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.
Been about six weeks I guess. Was on vacation again for a week and not terribly motivated to write on either side of that or during. I think I wrote about the last third of this chapter just in the last two days.
Enjoy, and hopefully you'll leave a review.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 11
Beacon Vault
It was safe to say that General Ironwood was not a happy man when he finally joined the others at Amber's location in the vault. Yoruichi and Ichigo were already administering the day's treatment when he arrived.
"What did you do last night Yoruichi?!" he demanded.
"You'll have to be more specific General," she answered with a smirk. "I did a lot of things last night."
The look she was giving Ichigo told Glynda that one or more of those things she had done had been him. She rolled her eyes and otherwise kept silent. Next to her Ozpin seemed mildly amused. James didn't catch the look and he probably wouldn't have cared at the moment.
"When we opened Roman Torchwick's cell this morning he was exhausted and slumped against the wall and fearfully muttering incoherently about a yellow eyed ninja woman," he seethed. "I only know of one person who could possibly fit that description."
"Okay. And...?"
He nearly swallowed his tongue at her nonchalant response. "You broke into my ship, an Atlesian military vessel, and you interrogated a prisoner on said ship."
"Going to arrest me General? Because I'd really like to see you try," she sassed with a 'please try it' grin. "Besides, Ichigo is the only one who gets to see me in or put me in handcuffs."
Glynda facepalmed at the woman's shamelessness and Ironwood looked like his head was ready to explode and it was possible that he was losing the ability to speak...or at least formulate coherent thoughts at the moment. Ozpin simply continued to observe and try to hide his amusement. It would do James good to get zinged a little. Ichigo, he just took it all in stride.
"First of all, I didn't have to 'break' into anything," she began, seriously. "Consider my infiltration of your ship as a test of Atlesian naval security in general. It was a miserable failure by the way and I'll send you a bill for my services. Secondly, you weren't getting anything out of Torchwick except his continued mocking assertions that he was the great mastermind of everything, which we all know is complete and utter bullshit. Even if he wasn't made aware of the entire plan he had to know something of substance. Or, at least be able to confirm or disprove parts of our theory."
"Did he tell you anything and if so how did you get him to do so?" the General asked rather tightly.
She glowered at him, knowing what he was getting at. "I made him fear me, see me as the biggest, scariest threat he was ever going to encounter and I made him believe that there was no place on this world that him or his little helper Neo could ever hope to hide from me. And there isn't.
Then I gave him an example of what I could do to him if I chose to. The human body has numerous pressure points that when properly stimulated can have a variety of effects on both the body and the mind. Those points are also directly connected to the soul and with the proper application of my own soul energy those effects can be felt to the very core of your being. After that it only took the threat of it and the right psychological prodding to get him to give up his secrets. Other than being exhausted and freaked out, he's unharmed."
"That could still be seen as a form of torture," he dared.
"And we all know that the Kingdom of Atlas has never tortured a prisoner," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "The training of the Onmitsukido includes every method of getting information out of someone and under the right circumstances I would...and have used them and would do so again. But, nothing so drastic was needed against Torchwick. Hell, I seriously doubt that there is anyone on this planet that would require anything so drastic to wring information out of them. He's not half the hard ass he fancies himself to be. Believe me General, you don't want to know how hardcore some of the criminals in the afterlife were. They make anything you have on Remnant look like a bunch of pussies."
"Be that as it may, you still infiltrated my ship and questioned a prisoner under my care and authority," he said. "That is a serious breach of trust, especially within this group, never mind anywhere else."
"And you sticking Ozpin in the back to get control of the security arrangements for the Vytal Festival wasn't?" Ichigo spoke up. "All you did was put the people on edge, wondering why they need that much security. So your toes got stepped on, big deal. Consider it payback on Ozpin's behalf then and get the hell over it. We're dealing with the fate of the world here. Nobody gives a shit about your ego."
"Did you get any information out of Mr. Torchwick?" Ozpin asked, trying to deescalate things, even if just a little.
"You can't possibly be alright with this Oz," Ironwood glowered.
"It's already done James so it's a moot point," the old wizard responded. "The only damage done is to your ego and Torchwick is a little ragged but unharmed. Perhaps this could have been handled differently but what's done is done."
"To answer you question I did get some info out of him," Yoruichi said, ignoring the Atlesian's glare. "As suspected he wasn't given the whole plan by Cinder but she did give him some of it and he was resourceful enough to find out more on his own and had his own theories. He confirmed what I had heard, that Cinder did indeed plant a viral program into the CCT that gives her access to anything that connects to it, even briefly, and the ability to control anything on the system that she chooses to. That includes substituting her own matches for the tournament while still letting the process look like random choice."
