Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
Damn, yet another upload. I'm on a roll. I hope I can keep going like this through 2018.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 2
Yoruichi stretched languidly as the early morning sun filtered through the curtains and reached across the bed. A pleasant little breeze ruffled those curtains as it wafted through the open window and played across her naked body. It also prompted her to feel the dried sweat against her skin and stirred the aroma of the night before when she and Ichigo had spent a considerable amount of time making love. Actually it was more like they fucked like horny rabbits but there was a whole lot of love to be felt regardless.
She glanced to her left and smiled at the peaceful look on his face as he slept. Her brave, heroic, and handsome Strawberry. It had taken a long time for him to be able to look that peaceful when he slept. It had been that way for both of them actually and fortunately nightmares were no longer nearly as frequent a visitor as they once were. There had been scores of nights were one or the other or both of them would awaken screaming and they would desperately cling to one another until the sun reappeared to light the world again.
She leaned over and kissed the love of her life on the forehead before rolling the other way and getting out of bed. Intertwining her fingers she stretched her arms out above her head as she arched up onto her toes, stretching the rest of the kinks out of her legs and back before grabbing her clothes for the day and quietly padding off to the shower. Turning on the water and letting it warm up, she stood before the mirror and noted with amusement that she was sporting a few just noticeable hickeys in various places. Apparently Ichigo gave as good as he got last night which was fine with her. It was more fun that way and it always made her chuckle when she thought back to how he used to be in comparison from the time they met to how he was now.
Stepping into the shower, she set about washing her hair as she thought about the fun they had last night. There had been a little bit of desperation there since the events of the day had stirred up the ghosts of the past but it wasn't as bad as it usually was. Mostly it had just been a hunger for each other and a hunger that they had most definitely sated, for now at least. She both loved and needed to feel his touch be it during a good romp or sitting in the park like they did after lunch yesterday as she leaned back against him while he sat with his back to a tree with his arms wrapped loosely around her. That had been perfection and she knew that just about anyone else that had known her would have been struck with disbelief that something like that meant so much to her and that she truly needed it. She could almost see the silly grin on Kisuke's face and hear the teasing tone of his voice. He'd never let her hear the end of it and she wasn't sure who would have been worse, him or Kukaku.
She was still a strong, confident, and proud woman, but all of those things had been dented by their ordeal and she found that she needed someone to lean on whereas she never had needed to before. Her catlike nature had meant that long periods of solitude hadn't bothered her but now she couldn't stand to be alone and she knew Ichigo was no different in that regard. Despite how long it had been since they awakened in this world and despite all that they had seen and done, they still felt utterly alone and they couldn't stand it. They had been broken, badly broken and cracks reappeared every now and then but they healed each other and got through it, coming out of every trial just a little bit stronger.
She smiled as she finished with her hair and began soaping up the rest of her body. Being alone was something she would never have to worry about. Ichigo would never leave her and she would never leave him and they would both move heaven and earth to make sure they were never separated. There wasn't a single person or thing on this world that could force them apart and the wrath of hell would come down upon the head of anyone who tried. Despite the trauma of the past and the difficulties in dealing with it they were happy. Finding the current vessels of the souls of Ichigo's sisters and Rukia had been a sobering thing but it had also been good. Even she had felt a soothing effect after some of the initial angst and she hadn't been particularly close with Yuzu, Karin, or Rukia.
But they were familiar and while they were missed they were also confirmation that the cycle of life, death, and rebirth still continued in some way, that there was at least one thing they hadn't lost when everything else went to hell and beyond. It was good to know that their souls hadn't been lost to the maelstrom and the familiarity was a salve to the almost constant feeling of isolation they felt. It also gave her hope that Soifon's...Shaolin's soul had survived and that her little brother Yushiro's soul had survived. That hope was good enough for now but she dearly wanted to find them someday and know for sure that they were still around. At times it was kind of amusing to speculate about other familiar souls and especially what they might be like if they now resided in a body of the opposite gender, or with a personality that was the opposite of what they had known. There were a number of times when she and Ichigo would play that game, usually when they'd had a few drinks and they would invariably end up laughing their asses off.
