Trailer War
Taiyang, a teacher at Signal Academy, awaited everyone to come in for another day of classes. But on his desk was something special hidden under a sheet. "Okay class, great news! Starting today we're gonna be keeping a class pet, everyone say hello to-" Tai pulled back the sheet showing to the class a headless chicken with a cute little bowtie. "The Chicken Devil! Go on, introduce yourself!"
"My name's Bucky!" The Chicken Devil raised one wing to wave hello to the class. "I'm eggcited to befriend you all!" Bucky greeted with a terrible pun which seemed to make one golden haired blonde laugh.
"Three months from now, you kids are gonna kill and eat Bucky! You see, I want you all to understand how precious life is!" Tai had announced as the class seemed to be excited for their new class pet.
But Bucky... "Buh- buck-buck... WHAT THE CLUCK?!" Was not nearly as excited as most were about it.
After classes were said and done, the students of Tai's home room began to crowd around Bucky with most of them never being so close to an actual devil before.
"Is it really safe to touch a devil?"
"Nobody's afraid of chickens, it must be a weak one."
"How did Tai even catch a devil? To come to a combat school Bucky, you must be clucking insane!"
Bucky meanwhile was pretty down about the whole situation. After all he's just been told he has three months to live, and that time is gonna be spent in a classroom full of future huntsmen. "But... I don't wanna get eaten... If you eat me I'll die..."
"Aww it's so pitiful, it's cute!"
But while everyone seemed to be having fun with the new class pet, there was one exception, she stared upon the devil sitting at her desk in disgust. Of course they would choose hers, they barely even know she exists much less remember her actual name. She can only glare at the devil sitting on her desk and pray that the three months happen sooner or one of devil hunting club members kill it to prove their worth or something along those lines. The girl slammed the class door shut as everyone looked at her with mixed emotions with the majority confused.
"What's her deal?"
"Yikes, what's with the glares?"
A certain blonde who took too much pride in her hair sighed and had a look of pity. "Asa isn't a fan of devils, her adoptive mom died because of one..."
Asa Mitaka, that's her name and it's the only thing notable about her. She's the textbook definition of a loser, she has no friends, no social skills, and can't fight for shit despite going to a combat school. Her adoptive mom told her that her real mom was a huntress and Asa wanted to try and connect with that woman by becoming a huntress and finding her. But then she grew up and could give two shits about who her birth mother was because Robin Mitaka was her real mother, she was there unlike whoever the deadbeat was who abandoned her with Robin Mitaka.
Her fighting skills are equivalent to that of a child, she panics shooting a gun, her arms are like toothpicks, she can't punch worth a damn, the only thing she's good at is running and what good is that gonna achieve for her as a huntress. Her semblance is also worthless as in dire situations she'll just trip, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER FIND THAT USEFUL!? Asa at least has good grades going for her in anything besides fighting but huntsmen training is half of your grade in signal so she's on the road to failing. Honestly she regrets coming to signal but it's too late to quit now, she can't transfer this far in and she really doesn't care at this point.
A group of boys were walking side by side in the hall 'Don't walk side by side, people can't get past...'
A group of girls were giggling in the school bathrooms 'Quit hanging out in the bathroom, you're in the way.'
A couple were hugging and laughing on the stairs 'Drop dead!'
Asa was now by herself as usual on the roof of Signal Academy, staring across the water towards The City of Vale as she angrily chomps on a hot pocket.
"Yo Asa!" The cheery voice of someone she recognized started Asa and almost made her drop her lunch.
"Wah! R-Ruby?!" Asa turned around to the silver eyed girl who was just starting at Signal. Ruby Rose was the daughter of Taiyang who was a friend of Robin Mitaka, back when she was a little girl Robin would take her to the Xiaolong residence either when she needed to go out at night when work calls, playdates, and special occasions. Asa was a much happier kid back then compared to what she is today, Yang and Ruby practically were her only friends but Ruby was always 2 grades below them meanwhile Yang and Asa kinda just grew apart as Yang got extremely lucky with gorgeous hair, impressive figure and she isn't just talk about her muscles, and she's just really good with people.
Meanwhile Asa is an antisocial, average at best looking dork who doesn't talk to anyone. But for some reason, Ruby just liked coming to her as they are both kind of similar in being friendless losers with dead parents.
