22: SEASON'S GREETINGS: AUTUMN - [Pain]
"Ichigo! I missed you so much!"
Ichigo didn't know what to say, so he responded on autopilot. "I'm... glad to see you too."
Behind his back, Mercury and Emerald shared an alarmed look at Cinder's warm tone in the dim light. Mercury had watched as she slowly changed all this time, but at her core she was still the same heartless witch as ever. Or at least, he'd thought she still was. Wasn't she?
"A full suit, huh? You wear it well..."
She took his arm, pressing it against her chest as she led him into the centre of the gloomy room. She'd taken a few steps more, leading him onwards, when she felt him stop, rooted in place on the rug. She turned around—
A hand on her shoulder. The grip tight, with fingernails digging in.
"I'm sorry, but I've been told to watch myself around strange women. Could I get a name? Your real name."
Ichigo's eyes were hard and dark in the low light.
*Click*
A jungle-green silenced revolver, with a stretched, palm-sized stock made a quiet sound as its hammer was cocked back behind his head. A second one was raised over the tanned girl's left shoulder, pointing to the ceiling. To Ichigo's side, Mercury had flicked his wrist, popping a silver-ringed combat knife into his hand.
"Your friend here is a pretty rude guest, Merc." she growled. "We're compromised, and it's all your fault."
"Relax, Em. I admit I made a mistake." Mercury readied to throw his blade. "So I'll help show him out. It's only proper."
Ichigo glanced left and right, feeling the neon-green flickers of bringer-light beneath his feet. He was in his human body, so taking a point-blank dust-bullet to the dome wasn't something he wanted to risk. How about...
The sparkling azure circuit of blut vene illuminated the back of his horned head, getting Emerald to narrow her eyes. Clearly a reinforcement semblance of some sort. Better redirect. She shifted, pulling her other gun down to aim at the small of his back. Ichigo twisted in that same moment, as green light flared under his feet—
"Stop! Stop! Emerald, Mercury, stand down. Ichigo, Ichigo please– don't fight!" Cinder pleaded in a shrill voice.
Emerald flinched back, as if struck. 'Please'!? She was completely lost for words. "Cin-Cinder, who is this man?"
"Some guy she knows, quite closely it seems." Mercury spun the ring of the sliver knife's hilt around his finger deftly, holstering it back up his concealing sleeve. Looks like he could add 'emotionally unstable' to his extensive mental list of his employer's faults.
As for Ichigo, he halted as soon as he heard Cinder's outburst. He saw her, still holding onto his arm, with a watery eye. An amber-orange orb, welling up with unshod tears.
"It's me, Ichigo. You have to believe me..." she blubbered.
Ichigo sighed, and gave her soul another spiritual once-over with his eyes. He was astonished at just how closely the spiritual flame of the woman in front of him matched Amber, down to the minute, indescribable details. The orb wasn't just similar to the warm gold of Autumn leaves he was familiar with; it really was identical. But not just that... it didn't feel simple, anymore. It was multi-layered, in some way, folded over, but he just couldn't get a good enough look at whatever it colour it was behind Amber's soul.
There was the magic of Autumn in there, he could tell; but there was something more behind it.
Ichigo had been betrayed before. That became the first time he'd willingly killed someone he knew. Someone he'd considered a friend, or the older brother he never had. He didn't want to do it again, but if he had to, he would. –And this might just be it.
But as he looked at Cinder's— Amber's face, he could only smile reassuringly. Even if there was something else to her, it was still his friend in front of him. If he needed to fight, he would, but not until he had no better option. What would someone even have to threaten him with here, hypothetically? He was alone, and the strongest on the planet. Getting tricked would only be dangerous to whoever was dumb enough to mess with him. In short; it wasn't out of negligence that he trusted her, but out of confidence. He could wait and see.
"It's fine... I won't fight." Yet, he decided. Mercury and Emerald were left dumbstruck at how quickly the newcomer dropped his hostility. It was as if he didn't care at all that they had just been about to fight to the death.
"I wasn't worried about you, dumbass. But you'd have killed my team, for sure." she prodded.
"Hey now—" Mercury protested. Emerald wasn't in a mood to comment.
"How are you still alive? Don't tell me it was– oh, man." he realised. "The konsō..."
"The what?" Mercury stepped forwards.
"Nothing of your concern." Amber waved him off.
"We can talk about it in private. I'll just take some stuff to my room, and we'll chat about whatever you want, there. Just lemme use your bathroom, real quick." Ichigo requested.
"Sure! Go head." Amber smiled happily as Ichigo walked past her with a polite nod, and through the white-painted door. It shut and locked behind him, and the sound of spraying water soon emanated from the shower. He wouldn't be able to overhear them, now.