Rinsing off, she got out of the shower and grabbed a towel for her hair, ruffling it vigorously before towelling herself off. Picking up her hair dryer she went to work on her long mane. She could have used her reiatsu to dry it out, a handy trick she learned from her mother that was very useful when you were running late for some inane clan function and needed to get presentable in a hurry, but she didn't want to wake Ichigo. She had even thought a few times of cutting her hair short like she used to wear it when she was a Captain but she was used to it being long and Ichigo liked the way she looked with it done up in the high ponytail she wore it in. She liked the way he had let his grow out too, like it was after his dangai training and she defused every thought that ever arose about cutting it.
Finishing with drying her hair, she put it up in the ponytail and then got dressed. A pair of denim cut off shorts, a dark purple tank top that left a few inches of her belly exposed, and a short sleeved white blouse left unbuttoned. Treading softly back to the bedroom she picked up her wallet, scroll, and keys from the dresser. Letting a soft gaze fall on her husband for a moment, she smiled before heading out, putting on a pair of leather sandals before leaving the apartment. He'd join her later after he was done being lazy and got himself cleaned up.
They lived on the tenth and top floor of a new apartment building. Foregoing the elevator she entered the stairwell and looked down the centre opening. Sensing and seeing no one, with a smirk she vaulted the rail and plummeted down the gap, coming to a soft and soundless landing at the bottom. She loved doing that whenever she could but it wasn't a good idea to go freaking out the neighbours so she only did it when there was nobody around to see it. Exiting the stairway, she walked unhurried across the small lobby and out the front door and onto the street.
Sticking her hands in her pockets and hanging a right, she strolled leisurely up the street, relishing the feel of the warm sun soaking into her skin. She liked this city, liked walking around it and exploring it in both her human and cat forms. It had a pleasantness to it that appealed to both her and Ichigo. They had lived in and travelled through just about every major settlement on Remnant and they were finding that Vale seemed to suit them the best. Vacuo was probably more dangerous than welcoming and Mistral was a place where anything and everything, both good and bad could be found in equal measure and for the right price. Atlas was uptight and full of stuffy nobility and reminded her far too much of her early life. She may have been a noble herself but she never cared for people who flaunted and crowed about their wealth and status.
Things in Vale seemed to be a little more balanced and not given to wild extremes. Sure, it had its elite snobs and backstreet lowlifes but it was a more reasonable mix and it was a nice place to live. Sure enough they had needed to find a place to settle, at least for a while. The nomadic lifestyle wasn't something that they really liked but it had largely been necessary. At first it was because of their immortal nature. By never aging you could only stay in one place for so long before people began to notice and you couldn't just move a few miles down the road. You had to move a long distance and keep from being seen in any one geographical area for a generation or two, only going back if the hunt or circumstances took you there and then you took great precautions to avoid being seen any more than necessary.
They knew that someday their secret would come out, anyone who studied history close enough with a good eye for details would eventually find enough references to people matching their descriptions appearing throughout history. While they had tried to not be well known, that didn't mean that people hadn't kept journals of their own experiences and made note of people they met. They had also been present for a number of notable historic events, be they wars or large scale battles against the Grimm. They even knew of a few people they had met in those instances who went on to be fairly prominent historians so it was almost assured that they would appear in the history books somewhere. They had never bothered to look for those instances, though they probably should have.
If it wasn't for the fact that any mention of them would always have them together they could brush some of it off as being stories of their ancestors. Singularly it might work but not when they always lived and fought by each others side. No level of coincidence could ever be believable for that to work. Someday it would catch up to them and they would deal with it as it evolved, but for now they just wanted to settle down. The feeling of needing to belong somewhere and call it home rather than restlessly wandering about had caught up to them and it was a good thing. They needed it, they needed the stability of having a home, of having something tangible that wasn't a temporary lodging in an inn somewhere or a campsite in the wilderness. They needed to try and finally lose the sense of disconnection they had with this world.
They had been here for a few months now and they were finding a comfortable routine to get into. While the Grimm didn't always cooperate, they tried to make sure they had their weekends free to relax. For far too long they had gone on extended hunts, going day after day after day without taking a break. It was worse when they were dealing with the fallout from their past and they would hunt down and annihilate the Grimm with an almost fanatical zeal, as if they could outrun their pain by relentlessly chasing and killing the soulless beasts and somehow purge themselves of their own darkness through them.
It didn't work of course, that pain and darkness was always there somewhere and you couldn't outrun it or purge it in blood when it showed itself. After so long it was high time that they tried to deal with it once and for all and stopped trying to run from it. They had been spending a lot of time talking about it, about the collapse. They already knew where mistakes had been made and where responsibilities had not been met, they had hashed that over individually and together ever since they had awakened. It was well past time that they finally learned how to forgive themselves for being unable to prevent the destruction of the worlds they knew. To do that they needed to slow things down and toss a little bit of normal into the mix.
