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.
Not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter since I was ridiculously tired during most of the writing of it.
03/07/19: Made a major edit to the combat arena scene. I completely overlooked and forgot something that should have been ridiculously obvious to me. Thanks to reviewer Soulfire47 for noticing it. I can't believe that I completely whiffed on something that is such an integral plot point. Guess I've been even more tired than I knew.
08/30/19: Made a small adjustment to Kisuke's part near the end of the chapter.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 7:
Monday Morning Beacon Vault
The vault was probably the most secure place in Beacon and was as good a place as any to hold a meeting. It was also convenient since other than the two newest teachers giving Amber her daily treatment, no one else had any pressing matters at hand or any other place to be at the moment.
"So Torchwick's accomplice is the fourth member of their team," Glynda mused. "I guess we don't need anymore proof than that. How were they able to pose as students from Haven? They should not have been able to come here for the Festival as one of their teams without official clearance and arrangements from the school."
"As with all the students that came the documentation was imaged and sent electronically," Ozpin said. "And the signature on the imaged documents does indeed seem to be that of Professor Lionheart."
"My technicians matched it exactly to all of the other student documents as well as past examples of his signature," Ironwood added. "They match."
"So either someone was able to get his signature without his knowledge or he knew what it was when he signed it," Yoruichi said as she applied healing Kaido to the slowly recovering Maiden.
"I hate to think that is the case," Ozpin said with a weary sigh. "Leo has been a good and loyal friend and comrade for a long time but those do seem to be the only two options. I can only hope he hasn't turned."
"If he has, how much damage will it cause?" Ichigo asked.
"If he simply aided a team in getting here the only damage will be what the team causes," Ozpin answered. "But if he is now working for her it could endanger any number of operatives in the field, even if they are unaware of the full and true scope of what they are involved in, and it would endanger everyone here. Sadly I still haven't been able to get in contact with Leo and he's been out of touch for a while now."
"I would say that until we know otherwise we have to assume that he's compromised," Yoruichi said. "If so, short of going and grilling him there isn't much we can do about it and it won't change what has already been done."
"If Cinder Fall is the one who attacked Amber then it's safe to say she knows Amber is here and is looking to finish the job," Ichigo speculated. "But why sneak into the CCT and possibly hack it? What would that have to do with getting the rest of the Maiden's power?" He looked down at the ailing girl he was helping to heal, another person who had fallen under his protection. "It seems pretty clear that Amber isn't her only objective."
Ozpin sighed. "Salem mostly works through others and has a history of pitting sides against each other. If there is no division to exploit, she'll create one and foster a state of disharmony."
"If they have hacked the CCT they could disrupt communications or possibly manipulate systems linked to it," Ironwood surmised.
"The Vytal Festival and the tournament," Glynda all but blurted out. "If they mean to cause disruption and create disharmony they would have a world wide audience. The turmoil would cause Grimm attacks to skyrocket."
"The Mountain Glenn incident," Ozpin said. "Dr. Oobleck's report said they were still loading material onto the train cars and after being found out they left several behind as well as a large quantity of the Dust that had been stolen." He turned to his newest teachers. "And you confirmed this after you made your own trip down into the abandoned city. They attacked that day because they were discovered. I believe that their intended plan was to wait until the festival."
Ironwood's face paled. "There would have been Grimm and Paladin's piloted by the White Fang rampaging throughout the city."
"And as Glynda said, with all eyes on the tournament they would have something going on at the arena as well," Yoruichi added. "It would start there to get the world's attention. With the media coverage people in the other Kingdoms would see their students under attack by the Grimm and the White Fang, all while they are supposed to be under the protection of the Atlas military."
The General paled even further. "The rest of the world already has a love-hate relationship with Atlas. It would become a political nightmare and the people in general would lower their opinions even further."
"I hope your large force of Altsesian Knight robots are a lot less hack vulnerable than the CCT," Ichigo added.
"They are designed to be invulnerable to outside attempts to compromise their systems," the General said, trying to maintain a defence of his Kingdom's technology.
"The CCT wasn't an outside attempt but an inside one," Ichigo reminded him. "Are they designed to be invulnerable to that?"
"Let's speak hypothetically for a moment James," Ozpin said. "If the systems of the CCT have indeed been hacked, and if some form of malicious code has been introduced into the programming, would this be something that a person could do without intimate knowledge of the CCT's core programming itself?"
The General frowned. "It shouldn't be. Just the security features alone should be able to either keep an intruder out or detect and destroy any malicious code they might introduce, and even if they could bypass it they would need to know exactly where to place it in the system."
"They would have to have specific knowledge of the security protocols and the core programming in order to affect it," Ozpin said. "If they indeed had that level of knowledge and skill would they not then be able to also tamper with the control systems for the Knight's? Possibly even through the CCT or anything that has been connected to it with that same malicious coding?"
Ironwood looked like a thousand pound weight had just settled onto his shoulders. "I'm a great believer in our technology and am very proud of it," he began wearily. "It would seem however that I have little choice but to believe it may be as you suggest. If someone indeed has the skill and knowledge to get through the security features of the CCT and into the core programming without detection or leaving a noticeable trail, then it may be entirely possible that they could compromise the systems of the Atlesian Knights...and possibly even the Paladin systems as well."
"Has there been anyone with that kind of knowledge that worked on the CCT or military systems go missing, or been disciplined?" Yoruichi asked. "Maybe someone who would have an axe to grind?"
"None that I can think of off hand but I'll look into it," the General said, recomposing himself. "I'll see if I can expedite getting a team here from Atlas to examine the CCT, but unfortunately that's where government bureaucracy is likely to get in the way."
"How so?" Ichigo asked.
"The CCT systems are governed by an agreement between the kingdoms," Ozpin began to explain. "If one of the towers needs to go down for maintenance then they all go down so that no one kingdom can gain a strategic advantage over the other. Regular maintenance is planned ahead of time and must be approved by the Council after the other kingdom's are consulted, all so that disruptions to all parties can be kept to a minimum."
"If there is an unforeseen issue like a systems failure then it must be addressed immediately," Ironwood continued. "It's a dual system so there is a back up and the other kingdom's must be notified immediately. When that back up comes on line it will send an automated message to the other kingdoms but there must also be live contact made as well to verify and explain the situation."
