31: FAT LADY SINGS - [A06]
- –—Author's announcement at the end—– -
Crash.
"It's on."
Ichigo was the first to move forwards, and that shocked the gangsters holding them all at gunpoint. Usually, the point of call here would be to fight defensively, and they weren't prepared for him to materialise a black katana out of dazzling blue light in his hand, nor was the first man closest to him ready to have his pistol cut in half then get socked in the face hard enough to send him flying across the room. The redhead huntsman was aggressive, swift, and with a driven look in his focused eyes that told the Spiders that he enjoyed the pain he was causing... he hardly acted like a huntsman at all, more like a violent thug... moreso than even them.
"Ma!"
A shout came from upstairs, and before their eyes could even track the noise twin red-white blurs streaked down and collided with the cohort of huntsmen like a pair of comets. The raking shing of silver-on-gold etched itself into the air, and Yang placed her gauntlets in the way of jump-kick that scratched at her more than it knocked her back. The assailant kicked off of her guard, landing next to her sister. The white-dressed Melanie, with keen heel-blades of cold silver-blue, and the red-dressed Miltia, with threshing talons longer than her forearms hooked to both fists, two crimson-edged black blades per hand. Their faces were contorted with fury.
"Oh, it's you two again." Yang cocked her head with a coquettish smile. "Remember how this went last time?"
"You think we haven't gotten any better?"
"You just got lucky, bitch!"
They flew forwards again.
Torchwick slid back, deflecting a thrusting stab with an upwards parry. His leg followed the movement, delivering a push-kick that shoved Miltia clear and gave him some breathing space.
"Hey! What'd I do!?" he exclaimed.
"Eh, Ma was gonna have you, like, gutted anyway." Miltia shrugged with a sneer.
"Might as well get it over with now!" Melanie agreed with a mean grin.
Torchwick grit his teeth, then glanced to his side to see the blondie Huntress pointing her cocked gauntlet right at him. He blanked.
The sunflower-yellow shotgun blast was halted by a air-shattering parasol. The white-pink umbrella spun as it dispersed the impact, and Neopolitan brought it up to rest on her shoulder with a silent glare.
"You too!? I thought we had one of those, say, unspoken truces, or something?" Torchwick sighed glumly.
"You think we forgot how things went last time at the docks? I'm not letting you get any cheap hits in." she waved a finger at him sassily. "Not so fun when the shoe's on the other foot, isn't it?"
"Right..." he grumbled as his green eyes flicked side-to-side, sizing up both the huntresses, and the Spiders. "Looks like we're pretty popular tonight, Neo."
Neo stuck her tongue out at the blondie in front, the one who seemed the strongest, and then Yang one-upped her by sticking her own tongue out on top of giving her a crude middle finger.
"Nyeh!"
Torchwick whipped his jacket's white coat-tails back with theatrical flair. As it flapped, he tossed a vial from one of his inner pockets. "Catch!"
He didn't actually expect any of them to be dumb enough to try and catch it. That was where a timely gunshot from Melodic Cudgel came in, shattering the dust-vial and setting off its contents. A specific blend of electricity and fire would produce a bright, burning flare, one that Neo's parasol would shield them both from. The flashbang flooded the entire bar with scorchingly bright light, dazing anyone unfortunate enough to be looking at it. Not for long, but for long enough. Long enough to whack one of the twins around the head with his cane, and for Neo to scissor-kick the cocky blonde girl in the chin.
Just as he was about to keep going, a black blade embedded itself in the ground at his feet. His steps faltered, and his eyes tracked upwards, finding the thrower; none other than Ichigo Kurosaki.
"Back it up, Bonnie and Clyde!"
"Who the heck are—" he was cut off by a vertical slash straight down, though he managed to raise a horizontal half-block at the last moment as he backstepped. Under his jacket, Ichigo was covered by the protective carapace of his stark white Fullbring, and the speed it granted him allowed him to snatch the knife thrown at his flank from mid-air. Neo exploded into tinkling fragments as it was thrown right back, and Ichigo drew yet another Quincy daitō out of the ambient reishi in the air. He was getting better and better at pulling it out in the heat of battle, and he'd need that experience now.
It was right about then that he noticed Yang climbing back to her feet. Behind Torchwick, so were the Malachite twins. Blake stepped forwards to help her partner up, and she reached for her hand, when Ichigo's sword impaled her head. Yang was momentarily horrified, before 'Blake's' head crumbled as she cartwheeled back to to side of the criminal in the bowler-hat. Neopolitan stuck her tongue out at Yang, gave her a middle-finger by holding her umbrella out sideways, and used her other hand to make an L-sign against her forehead. It was a weird way to one-up one another, but Yang sure was ticked off by it.
"She can do that?" she grunted as she stood. "No fair."
"Yep. I can sense her, though."
"I'm gonna pay her back for that cheap kick." she unloaded her gauntlets with a twist of her wrists, sending red-hot shells scattering like marbles, then reached into her belt and tossed up two racks of dust. Her hands crossed over her head, and Ember Celica glowed anew as it locked the ammunition in without a touch. She eyed Ichigo up and down. "Hey, why aren't you using your huge sword? Zangetsu could've already gotten us out of this mess."
Ichigo shook his head. "We're indoors, and in a tight area. I'd end up hurting one of you, or trashing the whole street. I'm meant to be teaching you stuff, aren't I? I can't do all the work. There's nothing else like people actually trying to kill you."
Before Yang could speak, the twins were seething with rage at the sight of Ichigo.
"It's you! You're the one who hurt our mother!" Miltia growled.
"We're gonna mess you up!" Melanie stood on one leg, her other raised with a bent knee.
In a blink, she twisted, and her foot came shooting forwards with a spinning heel kick. The bladed back of her shoe came right at Ichigo's face, but he calmly raised his sword, deflecting the kick in the same direction as her spin. Yang brushed past him and grabbed the leg as it came round. She pulled the shin closer, and slammed her elbow right into the girls solar plexus. As she choked, Yang let go of the limb and set off Ember Celica. A jet of flames burst from the gauntlet, rocketing her forwards and driving her elbow even harder into its target.
"Gh-aak!"
As she slid forwards, she crouched and spun, redirecting her slide towards a new, smaller target. Neopolitan's eyes widened as she prepared her semblance, but when she heard a loud bang she was forced to step forwards to dodge it. Ichigo had cocked his jet black sawn-off shotgun, and aimed the smoking double barrels by closing one eye. Neo grit her teeth when she realised where her little extra step had put her.
