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.
A number of you have been wondering what has been taking so long to get this next chapter out. Besides the difficulties I have mentioned previously concerning how I am writing this, the overriding factor was the intrusion of life and the real world.
Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but this year for me has totally sucked balls. Started with a couple of minor physical ailments followed by a seven month struggle with a bout of depression that acted like this past winter did...it just simply didn't want to go the hell away. And once I finally, truly got free and clear of that...along comes another minor but persistent physical ailment and now an issue with my remaining, elderly parent.
If the year 2018 doesn't end up freaking killing me I'll consider myself lucky.
With all of that said I therefore have no idea how good this chapter is or how it stands alongside the others...and considering the circumstances under which it was written I'm not about to apologize for it either. It is what it is for good or for bad. I have been letting the 'writer's flow' guide me as I often do and I hope I haven't painted myself into a corner anywhere, since as I have said before, I have no freaking idea where this is going. I suppose that's half the fun.
One last thing, at the end of the last chapter I asked if anyone could figure out why I gave the diner's cook the name of Lon.
Since no one could be bothered to try and guess, I can't be bothered to give an answer. I know, rather pissy of me but at this point I'm not really giving a crap about that.
So, hopefully the chapter doesn't suck and you all would be nice enough to read and review.
Chance Encounter
Chapter 3
Early Morning, Professor Ozpin's Office:
As the Headmaster of a prestigious school like Beacon he was certainly used to being up early. He always liked to greet the day with the sight of the young and excited students under his care that represented Remnant's best chance for a brighter future going off to their morning classes. Today however he was up earlier than usual, a restless night of sleep prompting him to leave his bed for the familiar and soothing sound of the clockworks of his office.
His restlessness was borne of the confirmation of a meeting with two figures that like himself were beings from Remnant's old myths and fairy tales. While he himself was powerful, though certainly not as powerful as he once was, the two that would be visiting later today seemed to have power that was far beyond even what he had once held. Exactly how powerful he did not know but if one were to take the old and truthfully rare stories at face value, a hard thing to do since such things were often exaggerated right from the outset, then they were definitely not to be trifled with.
Throughout his many lives he had never encountered the two before just a few years ago. He had however seen the sites of some of their reported battles and had heard stories that weren't part of the recorded history. Of course those stories could be rather suspect when it came to their accuracy, but there were enough common elements in them that he had been able to get a good idea what was truth and what wasn't. He had tried to find them on a few occasions but they seemed to be stubbornly elusive and if the timing of some of the stories could be believed, they seemed to be capable of covering long distances in a short periods of time.
One thing seemed abundantly clear to him and that was that Ichigo Kurosaki and Yoruichi Shihoin were powerful, deadly, and quite likely ancient where life forms on this world were concerned. How ancient? That was the question but something that Glynda had reported to him that Yoruichi had said, and the way that she had said it during their meeting at the diner stuck with him.
'End of the world...been there, done that.'
Was it possible that they were from whatever Remnant used to be? While he knew the tale of The Two Brothers to be true, he had always held the belief that they had not been responsible for the creation of the actual world itself, just perhaps what lived upon it. He had no real proof but he had always felt deep down in his bones, maybe down deep in his very soul, that this world had been something very much different at one time.
Yoruichi had also made it very clear that there was not going to be any form of negotiation. An exchange of information and a consideration of whether or not they believed they were being told the truth would determine what their level of involvement would be. They very well could be the trump card that he needed to defeat Salem but he didn't dare to get his hopes too high about it. He could feel it in his guts however that no matter what their level of involvement was, it would not be a good idea to withhold information from them.
As for the others attending the meeting, Glynda might be leery of giving out too much information and he knew Ironwood likely would be strongly against it. He wasn't inclined to care too much about the General's opinion at the moment given the angst the arrival of his forces had put into the population. If anything it made the possibility of Ichigo and Yoruichi joining them a bit more important. He wished Qrow could be present, although he might just simply disagree with Ironwood because he could, like usual, and it would be best to avoid the arguing.
The simple fact was that they desperately needed allies, experienced and powerful allies. While he knew he had some worthy young recruits in his school that he had certain expectations for, if he could spare them even a little of the hardships and blood that was surely to come then he would do so. For generations he had seen far too many young and able Huntsmen and Huntresses fall in this never ending struggle.
One of the hardest things for him to do these days was to look into the innocent silver eyes of the girl he had allowed into Beacon two years early. She had already lost her mother to the evil that was Salem and she had such high hopes and such a desire to become a Huntress herself. Hunting Grimm and taking down criminals was one thing, but Salem was a whole different game. It pained him greatly to need young people such as Ruby Rose in such a capacity, it made him feel sick and utterly disgusted with himself but if they were to have any hope of surviving Salem then it was a pain he would have to endure and more added weight that his conscience would just have to find a way bear.
But today could provide a spark of hope, a way for the light to push back against the ever encroaching darkness. The first time he had met Ichigo and Yoruichi he had experienced an odd feeling that he couldn't quite identify. It couldn't be familiarity since he had never met them before that particular day and knew nothing about them, but at the same time there wasn't that same feeling of newness and the unknown that one gets when meeting a person for the first time. He had felt oddly at ease but was completely baffled as to why that should be. There had been a sense of power and lethality about them as well yet it hadn't made him wary in the least.
