20: Out of the Loop - [The Other Tales of Zanpakuto]
Roman Torchwick slid feet-first over the snow-covered bonnet of a car, keeping a hand on his bowler hat, then spun round to keep his eyes on his assailant.
"Hey hey hey!" he waved his hands frantically. "Let's talk about this! Why don't we all just calm down and—"
"Hraagh!" the dark green car was lifted overhead by a towering, muscular man with a white mask. Hot mist came out with his exhale. He threw it at him with a shout, the sedan sailing right at Torchwick's head as he ducked underneath, scrambling to the slippery floor.
"—Holy!" He lined up his cane, taking a pot-shot at the man's stomach from his low angle on the hard concrete. A thin film of snow covered the cold ground, and yet more was falling from the air in a driving flurry. The Vale quays were full of the sound of crackling gunfire and intermittent ear-ringing explosions.
Behind him, the car carried on through the air, a tonne of steel flying right at one of the insurgent huntresses that had made the botched situation even more of a clusterfuck than it already was. Red. What was she doing here, anyway!?
"Ruby!"
Ruby Rose saw the car coming right for her, and made a choice. Trusting in her blade completely, she widened her stance, held Crescent Rose aloft, and swung it down in a two-handed swing. Before she could blink, two halves of the car, split down the middle, were passing by either side of her. She looked down at the scythe in her hands, her scythe, and laughed. "Aha! Hey Weiss! Did you see that! Weiss—gah!"
Both halves hadn't stopped, and both were aimed right at her partner behind her!
With a tut, Weiss waved Myrtenaster in a circle, and a ghostly yellow clockface emerged in the air. As the bifurcated car passed through it, it slowed down to a crawl for a handful of precious seconds, before speeding up again. It was to be expected; she'd hadn't put much into that time dilation glyph.
With the time she'd gained, she stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground, creating a sloped wall of ice that took the impact of the divided car and redirected it up into the air. She'd been lucky the wheels were still facing downwards, giving her a chance to change its angle. The car rolled up, high into the frosty sky, and flipped upside-down as the two halves fell apart. In the scant-seconds she had to think, Weiss gave her team directions.
"Nora!" she waved to the floor at her side, where a glowing purple ring now hovered just above the ground.
"On it!" Nora hopped onto the glyph, crouched down, knees bent for a moment, then bounded a good ten meters up into the air with a spin. Gravity had been reduced to almost nothing for her in that brief slice of time. Her big bow flapped wildly behind her waist.
Magnhild's chrome sheen caught the light of the sun, shining brightly as it struck sideways, crumpling one half, and catching the other and flinging it wide when she swung the other way. Looking down, she spied a landing platform for her, projected in advance by her leader, and landed on it with both feet at once. A dust-bullet whizzed past her, missing widely enough that she could turn around on the spot and see Ren knocking out the suited gunman in red shades on top of a shipping crate.
"Thanks Ren!" she waved, jumping down from the glyph.
The lengthwise car-halves she'd knocked to the wayside were sent in opposite directions, one falling into the river-water past the docks, and another careening into a shipping container a group of White Fang agents were using as cover.
With their cover—literally—blown, the gunmen decided to just spray the attacking huntsmen on their side. They lined their laser-sights up and dumped their magazines in a cacophony of spent casings and muzzle-flashes— only to blink in confusion and alarm as none of their shots found their marks.
Pyrrha lowered her raised arms, and breathed out deeply in a puff of mist, as Yang and Blake rushed forwards past her. They didn't need the instructions; their leader had already drilled their follow-ups into them. A fly-kick from Yang coincided with Blake's sword thrust at another terrorist's chest, the blows winding their targets even though their aura. Both were hit in the head with synchronised high kicks each to swiftly knock the agents out, before Yang raised her arm at the last soldier whilst Blake's weapon mecha-shifted into a pistol-sickle. Together, Gambol Shroud and Ember Celica fired at once, flooring the man.
Jaune had hung back near Pyrrha, keeping an eye on the wider battlefield. His ears barely caught footsteps crunching snow underfoot, and he spun around to find a man in a black suit with a red tie and hat coming up behind them, with a crimson axe in his hand. He almost stepped back, before swallowing his fear and entering a stance, beckoning the man forwards. Finding his sneak-attempt foiled, the green-haired man wasted no time in charging forwards with a yell.
He swung in from the left, and Jaune reflexively pulled his sword in the way in a parry. It was messy, but it did the job. He went for an overhead slash to counter, but the man blocked with his axe's shaft. Both his hands were in the air, whilst Jaune was only using one arm, so if he could just– he jabbed with his free hand, at the man's vulnerable stomach in a heavy-hitting shield-bash. The man clutched at his chest, and Jaune swung hard, both his hands holding the sword like a baseball bat. The flat of Crocea Mors struck the man's head, and it was lights out. He slipped on the icy ground and fell, leaving his hat flying off his head from the force, and Jaune reached out to snatch it out of the air.
He put it on, turning to face Pyrrha as he beamed proudly. "Pyr! Did you see that? I did it!"
Sure, it was only a henchman, one of the grunts that anyone else here could take in their sleep, but he'd won! Now he knew he was better than these guys, at least.
Pyrrha rolled away another unconscious body with her foot, another to add to the pile that had grown next to her. "I did. You were great!" she praised. She meant it; she hadn't taken her eyes off of him, no matter how many saw it as a chance to take her out. The heap of goons nearby attested to that. "Nice hat, I think it suits you."
"You really think so?" Jaune grinned, before he seemingly remembered where he was. Yang and Blake had already engaged another group of White Fang members, who were already fighting Torchwick's men themselves. "Hey Pyrrha? Don't you think we should fall back? I mean, we've already contacted the police, and there's just so many guys here..."
"You're right, Jaune." she nodded. "The problem is, we're not the only ones here. We'd have to get RWRN to back off, and well, I'm not so sure if they'd agree..."
"Oh, come on, they can see what we're dealing with, here." he waved vaguely towards the chaos in front of him. "It's obvious by now that Ichigo's not here. We can try asking for information after proper Huntsmen show up to assist. We don't need to leave, just, pull back?"
"Try telling that to Ruby. To her, it's not just about putting us in danger here, but she thinks pulling back will risk letting Torchwick's crew and the Fang kill each other. She doesn't want anyone to die. As for Weiss... well, it's mostly pride talking, there. Nora just wants a good fight, and Ren follows Nora. On our own team, I know Blake wouldn't turn her back on this, even temporarily, and I can understand why."
Jaune reflected on this for a moment, as Pyrrha tossed her javelin-spear into a tight squad of White Fang troops. "...Wait a minute, you mentioned Ruby's team, but what about those two Haven guys we ran into in the street? Neptune and Sun? Plus there's that one weird girl, with the—"
A fiery explosion rocked the quay, almost sending Jaune clear off his feet and ripping his new hat off his head with a fierce gale. His blue eyes streaming even with an elbow in front of his face, he caught sight of the warehouse the fight had kicked off in going up in hot orange flames. On the rooftop, two figures perched; Sun Wukong, and Neptune Vasilias.