When they weren't hunting Grimm or White Fang, they tried to do everyday normal things. They walked around the city, they went shopping, they went for dinner or sat at an outdoor cafe to spend a quiet evening. They went to movies and museums, went to concerts and street festivals. Sometimes they just stayed in and watched television or Ichigo would give her a cooking lesson...and make bad jokes about turning the Goddess of Flash into a domestic goddess. Cooking was not a talent of hers though she didn't mind parading around the house for him wearing nothing but an apron, but she did enjoy trying and Ichigo was patient and a good teacher. All of these things were exactly what they needed. It was normalcy and it allowed them to reconnect with society and finally start working on healing their old wounds.
Part of that was her now normal Sunday morning routine of going for a walk to a local diner for breakfast. Well, seven blocks may not be exactly in the neighbourhood, but that was a small and irrelevant point. Besides, the food was good and made the trip well worth it. As was usual, there weren't a lot of people out and about yet at this time of the morning so things were quiet. As much as she did like the city, it was good now and then to not hear the usual assault of sounds that came with it and it made her walk that much more enjoyable.
As she got closer to the diner there were more shops and she always spent time window shopping, particularly at the nice little lingerie store she had discovered. She always liked to find things to tantalize her dear Strawberry with and lingerie was one of her favourites. Judging by the displays it looked like they had some impressive new merchandise and one display in particular caught her eye. She'd have to stop by again on her way home when they were open and have a look. Just thinking of the smouldering look she would see in Ichigo's eyes when he saw her wearing that gave her a warm tingle and made her smile.
After one more block she was nearly at her destination. With virtually no traffic and none of Vale's finest around to ticket her for it, she jaywalked across the last intersection. The diner was situated on the corner and was what could be considered to a be a classic set up like you might see in the movies. For good reason too because the owner was a movie buff and had set it up that way on purpose. The entry itself was right on the corner of the building and inside there was a long L shaped counter with fixed stools and a row of booths lined the walls along the windows. The place was bright and clean, immaculate really since the owner would have it no other way.
Said owner, Taiga or Tai for short to those she allowed to call her as such, was a wolf Faunus and a former Huntress of considerable reputation. She was a tall, middle aged woman with natural silvery ash blonde coloured hair which she wore in a busy ponytail resembling a wolf's tail. She was still fit enough to be a Huntress but circumstances had led her to retire and open the diner instead.
She believed in equal rights for the Faunus but she vehemently disagreed with the current methods of the White Fang. She had actually been a member of the organization when it was still a peaceful group. The tip of her left Wolf ear had been torn off and there was a scar on the left side of her neck from a knife. While she had had run ins with humans who disliked the Faunus, it was other Faunus who had attacked and injured her because she was not afraid to speak out against the White Fang's violent methods. Their attack killed her husband and severely wounded her son who had been a promising student at Beacon. They nearly killed her as well but by the time the fight was over eight White Fang goons lay on the ground suffering grievous wounds.
There was clear evidence from a bank's outside surveillance camera that the White Fang had initiated the unprovoked attack and her defence of herself and her family was deemed to be appropriate self defence. It was clear that she could have easily killed them all but she didn't. After the incident was cleared up and she had time to grieve her loss, she opened the diner. The damage done to her son's right leg ended his hopes of becoming a Huntsman, but he had other talents. She ran the restaurant and he cooked, gliding around the kitchen on a custom built wheeled stool that allowed him to work and keep the weight off of his bad leg. He could walk with a cane but standing for long periods of time wasn't doable for him.
Yoruichi found Tai behind the counter waiting on a couple of Beacon students who had dropped by for breakfast. Another student who worked for her on the weekends was tending one of the half dozen occupied tables.
"Morning Tai," Yoruichi greeted.
"The usual?" the owner asked as she smiled and waved at one of her favourite customers.
"The usual," the were-cat confirmed as she moved toward her normal spot at the far end of the foot of the L shaped counter. She had a good view of the rest of the diner and the front door from there. There was a bit of a surprise waiting for her this morning though. Two seats away from hers sat Glynda Goodwitch, sipping on a freshly poured cup of coffee.