Yang rocketed round, spun on her heels, then leapt from a low half-crouch to a full-standing uppercut, planting her right fist's knuckles firmly into Neopolitan's jaw. Her real jaw, thanks to Ichigo.
The short woman's skull rocked and her eyes watered, as her chin was wrenched up and she was lifted off her feet. And up... and up... and right through the ceiling. The wood splintered against her as she kept on going, into the first floor and straight out of sight.
"Neo!" Torchwick shouted, even as he felt the whisp of red blades reaching for his turned back. His face hardened and he whirled around, catching Miltia's wrist-blades with his cane. It was a real free-for-all, and it was a real mess.
Ichigo slipped forwards and slid over a table feet first, squeezing the trigger on his Quincy Bogen shotgun as he dived. Miltia sidestepped to avoid his spreadshot, and sidestepped again to avoid his fly-kick as he pitched forwards. It was right about then that he noticed the other twin was back in the fight, and was already closing in on Yang.
A flash of polished silver followed Melanie's kicks, and this time Yang found herself blocking straight-on against a roundhouse, then Yang had to raise her arms over her head to halt a falling axe-kick, then came the other twin, Miltia's red blades moving in from the side—
A black ribbon came sailing in, snagging the wrist-swords away. She was caught, and her sister was vulnerable. Yang slid onto her back, planting her feet on the stomach of the girl with the foot-knives, and kicked hard. It sent the girl up into the air, where she couldn't move, and couldn't dodge.
"Now!"
Running up from behind, Neptune leapt forwards up onto a table, then jumped from that with his trident, catching Melanie in mid-air. Caught between the prongs of the spear, he swung straight down to throw her into the hard stone floor. Time to cinch it. Ichigo jumped, back-flipped in mid-air, planted his feet on the ceiling, then divebombed right back down, smashing a falling double-knee into the fallen girl's stomach. Her aura shattered immediately. She wasn't getting back up from that.
Seeing what had happened to her sister, Miltia fought to unravel the cord around her left arm. Suddenly it was pulled taut again, drawing her attention along the line to where a black-haired girl was running along the walls to get at her. She grabbed hold of the line with her other hand, making sure to aim her blades at the approaching Huntress, only for the ribbon to pull upwards. Blake had kicked off of the wall, and side-flipped over Miltia's head, pulling Gambol Shroud's ribbon with her, forcing Miltia's arms over her head. As soon as she landed, she sweep-kicked, knocking her feet out from under her. Ichigo blurred forwards, delivering a high-kick that sent her sailing upwards. Miltia was stuck in the air, and she tried twisting when—
"Nuh uh!" Yang grabbed the girl with both arms, then whirled her upside-down. Holding her up, she grazed the ceiling beams, locked her legs around her upside-down head, then let gravity take them. A pile driver. And it was right over...
Miltia's head smashed into a wooden table, and the impact shattered it completely, spilling the drinks all over the floor. Even Yang felt the shock. After a few seconds, she climbed up to her feet, and patted herself off. "Gah..."
Blake was already at her side, and she shook her head with a wince. "Tch... maybe we went too hard..." Seeing the twins crumpled over like that wasn't pleasant.
"Eh, they'll be fine." Yang waved off, planting her hands on her hips. She held her fist out sideways without missing a beat, catching a creeping Torchwick before he could slip away.
He grit his teeth as he was pushed back, holding up Melodic Cudgel to block the fire-dust filled shotgun. His shoes slid back over the stony floor, and his back hit the counter. Had he really been pushed that far back?
When another one of the gangsters turned their attention towards him, he blindly groped at the bar-top behind him with his free left hand, before finding and grasping a bottle tight and swinging it over his head. The bottle flew forth and smashed against the woman's head, dark green shards and frothing alcohol washing over her dented aura. As she was stunned, Torchwick double-tapped her in the head with his cane. He backstepped, hitting the counter again and rolling up, over and behind it, gripping his hat all the while. He slid low, laying against the wet wood, letting out a long sigh over the gunfire. There.
Tinkle-tinkle.
He looked to his right, watching the air crack and break, revealing Neopolitan crouching besides him with an amused smile.
"You're fine? That's good. I knew none of those Beacon brats can hold a candle to us. "
She blinked at him... slowly.
He sputtered, sticking out his tongue. "Yes, us! Me included. Not just you. It's that ginger psycho with the crazy powers that's the problem. Ichigo."
She cocked her head.
"What? I'm not a coward... I'm just well-aware of my weight class. You should be too, Neo, 'cause that Ichigo guy up there is taking heads. You know how it went last time. Everyone here hates us, might I add. We need a way outta this joint, ASAP."
She made a thoughtful face, then she grinned with a twinkle in her kaleidoscopic pink-brown eyes. She shuffled over, and gestured behind her. There, behind the counter with them, was the knocked-out body of Lil' Miss Malachite, covered in broken wood and glass. How hard must she have been thrown back to knock her out through her aura?
Torchwick nodded. "Now that could work."
Meanwhile, the rest of the bar was a mess. But it was a directed mess. The kind found only in battle. Back-to-back, Jaune and Pyrrha fought together. A shield on either side, so where one couldn't reach, the other would cover. Gunshots and knives bounced off their double-defences before the Spiders made a decision to move in close. One came up front, a man in a green cloak, brandishing a machete. He lunged at her chest, but her dipylon shield was already there in the way. It scoured against the metal, giving her spear a clear shot at his torso, and she flicked the pole round to clock him sideways, promptly shattering his aura and throwing him across the hall.
But whilst Pyrrha only had to contend with one, two men had come for Jaune. A hammer came for his knees, but he hopped, dodging as he hacked at the man's wrist. But just as he connected the blow, a gunshot struck him in the chestplate, leaving him winded. Still, he grit his teeth as he pulled his shield up against a second man with a magnum. It struck him then that these people recognised Pyrrha, which meant they saw him as a weak link... and that bothered him. It bothered him enough that he gripped his sword with both hands, and he resolved to beat both these guys by himself—
Bang-bang! The gangster holding the gun flailed forwards, and Jaune quickly swiped at him, knocking him down and out. The hammer-wielding one had his knees kicked out from behind, crumping forwards before a boot bashed down on his head hard enough to crack the stone floor. It was Mercury's boot, and behind him, Emerald's guns wafted tendrils of smoke from the green barrels.
"Ah..." Jaune breathed, "...thanks."
"Watch out. Some of these schmucks are actually competent, unlike these two." Mercury warned.