He took his mug of hot cocoa and went to the windows to watch dawn breaking over the expansive campus of his school while trying to ignore the Atlas military ships drifting across the sky. The General was a smart man but sometimes he let his zeal for protecting the people get away from him. Bringing his ships here would certainly tip off the enemy when he himself much preferred a more subtle approach that would have kept them in the dark and not made the people nervous. There was nothing he could do about that now but it did limit his available options. The meeting today, if it went well, could go a long way to help ease things and give them an upper hand. He just hoped he was reading the situation right and that he had a good enough read on his coming guests.
As wary as he was to give into it, he had a feeling deep in his bones that came from that odd, unexplained feeling he had about the two that their fortunes in this conflict were about to change for the better. He hoped and prayed that it was so.
Ozpin wasn't the only one who was restless and early to awaken. Ichigo found himself contemplating the ceiling as dawn broke and the early morning light slowly began to push its way through the curtains. Most of the evening before had been spent discussing what was to come. Himself, Yoruichi, Tensa, and Shiro had all sat around the dining room table accompanied by a couple of bottles of prime Mistralian sake and discussed the situation. Should they become more involved than they had been? How involved should they become if the answer to that was yes, and in what ways should they be involved? How much should they reveal about themselves and about what the world had once been?
The answer to the first question was yes, they should become more involved. They had spent long enough in fooling themselves into thinking that they had being doing enough when all they had really been doing was going through the motions. They had seen and heard more than enough things over the years that should have made them take a deeper look at what was going on in the world around them. But the wounds of the past and what they saw as their failures ran deep and were still raw, too raw for them to dive too far beneath the surface of the problems that plagued this world.
How involved should they be? They should been in it up to their necks if for no other reason than their previous lack of involvement may well have helped to make things worse. They didn't know just exactly what it was yet that they would be facing but that hardly mattered. They had vowed to protect this new world and yet they had limited themselves in how they did so. If you were only going to do half a job then you might as well not do the job at all and they had been half-assing it and lying to themselves about it. It hurt to realize that but that was the nature of the truth.
In what way should they be involved? That kind of depended on what the actual situation was. With their power they probably had the ability to put an end to whatever the problem was all by themselves. It would be a bit crass of them to do that considering how their previous inaction had probably contributed to the mess and would be a bit of a slap in the face to all who had no doubt already suffered and died. Also to those who were currently facing it as well as all of those who would in the near future.
Again, without knowing what the actual situation was the answer to that question couldn't accurately be defined as of yet. However, they were prepared to help train people, fight at their side and take down what they couldn't, and just generally be a nuisance to whoever the enemy was and get them to focus a significant part of their attention on them, allowing others to work with less impediments and less scrutiny upon them. If they took care of the entire thing themselves then what incentive did the rest of the people have to take an active hand in protecting their own world?
How much should they reveal about themselves? They were prepared to tell the whole story but they weren't going to give it all up without reciprocation from the other side. If they were going to be involved they wanted full disclosure and nothing short of that was going to work. The gorgeous hellcat lying next to him was going to see to that and he was both amused and humbled by her resolve on the matter. He knew that it came from the guilt she carried for not being completely open and honest with him so long ago when he first became involved with the spiritual world, something he had long since forgiven her for.
They were both the same that way, there so many things that they carried so much guilt over and it was still an ongoing process of self forgiveness to try and get past it. Realizing that they could have done so much more than they had for the world they now lived in only added to it, but becoming more involved now and revealing themselves was the start of their atonement for that. They didn't plan on revealing themselves to the population at large, that would cause way too big of a headache and they would never get a moments peace. Those that they felt needed to know or who they wanted to tell would find out but otherwise they wanted to remain as anonymous and mundane as they could to the rest of the world.
It kind of figured that something would have to come along to sidetrack the normalcy that they had been enjoying in their lives since deciding to settle down in Vale. Ending such a long and nomadic lifestyle had been difficult but it had also been well past time that they tried. It was working and they had been making some good progress in dealing with the ghosts of the past. As always, there were good days and bad days but finally settling into a routine that could be considered normal, at least as normal as being professional monster slayers could be, was doing them a great deal of good. They were feeling more relaxed and content than they had in a very long time.
The interruption couldn't be helped he supposed, it had been bound to happen and that didn't mean that things had to change all that much. Just so long as they didn't fuck up and lose this world too. Okay, that was a little too dark even for him and if there was one thing that was crystal clear above all others from their meeting last night it was that they would not fail again. They would do whatever it took to keep this world whole.
Despite their resolve and the decisions made he still found himself feeling just a little bit nervous but all he had to do to reassure himself and maintain his composure was to look at the dark skinned beauty lying with her back to him to his left. He let his eyes wander down her bare back to her hip and the top of her perfect behind where the thin sheet that was draped over the two of them began. Even now after all this time he found himself in awe of the fact that he was married to Yoruichi Shihoin.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, even her name sounded beautiful to him and it had ever since the first time he had heard it. As intimidating as that beauty could be, and as intimidating as her skills were, he had always found her to be someone he could pretty easily talk to. Even with all of the teasing he had to endure that had always remained so. She had become an important part of his life long before he ever realized the feelings he had for her.
After awakening in this new version of the world they became just about as broken as two people could be and it wasn't until they both got down to the most raw and absolute truths of how they felt about each other that they began to pull themselves back together. It was an absolute truth that they never would have been able to recover without each other and neither of them wanted to think of what they would have become if that wasn't so.