Ozpin spoke again. "Where that affects us in this situation is that in order do any kind of an in depth investigation for the system, the Council must be informed of the reason why and convinced that it is necessary and then they must contact the other kingdoms. All of the governing councils are reluctant to have the system be down unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Since there have been no disruptions to the system since the incident they are going to be reluctant to green light any examination of it, even if it's under the guise of security for the festival," Ironwood explained. "Even if we were to layout the possible scenario we came up with they would demand more proof than what we can provide."
"The presence of Torchwick's partner on their team would be reason enough to at least take them in for questioning to try and obtain more proof, but I think we all know how that would go," Yoruichi said. "They would fight their way out and go into hiding and would likely still be able to enact their plan or some version of it at least."
"What about doing it without their knowledge?" Ichigo asked. "They shouldn't have to shut down the system to look at the programming and see if anything is wrong. If they find something and can fix it without a shut down then nobody knows but us."
"Successful or not if discovered it would be an egregious breach of the CCT agreement not to mention a major diplomatic issue between Vale and Atlas," Ironwood cautioned. "And the other kingdoms would not remain uninvolved."
"So we'll be stuck relying on politicians and bureaucrats to be reasonable and use some common sense," Ichigo groused. "Wonderful."
"So besides the virtual nothing we have on this Neo chick was anyone able to dig anything up on the other members of the team?" Yoruichi asked.
"Nothing yet from any of our sources on Cinder Fall," Ozpin answered. "And not much on the other two. Emerald Sustrai has no known family listed and a handful arrests from several years ago for petty theft, but she is a person of interest in a couple of larger robberies. There are no warrants out on her though. Mercury Black may well be the son of a known assassin by the name of Marcus Black. He was found dead outside his burned out home several months ago. There were obvious signs of a fight but no one else was at the scene."
"I guess all we can do then is keep doing what we've been doing," Yoruichi said as she finished the Kaido treatment and closed the pod. "And hope the General can talk a bunch politicians into doing the right thing."
"Lucky me," he groused.
"How is Amber doing?" Glynda asked.
"The repair to the tear in her soul is holding and getting stronger and her Aura is beginning to recover but very slowly," Yoruichi answered. "That recovery will continue to be slow even with our treatments. We have to let he body and soul heal itself at its own pace. If we try to accelerate it we risk causing more damage."
"She'll have all the time she needs," Ozpin said softly. "I'm just glad that she will live."
"That she will," she confirmed. "Barring any unforeseen problems, within a couple of weeks her Aura should be crawling out of the critical zone."
Guest Dorms
"Any chance this is a coincidence?" Mercury asked as he looked at the information Neo had finally provided to them.
"I don't believe in coincidences," Cinder nearly growled.
She had more or less gotten over the visions she had experienced, but not entirely. She still had some trouble getting to sleep, that horrific mask and the feel it gave off hitting her when she initially closed her eyes. Still, she had finally been getting some sleep but being cooped up in the room for a few days now and having to listen to her two underlings squabble at each other was tiring and had produced more than one outburst and a threat of torching them alive if they didn't stop.
"Ozpin must suspect that there is something going on, some impending threat even if he doesn't know exactly what it is in order for him to bring in a Huntsman and Huntress of this calibre. Especially with such odd timing and circumstances."
Emerald was practically shaking as she looked at the info. "These mission records can't possibly be right can they?" she asked. "They're outrageous."
"Oh I can assure you that they are correct," Cinder went on. "I've seen more than enough of them to know and I recognize the government codes on them. They are legitimate. As unnerving as the level of power and skill it would take to have a record like that is, it is equally unnerving that they are not well known to either the general public or those within the Huntsman community. It's like they're ghosts." She wondered how it was that none of the others who served Salem had known about these two. If they did, they had certainly never mentioned it and they should have been at the top of the list of threats that needed to be liquidated.
"This is going to make things more difficult," Mercury said.
"Possibly, possibly not," she mused. "Just because Ozpin has brought in two big dogs it doesn't mean that he has anything to sic them on."
"But we've already been singled out," Emerald reminded them.
"And we haven't been arrested or attacked," Cinder countered. "If they knew what we were up to it would be a different story, especially with General Ironwood being here and placed in charge of security around the Vytal Festival. In hindsight, we hurt our own cause by not attending classes despite the information we were given by Lionheart in that regard. If we had, even without Neo I believe we would have still been free to roam the campus and gather information. One delinquent on a team they may have tolerated."
"So what do we do now?" Mercury asked.
"We continue to play the role of properly chastised and contrite students," she said. "And we finish and submit the punishment homework we were given and we all start attending the classes we are supposed to if we are allowed our freedom again."
"Can we get to that point without Neo being here?" Emerald asked.
A cross look came over her face. "I'll work on getting her back here. She claims she wasn't being paid to be here except for participating in the tournament. Fortunately for her the need to have her here to help fix this is more pressing than killing her and getting her out of my hair. There is an actual legitimate problem however. She has been seen by all of the members of Team RWBY and fought Xiao Long on the train. Even if they didn't recognize her through her disguise they may well get suspicious when she doesn't speak or they hear her name. That's another of Leo's screw ups and I need to light a fire under him."
She took out her scroll and typed a message to Haven's Headmaster, basically telling him to answer his scroll when she called him in the next ten minutes or else...and the or else wasn't going to be pleasant.
"I have an idea that would allow Neo to be here but remain unseen," she said. "Basically she gets 'house arrest' like us but then we can go play contrite student." She sighed. "The problem is I have to get Leo to sell that idea to Ozpin."
"We should start packing then because we're screwed," Mercury groused.
She shot him a look that made him immediately close his mouth. "Leo may be a coward, but a coward values their life and if he wants to keep living he'll make sure he doesn't screw up again. I'll be supplying him with more than enough motivation to make sure of that. We may have hit some bumps in the road but we can handle them."
If she was so confident, then why did she suddenly see the memory of that horrific mask drift through her mind and feel the dread that came with it?
AC&T Class Arena
"Aura," Yoruichi began as she addressed the group of eight students sitting in chairs arranged in a semi circle on the arena floor. Team RWBY was to her left, Team JNPR to her right while Ichigo was standing behind her and to her left. Behind them were two more chairs with her orange jacket draped over one and his black long coat and swords piled on the other.
"You all know the basics. The outward manifestation of your soul acts as a shield, speeds the healing of your wounds, and acts as fuel for your Semblance. Machinery like your scrolls can monitor the basic levels of your Aura and you may know of the debate as to whether one person can sense and measure the Aura of another in the same way. I can tell you that it is possible."
They all looked surprised but she continued before any of them could speak.