"We should be fine, shouldn't we? We have Ichigo and– hold on—" Sun flip-cocked his shotgun-nunchuk, a red-gold blur coming to a stop butting barrel-first into the chest of a incoming thug. The blast was loud, hot and fast, hard enough to push Sun backwards sliding across the floor, driving his elbow into the stomach of a hooded woman. She grunted, and tried to level her dagger at his head, but he caught the shaft with the golden chain of Ruyi-Bang, pulled her arm out straight until she was off-balance, and let loose a flurry of blurring, barely-perceptible open-palmed wing chun strikes all over her body. She'd already blacked out before she collapsed. When one last gangster made a mad dash at his back, his blond tail snaked around a chair, pulling it under the assailant's legs, and he stumbled to the floor in a heap. Sun flipped out his other gunchuck, Jingu-Bang, and levelled it at the downed man. With a squeeze of the trigger, he was tased unconscious by a flash of lightning dust.
Sun turned back to face the trio. "–as I was saying, we should be fine, we've got Ichigo and Amber."
"...You sure we even need them?" Jaune muttered in awe.
Emerald lined up another shot across the crowded room aiming out through the entrance. It seemed more and more Spiders were piling in from outside. "We will, sooner or later. This rinky-dink bar isn't their entire operation, you know. We have to skip town."
Mercury paused, then searched the room with a mildly confused frown. Ichigo and Yang's group had just taken out the strongest muscle, but... "Hn... where is Amber, anyway?"
The ceiling collapsed.
There she was, standing atop a hill of battered bodies. Her face was smudged with ash like something had been burning right next to it, but it was adorned with a adrenaline-fuelled, bright-eyed grin. Literally bright-eyed, since her eyes blazed the bright tell-tale magical orange of the effulgent setting sun. With a wave of her hand, tendrils of rock and stone crept up from the floor, almost like petrous plant-vines, ensnaring and holding down all of the felled Spiders. She touched down, and walked up to the group of Huntsmen and Huntresses as they reconvened.
That was it. There were a couple men laying over the tables, puddles from smashed-in wine barrels, shattered glass and wood galore, a caved-in ceiling, and too many discarded weapons to count.
"I think we're done here." she decided. The group sheathed their weapons with a series of whirring gears and collapsing manifolds clicking into place.
"About time." Mercury sighed in relief. "We couldn't ditch this dump fast enough."
"It was your idea to come here, dumbass." Emerald reminded with a roll of her scarlet eyes.
"Sure, doesn't mean I have to like it, though."
Ichigo glanced about, at the thrashed bar and the piles of battered gangsters, then nodded. "You're right. We know where to go next. Let's move out."
"Sir yes sir!" Yang mock-saluted with a easy-going smirk. "Y'know, I gotta wonder if everything you do ends in a fight."
"It sure feels like it." Jaune agreed, as they began to walk towards the exit. "Last time we went shopping, we ended up slaying a dragon."
"Yeah, but that was so cool!" Sun recalled, "I'm not complaining at all." His tail was snaked around a stolen bottle of wine, but he let out a whine when Blake strutted over and snatched it away.
"No way, we're still in danger!" she snapped.
"Party pooper..." Yang scoffed.
"Torchwick's gone..." Blake noticed.
Just like at the docks, there were hundreds of spiritual signatures identical to Neopolitan spreading throughout the city. They were probably invisible to everyone but him, only meant to pull the veil over one set of eyes on Remnant. Illusions of illusions...
"He already ran off outside." Ichigo sensed without a beat, "They've figured out a way to hide, even from me. It doesn't matter, we've got bigger fish to fry anyway."
"Easy for you to say, you didn't fight his gang back in Vale..." Jaune grumbled.
"Hah!" Amber stomped forwards, and a sheet of ice pulsed outwards, frosting over through the open archway outside and beyond. When they emerged out into the street, they found a set of struggling gangsters, their feet stuck fast to the frozen ground. It was easy goings, picking them off after that.
Yang yawned deeply in the cool night air, stretching her arms over her head. She felt so much better after that... Nothing like a good pummelling to take her mind off her impending mother-daughter visit.
It was fully night outside now, and the broken moon's light mingled with the electric searchlights and neon signs overhead to completely drown out the starlight with their garish luminescence. She turned to glance at the wrecked Spider's Web one last time, then stopped in her tracks.
"Holy crap!"
A set of stares followed her. "What?" Ichigo asked.
"That bike! It's the same type I have at home!"
She was pointing now at a bright motorcycle that stood out against the duller-painted models parked in a line. A pure and hot yellow, the two wheels with chunky tires were fairly big, but almost fully enclosed by the body, giving it a low, sleek profile. The panel work was concentrated towards the front, leaving twin gunmetal supercharger intakes sticking out the sides, and a more exposed rear wheel with sizable hydraulic brake discs hanging out. A small pane of glass covered a lone headlight, and the sports bike lacked a windshield. It stood on its own without a kickstand, through some hidden advanced gyroscopic system Ichigo couldn't discern.
"I recognise that model... Yang drove one just like it in Vale, but a bit more orange-ey. What're the odds of that?" Jaune blinked.
"Yang, what are you doing?" Pyrrha scolded. She'd walked right up to the bike, and was fiddling with the handlebars. "Don't tell me you're about to..."
An alarm went off, and the bike's lights started to flash. Yang grinned, and turned around giddily. "When the alarm goes off, the keys start beeping! We can find the keys in one of these losers' pockets if we listen!"
"Uh... aren't we supposed to be the good guys, or something...?" Neptune muttered uncomfortably.
"Yaaang!" Pyrrha groaned like a disappointed parent.
"C'mon Blake!" Yang clasped her hands together, pleading with her bright wobbling lilac eyes. "Use your super kitty hearing! Pretty please!"
Blake huffed. "If it means never having to deal with that damn horse again, sure. I call the back seat." she closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the high pitch of the motorcycle's alarm. Her bow perked up, then twitched right. She pointed indoors. "It's inside the bar somewhere. We've got to get closer, the alarm's too loud."
Yang's face lit up as she grabbed her by the forearm and scampered indoors. "Sweet! Thanks a ton!"
"Wah!" Blake yelped as she disappeared inside.
Jaune noticed Pyrrha's uneasiness. "Relax, Pyrrha. These guys are gangsters. They're super-bad people. I bet they didn't get it legally, anyway."
