom's internet, or the whole thing? It didn't say. Either was pretty terrible. Would it kill them to just try a few fossil-fuel rockets for making satellites?
The worst part of all, was a slow, creeping realisation that dawned on him as he read through 'history', and jumped to the 'geography' section. Ironically, Remnant's environment seemed to be flourishing compared to Earth's, with minimal pollution and wild, natural habitats taking up most of the planet. The human side of things... not so much.
Humanity as a whole wasn't doing too well. They were mostly confined to the walled kingdoms, but an unknown number of smaller settlements existed outside of them. Unknown, because that came with such a garbage communications system... maybe he could talk to Ozpin about it? The guy was rich, and he could explain to him about how rocket fuel worked, couldn't he? It was liquid oxygen, right? He had no clue how solar panels worked, but they could probably figure out a dust-free power source on their own if he gave them the general gist of it.
Still though... the absolute state of humanity here was worrying. It was borderline-apocalyptic. China alone had a larger population than the entire planet, counting both human and faunus combined. Ichigo was half-convinced to go out and clear the planet for them- considering how all grimm, even if he couldn't sense them, were practically fodder to him meant he probably should, actually.
His grip tightened on the page.
The issue was, that although he could probably slay all of grimmkind at once in less than a second, they were spread across the world. He'd have to the scour the globe, and considering that he couldn't actually sense any of them...
It'd probably take a while. A long while. The issue was he didn't want to stay a 'long while', though. He wanted to get back home, and celebrate the last world he'd helped save. His world. How were his family? His friends? Who survived? The questions were slowly eating at him, but he didn't show it. Who could he even talk to about all this, anyway, other than Zangetsu?
Zangetsu.
Right, he already knew his zanpakutō's answer.
Screw these people. They were fine before you got here, and they'll be fine after. You fight for yourself now, don't you? You haven't seen Yuzu and Karin in weeks. They don't even know what's happened to you, do they? No one does. Think of how damn scared they are for you. Be responsible for once. Be selfish.
The fact that he was imagining his inner hollow's voice, probably meant that he was accurately imagining what he would actually say, verbatim. Zangetsu was him, after all. No one else knew him better.
Damn. He really was selfish. And he couldn't fault himself for feeling that way right now. Homesickness was abruptly creeping up on him out of nowhere like mould on a fresh fruit. One that had been fine for a week, then suddenly sprouted blackened spores over the course of a few hours. Why was he feeling like this now? He'd been fine for the last few days, but now, the uncertainty was gnawing at his soul.
Oh, what was he kidding. Feelings worked this way. They weren't rational, and he didn't want his to be. That was The Heart, wasn't it?
He just had to find his own way back; he couldn't just hope for someone else to find him. He didn't even know where Remnant was, and he'd never heard of its dimension. Soul Society might know about it, but what if they didn't? It was all up to him.
What he could do right now, was brush away his worry, conquer his fear and keep walking onwards. Stagnation was a form of death, was it not?
Hold on... did he just quote Aizen in his head?
The shrill ringing of a school-bell brought his study session, and off-track dilemma, to a close. Standing from the indent he made in the plush fabric of the sofa, Ichigo slot the encyclopaedia back into its gap in the bookshelves, and made his way to the exit, losing track of the world around himself.
Motivating himself to act more selfishly by quoting Aizen now...
Wasn't that a bleak note to wrap up on?
The tinny ring of the elevator opened to reveal the most curious student Ozpin had hosted in Beacon in a long time.
Student, he thought of the boy, though he wouldn't say it out loud, not yet. From what he heard of the orange-haired swordsman, he'd been making friends quite well thus far. If these bonds grew deeper, then he'd hopefully be far more receptive to the suggestion of becoming a full-time student, in future.
He already cut a fine figure in the academy's uniform, although there was one thing missing...
"Greetings, Mr Kurosaki. Good afternoon. I can't help but notice, did you come here to request a new tie?" the Headmaster asked pointedly.