"What the hell was that?" Mercury started with furrowed brows. If this Ichigo guy could talk down to Cinder, then why couldn't he?
Amber wiped her eyes, and Cinder Fall pulled her arm away from her face. She smirked, showing her teeth. "That, Mercury, was art in motion. The art of deception."
"Ah, I see..." he nodded sagely. "A woman's greatest art indeed—hrk!"
Hot air wafted against his neck, from the line of sickly-yellow fire that had ignited out of thin air centimetres from his throat. Purposefully incomplete combustion, he instantly realised. Yep, still the same heartless witch.
"Watch your tongue. You might just lose it, otherwise." Cinder warned.
"Yep! Yep! I got it, it was just an act!" Mercury rambled. "I just didn't know, alright! You've been changing so much, so I thought it was real, you even fooled me, y'see!"
The suspended fire snuffed out, as Cinder gave an approving hum. Mercury doubled over, retching and hacking up coughs. The carbon monoxide from the yellow flames had been getting to him.
"So, Cinder, you don't really care about that guy, do you?" Emerald reasoned hopefully. "You're not some softie, after all!"
Her mistress paused a moment. –But only a moment. "...The only value he poses is to our cause. I have plans for him, and if you have any sense of self-preservation, you'll play along."
"Self preservation, huh?" Mercury choked out, before straightening himself up tiredly. "I've got that in spades..."
"Somehow I doubt it." Emerald rolled her eyes. She returned her attention to Cinder. "Erm, say that things don't work out with him? What's the plan, then?"
"Kill him, obviously." she answered blasély, as though discussing the weather.
"I see. No complaints here!" Emerald cheered. She enjoyed this. Being able to ask questions like this freely... Cinder had grown so generous in the last few months!
Mercury spoke up in alarm. "Isn't this the faunus guy we were briefed about by you beforehand, though? I thought you said he could kill us with a touch?"
"We wouldn't fight him head on, you imbecile." Cinder huffed exasperatedly. "We'll poison him in advance. I have something, for that. Then perhaps something like..." she laid a finger on her blood-red lips. "...what we pulled against the Maiden of Autumn. The portal I opened there, is a gateway to ordinance that is impossible to survive." Even for a Grim Reaper.
Queen Salem was beyond death, after all. It stood to reason she was beyond its harvester, as well. Cinder Fall would stake her very life on it.
"That massive purple laser beam thing that shot out from it? I'm fine with that." Mercury proposed. "All the precautions we can get."
"Hold on... if you're so scared of him, then why..." Emerald trailed off. Mercury had stood off to the side, playing ranged support whilst she got into a close position. "You bastard! You let me get in close in case he really would kill me first!"
"And you're complaining... why, exactly?" Mercury asked, blankly. "You could've just raped his brain with your semblance."
"Do you have to put it like that?" she whined.
"No, I don't." Mercury admitted. "–But I knew it'd tick you off."
"Silence." Cinder held up her hand, and the two of them quietened at once. "Once he's back, fall into place, no matter what you hear. Get friendly with him; lower his guard."
"And how are we supposed to try that? Weren't we just about to fight to the death?" Mercury helpfully reminded.
"Ichigo's standards for companionship are... different from normal people, to say the least. I'd only known him for a few days, and he helped me out immensely on a whim."
"How do you know him, anyway?" Emerald raised another question.
"That is neither your business, nor concern. He probably didn't even perceive you as a lethal threat. That was barely a welcome on his scale. To him, you were just defending me."
"Oh, great, so he's crazy too." Mercury groaned, wiping a hand down his face.
"Seriously?" Emerald balked at her words. "How big of deal is he?"
"I'll have to gauge his strength myself, this afternoon. Play along, or become piles of ash. Do you wish to take the second choice?"
The dysfunctional duo shook their heads, vigorously.
"That's what I thought."
- –—{}—– -
When the bathroom door opened with a wave of hot air, Amber was waiting.
Ichigo stepped out, and... oh.
He had a towel hanging around his neck, and was wearing the same trousers he'd entered their room in. Other than that, he was shirtless, and he scratched at his cheek awkwardly as Amber looked his damp chiselled figure up and down with a blush. He was shredded. No, more than that; ripped.
The other two in the room, her teammates, didn't seem nearly as bothered, barely giving him a glance. He presumed they were a little miffed that he'd simply walked in and grabbed their leader, but he could tell there was more to it. He'd learn all about it, soon enough.
"Sorry about this... I didn't bring my other clothes in there, so I gotta change in my room."
"You sure you can't just walk around like that?" she suggested airily.