Through good and bad he got to see the parts of her that he had never known, that he didn't know even existed. She was probably the strongest, most together and self assured person he had ever known. He had seen her afraid, terrified even. He had seen her broken and in tears and fragile. He had seen her desperate and pleading. She had seen the same from him as they scratched and clawed their way out of the darkness and put themselves back together.
They saw every part of each other that there was to see, the good, the bad, and the hideously ugly. They told each other every truth and every lie, told each other of every pain. They left nothing covered or hidden away, revealing everything. Every love and every hate, every hope and every despair, every cherished moment and every loneliness. Every bit of their lives and their souls was left bare for the other to see. Their bond and their love for each other was unlike anything else in the world.
Whatever it was that they were about to get themselves into, they would be in it together and they would come out the other side together. As slow as they were to heal the wounds of the past were indeed doing just that and they were truly starting to live and enjoy life again in a way they hadn't in a very, very long time. Nothing was going to impede or intrude upon that. Whatever evil was at work on this world was about to meet both the immovable object and the irresistible force and discover that it could overcome neither.
He leaned over and kissed her bare shoulder, loving the familiar feel of her soft skin against his lips. "Time to get up Kitten," he said softly.
Her answer was to roll toward him slightly, reach up and plant her hand on the back of his head and pull him down for a kiss. "I guess neither of us slept that well," she said when their lips parted. "I didn't expect for my nerves to feel this jangled over this."
"I didn't either really," he said. "But I guess it can't be helped."
"I guess you're right," she agreed. "This is the first time we've told anyone about us and our past. We didn't even tell our kids."
Neither of them had liked keeping it from them but those were pretty superstitious times and it was for their own good that they didn't know. If the truth about them became known it would have meant a lot of grief for everyone involved and would have destroyed any chance their children would have had for a normal life. At least they had been adults and nicely entrenched into their own lives when they had decided to disappear, but that hadn't made it hurt any less. They had debated over the intervening years whether they had done the right thing or not but it was a deed long done and nothing they decided afterwards, especially now, would change it or make it any less painful.
"It's a step we need to take," he said. "Especially if it means doing what we promised, to protect this world."
"I know," she agreed, giving him another kiss. "And whatever comes at us because of it we'll deal with together."
He smiled and kissed her again. "Yes we will. Now go shower, I'll get breakfast."
Two hours later they were stepping off of a Bullhead and onto the landing area at Beacon. They had joked about him just opening a Garganta directly to Ozpin's office and scaring the hell out of everyone. They also considered having him walk in with her riding on his shoulder in cat form and then being the one to do all the talking while he just scowled at them. As fun as either of those may have been it wouldn't exactly set the best tone for the meeting or any future cooperation. It did at least give them both a chuckle and broke some of their tension.
It had been a while since their last visit here and it seemed that nothing had changed about the place and it seemed to still have that aura about it that told of its purpose and its significance. They had only been here a handful of times and through those and a few clandestine visits they knew the layout of the campus very well. As they did when they went anywhere they let their senses sweep over the area, locating the most powerful people in the place. She used the Shinigami's usual ability to sense those with stronger souls while Ichigo used his Hollow technique of Pesquisa. His Hollow instincts allowed him to not only find and pinpoint the stronger souls just as her abilities did, but they also allowed him to sense any inherent maliciousness in them. Shiro had trained him hard to be able to sense that, working Ichigo until it became just as easy for him to do it as it was for the Hollow himself.
It was easy to sense all of the Professors in their classrooms surrounded by the weaker signatures of their students...he could even discern the dim shadow of ill intent from the handful that were likely prone to bullying others. There were two strong signatures coming from the top of Beacon's namesake tower where Ozpin's office was. One was the very unique feel of the Headmaster and the other was unfamiliar. They could feel Glynda's coming closer to them as she made her way through the ground floor of the school and towards the entrance across the long courtyard before them. Ichigo's scowl deepened as his senses swept over something he wasn't expecting. He concentrated directly on it to get a better feel and read to make sure he was right.
"Find something?" Yoruichi asked, noting the change in his expression. She had felt something unexpected as well and she trusted his ability to read it as a potential threat or not. They always liked to double check with each other to make sure they didn't go jumping at shadows.
"In the visitor dorms," he said. It was the same place she had detected it. "Someone's there that feels at least as powerful as the Professors if not more and I don't recognize them. Feels pretty dark too."
"I definitely feel more power there than from anyone else here," she said. "And I don't recognize it either."
He grinned evilly. "Should I ping them?"
Pinging entailed hitting the target of his Pesquisa with a dose of his Hollow reiatsu, a flash of killing intent. It did wonders for freaking out the target and often setting them running.
"Fun as that might be I think we should hold off on that," Yoruichi cautioned. "We don't know anything about them. We can always ask Ozpin if he's aware of them and do some snooping of our own later."
"The kitty wants to go stretch her paws?" he quipped.
She smirked. "Something like that." She took his hand, intertwining their fingers. "C'mon, let's not keep them waiting."
They arrived at the building entrance at the same time as Glynda and after a brief exchange of pleasantries they made their way toward the administrative wing of the school and the elevator up to Ozpin's office in Beacon Tower. They were almost to the elevator when Yoruichi's grip on his hand tightened and he glanced at her to see a look of concentration on her face. She was looking down at the floor and off to her right. He gave her hand a squeeze to get her attention and gave her a questioning look when she turned her eyes on him.
'Later,' she mouthed to him.
