32: SEASON'S GREETINGS: Spring - [La Distancia Para Un Duelo]

"Yang... So, after all this time you've finally decided to visit me."

Raven Branwen looked nearly identical to her daughter. Nearly. A mane of black hair as dark as a Nevermore's wings was a surly reflection of Yang's own blonde locks. Her crimson eyes were marked by faint lines underneath, and her eyebrows were slightly higher. A scarlet bandanna was tied into her hair, over the back of her head, with an embroidered edge to it. Most of her kimono top was also blood red, with a pitch black chest, edging, and under-arms. It was open at the neck, and all the way down in a V-shape to the top of her chest, exposing a hint of cleavage. Around her waist was a red tasset on the right side, hooked onto an obi sash, with a wreath of sable feathers hanging out underneath it. A set of beaded necklaces hung around her neck, somehow having gotten past all her hair to get there. Her forearms bore red armoured gauntlets that protruded outwards in metal layers over black fingerless gloves. It was matched by the black thigh high boots on her legs that had similar armour plating up her shins, over black heels. It exposed her pale upper thighs, and the dark miniskirt she was wearing didn't help with that.

Wow. Ichigo didn't know what to think. It must've been awkward for Yang, imagine meeting your mother for the first time in years, and she's wearing a pleated miniskirt in her forties. Her claret-red eyes flitted to him. Oh, crap, had he been staring?

"Decided to?" she frowned, "You know that I searched for you. I spent years looking for you!"

"And you've found me. You were patient, determined, and strong enough to make your dream a reality. Well done, Yang." she congratulated, before sweeping her gaze left and right, taking in the destroyed gate. "But did you have to be so rough with my men?"

"This hoe is your mom?" Ichigo stuck his tongue out in distaste.

Raven eyed him with an unreadable look. "...And you've even brought along a man who can stand up to me... now that is exceptional."

"Hehe, thanks..." Jaune rubbed the back of his head bashfully. Then he yelped, "–Ouch!"

Mercury had slapped him round the back of the head. "Not you, idiot." he shoved a thumb at himself with a smirk. "She was talking about me, obviously."

"Oh yeah? What makes you so sure about that?" Sun contested.

"I'd stand up for you anytime lady..." Neptune slid in smoothly.

Emerald and Blake both facepalmed at once.

"...Who was actually fighting her, again?" Ichigo dropped a deadpan stare.

"So, uhm, you're the Maiden of Spring?" Amber asked out loud, in front of the whole camp. "I'm the Autumn Maiden, so..."

"No, I am not." Raven denied pointedly. Her expression switched out like a light.

"But—"

"You shouldn't flaunt such things, girl."

"Girl? I'm twenty!" Amber whined.

"And I'm– hold on, I'm not going to tell you that..." Raven grit. "Never mind. Follow me to my tent. We'll have this little talk there."

The group followed the chief through the camp, Vernal at her side. From the outside, Raven's tent was a whole lot bigger than any of the others they'd seen, held up by six clear posts and pegged in at the ends, giving it a high multi-sloped top with a rectangular floorplan. They stepped inside, finding a wide spacious abode. To the left of the entrance was a cupboard, and in the very corner stood a few barrels with liquor bottles on top. To the right was a low dark-wood chest, with a cow's skull sitting on it. Most of the right side was taken up by a bed, with cherry-red sheets and pillows, the headboard pushed up against a short table with filled lit candles and half-empty bottles of alcohol.

Yeah, she really was Qrow's sister.

The back side was covered with animal pelts and drapes of silk, sharp teeth hanging across the space like Christmas lights. An actual, straight-up pirate's chest sat in the back-left corner, next to a much darker crate and oaken barrel. A teapot was stacked atop it. What resembled a dream-catcher, complete with criss-crossed knobbed sticks and raven feathers, hung on the left side. Underneath, taking up most of the open space was a sitting area, a softly glowing dust-lantern resting on a square table, surrounded by carmine cushions on top of two expensive-looking rolled-out carpets. The air was balmy with the smell of sweet candles and punchy incense.

"Damn, it's a hell of a lot more homely than I'd have thought..." Mercury muttered.

"It's all stolen, that's why." Emerald whispered back.

"I didn't invite all of you." Raven crossed her arms. "But the masked girl can stay."

"My team's staying with me." Yang crossed her arms right back.

"And where I go, Ichigo goes." Amber yanked him into her side by the arm.

"Hey!" he grouched, "I never agreed to that!"

"Then just them." Raven amended.

"It's better if we're not all grouped together in a place like this, anyway." Neptune reasoned.

"I don't like the way these guys are lookin' at me..." Sun was wary under the side-eyed glances the bandits shot their way constantly.

"Scope things out while we're gone, and find out where they're going to raid next." Amber quietly directed with one last look, before she lifted the heavy waterproof cloth of the tent and slipped inside.

Vernal sat down on the bed, whilst the rest of PJYB took seats around the lantern-table on the soft cushions. Ichigo and Amber were left in the back on the carpet. He was half-expecting Raven to try and get then to leave their weapons outside, but she did no such thing. Smart of her. They wouldn't have complied anyway, and it would've just started trouble. He absorbed Zangetsu into his body with a flare of rich golden light.

"Yang..." Raven was the only one standing. "Tell me... how did you get embroiled in all this?"

"Embroiled in what?" she asked.

"The Maidens of the Four Seasons... the Relics, Ozpin's eternal holy war. You don't want to get mixed up in all of that, Yang. Ozpin is not the man you think he is. You'd be a fool for trusting him. I would know, I trusted him once, too."

"Wait-wait-wait, you think I'm here because of Ozpin?" Yang shook her head. "We're here because you..."

"Because you wrecked Shion!" Jaune finished.

"...Finding out it was you was just an unhappy coincidence." Yang added grimly.

"Hn..." Raven crooned, "That makes this issue a lot more... personal. The world is more than black and white, Yang."

"What? –You killed innocent people!" Jaune accused.

"Not personally. It was only one Huntsman, and it was either him or me. We didn't know the Grimm would follow. How are we to blame for what the monsters do afterwards?" Raven asked.

"What do mean 'how'? You obviously are!" Yang clenched her fists in her lap. "You raided the place!"

Raven sighed. "Need I remind you that this is outside the Kingdoms? Laws don't exist out here. It's survival of the fittest. Either we raid, or my tribe starves. If it's between us or them, then I know where my loyalty lies every time– unlike your uncle Qrow..."

"You know what? I think I understand now why Dad and Uncle Qrow never wanted me to meet you..." Yang said with a dark face.