"What? Nuh-uh. No way. I already met a guy who walks around here mostly shirtless, and I'd prefer not to be lumped in with him."
Ichigo stepped out the front entrance, across the hallway, and into his room. Amber leaned against the doorway, waiting outside as he shut his door behind him.
Back in the darker dorm, Mercury feigned reading a comic book on his bed as he sat in thought.
All an act, huh. She was clearly pushing it now, but that plea for them to not fight sure as hell didn't sound like acting to him. A trained assassin could passively read body language like an open book. Or comic book, in his case. And Cinder's panel, there? Those tears, that wavering voice... that didn't match the fire-witch he knew at all, even under her practised guise of guileful deceit.
The question was...
Who was writing Cinder's book now?
Ichigo sat down in his spinning desk-chair, now in his red huntsman jacket, white v-neck t-shirt, and dark navy denim jeans. Across from him, on his bed, sat Amber.
The cream-white sheets puffed up and sank under her contrasting red dress, as her black-gloved left arm pushed into the soft covers. The curtains were open, and warm morning light filled the room with brightness. The light-coloured walls only further contrasted the room they'd just left.
"So... how'd you wind up here?" Ichigo started off.
"That thing you did, with your sword. It sent me away, but not to Heaven." Amber explained. "I woke up in this body, pretty much straight away after giving you a hug. Sorry if it took a while to get back here, but you were gone for ages too."
"Sorry about that, a call home ran a little long in between dimensions." Ichigo rubbed a hand at the back of his horned head. "Time must've gotten displaced, by about two months or so for me."
Amber just blinked at him. "Righhht. Soul Reaper stuff."
"I went to your funeral, at least. That's what the black suit was for. I even put some flowers on your grave, just like you asked."
"You remembered that?" Amber smiled. "I'm touched. You even technically dressed in nothing but black every day, until I came back!"
"I didn't mean to keep that one..." Ichigo muttered.
Amber frowned. "Ichigo... do you know how the Maidens pass on their powers? I only found out after taking this body."
"I know how it works. The last person on your mind... but I'd have thought that would've been... me, wouldn't it?" How did the rules work here?
"Yep, and you're a guy. That means I got sent into a random woman instead, and that's where I ended up. Do you understand any of this stuff? I'm just spitballing, here. You're the Soul Reaper."
Ichigo put a hand on his chin. "A Soul Burial is just a ritual that acts as a spiritual catalyst... It only sends a soul where it would've already gone. So if it happened to be fused with magical power, and that power was going somewhere already, then..."
"You worked it out, huh?" Amber surmised. "I already knew you were sharp. Sharper than me, at least..." She waved at herself. "I may have bodyjacked someone."
"And you're the one in control." Ichigo ascertained. "The original owner isn't."
Amber replied slowly. "...Yes. You have to understand though, I didn't mean for any of it. I just woke up like this. In the end, I just used the materials she had prepped to get into Beacon and meet you."
"...So the konsō messed it up? I'm guessing it flipped what was supposed to naturally happen, on its head."
"That makes this... unnatural." Amber deemed, solemnly. "This body's alright, too, barring the eyepatch. Pretty fit, and no underlying health conditions either. I didn't want this, but..."
"It's not as if you could have helped it. But what about the other two in your room?" Ichigo pressed. "Don't tell me they're—"
"—Her friends? Yep. Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. They were meant to come here, too. They still think I'm, well, her."
"That's pretty messed up."
"I know."
Ichigo gave her a choice. "...I could try something, to separate you from this body, but I'd need a little while to get another one delivered."
"No!" she straightened up at once. Then, she sighed, and slouched.
"I... I gained her memories, so I've been able to put up a facade around them. I still feel guilty, but I don't want to die again..." Amber stared down at her hands in her lap.
"You wouldn't die." Ichigo immediately shut down her fear. "I'd make sure of it. It'd just be a blank vessel for you to inhabit."
"A blank what?"
"A body for spiritual beings. It's called a gigai."
Amber snorted. "I thought death was supposed to have strict rules..."
"Passing away is an event. There's no rules to the event of a car crash, is there? Death is like a car crash, but for life. You can't un-crash your car, but you can get out and catch a bus."
"So..."
"You'd still be dead, and not alive, but you'd be able to live as if you were. A world without true death would make life meaningless."
"Live as if I were alive?" Amber cocked her head. "Doesn't that kinda beat the point of me ever dying?"
"You wouldn't exactly be living a normal, human life, unless I got you a special one-of-a-kind one like my dad uses. And his takes Captain-level spiritual pressure to use. You'd have to keep it maintained– and only shinigami know how to fix it, other ghosts might mess with you, you can't have kids, and stuff like that. And, er, I wouldn't recommend ever going to the doctor. Plus everyone already kinda thinks you're dead..."
