30: THE SPIDERS' LAIR - [Feudal Society]
My Bleach x Bloodborne story is out now!
The air carried the distinct tang of wood-smoke, and Amber crinkled her nose at the haze that had settled over the derelict village of Shion.
Ichigo walked slightly in front of her, with a confident purpose behind the direction he had chosen. He didn't check inside any of the abandoned houses with their smashed-in doors, nor did he even so much as glance around corners before turning them. He already knew where he was going, and what he'd find there.
He missed the apprehensive expression on Amber's face, the way her dark-orange eyes darted left and right and how her lip was drawn into a tight line as she fidgeted with her hands. Eventually she fought through her anxiousness, and spoke up.
"So... about what happened back there..." she tapped the ends of her index fingers together nervously.
"What, you mean how a shootout almost broke out?" Ichigo ascertained. "Mercury sure likes pushing buttons."
"He does, he does, you're right about that..."
"It seems like he's been acting up though. I feel like he was more chilled out when I first met him, y'know." Ichigo recalled their first encounter in that Beacon hallway.
"That's 'cause you turned his whole world upside down, silly. Plus, Cinder's not around to keep such a tight leash on him anymore." She tried to put her thoughts into words that did them justice. "...The two of them, Mercury and Emerald, well, they come from a bad place. Kinda like Cinder."
Ichigo kicked a brick from a collapsed wall out of the way, sending it skidding down the street. "Yeah, I can tell. I'm not all that bothered by them, but I can't say the same for everyone else."
"I'm sure they'll warm up! Give it some time! It's just that, you can't really foster... 'people skills' in the sorta environments they grew up in. One was once a homeless orphaned thief, and the other an underworld assassin's son."
"His dad's an assassin?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow at that.
"Was an assassin. Marcus Black was one of the most infamous hitmen on Remnant, employed in secret by Kingdoms and criminal organisations alike. Yet, when I– I mean Cinder– found him, he was dead at Mercury's feet, with their secluded cabin burning down behind them."
He could hear Cinder's more formal speech patterns bleeding into Amber's voice as she drew on the memories foreign to her. As she spoke, his frown continued to deepen.
"...That's fucked up. His own father? No wonder he's like that." he stopped walking, and turned on his heels to face her properly.
"Language!" Amber scolded.
"Really?" Ichigo scoffed, "You can't call something like that anything else. Still... he doesn't strike me as the type to have done it without a reason, but I don't think I wanna know it. I'm not really the prying type."
"Trust me, he had a reason all right. You'll know it when you see it." Amber said darkly, a shadow over her expression. "I don't know why I was so nervous about bringing this up though. You seem weirdly understanding."
"Those two really aren't all that bad, by my standards. Trust me on that one. They'll be fine, they just need some guidance." Ichigo reassured with a small smile.
"Why'd you put it like that? I'm not their mom or anything..." Amber huffed.
"You still feel responsible for them, don't you?" Ichigo replied guessingly.
"How can you tell? I just... uh... yeah, you're right. Ah..." she sighed, giving in.
"Relax, it's not a bad thing. Just don't try feeding things that'll bite you. Kindness has a limit, in my opinion. After that, it's just wimpiness." Ichigo turned towards the building in front of them, and reached up for the handle of the sword on his back.
His fingers curled around the sealed form of Zangetsu's handle, pressing against the cool metal in a firm grip. He pulled the giant blade up, over and down in front of him, an frontal overhead slash that gouged out a rift of a line right through the front wall of the house. It crumbled in, and the roof partially collapsed, all as he re-sheathed his sword on his back and gestured forth with a tilt of his head.
"Ladies first."
Within the cracked-open house, was a mess of shattered tables, shelves and otherwise empty rooms. Cloud-addled sunlight diffused through the hold Ichigo had carved into the building. The place had clearly been ransacked, and Grimm wouldn't bother tearing open cupboards and drawers like what could be seen here. It was pretty obvious that Mercury and Blake's hunch was right.
They weren't alone.
In the corner of what was once a living room, sat an old man on a rocking chair. The ghost of an old man, softly creaking his chair back and forth. He wore blacked-out circular shades, and had a fairly long beard than grew from his chin. A ever-damp welt of blood glistened on his bald head, yet the wound didn't run, nor did it seem to be drying at all. He was dead. Dead! And yet, she could see him right there...
Amber wasn't sure how she could tell he was dead, he just... felt different from everyone else she could sense. She turned to Ichigo for direction, only for him to grab her by the shoulder and pull her aside.
"H-hey! What gives!" she snapped.
Ichigo scratched at his cheek awkwardly. "I might've neglected to mention something until now. Are you feeling hungry? Just asking."
"Not really?" she cocked her masked head, "Why?"
"It has a little to do with what you are now. An Arrancar; an evolved Hollow."
"What, you mean my mask and hole?" she peeled back the dark fabric of her detached collar, revealing the empty space where her throat would've been. "What is it?" she pressed nervously.
"Don't freak out, okay?"
"Just tell me!"
"Hollows eat souls to fill the void in their hearts." Ichigo paused an awkward moment, looked left and right, then tried softening the blow. "–Generally."
"What the hell!?" she cried.
"I told you not to freak out!"
"You only said that because you knew me freaking out would be completely justified!" she gulped, "Am I gonna- do I have to eat souls now? I haven't felt hungry yet, at all."
Ichigo mentally reviewed the hollows he'd come across until now. "...Do you know what a Hollow is? They're known as fallen souls, souls that weren't admitted to the Soul Society by a Shinigami, souls that were left behind, that have fallen, and lost their hearts. That's what a friend told me once when I was just starting out. But you know what? Just because they lost their hearts, doesn't mean they can't regain them. You're not even a Hollow anymore, but an Arrancar. And I've met plenty of Arrancar that're decent people. Honestly, a ton of Shinigami and Quincy are so sociopathic that it balances out. I'd say you never lost your heart in the first place, 'cause you replaced Cinder once she lost hers."
"So why are you warning me now, all of a sudden?" she asked pointedly.
"Well... this'd be the first time you'd be seeing a spirit. I just wanted to make sure you don't accidently vacuum the guy up. You can do that, by the way. I've seen it happen before."
"I can!?" she blanched.
"Don't worry about it." Ichigo brushed off, "I think you're probably subsisting off the spiritual pressure I'm emitting constantly. Plus, Remnant is fairly denser in ambient reishi than the World of the Living anyhow, on top of your reduced appetite 'cause you're already an Arrancar."
"That's reassuring... I think." she tried sounding like it, but her voice still wavered with a lilt of uncertainty.
"It's alright, I'll take the lead." Ichigo told her as he walked back into the room with the old ghost. She followed behind him, timidly, hands over her stomach as if checking for any signs of rumbling.
"Hey, I'm a Soul Reaper. You looking to pass on?"
"Hm... you can see me..." the old man spoke slowly, the words leaving his mouth with the unhurried, steady pace of a tortoise's footsteps. "I understand. My time has come."
"...He's taking this awfully well, isn't he?" Amber pondered.
"The old ones usually do." Ichigo told her, before addressing the elder again. "That's good, old man. Before I send you on, could I ask you a few questions real quick?"
"What could a being like you possibly seek to learn from a mortal like me?" he asked back. "Tell me first, if I may, are my sons and grandchildren alright?"