"So she would be trying to slot matches to get possible outcomes that would favour her team?" Glynda surmised.
"Yes," Yoruichi confirmed. "The aim is to get to the singles round and have Mercury Black get a one on one match. He'll lose it and make the victor turn on him in what will look like an unprovoked attack. He wasn't sure how but he suspected that it more than likely would be with the use of Emerald Sustrai's Semblance. Cinder never told him about Emerald's Semblance, but Neo found out and told him shortly before he was captured."
"His opponent will be the only one affected by it, thinking they are being attacked and will then defend themselves accordingly, making it look like an unprovoked assault on a helpless and unsuspecting opponent," Ozpin said gravely.
"That would cause a great deal of negativity among the viewers who will number in the millions," Ironwood said, the gravity of the situation pushing aside his earlier ire. "That would certainly fit with what we have previously speculated."
"And it would certainly get the attention of the Grimm," Glynda added.
"While Mercury's opponent could come down to the result of random chance, it would benefit them the most if it was someone who would be more prone to retaliating without hesitation which would make it more of a sure thing. But given the number of participants in the tournament that is a large pool potentially," Ichigo said.
Yoruichi continued. "Roman also said that sometime after that, maybe even after another incident of some kind that would generate a similar or worse response from the people, Cinder would take over entirely and the attack would come soon after. The White Fang will be front and centre, which would potentially set them up to be the focus of a lot of the blame. During the attack Neo is supposed to get on board your ship, if she isn't onboard somewhere already before that, take out the crew and free him. Then they are going to introduce the same virus from the CCT into your ship's systems and if possible take out the other ships."
Ironwood went pale. "They want to get control of the Knight's and Paladins and turn them against the people, don't they? They want to make it look like Atlas has turned against Vale."
"Right in one," Yoruichi confirmed gravely.
"That's how Salem plans to cause strife and disunity between the Kingdom's," Ozpin said. "Create mistrust, fear and despair."
"I went to Mountain Glenn last night," Ichigo said. "And there were a lot more Grimm in the area than there were the last time. Shiro, Tensa, and I took out a lot of them but it's pretty clear that they are gathering there for a purpose. There is nothing there and nothing going on that should be enough to draw that many Grimm to the area on their own. Most of the new Grimm were younger ones and it isn't in their nature to just hang around somewhere and wait, not like the old ones will."
"When Cinder launches her attack they will come here," Ozpin concluded. "And it is safe to say that during the chaos she will find her way down here and try to take the rest of Amber's power."
"She won't get it, we'll make sure of that one way or another," Ichigo vowed. He refused to let any more harm come to this girl.
There was something about the tone in his voice that made the others take notice and Yoruichi just smirked. Getting new information, piecing more of the enemy plan together, and understanding the ramifications of it and the death and destruction that would result was putting him into full on protection mode and priming him for the conflict to come.
"Shiro is going to go back to Mountain Glenn each night and hunt Grimm to keep the numbers down," Ichigo continued. "And Tensa is going to do the same around the Kingdom's borders, concentrating on the areas that have been having the most Grimm activity."
"How are they going to do that?" Ironwood asked. The logistics of travel, especially for Tensa's role seemed impossible for a nightly patrol. "For that matter how did you get to Mountain Glenn and back. We didn't track any air traffic last night."
Ichigo stretched his left arm out and tapped the air with his index finger. The air seemed to twist and distort before splitting open. He slid his fingers into the split and pulled, opening a narrow doorway to a black nothingness. Save for Yoruichi the others all stared wide eyed and gasped at the desolate and despairing aura coming from the blackness.
"What in the..." Glynda started.
"It's called Garganta," he explained. "It's how Hollows travelled between the dimension of Hueco Mundo and the world of the living. That blackness is the gap, the nothingness between dimensions. You have to make a pathway out of your spirit energy to travel it. If you don't or if you fall off the path you will be lost forever to the void."
"Some theories speculated that you might eventually reappear in another time or space, but there was no way to actually prove that since anyone that disappeared in there was never seen again," Yoruichi added.