"What's the point of it at all, then!?" Amber cried. "I'm fine as I am, really!"
"If that's the case, then what brought you back to Beacon?" Ichigo pondered.
Amber's lip wobbled, before she settled on a straightforward answer. "You, silly!"
Ichigo pointed at himself, blankly. "...Me?"
"Of course! I'm here because I, quite literally, have nothing better to do." she stretched her arms out at him, palms up, in a showy-off manner. "You're the freakin' Grim Reaper! Why wouldn't I wanna hang out with you?"
"That first part doesn't make me feel nearly as good as you thought it would." Ichigo said dryly. "And do you really have nothing else to do, at all?"
"I don't have to work at all. I haven't got a family, and none of my so-called 'friends' text me unless I text them first, and even then I have to wait like an entire week for them to reply with a one-word answer..." she mumbled darkly.
"That's... ouch." Ichigo winced.
She threw her arms up in the air in frustration. "I know! And now none of them would even recognise me, anyway! Everyone thinks I'm dead, so I have to use Cinder as my name. My legal documents don't work, either. I'm really screwed, in that department."
"Well, I'm sure if we talk to Ozpin we could sort something out... maybe some sort of transfer of assets..."
"No way!" Amber crossed her arms with a puffy-cheeked pout. "Hmph. I'm not talking to that crusty tax-embezzling bastard! He was never on my side as a student! I almost got expelled at least once a year!"
"Hey, same here!" Ichigo related to her there. "Only, it was for normal school, back home." he clarified.
Amber raised an eyebrow. "You went to school?"
"I don't think I ever got round to telling you, but I'm a Deputy Soul Reaper." He reached into his red jacket's pocket, and pulled out his pentagonal badge. "I lived a normal life, until I got wrapped up in a century-long conspiracy in the making. Then it turns out my dad was just a shinigami living in the human world all this time, so I was always meant to be one. I just fought in a Thousand-Year-Blood-War before I wound up here."
Amber couldn't really comment on that. "...A Deputy? You seem really strong, though. And I thought you said the conspiracy thing was only a hundred years old? How'd that turn into a thousand?"
Ichigo shook his head. "Oh, those were completely separate things." he elaborated. "The first was a guy trying to take over the heavens and kill god. The second one happened a few years later, and that was an ancient supernatural race war over the afterlife."
"I thought the afterlife was supposed to be peaceful?" Amber murmured. "...Should you be telling me these things?"
Ichigo laced his fingers behind his head, and leaned back, elbows in the air. "I know, but that version of the afterlife isn't the one that applies to home. I told you, it's a Buddhist thing. The cycle of Samsara. Trust me, I looked it up on the internet. And it's fine for you to hear all this, 'cause it's not as if you don't already know what I am, anyway. Just don't advertise it."
"I don't think anyone would believe me anyway..." Amber remarked. "But that's fine, because I don't mind. I'll stick around, wherever you end up going."
Ichigo reflected on his plans for a moment. "Well, I'm probably going to be leaving this kingdom eventually. I don't really have much I can get from here, but until I figure out what I need to exactly do, there wouldn't be much of a point in setting off."
"And just what are you trying to do?" Amber inquired. "Is it getting home?"
"Nah, I've been located, so I can probably just rely on my friends for that." Ichigo waved off. "The thing I have to do here is a little more... complicated."
Amber narrowed her eyes slightly. "How complicated are we talking?"
Ichigo didn't sugarcoat it. "Preventing the collapse of all spiritual realms."
"That sounds bad." Amber commented blandly.
"It is bad." Ichigo stated just as plainly. "The Soul King died in the Blood War, so we're kinda screwed unless we figure something out. He's the lynchpin of all creation. Without him, everything falls back into a primordial soup of chaos. Kinda like a house of cards."
"...Only the cards are falling into a wood chipper." Amber tacked on.
Ichigo snapped his fingers at her. "Yeah, that."
"So what then? Are you just going to... to..." she trailed off. "–Actually, I don't know what you'd do in this scenario. I'm not all that experienced with this stuff."
"Neither am I." he agreed. "But I've got two years, so I should be good. Usually everything happens in a couple days at the last minute, for these sorts of things."
Amber gaped at him. "This isn't some homework you forgot! You can't just wait until the night before to phone it in!"
Ichigo frowned. "Who said I would? Obviously I'm gonna do something about it before it gets to that point. I've been told to take it easy, in fact. And I'm a great student. My homework was always on time. Mostly."
"But you said you almost got expelled as much as I did!" she reminded.
"That was for fighting." Ichigo dismissed. "And those fights weren't my fault. They still had it coming, though."