He gave her a slight nod. He certainly trusted her judgment. Obviously she had sensed something he hadn't, which wasn't a stretch considering who she was and what her role in the Gotei 13 had been. Her senses were more passive and virtually automatic while his required some active concentration, especially if the thing being sensed was weak or well hidden. Plus, he hadn't been trying to sense anything since their scanning of several minutes earlier. It was a matter of playing roles. After their initial assessment of an area he let his eyes, ears, and Hollow tuned instincts scan for threats while she would let her second nature skills of soul and soul energy detection continue to scan their surroundings. Anything that wasn't an immediate threat or concern could be inquired about or looked into later.
General James Ironwood saw himself as a man of practicalities, sensible, with a strong belief in the things that he could hear, see, and feel for himself. He was not given to flights of fancy or tales of the fantastic. Which seemed a bit off really when one considered some of the things he knew to be true in the here and now, things that had once been little more than fairy tales and myths to him. How many of those did he now know to be truths of this world and not works of fiction to entertain children or stories designed to explain what otherwise could not be?
Even so, every time the possibility of yet another story turning out to be true popped up he found himself just as skeptical as he had been in the beginning of his association with Ozpin before certain things had been proven to him. Given his occupation, history was an important subject to him. Learning from both the mistakes and successes of the past helped ensure that better decisions could be made in the present. Even myths and legends were useful because they often contained at least some small facet of factual truth within them and even if they didn't there was almost always a lesson to be learned from the tales.
Thus, he wasn't unfamiliar with the stories attributed to the pair that Ozpin had been alerted to by a chance meeting with one of his students. He had read accounts previously and had brushed up on them after Ozpin told him about the two and that they would be coming to his office for a meeting. If any of the accounts of the feats possibly attributed to these two were even half true, then they would have acquired more valuable assets in the fight against Salem if they chose to join them. He knew that old historical accounts could often be just as exaggerated as tales of myth and legend often were but even if they proved to be only as formidable as a highly skilled Huntsman like Qrow Branwen they would still come out on the plus side of the ledger here. If they were something more...well he wasn't about to believe that just yet or get his hopes up.
Even forewarned by historical accounts and Glynda's report, he still found himself struck by their presence. They indeed matched the descriptions given in the old stories but more than that there was something in his gut, a sense that had served him well over the years, that he was looking at two dangerous people. Very dangerous.
Once introductions were made they all took a seat around the temporary table situated in front of Ozpin's desk that had been brought in just for this meeting, along with a coffee and tea service. Ichigo removed his blades and laid them on a smaller table off to the side along the wall.
"It's been a while since we last talked Professor," Yoruichi addressed Ozpin.
"Indeed it has," he answered with an apologetic smile. "I am sorry though to have forced the circumstances as I have."
She waved her hand dismissively. "What's done is done and like I told Professor Goodwitch we knew that the past would catch up to us sooner of later, and since we had been discussing it ourselves recently it's probably better that it happened now."
"Then I suppose the next question is, how should we proceed?" he asked.
Ichigo and Yoruichi looked at each other for a moment, letting each other know that they were ready for this and were willing to go through with what they had discussed the previous day. "How about we start with who we are and how we came to be here," Ichigo began.
"The broad strokes," Yoruichi added. "Questions and finer details can come later. You reciprocate in kind and we'll see where we stand before going further. Agreeable?"
"Agreeable," Ozpin nodded. "Glynda?" he asked. The combat instructor paused for a moment then nodded. "James?" he asked.
The General regarded them sternly for a moment. "I'm not keen on revealing any more than necessary just to ascertain if they are who they claim to be."
"And we're not too keen on revealing our life story to you," Ichigo cut in. "But if there's something that's threatening this world then we're willing to do so if it means finding out what that is. We have to live here too just like you do."
"We could go and find out on our own and take care of it ourselves," Yoruichi added. "But then we run the risk of getting in each other's way and making the situation worse if we don't have all of the information."
"Telling them what's going on would be a small price to pay James for any help they would be willing to provide. You know as well as I that we can use all the help we can get."
The General mulled this over for a moment. "Fine. I'll hear them out but I will need some convincing before I go much farther than that."
'Careful what you wish for General,' Yoruichi thought. She grinned in a rather cat-like way. "Well then, let me get started by saying whoever decided to name this world Remnant chose the name well, because it is exactly that, the remains of something else."
She proceeded to tell them of the physical world and its related dimensions that eventually became Remnant, of the differing races that populated them and how those beings and worlds interacted in broad terms. As she had said earlier the details could wait until later. She told them that she was a Shinigami, or in terms that were more recognizable and chilling to them, a Death God, and that Ichigo was a hybrid of the various beings she had mentioned.
She gave them a brief and broad run down of the battle that had brought about the collapse of the worlds and created this one and them finally waking up after what they figure probably had to be a span of thousands of years.
"Pardon me for being blunt," a clearly skeptical General Ironwood said when she had finished. "But it seems rather unlikely that if it is indeed as you say that these different dimensions ended up crashing together and becoming one, and that untold billions of beings perished, that there should be any survivors."
"We agree," Ichigo said. "And yet here we are anyway."
"We don't know if our survival is due to Ichigo's power and nature as a hybrid," Yoruichi carried on. "Or if it was the influence of the powers of rejection of a friend, or the influence of something or someone unknown. Could be all three or none of the above for all we know."