"Professor," she greeted the blonde as she sat with her back against the wall and leaning her right elbow on the counter. Tai's son Lon, his wolf ears perking up, smiled and waved at her from the kitchen and she returned the gesture. "It's been a while and I haven't seen you in here before."
"I don't get here as often as I would like and usually it's on a Saturday," Beacon's combat instructor answered. "I like to check in on them. Tai is a friend and Lon was one of my best students."
"You'll have to drag Ozpin out here again soon," Tai cut in as she placed a tall, cold glass of milk in front of Yoruichi. "He doesn't get out enough."
"I try but you know how he is," Glynda responded. "And with the Vytal Festival coming up he's even busier."
"Maybe I'll pay him a visit then," Tai said. "He seems to keep forgetting that he can eat here on my dime anytime he wants and that means that I expect him to do so now and then."
After the incident with the White Fang it was Ozpin who stepped in and helped arrange for the funeral for her husband as well as the medical care for her and her son. He claims that a private donor paid for it all but she knew darn well that he had paid for it and done all the leg work. He always denied it but she insisted on paying him back by letting him eat for free at her diner. She knew that he wasn't being intentionally disrespectful by not coming around very often, and she knew that he was indeed busy but even Ozpin needed to take a little time for himself every now and then, even if it was just time enough for a meal outside of Beacon.
"I'll let him know," Glynda said. "And if necessary I will badger him relentlessly until he agrees. You should see him by the end of the week."
"I'll be counting on you," Tai said with a smirk as she went to tend to another customer.
"Your husband isn't with you this morning?" Gylnda asked the were-cat who was taking a sip of her milk.
"Lazybones is still in bed," she grinned. "I wore him out last night."
Glynda nearly spit out the sip of coffee she had just taken and turned to look at her, a slight tinge of red colouring her cheeks that Yoruichi didn't miss.
"Actually, it was mutual, but I get up early on Sunday to come and have breakfast. He'll be along later...if he can move."
"I don't believe I need to know about your sex life with your husband Ms. Shihoin," the blonde countered.
She waved her hand dismissively. "It's just Yoruichi. And I know you don't like Ichigo but I really would prefer it if you would use his name instead of always referring to his as my husband. Besides, our sex life is quite interesting. Ichigo is a real stud."
Glynda sighed, knowing she was fighting a losing battle. "I don't dislike Ichigo," she began, his name sounding foreign on her tongue. "But he has the most annoying habit of being overly familiar."
"He's always been that way and he will never change," Yoruichi explained. "It's not a matter of disrespect. Well okay sometimes it is but that's not the case here. He rarely will ever be formal with anyone, especially if they keep insisting upon it. He doesn't like people addressing him formally so he tends not to do so in return. It's hardwired into his genetics."
"What do you mean?" Goodwitch asked, finding the statement curious.
"We both come from a noble lineage," Yoruichi began. "While I was raised with all of the training, rules, and formalities of becoming the head of my clan, Ichigo was not. He didn't even know he was of noble blood until he was seventeen and only then because events forced his father to finally tell him. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. His clan was never stuck on all of the formalities and ass kissing politics that come with nobility. Even though he wasn't raised by the clan, he's just like them...except for the scowl and the hair. His hair colour comes from his mother and people used to accuse him of dying it and he ended up in a lot of fights."
"Why do I have no trouble believing that?" Glynda commented.
Yoruichi smirked. "People have always branded him as a delinquent or a thug but he never started any of the trouble. He didn't start the fights but he sure as hell ended them. The scowl came from that. I didn't care for all of the clan bullshit either so it's little wonder that one of his cousins was one of my best friends."
"I am quite familiar with the names of many of the noble families of Remnant," Glynda began, her curiosity obviously piqued by Yoruichi's claims. "But I have never heard of the houses of Shihoin or Kurosaki."
"Ichigo's clan goes by a different name, Kurosaki was his mother's name," Yoruichi responded. "But both his clan and mine are long gone now so it doesn't matter. It's just me and him. But enough about that, my instincts tell me that you being here this morning isn't just a coincidence."
The Professor sighed. "As much as I would like to say otherwise, I cannot I'm afraid."
"Okay," Yoruichi said amicably. "So what's on your mind?"
"It seems that young Miss Rose was quite enamoured with meeting the two of you yesterday," Glynda began.
"We ran into her by chance and she had lunch with us," Yoruichi said. "She told you?"