"Oh! That happened to me a lot, too!" Amber clapped her hands together. "Fights are great! No paperwork, no glaring screens– just you and your body. It's why I made a career out of it!"
"Fighting is fun, but I dunno about it being a career. I swear I've heard that if you monetise your hobby, you'll sap the fun out of it."
"It's only that way with lame stuff with deadlines, though." Amber contested. "Fights don't have deadlines, they just have the 'dead' part! That's why it's okay!"
It was then that Beacon's academy bell rung, a slow, musical chiming melody that echoed across the castle grounds, like a church bell. It was far slower than a usual shrill schoolbell, and far more pleasant on the ears. The sound reminded Ichigo of the gongs of a Quincy Vollständig, and a look outside his open bedroom window would show throngs of students sauntering across the courtyard to their next lesson. Their chatter filled the air, and could be heard even as high as the dorm room.
Speaking of fighting...
"Amber, since there's a combat class this afternoon..." Ichigo began.
"–You wanna fight?" she grinned eagerly, leaning forwards. "Cause I do!"
"I'll see you in the ring. Maybe you can give me a real workout." Ichigo smiled back.
Amber shot up to her feet. "You'll get a lot more than just that. I'm gonna go practice some stuff, I wanna catch you off guard." She swiftly strode over to the door, but stopped, with her back turned to him.
"And, one last thing... Ichigo, I'm alive again, thanks to you. I would say I feel like I've cheated death, but I wouldn't want to cheat you. You're the reason I'm alive, and I want you to know I know that. I care."
"Caring is enough for me, Amber. Thank you."
She walked out, shutting the door behind her softly.
He sat for a bit longer, his thoughts in conflict. Something was off, but he didn't know what. His instincts were telling him it really was Amber, but his gut was also telling him she was at the bottom of these bad vibes. He was speaking to her just now, he was sure of it, but was he speaking to someone else there, too?
He resolved to figure it out by tonight.
The idea that she had inadvertently taken someone else's body bothered him. Was that soul a part of Amber's now, or was it just suppressed? Either way, it bugged him, but not enough to deny Amber her new lease on life. She hadn't asked for it, after all. And if he were to police everyone in his life whenever they did something morally bad, he'd have more cases than he could count of things that made bodyjacking look tame. And he was only thinking of Kenpachi, there– forget about Mayuri.
Ichigo stood up, walking over to the window, adjusting it slightly. His face had felt a little hot back there, and needed a little more fresh air. Seeing the colourfully-dressed students from all across Remnant milling about down below reminded him of something.
On his desk were a couple pages from the weapon mechanics course he'd taken.
He had until the afternoon... so not enough to finish it completely, but enough to get something out of it before then. Hopefully something special.
"Aaaah! Who is this weirdo!?"
Ichigo looked up at her dryly. He was sitting at a bench in the lunch hall, across from Cinder with his hands around a sandwich. The cold blue artificial lights in the floor fought with the warm natural light of the high windows for ambience. Ruby stood to the side, her scythe strapped to her back, as it always was, now.
"...Ruby, I'm allowed to talk to people other than your team..."
"Sure, but this eyepatchy pirate-lady isn't even part of my sister's team, either!" she exclaimed.
"That's... not what I meant by that." Chomp.
"Jealous, shorty?" Cinder jabbed, pointing at the whining girl with a twirling fork between her fingers. "Goths went out of fashion about fifteen years ago, by the way."
"I'm not a goth!" She threw her arms in the air. "I just like the style!"
"Oh, so you're a poser, then?" she sneered. "That's even worse."
"Gaaaaah!" Ruby roared like an angry puppy, hands on the sides of her head. "I can't even start! She's worse than Yang!"
"There's still space." Ichigo tried diffusing her ire. "It's not as if her ass takes up the whole bench."
"I'm right in front of you, you know." Cinder deadpanned. "Couldn't you have said it a little softer?" She then introduced herself formally, with a hand on her bosom. "Cinder Fall. And you are...?"
"Ruby Rose!" she puffed her chest out, hands on her hips. It was the first time Cinder had taken any notice of the girl, and it was then that she noticed something quite significant. Something she found impossible to ignore.
Silver eyes.
Her single, orange orb zeroed in on the twin mercury pools, and she didn't look away.
"You are... from Beacon, is that right?"
"Yep! My sister's here too, but she's on a different team. What academy are you from?"
"Haven." Cinder answered in a single word. She ate tidily, cutting and spearing equally-sized portions of a smoked fish fillet with a polished knife and fork.
"Haven, eh?"
The three of them turned their heads to find Sun approaching, with Neptune in tow. The rest of RWRN followed.