"Pyrrha, when you unlocked Jaune's Aura you were able to sense it and tell how much he had, correct?"
The redhead looked uncomfortable at being singled out. "Y-yes, but it was only for a moment and the amount wasn't exact."
"But you did sense it and you did so with never having any training in how to do it," Yoruichi said. "That is proof enough that you can and you were right in what you sensed that day, your partner does indeed have a great deal of Aura. One of the largest reserves we have ever seen."
"Wait," Weiss interrupted. "The two of you can sense and measure a person's Aura?"
"As easily as breathing," Ichigo answered. "Your Aura can also be used to enhance physical ability besides your Semblance. Ren used his this way during initiation. If you haven't seen the videos from initiation he broke off the fangs of a King Taijitu, drove one into its eye, and by using his Aura to enhance a palm strike he drove it in and blew the head to pieces in the process."
Everyone except Nora, who already knew and knew that her Ren was amazing, looked at him with wide and adoring eyes. "That's my Ren!" she said proudly.
"So cool," was the quiet and awed response from a certain reaper.
"Way to go Ren," Yang cheered with a grin.
"I used too much Aura," he admitted. "I was simply trying to drive the fang into its brain to kill it, I wasn't trying to blow its head apart."
"Maybe so," Ichigo said. "But a dead Grimm is a dead Grimm. More than anyone else here you are already more attuned with your Aura and keep looking to discover more about it. Besides enhancing physical abilities you can also enhance your weapons with it and use it as a weapon itself."
"That's not supposed to be possible," Weiss spoke up. The others all either nodded to spoke in agreement.
"I can understand why you might think that," Yoruichi said. "The number of Huntsmen who can do it is extremely rare and pretty much limited to those who have a natural talent for it. Even then most don't train the ability because it uses a lot of Aura and they don't see an upside in spending the time it would take to lessen the drain and make it more efficient. The so called 'intellectuals' who like to debate such things have labelled it as a useless skill with no upside. Because of that some of them even go as far as to say that it isn't possible and that's where the public perception of that comes from."
"So can it really be done efficiently enough to make it useful?" Weiss asked.
Yoruichi glanced at Ichigo and they both smirked. "If you all saw the video we sent to Ruby then you did indeed see Aura being used as a weapon and effectively so at that. If nothing else, we specialize in doing the impossible."
They all looked on in awe as white lightning began to form along Yoruichi's arms and back. The same lightning that had wreathed her fist when she obliterated the head of a Goliath, and that she had fired from her hand to tear out the spine and head of another. They could feel the static charge on their skin and many of them had hair beginning to stand up on end. It was destructive power made all that more impressive when one took into account that Yoruichi was actually pretty small.
"The ability to use it effectively and efficiently is why I don't carry any other weapons," she explained.
Meanwhile, Ichigo had retrieved his large sword and was holding it out before him. Black and red energy swirled down the blade, giving an ominous feeling to everyone in the room. He didn't do the same with his smaller blade because the energy would have been an electric blue in colour and he had no way to try and explain the difference in colour that would sound believable, short of telling them the truth. Maybe someday he would but it was too early for that.
They both let the energies fade. "Ichigo can also use the Aura coating his blade to launch distance attacks, but a demonstration of that will have to wait for a field trip," Yoruichi explained with a smirk. "Even at the lowest output he could manage at the very least he'd destroy the room, if not half of the north wing of the school." They were met with wide eyes and open mouths.
"I think you broke them Yori," he teased. "Way to go, three days in and look at them. And you'll have them thinking I'm some overpowered freak."
She smirked at him, which wasn't good. "Does anybody want to know what the attack I mentioned is called?" She turned directly towards them. "He releases a crescent shaped charge of energy from his blade and it's called Getsuga Tensho. Roughly translated it means 'Piercer of Heaven'."
"And she has an advanced form of what she showed you called 'Thunder God War Form'." He grinned at her. "So who's the bigger freak?"
"You are," she said cheekily. "It's the orange hair."
Their students very nearly fell out of their chairs.
"Just how powerful are the two you?" Pyrrha asked breathlessly and with a detectable shake in her voice.
Ichigo noted the look on her face, particularly in her eyes. It was all too familiar and reminded him of the look in Orihime's eyes during the incident on top of Los Noches. He remained silent and turned away, placing his sword back on the chair.
"More powerful than anything we've ever faced thus far," Yoruichi said with a shrug. "And that's the way it's going to stay."
There was no point lying about it since they had let their teasing each other go a little farther than it should and revealed a little more than was necessary. They couldn't help it really. Teasing, good natured bravado, that was how they talked to each other, how they showed their love and admiration for one another and they had done so for a long time. They weren't used to dealing with other people for very long at a time by both need and by choice. This was just who they were, who they had become and they liked it that way. It was comfortable and for them, normal.
Of course, the cat had already begun to escape the bag anyway with the video they shot for Ruby. How much they revealed about their power was something they had decided to let come as it may. Ultimately they would like to let these students know what was really going on in their world. It was a little soon for that but they also didn't want them to be kept in the dark the way Ichigo had been for so long.
She took a quick glance at Ichigo. She needed to get things back on track and he needed a moment but before she could speak someone else did.
"Hey, can't you do something like that...Getsuga thingy Blake?" Yang asked.
"Sort of," the Faunus answered, looking a little uncomfortable. "It is crescent shaped but it doesn't really do any damage. It's more like a shock wave of blunt force than anything."
Ichigo and Yoruichi shared a look that thankfully none of the kids picked up on. "Show me," Ichigo said seriously. Using his scroll he activated the safety barrier around the arena floor. "Fire one off across the room and into the barrier."
She looked uncertainly at her teachers. "It's fine," Yoruichi assured her. "Go ahead and let one rip."
"Okay," she said quietly. She stood, picking up Gambol Shroud from the floor behind her chair and moved to the centre of the arc. She was a little nervous, in part because she didn't like being front and centre and the focus of everyone's attention, and in part because the teachers, Ichigo especially seemed very serious about this for some reason.
She drew her smaller blade and held it up for a forward slice, concentrating on her Aura. As soon as the energy began to form around the blade she swung, sending a purple/black crescent of energy across the room to impact upon the safety barrier where it hit and shattered, dissipating back to nothing. Ichigo stood staring at the spot for a moment before walking closer to the barrier before turning back to them.
"Once more please," he said, maybe even more seriously than before.