"Nah," Ichigo waved off, yanking round the weird scorpion chair on his side of the desk and plunking into the seat. "-I just didn't really feel like wearing a tie. I'm not a student anyway, so I don't need to care about the dress code, do I? 'Afternoon, by the way."
...Perhaps he had a touch more work to do, in the 'recruiting Kurosaki' department.
The sky was cloudy today, and far more silvery with the cold light it let through. It made the colours in the floor-to-ceiling windowed room muted, and cooler. It would rain tomorrow, from the looks of it, but not today.
"So, what brings you here, then? Care for some green tea?" Ozpin raised his mug, tilting it towards his guest, then rocked it back to take a sip.
Ichigo spied the green -as in actually, literally green- tea inside the mug, and made a face. Right, alien planet. Of course. It looked like the water used to clean paint brushes in art class.
"I'm... good. Thanks." he straightened himself in his seat, and schooled his expression. Green tea instead of coffee? That was a first. Was it a calming type of tea? Or a pick-me-up? He didn't know. Either way, it probably had something to do with the long day he'd had. He couldn't imagine the guy had much down time after last night.
"Ozpin..." -Might as well rip the bandage off, "...did someone... pass away, recently?"
The man stilled, as if he had felt a sudden chill, and tensed up in his seat, placing his mug down slowly. An immediate switch.
"Why do you ask, Mr Kurosaki?" he questioned in a clipped voice.
"I can sense your magic, can't I?" he reminded, "Well, I'd felt someone else just like you, but deep underground all this time. They disappeared last night, and it didn't feel like they moved. It was more like a candle blowing out."
"You... felt this?" Ozpin repeated dubiously. "I must say, you're really something else, aren't you, Mr Kurosaki? If you're a spy, then you're probably the worst I've ever seen in all my years, and even if you aren't, then why are you even coming to see me? Do you understand how this sounds?"
After last night, Ozpin today was a frayed sparkler. And Ichigo had just waltzed in like a bonfire.
Ichigo crossed his arms, and glowered at the frazzled man. "A guest just sensed someone die in your care. You didn't even deny it. Of course I'm gonna ask about it, stupid."
"A guest, you say?" Ozpin grimly laid his elbows on the mechanical table, "I am beginning to reconsider that."
Ichigo narrowed his amber-brown eyes tightly. "I heard what you just said. You think I'm a spy? I know you wouldn't just let something like that slip, so you were trying to bait a reaction from me, weren't you?"
Ichigo reached into his blazer pocket, and Ozpin reached under his desk for his cane.
They both remained seated as they drew their personal items, Ozpin with the Long Memory in hand, and Ichigo with his... scroll? No, it was so strangely shaped... like one that was permanently extended, with a backlit display.
"Check this out." he tapped at the screen, quickly navigating through menus in a way that showed he was used to it, and opening what appeared to be a digital photo gallery. "Here."
He held up the display sideways, and Ozpin forwent the tension, in favour of sating his curiosity.
On the screen, was a family of four. Ichigo stood tallest in the back, giving a bright smile that didn't resemble any other expression he had seen on the boy in all of his brief week observing him. Next to him, arm around his shoulder, was a middle-aged man, with spiky black hair and a goatee, grinning at the camera. Both their other arms were hugging around a pair of young girls, one a dark blonde with eyes the same colour as Ichigo's, smiling happily up at them, and a black haired girl who very much resembled the older man holding her fondly. The two looked to only be a year or so younger than Ruby.
Ah. A family.
Ichigo zoomed out of the picture, and scrolled though an entire gallery of similar photographs.
Well, that was all the proof he needed, then. Given on an otherworldly device, to boot. The boy had an entire folder of hundreds of family pictures too, from the looks of things, over the course of years. He couldn't be a spy of the witch.
"I am... sorry to have accused you so harshly, Mr Kurosaki." Ozpin leaned back, adjusting his round-rimmed spectacles.
"It's alright. I've got a few more, but I didn't take 'em." Ichigo sighed, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "I'm not really the photo-taking type."
"So that was your father and sisters?" No mother, he noted silently.
"Twin sisters." he confirmed. "Yuzu is the blond, Karin is the other one. Our old man is right there, too."