"If you're that hung up on the law, you're a little late to start worrying now." Ichigo added. "Jaune frauded his way in to Beacon, Blake's an ex-terrorist, Mercury and Emerald are criminals, and someone told me Sun smuggled himself into Vale illegally..." he listed them off the top of his head.
"Hey!" Jaune felt called out. "I bet you got into worse trouble yourself! You act like a total street-punk!"
"I'm not some two-bit thug! The street gangs where I live were the ones annoying me! How is it my fault if I get into a fight when I don't start it? I'm a model citizen!" Ichigo bit back.
"Uh-uh," Amber chimed in, "Being a thug is contagious. Get in enough fights and you become one yourself. You've contracted it after extended contact."
"Gah..." Ichigo sighed. "...Whatever, I didn't mean it in a bad way, anyway." Ichigo amended, "All I'm saying is that nobody's perfect. Following every law is for suckers."
"See? I was right. He is a bad-boy." Amber nudged Pyrrha with her elbow.
"Nobody's perfect, huh? I don't know about that... I mean, Pyrrha had a problem with me downloading movies..." Jaune pointed out.
"It's illegal, Jaune! Think of all the hard working actors and cameramen! What if you got kicked out of Beacon for it?" Pyrrha fretted.
"See what I mean?" he rolled his eyes, even as he half-smiled with warm amusement.
Sun idly noticed something. "Wait a minute... speaking of crime, where's Mercury and Emerald?"
Strolling right out the front door, the two flashed a wad of Lien cards. When the two caught everybody staring at them, Mercury was the first to speak up. "What?"
"Really dude?" Sun deadpanned.
"Oh come on, you're letting her grab something. Why can't we just follow good business practices? The counter was right there– unguarded and everything!" Emerald defended with crossed arms.
"Well that bike's actually gonna come in handy, for one thing..." Jaune started.
"Good thing cash isn't all we nabbed, then? Guess what else I got." Mercury tossed something shiny to Jaune, and he scrambled to clumsily catch it.
"Whoa... this is..."
A gun. A sleek, silver thing that resembled a crossbreed between a flintlock pistol and a ray-gun pulled right from the 1950s. Ichigo noticed how its ribbed barrel, lack of sights, smooth form-factor, blue-steel hardware under chrome plating, all seemed to complement Jaune's whole simple style. The boy hefted its short weight, before testingly holding it out with one hand. He squeezed the trigger, and his arm jolted back as an explosive crack followed the flash from the barrel. He tried hooking it to the back of his belt, and found it stayed there neatly.
"...Nice. Really nice. Thanks..."
"Don't mention it. Now you can pull your weight a little better, deadweight." Mercury stretched his arms over his head, ignoring the looks he got for the insult tacked on at the end.
"Aw, you're starting to warm up!" Amber fawned.
"Bleh." Mercury stuck his tongue out. "Can we just leave already?"
Vrmm-Vrmm.
The thrum of a powerful engine growled, engulfing the entire street with its call. The headlight flooded the road with its blinding light, and Yang throttled out, skidding to a stop in front of everyone. Blake was behind her, holding on tightly.
"C'mon, let's get going!" she hollered.
"Hm, you think you can take more people on that thing?" Ichigo assessed.
"Eh, if you squeeze and forget about safety, sure!"
"That's why we have aura, I guess..." Pyrrha sidled onto the back. Then Jaune squeezed in behind her nervously.
"Seriously? The whole team?" Blake shuffled forwards.
"And I thought three people would be a squeeze... just hold on tight." Yang checked behind her.
Jaune's arms were tight, and Pyrrha blushed at the contact, but didn't speak. Jaune did, though.
"Uh, Not too fast, please, I get motion sickness..."
"I thought you'd grown out of it? You haven't tossed up since the first day," Yang murmured, her brows furrowing. "I swear to gods, if you throw up on us..."
"I mean, I don't get motion sickness! Yeah! But y'know, we don't have helmets..."
"That's what auras are for, dummy!" Yang knocked on her own noggin for emphasis. She reached into her pockets, and pulled out a pair of blacked-out aviator sunglasses. "Hold on!"
"Sunglasses at night? Seriously?" Blake quirked her brow.
Yang revved up a storm again, then peeled out down the night time street. She already knew Ichigo and Amber would be able to keep up.
"Aw crap, does that mean we're stuck with piggy-ba–aack!" Mercury grunted both he and Emerald were snatched up by Amber, who blurred forwards in a buzzing sonído.
Ichigo followed with Neptune and a laughing Sun, leaving the street quiet and empty.
- –—{}—– -
Mostly empty, anyway.
"Are they gone?"
At a distant corner, a spindly crack emerged in the air, and it branched out before shattering into many shards, unveiling a wary Neopolitan and Roman Torchwick. Hearing things go quiet after the motorcycle left put a smile on his guileful face.
"Woohoo!" he waved his cane with a cheer, "We're home free! Guess we didn't need to lug around the cow after all!"
Neo let out a puff as she dumped the knocked-out Miss Malachite on the hard, cold floor. She wiped her brow with relief after dropping the heavy weight. The plump woman didn't stir.
Their ingenious plan had been to use the woman as a bargaining chip. If the Spiders won, then they'd claim they kept their leader safe. If the Huntsmen won, then they'd claim they captured her. Foolproof! Except now they didn't need to do any of that, after all…
Torchwick turned to leave when he felt a tug on his arm. Neo poked him again and pointed out into the dark street. A large figure was approaching. The giant of a man wasn't just walking, he was walking towards them in particular.
Torchwick frowned. Well that was a bad sign...
Looming at eight feet tall, with a broad, thick-muscled olive-skinned frame that cast a long shadow down the road, the man's dark eyes were steely, his gaze hard. His mouth was fixed in a stony frown over a short beard. His brown hair was parted right in the middle, keeping only a strand on either side to bare his forehead. He wore a two-toned olive green coat, letting the rear coattails hang down to his shins, and the sleeves were rolled up to expose his hairy forearms littered with savage puncture scars. Underneath the open coat was a black low-necked shirt, matching his black combat trousers that fed into brown steel-toed boots. They crunched as he strode down the street, his eyes firmly on the duo.
"The Web... What happened to the Spiders?" he spoke lowly in a gruff voice. It was as if he knew he didn't need to put force into his voice, because his stature did all the talking. He was right.
Torchwick wasn't about to play word games with the kind of guy who could stroll around Kuchinashi unarmed at night without even looking over his shoulder.