Yoruichi gave her a nod and she let loose another. Ichigo shocked all but Yoruichi when he raised his left hand and into its path. The crescent pushed his arm back a bit and he let the energy push against his palm for a moment before closing his hand around it and breaking it.
"What do you think?" he asked his spirits.
"Heh, it's weak as shit King, but that's definitely a Getsuga," Zangetsu said.
"I agree," Tensa said. "She has inherited the signature attack wielded by both you and your father. Right now it is strong enough to knock down a human sized opponent as well as some of the lesser Grimm."
"Won't do much damage to 'em as it is now," Zangetsu continued. "But it's enough to swat an enemy out of her face and give her some breathing room."
"Thank's guys."
He turned his attention back to Blake and began walking back to the group. "Nicely done," he commented.
The girl was a little bit out of breath. "It took more out of me than it does when I've used it in a fight," she admitted.
"Yeah, it did take a good bite out of your Aura," Yoruichi said. "It likely took more out of you because in a fight you're using it more on instinct and don't have to concentrate so much to use it."
"That was awesome Blake!" Ruby cheered. She turned hopeful eyes to Yoruichi. "Can I learn how to do that? It would be sooo cool!"
Yoruichi chuckled. "You never know." She turned her attention to the whole class. "One of the reasons we decided to teach this class is to give all of you a greater range of skills and power to rely on to better fight and destroy the Grimm. Remnant needs every Huntsman and Huntress it can get and those who have the capability to learn and use more powerful methods deserve to learn how to bring those skills out for both their own good and the good of the people."
"Huntsmen and Huntresses are the most effective weapon against the Grimm," Ichigo said, resuming his place next to Yoruichi. "So why not give them...you...a better chance of success and survival by expanding what you can do and the power you have to do it with."
"Alright," Yoruichi said, clapping her hands together once. "Let's get on with it. Most of you when you first unlocked your Aura practised calling it forth until it became effortless and once you started training to fight it would manifest to protect you without needing to think about it. I want you all to bring up your Aura now."
"Jaune," Ichigo said, noticing the hangdog look on the boy's face. "Take a couple of deep breaths and relax." The boy did so. "Now, you've manifested your Aura a couple of times, once when it was unlocked and again in Forever Fall to protect yourself from that idiot Winchester. I want you to relax and concentrate on what your Aura felt like. Find that feeling, grab onto it and pull it forth. Don't force it. Shut out everything around you if you have to, just concentrate on that feeling."
Yoruichi looked the rest of them over and they were all sheathed in the varying colours of their Aura. "Okay, now I want all of you to try and manipulate it into a shape." She held up her right hand, the only part of her sheathed in her Aura, and created a ball about the size of a golf ball that floated above her palm. "If you can't form the ball don't worry too much about it, I'll settle for seeing the Aura in your hand move in the attempt to form a shape. Relax and don't force it and don't concentrate too hard on it. Your Aura is your soul and will move at your command. Remember how natural it feels for your Aura to manifest to protect you from a physical blow. This should feel just as natural."
Predictably, Ren was the first to get the Aura in his hand to move. His records had indicated that he was more in tune with his Aura than most and he regularly meditated and tried to gain a better understanding of it and gain a better connection to it. The soul energy in his hand rose and fell and swirled about trying to take shape. It wouldn't take long for him to get the hang of it.
She wasn't expecting immediate results from anybody of course, after all she was asking them to do something with their Aura that none of them had likely ever even tried before. It was also becoming abundantly clear that other than Ren none of them had any concept of how to relax and clear their minds of everything else to focus in the task at hand. Again, she supposed she couldn't blame them but it was worth noting that apparently none of the combat schools they had gone to before Beacon had ever taught anything like meditation techniques, even if just to help with stress relief...and learning to be a Huntsman or a Huntress was definitely stressful.
She had a great stress reliever herself but she was pretty sure that extolling the virtues of a vigorous sex life was not something Ozpin...and especially Glynda would want her to impart to their students. And she wasn't about to lend Ichigo out...although pranking them with that option would be freaking hilarious. She could just imagine the looks on some of the girl's faces. Ren would probably be immune to just about anything given how long he had been dealing with Nora, and Jaune would likely be confused.
"Okay, that's enough," she said. "Most of you are not relaxed and are definitely concentrating too hard, which is making you all look like you're constipated."
She was met with a variety of surprised utterances...and one indignant one from a certain Snowflake. Ichigo was trying very hard not to snicker out loud.
"I think what you all need is to get in better touch with your Aura, examine it, feel it at its most basic level. So, consider this an ongoing homework assignment and we'll check up on it next week. I want you all to learn at least the basics of how to get into a meditative state. When you do I want you to activate your Aura and allow yourself to feel it as it flows from inside of you to outside of you, then follow that trail back within yourself. Follow your Aura into the depths of your self. Don't concentrate on it, don't force it, just allow your senses to freely feel it."
"Your Aura is your soul," Ichigo said, repeating what Yoruichi had said earlier. "Let yourself feel it without the interference of your conscious mind. Your conscious mind will try to rationalize it, put it into a category, define it as merely being a part of you when it is actually you as a whole and is beyond definition. Your soul is infinite and your conscious mind is a box that cuts you off from it, that keeps you separate from all but the parts of it that are closest. Lower the walls and just experience it. Feel it and find out who you are."
The room was dead silent and everyone just stared at him somewhat in awe, which caused him to just blink at them in response. He heard a sniffling sound.
"Oh Ichi," Yoruichi gasped though her staged tears. "That was beautiful. Who knew that such a passionate heart and mind resided under that rock hard body and big weapon."
The students got her innuendo if the red faces on the girls and the uncomfortable looks on the boys was any indication. Well, one girl didn't quite get it as she was literally focused on a certain big weapon, the big shiny sword laying across the chair behind her teachers.
...You might know her, cute as a button, red hood, kinda dorky.
"I don't think that's the weapon she was talking about Rubes," Yang said with a chuckle, knowing exactly what her adorkable little sister was looking at and thinking about.
"Huh?" was the confused response, given with an adorable side tilt of her head.
"Perverts," Weiss muttered under her breath.
"All kidding aside, he did hit the nail right on the head," Yoruichi said seriously. "If you do as he suggested and are successful, you open up a lot of possibilities for yourself and your Aura. If successful you may be able to grow and expand your Aura much more and much more quickly than you may have been able to otherwise. The better the connection and understanding you have, the better you will be able to utilize it, even if you aren't able to use it the way we have told you about."
"Gaining a better feel and understanding of Aura, training with it, and getting in better physical shape will all contribute to the growth of your Aura reserves," he told them.