"So... it seems that you really were telling the truth after all, then."
"What? How could you possibly not believe me before this?" Ichigo double-took. "I literally showed you an inter-dimensional portal."
"It was more than just that. Never mind that now, anyway." Ozpin brushed off. "You wanted to know about Amber?"
Whoa, right into it. Ichigo thought he'd have to try way harder to get anything out of the geezer, by flashing his otherworldly cellphone as an inter-dimensional artefact. He'd been about to open a senkaimon in the office. The guy must be the sentimental type. And wasn't that just sweet?
"...Amber was an alumni of our school. She was a shining example of a huntress, one of the best in the continent, especially in her... final year of active duty."
"What happened?" Ichigo pressed.
"You already know of magic, don't you? Well, Amber became a maiden in her final year."
"One of the four?"
"You know of the tale?" Ozpin inquired.
"I hit up your library. Turns out we share a language." Ichigo jerked his thumb backwards, at the door. The lie came quick and easy off his tongue. "This sort of stuff isn't that weird by my standards. I wouldn't really be surprised if it's all real."
"We share a written language? That's... interesting."
"Sure is. I think words are something fundamental." Ichigo raised a hand to his chin in thought. "Names are power and all that jazz, someone once told me."
"A fascinating hypothesis. Cymatics? I'll ruminate on it later."
Ozpin lifted his jade green mug, and sipped at his tea.
"Hey, about that story... you're a wizard, aren't you?" Ichigo probed. "So I'm guessing you're the one who gave the maidens the powers, right?"
Ozpin broke into a mild cough, choking on the green herbal drink. It took him a good few seconds for him to regulate his breathing again.
"-T-that's..."
Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitch.
"Don't even bother to deny it after that reaction, geezer."
"...Fine." he sighed, as if Ichigo was the one at fault here. "I suppose I should be wary of drinking anything around someone as... unpredictable as you are, Mr Kurosaki. Does my age require an explanation on my part?"
"Not really. I know a couple guys over a million. Met 'em a couple weeks ago." he said, as if it was the most mundane thing in the world. "I'm here to hear about something else."
"Of course you did..." Ozpin muttered. Not disbelievingly, but in a more 'I'm fed up with this crap' sort of way. Ha. Looks like Ichigo was getting under his skin.
"Amber, as a Fall maiden, held great magical power. She openly used it, not knowing the risks, and anyone looking for the signs and in the know could tell what she had." his face darkened as he continued. "This power, attracted those with... ill intentions, to say the least. A squad of assassins intercepted her on her way to Beacon Academy."
"Assassins? So more people know about magic? You lost it a little last time when I pointed out you were a wizard, I thought it was supposed to be secret?"
Ozpin grew visibly tired as he answered. "Secret, yes, but not between just the two of us. A Maiden of the Seasons' power is an ancient legend, and there aren't many other things capable of exerting the power a fully-realised one is capable of."
He turned his head, catching the sight of the shattered moon behind himself, through the massive window. "...At least, on Remnant anyway."
"So, why would they target her?" Ichigo wondered, "It doesn't even sound like she was mixed up in anything shady. If she's gone, then what did they even accomplish?"
"A maiden's power..." Ozpin began slowly, as though he was weighing each word in his mind before he uttered it. "...is never extinguished. The magical command over the elements is passed on at their deaths. The fact that they even managed to defeat Amber is quite shocking, but since she passed away under our care, and not in the ambush, we have no sure way of knowing who the new Maiden of Autumn is. This includes whether they are a potential friend, or foe."
Ichigo folded his hands in his lap. He could tell how this conversation was going, now. "How does the season's magic transfer? You make it sound like you have a way to tell exactly who would've gotten it in the ambush if Amber had died right there."
He's sharp, Ozpin noted. He'd have to be careful with his words. "A maiden's power is transferred to the last woman in her thoughts."
"And if her last thoughts are about a guy?" ...like me?
"If her last thoughts are anything else, then the magic is granted to a random candidate across the globe."
"So you think the second thing happened?" Oh, crap... did he mess things up?