Tongues of bright flame licked at the roof, but didn't burn the corrugated metal, giving them a vantage point to take pot-shots at the warring factions of Torchwick's gangsters and the White Fang below. Any snowflakes nearby vaporised instantly under the sweltering heat, creating a haze of steam.
Sun watched on as the fighting grew more and more fierce below. "You've gotta be kidding me, how the hell did we get convinced this was a good idea?"
"You always did have a habit of falling in with bad company." Neptune muttered offhandedly. As he spoke, he unloaded a series of bursts from his submachine-gun, one that vaguely resembled a futuristic white-and-grey P90 that looked like someone had stretched and unfolded it, with blinking blue lights along its side. It was the length of his arm, and he was kneeling to peer down its lit-up dot-sight.
"I'm in bad company? Then what does that make you?" Sun retorted.
"A victim." he smirked and glanced back. His sky-blue eyes widened slightly when he noticed the duo were alone on the rooftop. "Where's Penny?"
"–Who?" Sun grunted, slinging a wave of bullets from his chain-linked twin lever-action shotguns. They were red, with intricate gold detailing.
"You know, the girl? With ginger hair, and a pink bow?"
"What, you mean that one?" Sun pointed at the girl with the hammer below. She did have ginger hair, and big pink bow tied behind her hips...
"No! Not that one! She has green eyes, and freckles! How did you miss her!?"
"Well, excuuuse me." Sun rolled his eyes. "Not everybody has a playboy's woman-radar like you."
"What?"
"You know how you are—" Sun stopped mid sentence, when a grey cylinder with a red crystalline light landed at his feet. A gangster had lobbed it onto the roof. "Jump!"
Neptune dove forwards into a roll, landing first. Sun flipped backwards, aiming his gun's right barrel at the man who'd thrown the grenade, whilst upside-down. His shot landed, and his fall was halted when Neptune caught him, before somersaulting back upright in a blur.
The rooftop was enveloped in a blossom of heat and shockwaves, and would've deafened anyone nearby without an aura. What was left of the upper portion of the front of the warehouse was annihilated in an blazing flash. Steam billowed from where the fresh snow around the burning building melted away.
Torchwick saw this, made a quick assessment, and decided to cut his losses then and there. Whatever was worth fighting over in that warehouse as long gone, which meant he should've been long gone with it. Maybe even long-er gone, if he had his way. Trouble was, forget having his way; today was not his day at all.
He slid back from his opponent, leaving tracks in the powdered snow, and spoke up, gripping the hem of his hat flamboyantly.
"Wellll Mr. Banesaw, it's been fun, but I've got—"
"—Sorry, Roman, but I think this get-together of yours is getting a little too rowdy. I've got a meeting, tomorrow, you see, and..." The lieutenant spoke over him. The howl of jet engines cut though the sound-mix of battle from above. "...I've got a flight to catch." The masked man pointed above, where three silver bullheads broke through the blizzard's cloud cover.
They were armed with chin-mounted gatling-guns, and they opened fire as soon as they pulled close. Their aim was split between Torchwick's gang and the huntsmen, switching targets sporadically.
"Stop!" a shout, followed by a clash of soul-metal against grinding chainsaw teeth. A flurry of petals had converged into Ruby Rose, locking blades with Banesaw. "You're not going anywhere!"
"–She's right!" Torchwick interjected irritatedly. "I was gonna say that! Retreating while you're ahead and escaping at the last moment is supposed to be my thing! I'm the lovable rogue here!"
He sidestepped an ice-blue blade of aura, and switched focus to find a white-haired girl, rich-looking, with a silver rapier and a just-as-sharp ego to match. Roman knew the type.
The two were probably moving in because the gunners on the dropships were steering clear of any White Fang troops; so the closer, the safer. Smart. Maybe these half-pints had a little more going on upstairs than he gave 'em credit for.
"Quiet, scum!" she snapped. "...Though, he has a point. Shouldn't a fanatic like you be eager to fight to the last man? I thought you had pride, but it seems filth of your ilk don't even value that." Weiss spat.
"I'm just able to see the bigger picture, Schnee." Banesaw asserted. "We're moving out of Vale, and onto greater callings, grander plans than this toothless territory. Our division's leader was inspired recently, and took his suggestions to the very top. We've got bigger fish to fry than this flaccid Kingdom."
"What are you planning?" Weiss demanded, whipping Myrtenaster into an aggressive stance, chrome blade forwards, body side-on. She charged in, thrusting forwards, only for her sword to be grabbed by them man with his free hand. He was still defending against Ruby's blade-lock on his right side.
"Like I'd tell you." he sneered. "Godsdamn Schnees, you're still looking down on us even now. How stupid do you think I am?"
"What, out of ten?" Torchwick asked gingerly, as he jabbed Melodic Cudgel right into the man's stomach. He had no way of blocking, what with Ruby on his right, and Weiss on his left.
He pulled the trigger, doubling the man over as his cane flared with a dust blast. Smoke streamed from his chest as he staggered backwards, clutching a hand over the hole. He dropped his chainsaw as he steadied himself.
"A cheap shot, human." The hand on his chest grabbed the fabric of his white vest and tore it off, leaving him shirtless. Only his black cargo trousers with white-plated shin-guards and combat boots remained.
Banesaw was a muscular tower of a man, broad-shouldered and fair-skinned with huge, ebony tattoos of the White Fang's lupine emblem bared on his left arm and back. The sheer size of them signified his dedication to the cause; the White Fang was this man's life. The wolf and three clawmarks were his backbone; figuratively and literally.
"But if cheap is the best you can afford..."
He bashed his fists together, knuckles colliding in front of his chest as he visibly flexed his thick forearms. Green spikes—no, spines—protruded from the bottom of his forearms, as he clenched, then relaxed them, his wrists twisting to an inhuman angle. He snaked a foot under his chainsaw on the floor, then kicked it up, catching it in his hand like a lethal broomstick.
Revving it made a growl like a feral beast, as bloodthirsty and raring for violence as its wielder. It was an unpolished silver, with a guard and an in-line handle that made it practically a sword, albeit a very angry-sounding one. 'THD' was etched into the flat of the grinder, in a crude scratched-out font.
"...You're in for a world of hurt!"
He held the chainsword up with one hand, along with his other, in a very strange stance. It wasn't a boxing stance; it looked more like a prayer, and even then—
His arm flicked, and the chainsaw carved through Ruby's head.
She burst into petals, and reformed a good few meters back, at Weiss's side with a gasp, dropping to her knees. "W-what was that!?"
Weiss immediately cast a shielding glyph, and got to setting out orders. "Ruby, get the rest of the team here, now! He's far faster than he appears!"
Banesaw's mask covered his entire face, only close-cropped black hair was left exposed from the front. It was porcelain-white, with red, angled eyes and tear-like streaks of crimson running down from the inner corners to the chin. It resembled the face of a...
"You're a... mantis faunus, aren't you?"
He snapped his fingers at her. "Good guess. It won't help you, though." he replied, even as Ruby brought back Nora and Ren in a haze of petals. "...No matter how many you bring."