She turned to Ren. "I know it's a lot to ask and you can say no if you wish, but would you be willing to coach them on how to meditate and get them started?"
He nodded. "I will do my best."
She smiled. "Thank you." She turned to the others. "In this exercise you are to listen to him just as you would listen to us. This may not be the only time where one of you is asked to help instruct the others. You all have something within your own skills that others could benefit from even now at this early stage of your time at Beacon. With that in mind we will spend the rest of the class on the ground up basics of self defence and unarmed combat. Yang, would you like to play Teacher's Assistant for the rest of the class?"
"Sure!" was the blonde's enthusiastic response. If she could help her friends and team mates out she was more than willing to do it. And this way she would finally get Ruby to take learning unarmed combat seriously.
They stacked up the chairs and set them aside and the rest of the class was spent on showing them the baseline basics of self defence, the proper way to throw a punch, and the proper footwork to keep a stable base beneath you at all times. They had a variety of styles to work from since Yang was essentially a boxer and kick boxer, Yoruichi was trained in a number of different styles that made up the Shinigami's Hakuda training, and Ichigo, while having some Karate training was primarily a street fighter. Between the three of them they would be able to teach the others methods of unarmed combat that would be best suited to their individual strengths and weaknesses.
When class was over Ichigo asked Jaune to stay, assuring his team that he wasn't in trouble for anything, he just wanted to have a talk with him. Once they were alone he retrieved a couple of chairs and sat them in the middle of the arena floor. He sat leaning over the back of his chair and handed Jaune a bottle of water.
"Relax Jaune, I don't bite," he said, trying to ease the boy's nerves. "Well, I do but only when Yoruichi asks me to."
The boy blushed a bit but didn't look any less nervous. So much for a little humour as an icebreaker.
"First, let me say that I don't care that you cheated your way into the school," he began. "And even though Ozpin did let you in anyway I have to wonder if you really thought that he wouldn't know?"
"He knows?"
Ichigo groaned and facepalmed. "So much for that. Of course he knows. I'm assuming he gave you a chance based on the history of your ancestors and he let you stay after you showed some tactical thinking ability under pressure during initiation. Alright, did you have any idea of what to expect when you got here?"
"Um, not really," the boy answered weakly. "I mean, I just assumed they'd teach us everything we needed to know about fighting the Grimm."
"Did you do any research before you got here?" he asked. "Like what kind of qualifications were needed or why having combat school training was not just helpful but pretty much necessary? Or just exactly what they taught and how?"
"N-no, not really," Jaune answered. He was feeling like he was slowly sinking in quicksand. He also didn't feel very comfortable with Professor Kurosaki's eyes never leaving his. He kind of felt like his very soul was being measured...for what, he had no idea. "I knew that most students had been to combat school, b-but Ruby got in with only two years at Signal, and I heard that Blake took some kind of evaluation test because she never went to a combat school."
"That's true, but you're missing a couple of critical points," Ichigo said. "Blake grew up outside the protection of the kingdoms and gained practical experience by fighting to survive. Ruby is a prodigy from a family of Huntsmen and was taught by her Uncle who is one of the top Huntsmen on Remnant, and she caught Ozpin's attention by breaking up one of Roman Torchwick's Dust robberies."
"I may not have any of that going for me but I am learning," Jaune spoke in his defence.
"True, you are getting better," Ichigo agreed. "You can actually use your sword and shield a little bit now and you finally no longer look like you're scared of them. You had better have a really good way to thank your partner for all of the time she's investing in teaching you. Now I have one more of the big hard questions for you. When you decided to forge your way into Beacon, with no combat skills at all and no preparatory schooling, did you ever once think of the potential danger you would be putting your fellow students in? The danger you would be putting your future team in?"
He had never really thought of it before but now that someone had asked him the question he had to admit that he hadn't given that a moment of thought. He hadn't really thought about anything but just getting into Beacon and becoming a hero. He had acted like he was in one of his comic books and never considered any of the consequences to himself or his fellow students.
He had some skills now thanks almost entirely to Pyrrha, but when he had none his team had to compensate for what he lacked and the only saving grace was that they hadn't found themselves out in the field more than they had been and facing a lot of Grimm. Even now for every Grimm he killed the others were taking out at least two and often more, all while watching his back. He owed his team and especially Pyrrha so much. They trained him, kept his secret, and never once chastised or thought less of him for having cheated his way into school.
"No, no I didn't," he answered guiltily. "I wanted to be a Huntsman so badly, to be a hero and prove that I could be somebody and count for something that I didn't think about much of anything."
"Fortunately you survived to be able to learn a lesson from it and being a team leader is teaching you the value of thinking things through a little better and planning ahead." He smirked. "We have a certain amount in common. While my circumstances were different I didn't used to think too far ahead or truly consider the consequences either. When I was a little younger than you my family was in danger and someone gave me what I needed to be able to protect them. When that person was in trouble I needed to learn how to fight to go save them. I had never picked up a sword before in my life but I did then and my mentor trained me by chasing me around for ten days and told me 'don't die'."
Jaune's mouth dropped open. "That's it? He didn't show you how to use the sword first?"
Ichigo shook his head. "Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that as a training method. I learned at least enough to survive and I saved my friend even if I did nearly die in the process. It took me a long time to get to a point where I didn't just blindly jump into things with both feet and my sword swinging. I got hurt, a lot and really badly most of the time. I did it because I wanted to protect my family, my friends...as many people as I could. I figured if I took damage it was so that they didn't have to and I was okay with it."
"I guess...I kind of feel the same way," Jaune admitted.
"Well don't, it's a stupid way to do things," Ichigo countered. Jaune nearly fell out of his chair. "Getting carved up in the name of a noble cause is great stuff for a Spruce Willis movie, but in real life it's the stupidest fucking thing you can do and believe me I was a major fucking idiot. Just ask Yoruichi, she'd gladly tell stories about my legendary stupidity until her voice gives out. If I had better sword skills back then I wouldn't have had to bull my way through everything with sheer power and I wouldn't have gotten hurt nearly as much." He snorted. "Of course, considering how hard headed I was even if I'd had the opportunity I probably would have done the same thing."
"I really don't have a choice in the order," Jaune said with a self deprecating chuckle. "I don't know what my Semblance is so I have no choice but to learn the skills to use my sword and shield first."
"And that's a good thing and can actually work in your favour," he assured him. "Because you won't be relying on a Semblance to get you through a fight, even in training. You'll be able to concentrate more on the fundamentals and developing your technique."