"I'm sorry, but I can't accept that," Ironwood said. "The scale of the power and destruction of such a cataclysm is beyond the scope of comprehension. But even so, the idea that any living being could survive it is beyond the imagination. I'm afraid I can't accept anything that you have said thus far without something that can back it up and I can't see how you can do that."
"This discussion has only just begun James," Ozpin cut in. "With all of the things you have already seen and know to be true in this world of ours I would think you would be a little more open minded about other possibilities."
"I believe those things because I have seen proof of them Oz," Ironwood defended. "And you know how much it took to convince me even then. I simply can't accept any of this as being truthful without something to back it up and so far it's sounding like time wasted."
"And who's time is it that is being wasted General?" Yoruichi asked, a dangerous tone in her voice. "We did not arrange for this meeting and would be otherwise occupied with our own pursuits if we had not been approached. We could have brushed off the historical accounts as a mere coincidence and went about our business but we decided to come here and potentially become involved in whatever the mess it is that Remnant is facing."
"I apologize for my poor choice of words," Ironwood said diplomatically. "But in the interests of the security of this group and Remnant itself, I simply cannot believe a story like this without something concrete to back it up. Do you have any such thing?"
Except for Ichigo, the occupants of the room suddenly felt like a great weight had been dropped upon them. They couldn't move, perspiration broke out on their skin and it was hard to breathe. With her hands planted firmly on the table Yoruichi stood and leaned towards Ironwood. For someone of her small stature, she certainly could be intimidating.
"No General, I don't. Maybe you misunderstood what I explained earlier," she seethed. "When the spiritual worlds of the Soul Society and the Royal Realm, of Hueco Mundo and Hell collided with the physical world of the living it destroyed everything! There are no old scrolls or books detailing what was, there are no relics or artifacts or ruins buried for an archaeologist to find. There is nothing! The closest thing that this world has to a relic of the past is Dust and it's the end result of the fusion of the Reishi, the spirit particles that made up the spiritual worlds and the spiritual energy of every soul that perished when we won the battle, but lost the war. Those worlds and everyone in them..." her voice was starting to shake. "Everything, everyone we knew, everyone that we loved...friends, family...they are all gone General. Ichigo and I are all that is left and we're broken. We couldn't save any of them. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"
The weight pressing down on them relented when Ichigo placed a hand over one of hers and his other hand came to rest gently on her shoulder. "Easy Kitten," he said with a sad but understanding little smile. "Just breathe and let it go. I've got you."
Head down, she sank back into her seat and he kept his hold on her hand. His other arm went around her shoulders. He turned back to the others who were still recovering.
"What was that?" Glynda gasped.
"That was, at most, about ten percent of Yoruichi's Reiatsu," he explained. "Reiryoku is what we call a person's spiritual energy. Pretty much what you call Aura. Reiatsu or spiritual pressure is the outward expression of that energy. Closest thing for you would be the Semblance and the different effects of each Semblance kind of mirror the Shinigami form of magic known as Kido or the abilities of a Shinigami's Zanpaktou." He nodded his head towards his swords. "Both require the expenditure of spiritual energy just like the Semblance requires spending Aura." He looked to the Atlesian. "General, the only thing that we have left from what this world once was is each other, our power, and our word. We could show you our power and there would be no doubt left even in your mind that there is nothing on this world that truly poses a threat to us. But as for our words, well I can't make you believe anything we might say, at best we could tell you things that would indeed verify and even clear up a number of historical events that have happened since we finally awoke. But I will look you in the eyes," and he did so with an intense stare," and swear to you that not a single thing we have told you or will tell you is anything but the truth as we know it."
That stare, it pinned Ironwood in place and he could not help but feel the weight of conviction behind Ichigo's words. He had always considered himself to be at least a decent judge of character and given his responsibilities and his beliefs on protecting the world, he needed to be. He couldn't afford to trust blindly but his guts and something in the other man's eyes were telling him that he was being given the truth. These two people were exactly what they said they were...so far, given that what they had offered up so far was intentionally lacking in a certain amount of detail. He glanced at Ozpin and then Glynda. Were they already buying into this, or were they just being more diplomatic about it that he was?
It was obvious that he had struck a nerve and upset Yoruichi, genuinely upset her and that had not been his intent. Then again, if everything they had said thus far was true and that they blamed themselves for the loss of their worlds and the state of this one, then perhaps it wasn't so strange that she would react the way she did. Some wounds ran deep and could take a very long time to heal, if they ever did. He knew that well enough himself but he couldn't fathom what it must be like on the scale of their experience.
He sighed. "I apologize. I have been told that I can be a little...overzealous...in my desire to protect this world and it was certainly not my desire to cause any upset. Everything I have learned over the years in dealing with other people tells me that you are not being deceitful, but I'm afraid a certain amount of paranoia and skepticism is inherent in my position."
"I can appreciate that," Yoruichi spoke up, back in control of herself. "As you will no doubt find out along the way when we tell you exactly what my particular job was as a Shinigami. And I apologize for my outburst. Coping with what we have lost and with the responsibility we feel for it is something we both struggle with constantly. I had thought I was finally dealing with it much better than this."
"We all have our moments where the past haunts us no matter how well we think we are handling it," Ozpin said quietly, his voice carrying the weight of age and bitter experience. "All we can do is bear the weight and continue forward."
"It's the only way," Ichigo agreed, Shiro and Tensa humming in agreement.
"So then," Yoruichi said. "Let's hear the other side of this story and see what we have."