His chainsaw had started to glow orange, the heat of its engine creating a stream of shimmering, wavy air that fogged up as the snowfall met it.
"All of you, with me!" Weiss ordered. She led the charge, waving Myrtenaster in a ring to cast project a yellow clock in front of her. Passing through it sped her up greatly, as it did for the rest of her team who followed through. Her blurring thrust thread the needle and made it through his guard, stabbing him in the shoulder where his chainsword couldn't protect him. He quickly shifted to slide it off of his aura, but by then Ruby had already hooked her own scythe around the back of his blade and was pulling it away.
Making a choice, his barbed arm shot out to punch Weiss hard enough that she was sent flying across the quay, denting a shipping container. "Gah!"
"Weiss!" Ruby was distracted, just long enough for him to try sliding his chain's edge down the shaft at get at her fingers. Ruby caught onto this, however, remembering her duel with Weiss, and re-angled her shaft so that the bottom half struck him in the stomach, and he couldn't try at her grip anymore. "Hrgh!" Banesaw grunted, then glanced up just in time to see Magnhild coming in. He backstepped, enough to avoid the crushing blow but not enough to dodge the twin blades fired by a colourless Ren from his weapon, Stormflower.
The green blades were linked by fine wires to the hilts of his uzi guns, and he hopped from the top of Nora's hammer to a purple glyph cast by Weiss, who'd since gotten back up. The circle repelled his feet, bouncing him off of it as he twisted mid-air to land on the other side of Banesaw, wrapping him in a coil of wire. Colour returned to his body as he deactivated his dampening stealth semblance.
Weiss took the chance to load Myrtenaster with ice dust, and dashed forwards to trap her opponent in ice. She'd almost made it when—
"Nope!" a bullet hit the blade of her sword, sending it wide and halting her approach, courtesy of Roman Torchwick's cane.
"Can't have my big distraction getting taken out so easily. Y'see, I don't fancy my chances getting away if you lot aren't occupying each other. Don't end the show just yet." he twirled his cane, gave a wolf-whistle, and Weiss flushed.
"Excuse me!?"
Torchwick rolled his green eyes. "Not for you, flattie. I was calling someone hotter."
Weiss flushed an even deeper red, snapping at him. "How shameless! You don't deserve that crass tongue of yours! I'll—"
She stepped back, almost biting her tongue as an arm holding a sharpened umbrella appeared out of thin air.
Roman tilted the brim of his hat to her, like the gentleman he wasn't. "Good to see you, Neo."
The short woman, even shorter than Weiss and Ruby, with eyes that cycled colour with every blink, smiled at Torchwick even as she parried the tip of Weiss's counterattack.
"Yeah, I know, this is a real mess," Torchwick nodded, "but you didn't see this coming either, just saying."
Banesaw ground his forearms' barbs against the chords, cutting them loose.
"No matter. However may humans may come, I'll take you all on." He revved his chainsword further, pushing the RPM to the limit, and flaming embers began wafting from the blade's red-hot exhausts.
Combustion dust... Weiss identified. "Ruby, get to Ren's side! Pincer around the chainsaw!"
"What about Torchwick?" she asked, even as she flickered into place besides Ren on the other side of the terrorist.
A crackle from where the notorious duo had once stood answered her question; they were already gone, with a tinkle of ethereal glass. Not even footsteps in the snow were left in their wake.
"He's not our focus; this man is part of the organisation we're after. Now go!"
Ruby and Ren closed in on Banesaw from behind, and the man turned to face them with his chainsaw leaving a flaming streak in its wake. Suddenly, he was assaulted from behind with a series of fast stabs from Weiss's rapier. His left hand sprung out with its twitching, inhuman speed, his mantid joints allowing him to defend from both sides at once. Ruby's own arms were the only ones capable of keeping up, blurring into a wild array of swings, thrusts and counters that almost resembled a yarnball of slashes.
"Where's Ichigo? Tell us!" she demanded fiercely, even as they continued to exchange blows. She went for a high slash to his upper body, and he blocked it with a vertical parry close to his chest.
"Who?" Banesaw grit, as he pushed her back. "You think you're in a position to ask anything of me, human?"
Slowly, as the fight had progressed, Weiss had nodded to Ren as they re-positioned themselves around their foe. She gave the signal, and Ren tossed an open vial of lurid yellow lightning-dust at Nora, dousing her in pink flickers of electricity. Her muscles taut like steel cables, she raised Magnhild high above her head.
"Haaah!" she shouted as she struck down in an overhead swing at Banesaw's back. He reacted on instinct, both arms flickering to block with his insectoid reflexes. The clash wiped back the snow around them from the sheer wind pressure, and the grinding of the chain against the hammerhead created a spitting whine like a nest of vengeful hornets.
Nora was strong, incredibly so, but Banesaw was still holding his own even against her semblance-enhanced attack. Seeing their chance, Weiss and Ren fired a round each right at the thrumming engine powering his mechanical sword. A mix of ice and dirt coated it, getting inside and gunking up the components. The horrid gasps and shudders it made was like the yowl of a dying animal, and Ruby almost winced at the sight of someone's weapon being soiled so utterly.
As the chainsaw began to slow, Nora pushed harder, and Banesaw's arms began to give way. Weiss and Ren both fired at his flanks, and he tried stepping back—
Only to hear the sound of a wind rustling through a meadow. His ears perked, and he looked down at what was poking through the concrete at his feet. Was that a... rose?
"Bloom, Crescent Rose!"
Ruby stretched her arms out to the side, holding her scythe wide, and swung with all her heart.
A veritable fountain of rose petals followed her swing, followed by a net of thin vines and flowers, that set upon the man and consumed him entirely in its wave. He yelled in alarm as his aura was first cut through almost entirely, then second was encased in a tangle of roots, leaving him without even room to struggle. He hadn't been standing still; the cut had flung him sideways, out from under Magnhild, and he was almost lying down in the bed of tight plant matter. It appeared as though an entire sideways tree had grown in a single second.
"W-What is this?" he choked out. His aura sparked and fizzed, on the fritz. A good poke would be enough to break it, now.
"You're not the only one to wonder that." Weiss remarked offhandedly. "Ruby still can't offer much of an explanation herself, even after all our training sessions."
"Hey! It's not my fault, you just wouldn't get it!" she huffed, then hugged Crescent Rose to her chest. "Thanks a lot, baby~! You did a great job!"
"Can you not talk to it like that? It's rather offputting—"
"Nice work, bro!" Nora cheered, hopping over and patting the flat of Crescent Rose's onyx blade.
"Good work. Just as we rehearsed." Ren gave the weapon a thumbs up. "Weiss, it's quite unbecoming of a leader to not give credit where it's due to our fifth member."
"He's– I mean, it's–" she sputtered, "–not our fifth member! It's literally just a scythe you made in a day! Farmers use them all the time!"
Ruby gasped, and held Crescent rose close. "Don't listen to her– she couldn't tell a saber from a cutlass," she hushed. "You're so mean, Weiss. Are you jealous? I think you did an alright job as leader there, you know, but you can't just—"
"Sorry to interrupt, but we have a new problem on our hands." Ren spoke up. He pointed up, above the chaos of the snowy battlefield. Taking down the White Fang leader hadn't stopped the fighting. A close rake of heavy machine-gun fire tearing up the concrete revealed their new problem; with Banesaw stuck in one place, the gunners in the bullheads above were far more confident about not hitting him on accident when aiming for the close huntresses.