"I've got a long way to go though," Jaune said morosely. "A long way."
"What did you expect?" he asked. "You came here knowing nothing and with no skills. Think of who you were a semester ago and ask yourself if that Jaune Arc would ever think he would come as far as you have by this point?"
He thought about it for a moment. "No, I...he probably wouldn't."
Ichigo smiled a bit. "I've seen your combat footage from Professor Goodwitch's class and you've improved a lot from where you started out. As you said, you have a long way to go but even as far ahead of you as your classmates are, so do they. Your partner is a good teacher and has been doing a great job with you and your other teammates only want to help where they can as well. You've been working hard but I think you know deep down you can work even harder if you want to catch up." He gave him a look. "That includes academically...I've seen your grades kid."
Jaune nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh...yeah they're not that great."
"Get serious about it and apply yourself," Ichigo said, his voice serious. "You would be surprised just how important and valuable the knowledge from those seemingly useless classroom lessons is going to be. Could make the difference between living and dying. Like we've already said in this class, never be satisfied with your skills or your knowledge. Keep pushing to learn more and be better all the time. Train hard, study hard, learn whatever you can, wherever and whenever you can. Hell, even play hard because if you're doing the other stuff you deserve it." He grinned. "Makes life a lot more interesting too."
"I just wish I had more confidence in myself, both as a student and as a team leader," the boy lamented. "I've made a lot of screw ups."
"Who hasn't?" Ichigo asked. "We all screw up, we all make bad decisions, we all fail, and we all fall down. Where the strength comes from is in refusing to stay down, getting back up and trying again. Ultimately the only one who can hold us down is ourselves." He levelled his gaze on the boy again, looking him straight in the eyes. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Ruby and her team. Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate. Those words are the reason why I am able to be sitting here in front of you today." He smiled. "That and the sexy woman I'm proud to call my wife."
"I don't want to let my team down and I'm afraid that's exactly what I'll end up doing, if I haven't already," the boy said morosely. He just couldn't get off the pity train.
"I guess you've only got two choices then," Ichigo almost snarled, startling him. "You can either suck it up and do what you came here to do, or you can keep feeling sorry for yourself and dragging your bottom lip on the ground when the shit gets a little tough." He leaned forward and stared hard into his eyes. "Either do it, or get the hell out of Beacon. The only one responsible for you being here and the difficulties you're having is you and if you can't come to terms with that and do something about it, I'll escort you to the damn Bullhead docks right now and fly you back home myself."
For a moment Jaune's mouth was opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. After a moment it stayed closed and it was obvious that he was thinking. "You're right," he said with a sigh. "This is harder than I ever imagined it would be and my effort hasn't matched that. I want to be a Huntsman but I can't float along and just hope everything will work out. I was already way behind everyone else and I'm not going to get any closer if I get mopey every time something doesn't go just right. I have to work for what I want and keep working no matter what."
"And no one said you had to do it alone," Ichigo reminded him as he leaned back. "You have the support of your team and they want to help you. Let them. You'll be better for it and so will they."
He nodded. "I will." He paused. "And I appreciate that you didn't sugar coat it. I needed that, even if I didn't know it."
"Sometimes a kick in the head is what we need," Ichigo smirked. "I've been on the receiving end of enough of them. Now, go catch up to your team. And keep working on bringing out your Aura."
As the door was closing behind him he felt a pair of arms drape over his shoulders and the familiar warmth of his wife press into his back.
"His down episodes kind of remind me of you once upon a time," she teased.
"I hope I wasn't quite that bad." He took a sip of water. "Did I go at him too hard?"
"You certainly did go after him," she agreed. "And I thought his team was going to come charging to his defence...predictably they were listening at the door. But you got the right result. He needed a no nonsense, kick in the ass wake up call. He was working just hard enough to convince himself that he was working as hard as he could. Now he can learn what hard work really is and he's got seven examples of it right around him. I think he'll be alright now. " She kissed him on the cheek. "So my sexy Berry, you did good." She stepped around and dropped into the chair Jaune had previously occupied. "Now, as for the other issue..."
"Zangetsu and Tensa agree, it was definitely a Getsuga," he confirmed, a bit of a proud smile on his face. "Tensa says that right now it's enough to knock down a human sized target and push back some lesser Grimm. It will be interesting to see if she can develop it any further."
"Now that we know that I want to test out her stealth skills even more," she said. "If she has any measure of my stealth and your power she's going to be a force to be reckoned with."
"Since we figured out she was our granddaughter I've been wondering which one of her parents was the link," he said.
She pulled out her scroll and began going through files. "I was thinking the same and was poking around the net while I was soaking in the tub the other night. While she didn't provide anything in her student files about her parents, if you know anything about the history of the White Fang it's not too hard to figure out that the former head and current Chieftain of Menagerie is her father. And Ozpin confirmed it for me." She set her scroll to projection mode and an image appeared in the space between them. "Meet Ghira and Kali Belladonna," she said. "My bet is on Mom being from our bloodline. I read every article I could dig up about them but there wasn't a lot on the family itself but from what there was it seems like she may not have seen her parents since they decided to leave the White Fang."
"That was what, five years ago?" he mused.
She nodded. "Ozpin wouldn't say anything else. He either doesn't know or feels that it isn't his place to tell the story but I'm guessing she was with the Fang until she came here. If she was still a member I don't believe he would have ever allowed her in."
"Depending how she left she may not be one of their favourite people then," he surmised, his protective instincts beginning to flare.
"Her general demeanour screams to my instincts that she's hiding," she said. "I can feel in her a fear. No telling what the root of it is though without getting her to..." she grinned. "Let the cat out of the bag."
He groaned at the pun. "Well whatever it is we'll be looking out for her. She's one of ours after all. Hell, now that we're teaching them I consider them all to be ours."
"Yes they are," she agreed. "And anyone who wants to harm them is going to find out more about Death Gods than they ever wanted to know."
Later, Professor Ozpin's Office
Other than a small desk lamp the only light in the room came from the moon shining through the windows and the large holo screen hovering above the Headmaster's desk. On that screen, finally, was the face of the Haven Academy Headmaster, Leo Lionheart.
"What in the world is going on Leo?" Ozpin asked. "I've been trying to reach you for several days and you've been out of touch for weeks."