"Got any room up here Asa?" Ruby teased as Asa took a bite out of the hot pocket.
"Don't you have anyone else to hang out with, Ruby?"
"Nope, Yang's got her friends and I still have none." Ruby scratched the back of her head nervously and not picking up on Asa's hidden message to leave her be.
"You and I both then."
"Yang is your friend, and so am I! We used to hang out so much back in the day, why don't you come by sometime?"
"Sorry Ruby but I'm pretty busy with studying and uh... other stuff..." What a liar.
Ruby's smile turned to a frown hearing her rejection "Well... alright, we all are getting so busy nowadays..." Ruby sat down to eat her lunch which was just a bunch of cookies, does she ever eat anything healthy?
Three months passed by in a flash when every day felt the same, sometimes Ruby would come eat with Asa but little progress was made in breaking her shell. She'd continuously bomb her combat classes by tripping at the worst possible times. And everyday that damn chicken devil Buck would make the whole class laugh, except Asa of course. But at long last the three months had passed by and the day she's been waiting for. Bucky was finally going to die and Asa couldn't wait.
As everyone sat down for their Taiyang walked into class ready to start a very important lesson. "Good afternoon class, today marks the three month mark of having Bucky at our school. I will now ask anyone with aspirations to be a huntsman, to come up and kill Bucky."
"Buckaw..." Bucky had accepted his fate but he wasn't happy about it unlike Asa who had a very smug smirk about the whole situation. That was until Yang stood up "Tai, the whole class talked it out and we've decided... we won't eat Bucky.."
'What?!' Asa mentally screamed as of course she wasn't talked to or informed about this.
"A huntress is supposed to kill devils and grimm but Bucky isn't a devil to us anymore. He's our friend with his own thoughts and feelings, we won't kill Bucky."
Taiyang grew a smile on his face and began to clap "That's exactly what I wanted to hear, good job class. From this day forth Bucky will be pardoned!"
"Buck... BUCKAW!" Bucky's demeanor changed completely. The class erupts with cheers and claps while Asa was there still questioning what just happened.
"It's important to value life as Huntsmen and to never take them lightly, not even devils! I'm proud of you kids!" Tai remarked, tearing up. "Forget class for today, let's go play some soccer!"
As Bucky and everyone rushed outside from the sudden change of plans, Asa meanwhile was just left there to process everything that happened, process her disappointment and her lack of a presence.
She eventually did make her way outside but she just leaned against the wall and sulk by her lonesome as everyone had fun with Bucky.
Her teacher walked up seeing the lonely Asa and asked "Aren't you gonna join in?"
"No." Asa was quick to respond.
"School is more fun when you got friends y'know, just give it a shot, Asa."
"I'm not here to make friends, I'm just here to study..."
"Yo Asa!" The sound of Yang's voice grabbed her attention. "Come play with us Asa!"
Asa was startled and could only form stutters "N-no, I..."
"Buckaw!" Bucky jumped towards Asa as the girl instinctively caught him. "Asa Mitaka! Come out of your shell and play with me!"
'He knows my name?! But only Yang and Tai ever remember my name.' Asa thought to herself as she was about to say no but seeing the whole class look at her, wanting her to come and join them 'Oh I see... I was just jealous of them...'
A smile formed on the once gloomy Asa, she looked happy, people wanted to hang out with her, maybe she was wrong to isolate herself from others. Maybe all she needed was a push in the right direct-
"Oof!"
"Bugyah!"
Oh no... her semblance activated again in front of everyone...
Wait a minute, what is that smell and why does her chest feel wet?
Someone helped Asa up and she had to take a moment to register that this was reality. She had crushed Bucky into a bloody paste on the floor with his intestines leaking out of his body and one of them resting on her skirt. Asa heard a loud ringing in her ears as the whole world around her grew silent as she's now realizing what she's just done...
Everyone around her was filled with grief, their new friend who they've blessed with a second chance at life was now dead in front of them as Asa could only look in horror. Tears were being shed throughout the whole classroom and Asa began to hyperventilate as she felt something gross come up that burned her throat. Asa couldn't take it much longer and passed out with vomit spewing from her mouth, adding more to the pathetic display.