"Ichigo Kurosaki happened. He showed up with his little posse of Huntsmen, and trashed the place. Pyrrha Nikos was with him. Crazy, huh? A teen idol like that, here of all places..."
"Ichigo Kurosaki?" the man's severe expression took on a contemplative touch. "The rising star who retook Mountain Glenn? For him to be in Mistral... what was he up to?"
Torchwick tried his best to be the gift that kept giving. His aura wasn't fully recharged yet, and he'd spent a fair amount of dust. Neo wasn't at her best, either. He didn't even want this mountain of a man to even raise his voice, let alone get handsy.
"The guy asked after two things." Torchwick held up his black gloved hand, raising one finger first. "The first was Raven Branwen. Y'know, the most dangerous woman in Mistral? Now that's a fight I'd pay to see..." he raised a second finger, and continued, "And the second was, well, two things, really, he wanted to know if the old lady knew anything about stuff called Relics and Maidens."
The man's brows furrowed with distinct, piqued interest. The bad kind of interest. Torchwick gulped, and glanced at Neo, who just shrugged. That wasn't the sort of expression he wanted the big guy to make! Usually people ease up when they hear what they wanted to hear!
He licked his dry lips, and pulled his hat off his head, into his hands. "She, ah, didn't know a lick about 'em. Y'know, funny story, she said a big buff guy came in the other day asking the same question, and..." looked the giant up and down, "...you're that guy, aren't you?"
The taller man nodded. Slowly. "Hazel Rainart. You are...?"
"Roman Torchwick, and Neopolitan." he introduced them both. "Ever heard of me? I'm front-page material."
"Cinder's henchman?" Hazel's brow rose. "What are you doing in Mistral?"
"Cin–Cinder's what!?" he stamped his foot, "I wasn't some two-bit thug! I hit the big-time full-time! You— oh." he blanched. Neo tugged at his sleeve. "Did you... work with Cinder?"
"In a matter of speaking." Hazel admitted, "We were associates under the same umbrella. That was, until her untimely demise, of course."
"Untimely demise? But she was right here five minutes ago!" Torchwick sputtered, "She's linked up with that Ichigo sped and– holy cow, that's terrible!"
Hazel sounded just as surprised. "She's alive? And colluding with the Huntsman Ichigo Kurosaki? That's hard to imagine, especially with her temperament..."
"Colluding? She was all over him! This is even worse than when she was threatening to burn me at the stake nine-to-five, cause Ichigo's even stronger than she is!"
"A mere Huntsman, stronger than Cinder?" Hazel remained sceptical. "Tell me, Roman, where are they headed now?"
"To the Branwen camp. They're actually going to try bringing in Raven Branwen, and damn, they might just do it..."
"Then it seems that I must depart as well. But if Cinder has truly gone rogue, then I suppose I..." he didn't seem like he wanted to admit the next part, "... I mustn't go alone..."
"W-what!? You're taking me?"
"Both you and your partner, yes. What you've already heard is already too much. You are both now embroiled in a conflict you can't even fathom. As are your enemies. It's not as if you would be up to anything productive anyway; festering in this hive of criminal scum."
Torchwick faltered. This was all going wrong. Just when they'd gotten out from under that bitch Cinder's thumb, this lorry-sized lout lumbers in and wrecks everything. Crap. Crap!
"Ouch!" Neopolitan had stepped on his toes, and he whipped down to look her in the eyes. She held something up for him to grab. Something heavy. "Oh! Right!" He flicked his hat onto his head, and took the weight off her hands.
He held up the limp body of Lil' Miss Malachite for Hazel to see plainly.
"Take a look at what we have here. You want help? This broad broad is large and in-charge of a whole criminal organisation. Hell, she probably has links to the other syndicates. She can pull some strings! Spider, the Hana, the Hearth, you name it. All of them have one agreement that transcends all the reasons they're at each other's throats. Any Huntsman who crosses them badly enough, cross all of them. Ichigo Kurosaki has just declared a one-man war."
"I see..." Hazel understood, and the corner of his mouth perked up ever so slightly. "This will do us well. Thank you, Roman, Neopolitan."
"...So you won't be needing us anymore, will you?" Torchwick opined.
"Of course we will." Hazel shut his hopes down at once with a shake of his head. "Try as you might to leave behind my back, it won't do you any good. We'll need all hands on deck with the target we have in our sights."
Torchwick blinked. "...And that would be?"
"Haven Academy." Hazel declared, before muscling past them and towards the collapsed bar.
Torchwick watched his broad back go. Something in his gut told him that running would be a bad idea, and not even just because of the man in front of him. Neo seemed to share the thought, as they met each other's gazes with an uneasy look.
He slumped against the wall, pulled out a cigar and took a drag. He passed it over to Neopolitan, who shared a pull. They both needed it. His tired gaze followed the rising curls of dispersing smoke up to the neon-drenched skyline overhead.
"Aw shit, here we go again..."
The Eastern Mountain ranges of Mistral took two days to reach. It was on the third morning that they reached their destination.
Mistral's mountain ranges formed the border between the scrubland deserts of Eastern Anima and the lusher grasslands, swamps and jungles of the West. Cloudbanks spent all their rain climbing the slopes of the mountains, creating rainforests on one side and a rain-shadow desert on the other. The difference was so stark that from the tops of the rocky hills they could spot greenery and mist to their left, and arid drylands to their right. It was like the world was divided with a fine ridged border.
The mountains themselves were a series of huge stone monoliths that would be impossible to scale unless you were a Huntsman team empowered by aura. The bike and horse were repeatedly lifted up the near-vertical cliff-faces, but across the tops of the wide-ranging hills was where their worth became clear. The ground, rock-walls and overhangs were brimming with spongy moss, vines, flopping ferns and scraggly trees. The birds were bright, colourful and loud, and the air was thick with their song over the drone of buzzing insects. Any Grimm that showed up were sent flying off the cliffs by a volley of gunfire.
Ichigo was struck by the wild beauty that just... existed on Remnant. It was everywhere. All untouched by mankind. Maybe that was one benefit to the Grimm; the natural world was left pristine.
A pale rocky outcrop hung over their heads, and the ground was half matted grass and half bare stone. The air was thinner here, but breathing wasn't an issue for those with aura, and Ichigo was... Ichigo.
Ichigo didn't know where they were, so he had to follow someone slower, and he wanted to make sure the others were well-rested before their inevitable confrontation. Even so, they'd managed to cover over a hundred miles in only 48 hours-or-so, thanks to that motorcycle and Amber's horse. Turns out grand theft auto was a real timesaver.