"As for Tensa," Ichigo continued, closing the Garganta. "He travels through shadows. The Quincy stronghold was contained within a dimension of shadows inside the Seireitei that they called Shatten Bereich. That dimension became a part of this world just like the others did and he has found that he can travel anywhere across Remnant through shadows, just like myself and Shiro can with Garganta. If he opens the way for us we can travel through the shadows too. Shadow travel is probably more efficient and meant for movement within a single dimension. Garganta was intended for inter-dimensional travel, using it within a single dimension like this is a much shorter trip of course, but the void space feels a lot more...agitated and violent I guess you could say than it did when travelling between dimensions."
Any doubts Ironwood may have still held about their origins or their power were quickly being stripped away. He had just watched someone literally tear open the very air itself and create a dimensional rift. He had little doubt that it was exactly what Ichigo said it was. The feeling that came from that void space was unlike any sensation he had ever had. It felt like it had touched something primal in his brain that left him with no doubt that what he had just seen and been told was very real.
"Ichigo and I will keep doing what we have been," Yoruichi said. "Keeping an eye on Cinder and her bunch here and the White Fang in Vale or wherever we find them lurking. If we can harass them and maybe deprive them of both supplies and new recruits we can weaken them."
Ironwood sighed. "The Council still doesn't seem like they want to budge on the issue of examining the programming of the CCT. If I tell them what Torchwick had to say there is a chance it might begin to sway them but it doesn't look good. As for the investigation back in Atlas, it has produced a couple of possibilities and one of them was quite a prominent figure and our most likely culprit.
Dr. Arthur Watts is a computer science and cybernetics expert who worked on the CCT project as part of the main development team during the last series of major upgrades. He disappeared a few years ago when it was discovered that he was doing some very disturbing and highly illegal cybernetic enhancement experiments. He managed to escape arrest and went into hiding. There have been occasional reports of him being spotted but he was always long gone before anyone could pin him down."
"So we have confirmation that a bug was put into the system and we have a likely suspect for who created it," Ichigo summarized. "If that isn't enough to get the Council off its ass and do something then I think it's time to go around them and get the problem looked after."
Ironwood sighed. "We've already been over why we can't do that. It has to be handled diplomatically."
"So you'd rather play politics," Yoruichi accused as she finished Amber's treatment and closed the life support module. "You were ready to charge into Mountain Glenn with guns blazing before you even knew if the White Fang was there or what they were up to, but you won't take the same approach to this because of political sensitivities." She snorted derisively. "You know what the consequences are likely to be if the system goes down and the attack we've been speculating on happens, yet you're content to try and get permission rather than act to prevent it and ask for forgiveness when you've been proven right."
She shook her head and began walking away.
"Politicians are always the last to get anything and the first to scream in panic when shit goes wrong," Ichigo said, scowl firmly in place. "You wanted to run security over the Vytal Festival so badly that you convinced the Council to let you take over yet now you can't seem to convince them of a valid threat that's staring them right in the face. Where is that same resolve you used to convince them to throw Ozpin under the bus in favour of you now that it's really needed General?"
"I understand your frustration Ichigo but there is a proper way to do this and it has to be followed." It was obvious that Ironwood didn't appreciate being challenged and was not very happy about being called out.
"The Seireitei had the same mindset General," Ichigo shot back, a little heat making its way into his voice. "Rigid, unchanging, a slave to the absolute letter of their laws and traditions. Because of that they had to rely on a fifteen year old kid and his friends to save their asses and upset their sense of order before they would even begin to see where it had gotten them. Even when they did and finally began to change it was too little too late and the next big threat that came along brought nothing but death and misery. I've seen this movie before General, I'd rather not see it again. It doesn't end well."
Leaving Ironwood and the others to continue hashing that over, he joined Yoruichi at the elevator and headed back up into the school.
"I think we've pissed Ironwood off for the foreseeable future," Ichigo commented.
After they left the vault they hit the cafeteria for a couple of large coffees before taking up residence in the top row of the stands in Glynda's combat class arena. They had struck a deal with her before Ironwood arrived in the vault where they would observe her class, primarily to scope out how Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald fought, and to let their presence get on their nerves a little. Glynda and Ozpin would observe their class the next day to see how their students were progressing. It would be half an hour yet before the class started so they took the opportunity to have a quiet break.
"A risk worth taking," Yoruichi said. "Maybe this will help him figure out which is more important, protecting the people regardless of personal cost or letting politics dictate how he does it."
"I'm no politician but I think it would be easier to smooth things over between the Kingdoms if he bypassed the Council for the safety of the people rather than doing it their way and risking a disaster," Ichigo mused.
"You're not wrong," she agreed. "But it would be a lot easier if he wasn't from another Kingdom. There will be some who would see going around the Council as outside interference in Vale's affairs. There are likely some who see it that way already just by his presence and that of the ships and troops he brought but haven't voiced their objections. At least not very openly or loudly."