That definitely ruffled Raven's feathers. "Your uncle is a fool. Ozpin is not the man you think he is." She bristled. "I would know, I trusted him once, too."

"Why do you keep bringing up Ozpin?" Pyrrha questioned. "What's he got to do with all this?"

"Because old man Oz has a great and terrible secret."

"He's never given us a reason to doubt him before..." Blake spoke up.

"That doesn't mean those reasons don't exist." Raven riposted. She reached behind herself, over to the teapot, and flicked a switch. It slowly began to boil. "You know, you and your teammates might as well be the poster children for the Huntsman Academies. Your motives vary, but you all enrolled to try and make the world a better place. It's adorable."

"How would you know anything about my team?" Yang's lilac eyes narrowed.

"Y'know, acting all jaded doesn't make you cool. Keep talking like that and I'll start wondering where you're hiding a fedora in all that hair." Ichigo butted in.

"I'm sorry, and you are?" Raven quirked a dismissive eyebrow.

"Ichigo Kurosaki. The guy who was about to clean your clock five minutes ago, lady."

"Last I recall only one of us shed blood in that match. Doesn't that mean your aura's all spent?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ichigo smirked.

The fire-dust kettle's boil grew louder.

Raven's lip thinned, and for a few more tense seconds, the two kept eye contact. "Not yet."

"Making the world a better place is what Huntsmen and Huntresses do." Pyrrha argued.

"Not all of them." Raven denied. "Some are just in it for the money and the fame, but there's even more that are just looking to grow stronger. Yang's Uncle Qrow and I didn't attend Beacon to become Huntsmen, we did it to learn how to kill Huntsmen."

The kettle whistled at last, and Raven watched with satisfaction as Yang's eyes drew wide.

"Daddy and Uncle left that part out, hm?" she turned, lifted the lid of the chest, and pulled out a black teacup. It didn't match the kettle. "Aside from the Grimm, Huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a counterforce, and Qrow and I were the perfect age. The entrance exams were child's play compared to what we'd already been through. We were good– too good. So good that we caught the attention of Beacon's very own future Headmaster, Professor Ozpin. He wasn't in charge yet, but he would be. He'd rigged the system. Even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping his eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew what we were, but it was Team STRQ he was interested in."

"And what do you mean by that?" Yang frowned.

"Constant attention, extra training missions, turning a blind eye whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble than we should've. Sound familiar?" Raven guessed.

Yang shared a concerned glance with her teammates. Ichigo was more confused.

"Wait, since when did any of that happen?" he wondered, "I don't think he really talked with you guys much at all..."

"Well, you did disappear for two months." Jaune pointed out.

"We had a lot of run-ins with Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. Ruby's team too." Blake reminded. "So we ended up going to his office a lot."

Raven poured out the cup of tea, and let it stir. "How much do you know about Professor Ozpin? About his past?"

"He's a prodigy. One of the youngest headmasters to ever be appointed to a school." Pyrrha replied.

"Because that's how he planned it. Because the man you know as Ozpin designed those schools and has followers inside every academy on Remnant that are loyal to him and no one else."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Yang exclaimed, "Why would someone– no, how could he even do that?"

Ichigo was left baffled at their surprise. "I thought you told them everything they needed to hear?" he turned to Amber.

"Oops, my bad." she scratched her head. "I told them everything I know about the Relics and the Maidens, but left out who the Wizard was. Must've slipped my mind."

"Ozpin is the Wizard from the crack den!?" Jaune gasped, piecing it together all at once. "Holy crap! That's awesome! You think he can teach us magic?"

"No he can't teach you magic!" Raven snarled angrily. "The old coot's a fraud!"

"...Crack den?" Vernal tilted her head.

"I might've snubbed the story a little..." Amber remarked guiltily.

"You!" Raven rounded on her. "You're the Autumn Maiden! You foolish girl, you shouldn't show your powers so brazenly!"

"And you're the Spring Maiden! Don't bother lying!" Amber shot right back. "Plus I know the risks– I've already been attacked, but it all worked out just fine in the end." she stated smugly.

"After being dead for like a year..." Ichigo reminded her.

Amber ignored him. "The point is that I already know the risks, you old hag."

"Hag?" Raven crowed, "You know, it takes a lot of nerve and some real backbone to march in here and say such things to my face. I've got to say... I'm impressed."

"Um... thank you?" Amber wasn't sure what to say.

"But you've made a terrible mistake. You're courting death."

Amber cast a sidewards-glance at Ichigo and a blush tinged her cheeks. "Yeah, I guess I kinda literally am... but that's how I like him."

Raven continued, ignoring her words. "Ozpin keeps the truth hidden. A truth that could spread fear across the world. One that he eventually entrusted to our team, and once I knew, there was no going back. I needed to know more, but with every new discovery I made, the more horrifying the world became."

Yang wasn't really the patient type. "So, what's this super-scary 'truth'?"

"You know, it's better when it's hot." Raven took a pointed sip from her teacup.

Blake wasn't impressed. "Miss, you're really obnoxious."

"Are you gonna answer me or not?" Yang asked again.

Raven wasn't budging. "Well, aren't you stubborn."

"I get it from my mom."

"Smooth!" Jaune held out a high-five. Yang ignored him at first, before she soon felt too guilty and returned it with a clap. She flushed red in embarrassment.

"...Thank you for reminding me why I always hated team bonding." Raven drew another sip from her tea.

"The truth is that 'truth' is hard to come by. A story of victory for one person is a story of defeat for someone else. If I tell you this, I want something in return. I want you to promise me that you'll never, and I mean ever, work for Ozpin or his cronies again."

"Deal." Yang nodded without a beat. Raven was visibly surprised by how quickly she agreed, so her daughter elaborated. "I already told you, I'm not here because of Ozpin. We're here because of what you did in Shion. And, uh, I guess we needed to find the Spring Maiden anyway. Finding you means knocking out two birds with one stone."

"I hope that wasn't Taiyang's terrible sense of puns rubbing off on you just now."

"What? Oh, is it your name?" Yang guessed.

"Never mind." Raven brushed off. "Tell me then, why do you need to find the Spring Maiden?"

"Tell us your secret first! You promised!" Yang leaned forwards. "What's so crazy that the rest of us don't know?"

Raven set down her teacup. Her voice turned grave, and the dim candle light drew foreboding shadows up her features. "The Creatures of Grimm... have a master named Salem. She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until Humanity crumbles at her feet."

Yang wasn't even sure how to react. Ichigo did, though.

"Oh, so it's just that," he sounded disappointed, "–and here I thought it was something cool I hadn't heard before."

