[Image Description: A minimalistic cover art mostly in black and white. There is a silhouette of a person with white outlines. He is facing the viewer and reverse-gripping a katana in front of his face. His head is slightly tilted so the blade hides his eyes but not his grin. The black shape has white hair and he wears a swaying white haori. The background is mostly black except for the upper corner where there is a big white brush stroke and inside it is an emblem. It is a black sphere and inside it is a stylised platinum bird that has red triangular dots on the right wing and a red X on where its eye is supposed to be.]
Hi there. So I'm an aspiring writer who's trying to use fanfiction as practice while also indulging in my fanfic desires. This will be my first proper work where I try to craft a story with a plot, themes and an ending that I already have in mind, which is why I'm using an OC for the protagonist. I'll try to use "Show, Don't Tell" and give you guys pieces so you can put them together and come up with your own interpretations.
Despite not being blind myself, I'm creating a blind character because I wanted to use the Blind Swordsman Archetype and play with it so this won't be a 100% realistic representation of blind people but I will try to give a decent depiction of it. Also, I'd hate to perpetuate any negative stereotypes and misrepresentations so I have done research on blindness and making blind characters, mainly from Mimzy's Tumblr blog on blind characters which was incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a sensitivity reader even after months of trying. So, if there's anything about blindness I got wrong or something, apologies and please let me know about it so I can correct it.
Oh, and since I'm using the Blind Swordsman archetype, expect some weeb shit. Hopefully, my being Asian will give me some pardon, lol.
The first 5 chapters were uploaded together and will be something like an introductory arc meant to give you a feel for my story and style. It's pretty much filled with OCs and we only get to Vale in chapter 6. I'll also be using Coeur Al'Aran's Arc Family OCs because I've read so many of his works that these characters feel canon to me, though I'm not clear on their exact appearances so I'll just leave it to your minds.
Cross-posted on AO3 and FFN. Though, I'm not used to using AO3.
These are the symbols used in this fic:-
For scene breaks: /-/
For generally showing silence or stillness: . . .
Also, sometimes ability names are simply written in a single line and are italicised and bolded for dramatic effect. Characters in this universe never actually call out their ability names themselves.
EDIT: The Cover Image doesn't fully fit. So, if you'd like, head to the AO3 version of this story for a quick peek. Or use this Dacd0hc on imgur's address bar.
Chapter 1: Bright Beginnings
It was midnight.
A man stared out a window and was gazing at the moon. He was around 5'10" and had long wavy light purple hair that reached past his shoulders with the top being tied in a ponytail and revealing his forehead. He had light red eyes and a fairly muscular build.
Jin Sasaki—
No.
He was Jin Suzume now. His life in Mistral was in the past, now it was time to look towards the future by starting afresh in this town called Ansel located in the Kingdom of Vale.
It was a different culture and getting used to everything would take a while but that didn't matter as long as he had his family with him. After all, they could finally be a happy household now.
"Would you stop monologuing in your head and focus on unpacking all these boxes," The incarnation of beauty chastised him.
"Hehe, sorry," He scratched his cheek with a smile as he looked at the world's most beautiful woman in glasses.
Karin Suzume narrowed her eyes at him, "You're thinking of something cheesy again aren't you?"
"Whatever do you mean, World's Most Beautiful Woman in Glasses?"
She sighed but couldn't hide her small smile. And Jin didn't fail to notice that because his smile turned into a satisfied smirk.
The woman had platinum hair in a bob-cut with straight fringes. Her eyes were black with long eyelashes. She wore glasses and was quite short at around 5ft.
Karin knows she's not as beautiful as the love-struck fool would like to tell her no matter how much she loved it. She believed that she was a 6 out of 10 at best.
"Mother, father, I've finished unpacking my belongings. Is there anything else you want me to do?" A young boy around 12 called out as he descended the stairs. He had really short platinum hair that would look like a shaved head to most people at a glance. His eyes were light red with long eyelashes.
"It's alright, Gin dear." Karin's smile was much more loving towards her son. "How about you take a rest in your new room, we travelled for a long distance after all."
Gin shook his head, "I'm fine, mother. Perhaps I could help with your boxes, father."
"Nonsense." Jin lifted all the boxes with one hand and a grin, "I'm not so old as to need help from my son just yet." He laughed.
"Then maybe I could—"
"Rather than that, how about you do some Aura training again? Maybe you'll master another technique with your Aura Realm and amaze me again." He moved to pat his son's head as any proud father would. "Though, If we do need help with anything we will be sure to call you. So, don't overwork yourself and focus on meditation this time." Jin hoped that it would also make him fall asleep.