"Get behind me!" Weiss hollered, stabbing her sword into the stone by her feet. A dark orange circle extended out in front of her, and a mountainous shield of solid rock grew from the icy floor. The rest of team RWRN huddled behind it, protected from the sweeping volleys that had already forced the other teams to seek cover. "We'll have to interrogate him later!"
Ruby glanced left, then right, seeing PJYB still engaged with terrorists behind a shipping crate, and Neptune and Sun crouched in a tight shootout with Torchwick's gangsters, near the flaming remains of the warehouse.
"We have to take down the dropships. Someone's gonna get hurt, if they stay up in the air!" she declared loudly. Loud enough, that the sound of her voice was picked up by the silhouette walking out of the heavy flames of the warehouse, ignoring the dense, scalding heat as though it wasn't even noticeable.
"Affirmative, friend Ruby!"
It was a pale girl with short, curly chin-length ginger hair topped by a small cowlick, wearing a crooked pink bow on the back of her head. Bright green, almost luminescent eyes were framed by a smattering of freckles, and a happy-to-please smile. She was dressed in a frilly white blouse with copper buttons along the sleeves that half-covered her hands. A light-grey short pinafore dress with a gold trim was worn over the top, matching the gold of the partial bands that ran around her waist and ended in four pale-green circles on either side of her stomach and back. The four pleats of the dress were also a bright, pale green, mirrored by the lit-up green stripes that ran down her dark thigh-highs, ending in glowing green circles in the sides of her black shoes. The same black as her tights and shoes covered her neck in a detachable, frilled collar. Around her back, was slung a small silver backpack.
"Penny?" Ruby uttered in surprise, from across the .
"What's she doing here?" Weiss furrowed her brow. "She's strolled out of all that fire, as if it wasn't even there. Is her semblance pyrokinetic?"
Penny looked up at the sky, searchingly. "Targeting all airborne hostiles." she spoke happily in a cheery voice. From her backpack, ten swords emerged, all of them one-sided, grey with a silver-edge, and thicker at the top and bottom of the blades. They floated up around her in a circle, perfectly synchronised, their hilts gleaming gold with black circles and green lights that resembled the power symbol at the base of each knife. A line of lime energy ran down the spine of the blades from every core.
A pot-shot was taken at her, but a sword deflected it without her even turning her head. "I am combat ready!"
The swords then rotated as one, now pointing at each other in a funnel, and they folded in on themselves, doubling over the green lines of energy in their blades to resemble a ring of guns. Sparkles emitted from each tip, convalescing and merging into a brilliant, blinding sphere of volatile energy that was steadily increasing in size, from the size of an apple, to now the size of football, and still growing.
Ruby's silver eyes widened in recognition of what she was seeing: a laser beam; she was charging a laser beam. At least, that what she guessed it was. What else could it be?
"Penny, wait!" she called, waving her arms over her head. "If you shoot that, the guys in those ships could get seriously hurt! Or worse!"
It was a second too late; the thrum of the oscillating sphere of power was too loud for her to hear over, combined with the roaring blaze behind her. She had been able to hear Ruby's voice beforehand, but now it was just too deafening. The swords turned forwards, spinning into a funnel, and Penny have an open-handed punch to the ball, rupturing it and forcing it forwards.
Being a laser beam, the column of neon-green, dazzling light travelled far faster than the sound it made, like a reverberating zap that could be felt in the bones of anyone close. Even faster still, was the way it was parted mid-air, and diffused into a torrential stream of light that wiped away the snow clouds on that half of the quay's sky. All around the docks, fighting ceased as everybody looked up at the quickly-thinning flares of green light and smoke.
The pilot of the bullhead would not have even been able to flinch in time before he'd have died along with his entire crew, but as the White Fang airman opened his eyes and faced forwards once more, he found himself very much alive, and looking on in shock at the back of someone standing in the way of the beam.
Yang lowered her forearm from her eyes. "Is that a guy...?"
Ichigo Kurosaki stood in mid-air, his left hand outstretched, with faint flickers of waning neon in his spread palm, and a nonplussed look on his face.
"I appreciate you guys are excited to see me... but fireworks, really? You shouldn't have."
Ichigo dropped out of the air, and at the same time, columns of static simultaneously pushed down the bullheads from the sky, crashing heavily onto the frosty concrete. They wouldn't be taking off again, but they didn't explode, either. He flickered out of sight, and reappeared in front of Penny, his arms crossed. "Sorry about that, but if someone doesn't have to die, then they shouldn't. Not saying they didn't deserve it, but I knew I could stop it, so..."
"Apologies, mister!" Penny greeted, clapping her hands. "But I was just following the most efficient course of action for the situation!"
"Well, I guess if that was your only option, then I can't really tell you off for going that far..." Ichigo trailed off as he calmly reached up over his shoulder, and caught something out of mid-air between his index and middle finger. It was hot, slender and pointy. A bullet.
He turned around slowly, his tone almost bored. "Anybody lose this?"
Across the docks, the eyes of the gangster that had taken the shot bugged out behind his red-tinted sunglasses. He stepped backwards shakily, only for his back to collide with somebody else. He jerked around, and yelped when he found the faunus he'd just shot at looming over him. "H-how did you–"
Ichigo gave him a look, and the man passed out on his feet, dropping to the cold floor. The shinigami stood tall in his shihakushō, ripples flowing through the loose dark fabric as all eyes were on him.
His half-hollowfied eyes scanned across the docks, before he took another, deliberate flash-step. Atop a close roof, his arm snatched out and broke the air itself as though it was an eggshell.
Shards of light-distorting aura scattered away to reveal a man in a yellow-buttoned, high-collared white coat that fell to his thighs, lined with a deep red, over dark trousers matched by black shoes and gloves with buckles on the sleeves. A grey scarf was tied around his neck. On his ginger head was a black bowler hat, with a feather tucked into its red band.
"Oh, come on! Give me a break!" he bristled as he lurched back, whipping the business-end of his cane between them as he squeezed the trigger.
Ichigo smacked the cane wide with the back of his hand, letting the shot go wide. Even if he didn't need to bother, well, it was more fun this way. The dust-blast streaked over the smokey, snowy air of the messy docks, fizzling out on its own.
"Nice try, but I already know everything here's a gun." he smirked, "Even the handbags."
"Where the heck did you come from?" Roman went for a backhanded, wide swing of his cane from right to left, but the newcomer ducked it lazily, and stayed in a low slav-squat, as if to mock him, as he gave a two-fingered salute.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, nice to meetcha—"
Torchwick tossed a handful of dirty snow at his face, mid-sentence, and attempted to follow-up. The keyword, here, was 'attempted', because the snow just disappeared as soon as it neared his face. What the hell?
"What the hell?"
Ichigo had straight up sat down, cross-legged, in the middle of the snow. His horned head tested on his fist, the elbow propped up on his knee. He idly made a snowball with his left hand. Hey, might as well have fun here...