Ozpin began by asking if they were familiar with many of the fairy tales of Remnant, and they were, having told many of them to their own children. He told them that a number of them were indeed true and he focused on the tale of the Maidens and his role in it. That explained to them why Ozpin's soul was so hard to read and felt like it was made up of numerous layers. It literally was. Every new life and soul was stacked upon the rest.
He also focused on the story of the Two Brothers. They had heard the story before of course but hadn't paid it any mind at the time. But if it really was true then that left them with a whole lot of questions about the formation of this world after they passed out as everything collapsed.
They didn't need to say a word to know what they were both thinking. Who were these brothers and how did they come to be, and did they really form this world? Were they survivors of the disaster or were they beings that had remained unknown to all of the races involved and who stepped in to reshape the world? Did they have anything at all to do with Yhwach or the Soul King or even Aizen? Too many questions and possibilities swirled in their heads and it left them visibly shaken. In all of the things they had experienced and encountered since their awakening, they had never come across anything that suggested even the most minute influence by any of those people nor had they felt so much as the slightest trace of their souls or their Reiryoku.
They made it through the explanation about Salem before taking a break. While Ozpin talked to Ironwood and Goodwitch made arrangements for lunch to be delivered from the cafeteria, they went out for some much needed air and ended up on the roof of one of the dorm buildings. Yoruichi sat on the edge and Ichigo sat behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist. They sat in silence for several minutes before either of them spoke.
"How did we manage to never seriously consider how the world stabilized and became what it is?" she asked. "I mean, if anybody in the world could ever be able to easily believe that a fairy tale could actually be true it would be us."
"Too busy blaming ourselves and trying to keep it together I suppose," he mused. "And we never heard, saw, or felt anything that would cause alarm so why add to the mess that we already were?"
"And still are apparently," she sighed. "Didn't think I'd go off like that and I made a bit of a fool of myself in there. Why is it that every time we think we're getting a handle on this we discover that we aren't?"
He tightened his hold on her. "We're probably fortunate to be doing as well as we are all things considered."
"I don't like feeling weak," she said quietly. "Or looking weak."
It was part of who she was as the former head of one of the great noble families of the Soul Society and who she was as the head of the Second Division and Onmitsukdo of the Gotei 13. One couldn't do either and be weak and looking weak was an open invitation to your enemies in any of those roles. She had always maintained that strength and it was one of the things he had admired about her right from the start. If things got tough she always kept a cool head and was on top of the situation. She didn't get rattled and while she certainly could get angry, she never lost herself to it or did stupid things because of it. If something was bothering her it had been very rare for her to show it.
But after they awoke here and the truth of what happened became evident to them it was a different story. Even the strongest of people have limits and can break when they reach them and she did. The sheer scale of the disaster and what they had lost, and how intimately they were involved with it all was both the irresistible force and the immovable object and there was absolutely no way that either of them could come out of it unscathed and unchanged.
It was remarkable that either of them had retained their sanity and to this day they weren't sure how they had managed it. They were both plagued with guilt on a day to day sliding scale of severity. These days it was far less severe than it had been even just a few years ago. They had reached a point where the only way there was to go was up because they had been down at the bottom for far too long already. He had actually become calmer and more reasoned and no longer prone to blindly flying off the handle and being reckless. She on the other hand had become more emotional at times and sometimes had to fight to maintain that old strength.
But, they got by and they continued to ever so slowly get stronger for one simple and undeniable fact. They had each other. They loved each other deeply and truly understood one another. When one would suffer all it often took was a simple touch or even a look to remind the other that they weren't alone and never would be. That's why his embrace meant so much to her, especially at this moment.
He gently kissed her on the right temple. "You're not weak Kitten," he said lightly. "Not by a long shot. We could've come out of this as crazy as Kenpachi but we didn't. We're just a little broken and I think we can handle that."
She leaned back into him. "Don't know what I'd do without you Strawberry."
"Right back at ya," he said. "Good thing neither of us will have to find out otherwise."
"Guess we should go back in," she said, not really wanting to leave his arms right now but knowing she had to. "We've kept them long enough."
He took her hand as they got up and made their way back to the roof access door. "So, are we in?"
She looked up into his eyes. "Do you want to be in?"
"Yeah," he answered. "This Salem and anyone she's got working for her have to go if this world is ever going to have a chance to prosper and get a handle on its other problems. She's caused too much pain for too many people already. It has to stop."
"I agree," she said. "After both sides share a few more details we'll work out just exactly how we're going to involve ourselves."
"Let's just hope they haven't left out any big surprises."
Through lunch and well into the afternoon they learned more details about Salem and past encounters Ozpin had had with her and any of her associates. It seemed like the Mother of Grimm was more likely to use others and try to manipulate events rather than take direct action, or at least that had been her history as Ozpin experienced it. In turn, they gave more details about their worlds, their battles, and the kind of powers that all of the races that made up Ichigo's hybrid nature.
Ironwood of course was the most skeptical, but it wasn't too hard to show him some examples. Yoruichi used a low level binding spell to demonstrate Kido for him. It was all she could do to not laugh at the look on his face when he found himself wrapped up in the glowing yellow ropes of Hainawa. Ichigo was able to demonstrate the existence of the Zanpaktou spirit by inviting Shiro and Tensa to join them. He made sure to explain to them the exact nature of the connection between a blade spirit and its wielder, that they were one in the same, parts of the same soul and that together they were at their most powerful when both realized and accepted it as he had with his spirits.