"I can't sense anyone with a soul similar to yours around here. They must've gotten away just fine." Ichigo wasn't telling any comforting lies; of all the souls he could sense in the village, and none of them were nearby. "I just want to know, who raided Shion?"
"Oh? Is this for divine justice, then? I'll gladly tell you, if that's the case." the man sneered ruefully, "It was a tribe of bandits, vile scum that have plagued the wildlands between Kingdoms for generations now. They've lasted longer than most settlements out here do, and have sowed havoc and chaos Anima since before I was born. My father once told me they sprung up out of the ashes of the Great War, from lawless huntsmen who had nothing to go home to. That is all I know."
"Do they have a name?"
"The Branwen clan." he growled. "A barbaric lot of thieves and murderers. Left us for the Grimm to finish off, they did."
"Branwen? I think I might've heard that name before... that's a big help. You can rest now." Ichigo pulled his sword from his back, and tapped the bare pommel against the old man's wrinkled forehead, avoiding the blood there. Amber recognised the proceedings from her own Soul Burial, though this one would be permanent. A luminous halo appeared over his head as he began to dissolve into a shimmering scatter of pure golden-white light.
"See? That wasn't so bad. That's what a konsō looks like from the outside." Ichigo explained. "I'm wondering... did you see anything on your side when I gave you one?"
"I didn't really see anything, but I did feel something." Amber touched a hand to her chest, over her heart. "Like... everything was alright now, a feeling that it'd all work out, even if I was gone."
"Hm. Sounds a lot... holier than my afterlife." Ichigo remarked.
"Really?" she followed as he stepped back out onto the empty street.
"It's less of an afterlife, and more of another realm of existence. I already told you about it, I think. The cycle of Saṃsāra. I'd call it more Eastern than Western... but if you're from another planet, then it wouldn't mean much to you as a point of reference."
"I think I'd like to see it one day..." Amber mused.
"Maybe, one day." Ichigo nodded with a fleeting smile. It was soon inverted, and he was serious once more. "But first things first. The bandits. We have a loose lead, next we've got to tighten it."
"So that means..."
"Yep. Asking the rest of the ghosts here. C'mon, it shouldn't take too long."
Ichigo was right, it didn't take that long.
But Amber still felt uneasy. Meeting these recently-deceased people was bizarre, and off-putting. Before every encounter, she felt an apprehensive clenching in her guts that just wouldn't go away.
But Ichigo was there, and he spoke to each and every one of them with ease, as if they were simply normal people he met in the street. They'd only found the souls of adults, and it turned out that the youngest were protected and evacuated first. Thank goodness... But Amber couldn't help but feel a great sadness weighing down upon her as she watched Ichigo perform konsō after konsō, as though her heart was no longer in her chest.
The very last one they met was a Huntsman.
His hair and eyes were brown, and he wore a grey-and-yellow set of armour. He was sitting against a collapsed wall, and staring blankly up at the sky. Slowly, his eyes tracked towards them, and they widened in shock.
"Am I... am I dead?"
"Sorry to say, yes you are. What happened here? Tell me, and I'll help you pass on."
"Hmph," he grunted, as he stood up address them. "What are you? You don't... there's something about you. You don't seem human, either of you."
Blood stained his armour, and he had a small trickle oozing from the corner of his mouth. They weren't real wounds anymore, just patches of the slick crimson fluid. Ichigo had told her that the blood on a wandering spirit indicated how they died. If that was the case, he'd been impaled.
"You're pretty perceptive," Ichigo appraised the soul's already-developed spiritual senses. "Then that means I'm telling the truth, doesn't it? You want to help me out here?"
"There was a raid... I was going to go after a few of the looters, but before I knew it, the entire town was bathed in flames that sprung up all at once out of nowhere. A woman with a mask stabbed me so hard that it just went right through my aura, and that was that... I just bled out afterwards. I think I might've been the only one they actually killed themselves... the rest of us were all left for the Grimm to pick off."
"A woman with a mask?" Amber repeated curiously, touching at her own mask over her left eye. "You mean, like mine?"
"No, not like yours... it was more Grimm-shaped. Covered her whole head. A helmet, really. She seemed trained, way more than any bandit should be..."
Ichigo nodded, and smoothly drew Zangetsu, tapping the hilt against the man's head before sheathing it again in one fluid motion, fast enough that the man couldn't react.
"What did you just– oh. I see... thank you." the man raised his hands to his face, watching as they disseminated into golden light. As he was about to fade completely, he nodded one last time. "Thank you..."
"Don't mention it." Ichigo nodded back, as he watched the spirit disappear.
- –—{}—– -
"...So you've been doing this since you were fifteen?" Amber gaped. It had come up in conversation before, but she couldn't let it go.
"It never really bothered me that much." Ichigo continued, "I've been able to see ghosts for as long as I could remember."
Amber was amazed at him. He treated it like such a normal thing to do... She'd probably end up bawling her eyes out if she was in his shoes.
Ichigo pulled out his scroll, and typed out a message. "We're done here. Let's go."
A whisper of shunpo, and the buzz of sonído, and they were standing in an open courtyard near the exit gate of the village. It wasn't long before the others gathered before them.
Standing under what resembled a torii gate, painted a dull sun-faded red, Ichigo addressed the assembled Huntsmen and Huntresses whilst leaning up against a pillar of the gate, his arms crossed.
"...So did you find anything?"
Sun flicked a metal cylinder his way with his thumb, and Ichigo snatched it out of the air. He inspected it between his fingers, but...
" A bullet shell? Uh... I'm not from around here. From another dimension, remember. What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Right..." Sun palmed his forehead.
"It's a dust cartridge casing, stupid. A Mistralian make, different to the ones you've seen in Vale. Dust bullets don't leave anything behind, most of the time, unless they're real heavy-duty." Neptune informed. "I can tell there's moisture inside this one, so it was probably holding ice."
"Ice? But I thought they set the place on fire... unless they had some other way of lighting it all up." Jaune wondered.
"They probably used fire dust too, but the casings all got melted." Blake supposed, "Then again, a bandit tribe doesn't exactly strike me as the type to just waste so much dust like this. They don't exactly have a steady supply. How could they have cast so much fire?"
"Well actually, the ones we're going after are a pretty big deal." Amber clued in, "So they might have dust to spare."
"You found something?" Emerald guessed.
"We've got a name." Ichigo revealed.
"How'd you manage that?" Mercury raised an eyebrow.
"I'm from another dimension. I've got my ways." he brushed off cryptically. His gaze shifted across every face in front of him, "...Does the name 'Branwen' ring a bell with anyone here?"
A small gust of cross-wind rolled in, kicking up a knee-high crop of dust.
Yang paled. Her fingers clenched together, until her palms grew clammy and uncomfortable. Her attention grew dead-set.
"Branwen?" Jaune held a finger to his chin in thought. "Hey, isn't that the surname of Ruby and Yang's uncle?"
"Oh yeah!" Ichigo snapped his fingers as it came back to him, "I met him a while ago. That's where I'd heard it before."
"It must be a coincidence, right?" Pyrrha reasoned.
"Just a coincidence." Yang nodded stiffly, "...Do you know anything else?" she stepped forwards, drawing attention to herself. "I– I want to know. When Shion was attacked, can you figure who was leading them?"
Ichigo made sure to be careful with his words. "Probably someone with Huntress training. What's got you asking that?"