"Damn, so you're the fighting-dirty type. I can appreciate that. I don't really have much of a preference, after all;– sometimes I'm feeling a little honourable, but other times? Backstabbing is pretty darn satisfying, too."
Torchwick gave an insincere smile. "...At least you can appreciate that much. Most huntsmen get all prissy about me," he gestured a hand over his chest, "–a criminal mastermind, not playing fair. Imagine that."
"A criminal mastermind? You?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "You sure your thinking-hat isn't on there backwards, buddy? 'Criminal masterminds'–" he mimed air-quotes, "–don't start a massive shootout in broad daylight. They're more subtle, and just screw with the economy or something. You seem more like the sort of guy who's a henchman who gets roped in over his head by the big bad, to me."
Cinder Fall's smug face flashed before Torchwick's eyes.
"—Geh!" he flinched, then snapped at the other man, "I'll have you know I absolutely do mess with the economy! I'm the reason why dust prices are though the roof, you know!"
Ichigo's brow twitched at that admittance. "Oh... so you're the guy I have to thank for paying way more than I should have for that fire dust..."
"Aha! See?" he mocked, waving his arms widely. "You're my victim! You can't talk!"
"Fine, lemme even the score, then."
Ichigo stood up, manifesting a Heilig Klinge in his hand. Torchwick swung for his head, and Ichigo raised his dark blade, only to find the blow didn't connect— a feint.
The real move, performed with a twist of his cane, was a thrust for his stomach, so Ichigo defensively side-stepped and swept his leg down low. When Torchwick hopped over, Ichigo grinned, and thrust his left hand forwards, smacking the snowball in it into his face.
Normally, any man with aura wouldn't even feel a snowball hitting them. Something so soft wouldn't carry any impact whatsoever, and aura protected against the cold as a natural insulator.
This snowball in particular, however, was thrown by someone who couldn't be considered 'normal' by any stretch of the imagination, even with an Olympic-level mental gymnastics squad.
Torchwick didn't know this, so he was all the more flabbergasted when he found himself upside-down, sailing off the rooftop, before he could even react.
Before he could react to himself not reacting, he opened his eyes to see he was being held up by the leg, aloft over the concrete below by the faunus who was now balancing right on the edge of the roof.
"...Huh, I guess you really weren't kidding about fighting dirty, tuning-fork head."
"Tuning-fork head!?" Ichigo growled, his free hand unconsciously touching at his twin horns trepidatiously. They didn't really look like that, did they?
He pulled the topsy-turvy Torchwick higher, so that he could look into his bemused jade-green eyes with his narrowed amber-brown orbs. Wait a minute...
"Dude... are you wearing mascara?"
"Eyeliner, actually."
"Pffft, nice makeup, did your boyfriend do it for you?" Ichigo chuckled.
"Boyfriend!? I'm spoken for!" Torchwick glanced behind Ichigo, for a slender moment. "Neo!"
Ichigo turned on his heel, swinging Roman like a flail into the woman pouncing on him from behind in a fluid movement. It was fast, fast enough to hit her even with her pike-umbrella almost at his neck, thanks to his inhuman strength.
"Sweet! You owe me lunch money, too!" Ichigo grinned at the sight of Neopolitan straightening herself back up.
"Lunch money? Neo, you know this punk?"
Torchwick looked at his partner blankly, and she twiddled her fingers guiltily with a small smile. "...〜"
"Seriously? What do you mean he talks to himself, too?"
"Shut up! That was out of context!" Ichigo jerked a finger at her defensively.
Neopolitan grabbed Torchwick by the hand, and leapt sideways as the duo disappeared from view once again.
Ichigo closed his eyes, seeing beyond vision, and moved. When he opened them again, he was standing back in the thick of the chaos of the docks, with his reishi sword at a throat he couldn't see, but knew was there.
"Aren't you getting a little tired of this?"
The illusion broke, revealing a thrown-off Torchwick and a wary, yet expectant Neo.
"The heck? How do you keep finding us?"
"That's for me to know, and for you to panic over."
Roman looked around the snowy quay, for any cards he could play. In the end, he chose the simplest one. All eyes were on them, the fighting paused, but all muzzles were on them too.
"Shoot him!" Torchwick ordered, pointed, and jumped back.
"Ichigo!" Ruby called in alarm.
All at once, every gangster in sight unloaded on the guy they'd just seen take down three bullheads and block a laser beam with his bare hands. The hailstorm of dust-bullets were deafening, and drowned out all other noises, even the distant oncoming sirens.
The corner of Ichigo's mouth perked up, as he stood still.
Around him, in a bubble, the bullet shells brightly sparked and popped as they struck something that nobody there could see. Was he even moving?
No; wait, Torchwick could see the snow moving by his feet, indented to the left and right. His arm, too... it was vibrating. Barely even visible, but the hand holding the black katana was moving, unimaginably fast. For five full seconds the barrage continued, but as it tapered off, one by one as men across the quay lowered their weapons or were interrupted by opportunistic White Fang operatives and student huntsmen alike, it became clear nothing was getting through.
On Ichigo's end, he rolled his shoulders and let his Quincy sword dissipate, completely relaxed. A thousand bullets or so weren't much compared to a billion senbonzakura petals, after all.
"Alright, so, you done? I think I'll shut down your circus, now."
"Circus?"
Ichigo spread his arms, gesturing broadly at the White Fang troops, the gangsters, and finally at Neopolitan and Roman Torchwick.
"Yeah, you got your dangerous animals, your clowns, your mime, and your Clockwork-Orange lookin'-ass ringleader who's... in stage makeup." A distant siren was steadily growing in volume as the students of Beacon tensely watched. "Hell, we've even got an audience."
"What the hell is A Clockwork Orange?"
Oh, right. "You wouldn't get it. You don't exactly strike me as the intellectual type. More of the absolute dead-end trainwreck type, no offense."
"You—"
In the span of a single breath, Ichigo was suddenly right in front of him, and Roman swung for his shin as Neo tried spearing him from behind. He hopped over the shin-strike, twisting mid-air to get his legs poised between them, both feet aimed at Torchwick's chest as he grabbed Neo's umbrella by the point and yanked it out of her hands.
Roman felt the double-kick almost shatter his aura in one go, and the hard metal of the shipping container he pierced though both ends of definitely broke it completely.
Neo tried stepping back, but Ichigo had used Torchwick's chest as a springboard to leap right at her. He landed low, in a crouch, and spun on his heel to give an open-palmed uppercut to her chin, aiming to rattle her skull and break her aura in one shot. Instead, she shattered on contact, surrounding him with shards of aura, and Ichigo didn't hesitate to search for her reiatsu.
In moments, he found her behind him, and he reached to grab her, only for the air to shatter and reveal... nothing. He searched again, and found and broke another illusion in front of the burning warehouse. It too, unveiled nobody behind it. Confused, he closed his eyes to search, and the pequisa he pulsed delivered a muddling conundrum.