The blonde shook her head. "No, I heard her telling her friends in Team JNPR about it after they returned to Beacon." She paused. "And did the two of you really need to tell her that you purposely hunt the biggest and oldest of Grimm? She seemed disturbingly fascinated by that and has prompted the same response from one of her more hyperactive friends."
Yoruichi's shrug was unrepentant. "Seemed like she wanted to hear a story so we gave her one."
Goodwitch sighed. "So how did you manage to defeat a King Taijitu that large anyway? I missed that part of her retelling."
"I attacked one head and Ichigo attacked the other and we kept them as far apart as we could," the were-cat explained. "That way when one end tried to move to attack it affected how the other end was able to move and severely limited what it could do. We didn't allow it to coordinate its movements." She smirked. The other woman was doing her best to try and hide it but it was clear that she had been interested in hearing the story. Truth be told, they could have just overpowered the two headed snake in no time, but where was the fun in that? "So, back to Ruby..."
Glynda recomposed herself. "She is quite a fan of weaponry and when she was describing the swords your husband...Ichigo carries, one of her friends inquired further about it and about the two of you. It seems that either through her studies back in Mistral or through reading on her own she came across descriptions in some historical texts that were very similar."
'Here it comes, and sooner than I figured,' Yoruichi thought. "Okay," she said, giving nothing away. "I would imagine there are many instances where people carry weapons that might be similar to something from the past."
"While that is true," the Professor conceded. "The same descriptions don't tend to appear over multiple generational time frames as in this instance unless they are handed down and I have noticed that his blades are in immaculate condition. Not the type of condition one would expect an heirloom to be in."
Yoruichi took another sip of her milk. "Good point," she said, delighting in the fact that she seemed to be slightly flustering the no nonsense combat instructor. "What else?" The other woman seemed to be slightly taken back. Yoruichi grinned. "I know you wouldn't have come fishing without more bait and hooks than that."
Glynda took a sip of her coffee and readjusted her posture on the stool. "There were also varying descriptions of the sword's wielder. There were a number of differences between them but one thing was consistent. The person in question always had bright orange hair. Also, in nearly every account he was always in the company of a woman whose description would easily match your own."
"At least he has good taste," she cracked.
"I spoke with our history expert, Dr. Oobleck," Glynda continued, giving her a mild glare. "It seems that when we all first met you and Ichigo something about the two of you reminded him of something he had been reading at the time. With his duties at the school he didn't have a lot of free time to look into it but when he did he began to find multiple incidences of these description going back for a couple of hundred years. Over the last few months he has been working on a project about the history of Huntsmen and Huntresses for the Vale Museum that will run during the Vytal Festival. He had access to the oldest books the museum has in its collection and continued to find similar descriptions going back several hundred more years and from all across Remnant."
A very evil idea popped into the were-cat's head. She gave Glynda a blank stare then did her best to start looking distraught. "So...you're telling me that my Ichi is actually immortal...and that I'm just the latest in a long line of lookalikes whose young and nubile bodies he uses up and discards as they age? How could he? He-he said I was his only true love!"
Glynda froze like someone had hit the pause button and it was all she could do to not go slack jawed or fall off her stool. Denials, excuses, even brushing it aside she expected. This however she did not. She closed her eyes in frustration however when the woman before her suddenly burst out laughing, the distraught look on her face gone like it was never there.
"You...you should have seen the look on your face," Yoruichi wheezed.
Irritated, she went back to her coffee. There was little point trying to say anything to the mocha skinned woman until she had laughed herself out.
"You really need to loosen up a little Professor," Yoruichi scolded, still grinning. "Being so uptight all the time isn't good for your health." Before she could reply Yoruichi became serious herself. "I know what you're probing at, and since you were able to present that all to me without looking like you thought it was the stupidest concept you had ever heard of, can I assume that you are not unfamiliar with strange truths that should be unbelievable...and are to most people?"
"...That...would be an accurate assumption to make, yes," she answered, a bit taken by surprise. "I have had cause to come to know of a great number of things that were supposed to be mere myths or fairy tales."
"Like the man who sent you here?" Yoruichi asked. Glynda's eyes went wide but before she could speak she waved her off. "Don't worry, I'm not asking who or what Ozpin is but I do know that he's not normal. His soul feels different, like it's muddled or has multiple layers to it that others don't."
"You can feel a person's soul?" Something about that sent a shiver down her spine.
"As easily as breathing," Yoruichi answered. "And to answer your unasked question...yes."