"Keep it steady..." Yang whispered.
The rock dove stood still on a rocky outcrop. Its head turned towards them, then it preened its tawny feathers.
"Shoot!"
Jaune stuck his tongue out as he squeezed the trigger, and a bang popped out, echoing down the sloped road. The bird collapsed, feathers exploding in a small cloud.
"Phew..." he wiped his brow, giving a thumbs-up to his partner. "...That's breakfast sorted."
"You're... getting better!" Pyrrha clapped with a half-queasy face. She wasn't used to hunting at all, having grown up in the city. It felt wrong to just shoot birds like that, so this was one area where she wasn't top dog. She could only watch.
"Ah..." Amber turned her head uncomfortably at the sight of the fallen dove.
"Hey, a guy's gotta eat. It's just how the world works." Ichigo watched on, sitting around an early morning campfire with the rest of their entourage. He didn't know how to hunt, but he wasn't one to be put off by the sight of blood. The pony chomped on the grass next to the bike. "I'd have helped out, but there'd be nothing really left of them if I was the one nailing 'em."
They watched as Jaune retrieved the third dove they'd bagged, then started plucking it along with the others. He cleaned it out, then cut into it without even flinching.
"Huh... you know your stuff." Neptune stood over Jaune's shoulder, hands in his pockets as he stooped down.
Jaune blushed, and scratched at his cheek. "I guess? I never had to train like a super-human, so I just did chores before Beacon instead. We kept chickens in our coop. A ten-person household takes a lot of work."
"Jaune's special like that; he even baked a cake for Blake's birthday." Pyrrha revealed.
"I was just copying what Ren did for Ruby. He's even more impressive honestly, considering his past, and he's still just as great as a cook as I am..." Jaune murmured as he slid them smoothly into a pot. After flicking some switches, the fire-dust fuelled pot spouted steam, cooking its contents without even touching the campfire. Ichigo was once again left quietly impressed by how convenient dust technology was. No plug-sockets were necessary at all.
The meal was quick and clean, and soon enough they were on the move once more. But this time, it wasn't for long.
- –—{}—– -
"That's it, isn't it?"
Blake handed the binoculars over to Yang, who peered down the lenses and nodded grimly. "Yeah, that's gotta be the place. I mean, just look at it..."
Ichigo was standing in the sky, giving him a much better view of the mountain camp.
Built on a wide plateau, the grassy land was flat, punctured by a row of spiked logs crudely bolted together on the inside. It formed a perimeter around the nestled tangle of roughshod tents and shacks within, and at the front of the walls were even larger tree trunks forming an imposing gate. It was still early enough that the night-time fires hadn't been put out, meaning a scatter of lofty torches and organised campfires still burned dimly under the waxing sunlight, the embers dying slowly. The dawn sky was a vivid orange, thinly star-speckled, as the rising sun drowned out their pinprick light. The shattered moon still hung overhead, even as the atmosphere shifted colours around it. 'Organised Barbarianism' was the only thing he could call it.
The camp was a hustle of activity, filled with men and women grabbing hold of swords, knives, guns and axes, gathering together in the clearings in the middle of the camp. They weren't anything like what Ichigo thought 'tribesmen' would mean, there weren't any feathered headdresses, animal hides, and only a few of them carried spears. They dressed more like pirates-but-on-land than anything else really. At least they had that 'dark red and black and brown' colour scheme down pat. The fact that they were gathering like this... that wasn't a good sign.
Ichigo dropped back low.
"They're getting ready to move out." he guessed.
"No, that doesn't seem like it." Jaune raised a hand to his chin in thought. "They aren't pulling down any of their tents."
"So that must mean..." Amber's eyes widened.
"They're gonna go on a raid!" Sun smacked his fist into his palm. "I say we go put them down!"
"Hold it, we can't just go rushing in guns blazing..." Blake stressed.
"Who says we can't?" Mercury asked right back. He stuck a thumb over at the orange-haired Soul Reaper. "We've got Ichigo with us."
"Not yet. I want to talk to someone first." Yang requested quietly. She was still gazing over the hills, out at the distant warriors' base.
"Huh!?" all heads swung her way.
"Yang... wants to talk?" Blake double-took.
"You what!?" Jaune exclaimed.
She threw her hands up in the air and stomped round to face them. "I said what I said! C'mon, is it that unbelievable?"
Pyrrha tilted her head and clasped her hands sweetly. "Yeah, it is."
"Listen, first we'll just try asking them if they really did burn Shion, then we'll see what happens from there."
"You mean we'll only start fighting back once we're completely surrounded?" Mercury rolled his dull silvery eyes.
"Oh, come on, it won't be that bad... you said it yourself, we've got Ichigo and Amber with us!" she put her fists on her hips cockily.
"We're not all like Amber and Ichigo though..." Jaune frowned.
Ichigo shook his head at Yang's words. "Y'know, something tells me I'm teaching you guys reckless habits... but whatever, it's not like I can talk. You'll still need to be able to hold your own, though." He pointed out at the tribe. "'Cause from what I'm sensing, it looks like most of the scumbags in that camp are right on par with those two goth chicks in Kuchinashi. I think there's someone in there who might need my full attention."
"Then we'd better get ready..." Pyrrha nodded firmly.
They bounded down the ridge they were on and edged up the other mountain. The knotted mountain grass was springy beneath their feet, damp with morning dew and dampening their footsteps. Ichigo jumped across the gap in one fell swoop, landing right outside the crude front gates. The wall of logs up close looked functional, yet messy, spiked at the top and ridiculously simple in design. A design of nomads who knew what they were doing, and didn't intend for it to last long. A broken tree could be swapped out for another with ease, but Ichigo wondered just how the heck they'd even managed to drag all those logs here so high in the first place. Guess aura meant you didn't have to worry so much about lugging stuff uphill.
He reached into his pocket, and a white flash engulfed him as he touched the combat pass. The flowing night-black robes of his shihakushō covered him, and the sealed Zangetsu's stark-white bandage sheath rustled in the mountainous winds. He checked backwards, over his shoulder, and found the others right behind him, their faces firm and determined.
Ichigo took the hint, and walked right up to the closest thing that could be called a "front door" and knocked.
Knock-knock-knock.
He used the back of his hand, with his knuckles against the wood, and waited. He didn't have to wait long, either.