"You knew about this!?" Yang spun round in her seat. "But you know less about Remnant than anyone here!"

"Ozpin told me himself a while ago, and Amber found out herself." Ichigo admitted, "Sorry, it never really came up."

"The Grimm have a– a leader?" Jaune blanched. Amber nodded quietly, and he retorted, "But that's like– like trees having a leader!? They have no minds at all!"

"I... I don't know what to think..." Pyrrha was lost.

Blake shuffled in her seat. "I would've asked if you were telling the truth, but if Ichigo and Amber both agree, then there's no point."

"There's a good thought process." Raven approved. "You need to question everything."

"Oh yeah, huh? Even what you're telling us now?" Yang snapped back.

"Don't play coy." Raven scolded. "I've told you what you needed to hear, now you'll be answering me. Why are you searching for the Spring Maiden? What did Ozpin put you up to?"

"I've said it a million times already!" Yang pointed around behind her, right at the man in question. "It's not Ozpin! It's for Ichigo."

"He put you up to this?" Raven moved her hand to her sword's hilt. She regarded the man with a fresh glare. Up until now he wasn't too noteworthy, but now...

Omen wasn't a sword, but rather a rotary chamber that created blades of pure dust. The scabbard was the mechanical marvel, and the hilt was merely a locking mechanism to draw them out. Gunmetal and black, it was a long and rectangular flat shape housing a spinning cylinder with blinking lights denoting each dust element. Green for wind, white for ice, purple for gravity and more. A large monkey-grip handle was fitted to the top of the scabbard, for a steady hold whilst selecting a new blade. There was a trigger slotted into the hilt, which was topped with a metallic crossguard instead of tsuba like most Eastern-styled blades usually had. The entire thing was big and heavy, but the weight wouldn't bother someone with aura.

Even as the cylinder audibly whirred, Ichigo didn't stir. Instead, he gained a low, toothy grin. "Go ahead lady, make my freaking day."

It was Pyrrha who put a stop to it. "Ma'am, if you start fighting, then we'll stop talking."

"It's one or the other." Jaune laid it out. "And Pyrrha, are you really being polite to her?"

"She's still Yang's mother, Jaune!" Pyrrha reasoned.

"We just want to use the Relic of Knowledge." Amber tried, "We need it to help Ichigo. He's from another dimension."

"Hmph, and I'm supposed to take your words at face value? You keep believing everything you're told, Yang, and you'll become as blind as your Uncle and Father. So far you've done nothing but accept what others tell you, but I won't set you the same poor example."

"You're already setting a bad example!" Yang growled. "You're literally a murderous criminal!"

"That's just a matter of perspective, honey." Raven refuted.

"How is that so hard to believe?" Ichigo gave a blank look. "Magic is a-okay, your brother can turn into a bird, but somehow me being from another world is a step too far?"

"Uncle Qrow can what–?" Yang caught.

"That's something Ozpin did to him." Raven said.

"Why're you saying it like that's a bad thing?" Ichigo poked. "I don't get it, that sounds exclusively beneficial."

"That's sounds awesome!" Jaune marvelled. "Imagine being able to fly! I wonder if he can see super far and shoot feathers?"

"Since when can birds shoot feathers?" Blake's eyebrow rose.

"Nevermores can. And c'mon, it's a basic bird-superpower thing." Jaune sounded certain.

"Y'know, he's not wrong. Everyone keeps trying to tell me Ozpin's some sorta Machiavellian morally grey cloak-and-dagger double-dealer, but all I've seen is that he's just a guy doing his job. Not too well, but his strategy has more or less done the job for thousands of years." Ichigo contemplated.

"Machia-what?" Jaune repeated.

"I mean, seriously, Amber, how the heck was it his fault you got whacked by Cinder?" Ichigo recalled their first conversation on the CCT tower, "You said he wanted to leave you alone, but it was the other people in his circle who wanted to force you to move. You should have an issue with them. Plus, if I wasn't there, and you died, then the world would've been screwed."

"That doesn't mean Ozpin had to be a pushover and listen to those shady pigs though! Plus, I mean, if you think about it, technically he created the Maidens in the first place millennia ago, so..." she shrugged.

"At least he didn't genocide anybody. Trust me, I have some experience with that. He could be way worse." Ichigo resolved.

"And yet you want the Relic of Knowledge. Why?" Raven pressed.

"To find a way to save my world. It's falling apart, and unless I figure out a way to stop it, I'll have fought an entire war for nothing."

"And you're willing to risk Remnant for your own sake?" Raven accused.

"It's not that dangerous. Tell you what, I'll take care of this Salem floozy for you. I scratch your back, you scratch mine."

"Maybe if I get to scratch it with Omen..." Raven said ominously. "Don't make me laugh. Salem can't die. She's an unstoppable calamity."

"She's immortal, right?" Ichigo scratched his ear nonchalantly. "That makes her, what... the third one I've dealt with?"

"You... you called me obnoxious?" Raven faced Blake. Ichigo remained openly nonplussed by her rising temper. He didn't care one bit, and he wanted her to know it. She sighed, "And I thought Qrow was bad..."

"Don't you dare talk about my family like that!" Yang fumed. "You don't know the first thing about my friends either! Or about me!" she ranted. "You were never there! You left us!" her voice fell to a weak whimper. "...Why?"

"I know more than you realize." Raven dodged the question, and they all saw it. "...Not just about you, and not just what I've been told, but things I've seen with my own eyes. I get it, you won't listen to me, but why him? You don't seriously believe this one man stands a chance against Salem?"

Prompted by her mother's words, Yang met Ichigo's gaze for a short moment. And there, in the home of the woman she'd spent an entire lifetime searching for, she came to a pivotal decision. Her lilac eyes fell to her lap.

"I'll admit I'm kinda pissed off at him for not bothering to even mention something like this, and we're definitely going to have a long talk about it... but... I trust him." her head rose, and she locked eyes with her mother with a smile. "I trust Ichigo a whole lot more than you. And I trust he can beat Salem, whoever she is. And you can trust me, when I say if you've seen what he can do you'd believe in him too."

Raven was taken aback, but only slightly. Of course she'd choose this way, she's never seen what Salem is capable of. It was her role as a mother to correct her daughter's course.

Omen's rotary chamber whirred, until it locked into a chosen blade, the bead-sized yellow light blinking.

"Hm, then perhaps, when he is dead, you'll be swayed to see things my way." Her hands fell to her scabbard, right hand fingering the trigger on the guard, and her left hand tight around the handle on the mechanical sheathe. Her feet swept back, and she fell into a lowered, half-crouching stance, building the tension in her legs and thighs. "If I prove he can't beat me, then what chance does he pose against the Queen of Grimm?"