Glynda was somewhat taken aback. "I'm not sure if I'm more surprised by you confirming that you and Ichigo are the people in the historical accounts, or that you admitted to it so easily."
Yoruichi sighed, her eyes taking on a far off look as she idly ran her finger around the rim of her glass. "We've known for a long time that this day would eventually come, when someone would put it all together. It sounds outlandish but we've seen enough in our time, seen and heard enough about other people that did or supposedly had abilities and traits that others do not who would think it entirely possible that we're the ones from the stories. Because of it we've had to live a rather nomadic life. Stay in one place for too long and people begin to wonder why you don't age." She looked back up at the Huntress and Glynda notice a momentary look of weariness cross her features. "We're tired of that, of not having a place we can really call home. We're tired of trying to stay a step ahead of everyone so that the truth doesn't come out." She smirked. "Ichigo and I actually talked about this yesterday after meeting Ruby, that maybe if someone did figure it out it would be time to just admit it and then deal with the consequences as they came."
"I'm sorry to be the one to put you in that position then," Glynda apologized.
Yoruichi waved it off. "It's fine, like I said it was bound to happen. The only question is though, why did Ozpin want to know? Simply curiosity, wondering if we are a threat, or does he need us for something? Or maybe all three? I'm betting on all three with an emphasis on need."
Glynda's eyes widened, pretty much confirming her hunch. When she saw the knowing smirk on the purplenette's face she knew she had just unwittingly confirmed it for her. "How did you know?" she said with a sigh.
Yoruichi laughed. "I know because wherever and whenever my dear Ichigo is concerned trouble will always find him." Her look became deadly serious and there was pride in her voice. "He's the blade that cuts the chains of fate. His very name means, 'he who protects'. It's who he is and what he does and he's deadly serious about it."
"I'm afraid the threat isn't a small one," the Huntress warned.
"When is it ever," Yoruichi said. "End of the world...been there, done that." She noted the expression on the Professor's face. She picked up her glass for another sip. "Hn, figures."
'Just what have we stumbled upon with these two?' Glynda wondered. 'Just who or what are they?'
"I assume that Ozpin would like to meet with us?" Yoruichi asked.
"If you are agreeable to it," Goodwitch responded. "He is not looking to force anything."
"That's good," Yoruichi warned. "Since trying to force us into something would be the worst mistake he could make." Ichigo was not so easily swayed anymore but she would be damned if she even gave anyone the chance to try. She still bore the guilt for her role in getting him to fight the afterlife's battles and one way of making up for that was to make sure he didn't get blindsided or talked into anything. Unlike back then, she would make sure he got all the information to know the situation before he got involved.
The Professor didn't especially like the threat that was implied but Ozpin had warned her of as much. Unless they were total fabrications, the myths involving these two suggested they were powerful and had been around for a very long time. In his own experiences Ozpin well knew that those factors could lead them to not want to be overly involved with things and especially not if they were just trying to live a relatively peaceful life. She wondered if her boss knew more than he was telling, but if so he wasn't saying.
"He is willing to reveal a few things in return for what you have already confirmed to me," she explained. "How much either side reveals beyond that is open for negotiation."
"There won't be a negotiation," Yoruichi said. "We will either be in or out dependant on what he chooses to reveal to us. Without talking to Ichigo I can't promise any more than that."
Goodwitch nodded. "I suppose that's fair."
"Food's up!" Taiga announced as she approached with Yoruichi's order.
Glynda's eyes nearly bugged out. The breakfast plate that the retired Huntress set down in front of the dark skinned woman was known as the 'Hungry Huntsman'. It was piled high with scrambled eggs, diced potatoes fried in butter, bacon, sausage, ham, and toast. The woman before her was tiny, hardly bigger than some of her youngest students. She'd be lucky to hit five foot two and had likely never reached a hundred pounds in her life...however long that was. She was eyeing the huge plate of food with glee.
"You cannot possibly be able to eat all of that," she said in disbelief.
"Not only will she eat it, she'll be having pancakes once her hubby gets here," Taiga smirked. "He is on the way right?"
"He should be up by now and on his way," the were-cat confirmed as she unwrapped her utensils from the napkin they came with. She turned to Glynda. "I have a very high metabolism. And I did burn a lot of energy last night," she added with a smirk.
Taiga laughed as she walked off to tend to another customer and Glynda just sighed. "I'll leave you to it then."