"My apologies Ozpin but things have been rather hectic here," the Lion Faunus replied. "As with everywhere else we have been seeing a rise in Grimm activity and I've been trying to help get Huntsmen to the places they are needed the most. The Council has also been... difficult to deal with as they often are and there was all of our preparations to get students to the Vytal Festival." He sighed heavily. "There never seems to be enough hours in the day."
"Hmm, I know that feeling quite well I'm afraid," Ozpin acquiesced.
"I'm sorry to have added to your own stress," Lionheart apologized. "Both for my absence and for the conduct of my students since they arrived at Beacon."
On the outside Ozpin's demeanour didn't change but on the inside he was both angry and saddened. In all of the messages he had left for Leo over the last several days he had not once mentioned the issue with his 'students'.
"I don't blame you for it Leo," he said. "They are young and at times they will act in ways we don't approve of."
"I do have to ask however, why the change in policy?" Leo asked. "Normally you would just report their actions to their school and let their own administrators take care of the issue."
"Yes that would normally be the case but they ran afoul of a pair of new combat instructors I recently hired to teach an advanced course," he explained. "In this instance I decided it was time perhaps to take a more proactive approach. One member of the team hasn't been on campus since they arrived here, the team leader herself had not been participating in any classes at all, and the remaining two have only shown up for combat class. That is not acceptable conduct and I felt it deserved to be dealt with immediately. They were confined to their dorm and given remedial classwork until I was able to contact you and they were to make all attempts to contact their missing member and get them to come back to the school."
"You instituted a new class after the year had already started?" He didn't seem quite as shocked about that as one would think. It was obvious that he already knew. And he skipped right over the punishment.
"The opportunity practically fell into my lap," he explained. "Ichigo Kurosaki and Yoruichi Shihoin are exceptionally skilled but were looking to do something a little different and for the time being spend a little less time in the field. I have some very promising first year students that would benefit greatly from what they can teach them."
"I have seen their mission records during my recent work assigning Huntsmen," Leo said. "They take on missions no one else can or will and have never failed to complete them."
The look in his eyes and the slight waver in his voice told Ozpin that Leo was having an 'oh shit' moment. Cinder had likely told him who the new teachers were and he went and looked up their records himself and was scared that two such powerful individuals were now at Beacon where the team of infiltrators he had helped were running their mission.
"That is precisely why I saw fit to hire them," Ozpin said firmly and purposely implying a double meaning. "Their skills are second to none and their presence here will be invaluable to my school and my students."
He could see the barely constrained panic in his old friend's face. "Yes... I can only imagine that they will. Now, about my misbehaving students. Has Miss Politan returned yet?"
"I spoke to her team leader again a short while ago and I was assured that she is on her way back," he answered.
"I have a proposal to run by you in their regard if you would allow me the latitude." Still had that nervous tremor in his voice.
"Certainly. What is it?"
"I know their behaviour has been less than ideal, but I would also hate to see them miss out on the experience of being at the Vytal Festival and participating in the tournament. They worked hard to earn the chance to be there."
"Yes, that would be unfortunate." It was all he could do to keep the disgust out of his voice.
"I was hoping that you would allow the three who have been on campus the chance to resume taking classes while Miss Politan serves out her punishment in the dorm room as they have and that if they get into no further trouble that they still be allowed to participate in the tournament."
The look of hopefulness he was going for looked more like nervous desperation to Ozpin. "Yes, it would be a shame if they were unable to participate. I suppose I can allow this but they must understand that any further misbehaviour will not be tolerated. If there is they will be sent back to Haven immediately."
"I agree wholeheartedly," Leo said with more relief than conviction. "I will call them personally to make it very clear what is expected of them and what the consequences will be should they fail to comply."
"I will leave you to it then Leo," Ozpin said. "And do try to remain in touch."
"Again I apologize for that," Leo responded. "Until next time then old friend." By the look on his face as the screen went to black he was quite relieved that the call was over.
"Old friend," Ozpin repeated with sadness. "I'm surprised that you could even utter those words considering what you've done." He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Removing his glasses he tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Leo knew what the call was about without being told and had a ready made solution. He looked to the file that lay open on his desk. It was a hard copy of the debriefing of Team RWBY from their Mountain Glenn adventure, open to the section regarding Miss Xiao Long's recollections. Next to it was the list of names of the students from the other schools who were here for the festival. He should have been able to put this together before he received the information that Ichigo and Yoruichi got from Junior Xiong but somehow he had missed it.
Miss Xiao Long had fought Roman Torchwick's accomplice on the train from Mountain Glenn. During the debrief she had even referred to her by the name Neo. When pressed she admitted that her team had run into her before during the fight in the city with the Paladin. Obviously then she and her team would have become suspicious if they ran into a visiting student with the same name, even if she looked different. Given the fact that her fake student ID gave her name as 'Neo Politan', a poor choice for a fake ID and it just stank of Leo's poor imagination for such things, Cinder and her team would see her being at the school as a risk they could not take.
So the plan had been to take advantage of the lax class attendance rule for the visiting students to keep her away from the school and potential discovery. Again, that smelled like Leo's doing. And it would have worked if his new teachers hadn't tipped him off to there being something in their midst that didn't belong. He suspected that the idea to have Neo confined to the dorm room for the duration had been Cinder's. Quite frankly it was really the only option that would work for them if they were to stay at Beacon and remain undiscovered.
Even without any of these other factors he would have known that there was something not quite right going on based on his conversation with Leo alone. Leo was not a good liar and generally a nervous sort at the best of times. Considering how long he had known the man it had been readily apparent to him that Leo was scared and lying through his teeth. He had been betrayed by comrades before in his struggle against Salem but that didn't make this sting any less. How long had Leo been under Salem's control?
He sighed heavily. "How much did you sell your soul for old friend."
Speaking of Souls...
Deep within Ozpin's soul, beyond the innumerable differing souls that had all been merged together over time throughout his many deaths and reincarnations, beyond even the origin of the currently immortal being once known as Ozma, there existed something else. The root. The origin. The reincarnated soul that was the very basis of his existence on this world. From the very beginning it had existed in a semi aware state, knowing that while it was Ozma, it was also something else. Independent but also part of the whole. It chose to take no action but instead chose to study this phenomenon, to learn about itself as well as this world it was living in. A world which it somehow knew was far different than the one it came from, yet contained so many things that somehow felt familiar to it.
It wanted to know why it knew those things. It wanted to remember who and what it had once been. It began to regain those memories when the God of Light bestowed upon Ozma a form of immortality, though it definitely thought the mission given to him was an impossible one. Since it didn't have the ability to change or even influence Ozma's thinking it simply went along for the ride, continuing to learn and observe as it always had thus far.