Yang was outraged, her eyes flickering red as she was about to shoot to her feet. But before she could even lift a toe, Raven struck like a coiled viper.

Her blinding-yellow sword was wreathed in lightning, and she moved as fast as the element she commanded with practised fluidity.

On contact, an explosion erupted so forcefully that the pressure took the cloth of the tent they were in clean off, sending it gusting away like a kite. Rather than fiery, it was more like a searing gale of wind and shockwaves, knocking them all back but the two who caused it. They scrambled to right themselves, engaging all their weapons as the entire camp's attention was brought to bear. Vernal was flung back, and she scowled from the ground when she saw what had happened.

Ichigo had blocked the iaijutsu strike without even standing up. Zangetsu was held point-down, hilt-up, and he rested on one knee. One hand was on the handle, the other resting on his leg. It was, oddly enough, the exact same pose he'd been in when he awakened Zangetsu's first Shikai all those years ago in Urahara's basement. The massive, shining butcher-blade's flat side formed a shield against the sparking point of Raven's sword.

Ichigo looked up, met her eyes, and grinned confidently. "You know, I pretty much expected this. It's not as if you'd have come with us willingly to Spring's vault. So guess what? We're kidnapping you."

"We're kidnapping my mom!?" Yang shrieked.

"Ichigo's right! What else are we supposed to do? He have to capture her!" Jaune reasoned, bracing against the winds.

Ichigo tilted Zangetsu forwards, and Raven snapped Omen's blade of lightning dust against his sword in a shower of lashing sparks. She backflipped away from the lightning, letting Ichigo take the full brunt as a shard of ice emerged from the ground fast enough to catch her. Crouching sideways, she re-sheathed her sword, pulled the trigger, and a new blade of bright neon-green shot out from her side. She kicked off the iceberg, caught the blade in mid-air, and hit Ichigo with all the momentum she could muster.

He was thrown backwards, Zangetsu still in front of him, and his half-ripped sleeves flapped in the wind. He was pushed straight through tents, a campfire, the spiked logs of the camp's wall, and into the mountainside outside. Ichigo felt his back slide into the hard ground, ripping up the turf as he was grounded in, but used the chance to let Raven slide over him. He bunched both his legs up, then lashed out in a double-kick that nailed her hard in the stomach. Her eyes widened, before she was sent flying high up into the sky from the sheer force of the blow.

Ichigo finally got a chance to stand. He straightened up, rolled his shoulders, stretched his arms a little, then jumped up into the air right after her at a hypersonic pace. The shockwave of the sonic boom that followed him echoed across the mountain range. His sword leading, he caught her in mid-air, her face visibly bewildered by the height of his jump. Raven grinded her blade down the side of Ichigo's, leaning on it to steer herself clear of the sword incoming with the oomph of a mortar shell. Instead of sparks, the wind-dust blade generated air pressure harsh enough that it would strip a normal man's skin off.

His hair ruffled, and he smiled as he pressed the attack, before he swept his sword across his chest, swinging it out wide to throw Raven back. They were both suspended in mid-air now, Ichigo holding Zangetsu out to his right with one hand, the other arm spread out in a balanced pose, and Raven braced against her cracked blade, squeezing her trigger to discard the cutting edge and replacing it as she spoke mystified words.

"You... you can fly..."

Ichigo smirked at her easily. "That ain't all I can do. Bet you thought what you did down there would be the kill shot, right? Too bad."

Raven unsheathed her third blade. An blue-tinged white, the colour of a cold sky. "Are you some kind of Maiden in disguise...?"

"What?" Ichigo scoffed, his face flustered, "Screw you!"

"No?" Raven supposed, "Then I guess my daughter told the truth. That just means I'll have to fight harder."

Raven held a hand out, and a blue light shone in her palm. At that same moment, Ichigo heard a crackling noise, and his eyes tracked right. His brow rose when he realised that ice was creeping up Zangetsu's polished blade, creeping towards his arm. She rushed him at the same time, her sword poised right at his chest, so Ichigo let her come close, dodged inside of her thrust, on the opposite side of her blade, and delivered a driving elbow straight to her stomach. Her aura surged to her core, she grit her teeth, and grabbed a hold of his bent left arm through the pain. A shock of lightning, then a blast of frost consumed his arm, and Raven let go. She pivoted in place, then rocked his head with a spinning heel kick harder than a warhammer.

Ichigo was thrown straight down, but as he fell he righted himself just in time to catch himself on his feet, a crater opening up in the grassy slope where he landed after a supersonic crash. Raven dropped right at him from above, so he shattered the frost on his arms with a blast of spiritual pressure. His head tilted up, and he caught sight of Raven careening in, wreathed in fire like a meteor. She wasn't as fast as him in the air, so he had time to brace himself.

Wait for it...

Raven saw him free his arms, and reacted accordingly. She shoved her sword-handle into her mouth temporarily, and clapped her hands. A quaking rumble shook the torn-up turf around Ichigo's feet, before giant segments of stone burrowed up and slammed into him from all sides. Each as large as a truck, they collapsed together to form a fissured dome like a lithic reverse-tangerine. Raven reached him right then and there, her sword back in her hands, swinging it up from her back, over her head, and in front of her chest, a full overhead sweep of her blade.

Zangetsu ripped right through the stone like tissue paper, from left to right it rose like a speedometer in a supercar, racing up to meet Omen with an eager, violent glee. The clash of the two blades created a shockwave hard enough to blow away the conjured boulders, the two razor edges touching for a cataclysmic moment before Omen chipped and Zangetsu pounced with the ferocity of a predator. It cleaved right through the thinner, smaller sword, leaving Raven to fall right through, slipping right in front of Ichigo. He was ready, and even with both his arms on Zangetsu he was prepared to capitalise. His forehead rocketed forwards, right into Raven's face, the headbutt catching even her off-guard, slamming her right off the mountainside and sending her sailing over a cliff.

She was reeling as she fell, before she regained her clarity within moments as her adrenaline reached new heights. A jet of flame howled from her feet, and her eyes blazed with the magic of Spring as she crested back up over the cliff's edge, and somersaulted to her feet in a circle of fire. Ichigo hefted Zangetsu over his shoulders, letting the man-sized length of the blade hang across his back in his favoured pose, the silvery edge catching the rising sun's light.

Raven rubbed her hand across her face, and wasn't surprised when she saw blood on her fingers, even with her aura.