There were at least thirty more of these Neos running around, and they were splitting and dividing further, all on their own. They were completely invisible to everyone else, but to him, they were spots of her reiatsu she'd shaped with her semblance to become... illusions of illusions. Annoyingly smart. By creating fake illusions that hid nothing, they cost barely any aura on her end, but threw him on a wild good-chase. She was probably almost gone by now.
"Are you searching for Neopolitan, mister?"
He turned to find the laser-shooting girl from before, now with glowing eyes.
"You can... see her?"
"I can see forty-six of her, spread across this sector of Vale. Now forty-seven. All of the signatures are identical to the girl on the Vale Police wanted list, I'm afraid. Now fifty. She will likely escape."
"Eh, I can check fifty spots, no problem." Ichigo brushed off. Though, now that his senses were extended, this girl felt... weird. Had he met someone like her before?
"Mister, could you please stay and assist us, instead? I'm sure you can catch her anytime you want, given the combat prowess you just displayed. It's very impressive!"
"Call me Ichigo. And..." he looked around the damaged, frosty quay. This was probably more important. Not like the ice-cream midget was a big deal, after all. "Sure, I guess. Hold on..."
He reached over his shoulder, manifesting Zangetsu's massive sealed state in a golden flare. He reached for it, gripping it firmly, and held it for a moment.
Then, he let go, still standing in place right next to the lit-up girl.
"Ichigo?"
"Wait for it..."
Across the docks, guns and weapons alike in the hands of every White Fang member and gangster fell apart, all cut into unusable pieces of cleanly-severed metal that clattered into the frosted concrete.
For a brief sliver of time, Ichigo lowered his transcendent spiritual pressure to the point where it could be perceived by beings dimensions below him, and directed it at every hostile assailant in the Vale quays. He could tell pretty easily who the friendlies were; they were the colourful-dressed ones, all grouped together with his friends.
He let the pressure off, and the criminals dropped like flies; every last one blacked out completely in the powdery snow.
He looked at the girl beside him, and smiled coyly. "See?"
"Sensational!" the girl clapped flutteringly. "Ichigo, I am Penny Polendina. May we be friends?"
"Sure, I don't see why not." he snickered, "You know, you didn't need to ask. People just know they're friends when they are."
Penny frowned at that. "But how will I know when I'm a friend?"
He paused in thought. "Well, there's some nuance to it—"
"Ichigo! Ichigo! You're back!"
Ichigo shifted round to see all of the huntsmen and huntresses walking up to them in one big crowd of clashing colour schemes.
There were a couple he didn't recognise. A boy in a red flying jacket with a black fur trim over a white shirt and tie, as well as navy jeans with padded pockets, black strapped boots and fingerless gloves. On his forehead was a pair of yellow-tinted goggles with circular lenses, holding up a fringe of spiky hair as bright a blue as Grimmjow's.
The other teen, his partner, wore an open white jacket, leaving his chiselled abs on full display, and the only other things worn on his upper half were red armoured wrist bracers and a pendant on a twisted golden chain loosely hanging around his neck. On his lower half were stonewashed blue cargo jeans, tightened with a white belt over white wrapped bandages and yellow-black trainers. A chain jangled from the loop on his right hip.
Overall, to Ichigo he looked like some sort of Jaune 2.0, with an added faunus monkey tail.
"So this is the guy you were looking for all this time?" the blonde looked him up and down, hands in his pockets. "What do you think of him, Neptune?"
Neptune's gaze lingered on Ichigo's face, and his eyes narrowed slightly, before he sighed. "Sun... I think I might actually have some competition for the dance."
Sun elbowed him in the ribs, as Yang stomped up to Ichigo. She put her hands on her hips, and looked him in the eye with a pout. She was a good bit shorter than him, so she had to tilt her head up to give him the stink-eye. Where most men would've quailed, Ichigo just stared at her unimpressed. He'd met Captain Unohana, after all.
"You've gotta be kidding me. We spent all this time searching for you, and you just turn up out of the blue like that?"
Ichigo scratched at his cheek. "All this time? I was only gone for like a weekend. I met your uncle, actually, we went on a job. He's an alright guy."
"A weekend!?" Weiss scoffed incredulously. "You disappeared off the face of Remnant over two months ago. Don't jest. We all saw you in that photograph."
"Two months?" Ichigo repeated disbelievingly. "–And what photo?"
"This photo!" Blake yelled, throwing a rolled-up newspaper at his face. Ichigo caught it, even as his eyebrow rose in confusion at Blake's upset shout. He unrolled the newspaper, finding its front page taken up by a bold leading headline and picture that he recognised:
WHITE FANG: SAVIOURS OF MOUNTAIN GLENN?
The rest of the page was plastered with a fine photograph of Adam Taurus standing in front of the soul dust crystal that had once formed the core of the Creeping Venus. In the background the crumbling Leviathan-Class grimm loomed clearly in the shot, a towering spire that blotted out the low rising sun. Next to the soul dust crystal, was a blurry figure, smudged and smeared, only visible due to some sort of distortion around the dying light of the giant shard.
Anyone who didn't know him personally wouldn't recognise him in the street due to the spectral warping. It made his figure look like a ghost in an old Victorian photograph– but for anyone who did know him...
...There was no mistaking. It was Ichigo.
"He sent it to the news!?" he growled through clenched teeth as the paper bent under his tightening grip.
"So it is you! You admit it!" Weiss accused.
Ichigo peered up from the paper and rubbed at a horn absentmindedly. The only reason he showed up on camera was probably some strange thing to do with that soul dust crystal, and even then he came out looking like a poltergeist.
"Yeah, it's me..." he began, but quickly added, "–I'm not with the White Fang though, me and Qrow just ran into one of their guys on our job. He took a photo, but I didn't think much of it until, well, this..."
"'One of their guys?'" Blake exclaimed, "Ichigo, that's Adam Taurus right next to you! Adam Taurus!"
He blinked at her outburst. She seemed really riled up. "...Okay? I know that."
"Okay? Okay?" she turned red in the face, and spoke through gritted teeth. "Ichigo. He's the head of the Vale division of the White Fang!"
"Really?" Ichigo huffed. "So he lied to me..." he shrugged. "Eh, he still seemed like a pretty cool guy, the type that needs to chill a bit, but not the worst I've seen... like by far."
"By far? Who do you know that could possibly be worse than an international terrorist?" Neptune asked curiously.
"Trust me." he crossed his arms, and told them so, in a tone so clear they knew he meant it. "I know people."
Meanwhile, Blake's fuse had run out.
"Cool guy!?" she exploded. "He's crazy! You're crazy!" she threw her hands in the air, and yelled her lungs out. "He's the type to try and blow up trains full of innocent people with no remorse!"
Ichigo frowned. "Aw, man, he told me himself he wasn't the type of guy to do that. I guess I'll have to ask him which is true, next time I see him."
"Next time? Oh no you're not!" Blake snapped.
"Jeez, what are you, his mom? Do you know him?" he retorted.
Blake looked like she wanted to jump him, but before she could, Pyrrha stepped in, putting a hand on her chest. It seemed to do the job of holding her back.
"Hey! Watch the hair!"