She was quiet for a long moment. The scant seconds of silence was almost its own response, in a way, but she eventually formulated a response. "It's... nothing."
"Huh, that means it's something..." Jaune surmised. It was pretty obvious, really, but Yang seemed to be holding onto the idea that nobody would pull her up on it. A scathing lilac glare was shot his way, and he twitched, before hopping behind Pyrrha. "–something personal! So I'm not curious at all!"
Pyrrha laid a hand on her teammate's shoulder, and asked a simple question with that ever-calm tone of hers. "Yang, I'm not demanding, but if it's something that can help us here..."
Yang's gaze fell down to her feet, "It's not, I swear. I know as little as you guys do. That's why I was asking."
Ichigo aired the same question to the rest of them. "Anyone else got anything?"
It wasn't a Mistralian who answered his call, oddly enough. Mercury stepped forwards, hands in his pockets, with a gleam in his silver eyes.
"I might have something."
Ichigo just nodded, letting him go on.
"What do you know about Mistral?"
"...It's big, closely allied with Atlas, and has the biggest population on Remnant." Ichigo listed off, then glanced at the sloped houses behind the grey-haired boy's shoulder. "It's also a little like home. But none of that has anything to do with what you're about to say, does it?"
Mercury grinned, and acquiesced.
"Found that out in a squeaky clean library, eh? Those books won't tell you this: Mistral has the biggest criminal underground out of all the Kingdoms. The meanest, nastiest, worst-of-the-worst of organised crime rings operate out of here, and the Mistralian Council doesn't do shit about them. It's an open secret."
"Hey now, Mistral isn't that bad..." Pyrrha crossed her arms. She ruffled with annoyance at the claims, as if she herself was the one slighted.
"Tch, what would you know? You're a celebrity probably from some cushy part of Anima." Mercury clicked his tongue. "Obviously someone like you wouldn't be caught dead in a shithole like Kuchinashi."
"Don't talk to her like that!" Yang growled.
"Dude... you say that like anyone would willingly go to Kuchinashi in the first place." Neptune muttered knowingly.
"Huh. Y'know, I'd have thought Vacuo would be more of the 'wretched hive of scum and villainy' sorta place, from what I've heard." Ichigo mused, then he froze, and spun to face Sun. "–Uh, no offence."
"None taken, man." he brushed off, "Vacuo ain't that bad, trust me. I just wanted to see something other than sand for once, so I picked Haven over Shade."
"Mistral isn't some lawless badland either." Neptune added. "Where I grew up is just fine. There are a few no-go zones though, and like he said–" he gestured at Mercury– "Kuchinashi's one of 'em."
"Mercury's not even from Mistral..." Pyrrha blanked, "...how does he know more about this stuff than me?"
"My old man was in the business. The Hana, The Hearth, Black Sheep, Spider, Mouse and Parrot, you name it, he took on jobs for them."
"...What kind of jobs?" Jaune asked, faintly.
"Hits. He was a... liquidator, so to speak."
Mercury didn't give a crap about hiding it; either these schmucks would accept him as he was, or not. He didn't care for pleasantries built on a lie.
"Your dad was a hitman!?" Blake exclaimed.
"...That's pretty cool..." Sun commented earnestly. He didn't like Mercury much, but he had to give him credit here.
"No, that is not cool!" Blake hissed. She didn't like Mercury much, and she gave him zero credit here.
"It was my dad, not me. The bastard's dead, anyway. Why do you care? Weren't you a terrorist?"
"Gah!" Blake whined, "Why won't anyone let me live that down!?"
"Because you're so preachy, that it's just too damn ironic. It's frickin' hilarious." Ichigo tacked on.
"Not as if I killed anyone..." she huffed with a puffed-up pout.
"...So as I was saying, my old man's dead as a doornail." Mercury didn't sound the slightest bit melancholic as he reiterated it. "–Guess what that means? Anything owed to him, is now owed to me. Or at least, that's how some guilds treat it, anyway. The Spiders've got the best info-brokers, I say we head to them." Frustrated realisation overtook his face like a flash-flood, "...Which means we do have to go to Kuchinashi after all. Crap, why did I open my mouth?"
"Nice going, dumbass." Emerald jabbed as he facepalmed.
"'Spider', huh? I think I've heard of them..." Amber recalled. Or rather, she recalled from Cinder. And one thing led to another, like a series of mental dominoes falling into one another until the very last piece fell off the table of untapped memories entirely.
"...Uh oh." she paled, "Ichigo! The Spiders! Cinder's heard of them from a guy called Hazel Rainart! I think he's gonna use them to track down the Maiden first!"
"Hang on– there're more people than just us looking for the Maidens?" Jaune's eye twitched at that.
Ichigo blinked guiltily. "Oh crap, didn't we tell you?"
Blake facepalmed, and Sun burst out laughing.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me..." she grit out.
"Seriously man?" he wiped an amused tear from his eye. "You're just winging this whole thing, aren't you?"
"What can I say?" Ichigo didn't deny. "It's how I roll."
"...So, if whatever the hell Amber's talking about is true, then doesn't that mean we can ask Spider about the Maidens as well?" Jaune reasoned.
"...So it comes down to finding the Maidens first, or whoever trashed this village." Neptune weighed it up.
"What do you mean 'first'?" Emerald piped up, "You think Merc's gonna get to play twenty questions with these mugs? They're brokers, dumbass, they don't work for free. We'll get that one favour, and that's it."
"Em's right." Mercury agreed, "Either the bandits or the Maiden. We've got to pick and choose. Unless one of us is stinkin' rich."
"The bandits." Yang stated immediately. Her tone wouldn't relent to any argument they could make against her. "We have to go after the Branwens."
"Jeez, I was going to say that anyway." Ichigo noticed her frigid tone; they all did, and he knew then and there, there was an unspoken reason for it. He rubbed at his neck, his eyes closed for a short moment. "...I just so happen to actually be stinking rich, so we're in luck after all."
The pay-out for Mountain Glenn would be coming in handy now.
"He's right– Ichigo's a millionaire! We can get all the information we want!" Jaune exclaimed excitedly.
"Then our plans are all set. Let's get going—"
Grumble.
Ichigo paused, and his eyes edged sideways, over to a beet-red Pyrrha, who was clutching her stomach.
He suddenly remembered that he was working alongside flesh-and-blood humans, who needed to eat and sleep every night, unlike spiritual beings who hardly needed much of either, if any at all.
"...Tomorrow." he decided, "We'll sleep here for tonight. Thanks for the help planning this all out. We can probably find a working kitchen in one of these houses, and there'll be enough beds for everybody too. If you're not too creeped out by it, anyway."
Jaune definitely seemed to be the latter, but Mercury, Emerald, Blake and surprisingly Sun didn't seem to be too fussed at the prospect of squatting in one of the abandoned houses overnight.
Ichigo reflected on what he'd heard as they began to split up once more. He really only had a passing knowledge of the world here, and everyone else knew at least one thing in greater depth than he did. If they weren't here, he wouldn't have any leads at all. He was grateful for the help, because he really couldn't have gone it alone. Turns out, no matter where he was, the friends he made would always be important.
As they fanned out, Yang remained where she was, taking in all of the destruction wrought upon the fallen village anew. Her nose crinkled, and not just from the lingering scent of the burnt air.
She was the last to leave.
Elsewhere in Mistral, another pair were at work that night.