"Can't say I ever saw you, back there." Sun scratched his head. "You look kinda older than us, too, like a tad bigger— Ow!"
"Don't tell a girl you just met they look old!" Neptune scolded, "This is why you have no game! E-hem." he coughed into his palm, the same one he'd just swatted at his partner with. "He meant mature, miss! Nice to meet you, the name's Neptune Vasilias." he held out his hand to Cinder. She just stared at it, until it was retracted awkwardly.
"She got held back a couple years." Ichigo answered for her with a coy grin. "She's gonna graduate this time though, for sure!"
"Oh, I get it!" Nora slammed her fist into her palm understandingly. "You're dumb as rocks!"
Snap. "You're..." Cinder dropped the broken halves of her fork onto her plate. "...Quite blunt, aren't you?"
"Ah– It seems like we got off on the wrong foot, here." Weiss stepped in, barging Nora to the side. "I'm the team leader of RWRN. Weiss Schnee."
"A Schnee in Beacon?" Cinder raised an eyebrow. "You're a bit of a rebel, aren't you?"
"In a way." Weiss replied. "Still, less so than my sister. She might be calling for the Vytal Festival, actually, but I'm not so sure. She said that there's a 'situation' in Atlas."
"Calling? Can't she do that now?" Ruby asked confusedly. "Ichigo just called his little sisters yesterday."
"I didn't mean it like that, you dolt. I meant visit!"
"Then why didn't you just say so?" Sun pointed out.
"It has two meanings! Check the dictionary!"
"It's a touch archaic, don't you think?" Ren reasoned.
The rhythmic ringing bells of Beacon interrupted Weiss's squabble with their resonant gongs, and sounded out the end of lunchtime.
"Sweet! Combat class!" Ruby cheered.
"So Ichigo, you up for our fight?" Sun knocked his fists together eagerly.
"I've got another one lined up first, but I can go for a round two afterwards, sure." He finished his sandwich quickly, scarfing down the last few bites. "Anyone got a napkin?"
"Here." Ren handed a tissue over. As Ichigo stood up, Ren asked a question on his mind, in earshot of everyone else.
"I thought you'd gotten your huntsman licence yesterday? Why bother going to a combat class with us students?"
"I wanted to fight Cinder, and this seems like a convenient enough time and place to do it." Ichigo shrugged. "I've been told to relax. This is me relaxing. It's not as if I go to any of your classes."
Ren nodded. "Fair enough. To each their own."
The amphitheatre was packed. Students from across Remnant sat in their teams, upon row after row of alternating white and green high bleachers arranged in concentric circles around the wide marble arena. The buzz of chattering trainees blanketed the stands.
Unlike the other combat halls, this arena was exposed to the open air, with no glass ceiling between it and the wide, pure blue sky. Raised plinths created a sense of spectacle in the air, similar to an ancient Greek theatre in their layout. The ring wasn't a complete circle, but instead was backed by a castle wall of laser-cut stonework and holographic lights. Ichigo followed team RWRN up the steps, finding a row of seats saved for them by the side of team PJYB.
"Ey, Ichigo! Sit here, sit here! I saved you a spot!" Jaune waved him over, patting the space to his left. The long benches had backrests here, which already put them above the indoor ones.
"Uh... thanks."
To his right, the rest of RWRN sat down, and he looked around. It wasn't long before he noticed who was sitting in the row right in front of him.
"This is the rest of your team, isn't it?" Neptune had dived into another attempt at chatting Cinder up, it seemed, only he was doing even more poorly than before. With both her teammates between them, it was Mercury who spoke back. He slouched back, arms leaning on the backrest behind him.
"All of us 'cept for Natalie. She's sick."
"So there were four of you?" Sun leaned over, popping his head in front. "What's your team name?"
Mercury smirked toothily. "Guess."
"Merc, don't." Emerald groaned, massaging her brow.
Sun counted the names off on his fingers. "Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, Natalie..." His jaw fell, and his blue eyes were wide. "No way..."
"That's right. Team CMEN, at your service." Mercury offered a hand, his face dead serious.
When Sun tentatively reached for the hand, seeing nothing else to do, the other boy threw his head back with a laugh.
"Stop dragging us down, you spaz." Emerald growled. "And we have no fourth member! He made that up!"
In truth, they'd long since discarded the idea of Neo working with them on the infiltration job when they made the call to drop Torchwick.
"No fourth member? That's odd, eh?" Yang giggled.
"Hilarious." Mercury said flatly.
"Ahahaha! I get it!" Emerald fake-laughed with a practised flair. She turned around in her seat to face backwards with a kindly smile. "I'm Emerald, and this is Mercury. Our leader's name is Cinder. It's nice to meet you!"