Needless to say though, they did find Shiro to be rather unnerving. Much to his amusement of course.
They were all rather shocked when they were told what exactly Yoruichi's duties had entailed within the Gotei 13 and that she was beyond the expert level in intelligence gathering and disinformation, stealth, infiltration...and assassination. That last one was always bound to leave people's jaws hanging to the floor.
"Glynda tells me that you can feel a person's soul," Ozpin said, bringing up another shocker. "Is this true?"
"It is," Yoruichi confirmed. "Most Shinigami could find and track a person by their soul energy if it was strong enough. Others who are more highly trained in that like myself could also track people with very low spiritual energy. For Ichigo and I now it also allows us to detect the souls of people we used to know before the end of our worlds. It told us that somehow the cycle of reincarnation remained intact, which is one of the things Shinigami fought to maintain."
"Finding the soul of someone you once knew...that cannot be easy for either of you to deal with," Ironwood speculated.
"It's a double edged sword," Ichigo said by way of agreement. "For a long time we never found a soul that was from someone who had been really close to us. We came across some that were familiar but likely were from people we had met but didn't really know. It was hard because we knew then that it was possible to discover the soul of a friend or loved one and it was something to dread as much as hope for."
"Have you found the soul of someone close to you?" Glynda asked.
"I have," he said with a slight smile. "I found the souls of my little sisters and of the Shinigami that gave me her powers so I could save my family."
"This has something to do with your lunch with Ms. Rose the other day, does it not?" Ozpin question.
"In a way, yes," he confirmed. "Though meeting her near the cafe really was a chance thing, but we had detected a possibly familiar soul in her as far back as the day of the first year's initiation."
"We have found that to truly confirm something like this requires us to be in a close proximity," Yoruichi explained. "You can feel it from a distance but you have to be very near the source and read their soul to truly tell."
"Ruby and her sister Yang each hold half of the souls of my younger twin sisters Karin and Yuzu," Ichigo told them. It was obvious to them all by his tone and the look on his face that his little sisters had meant a great deal to him. "I can see parts of both their personalities in both girls. Their teammate Weiss Schnee has the reincarnated soul of Rukia Kuchiki."
"There are always similarities," Yoruichi explained further. "Rukia was adopted into a rich noble family, her Zanpakuto was an ice type and she was very good at kido. Weiss is from a rich and powerful family, she uses ice a lot in her attacks, and her glyphs are very much like a kido spell."
"And their other teammate, Blake Belladonna," Ichigo began, sending a glance to Yoruichi who nodded. "Is actually one of our long distant grandchildren."
Except for the sound of the clockworks above them the room had gone dead silent and their audience stared at them, dumbfounded. It was all Yoruichi could do not to break out into laughter. It was finally Ozpin who spoke.
"How is this possible? Ms. Belladonna is a Faunus, something neither of you can claim to be."
"Remember our earlier explanation of how races from our worlds correspond to this world, and how the Faunus feel the closest to Hollows?" Yoruichi reminded them. They nodded. "Well, the best we can tell it's because Ichigo is part Hollow, combined with our immense spiritual energies...and the fact that I can shape shift into a cat."
And before anyone could object, she did just that. Jumping up onto the table and sitting down, she continued, now in her male cat voice. "When we met Ms. Belladonna we could tell right away since the Hollow component that we could feel within her soul was an exact match for Ichigo's. The other point of confirmation will be the presence of some strands of purple hair in her ears, making this particular cat Faunus genetic line a very rare and select one. Although we haven't confirmed that part yet, we don't need to. The feel of her Hollow spirit energy is foolproof."
"Does she know?" Glynda asked.
Ichigo shook his head. "No, and the others don't know about their souls either. The three of you are the only ones we've told any of this to."
"And it shall remain in confidence then until you wish to inform anyone else," Ozpin said. With the connections these two had to Team RWBY, he knew his best first year team, and potentially one of his most important in what was to inevitably come, would be well watched over. "Any other surprises?" he asked, tempting fate.
"When we landed we did as we always do when we go anywhere," Yoruichi spoke up. "We let our senses scan the souls of those around us, looking for potential trouble. We found two interesting things. First was a soul holding a great deal of power in one of your visiting student dorms, more power than any student here and at least as much if not more than any of the faculty." That caused a look of alarm. "The second one we sensed was a severely weakened soul in a location somewhere beneath the school. Care to share?"
The look of alarm passing between the three intensified and was bordering on panicked. "Are you certain of what you sensed?" Ironwood asked.
Yoruichi levelled her gaze upon him. Damn, how could a little black cat look so intimidating. "Quite," she answered coldly.
Ozpin sighed tiredly. "The weakened soul is the Fall Maiden, Amber. She was attacked by agents of Salem and drained of most of her power. She would have lost all of it and her life if not for Qrow. Thanks to technology from Atlas we have been able to keep her alive, but just barely so and we fear that she won't last much longer. If she dies then it is very likely that the last of her power will seek out the rest and her assailant will then have the full power of the Fall Maiden."
"It may be necessary to transfer her remaining Aura to someone else." Ironwood added.
Yoruichi stood on all four feet and the hair on her back stood on end. "You cannot do that!" she thundered, as much as she could in cat form anyway. "And if you were to try I would stop you. You try forcing two souls together like that and what you most likely will succeed in doing is destroying them both."
"We have no other way..."