A pair separated by great distance, but nonetheless in sync.
"...So, pray tell, how goes the hunting?"
Arthur Watts gingerly took a sip from a white-gold teacup as he awaited the response over his scroll. He held the device up against his ear with his left hand, the porcelain cup in his right.
#"The Spiders were of no use to me. Nor were the Hana. It seems that such mystic knowledge is beyond the scope of mere worldly gangsters."#
"Oh?" Watts hummed, "Not even the slightest clue?"
#"...It does seem that there is a great tension in the air. A certain bandit tribe is growing too powerful, and now they're overtaking entire settlements. It seems that the more formal crime rings don't approve."#
"Mmm... interesting, really." Watts waved a teaspoon in a little circle in the air as he considered things. "–Mayhaps those bandits have a certain 'asset' of the magical persuasion in their hands. What do you think?"
#"It's... possible."# the gruff voice sounded contemplative. #"Perhaps the crime guilds weren't so useless, after all."#
"Yes, quite. Perchance, if you were to pay them a visit, and there really was a barbarian Maiden in their numbers, then I would prefer you not to go it alone."
#"Are you doubting my strength, Watts?"#
"Oh, not at all." he put down the teacup, onto its thin alabaster saucer with a chiming clink. "I can say this because I consider myself to be a fairly serviceable judge of strength. I do not doubt; I –know. With Cinder out of the picture, those who serve Our Lady are thin in number. I'll accompany you myself, once I am finished here."
#"...Fine, so be it."# the man growled down the line.
"It has been good speaking with you, Hazel—"
Click.
Watts withdrew the custom-made scroll away from his ear, and tutted.
"Pah, he hung up on me! The gall of that man..." he pocketed the device, and pulled free a folding pipe from another of his many hidden pockets. Pressing at a button on the shaft, it sparked and lit itself. Another of his many inventions.
He drew a hearty puff of smoke from the self-lighting pipe, rocked his head back against the leather chair's neck-rest, and blew it out towards the ceiling in a blue-grey hazy ring. The pungent smoke danced and mingled around the dust-lit chandelier, dappling the light in the private office. One far more ornamental than Ozpin's.
He glanced across the tabletop, at the other man in the opposite seat, and popped the pipe from his mouth to air a casual, friendly question. The room was heady with the scent of Atlesian tobacco.
"Care for a smoke, Leonardo?"
"N-no, Doctor Watts. I'm quite alright, thank you. Just fine! I don't smoke."
Sitting in a plush leather mini-sofa, in what should have been his office, but didn't really feel like it at all, was Leonardo Lionheart. Headteacher of Haven... and servant of Salem.
A mane of thick greying hair over tanned features concealed an uneasy frown. Ruddy brown eyes darted around the place, from the tea set on the table, to the uneaten biscuits, to the smoke-curls near the ceiling, to his unwelcome guest, and then the furtive cycle started all over again. The bundle of nerves wore a tan greatcoat with a matching brick-reddish mantle, left open with unfastened cross emblems on each side. A white dress shirt adorned with a western bolo necktie, matched with tan slacks and brown dress shoes completed his look.
Usually, he wore it well. But right now, before this envoy of the dark witch, it was as if the clothes were wearing him instead.
"Oh really?" Watts raised a dark eyebrow, with an impish amusement in his toxic-green eyes. "They say it calms the nerves. I say you look like you need it."
He'd tasted his host's palpable anxiety, and was relishing it. It was so very funny to see the man squirm. And this was the Headmaster of an Academy? Hilarious, really.
"Oh well, it's your loss I suppose." he reached into another pocket of his, and placed a small, tinny-silver button on the table. Whirr. It expanded horizontally, until a small ashtray had unfolded itself on the tabletop. He tapped his pipe upside-down on the metal gadget, and let it rest there.
"Now!" He clapped his hands together, then rubbed them together quickly and eagerly. "Let's get down to business. When we have procured the Spring Maiden, what do you do?"
"Close the school, and let you access the vault discreetly...?"
"Correct!" Watts smiled, and snapped his fingers. "And what are you going to do until then?"
"...Avoid contact with Ozpin?"
"Wrong!" Watts slammed his palms down on the table, and leaned up into the middle-aged Professor's bearded face. Their noses almost touched, but Watts wasn't bothered by that. It added to his flair, and the gravitas of his next words; "If you were to, say, suddenly stop contacting Ozma, what would he think? Obviously he wouldn't magically become aware of your true loyalty to Our Lady, but wouldn't he still send an envoy? Perhaps that dammed crow, hm? It'd draw attention here, and attention is the last thing we need. Does your feeble mind understand me?"
"Y-yes!" Lionheart gulped.
Watts settled back in his chair with a harrumph. "We've already acquired one relic, under Ozma's nose no less. Our directives have shifted from overt, to covert as a result of this boon. Just think of it..."
He leaned back in his chair, reclining until he faced the hazy ceiling with stars in his eyes. He waved his hands in the air as he spoke, gesturing grandly. His mind awash with his true vision.
"Millennia of warfare between two immortals, coming to a head in our lifetime. The Witch shall finally triumph over the Wizard... what world will she build out of the ashes? Don't you wish to see it? I do. That curiosity, to be the first in history to lay eyes upon a new world... to be part of a new order, change after aeons of stagnation. That, that is why I follow Her... what about you?"
Watts straightened himself back up to catch Lionheart in the middle of trepidatiously reaching for a biscuit.
"I... I don't fancy the idea of dying, I suppose..."
Watts sighed disappointedly. Perhaps the fellow wasn't so entertaining after all.
Mercury was right. Kuchinashi was a shithole.
After waking up the next day, plus another day mostly spent travelling, they'd finally arrived at what was apparently called 'the Approach'. Nestled in the mountain ranges south of Mistral's capital like an egg in a viper's nest, even entering the city was proving to be an issue. A series of unkempt rope bridges, rickety gates and gouged-out ravines interrupted their pathways through the dense tropics, and after a while Ichigo grew bored of just waiting for the others to climb them and started playing ferryman. He'd simply heft them two-at-a-time and either throw them across, or carry them up on thin air. It started with just the pony, but soon the rest of them got the express treatment.
"Who the hell designed this place?" Ichigo grumbled. His arms swung back and forth, as he lined up the shot. He was also incidentally holding Jaune.
"B-be careful please! Not too hard! Not too hard– aaaaaaaaaah!"
He careened across the gorge, not without having to even touch the rickety rope bridge wobbling in the breeze. He skidded down into the foliage with a soft thud, as Ichigo just simply walked across the gap. The others were already waiting for him.
"It's a natural security system." Mercury explained, "You never enter Kuchinashi by accident, it's not the kind of place you stumble into."
Ichigo wiped his brow. He was back in his human body, and could feel the ambient heat permeating everything, far more than his companions with aura did. It wasn't quite muggy, but the air was borderline moist, and the clouds in the sky were only building as the afternoon crept on. It must've been the climate here. A tropical rainforest. Unseen bugs sounded similar to the chirping of cicadas, and he could hear croaking and rustling in the underbrush, and the skies were full of birdsong. The lowering sun's rays filtered through the dense canopy above, like the luminary equivalent of the sky's whispers. The air smelt so fresh. He had to admit, this wasn't that bad. It was a bonafide jungle adventure, and he hadn't ever been on one of those before. The Menos Forest didn't count.