Gin slowly nodded and headed to his room.
Jin let out a small sigh when Gin was gone.
Karin sighed and placed her palm on her cheek, "We should talk to him again about not blaming himself. This wasn't his fault..."
"Indeed," Jin sighed. "It was my fault, after all. He should be blaming me instead—"
Karin slapped her husband on the shoulder, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Uh..."
"We promised to stop being so negative all the time, didn't we? To stop blaming ourselves and put the past behind us, enjoy the present, look forward to the future and all that?"
"But..."
"But what?" She narrowed her eyes further into slits.
"... Nothing." His previous cheerful smile returned as he brought Karin into a hug, "Just that you're right, as you've always been."
"Damn straight," Karin muttered as she returned the hug and leaned into his chest.
/-/
The next day in the afternoon saw Gin standing among the foliage of leaves and trees not far from his new house.
He had cleaned his new room along with some other places and would have done more to help his parents but they'd said he'd done more than enough for the day, with his mother teasing that he was trying to steal her job.
He had already slept more than 8 hours before so he was feeling restless now. Having gotten permission from his parents and being told to not wander far, he was practising and honing his swordsmanship with closed eyes.
He swung his wooden guardless odachi - a long katana - in a familiar form when a memory assailed his thoughts.
Gin's hands ached from the attacks of a taller and older individual. He did his best to defend and parry the wooden odachi of his opponent but he was obviously no match against the teen.
"You do realize I'm only using a single hand don't you?" The teen mocked. "Your fellow pupils could at least make me use both hands."
Shut up, Gin thought, back to the present and in the middle of a particularly violent swing. I beat you. I beat all of you in your most prized art!
Gin forced a grin on his face. That's right. Neither your talent, your strength nor your oh-so "esteemed" sword style was of any use against my Semblance. A step forward and an upwards diagonal swing.
I am stronger than all of you. Another step and a two-handed downward swing.
I am BETTER than all of you. Another step and a swing towards the right.
"Worthless." A voice insulted from atop Gin's beaten-down form. "To think you have the same noble Sasaki Blood as I. Then again, your incompetence is to be expected considering whose spawn you are."
"RAH!"
An aura-infused swing slashed a deep horizontal cut into a tree a few feet away. Numerous leaves fell in a fury from the shaking tree.
Gin was panting and sweating. His hands ached from gripping the wooden sword hard enough to crack it as those memories—
"Whoa, that was so cool!"
Gin finally noticed the Aura behind him and his eyes opened in surprise. Too distracted by his thoughts and concentrated on his movements. He quickly turned in the direction of the voice, "Who's there?"
A boy around the same age as Gin approached. He had messy blond hair and blue eyes. "That was awesome! How did you do that? Can you teach me? Are you a Huntsman? No, wait you look too young for that. Are you a ninja?"
"... Uh no?"
"Then how did you do that? I've never seen moves like that in real life before. It was amazing!"
"What? N-No, it wasn't anything special," He stuttered with an odd flustered look.
"Nah, it totally was. You were all," The blond boy started mimicking Gin's previous movements, "and it was all whoosh-whoosh, shew shew."
"Um, thank you?" Gin said with a slight smile.
"So, how did you do it? Can you teach me?"
"Huh? Well uh..."
"Pretty please!"
This was the first time someone asked Gin for lessons on the blade. To hear someone other than his parents complimenting him on something he'd worked so hard for was a new experience.
Not an unwelcomed one though...
"Well, do you have your parents' permission?" Gin chose to say what he felt was safest.
"Well, not yet but I can ask them tonight. Oh, wait I forgot," The blond swatted his forehead. "I'm Jaune Arc, nice to meet you." He extended his hand.
"My name is Gin Sasaki— I mean Suzume," Gin gave a bow.
Jaune awkwardly retracted his hand. "I've never seen you here before, are you new here?"
"Yes, I've come from Mistral along with my parents. We live in that house over there."
Jaune could see two people watching from the window with big smiles on their faces who he assumed were Gin's parents. They quickly hid for some reason when they saw that he noticed them.
"That's cool. Anyway, let's be friends," Jaune said suddenly.
"Huh?" Gin's eyes widened. "But we've just met."
"It's okay, my mom said that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet."
"Umm… alright then."
"Awesome!"
Jaune grinned brightly
And Gin let out a small laugh.