–Well, that, and the fact that Yang had grabbed her from behind in a bear-hug and lifted her feet off the snowy floor before she could lunge at him. That probably did most of the job, actually.
"Blake, is it okay with you if I tell him?" Pyrrha requested diplomatically. Jaune stood clear of the black-bowed girl, as she hissed and spat in the hold as if she was being sprayed with a water bottle.
"Go ahead! Everybody else here knows, and has known for ages! I don't care!"
"Even Penny?"
"I meant everyone else other than her! But it's fine, I still don't care!"
"Know what?" Penny cocked her head expectantly. Ichigo just watched on, almost dully.
"Blake is a faunus, and was once a member of the White Fang, though she left that life once they became too radical." Pyrrha spoke in a hushed voice, her emerald eyes darting left and right. "She's never committed any real crimes, but still, please keep this a secret between friends."
"A secret between friends? I can absolutely do that!" Penny nodded resolutely.
Yang finally let go, and Blake slunk down with a glower in her yellow, slit-pupilled eyes as she undid her black bow. She pulled away the silken fabric to reveal... two soft, black-furred cat ears, sticking from her hair.
"...So that's what they look like..." Ruby breathed.
She gazed at Ichigo vindictively, only for him to... look at it for a few seconds, then shortly glance away dismissively and play around with a large black butterfly that had landed on his shoulder.
When he realised she was still staring at him, only this time with curled fists, he turned back to face her, unimpressed.
"...Okay? What am I supposed to do now?"
"What are you supposed to do?" she repeated shrilly.
Ichigo looked at her flatly. "Yes, actually. What?"
"You're supposed to... ah... um..." Blake shook her head. "I don't know!? Show some solidarity!"
"Because of...?"
"Isn't it obvious? We're both faunus!"
"...Does that matter? I'm a lot of things..."
"—Actually, if I may interject, I am not entirely sure what friend Ichigo is." Penny interrupted. "I could ascertain that Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong were faunus upon meeting them, but Ichigo does not seem to appear on any of my aura-sensors. I can only see him, and that is not enough to be entirely certain..."
"I'm pretty sure it's obvious." Sun nodded to Ichigo's horns. "Look at those. Can't get much more faunus-ey than that."
"Nah, she's right, you got me. I'm actually an inter-dimensional alien." Ichigo raised a hand in a half-shrug.
"Really?" Penny exclaimed.
"That explains a lot..." Nora nodded sagely.
"Oh, great. Not this crap again..." Jaune rolled his eyes. "Two months wasn't enough of a break from your BS."
"Has it really been that long? You're not all just screwing with me, are you...?"
Yang snorted. "What are you, blind? You think we'd run though all this—" she waved all across the docks, over the piles of unconscious criminals and terrorists, the fires and ice. "—over two days? Try two months."
"So that means... damn." It really had been two months... but how? He'd only gone on that trip, then... ah. That's why.
The garganta.
On Remnant, he'd occasionally entered the garganta before. Every journey through it had lasted seconds or minutes at most, and yet he'd still ended up skipping hours ahead in time, every trip. Time was compressed in the dangai compared to Earth, and it seemed that the reverse was true for the garganta on Remnant. Time expanded in the garganta, compared to here. Previously, he'd only spent short bursts inside the inter-dimensional void, but now he'd just had an entire drawn-out conversation there.
So, as a result, he'd skipped time, two months into the future.
"So does that mean... it's Winter already?" Ichigo dusted off some snow from his horns. It had been starting to pile up there.
"No, uh, that was a big ol' crate of ice dust that got blown up in the warehouse we stormed." Jaune answered hesitantly, pointing sideways over to the flaming warehouse. "It wasn't me, just saying. I blame Yang, for missing a shot."
"Hey! Blake's the one who got caught undercover first!"
"It's not as if I had a choice!" she scowled.
"...So, uhm, where've you been, all this time?" Ruby bobbed in place nervously.
Ichigo snapped his fingers. "Would you believe me if I said it was time travel?"
"Makes sense to me." Nora accepted immediately.
Jaune groaned audibly. "We are not just going to brush this off like that."
"Try me." Ichigo raked his fingers through his hair. "I'm dead serious."
"No, seriously, where the hell were you?"
"Inside a portal. Ask Ruby's uncle. He'll vouch for me."
"Fine then! I will!" Jaune promised. Then he realised something rather problematic; that being, he didn't know in the slightest who Yang and Ruby's uncle was. "Yang, who's your uncle again?"
"Uncle Qrow's great! I'm sure he knows what he saw!" ...So long as he wasn't drinking, so fat chance of that. But she didn't say that out loud. Let him hope. For now, she had her own question to ask.
"You know what I wanna know?" Yang brought up. "You were standing in mid-air back there. Like, hovering, or flying, or levitating, or something. Since when can you do that?"
"You know the glowing blue stuff I make? It's like that, but I stand on it, and it's invisible." Ichigo summed up. "Nothing too fancy."
"Sounds pretty fancy to me." she refuted, "Flying is pretty out there, y'know."
"Fine then. Plenty fancy. I'll show you more if you want. So, anyone feel like giving me a rundown on what I missed?"
"A few days after it was clear you'd vanished, we asked Ozpin about you, and all he said was that you'd gone on a mission with another Huntsman." Ren broached. "He told us it was standard for students in their third years, but we thought you told us you weren't a student at all. If he was expecting you back already, he must have hidden it from us..."
"So we waited for a week or two, and then that newspaper got released. It says the White Fang are claiming to be the ones who cleared out Mountain Glenn, and that they did it just to 'be nice' or something." Yang crossed her arms. "It was a huge deal– I'm talking international news– and they're still trying to sort it all out and resettle the place."
"The Fang are trying to use it to muster goodwill to re-enter the political scene." Blake said severely. "Since they haven't committed any major attacks on innocent civilians yet– not for lack of trying– they think they can needle their way back into civilised discussion, even though that ship sailed years ago." she spoke mockingly. "I don't believe it one bit. It's all a cover-up."
"Goodwill? Aren't they still..." he gestured at the absolute state of the Vale docks before them. "...doing this?"
"They're using a front organisation. Pretending to have a split, but I'm sure it's all fake. Get this, Adam's their spokesman." Blake ranted.
"Uh... right... there's all that, plus you were right there all blurry-ey on the cover, so we went looking for you on our own. Well, I would've gone searching straight away, but someone ordered me to wait." Ruby harrumphed.
Weiss scoffed snootily. "I told you to let us plan it out, first, you dolt. What would you have even done otherwise?"
"...Run around a lot?"
"See? I was in the right. Either way, our search had us run into what appeared to be an ongoing gang war between the White Fang and the more domestic criminal elements of Vale."
"A gang war?" That wasn't his fault, was it? Why did it feel like it was? Nah, no way. Nope. Not at all.
"You heard right. It kicked off around the same time as our first week in Beacon." Weiss informed ominously. "The White Fang were steadily losing ground, but it seemed they didn't care in the end. They're pulling out of Vale."
"Eh, I'll deal with it when it comes to it." Ichigo brushed off nonchalantly. "I'm sure it won't be anything I can't handle. So, who're these guys?" he jerked a thumb over to the duo he didn't recognise. The Neptune shuffled awkwardly, whilst Sun smiled proudly.