Eventually, they came to a cave's mouth. This wouldn't mean much usually, but this one was decorated. It was decorated very peculiarly.
"...Is that a Boarbatusk?" Sun observed aloud. They all saw it.
Mounted over the entrance to the cave, was a Boarbatusk. A limbless, tuskless Boarbatusk that had been pretty much staked alive over the arch of the dark opening. Its very-much living, livid red eyes followed them and they could see, even in this sorry state, the malice contained within those crimson orbs.
"...They took the limbs off it, so it can't do anything now but be a decoration." Emerald stuck her tongue out. "...Gross."
A speeding spike of shining ice pierced the mounted Grimm, and shattered against the rocky face of the wall. Their heads zipped round, and they caught Amber with her hand out and a disgusted look on her face. Her half-masked eyes tracked across their faces, and she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly with that same arm.
"...Uhm, I agree with Emerald?" she made a face. "Bleh, that was pretty nasty. You're meant to finish Grimm off, not do whatever... that was."
Ichigo nodded. He wasn't the type for torture. If he was really pissed off at somebody, he'd mess them up before the finishing blow, sure, but he'd still end the job. Especially with Grimm. They weren't even sentient, so there wasn't really a point to being so sadistic in the first place. He doubted they could even feel pain. It really said something about the town they were about to step into, he could tell that much.
"Let's stick together, alright?" Ichigo briefed. "We're only going in for one thing, and then we're out. And Amber..."
"Already on it!" she chirped, tying the leather lead of the pony around a sturdy-looking tree. She hurried back over and shoved him along into the darkness. "C'mon, let's get going already!"
"Hey, watch it!"
It was a long poorly-lit path, but also a very straight and simple one, so it didn't take long to traverse the tunnel that went straight through a mountain. Amber ignited a fireball, holding it in her hand as an omni-directional torch.
And once they were on the other side...
"Whoa..." Jaune breathed.
An electric skyline stole the show. Inky shadows melded with the garish glow of neon, the newer fluorescent lights juxtaposed against the traditional Eastern-style architecture. Sloping rooftops poised against flashing signs, a veritable labyrinth of stonework that reflected a kaleidoscope of glowing colours. Acidic greens, lurid pinks and harsh reds painted the avenues in a perpetual twilight, as seedy hooded passer-bys navigated the network of dark streets. The place was still nestled in the tropics, so it wasn't too surprising to see the odd weedy plant creeping up out through the cracks in the pavement, or the vines intertwining around flickering lampposts and creeping up walls.
Searchlights illuminated the sky, drowning out the stars with beaming columns of brilliant yellow-white light. They must have been for guiding in airships, as well as spotting any flying Grimm, since that would be the only kind of way the settlement could get either of those past the chain of mountaintops. Anti-aircraft artillery, truck-sized guns with metallic shafts taller than a house, loomed alongside the spotlights.
"Don't look at anyone twice." Mercury warned as he led the way through the shady town. The sky was steadily darkening, and it was firmly in the grasp of an overcast evening by the time they reached the heart of the settlement.
Strolling along, Ichigo didn't pay much heed to what went on around him. He strode forwards, as if he was above it all, ignoring the hazy scents in the air, the glances from sordid strangers and the suspiciously spent glass vials in the alleyways. He was fairly familiar with street thugs, after all. He was half-considered one himself back home, much to his chagrin. The students grew flighty, but they were wrangled in by the more street-smart members of the group. Eventually, Mercury held up his hand, signalling a stop.
"We're here."
They were standing outside a bar in the middle of the town. Bare-bricked walls held up a wooden frame, under a sloping hip-and-gable roof, the greenish tiles high enough that it was clear that the building was at least two stories tall, maybe three. The windows' glass was frosted, preventing any outsiders from looking in. The hubbub of conversations and chatter carried outside through steaming vents. Paper lanterns hung on chains, illuminating a sign with their warm glow. Ichigo read it aloud.
"The Web?"
"Huh..." Jaune leaned over, and squinted his eyes at the sign, before giving up and shaking his head. "...You can read that? You're just a bag of tricks, aren't you?"
"You can't?" Ichigo sounded surprised. "It's not that hard. It's literally just two words."
"It's in a different language though." Yang pointed out. "You never told us you could read Mistralian, Ichigo."
"Different language? Are you kidding me? Just look at it!" he pointed at the writing exasperatedly.
{ ｲん乇 W乇乃 }
"That is not Japanese, no way. It's just English in a weird font." he stated flatly.
"Japa-what?" Sun cocked his head. "English?"
"Gah!" he facepalmed. "Just... tilt your head a little. I don't know."
Pyrrha did just that. She tilted her head a little, and narrowed her bright green eyes. "Hmm... I'm sorry, I just can't see it."
"Yeah, you're talking crazy, Ichigo." Neptune crossed his arms and shook his head sceptically.
"It's completely different." Blake nodded.
"No, wait... holy..." Amber's orange eyes widened into dinner-plates. "He's right. He's right!?" she jolted. "What does this mean? Is an entire written language really just Valean but kind of wonky?"
"Pffft," Yang blew out a huff, "now you're acting crazy too."
"At least someone else sees it." Ichigo grumbled as Amber had her existential crisis.
What the hell was up with that? First he could read the written language in Vale just fine, and now even the foreign 'languages' were just English but stylised? He knew, as a soul, he could just inherently understand what other people meant, but for it to apply to writing, too... His earlier idea that Remnant was the 'English dimension', to counter Hueco Mundo's Spanish, the Soul Society's Japanese, and the Schatten Bereich's German was looking more and more likely now.
"Hello?" Mercury gestured to the entrance like a doorman. It was emblazoned with the emblem of a spider in its web, a symbol woven into sheets of soft blue cloth that hung over the square opening, cascading from the arch down to thigh level. "I don't feel like spending any longer in Kuchinashi than we have to, and trust me, you don't want to either, even if you don't know it yet."
Emerald's hands snaked to her holsters. "Remember, safeties off. We're not looking for trouble, but..."
"...Trouble usually finds us. Got it." Jaune finished, reaching for his side. Then, he stopped, and he patted his leg, then his other leg. He paused, then chuckled, scratching his head. "Oh, right, I don't have a gun, haha."
Emerald just stared at him blankly until he was uncomfortable. Then her scarlet eyes tracked away, and they were going in.
"Don't talk to anyone, okay? Unless you fancy buying drugs or something, but I wouldn't recommend that." she continued dryly.
"Uhm, I think we're good." Pyrrha awkwardly put it with an off-kilter smile.
The cloth parted, and a waft of warm air washed over them. Inside was a wide space, walls of unpainted brick around an open floor of curved stone tiles, all of the smoothed tiles being different shades of deep grey, in a range of disparate shapes and sizes. Short, small squares of decorative paper hung between the two wooden pillars in the middle of the room, and most of the floorspace was taken up by square-shaped wooden tables. Warm light diffused over the patrons from paper lanterns, some spherical, some cylindrical, all of them a yellowed-white in colour. Huge drink barrels stood on their sides waxed shut, the rack connected to the right wall. The left wall was half taken up by a hollow stairway to the first floor, though it still had space for another table beneath it. The bar's counter hugged the far wall, a simple thing that was all smooth, varnished wood, with shelves and shelves of alcohol behind it. Cheap stuff on the bottom, the quality beverages at the top.