The General was cut off when a power that was much heavier and darker than the one from earlier settled upon him. "She told you no General," Ichigo growled. "And I'm pretty sure she knows a hell of a lot more about the soul than you and your scientists back in Atlas ever will."
"Ichigo, if you would please?" Yoruichi asked as she hopped down to the floor.
Ichigo let up on the power and stood, lifting his long coat from the back of the chair and holding it up like a screen. Behind it, Yoruichi returned to her human form, winking and smirking at her husband as he took the opportunity to gaze upon her bare flesh. His eyes on her...she could never get enough of that.
"You may not have another way but we do," she said as she dressed. "There is a form of Kido, know as Kaido that is used for healing. It works by first restoring the patient's soul energy, then uses it and the healer's energy to heal their injuries."
"Since Aura and spirit energy are essentially the same thing then you can restore her Aura this way?" Gylnda asked. She was hopeful for this since she had never liked the idea of putting Amber's Aura into someone else. It was unnatural and sounded way too much like a mad scientist's experiment for her liking. Plus, it would certainly guarantee Amber's death.
"Due to how low her Aura is at this point it might take several sessions of restoring it to stabilize her," the Flash Goddess explained. "And more after that to help speed her recovery but recover she will."
Ozpin sighed as they retook their seats. It was obvious that a great weight had just been removed from his shoulders. "If that is so then I thank you in advance. It was a decision I was not relishing having to make."
Yoruichi nodded. "Believe me Professor, I know all about those kind of decisions."
"So, what about this other person we detected?" Ichigo asked.
"It may be possible that the person you sensed could be the same person who infiltrated the CCT tower on the night of the school dance," Ozpin explained. "Ms. Rose actually saw them heading there and came across several Atlas guards who had been knocked out. She confronted the intruder up in the call centre atop the tower. The person was wearing a mask so their features were not fully discernible, thus a good description was not possible."
"It was obvious they had significant training and skills, but short of bringing everyone in the school in for an Aura scan we can't do what your sensing ability has already done," Glynda added.
"Do you know what they did when they were up there?" Yoruichi asked.
"We assume they tried to access the system somehow but we don't know to what end," Ironwood said, clearly not pleased about that lack of knowledge.
"I see two possibilities for such an intrusion," Yoruichi said. "They were either looking for something or planting something in the system. And given their messy entrance I would assume it was to plant something in the system. If they wanted to search for something they wouldn't have made such and obvious mess getting in."
"I had my personnel check the system but they didn't find anything," Ironwood said.
"No offence General, but how good are they at discovering a hack?" Yoruichi asked. "Do any of the people you had checking have intimate knowledge of the CCT systems and programming?"
"No," he answered with a hint of sheepishness. "They are very good at what they do but the original programmers and the trained specialists who maintain and repair the systems are the only ones who would be able to check every nook and cranny of the system."
"I can't tell you what to do but I would suggest getting some of those people here to look at it and I would also suggest being discreet about it," she advised. "It may sound paranoid but if the system has been compromised then your infiltrator could be capable of doing just about anything with it, including listening to communications. And you might not want to directly connect anything to the system you don't want them to have access to either."
The General sighed. "That is going to take some doing to accomplish."
"It's nothing you don't have the authority to make happen James," Ozpin said. "Consider it part of the security duties you pushed for."
"So what do we do about this person they detected?" Glynda asked, heading off a potential squabble after Ozpin's slight dig at the General.
"Why don't you let us play with that ball," Yoruichi suggested, a slightly dangerous grin adorning her face.
"So you're in then?" Ozpin asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.
"Yeah, we're in," Ichigo grinned. "All that's left is the details of how and when."
In an otherwise unoccupied room in the currently sparsely populated visiting students dorms, Cinder Fall sat by the windows in a pose that would remind one of lounging nobility. While her underlings were off playing student and gathering information on their unsuspecting peers, she looked over the grounds of Beacon Academy as if it were her personal little kingdom, and as far as she was concerned it would be soon enough right along with the remainder of the Fall Maiden's power and the Relic that this place protected. The mice didn't even know that the cat was in their midst but that didn't mean that she was going to take unnecessary risks by being too visible. She would bide her time, observe, and strike when everything was in place.
Suddenly her smug demeanour vanished in a sharp intake of breath as something cold, dark, and malicious seemed to touch her soul. She couldn't move but to tremble and shake. It was hard to breath and she felt like she was trapped in a bubble of despair and killing intent. It felt as if ice water was being poured down the inside of her spine and that cold radiated out through the rest of her bones, threatening to freeze her solid with fear. She had never felt anything like this, not even from Salem. If anything this had an even more sinister feeling to it and she had the very disconcerting feeling that something was watching her.
She didn't know how long she was trapped by whatever this was, but it felt like an eternity before it finally released and she sagged, all but falling out of her chair. She was still trembling and her breath came in ragged gasps and she was sweating profusely. She had no idea what that was or what its presence meant but she knew for damn sure that she never wanted to feel it again or run into whatever caused it. It felt like she had been touched by Death itself.
AN: Well, there it is for whatever it might be worth. If it sucks, sue me, not like you'd get anything anyway.
Reviews are encouraged and welcome, and while you're hanging around why not check out some of my other stories. (Some of them, especially my other RWBY stories could certainly use the love.
And lets see some of you take a crack at your own Bleach/RWBY crossovers. The category needs more stories and there must be someone out there that can write some good stuff.