"Both are possible, but the latter is the most likely case. My best operative intercepted the assailants before they could finish her off." Ozpin informed.
"Listen... you know, how auras are souls? How do souls fit into the mechanics of the maidens?" How would a konsō?
"Souls?" Ozpin considered. "The transfer of power takes a portion of the expiring maidens' souls, the part grafted to their magic, and ties it to the new one. Never the entire soul. The influence on the new host is minimal, but still there."
Ichigo remained silent, sifting through the upheaval of rowdy thoughts in his head like a stormy ocean.
If the Soul Burial sent Amber to Heaven, then where did it send the maiden powers? Did he just remove them from this dimension entirely, or could they have still passed on normally? But what about her soul? Amber hadn't felt like any part of her was coming away... so what happened to her?
Ichigo raised a hand to the bridge of his nose. If he'd just broken a multi-millennia long chain, then he'd best not mention it to the wizard who started it, sitting right in front of him. He'd probably throw a fit, and he needed Ozpin's help.
"You... wanna tell me why they'd want her power? Are there any other reasons than just the strength?" Like something called a relic, maybe?
He'd realised that even if Ozpin wasn't actively trying to catch him out, anymore, the guy was still constricting everything he told him. Ichigo would have to keep drilling for info, like getting blood out of a stone. Luckily, he was well versed with his type, thanks to Urahara.
"There is... something else that I can explain, yes..." Ozpin admitted.
Then he stopped, just as quickly, and drew a thin, shallow, near-invisible upwards tilt to his lips, like he was trying to not let it show.
"...but I don't want to."
Oh. Ichigo drew blank. You son of a- "Really? You're genuinely this petty, you crusty geezer?"
He clapped his hands together sarcastically. "You are such a prick. Throwing my own words back at me? Bravo, old man." Clap clap.
"Don't take it so personally, Mr Kurosaki." Ozpin leaned his elbows on the table, and steepled his fingers together. "You're nineteen years of age, correct? I need some proper credentials before I make you privy to details that I would hesitate to make fully-fledged, home-grown huntsmen aware of, let alone a teenager from another dimension I have known for a week at most. This isn't something I entrust others with freely."
"I've fought in a war. I'm more than capable. I told you."
"Teenage soldiers are even worse than regular teens, trust me, I should know. This is about more than just power."
"Tch." Ichigo kissed his teeth. He couldn't bring up the relic, without getting asked how he heard of it. It seemed classified. That'd mean mentioning Amber, since Ozpin looked done with his refusal to explain anything. No way in hell was he gonna bring up the afterlife with a wizard he barely knew. Who knows what he'd want, or what ideas he'd get?
"I'm not a soldier. So, what do I need to do, then? Didn't your deputy say something about a test? Let me do it right now. I'll have it done in a day."
"Not today." Ozpin refused. "Our staff is preoccupied with tomorrow's arrangements."
"You can't just send me off?"
He was getting pissed off now; Ozpin was redirecting him too openly for his taste. He wanted to see proof he was actually going to help him out, and soon, otherwise why was he even bothering with Beacon to begin with, then?
"You wouldn't know where to go." Ozpin elaborated. "A bullhead with the proper aerospace clearance would be required to make the drop-off."
"And you can't make the call? What've you got going on tomorrow, anyway?" Ichigo demanded.
"A funeral, Mr Kurosaki."
"Oh..." Ichigo winced. His anger evaporated with those words hanging in the air.
"For Amber?"
"For Amber." the Headteacher assented.
The atmosphere in the room was stifling and thick, thick enough to cut with a knife.
"You... need help with it?" Ichigo offered awkwardly.
"You're willing to?" Ozpin donned a solemn smile. He appreciated the gesture. He really did.
"Who's going? She got any family left?"
Ozpin shook his head sadly. "Only a few of her former teammates, and a few staff members. Are you going to attend now? We can sort you out with a dropship afterwards."
Ichigo nodded mutely. "I'd like to. I don't have any clothes for it, though." He hadn't known Amber for long, but for her funeral to only have four or five people there, would leave an ashy taste in his mouth. Wherever she was now, she'd probably want him to be there.