"You fight well." she nodded, the low hum of Omen's rotary cylinder spinning once again. "Dirty. I approve. Nothing like Huntsmen usually do. And yet, despite that, your swordsmanship is up there with the best I've ever seen– and I've worked with the best."

"What, like Summer Rose?" Ichigo jabbed.

"Now, where did you hear that name?" Raven sounded curious. "Was it Yang?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ichigo mocked, whirring Zangetsu over his head like a propeller blade. His voice rose, carrying itself over the helicopter-beat of his whirling door-sized sword. "Bleach, Zangetsu!"

The air itself popped and fizzed like a shaken drink, and the edges of space itself began to fray at the seams. Just existing felt harder and harder, an unearthly weight descending on the landscape, before the sensation vanished like a ghost in the night. Ichigo was awash with golden light, before it flared away, revealing his fully-repaired shihakushō under a white cross of albescent armour. Red-scaled pauldrons adorned his shoulders, and tied around his waist was a cloth dyed with black markings. His briefly eyes shone blue, before the light faded, and there was an ever-so slight fleck of yellow tinge to the hazel irises now. At his side was a shorter onyx dagger, wrapped in a pale bandage, and over his back was a bone-white longsword, pure as fresh snow. He drew the weapon from his back, revealing the hollowed-out hole running down the centre of its core. Both were smaller than his first blade. More focused. More potent.

"I think I'll just use this one..." he leered, directing the longsword into a loose, swift two-handed stance.

In a flash he flickered forwards, and Raven braced herself.

- –—{}—– -

"What the hell happened in there!?" Emerald cried as SEMN rushed to regroup with the others.

"Are you even surprised?" Mercury said flatly. "If Ichigo acted anything like he did back with the Spiders, then a fight was only a matter of time."

"Plus, we weren't planning to let the bandits get away with it anyhow." Neptune nodded, as Tri-Hard ticked, whirred and collapsed in on itself, becoming a compact SMG. He squeezed the trigger, and lay down a burst of supressing hip-fire as they sprinted.

"Yeah, especially with what we just saw." Sun ducked under a bandit's swipe, before thwacking them upside the jaw with his combined staff. It wasn't long before they found their destination; that big crater wasn't hard to miss. They skidded to a halt on the patchy grass, PJYB turning to meet them.

"Hey! Did you find anything?" Amber greeted. She was casting sharpened ice-lances, and they hovered over her head like a halo of elemental attack drones.

"The place they were gonna hit next was marked on a map. I swiped it from the table when that tent blew." Sun chucked the rolled-up piece of paper at her. She caught, and unfurled it.

"Ansel..." Amber read aloud. "Anyone know where—"

"That's where Jaune's family lives!" Pyrrha cried in worry. Even as she placed careful shots with her bronze rifle, her ears were listening in attentively.

"Yeah... right," Pyrrha sure had a good memory. She seemed just as worried as he did. "Then we have to beat them here. Ichigo had the right idea..." Jaune affirmed.

"Fight harder!" Vernal howled to the rest of the tribe, as she traded blow after blow with Yang.

Yang spun into a roundhouse kick, aimed right for the head. Vernal caught the kick in the gap of her claw-blades, and lifted them in an effort to throw her off-balance. Yang went with the momentum, falling backwards into a handstand, and from there she launched another rising toe-kick up at Vernal's chin from below. The other girl crossed her arms to block the rising kick, but was thrown back by the sheer force. Yang was physically stronger than her, she quickly realised.

Upside down, Yang curled her fingers in and triggered Ember Celica, a wave of shotgun-fire launching her into the air. Now she was right over Vernal, who tossed one of her chakram-rings at her, which she batted aside with a blast from her right gauntlet. Vernal raised her other ring, but instead of throwing it the double-barrels fired a thin, continuous beam of blinding white hard-light.

Yang was caught off-guard, and was forced to use her left gauntlet to manoeuvrer in mid-air in the scant split-second she had to react. She twisted sideways, hoping to catch the bandit-woman in the side of the head with a falling swing kick. Vernal ducked to dodge, the swept her leg low to catch yang and drag her down as soon as she landed. The Huntress fell on her side, and Vernal raised her ring-blade again to stab at her on the floor when she staggered back with a gasp when a bullet struck her in the chest. Her aura flickered, and her face contorted with anger at the red-headed girl who'd taken the shot.

"Hands off my teammate!" Pyrrha called, eyes down the sights of her rifle.

"Teaming up? You Huntresses are all cowards!" Vernal swore, rolling to the side to retrieve her second chakram. She was about to stand when—

Then all at once, they were interrupted by a thundering blast streaking in from above like an artillery shell. It kicked up a column of dust, and knocked the combatants apart, drawing all the eyes over to see the return of Ichigo and Raven, eyes boring into each other as they went at it. Raven shifted her legs, tapping a shoe on the ground, and a pulse of blue lightning spread out from her feet. Ichigo leapt back right as the arc of electricity reached out for him, dodging lightning with blurring speed. Raven stabbed at him again and again, as he disappeared and reappeared from left to right with the buzz of sonído. His arms were at his side, brazenly dodging without even putting up a block.

Then he moved, and a circle of wind kicked up all around the Maiden of Spring. Raven's eyes tracked left and right, flaring with mystical light, not because she couldn't see Ichigo, but because she could see too many Ichigos.

First tens, then hundreds of afterimages surrounded her like crows around a corpse, so many flickering traces of Ichigo, all with their waistcloth flapping behind him as he jeered at her, his mocking smile proudly on his face.

"What's the matter?" he taunted, "Am I moving too slow for you〜?" the words were coming from all around her, "Just say so, I can move a little faster if you'd like.〜"

The whirlwind cyclone wasn't letting up one bit, and friend and foe alike watched with slack jaws and amazement in their wide eyes.

"So this is Ichigo's real speed..." Jaune murmured in shock.

Raven grit her teeth, and made to move, but stopped. No. She calmed herself, refusing to rise to his jabs, and sheathed Omen.

She brought her hands together, and in a dazzling spectacle of magical light a sword was crafted from the elements themselves. Amber and Cinder had only been able to create swords with up to three elements at most, but here Raven was drawing out everything. A freezing vacuum sleeve pulled in oxygen, where a core of molten hyper-compressed stone superheated it. Molecular bonds dissociated, then reformed. The tang of ozone could be tasted in the air. Since they were in the tropics, Raven had no shortage of clouds to draw upon, and at their altitude, all these newly formed storm clouds were pulled in at her hight level.

"Aurora of Spring." Raven sounded.