A woman manned the counter. The barmaid was a plump middle-aged woman, with short blonde hair in a bob cut. Her pleated lavender-purple dress hugged her chunky frame, over which she wore a longer, triple-layer ruched skirt that was yellow, then mauve, then white. Beads hung from it, and Ichigo got the impression that she dressed like she was the human form of a grandma's sofa from the '80s. A silver-banded wedding ring adorned her left hand, with three tiny amethyst jewels embedded in the metal. Her eyes were an indelibly pale lavender, like they were twin pools of cool oil distilled right from the flower.
Those eyes zeroed in as they entered, and watched. Soon, however, that gaze returned to the hatted man she was speaking to. Even from the entrance, her irritation was easily seen, as her puffy lips curled.
The air smelt of strong drink, and was filled with an ever-present hum of low chatter, sometimes breaking into something louder, sometimes something quieter. Ichigo could tell immediately, sensing it as soon as he walked in; everybody here had aura. –Everybody.
And then Pyrrha stepped in, and all eyes were on her.
"–Is that–"
"...In Kuchinashi? What's she doing in a place like this?"
"No way–"
She shifted awkwardly on her feet, and Jaune let his palm rest on the hilt of Crocea Mors in its scabbard, unconsciously.
"Damn, I forgot. We should've expected this." he muttered lowly.
"Relax, we'll be in and out before you know it." Ichigo reassured them casually. He'd forgotten Pyrrha was supposed to be some famous cereal mascot. It must've been a popular flavour.
"Okay, so, here's the plan." Mercury declared, "Me, Em, Ichigo and Cinder will go chat to her. You lot just stay here, and try not to get yourselves shot."
"You think we need to be told that?" Blake raised an affronted eyebrow as they broke up.
"Yes." Emerald cemented.
Blake was about to retort, when she realised Sun had already sat down, and he was ordering drinks. She slumped. "...Point taken."
"Good, now go play baby-sitter." Emerald shooed her off, earning a stink-eye which she pointedly ignored. It was then that they realised that Yang was still standing there, her arms crossed. "...What?"
She hadn't budged, and wouldn't if she got her way. "I'm not sitting down!" she declared haughtily, "I need to hear it too!"
Mercury glanced at Ichigo, and the older teen nodded. Mercury sighed. "Hah, fine, whatever floats your boat." he stuck a finger up, marking his point very clearly. "–But do not blow your top at her, or anything, okay? We need info, and she's got it. If she's ticked off, we might just get turned away completely. And then we'll be shit outta luck."
"Yes!" she grinned.
Mercury frowned, watching the scene playing out at the counter from afar. "Crap, the fat broad already seems pissed. She's really laying into that poor guy. I would say that's not our problem, but it might be, if she's in a bad mood when we're trying to do business."
As they approached the counter, the conversation grew clearer to their ears.
"...so you think you can just come crawling back, and I'll help you? You're out of your godsdamn mind–"
"–I'm not crawling back!" the man in the black hat protested, "I just need to hire some men. All of mine got nicked and packed up. I have the money, you know."
"Packed up?" she drawled, "What is it with this new-age slang, I swear– so buffoonish. Have some class, will you?"
Ichigo slid into a bar stool as the bickering continued. The woman took notice of his presence, as well as Mercury's, Emerald's, Amber's and Yang's as they leaned up on the counter.
The woman's expression shifted at once, with natural ease. Her voice was thick and sickly-sweet, like clotted cream past its sell-by date. That southern twang wasn't something Ichigo was expecting to hear on Remnant. He eyed the spider tattoo on her exposed left shoulder.
"Welcome to The Web. What can I getcha, handsome?"
""...I don't drink."" Ichigo and Mercury both answered at once. Their heads turned and gazes met, and they furrowed their brows. So he thought he was the handsome one, huh...
"You don't drink, Ichigo?" Amber asked.
"Nah," he denied, "My dad's a doctor. He's the reason why. I've seen people get messed up, it's not pretty."
"...Huh... it's also my dad's fault, with me. Marcus Black wasn't a doctor, though." and that was all Mercury said about it.
"Marcus Black?" the woman repeated, and her eyebrows inched their way up her forehead in recollection. She raised a hand to her double chin as she recalled the name. "Oh my... now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. You're his boy?"
"Yes." Mercury stated flatly. "And this here's Ichigo Kurosaki. You know, the guy from the news."
"That Ichigo!?" she sounded impressed, and looked him up and down. "The one from Mountain Glenn? Now that's– Oi! Don't think you can just slink away, mister!" she growled, and the man in the bowler hat that had been trying to creep away as soon as Ichigo sat down froze in his tracks.
He wheeled around in place, with his hands raised slightly. "Oops?"
"Wait a minute... I know you..." Ichigo remarked, as his eyes narrowed. "You're that nutjob with the gay-ass eyeliner!"
"The name's Torchwick! Roman Torchwick!" the man stomped. "You're that super-whacko with crazy magic powers!"
"Wait... you two know each other?" Amber aired confusedly.
Ichigo craned his neck round at the hollow maiden. "You know him?" he stuck his thumb at the thief over his shoulder.
Torchwick felt his stomach drop. "C-Cinder!? You're here!?" his voice trembled, "Are you serious right now? What did I even do to deserve this!?" he wailed, then paused, "Er, besides the obvious, of course."
"Hello buddy. Remember us?" Mercury greeted with a smug sneer on his face. Emerald mock-waved at him daintily.
"Believe me, I wish I didn't." Torchwick stressed.
"How'd this guy even show up here? I thought he was in jail!" Yang exclaimed.
"I had a teensy tiny little bit of help." Torchwick pinched his fingers together.
Ichigo's hand bolted out to his side, and the air smashed like glass, drawing eyes from all across the bar. Especially Jaune's table, with five chairs being shoved back as they stood and a set of playing cards thrown down. Where'd they even get those?
He shifted his hazel haze downwards. He was gripping the wrist of Neopolitan in his right.
She looked up at him with a half-frown-half-smile, and tilted her head. Ichigo heard her inaudible voice through his reikaku, and scoffed. "Don't try it, short stuff. You know what happened last time."
"So, because she wasn't caught, she managed to break Torchwick out?" Yang deduced. "The heck? How did we not hear about this?"
"I have you to thank for that," Torchwick tipped his hat mockingly, even as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his forehead. He was putting on a face, and he knew it. "You slaying that Wyvern really took my escape off the front pages. Don't get me wrong, I like the spotlight, but not all the time."
"It's him!"
Torchwick scowled, and held his hands up. "Oh, for the love of—"
Blake was up, and she had Gambol Shroud's point pricking the small of his back, right up against his white tailcoat. The rest of the group weren't far behind her.
"Hey!" the chubby woman hollered, "Take it outside!"
She stuck her index finger and thumb in her mouth, and whistled loudly. Within moments, two bodyguards had come rushing down the stairs, cartwheeling into place on either side of Blake.
"Well hellooo..." Neptune cooed smoothly. Because these bodyguards didn't look like bodyguards. Not really.
"Melanie, who is this girl?" one nodded at Blake.
"I don't know, Miltia, but we should teach her a lesson."
Twins. Ichigo could tell immediately. But unlike Yuzu and Karin, these two were identical. Their faces were pale, and they both had long black hair with a straight fringe covering their eyebrows. Both their eyes were a seafoam-green, and they carried themselves the same way; and so the differences between the two from here was all in how they dressed.