/-/
A few minutes prior, Karin had heard a loud noise so she came down and peered through the kitchen window to see what the commotion was, dust broom in hand from cleaning.
She saw her son in the distance and some stranger. Slightly worried at first but then she adjusted her glasses and saw that it was just another kid most likely the same age as Gin. The two seemed to be conversing with each other.
Her eyes widened.
"Jin! Come here quickly!" She loudly called her husband who came at a moment's notice.
"What's wrong?" He asked with a slightly panicked look.
"Look! Gin's making a friend!" With glee in her voice, she pointed at the two young boys.
Jin saw them and it did seem like they were talking, the blond boy looking excited and Gin having a slight smile on his face.
Now, both husband and wife were staring through the window with wide smiles.
"Get down!" Karin tackled her husband to the ground with her full weight when she saw the blond boy looking at them.
"Oof! What was that for?"
"Shush!" She hissed. "We don't want to embarrass him in front of his new friend, we can do that when he's older."
"... Well, can't argue with that logic."
They untangled themselves and got back up to peer out the window and sneakily watch as the two boys kept conversing with each other for a while longer.
"Oh no, I think his sisters called that boy over. He's leaving," Karin said.
"Well, at least they looked like they had fun," Jin said.
Gin had a smile on his face as he walked back to the house.
"He's coming this way. Quick! Act natural!" Karin hissed.
Jin quickly sat on a chair and inspected his nails while Karin gathered materials for cooking.
"Mother, father." Gin greeted.
"Sup son," Jin replied which made Karin cringe.
"Who was that? The boy you were talking to." He asked, abandoning any subtlety.
"Well… he's my friend?" Gin sounded a bit uncertain.
Karin squealed loudly which made Jin cringe.
"Why, that's wonderful!" Said Jin.
"Tell us more about him over dinner. I'll cook something extravagant tonight." Karin had a big smile on her face.
"Alright," Gin had a smile that almost matched hers.
/-/
The Arc family of two parents and their eight children were currently having dinner.
"I made a new friend today," Jaune suddenly said. "He's a samurai," he paused. "Or maybe he really was a ninja and lied about it. That's what a ninja would do..." mumbled Jaune at the dinner table to his parents.
Most of Jaune's older sisters snorted.
"Really? A ninja?" The youngest, Amber, asked her big brother excitedly.
Juniper - the mother - looked toward the twins Jade and Hazel for an explanation.
"The new family that moved in," Hazel supplied in between bites. "Jaune talked to their kid."
"I think they're the same age." Said Jade.
Juniper smiled brightly at her son, "Oh, that's wonderful, sweetie."
Juniper had seen the new family before on her way home from shopping. She had a feeling that they were going through rough times so she was glad that Jaune made friends with their child. Hopefully, It would help the boy feel more comfortable in a new environment.
"I wanna be friends with him too. Take me with you tomorrow, Jaune," Amber begged while pulling on his sleeve.
Nicholas - the father - laughed, "Looks like little miss grounded wants to get out of her punishment early." He pinched Amber's nose causing her to whine. Most of the family laughed at the sight.
"By the way," Jaune said, "I asked him to teach me his samurai-ninja tricks but he said I needed your permission first, so can I?"
"Can I learn too?" Amber made an adorable pleading face.
Juniper just gave her youngest an unimpressed look. Then she turned to her son, "Sure, Jaune, your new friend sounds responsible enough. Right, Nicky?"
"Yeah, why not? Make sure to get along with him and don't cause any problems."
"Okay, thanks!"
Nicholas knew his son had good manners and was well-behaved enough to hardly get in trouble so he didn't have any problems with it. They raised him right after all.
Besides, what could go wrong?
End of Chapter
Now, some of you may be wondering why I'm including Jaune in this. Many reasons but the main ones are that I started to really like Jaune after reading a lot of Coeur's works. When before, he was kind of just an okay character to me.
Another reason is that I want to include a "Me and The Boys" type of friendship in this story. The kind where you terribly shit-talk your mates while forgetting your sense of decency in each other's company and say some downright horrendous shit that might not make it through my drafts if I still want readers.
Another reason is that I wanted to parallel Gin's samurai gimmick and Jaune's knight gimmick because I thought it would be cool, hehe.
Leave criticisms at your leisure and don't hesitate to be harsh with them if you want. Harsh criticisms and worse are inevitable in the future so I want to get used to them now because they will either break me or make me. Hopefully, the latter.