The air buzzed with static, and visibility dropped as a foggy cloudbank settled over the camp. From all around, jagged tongues of blue-white lightning fulminated, and thunder roared louder than they'd ever heard it. And then Raven held her magical sword aloft as it grew to a monumental three meters long, taller than anyone on the mountain, and lightning coursed down it. The surge ionized the high-pressure ozone just outside the vacuum, creating an glowing neon aurora of rippling plasma.

"Holy crap!" Mercury backed away. "Is that the freaking Northern Lights?"

"She turned that into a sword?" Blake's bow pressed flat against her head.

"It's way bigger than the plasma I made against Cinder..." Amber realised. "And it's way more stable..."

"I know she's trying to kill us, but your mom is pretty hardcore Yang..." Sun commented blankly.

"I don't think she's trying to kill all of us, just Ichigo." Emerald corrected.

"So what? We have to fight, either way!" Amber declared as she charged forwards.

The Arrancar drew her zanpakutō as she flew forwards, gliding over the battleground at a blistering pace. The ice lances she'd cast straightened and fired forwards, preceding her approach. Raven caught her charge out of the corner of her eye, and she twisted around on the spot, dodging the lances and bringing both her arms down to swing the giant aurora blade with a mighty, world-rending crash.

Ichigo picked up immediately that Raven wasn't swinging at him, but instead Amber. His eyes widened a touch, before they narrowed and he vanished.

The two maidens were about to collide, Amber brought her bronze scimitar up to clash with the magical sword. It was surrounded by a gushing jet of orange-red fire, which trailed behind the blade as she swung it. Right as she raised it, however, she was met with a startling sight as the metal phased right through the aurora. Ichigo appeared besides her, and raised Zangetsu, before he too was caught off-guard by the ghost-like plasma warping around the hollow longsword as if it wasn't even there.

His head tracked the trajectory of the aurora sword in motion, and his eyes widened as it was cast right into Amber. It tore though her aura like paper.

She screamed, her skin burning away as it routed her, before Ichigo caught her, pulled her behind him, and bore the full brunt of the attack in her stead. The aurora washed over him as he shielded her, a brilliant light show of ethereal green-purple plasma. The scorching energy burned the ground black and ruptured the air itself, arcane crackles ringing out.

Ichigo didn't even flinch, his spiritual pressure rising like an awakening dragon as he took the burning beam head on. He let Amber slump safely behind him, where Pyrrha rushed forwards to grab hold of her. Jaune followed, and they lifted and carried her away.

Ichigo reached for his waist, and drew his other sword. The onyx dagger, black as the dead of night itself. In a dazzling blue light, it reshaped itself, melding into the guise of his Quincy armament, a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun. The twin barrels leaked inky abyssal darkness like hazy spiritual smoke. It was like staring down the funnels of a nuclear missile silo. He spoke lowly, and pulled the trigger.

"Cero Tenshōt."

The red-black blast cast forwards, an eruption of vermillion reiatsu that actually managed to interact with the otherwise untouchable plasma. A kaleidoscopic tsunami of iridescent light against a focused geyser of blood crimson and glim darkness. It blew it back like a candle wick in a hurricane, and the Spring Maiden's aurora sword redirected skywards. It carved through space itself with a deafening warped cannon-boom. Raven skidded back, watching as the thin Cero-Getsuga hybrid went right past her, through the tents behind her, through the wall of logs, and out into the mountains behind her. When it struck the distant peak, the explosion was so massive that it seemed as if a volcano had gone off. A tremendous, percussive, deafening surge of void-black and stellar-white, a blast so intense that colour itself was blown away.

He hadn't aimed for her, just her sword. That mountain he'd just vaporised was all mere collateral damage. He was just proving a point.

The air grew heavy, reality thrumming with space-rending spiritual static, and Raven felt a bead of nervous sweat trickled down the side of her face. This sensation... it was like a sword was already at her throat.

Ichigo's expression was potent with fury as he spun the shotgun in his grip, then holstered it back at his side once more. "You're finished."

Raven swung for him, but he was already in her way. He'd closed the gap in a blink, and he grabbed the core of the aurora-sword, wrenching it free from her hands. Luminescent lines of vivid azure crawled down his limbs, Blut Vene stopping him from even feeling a thing as he tossed the white-hot shaft up into the air. He'd watched it form in her hands, and realised that the enormous 'blade' was really a projection from the much shorter stone core. And that, he could break.

He spun on his feet, swinging Zangetsu's longsword around in an arc.

The magical sword in the air had shattered... so had all the logs in the camp walls, and most of the tents still standing. They weren't cut... instead, it was as if everything above a certain height just... stopped. It was all gone. A smooth, neat edge clipped the tops of the cut tent cloth, the stumps of the logs, and the still-standing shacks. It was as though someone had taken a scissor to a photograph.

Raven had only seen such power once before— and that terrified her. She shifted, and a bed of stone needles spiked from the ground, aiming to impale the Soul Reaper from all sides. Ichigo's arm blurred, and the spikes crunched as they fell apart. She drew Omen, wreathed it in lightning as she thrust forwards, and Ichigo parried by holding Zangetsu upwards with his left hand, feeling the electricity dance along his hierro-reinforced skin with a growl. Omen broke against his sword as he stepped into her guard, and he whipped his fist upwards to clock her around the jaw with a right hook that left a gust of wind in its wake. Raven stumbled backwards, and he stomped on her foot to hold her in place, her aura flickering as he nailed her there.

Raven pointed at the ground, and he felt his footing turn slick as ice coated the floor. He hopped up before his feet could freeze, twisted sideways and wedged Zangetsu into the rock-solid frozen ground, then finally vaulted over it to deliver a butterfly kick into her torso. She was blasted away, sending her crashing into a tent, and Ichigo took a brief glance at Amber's state.

She was being shielded by the others, and it looked like the rest of the bandits had started fighting again. She looked pale, too pale, and she seemed catatonic, her eyes shut with pain. His own eyes hardened, and he used shunpo to chase Raven's thrown-back body with renewed vigour.

Raven was on her back, about to shoot back up again when she spotted Ichigo flickering towards her from the front. It was right when that she was about to rise that—

"Ack!"

Ichigo had vanished, then reappeared right over her, his sword zooming down like a wrathful fork of lightning. He'd changed his entire position, direction and momentum before she could even process it– what kind of monster was he!?

When the sword hit her, it was as if her aura wasn't even there. It pierced her all the way through, cratering the ground with a court-sized circle of spiderwebbing cracks. Here Ichigo was the spider, and she was the fly. A spatter of sanguine blood blotched the ruined grass beneath her, and droplets flecked the cool white of his sword pinning her to the dirt. His waistcloth billowed out behind him. He put his foot on her chest, and looked upon her with a scathing expression on his face.