'Miltia' wore a crimson strapless dress with a layered black lace tulle that hung down to her upper thigh. An off-centre silky-black bow-belt was wrapped around her waist, matching the sable fur of the short shrug, held by four beaded chains around her neck and shoulders. Scarlet thigh-high boots with white criss-cross lacing had garter-straps that disappeared up her skirt. Three feathers, a longer white one under two smaller reds, adorned her hair behind her left ear. On her hands were a pair of black fingerless forearm gloves with a snug carmine lining. The nubs of twin spikes edged out of the knuckles.
'Melanie' wore a matching dress, but it was a frigid snow-white instead of blood red. Laced with a light cyan rather than night-black, the only hint of red on her was that of the crossing laces all the way up her thigh-boots, ending in heels that had a suspiciously folded metallic sheath behind them. Around her waist, a silver chain was brooched with a perfectly-centred cut turquoise gemstone, and at the bustline a small white bow topped the dress. A pale lily-shaped hairpin sat over her left ear, and a stark white feather scarf with a short tuft sticking out the left side rested around her neck. On her left arm, was an angular silver shoulder-pauldron and vambrace, whilst on her right forearm a translucent silken-blue glove fit over her hand.
"Oh, that's just great." Torchwick rolled his eyes. "Brat one and brat two. How could this get any worse?"
Blake pressed her blade against the small of his back. "I can think of one way."
A gloved hand closed around her wrist. Her eyes tracked up the arm gripping her sword-hand, and she found it was Amber's. Her masked face was apprehensive. "Hold on. Can we please just get what we came here for, first?"
Blake glanced over at Pyrrha, who gave her a small nod, before she grumbled and folded Gambol Shroud away with a tut. Her amber eyes never left Torchwick, even as she did so. Privately, a small part of Ichigo was a little disappointed that things hadn't escalated, but he squashed it down. They could fight later. As in, as-soon-as-they-stepped-foot-outside later. He let go of Neopolitan, as she gave him a dirty glare in response.
"Huh? I know you two..." Yang's lilac eyes narrowed perceptively.
"Ah! Melanie, it's that girl! The blondie gorilla chick!" the red-dressed one pointed.
"Gee, you're right Miltia." the white-wearing one realised, "Good thing she's here, isn't it? We can get payback."
"Blondie gorilla?" Jaune's brows rose, "Yeah, they definitely know Yang—"
"–I'll pretend I didn't hear that."–
"—Never mind!" he sputtered, "But how do you even know them?"
"This brute wrecked Junior's club! We've had to move back in with our ma until it's rebuilt, and it's all her fault!" Melanie accused.
"Not to mention Torchwick got all the boys nabbed by the cops!" Miltia pressed.
"How is the second one my fault?" Yang crossed her arms, sitting up against the bar.
"Now now girls, hold it off." the older woman dictated, "We're doing business first. I don't particularly care about Xiong beyond our little business alliance, so I won't deny these customers their due. Shoo, shoo." she made a brushing motion with her hands, and the twins stalked off, but not without a few cursory glances of contempt at Yang.
Neptune watched them go, his head over his shoulder, before Sun grabbed him and pulled him aside with a harsh whisper.
"Dude, these are gangsters! Even worse, they're goths! Goth gangster girls! And their mom is right here! Trust me man, you do not want to go there."
Neptune shrugged wistfully, "I hear you... but a man can dream..."
Meanwhile, Ichigo had remained sitting at the counter, with Emerald, Mercury, and Yang alongside him. Torchwick had been forced to shuffle over. The others filtered back to keep an eye on the rest of the bar.
He spun on his seat, facing the counter, and the barmaid again. Or was she...?
"You're more than just the barmaid, aren't you?" Ichigo guessed, "You run this joint, don't you?"
She smirked at him coyly, "Oh? Look at mister detective here. What're you even doing in Kuchinashi if you don't know who I am?" she placed a hand over her prodigious chest.
"Crap, we should've told you about her first." Mercury nudged, "This here is—"
"–Lil' Miss Malachite." the tubby bosslady interjected. "I prefer to give my own introductions, thank you very much. This is my place, and I'll be dictating how this goes, y'hear?"
Ichigo looked her pudgy figure up and down dryly. ...Lil'?
"Now what brings the rising star Huntsman Ichigo Kurosaki, celebrity champion Pyrrha Nikos and Marcus Black's son here all at once?" she asked.
Ichigo just asked her directly. "We want to know where the Branwens are. The bandit tribe? Does it ring a bell?"
She held a sausage-finger to her sealed lips. She had a considerate look on her rounded face. "It might... for the right price." she suggested.
Emerald leaned on the counter. "C'mon. You know you owed his old man." she jabbed a thumb over at Mercury. "Just throw us a bone, and you're square."
"And, have you ever heard of Maidens before?" Amber slid back into place at the barstools. Torchwick and Neo both tensed as she re-entered.
"Hold on, I'm not running a charity here. I'll acknowledge our debt to Black. He never came to collect his last payment, after all..." the woman held up a lone index finger. "Pick one."
Ichigo glanced at his friends, who gave him a deferring nod. Yang was knitting her fingers on the table. It was his call. "The Branwens." he answered easily.
Malachite slapped her soft palms together and rubbed them gleefully. "Good choice. They've been getting so uppity lately. A tribe of bandits, roughing it out in the wilds, taking out settlement after settlement. It's getting bad for business, and the other guilds are getting fed up too. We used to have an agreement, dammit. Just one thing, what is it that you're planning to do, exactly?"
Ichigo and Amber met gazes, before she replied simply. "Beat the crap outta them. Why?"
It was then that Malachite showed her first sign of hesitation. "Wait, just a second here... you're just going to fight them?" she shook her head, "You're all fiending to die, just like every other Huntsman that goes after them. Nobody, and I mean nobody messes with Raven Branwen."
That name, spoken aloud right then and there, in the heady air of the Spider's lair, did two things.
The first, was that it made Yang Xiao-Long tense, and her mind reel. A confirmation at last, after all these years.
The second, was that it finally dredged up a memory Ichigo had gained a month ago.
"For Yang, well... her birth mother is an issue. Qrow's sister. Not because she poses a risk; –I think she's just ignoring her daughter, but because Yang is the one who's caught up on her. She's not evil, just a... bandit chieftain?"
...
Summer Rose's words, the ghosts of Shion, the name Malachite had given them... the dots connected at once. Oh. Yang's behaviour was making a whole lot more sense, even if she was trying to subdue it.
Raven Branwen, Qrow's sister, Yang's biological mother, was the leader of the Branwen bandit tribe. Yang knew it, and now so did he. And they were tracking her down to take her out.
He blew out an empty breath. Damn. Still, as Zangestu had told him, he would look forward. He'd move forward and never stop. It didn't matter what else was going on, Yang was on board as well, since she wanted to meet her mother too.
He'd press on. "She's never run into a guy like me." Ichigo affirmed.
"Oh? So you think you're that guy, huh?" Malachite giggled.
"Trust me, I am that guy. Now tell me, where is she?" his expression was stone-cold.
"Last place her tribe took out was North of here. Not Argus-North, but more in line with Mistral's capital. You head up from here, curve away from the city and towards the Eastern mountain ranges, and you'll find them nestled away. It's the only place they could be holed up."