It was always best to butter up everyone you met. It got them to relax around you, which in turn got them vulnerable around you. To Emerald, it was common sense.
She did it with everyone she met, for as long as she could remember. At this point, it was natural.
"It's nice to meet you too!" Pyrrha took the bait, and spiralled the conversation down a maze of one-sided niceties and faux-appeasement. Mercury took one look at Emerald's bored-to-death scarlet eyes and gave her a sarcastic thumbs-up.
Soon, a loud ring echoed through the arena, and bright green projections of hard-light dust created empty bars for monitoring combatant's aura over the back wall of the arena.
The hum of the crowd quietened down, and below, Glynda Goodwitch strutted into the centre of the arena.
"Greetings, prospective huntsmen and huntresses of Beacon, Haven, Shade and Atlas. I look forwards to instructing you all today, as the next generation of humanity's guardians." she cracked her riding-crop, and the ring around her began to rumble.
From the flat stone of the arena's pale marble floor, a series of tiles pushed up to reveal doric columns, with vertical ridges and squared caps. They slotted into place, glowing purple from the Deputy Head's telekinetic semblance, leaving them flush with the rest of the space at the base, and six meters tall, each.
"As you can see, in order to prepare you all for the upcoming tournament's unique combat areas, this special outdoors combat amphitheatre has its own environmental quirks. I hope you all take full advantage of today. After all, with the Vytal Festival coming up..."
Ichigo tuned her out, poking Jaune at his side. "Hey, what's she talking about? There's a festival?"
"Huh? You don't know about the Vytal Festival? Pffft, I can't believe you. What, did you just drop off the face of the planet for the last month?"
"...Yes, actually." Ichigo reminded him bluntly.
"Oh, right..."
Jaune puffed his chest out, jerking a thumb at his chest. "Guess it's a good thing I'm here to help you, huh? The Vytal Festival is a big event thing where there's a load of food and knick-knack stalls in a field, and there's a ferris wheel and bouncy castle. Oh, and there's booth games too, but they're all scams, so watch out for that. My goldfish Kevin died only a day after I won it, and I'm still haunted to this very day..."
Ichigo stared at him for a few seconds, before he gave a slow nod, wondering what to even say to that. "That's... deep."
"It's fine... I've moved on... thanks to that, I now know of the fragility of life... it's what pushed me to finally chase my dream of becoming a huntsman!" Jaune declared, curling his fist in front of him.
"I'm glad you –hic– found happiness, Jaune..." Nora sobbed at the sad tale, as Ren rubbed her back. "It's so tragic that Kevin never got to see you follow your dreams..."
"That's the reason you forged your documents? Over a goldfish? And that's a terrible explanation of the Vytal Festival!" Weiss snapped. "You made it sound like some sorry excuse for a school fête!"
Jaune crossed his arms with a harrumph. "Obviously I had more reasons, like family history and stuff, and it's not my fault we could never afford ten tickets to the crazy floating island thing! Not everyone's a billionaire!"
"It's trillionaire, actually." Weiss at first crossed her arms and closed her eyes with a harrumph, but she quickly blinked open with a confused flutter. "Wait, ten?"
"There's a floating island?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow.
"Ten tickets? Why would you need that many?" Ruby leaned over curiously.
"I have seven sisters, plus there's mum and dad, too." Jaune revealed casually. "That makes ten. I'm a middle child."
"Wow..." Ichigo muttered. He tried to imagine seven Yuzus and Karins, and shuddered at the sheer imaginary chaos of a school day morning in a household like that. What would waiting for the bathroom be like?
"S-seven sisters!?" Weiss sputtered.
"You should see how wide his family photos are." Yang commented offhandedly. "He has a whole shelf up in our dorm, just for the one pic."
"It's quite impressive, honestly. Eight kids..." Blake placed a hand on her chin thoughtfully. "His mother must be quite a woman."
Pyrrha spoke dazedly, as though her mind were someplace else. "I wonder what it'd be like..."
"Pyr, you're squashing me..." Jaune croaked out.
"Oh, sorry!" she squirrelled back.
"So yeah, that's the Vytal Festival for you. Happy to answer all your questions, Ichigo." Jaune gave him a thumbs up.
"You didn't answer my questions at all!" Ichigo scowled. "Since when is there a floating island?"
Ren was the one to explain it to him. "Amity Arena uses a giant gravity dust crystal underneath it to fly continuously. It's the grounds for the Vytal tournament, and it moves between the kingdoms every two years for each festival. You'll know it when you see it; it's a wonder of the world."
"A tournament, huh... when's it kicking off?"