"Give us a couple of days," Yoruichi said before digging in. "I'm pretty sure I know what our answer is going to be but I will not give it until I talk to Ichigo."
Glynda nodded. "Fair enough. I'll let Ozpin know. And again, I am sorry."
"Don't blame yourself for the inevitable," Yoruichi told her. "It was going to be a bit of a surprise whenever it came. Today, years from now, it wouldn't have mattered."
Glynda paid for her coffee then left.
Her plate was nearly empty by the time Ichigo arrived, clad in a dark blue t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. As usual he greeted the waitress when he entered, then waved to Taiga and Lon. A cup of coffee was on the counter by the time he got to his seat. Yoruichi was almost surprised when he sat down.
"Never seen you so lost in thought while stuffing your face," he cracked as he stirred cream and sugar to his cup.
She popped the last of her toast in her mouth and reached for her glass of milk. "I had a visitor waiting for me this morning who gave me a lot to think about."
He stopped and glanced at her. "Who?"
"Professor Goodwitch."
He stopped in mid stir and looked at her. "Am I going to wish I had something a little stronger to drink than this when you tell me why?"
She told him what the Professor had told her and he did indeed wish he had a bottle of sake in front of him instead of a cup of coffee, as good and as strong as it was. "Well, that confirms what we thought," he said with a sigh when she finished. "That there is something going on and that Ozpin knew that there was something different about us."
"Have we been ducking the bigger issue Ichigo?" she asked seriously. "We've killed a lot of Grimm, taken down a lot of bad guys and disrupted the White Fang wherever we could. We've done a lot of good things. But we've seen a lot of odd things, heard things and when we first met Ozpin that all clicked together and led us to believe that something was going on. Yet we never looked into anything, not before we met him and not since."
"You've been thinking about that too huh?" He sighed again. "I think in the back of our minds we've recognized all of this and tried to bury it. All of the little things began to feel too familiar but instead of dealing with it or looking into it we'd go kill even more Grimm, take down even more crooks and kick more White Fang ass and feel like we were doing enough and so we wouldn't have to think about it. We wouldn't have to stop and think that people might be dying while we were afraid of the past repeating itself."
"Blunt, but not wrong," she agreed. "We both know that we're afraid of failing this world like we think we did the last one. By doing nothing we turn that fear into a self fulfilling nightmare."
"I guess that means we had better get involved then," he said. "When we finally pulled ourselves back together we swore to protect this world and it seems we've been half assing it. That's not who we are."
She smirked. "You're right, it's not and I'm ashamed to think that were were indeed half assing it. It's been so long and I thought we really had finally put what we saw as our failure behind us and were forgiving ourselves. But that wound etched itself right into our bones it seems and evidently it still isn't healed yet."
"Maybe now it will," he said. "Maybe this will be the thing that gets the last of that poison out of us. Not just remembering and keeping the promise we made to this world, but becoming part of it again instead of lurking around the edges and living like we don't belong here." He looked into her eyes. "As bad as I am about carrying the blame and responsibility for things, I just can't keep doing it Kitten. I'm tired of it and these last few months that we've been here in Vale have shown me that we can start living again. Really living, not just existing and walking this world like we're serving a sentence. That alone, if nothing else is worth fighting for."
She put an arm around his shoulders and leaned her head against his. "My wonderful, philosophical Strawberry. You're right and I couldn't have said it better myself. I miss living rather than just existing and I think our sentence is over. Yeah, we lost everything and we've been punishing ourselves for it for centuries even when we thought we had stopped. It's past time that we did and over these last few months since settling in here I feel better than I have in a long time and I know you do too."
He kissed her and they moved apart again. "You were right yesterday when you said that maybe we were meant to come here. There's a need for the world and for us personally here. So, what did you give Goodwitch for an answer?"
"I told her that I was pretty sure what our answer would be but I wouldn't give it to her until I talked to you," she answered. "I almost told her no on the spot. Nearly started having flashbacks about you getting pushed into fighting the afterlife's battles and being an accomplice to it. One thing's for sure though, I'm going to wring every last drop of information out of them. I will not see you, us, get into something ever again without knowing exactly what's going on and why."
He smiled. "I pity them then because you're relentless."
"I'll take that as a compliment," she smiled back. "I told her to give us a couple of days. It might take that long for Ozpin and anyone he lets in on it that long to digest that we are the people from the historical accounts."
"To think, we were essentially outed by a first year Huntress and her friends," he lamented. "Did Goodwitch say which one of Ruby's friends recognized the descriptions of us and Zangetsu?