"That can be arranged. Come to my office at nine o'clock tomorrow." he stood from his chair, and Ichigo took it as his cue to stand as well.
"I've got much to do until then. I'll see you tomorrow, Mr Kurosaki?" Ozpin offered his hand.
Ichigo took the hand, and shook it. "Count on it." he promised.
"Now, onto the matter of your test," Ozpin broached. "Tell me... what do you know of Mountain Glenn?"
- –—{}—– -
Hours later, after dark, the Headmaster of Beacon thought back on his abrupt meeting with Ichigo Kurosaki that cloudy afternoon.
He really was an otherworldly being. And yet still so normal, in many regards. What a curious fellow.
He hadn't asked him about his portal, yet. That wretched, jagged, accordion-like maw that opened to a swirling void of nothingness. The signature gateways of the witch. How could he open it? Was it just how portals looked, and that they opened to the same space a mere coincidence?
He couldn't very well tell Kurosaki about the other user of those gates. What would his reaction be, if anything other than unpredictable? The trust between them was threadbare, but it was there. It was tangible. He couldn't afford the small amount of sway he had over the boy to go out the window like that.
At least one thing was now certain: he was not a pawn of her. It would've been impossible to accrue so many photos of family events over the course of so many years, and keep it all so convincing and real. From Kurosaki's perspective, if they were fakes meant to sway him, why not show them off at the first meeting? Instead, the young man had shown the pictures out of annoyance, as if it was something he came up with on the spot. It likely was, from the boy's demeanour.
He wasn't a bad spy; he wasn't one at all. He never was.
The ancient wizard wasn't willing to even entertain the idea of someone who kept a gallery of family photos of fun days out as an enemy. Did it make him overly trusting? If so, he didn't care. He'd have lost himself so long ago, eroded away what made him keep on going, if he couldn't appreciate the sanctity of a happy family sticking their tongues out at the camera on a fun day out.
He liked to believe in the best of people, so he'd let himself hope.
Ozpin reached over to his bedside lamp, and switched off the lights.
NEXT: 15 - GRAVE'S END - [Torn Apart]
Author's notes:
I've posted my second story! It's a short joke-oneshot. Check it out on my profile. Beacon's library pic:
[staticDOTwikiaDOTnocookieDOTnet/rwby/images/9/90/V2_02_00006DOTpng/revision/latest?cb=20140731232958]
I haven't seen the newer episodes, but apparently according to the memes Ruby is now a radical religious fundamentalist and extremely homophobic. A bold move from the writers outsourced at the Based Department to be sure, but I'm all for the depth and nuance this will add to her character.
Now, this chapter was just something I threw together whilst I'm 'supposed' to be revising. Ichigo's standards for a 'bad person' are completely skewed, so he sees Cardin as a harmless bro and kinda funny at worst. Also some teasing for later stuff to do with the teams. Character interactions are the core component of a crossover after all. Thanks to the library, I can now have Ichigo feasibly know random stuff about Remnant, but still have him be ignorant on other stuff if I want. I have a similar encyclopaedia about Earth, myself.
See? The smartphone IS relevant, after all. I wanted to show Ozpin is at heart a very good person, but is tried and tired out of his mind. That's why I had him get convinced not by a senkaimon, but by a photo album of Ichigo's family. Of course, this doesn't mean full disclosure straight away. I mean look at how he wasn't even the one to tell them about the final boss in canon even after Beacon fell. The funeral is also happening to this end. I don't want him to look like a bad guy.
Oh yeah, Ichigo's going to a funeral. Fun times. It'll be very short, starting at the end of the burial, and he'll be meeting someone there. Things will happen there, I swear. Then his test'll start in the same chapter. This chapter was calm, focused on character interactions, but the next few are meant to be a KUBO-style spree of constant twists and turns. I'll be trying to channel Bleach's pacing basically. Consider this the calm before the storm.
Given Mountain Glenn's lore, and who's there, expect things to get very messy, and complicated, especially for Ichigo...
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