"We're from Haven!" his voice was loud, and cheery, as he hopped over and shook Ichigo's hand like a jackhammer. "The leader of team SSSN, and his right-hand-man, at your service!"
"Hi." he greeted, then turned to his blue-haired partner. "Hey."
"Hey." Neptune waved.
And that was it. He'd had more lively first impressions, sure, but he'd also had way worse. They seemed alright. Not trying to kill him already put them in his good books.
Speaking of impressions...
"Penny?" he began.
"Yes, friend Ichigo?"
"You don't know what I am, right?"
"Not at all. It is really confusing, though I do not mind!"
"Well, I don't know what you are, either."
"I am afraid that is classified, Ichigo."
"Alright then, but I'm not telling if you're not telling. But can I just ask, do the words 'mod soul' or 'gikon' mean anything to you?"
"Not a clue!" she happily told him.
"Huh, can't say I expected anything, but it didn't hurt to check." Still, she really did feel similar to Kon. She had her own reiatsu, but not across her entire body, just in certain lines and places. It was almost... circuit-like. Oh well, he'd probably figure it out eventually.
"We met Penny today, not too long ago. She's from Atlas." Ruby told him.
"Indeed I am! But I am sorry, I must be going, now. My team is approaching."
"Your team?" Ruby asked, as a black saloon car pulled up at the entrance to the docks, alongside a squad of flashing police cars. The officers piled out, and got to cuffing and photographing all over the scene.
"Yes. They're here now, it seems."
From one of the cars, the drivers-side door opened. Out stepped a tan-skinned young woman, with a marine blue pleated skirt and beret perched on her head of dark navy hair cut in an asymmetrical bob. She had a white button-down half-shirt tucked into the blue skirt at its black waistband, which matched the white chaps she wore over black boots. Black, fingerless gloves stretched up to her elbows, and on her left wrist was a polished silver wristwatch with a bright neon-green display. All over her outfit, down the front of her shirt, two on each forearm, up the sides of her chaps, golden buttons fastened them all in place, matching the gold trim to her skirt and shirt sleeves. Her eyes were an aqua blue, and in the centre of her forehead was a golden mark, a circle surrounded by four smaller circles of gold.
She walked... no, marched over towards them all with a steady gait, and stopped to stand before them all with her arms behind her back. "Greetings." she bowed formally. "I am here to retrieve Penny Polendina."
"Everyone, please say hello to Ciel Soleil!" Penny introduced.
Ruby smiled, "Hi! I'm Ru—"
"Ruby Rose. Fifteen. Hails from Patch. Official Leader of Team RWRN. Status: Questionable." Ciel listed out.
"Huh..." Ichigo hummed. This girl seemed more antisocial than Byakuya, and that was saying something.
"You're..." The new girl regarded him closely. She sure seemed to be taking her time. "..."
Ichigo smirked. "You don't know who I am, do you?" he shook his head. "Tsk tsk, so unprofessional..."
Ciel silently pouted with a slight embarrassed blush, ignoring him. "Penny?" she tapped at her wristwatch, and a holographic projection of the time was cast into thin air. "I believe it is best if we move on to our next location."
"Could we have just half a minute to talk?" Penny requested hopefully.
The other girl fiddled with her watch, shifting the hologram to a stopwatch. She nodded and stepped back.
"So is she your friend or...?" Ruby started.
"Well, in a way. She's like Weiss, but if Weiss was ordered to spend time with you."
"Isn't that just regular Weiss?" Nora supposed, a finger on her chin.
"Precisely!" Penny affirmed.
"Hey!" Weiss stomped.
"I hope to see you all again, friend Ruby and friend Ichigo. I wouldn't mind seeing friend-of-friends Nora, Ren, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Sun, Neptune and Pyrrha!"
"Wha– hold on, why didn't you mention me?" Weiss pointed out.
Penny blinked her bright green eyes at her.
"What!? Aren't you going to say anything?" Weiss demanded.
Penny was about to awkwardly open her mouth, when she was cut off.
Ciel stepped forwards, and stopped her stopwatch. "It's been precisely thirty seconds, ma'am."
"She really timed that?" Jaune muttered in awe.
"What, the big glowing holo-numbers didn't clue you in?" Sun jabbed.
"Goodbye friends!" Penny waved, as she skipped off towards the dark car, Ciel marching besides her. Its windows were tinted, concealing the driver and anyone else inside.
"...Well that's not shady at all. Oh, right, the police. Do we have to do some sort of interview, or something?" Jaune wondered.
"I can talk to them—" Pyrrha started, only for Blake to cut her off.
"You shouldn't burden yourself, Pyrrha. We'll just ask the staff to sort it out." Blake suggested. "It'd be a lot simpler, plus I think Ozpin might want to see that Ichigo's back."
"Oh yeah." Ichigo murmured. "I forgot about that guy. He owes me money for that job, now that I think about it."
"How much?" Ruby inquired curiously.
Ichigo placed a finger on his chin as he remembered. "A couple million, I'm pretty sure."
The rest of the students' jaws collectively dropped.
""A couple million!?""
NEXT: 21 - HOME CALLING - [Battle For Bond]
Author notes:
Bleachbros, we're BACK. Anime is SAVED! That new episode was so cool. So many new scenes, and I like the new opening and ending too. If anything really big gets added, I'll bring it up here.
Concept art I used for inspiration:
[64DOTmediaDOTtumblrDOTcom/b8ba35828ec9877a5f8d262bb7a64992/tumblr_mw6ex7JnWW1qgseqbo3_1280DOTpng]
(Everything takes place in the area right in the centre of the picture)
So, a literal timeskip, only Ichigo skipped along with the readers. I thought of this handy idea back when I first made him skip a couple hours through the garganta in the fourth chapter. Now he's right in Volume 2, one that I couldn't really think of another way to get to without having him slow down in a way that wouldn't be in-character. Now he can slow down though, since he has a reason to stay on Remnant.
The timeskip means teams are cemented, they're stronger, and I have a reason to give Ruby basic control over Crescent Rose. (I would've chosen 'scatter' as her release command, since it's on Summer's grave, but that's Byakyua's one). It'll be brought up soon. I also got a chance to properly settle Mountain Glenn, its fallout, and restructure the world pretty much in one go this way. Yep, that final scene last chapter took place at some point in those two months.
The next chapter is a much calmer one, all character interactions and stuff. For this chapter, I wanted to showcase the teams working together, but also just drop Ichigo right into it, when it looks like it would've been one of those times where the villain escapes. I just thought that there wasn't really any way that Torchwick could (reasonably) walk away from an encounter with Ichigo. Like, sure, he could, but that'd be lame. Why draw it out?
One last thing: this fic now has a TV Tropes page! I found it when I looked up the title, and found my story right at the top of all search results. I'm really happy about that, thank you! I don't know how TV Tropes works, honestly, but you can edit that page however you see fit. I don't even have an account, so it's up to you. Have fun with it!
Thanks as always for 576 reviews, 1297 favourites, and 1,705 follows!