"This Summer! And we're gonna win!" Nora cheered. Hugging Ren to her left and Ruby to her right, with all her strength.
"Ack! Help, Weiss help!" Ruby squeaked as she reached searchingly for her partner's arm.
Weiss ignored the hand with a snide, shallow smile, looking Ruby in the eyes as she did. "Calling for help, are we?"
"Aaaah! Betrayal!" her partner cried.
Meanwhile, Ichigo weighing the time frames up mentally. "Summer? Dammit." That was too far away. He couldn't reasonably stick around that long, when he only had two years at max to work with. Right now it was Winter, so he had about seven seasons left to go. Looks like he wouldn't be able to participate. A shame, but he had a job to do. His dad had told him to be 'mature', after all.
Though... maybe he could come back to Vale once it started, just for the tourney?
He went back to listening to the teacher, as she began to wrap her speech up.
"...Now, who wishes to go first?" Ms Goodwitch's emerald eyes rove across the crowd of willing students, but one volunteer stood out the most.
"Ooooh! Pick me pick me! Over here!" Ruby stood up in the stands, holding her scythe overhead horizontally and shaking it up and down like a hyperactive desert raider.
"...Ruby Rose is up first. Do you have an opponent in mind?"
"Yes! You! You were mean to me at lunch!" she pointed right at Cinder, singling her out.
"What? I refuse. Emerald, you handle it." she ordered.
"Haah?" Ruby complained. "Is that even allowed?"
"Me?" Emerald exclaimed.
"You heard her. Leader's lead. Don't wanna disappoint her, do you?" Mercury teased, slapping her on the back.
"Fine! I'm gonna kill– knock your socks off!" she declared, standing up as well.
"So it is allowed? It shouldn't be!" Ruby pouted. "Whatever, if I win then I beat your whole team by proxy!"
"Ridiculous!" Cinder snarled. "Emerald, if you lose now, you're dead to me."
"Wha!?" the green-haired girl lamented.
"We can do better!" Weiss butt in. "Ruby! If you disgrace our team here, you have to quit the academy to atone!"
"I'm not doing that! You're completely delusional! You're abusing your power, you Ice Queen dictator!" Ruby spat.
"Her highness is correct! Victory or death!" Nora pumped her fist in the air. "Knock 'em dead, or die trying!"
𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐨! 𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 '𝐞𝐦!
"Not you too!" Ruby moaned down at Crescent Rose in her hands.
Miss Goodwitch pulled out a tablet, and read the name of the foreign student off the enlarged scroll. "Emerald Sustrai versus Ruby Rose. This should be a fine starter match."
Ichigo sat back, getting comfortable. Hopefully he'd get to see now, just what Ruby's new weapon was capable of. He couldn't help but keep noticing it whenever he looked at her. If it was what he thought it was, then he'd probably have to break the news to her at some point, if she didn't already know.
As a bell rung out across the arena, and the match was set to start, he watched as their pictures flickered into place on the holograms alongside the combatant's aura meters.
[Ruby Rose: 100%] — [Emerald Sustrai: 100%]
This should be entertaining to watch.
NEXT: 23 - THE SMOKING GUN - [Clavar la Espada]
Author notes:
It's BLEACH Saturday! What do you think of the new cover image? It took me a while, but I'm satisfied with it. The OST for this chapter is an unreleased track, so you've gotta look up 'Bleach pain' on Youtube to find it. Captain Komamura really did get one of the best spotlights in the TYBW last week. He's an underrated character IMO. Mask is one of the best Sternritters btw. I'm glad he gets to be Renji's first proper win.
Arena design: [64DOTmediaDOTtumblrDOTcom/cdcfb7fa5efe52d2cdfe6bc167dfa553/tumblr_mr33nk1jNG1qgseqbo4_1280DOTpng]
It's the right side middle design, there. Imagine it neater, and pale marble.
If you're confused about Cinder/Amber, and which one is truly in control, then that's good, cause that's the whole point here. It'll get wrapped up pretty quickly, I intend to sort this arc out before moving on with the plot. The Autumn Maiden is the focus here, and Ichigo's already onto her. It'll pick up more and more steam from here. This chapter is short, because I wanted the next one to be purely fights, which'll be Emerald vs Ruby and Ichigo vs Fall all in one chapter. I know a lot of guys in the reviews like the fight scenes in this story. Next time, it's right into the action.
I already know there's gonna be people who wonder 'ZOMG why didn't he waste them all and dab on their corpses in the very first scene?' To which I answer that Ichigo isn't some 200 IQ cold sigma like Aizen. I made a point to say he's being confident, rather than negligent here. He knows he can do whatever he wants, and he wants to wait and see for now. He can afford to.
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