Rather than the gate opening, a man with shaggy dirt-blond hair rounded the corner. He was missing a tooth, and had a red bandanna tied around his neck. His eyes widened like dinner plates, and before anyone could speak he'd whipped out two knife-hilted revolvers from the holsters at his sides. He was shooting before they could react, a trigger-finger faster than anyone had expected.
Ichigo's hand blurred, and in an instant he was holding the spent bullets aimed right at his allies. He twisted on his feet, grabbed Sun and Neptune by the shoulders, and tossed them right at the guardsman.
"Huh!? Oh, yeah!" they grasped what to do mid-air and shifted round, and the gunman ended up taking a trident to the face and a metal staff to the gut, simultaneously. He was floored at once, and knocked out, even through his aura.
"Aw, crap. I wanted to have a cool entrance right down the front..." Ichigo complained.
"Uh Yang, I think these Branwen guys are the 'shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later' type of people." Jaune assessed helpfully.
"Jeez, almost like they're murderous barbarian bandits or something..." Emerald groused.
The 'ask a question' plan had just gone up in a puff of gunsmoke.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you don't have to tell me twice. Talking first was a pipe dream, anyway." Yang grit her teeth. Her eyes flashed red as she clapped her fist into her palm. "Ichigo, you know how my semblance works, right?"
"I've seen you use it. It's like Adam's but without a sword, right? I can guess what you want to pull off. I've charged his up before too."
"And when did this happen?" Blake hissed sternly as she strode towards the walls. Mercury, Emerald, and her were the more stealth-inclined members of their group, flanking the wider sides of the walls to get a lay of the camp.
"Can we talk about that later? They're gathering right behind the door." Amber pointed out flatly. She waved her hands, and the three were boosted over by a quiet gust of wind magic. They were positioned to land out of sight behind the tents.
Ichigo used the flat side of Zangetsu to slam right down on Yang's high block. It was a lot of force, but spread flatly, enough to transfer the kinetic energy without hurting her. And it was a lot of energy.
Her hair burst into wreathes of solar-yellow aura flames. She cartwheeled back, landing smoothly in a sprinter's stance close to the floor. She exploded forwards, cracking the solid rock behind her at her feet, and tearing up the grass with every tread. She leapt up, leading her feet first, aiming her flying double-kick right at the centre of the camp's door. "Let's start this off with a Yang!"
"Really?" Jaune sweat, before he immediately had to raise his shield to block the cataclysmic shockwave of Yang's impact.
She went right through, tearing the logs apart and throwing a shower of couch-sized wood chunks out with her. She blew right into the group of tribesmen aiming to defend the gate, catching her feet on one and sliding right up into the camp on a human skateboard. She'd smashed into the camp with the force of a roaring train, and that was just the start of how she got everyone's attention.
"Trick or treat motherfuckers!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Bring out Raven Branwen!"
"T-this little Huntress hussy is calling out the chief?" a man with a silver pauldron over his red jacket grunted in disbelief from the floor.
"Sound the alarm! Huntsmen are inside the gate!" an eyepatched woman yelled. She drew a small sub-machine gun and hip-fired at the group without care. They gathered behind Jaune's and Pyrrha's shields, until her magazine ran out. As soon as it did, she took two dust-bullets right to the chest, courtesy of Emerald. Except rather than fall back, she instead grit her teeth and straightened her stance. Even some of the people Yang had laid out flat like a meteorite had begun to stir. It was pretty clear now that the tribesmen were a cut above any of the henchmen the students had fought before.
Amber muscled her way to the front, and cast out a wave of fire from her hands to keep them at bay. It did the trick, temporarily leaving both sides at a fast-burning impasse.
Ichigo simply strode right on ahead, right through the curling fire and flames. He could trust his friends to take care of themselves for now.
Whenever any of the Branwens tried to challenge him, he just laid them out hard enough that they wouldn't be getting back up again. One strike was all it took to down anyone who faced him. He hadn't even drawn Zangetsu yet, it was all hand-to-hand hakuda. An elbow, an open-palmed uppercut, a right cross to the gut. Just like on Sōkyoku Hill years ago. And just like back then, his eyes were fixed on one opponent alone, the strongest spiritual pressure he could sense. He didn't know who it was, just that it lay in the largest tent in the camp, and that was where he marched on. He was itching for a challenge, and this wasn't someone they could leave alone.
Yang bellowed her demands once more. "Where the heck is she? I just blew down your front door! Is your chief deaf, or something?"
"Well let's ask first– who's knocking?"
An icy-eyed tan woman stepped forwards, and the crowd of armed bandits parted ways for her. She was short, only slightly taller than Weiss and Ruby, but the way the others deferred to her presence meant she wasn't to be taken lightly. Her brown hair was cut short, her facial features young and angry. She seemed to be the same age as Yang. Her clothes were a dull cream-brown, apart from her rolled-up maroon shorts the colour of dry blood. Most of her legs were covered by leather calf-guards, thick socks and criss-cross laced boots, but a fair amount of skin peeked through at the tops of her thighs, revealing the garter-straps hooked onto the leather armour. Up top she wore a light brown vest over a white shirt with the sleeves ripped off, exposing her arms. It showed off the tattoo of the raven emerging from a bouquet of black daffodils running down her right, whilst her left arm had a forearm bracer covering it. The leather matched the rough fingerless gloves on her hands, the holstered belt at her waist, and the buckled choker around her neck.
"Yang Xiao-Long! Does that mean anything to you?"
"Vernal." she introduced herself. "And no, it doesn't."
Yang snorted. "Hah, of course not. She'd never even mention me..."
"Let's give you a warm welcome." Vernal sarcastically bit right back. "Does this mean anything to you?"
She reached around her back, then pulled free two discs that had been strapped there. She held her arms out at her sides, then with a click, lethal-sharp blades sprung out at the top and bottom, reforming into thin pincer-claws with double-barrelled guns in the centres. She whipped her arms across her chest faster than they could react, and the barrels glowed as she did, before a gale-force wind wiped out the fire, tore up the earth, and nearly took them all off their feet.
Amber dived forwards and touched the matted grass, and it bled frost-white before a shield-wall of transparent ice formed again. Her eyes blazed with the mystic power of Autumn, bright enough that her opponents could see them straight through the clear cold crystals. Vernal recognised that light as soon as she saw it.
"Y-you're a..." she cut herself off, then immediately rounded on her feet and waved her hand wide in a wild, furious gesture. "Get the chief! She's needed here now!"
It was right about then that Mercury slid behind the ice-wall like he was diving for a trench, having flanked back around the combat zone when nobody was looking. Emerald and Blake followed soon afterwards, their eyes wide and faces taut with bad news.