As Ozma's soul transitioned from host to host and the souls merged, he studied how it happened, studied the effects and how they meshed together. Over time, and especially after 'Ozma' expended a great deal of his magic energy to create the Maidens, he noted how once a soul became fully assimilated into the whole it left behind a sort of partition in the soul that required a bit of his Aura to maintain. Perhaps it was always there when they came into contact with a new soul but he hadn't noticed until the souls had fully become one.
Examining and fully understanding these partitions became a full time side project. After complete assimilation they seemed to serve no purpose. They didn't contain anything, no left over memories or emotions. Eventually he came to realize that what they were was the seemingly subconscious imprint of that soul's Aura working as if it was shielding its host from harm and it sustained itself by tapping into 'Ozma's' Aura and thus ever so slowly lessening his power.
Since an awakened Aura was essentially an automatic defence system for the soul, it seemed logical that this automated system would remain. The soul that it originated from was technically still there, just as a part of the greater whole. Thus it was still trying to do its job but on the inside of the soul rather than the outside of the body and it was now tapping 'Ozma's' magic, using it as a fuel source and not allowing it to replenish itself when it wasn't being used. It was a constant drain.
If he could find a way to deconstruct these partitions he could replenish the depleting energies and return much of 'Ozma's' strength, which would be a great help to the situation at large. Perhaps he may even be able to communicate directly with his host if the partitions were gone. He greatly wished to do so. Being unable to communicate with anyone was a crushingly lonely thing, but fortunately his studies of the soul he was a part of took up a great deal of his time. He also wanted to be able to help if he could with the situation they were in regarding Salem.
It would take a long time however to finally find a solution to that problem and the study and attempts would take place over several reincarnations. Some recent events had begun to make him hasten his work and redouble his efforts. Over the many, many years he had felt other souls or parts thereof that he came to understand were souls he had known in his own previous life. Yet, despite the sheer number of people his hosts had met and known over the course of those many lives, he had never come across any souls that he had known well. The odds of it seemed astronomical at first but given that a number of those familiar feelings had come from fragments of souls and not whole ones, perhaps it wasn't so odd.
Many of those souls seemed to be part of a whole that somehow seemed to fit them, a few others however did not and were a part of someone they would have found abhorrent when they were who they had once been. He felt sorry for them but at least they didn't seem to be aware of their existence like he was and that was good. He had been fortunate that all of the reincarnations he had been through as part of 'Ozma' had been good people. Certainly a number of them had suffered in various ways under the weight of their task, but they had never been criminal or cruel and he had been able to identify with many of them.
As a part of Ozpin, especially in the last few years, he had begun to encounter a number of souls he had known or was at least quite familiar with and sadly a few were ones that he felt sorry for. But some of the most recent discoveries had surprised him and made him feel rather light and pleased. The souls within Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. The soul within Weiss Schnee. The souls within Pyrrha Nikos. He had gotten a really good laugh when he discovered the soul within Nora Valkyrie.
The greatest discovery however had been a couple of years ago when he felt the presence of Yoruichi Shihoin and Ichigo Kurosaki. He wept with joy when he felt them but was then stunned when he realized that he wasn't encountering their reincarnated souls. It was them! In the flesh, alive and well. Now they were back again and were becoming a part of Ozpin's inner circle which didn't surprise him in the least. And boy had it been a revelation to him when he discovered that they were a couple and that at some point they'd had children...and that Blake Belladonna was one of their distant grandchildren.
Oh the teasing potential.
Well, there was no time like the present to make his latest attempt to break the first partition. All energy, including soul energy had a frequency. As part of the same overall soul he should be able to find and match the frequency of any given partition and break it down. It had taken a long time to figure out how to manipulate the soul energy that way and form the theory on how to take down the partition entirely and permanently. This latest idea had to work. Match the frequency and apply it evenly over the entirety of the partition, making the two a single construct and then negate it. It should work like turning off a switch and the energies used to construct it would become part of the whole once again.
He put his theory to work, matching the frequency of the energy he could access to that of the partition. When they began to resonate he pushed the two energy streams together, forcing them to become one construct. Now the question was, how to break it and make it dissipate. Pushing, pulling and twisting it did nothing. Simply trying to dispel it didn't work either. Of course, it couldn't be that easy right?
He thought for a moment. He had overlooked something and felt like a fool since it was so obvious. How did he expect to break the partition if it was still drawing power from Ozpin's Aura reserves? Whatever he tried to do to it, it would just draw on more power to sustain itself. He was part of this soul, manipulating its energies was or should be second nature, yet it seemed he had been unable to see the simpler solution as he searched for the harder one. Basically, he had been approaching the problem from the wrong end, assuming that the solution had to be complicated.
He felt rather foolish.
Magic energy was not something he had been familiar with in his previous life. Magic as it existed here did not exist in his world, it functioned a little differently than Kido did. But in both cases they were powered the same way. Finding the place in the partition where it was drawing the most Aura and diverting it away from the pathway to replenishing the magical energy, a place that proved to be the weak spot, he increased the frequency of the soul energy until that particular spot showed signs of instability. Then, in the grand tradition of mankind's basic nature, metaphysically speaking...he pounded on it until it broke. Much to his scientific chagrin, it worked. The partition broke, stopped drawing on magic energy and the soul energy dissipated and rejoined the whole.
Well. One down and at least a thousand more to go.
AN: Well, there it is, hope you liked it. Please feel free, if you would be so kind, to leave a review. And while you're hanging around here why not check out my other stories.
Now, back at Chapter Two I tried to have little fun by asking readers to tell me why I gave the Wolf Faunus cook at the restaurant the name Lon. Much to my dismay no one bothered to try answering it then, which prompted me to get a bit pissed and declare that if no one could be bothered to try, I couldn't be bothered to give the answer.
Since then I have had a few people take a guess and I answered them via PM. And I have to say the guesses were nowhere even close and had nothing to do with where I was going with it. So, I have decided to give the answer now to the audience as a whole.
To be punny about it, you could say that a male Wolf Faunus was quite literally a Wolfman, and the Hollywood actor best known for playing the role of the Wolfman (circa the 1940's) was Lon Chaney Jr.
Now, on to the next chapter. All I have to do is figure out just exactly what the hell I'm going to do for it.
Hey, how about some of you out there try your hand at at RWBY/Bleach crossover. We could always use more of them.