"So, what do you think of my chance against Salem now, eh? Forget your boogieman, I'm the one you need to be frickin' scared of."

He wrenched the sword free, spraying blood without care, and she let out a gasp of pain and shock. She inhaled deeply as he stepped off of her, a steady rhythm of deep breaths before she crept up to her feet. She drew Omen one last time, her free hand clutching the weeping wound on her stomach.

"I didn't hit anything vital, but if you insist on still fighting, you're going to bleed out." Ichigo warned her. "You're lucky you're Yang's mom."

"You refused to go for my neck just for that?" Raven chuckled weakly. Her aura was on the fritz, since Ichigo hadn't shattered it, but rather cut right through it. Zanpakutō meant Soul-Cutter, and that was what he'd used it for.

Raven grit her teeth, and her left palm blazed with fire. She pressed it against her own flesh, searing the wound shut and cauterising with her magic. Ichigo's nose wrinkled at the sickening smell.

"Gross..." he muttered.

"All that strength, and still you have the mindset of a weak man." Raven sneered. "Disgusting."

Ichigo wasn't impressed. "Can you blame me? That was nasty as hell to watch."

"Not that, you idiot!" Raven spat. "Your mindset. You won't even kill me, all because I'm related to a little friend of yours, who also hates me. You're weak."

"I don't think Yang really hates you... but since when did I say I won't kill you?" Ichigo said dangerously. "We still need you to open the vault, dumbass." His face was a concoction of hatred and... pity? "Don't hit me with that sentimental bullcrap. Strength is strength. That's all there is to it. There are good strong people, and there are bad strong people. It's what you do with that strength that sets you apart."

Raven stood up straight, and it seemed like she was about to say something, but whatever it was, it died on her lips. She swept the sword down at her side, and Ichigo wasn't expecting to see a crimson rift in space cast an eerie light behind her. She leaned back, letting herself fall into it, and vanished.

"Oh, well that's just freaking great..." Ichigo groaned.

The portal was rapidly shrinking, but that wasn't going to stop him, wherever it was going. His fingers turned the pale white of death as they hollowfied, claws popping out from corpse-coloured hands surrounded by tufts of ringed red fur. He reached out, grabbed the sides, and wrenched it wide open once more. He jumped right in.

Ichigo found himself in a endless void of swirling red, waving scarlet, roiling vermillion and mixing carmine.

Nothing was there except for the rapidly-closing portal he spotted right below himself, and he dived for it without hesitating. Getting lost here wasn't something he wanted to consider.

- –—{}—– -

The crow flapped across the open morning sky, somewhere far above the wilds of Anima.

It reared up and cawed in alarm at the appearance of a red portal through space tearing open in front of it, and even more so at the woman who fell out of it. It dived after her warily, as she used her Maiden powers to slow her descent just convincingly enough that her façade wouldn't reveal her magic to the bird following her. Raven Branwen steadied herself after her unceremonious retreat, but she felt no shame for it. Survival meant everything, after all.

When the crow landed and shifted into the guise of her twin brother, she was ready. They stood in a wide, flat field, near a copse of trees, with an empty pathway he'd been following beaten into the dirt. The route was cobbled, an archaic worn-down road from a long-lost era.

"Raven?" Qrow greeted cautiously. "What do you want? You look like you've been through the wringer."

"A girl can't just catch up with her family?"

"Funny, someone like you saying that."

Her wine-red eyes widened at the voice behind her, and she spun around at once to find Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Ichigo?" Qrow's eyes narrowed. "What the hell's going on?"

"I took a ride through one of those—"

Vrmn–

Raven was already gone again, and the glowing portal was already only the size of a dinner plate.

"Those things." Ichigo stood, holding it open. Qrow wasn't even sure how the heck he was touching a dimensional rift, but this was Ichigo, so he just rolled with it.

"It's her semblance, Kindred Link." the older man quickly explained, "She can cut a portal to anyone she's bonded to anywhere on Remnant."

Ichigo nodded and ripped the immaterial warp wide enough to climb into, "Thanks for the help. Come to Haven, something's about to go down. Your sister's a bitch, by the way."

Qrow solemnly nodded, "That she is, Itch, that she is." Then he paused as he realised what he'd said, "Wait, Haven!? What's happening there—"

But Ichigo was already gone. Qrow's words fizzled out. It was first thing in the morning, and soon enough he was already reaching for the flask in his pocket.

Ichigo sped after Raven's portal again, this time catching it when it was as narrow as a tennis ball.

He didn't have the time to ponder over what the weird world-between-worlds he was travelling through was, though he was partially curious as to why it wasn't just the Garganta she was accessing. Was this subspace some sort of personal Dangai?

He tore the portal wider, his hollowfication bleeding further colour from his arms, and went through to the other side.

- –—{}—– -

When he came crashing down into a garden, he immediately expanded his senses, feeling for the bandit Maiden. When he located her, she was already flying away, and he leapt up onto the house they'd shown up outside to chase her. Wait, he recognised this place... Taiyang's? No, it made sense, she'd banged the guy before she ditched him, after all. What a bitch...

He followed her reiatsu, coming to a stop at a very familiar place, meeting a very familiar face.

"Ichigo!" Summer cheered, sitting on her gravestone waving her arms over her head. "How's it going?" The waves crashed against the cliff face far below, and the velvet-purple sky was much darker, since the time-zone near Vale was later than Mistral's.

"Oh, hey Summer." Ichigo waved back hastily.

"Whoa, you're doing that, er, transformation thing again, I see..."

"Oh, this?" Ichigo raised his wraithlike hands. "They're for grabbing portals. I already use them for my own, so I just thought I could use them on Raven's too."

"You've met Raven?" she cocked her head curiously.

"Yeah, I'm trying to chase her down right now, actually. Long story. Listen, I'm really sorry, but I've gotta dip–"

"But she's right there?" Summer pointed at a conifer tree in the dense forest behind him. He turned around, his sandals leaving indents in the dewy grass, and spied a large black bird sitting right at the tree's top.

"Summer, that's a crow."

"No, it's Raven." she sounded very sure.

"Okay, sorry, it's a Raven. But I'm not looking for a literal Raven, I'm looking for Yang's deadbeat fake mom. You're the real one."

"Aw, that's sweet, but I'm being serious." Summer told him. "She can turn into a bird, just like her brother."

"Oh crap!" Ichigo bolted after the bird right as it was about to take off, snatching it out the sky with his bare hands.