Asa woke up in the nurse's office, they said she was fine and that she could go back to class. When Asa opened the door everyone stared at her with blank to disgusted expressions and class continued on as usual. But Asa couldn't help but hear the whispers...
They hated her...
Before they simply forgot she exists, she could live with that...
But she took a risk and now everyone hated her...
When Asa arrived at her apartment building she immediately headed to bed and hugged her pillows, she screamed into them for who knows how long. This was possibly one of the worst days of her life. "AAAAAAH! AAAAAAH! I WANNA DIIIIIIE!"
She should just drop out at this point, I mean getting a GED doesn't sound so bad.
Even if she'd be letting her real mom Robin down, she'd understand right?
No one would even remember her for anything other than killing Bucky so who cares, right?
Asa's scroll began to ring in the middle of her crying session and judging by the personalized ringtone of the song I Burn, it had to be Yang Xiaolong. Asa took her face out of her pillow and turned to the kitchen stool she used as a mini nightstand. Her hand instinctively went to pick it up but she pulled her hand back at the last second. What does Yang even want? To shout at her for killing Bucky? She hasn't called her in ages so it had to be that right? She's already suffered enough today, she doesn't need more fucking shit to cry about today.
Asa turned in her bed away from her scroll to let it go to voicemail.
...
...
...
"I BURN-" Declined.
...
...
"I BURN-" Declined.
...
...
"I BURN, CAN'T HOLD ME BA-" Oh my god just take the hint already! Declined!
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...
...
"I BURN-" Asa picked up her scroll and answered it as she held back the urge to scream at the top of her lungs as she took a deep breath. "H-Hello...?"
Yang's voice played over the phone "Hey Asa, you doing okay? It took you a while to answer, did something happen? Are you okay?"
'Oh no I'm totally fine, I just killed the class pet and now everyone hates me. OF COURSE I'M NOT FINE!'
"N-no, I was just t-taking a s-shower..." Asa lied as she doesn't have the courage to scream at Yang.
"Asa... do you want to talk?"
Asa said nothing back.
"Look I know it's rich coming from when we haven't talked in forever but I'm worried about you, especially after what just happened... Do you wanna come over?"
Asa's heart began to race from hearing her suggest such a thing. "W-what?! Yang I'm f-fine, I don't feel l-like going anywhere r-right now..."
"Then I'll just come over then-"
"No no! Sorry my place is a m-mess right now..."
"Well you better pick one Asa because you are anything but fine and I can tell, so either you come over or I will!" Yang, tired of Asa's games gave her the ultimatum where Asa concedes defeat.
"F-fine, gimme 20 minutes."
"See ya soon Asa." Yang hung up.
Goddammit Yang...
Asa never changed out of her school clothes since coming home and she didn't bother to change even now. She wiped her tears with her sleeve and grabbed her keys before heading out of her small apartment complex. It was a full shattered moon outside as Asa walked down the dirt path, in her head was playing thousands of imaginary outcomes, all of them resulting in Yang yelling at her for crushing Bucky. Why did she agree to this... she could have just plainly told her she didn't wanna see anybody right now or she could have just lied.
Though knowing her she would have ran over and broke down her door just to get to Asa.
'God why am I so-'
"Pathetic..." A low whisper played in Asa's ear making her turn around. No one was there.
"You used your semblance intentionally..." There it was once again. Asa looked all around her from the voice that could potentially be coming from.
"You weren't ashamed of Bucky dying...you were ashamed of getting caught..."
"Shut up!" Asa yelled as she ran as fast as her legs could possibly go, but the growls of her stomach told her that she didn't have a lot of energy to run that far as she had forgotten to eat anything that wasn't breakfast today. Asa could hear it running behind her, the heavy footsteps, the destruction of trees behind her, grimm can't form human speech so it had to be a devil. The unholy cocktail of emotions including sadness, fear, doubt, and hopelessness were probably what made Asa a magnet to this devil. Even if she did have her katana on hand it likely wouldn't do much with her terrible fighting skills. The most she could do was hope to outrun it until someone who can really fight shows up like Yang, Tai, hell even Ruby could fight better than Asa at this point in time.
Her legs are screaming for her to stop.
The sweat from running is getting in her eyes.
She's actually starting to fear for her life.
But for what reason?
She doesn't have a proper answer.