"Thanks," Ichigo nodded, "Now, how about that second question. Maidens, Relics, ever heard of them?"
"You had your one question. You'll have to pay up." she demanded. She reached under her desk, and pulled out a small flat white slab-thing, with a blinking light on it. Ichigo stared at it blankly on the wooden counter-top.
"It's a scroll-reader." Mercury explained.
"Is he dumb, or something?" Malachite sniggered.
"Shut it, I'm just... uninformed, that's all." he reached into his pocket, and pulled free the device, tapping it against the wireless transfer machine with a faint beep.
The stocky woman wasn't amused. "You take that tone with me again, and I'll skin ya alive."
"Oh, bite me." Ichigo plainly didn't care. "I wouldn't blow hot air like if I were you." of course, a balloon like her must be full of the stuff. "Ever heard of those things I mentioned, then?"
"Only once," she admitted.
"You've heard about them before?" Ichigo grabbed onto the slim thread of chance.
"There was a big burly man here asking after them a day ago. I told him what I'll tell you." she mused, "I'd never heard of them 'til now. Care to explain what they are?"
"Hmph, what a waste," Amber scoffed, "We paid you to explain stuff to us, you scammer!"
"I told you to watch your tone. You need ta learn to keep your mouth shut, darling. Otherwise you might be parting with more than just your money, you know..."
Openly threatening Ichigo to his face was one thing, but having the gall to threaten Ichigo's friends right in front of him was another. The disrespect on this bitch... it made his skin crawl.
So Ichigo responded in the only sensible fashion.
He rocked to his feet, reached over the bar, and grabbed her by the squishy neck. He lifted her in a chokehold, in full view of everyone in the gangster's bar, in one of the most dangerous towns on Remnant, without a care on his face. He wasn't even angry– it just stood against his principles to let something like that slide. He looked her in the eyes as he held her aloft.
The reaction was immediate; chairs clattered back, guns and weapons galore were drawn, sleeves rolled up, and Ichigo had all the attention on himself.
Torchwick dived away, and Neopolitan followed with a slide, as Ichigo calmy slid his hand to his combat pass, and his fullbring encroached and coated his skin underneath his blue coat. He let the heavyset gangster's short-heeled feet touch the stone floor, but pressed the cold edge of his blade against her shifting throat lightly. With an sadistic sort of self-amused grin, he yelled over all the noise:
"Everybody back off! Or the fat bitch gets it!"
Yang, funnily enough, relaxed at once as she engaged Ember Celica. A violent distraction, something to switch her brain off. "Phew... I think I needed something like this right now..."
"Aw, my hero~" Amber cooed faux-bashfully with fluttering eyelashes, clasping her hands at her side sweetly, "All this, just for me?"
Emerald let out an annoyed huff, as Thief's Respite twirled into her hands, "Seriously? I guess this is why I said 'safeties off'." She was trying very hard to ignore the false Cinder's demeanour beside her.
"Holy crap..." Mercury let out a small, awed chuckle, "I forgot... we don't need to take crap from anyone, anymore. We didn't need to bother with the hassle of all this prissy bargaining stuff. If someone starts talking trash, we can just deck 'em in the face. We don't even have to worry about cops– we're the law! Damn, this feels great!"
Ichigo watched as everyone fell into place. Jaune drew his sword and shield, back-to-back with Pyrrha. Neptune, Sun and Blake took to the sides, their weapons in gun-form pointing at the collection of criminals, their faces firm but unstressed. A buzz of confidence fizzed between them all like an electric current. It was right about then that he realised that everybody who was just sitting there before, all those strangers whom he hadn't blinked twice at, all had those spider-tattoos like the lady in his grip did. No wonder they all seemed so ticked off.
"You guys seem just fine with this..." Ichigo sounded almost pleasantly surprised.
"We're Huntsmen. Are we really supposed to waltz into a hotbed den of crime and just let 'em all go?" Jaune poised rhetorically, sword in hand.
"It didn't really sit right with me..." Pyrrha nodded.
"Why am I getting lumped in with them!?" Torchwick cried, grasping his hat as he eyed the gun-muzzles cocked at his head. Neo just gave a little shrug and rolled with it. Hush's parasol splayed wide, the stiletto-blade extending as it slowly windmilled.
"Plus... we saw this coming a mile away." Neptune added, ignoring him.
"That too, yeah. You sure like hitting things, Ichigo. It's like, your number-one problem solver." Sun agreed. "Can't say I blame you. It works wonders."
"Good. 'Cause— ew."
He felt something wet splodge on his face. Ichigo glanced down, and found a seething Miss Malachite, with bubbled spittle trailing from her lips. Her eyes were cauldrons of clear vengeful poison. Gross.
Ichigo twisted and heaved her right into the rack of shelves behind the counter. A crash of glass, a rattling of crunching wood, and a washing splash of cascading alcohol stole the breath of all the Spiders in The Web. Ichigo twisted on his heels, nothing weighing him down anymore.
"It's on."
NEXT: 31 - FAT LADY SINGS - [Fade To Black_A06]
Author notes:
Happy 30th chapter!
The reason this took so long is cos of end of year uni stuff, plus because I wanted to release it in conjunction with my new Bleach x Bloodborne story. It's out now, just check my profile and start reading right away. In future, these'll be updated at different times, so there won't be a month long wait again... at least until the very final chapters of this story, when I'm gonna post the successor "serious long-form crossover" to To Shatter Fate.
The images I used to come up with the setting:
[rwbyDOTfandomDOTcom/wiki/Kuchinashi?so=searchfile=Scott-zenteno-001DOTjpg#Image_Gallery]
(Replace the "DOT"s with full stops).
There's a reason I let Neo escape all the way back in Chapter 20, specifically to bring Torchwick back here. Kuchinashi is a fairly fleshed-out place on the wiki, so it's not an OC thing, but don't worry, they'll be leaving next chapter. Same with the Spiders and Miss Malachite, they both exist in canon but they're really not that important. I need them for later, so I'll pull them in here. To give these scenes antagonists that you actually care about, I introduced those goth twins from the Yellow trailer here. I think that's a good call, you always need something recognisable to make people care about what you're writing in fan material, hence why I had Adam and Qrow show up in Mountain Glenn.
I think Watts will be much more successful without Cinder forcing a retarded pointless confrontation this time, lol. I cannot believe they had a shot at just getting the relic and walking away, and purposefully made things harder for no reason by starting a fight. Since Watts isn't leashed to Cinder in this, he'll be far more pragmatic.
I wrote this part specifically to give use to the RWBY cast, as well as having a "Ichigo gets put in a situation where someone tries acting all smug in a situation where usually grounded characters would be forced to negotiate, but then he just decks them cause he's Ichigo".
Thanks for 2,770 follows and 2,200 favourites! The next chapter will be out far quicker than this one.
Author's announcement:
My Bleach x Bloodborne crossover is out now!
The Blood and The Battle
For anyone else, Yharnam is a nightmare. For Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru Kusajishi? It's a fun night out on the town, to just go out and kill a few beasts. But why are they here? The truth is not a matter of The Blood, but of The Blade.
Give it a read of you like my writing style. You don't have to have played Bloodborne at all to understand it. I'm writing it in a 'Bleach'-ey sort of way. You'll know it when you see it. It's a high-effort work.