He dived back down as it suddenly grew with a red flash, and he was holding a full-sized grown woman in his arms, trying to kill him wildly.

"You're one batshit chick..." he flipped back to the ground, dropping her, before she forced open a new portal right below them both, letting herself fall right in. Ichigo sighed, and gave one last wave to Summer's ghost before dropping in too. "See ya!"

She waved back, hollering after him. "Make sure you knock some sense into her!"

One last time, Ichigo and Raven crossed Kindred Link's subspace. This time, he actually got to follow her, and watch as she desperately swept open another portal.

Falling faster, he smoothly front-flipped round to lead with his legs, then caught her in the back with his foot in a dive-kick, sending them both careening through to wherever it was she'd chosen next.

- –—{}—– -

Vernal was trying her hardest, fighting off first two of the Huntresses, then three, then an entire team, but it was clear it was a loosing battle. Even just two of them would've been enough to take her, but here she was being ganged up on with twice that amount. The Chief's daughter truly had no shame. But that didn't matter, all she had to do was stay alive until Raven returned, and she was strong enough to beat them all. She just had to have faith, and just had to wait for a chance—

A vrrr preceded the rift in space that got Pyrrha, Yang, Blake and Jaune to halt their attack, watching in shock as Ichigo came crashing right out of it, driving Raven under his feet with a sliding kick. They gouged a deep line through the dirt, Raven's aura shattering into spectral scarlet shards after exerting herself so much under Ichigo's beatdown.

"Yang!" he called, and the blonde Huntress was already racing towards them both.

"You– you beat her!" she breathed. It was shocking; he'd only been fighting her for a couple minutes at most.

"Yeah. I did." he nodded curtly. "How's Amber?" it was the first thing he asked.

"She's blacked out." Yang replied. "Her burns are pretty bad; that thing went right through her shoulder. We need to get her some help."

Ichigo glared down at Raven with furrowed eyebrows. He raised his lead foot then stomped hard, grinding his heel into her shoulder with an audible snap.

Yang paled, as she watched it happen right in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh come on, this is the least she deserves. What comes around goes around." he scoffed darkly. He trudged off of her, and even then, Raven shortly fought to rise to her feet. She stood up bent, her broken shoulder hanging lower than her right arm, which was nursing the injured limb. A thin trickle of dark blood escaped the corner of her lips. Ichigo had to give her props there, she was a fighter to the very end.

Fire rose in a protective ring around her feet, wreathing the injured Spring Maiden hunched in orange light. "You couldn't even face me yourself, Yang? I'm disappointed."

"You're disappointed? You're disappointed!?" Yang's eyes shone red. "I'm the one who should be disappointed in you– you abandoned me!" she shouted.

"I'm a Maiden! Salem would have killed us all!" Raven yelled right back.

"You weren't always one." Yang reminded. "Wait... does that mean... you killed the..." her expression turned grim. "Ichigo, I take back what I said, you can break her other shoulder now."

Ichigo eyed the Spring Maiden up and down. Raven Branwen was defeated, but he still felt like kicking her while she was down. Until now, he didn't know why he hated her so much, just that he did, but after what Yang had just said, he realised why he felt this way all right. And he was going to tell her.

"My mom sacrificed herself to save me from a monster."

Ichigo's hazel eyes were firm and hard, his words steady with underlying anger. "You abandoned your family to run from one. My mom was a hero. You're just a goddamn coward. A parasite that leeches off the villages that actually make everything you steal. You're not Yang's mother. She already has one, and her name is Summer Rose."

Yang exhaled, and she hadn't realised she'd even been holding her breath in the first place. Ichigo had never mentioned his mother at all... not even once. She had no idea about her, other than how she wasn't in that one Kurosaki video call. But how the hell did he know about Summer?

That really got under Raven's skin. She stepped forwards, about to draw Omen, even if it was fruitless. "You think I—"

It was right then that she was hammered in the face by a fist hard enough to send her laying out flat. She hit the ground, bounced, then lay still. Knocked out cold, by her own daughter's hand.

"Haha..." Yang's voice was heady with spoken catharsis, her arm out straight, still in the position for a right cross, "...that felt really freakin' good..."

NEXT: 33 - APRIL SHOWERS - [Destiny Awaits]

Author's notes:

For anyone who was worried that there'd be some sort of 'appeasement' of Raven, don't worry. Ichigo absolutely hates her guts, for reasons revealed at the very end. I wanted this fight to be much more of a back-and-forth than the Cinder Vasto Lorde rolfstomp, so Ichigo's in his sealed state for half of it, then quickly overwhelms her with his Shikai and a GETSUGA GUNSHO-T as soon as he gets serious and Amber gets burned. He doesn't want to inspire her to be a better person or anything, lol, he just wants to beat the crap out of her. If you're thinking he should've ended things right away by hitting her with the cero and his spiritual pressure, Ichigo is the type to mess with people ESPECIALLY after they've done him wrong. Think of how he refused to stab Byakuya in the throat just to hurt his pride, even after all the crap he'd done to him and his allies, or how he toyed with Aizen even though he could've ended it at any moment. It might seem a little unfair, especially since I made Ichigo chill with Adam, but Raven offends him on a much more 'personal' level. I don't hate Raven or anything, but let's be real here, how else was this supposed to go?

There's a reason Raven's semblance has its own Dangai equivalent, and that'll come into play later. The little portal jumping stuff was a way to add in explanations about her semblance/magic without her actually giving up her own secrets herself in an OOC way, plus now Qrow's got a new direction to head in. To avoid the villains doing the 'let's ruin an easy zero-difficulty heist for no reason at all' thing, I've set Haven up in a way where the bad guys are going to have to adapt to the heroes plans, and not just show up randomly. Now that Raven's been kidnapped, they actually have a legit reason to start a fight. There'll be a couple extra guests there too...

Many thanks to 808Joker808, a Guest reviewer way back on April 3rd, and Insane Wombat, for giving me dialogue ideas in the reviews for this chapter. See? Try giving me ideas and I might use them. I've also changed the end of chapter 20, because it'll tie in later. You can check it out yourself. Next chapter will pick up right from this scene, since this one was 10k words with a spotlight on Raven, Ichigo and Yang. Amber needs healing, and they need to to reach Haven with their new 'cargo' in tow...

I'll be on holiday for a while. Give me suggestions, ideas, advice, what you liked/didn't like in the reviews, I always read them. Shoutout to 808Joker808 for helping me out. Thanks man.

Thanks to everyone (especially You reading this right now) for 2,900 follows, 2,314 favourites, and 1,153 reviews!

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