Yang would probably just feel guilty for a week then forget about her at worst.
Just as her body threatened to give in Asa saw it, the lights of the log cabin, she's almost there just a little bit further. She's so thirsty too that it hurt to scream "YANG! YANG HE-"
Asa's words died in her throat as for a second she felt the most excruciating pain in the world. Then the next, nothing at all. In one more second her entire life flashed before her eyes as blood poured from a giant cut in her face caused by the devil, she saw moments from her 's 7th birthday with the final cake Summer Rose made her, Asa tripped and destroyed the cake. The buddy race back in 5th grade, her and Yang almost won but Asa tripped getting them last place. The typhoon devil showed up in Vale, her and Robin Mitaka tried to escape the devil but Asa tried to save a stray cat, can you guess what happened? She tripped, and her mom helped her get up and pushed her foward before a flying car was slammed straight into her. How come she only got to remember the worst days of her life? What a scam.
'Maybe I should have tried harder, maybe I could have gotten a boyfriend, maybe I could have become a huntress. I wish... I had tried living a little bit more selfishly...'
Asa Mitaka was dead.
Her head was severed clean in half.
Her eyes had fallen out of her head and blood spilled all over the dirt road, and nobody would have ever known except for the Guilt Devil that chased her.
That should have been the case but...
Someone- no, something saw her.
An owl with 2 giant bulging eyes looked down upon the poor Asa Mitaka. And somehow, it heard Asa's wish for another chance...
"If you want to live, your body will be mine."
The Guilt Devil heard the owl and turned his head, there was no one there. He looked back at Asa Mitaka, she was back on her feet with her hair untied. But the guilt devil didn't feel the self loathing girl's presence anymore, he felt something way worse...
The girl dug in her pockets and pulled out a wallet, from the wallet she pulled out a photo of Asa and Robin Mitaka. A more mature voice spoke "Family Photo Sword."
The girl turned around and her face was healed but it wasn't Asa Mitaka anymore, this girl had ring shaped pupils that were a mixture of blood red and bright yellow, she had a giant scar that was a line that went through the bridge of her nose and another downwards from her left eye. The girl shot a glare at the Guilt Devil who jumped back out of fear. "What... are you?"
"What am I? WHAT AM I?" The girl's ton turned agreessive as she pointed her sword at the Guilt Devil
"MY NAME IS THE WAR DEVIL! DIE FOR MY WARM UP KILL!" The War possessed Asa Mitaka yelled at the opposing devil.
"No! You die!" The Guilt Devil jumped at War but all it took was one swing. There was nothing remaining of the devil, as such was a portion of the forest upon War's Family Photo Sword being swung. War examined the sword she had created in her hand and smiled at her creation.
"You must have felt deeply about this one, girl?" War couldn't help but giggle as she brought her sword onto her shoulder. "Just you wait Chainsaw Devil, I promise I'll make you vomit nuclear weapons back up!"
War's ears were able to pick up on someone approaching, the devil turned her head over and saw a tall blonde woman running towards her while yelling her host's name. According to the girl's memories, this woman is an old friend of hers named Yang. War wasn't exactly in the mood to talk but this girl was the daughter of a huntsman which would lead to nothing but trouble if she were to make her into a weapon now. She'd just have to play things cool.
"Asa! Asa!" Yang yelled for her old friend hearing the giant blast War caused from her sword. Yang rushed over to her as fast as she could and hugged who she perceived as Asa in a near death like grip for a normal human, not so much for the War Devil. She broke the hug and Yang's face turned to one of terror "Asa are you okay, how did you get this scar!? What happened to the forest?!"
"Mind getting your hands off me?" War bluntly asked which certainly surprised Yang as she took a step back. "It's no big deal, just some random devil who got in my way."
"HOLD UP YOU FOUGHT A DEVIL?! WITH YOUR SKILL LEVEL?!" Yang yelled in shock which certainly annoyed war as her face scrunched up in response.
'How pathetic is this girl?'
"I just swung my sword and it vanished along with most of this forest, are we finished here? I'm going home and eating something before I take a nap." War turned around but Yang grabbed her shoulder.
"No way, you and I need to talk right n-OW!" War grabbed Yang's wrist in a tight death like grip that threatened to take her hand off as the War Devil turned her head towards Yang.