"All she really said was that they probably read about it during their studies in Mistral so my money is on that tall, sexy redhead," she said with a bit of mischief in her voice.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Sexy huh? You talking her looks or her skills because I know you'd love to get your hands on that level of talent and see where you can push it to."
"Both actually," she answered with a wink. "But you're right, I would like to see what she can develop into. She's way ahead of the rest of the first years already."
"Think that's the way we should go?" he asked. "I mean, we'd be fighting too of course, but if it becomes an option should we act as instructors? Not sure how good I'd be at that."
"Even if there wasn't some big threat looming I think it might be a good thing for us," she said after a moment's thought. "And for them. We have a better understanding than anyone on Remnant of what the power of Semblance and Aura really derive from. You and I are proof that all of the techniques from our world are still possible and still work. Maybe no one else on Remnant can attain anything even close to the level we are at, but we might be able to help them expand the abilities they do have. Maybe even lead them to some new ones. We can certainly help them improve their physical skills and conditioning and even if that's all we can do they will be better off. And you'd do just fine teaching them."
He shrugged. "I suppose the next question is how much of this fight do we carry? I know we don't know enough about it yet but even if we can take down all the bad guys by ourselves, it doesn't mean we should even if I want to do just that. Pride might not be the best reason but they are learning to be Huntsmen and Huntresses for a reason and this fight is just as much theirs as it is ours."
"Once we know what's going on we'll have to find a balance there," she said. "No matter what the danger is I'm pretty sure none of them would appreciate it if we shut them out of the fight. We both know neither of us would like that."
"True enough," he agreed.
They suspended their conversation while Tai set two plates of pancakes and a container of syrup down in front of them.
"Since we've got a couple of days before we let the good Professor know our intentions, I was thinking maybe we should go to Mountain Glenn and see if those Goliath's Ruby mentioned are still in the area," Yoruichi said.
"I was thinking the same thing," he said in agreement. "I don't like the idea of there being big Grimm like that so close to Vale."
"You're just itching to use Kurohitsugi again aren't you?" she asked with a smirk.
"...Maybe," he responded.
"I sometimes wonder about you Ichi," she sighed in exaggerated concern. "Your favourite kido is the same one Aizen used against you."
"It's still bad ass," he defended. "Bet Ruby and her friends would be impressed by it."
"Ruby would probably have a fan-gasm to end all fan-gasms," Yoruichi smirked. "You just want an audience to hear you recite the chant and turn some of the biggest Grimm they've ever seen into smoking mush."
"Hey, even I like to show off once in a while," he defended. "Like you don't want to show off your Shunko."
She thought about it for a minute, then smiled. "Yeah, you're right." They both had a good laugh about it.
"You know," he began as he slowly drizzled syrup over his pancakes while giving her a smirking look. "It won't take us two days to take care those Goliaths and anything else walking around Mountain Glenn. We're going to need something to do to keep ourselves occupied."
She dipped her finger under the drizzling syrup and seductively licked it off. "I like the way you think. And I saw something at that little shop on my way here that you might like."
They'd have to hit the grocery store on the way back too.
A syrup covered Yoruichi...talk about nosebleed territory. I think I'm bleeding to death.
The experiment continues and I still have no real idea where I'm going with it. I have a couple of small ideas but nothing extensive. I am also debating about how close to stay with canon as it goes along.
Still deciding if I have Ozpin die and merge with Oscar like in canon or not. Still debating if Yang loses her arm or just gets hurt to a lesser degree. Does Blake still take off? Does Weiss still get dragged back home by her prick of a father?
There will be other characters getting souls from Bleach characters but that is by no means finalized. I only have one picked out so far (Nora) and another one I'm trying to match soul to. (Pyrrha) Not every character is going to get one, that just wouldn't play out very well.
The criteria is as such: The RWBY character in question does not have to entirely match a Bleach character. All that is needed is either a character trait the Bleach character was known for or something in their powers that are similar.
Weiss ended up with both being matched up to Rukia. Yang and Ruby show traits of both of Ichigo's sisters but I could easily have matched Yang up with Tatsuki over their love of fighting and their high skill level. (And their tempers)
I'm open to suggestions.
Anyway, hope you like this chapter and I hope to see some reviews.
Oh, one last thing. If anyone can figure out why I gave the cook the name I did, then give yourself a pat on the back.