"Watch out!" Blake cried, rolling into place besides her team. "It's Ichigo!"
"What was he doing!?" Jaune fret.
"He's fighting a Maiden!" Mercury snapped.
"He's what—!?"
Right then and there, something hit their ice-wall with just as much force as a fully-charged Yang did against the camp's gate. It exploded, crumbled, shattered and sublimated all at once, and an explosion of steam wreathed the mountaintop. Yang was thrown up into the air, but she corrected herself mid-fall with a blast from Ember Celica, landing atop of one of the sturdier shacks. What she saw from above hit her even harder than the explosion did.
The thing that had hit the ice was actually two things instead. Two people, locked in combat. Ichigo's Zangetsu was crossed with a red ōdachi, and his eyes were locked onto a four-eyed Grimm helmet. White with red markings, the black feathers at the back blended into her dark mane of hair. The figure shoved a finger into Ichigo's upper shoulder, but he knocked it away. A beam-thin gout of fire rocketed out from her fingertip.
"Nice try, but I've seen it before." Ichigo grinned, before redoubling his strength and wrenching his sword down. The ground cracked and buckled as he overpowered the swordswoman, before she changed her grip. A wave of fire consumed the red blade, and Ichigo soon recognised what it was made out of. Dust. The entire sword was forged out of it, and it was hot. The grass beneath their feet caught alight, and Ichigo twisted sideways to sweep his leg up into a body kick, which impacted the woman right at the same time that she managed to slice at his torso. Ichigo had brought up an arm block, but the burning blade still bit into his forearm, eating through his sleeve as they were forced apart by each other's blows.
The sword cracked, then fell apart, before the hilt was swiftly re-sheathed. He'd broken it with his kick, but the woman didn't seem too pressed over it. Was it replaceable? Sick...
"Huh, not bad..." Ichigo muttered surprisedly, inspecting his left arm. The kosode's black sleeve was burned right through, so he tore it away, revealing his singed forearm. A thin cut had been made into the flesh, and a trickle of blood oozed from the shallow slit. Was it because dust was just physical reishi? Her weapon was basically a Quincy's sword. He should've used blut vene. "Not bad at all. You're the strongest person I've run into on Remnant so far."
Way stronger than Cinder, he could already tell. But how? Only one way that was possible...
"That must mean you're the Spring Maiden, right?"
"W-what!?" Jaune crowed.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Blake murmured uneasily.
"It'd explain how she actually managed to draw blood from Ichigo..." Pyrrha suggested. "We haven't seen that since initiation."
"Hey, this is a good thing, right?" Sun reasoned. "We found both the things we're looking for at once! Two birds with one stone, eh?"
"Yeah, so long as we make it out alive..." Emerald said darkly.
"That's not all she is!" Yang hollered as she bounded down in between the two combatants. She held up her hands both ways, getting Ichigo to stop, and oddly enough, the woman too. She spun round, planting her feet and crossing her arms. "She's also my mom!"
"""Huh!?"""
This was quite the revelation to everybody there, on both sides. Ichigo was the only one this wasn't fresh news to. He straightened up and sheathed his massive sword. But even he was just as taken aback as everybody else when the woman slowly reached up, undid a lock, and removed the Grimm helmet from her head.
It revealed another Yang, but older, colder, and with perpetually red eyes and a mane of black hair instead of lemon-blonde. Yeah, that was her mother alright. The family resemblance was uncanny.
Finally, she smiled and spoke. "Yang... So, after all this time you've finally decided to visit me."
NEXT: 32 - SEASON'S GREETINGS: SPRING - [La Distancia Para Un Duelo]
Author's notes:
I was summoned by the new TYBW and videogame trailer...
I'm back, after some IRL stuff that kept me busy for a while. I wasn't just watching Skibidi Toilet Sigma AMVs, I swear. It's Summer, so I can just write tons now. I've set up a ko(space)fi, since I kind of need a little funding now. You know how life is. I'd appreciate any support I get, although the audience I have reading this is already plenty.
I read a story on this site recently that really made me rethink how I'm writing this work. Mostly because of what it showed me not to do. I'm not gonna name it, but let's say it's an RWBY crossover that leaned way too heavily into the "native" series and didn't let the crossover guys who showed up on Remnant do anything at all. It seemed deathly afraid of letting the OP crossover isekai'd chads do what the audience came to see them do, kick ass. Also it threw in a crap-ton of schizo OC stuff that didn't have anything to do with either series, "retconned" in incest (yes, really) and other shipping lemon BS every chapter. It was truly a case of "The Virgin Shipping VS The CHAD Powerscaling". The reason I bring this up is that it's 100% convinced me to AVOID any of that stuff. Without it coming at the cost of RWBY's cast, I will 100% let Ichigo just do his thing, because that's the whole point of this story in the first place.
I'll only throw in mainline canon characters from now on, so I'm gonna rethink that whole Dr. Merlot thing from Mountain Glenn and how it'll tie in later. I ripped them out of Kuchinashi straight away because I now realise no one would really care and you just really want to see Raven show up, so she's the complete focus of the next chapter. Even among canon characters, there's certain characters people like to see more than others, too. Romance when it does rarely show up will be written like it is in Bleach's Everything But the Rain, very fleeting and more like companionship than anything else.
The next chapter will start off with a conversation, rather than a fight. Yang has stopped the violence for now, but I really wanted Ichigo to just walk up and kick it off. Ichigo is only a 'boring' character if you let him be, and him pulling stuff like this keeps it spicy. Not everyone in this series has to like him, and not everyone will get along with him. Raven least of all. His sealed state is a lot weaker than his true shikai, obviously. Yang's stolen a motorcycle identical to her usual one, Jaune's got a gun, and Torchwick is back in the fold. I added the bar fight for a reason, after all.
The mountainous environment they're in is inspired by China. Think of Kung Fu Panda, OG Dragonball, Transformers 4 or just look up "Chinese Mountains" and you should be good. I can move the Branwen camp right? They're nomads, after all. For next chapter, get ready for some good 'ol family drama, but with a shonen twist. It's gonna get messy...
Thanks for 1,126 reviews, 2,286 favourites and 2,873 follows. I always respond to reviews that ask questions and give their thoughts, or give suggestions for the course of the story. To be continued...
You can support me for cheap on ko(hyphen)fi (slash) spriggy13. I'd really appreciate the support, whether it's a monthly thing or just a one-off tip.