"I said. I'm. Going. Home." War told her sternly before removing Yang's hand and walking on what remained of the dirt road along the field of stumps and cut down trees.
'Something's up with Asa' Yang had already had suspicions of the girl not feeling well mentally due to her tendency to have a bad outlook on life and overall be pessimistic. But she did not find that girl here tonight, that girl was not Asa Mitaka and she needed to get to the bottom of this... After she puts some ice on her wrist because somehow scrawny little Asa was able to bruise her and it hurt like hell.
The next morning came around and the light of the morning sun shined into Asa's room and onto her face which seemed to annoy the girl. As she opened her eyes to another day of her miserable existence. Wait a minute? Didn't she? Last night... Was that all a dream?
Was all of yesterday a dream?
She got her head sliced off yesterday, she should be dead, she looked at her reflection in the window and she looked good as new despite her bedhead.
"I guess it was really a dream..."
"This is no dream, girl." War told her sitting beside her bed.
"BWAH!" Asa was shocked by the sudden appearance of this woman who looked and sounded almost exactly like her. Everything except her strangely shaped eyes and giant scar going across her face were almost an exact replica of her. She looked unamused by Asa's fright as the two stared at each other for a minute straight. War could read her mind, she didn't believe that she was real and that she was still dreaming. War pulled Asa's cheeks as she kept making her baffled silly expression.
"This is your reality, girl. Hurry up and accept it." War let go of Asa and pointed her finger at her to command Asa "You will eat breakfast, then head straight for school. Disobey and I will kill you."
Asa was still as silent as a lamb, and as frightened as one too. War was getting increasingly sick of her disbelief and proceeded to pull both of Asa's cheeks again with more force. "I told you this is no dream you moron! You died last night!"
"N-no..." Asa finally spoke as she still couldn't believe this was reality. "No it wasn't, get out of my house!"
Asa delivered a punch to War, but she hit nothing but air as her hand went right through her as War looked at her with a face that screamed 'really?' In retaliation, War hit her against the side of her head and sent Asa tumbling into her kitchen table. Asa's aura was paper thin so a punch like that should have completely cracked it, but strangely enough, it didn't actually hurt too bad but she felt the full front of that blow, no aura was there to protect her. But Asa couldn't dwell on it as War walked over to her and bent down to her level. "You can't touch me Asa, your brain sees me as a hallucination."
"W-What are you?!"
"You died yesterday, I am the War Devil but you can just call me Yoru. I claimed your body." War grabbed Asa by the hair and pulled her back on her feet by her throat. "From this day forth your body is mine. You shall do as I say until our mission is complete, fail to cooperate and I will kill you."
"What is our mission?" Asa asked, her voice sounding defeated.
"We are going to kill the Chainsaw Devil by any means necessary. In return I will lend you my power in replacement for that awful power you dare call a semblance. Once our mission is complete I will give you your body back just the way it was. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal..."
One year and six months later...
Asa never expected she'd make it as far as to be a recommendation for Beacon Academy. But she never wanted to be here, it was the same place her deadbeat birthmother graduated and she could only hope that she never has to follow I her footsteps. As she sat in the back of the Bullhead and did her best trying not to bring attention to herself, because of course was still inside her head. They had grown accustomed to each other during their year and a half together but Asa still wasn't happy about it, she wanted to be released from her prison, she doesn't care if it's via killing Chainsaw Devil or death. This life wasn't hers and neither were her accomplishments, the part if her head that wasn't Yoru was telling her that she should just break this window and jump out of the bullhead.
"Don't even think about it. Yoru told her sternly as she was one with Asa, she knew her every thought and memory. She was always there watching, and at any point she could take over her body if she wasn't stricken by fear. "You should be proud Asa, your mother would be proud. Both of them would, we are only one of two recommendations after all."
"Like I care what the deadbeat thinks... I don't even remember her name-"
"Raven." Yoru rudely interrupted Asa.
"Yeah whatever... Hey, how do you know there's a second one?" Asa asked.
"I looked it up while you were asleep. Just so happens she's right here." Yoru pointed towards the front of the bullhead where Asa's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long were standing in the same bullhead as she was with the older of the two putting Ruby in a Ursa like bear hug.
"How did she get here...?"