"You sure we didn't miss something in his soul?" he mused. "Because he seems to have some of the Old Man in him."
"I hope he's not that inflexible," she answered. "Because it's going to be a mess if the system is still compromised once the festival starts."
"And we don't know anyone to bring in and hack the system behind his back," Ichigo groused.
"The perils of living an isolated lifestyle," she sighed. "Besides no family or friends, also no contacts or sources."
"I suppose we could always wreck something, that way they'd have to fix it and it would be a lot easier to get someone to have a look at the programming," he suggested, only half joking.
"I have contemplated hitting the system with some lightning and forcing the back up system to kick in," she admitted. "But there's no guarantee that the back up hasn't been infected as well."
"I really don't understand why the Council is so reluctant to budge on this," he said. "They want the festival to go off smoothly and without problems, yet when the possibility of a problem is presented to them they don't want to take it seriously and look into it."
"The Administrator that runs the Vale CCT has probably told them that he and his people haven't found a problem," she speculated. "So they take their word for it and contradict themselves by not taking the word of the person they tasked with providing security for them. Their own so called experts can't find a problem but someone from Atlas does...it doesn't make them look very good and most of the politicians are more concerned with optics than substance. Besides, they can always shift the blame to someone else."
"Fucking politics," he grumbled. "So if Ironwood can't budge them and he won't act independently, and we can't break it and don't know anyone who can hack it, then we have to leave it be and work around it?"
"Pretty much," she sighed. "We don't know the whole plan and have only confirmed a small part of it. I think we can live with Cinder manipulating the matches but we need to find a way to fix the issue or cut off her access before she launches any potential attack. If nothing else it gives us a little more time to see if we can get someone into the programming to try and fix it."
"Too bad we couldn't just take Cinder and her team off the board entirely but that would still leave too many loose ends," he said. "And short of killing them which we aren't about to do unless they force it, we can't really keep them locked up somewhere. How do you contain or restrain the power of a Maiden?"
"It leaves us a bit handcuffed but it's better if we have them where we can easily keep track of them rather than running around loose out there somewhere," she said.
"And if things do get ugly, Maiden or not, it's not like she's powerful enough to keep us from taking her down," he added. "I'd kind of like to just deal with it on our own but I'm not going to go against what we decided. It won't do the people of Remnant any good if we just swoop in and take care of everything for them. They have to look after their own affairs and we have to let them do that as much as possible."
"We'll make sure they don't fail, but we can't play God for them," she said in agreement. "Playing God for them won't bring us any redemption for what we lost. We might be ultimately responsible for Remnant's existence, but we aren't responsible for its ills. They had thousands of years to make their own mistakes before we even woke up."
"Yeah, they sure as hell have done that," he agreed. "Enough of the doom and gloom stuff though. You said something this morning about checking on our students last night before you visited Torchwick."
She smiled. "I almost forgot. They're still digging into the mystery we represent to them. Weiss and Pyrrha talked to Oobleck yesterday about the credibility of the historians who wrote most of the stuff and he ended up giving them a copy of Stonebridge's work. They were having a rather lively discussion about it. They got their hopes up when they discovered the names we'd used then, but of course there wasn't much to go with that and Blake definitely perked up at the description of our little kitten. Though she did immediately explain to everyone that it would be impossible for a non Faunus couple to produce a Faunus child and Stonebridge wrote that neither parent had any animal traits. I could tell though that she was still thinking about it and I think it was the description of the purple hair in the cat ears that had her attention."
"So how did they react to his belief that these two people were responsible for Remnant's Great Geographical Anomalies?" he asked.
"None of them believed it," she answered. "Except Nora who's more convinced than ever that aliens are at the root of this, and Ruby's imagination went into overdrive and she ended up in a fan girl coma."
He snorted a laugh. "Why am I not surprised? You know, I always felt kind of sorry for Stonebridge. He was the most accurate of the historians to tell stories about us and did the best research and got the most accurate information, yet he's discredited because the truth is just too unbelievable."
"He must have tracked down all the descendants of the midwife that delivered our kids," Yoruichi mused. "She kept detailed records of every birth she attended and I know that at least the next three generations continued on as midwives as well. The journals were certainly still around when he showed up a century and a half later. I always wondered if any of them survived the Great War. That village and the surrounding area was were it kind of all began."
"I suppose it's possible, but it's been what...80 years?" he questioned. "There's been a lot of archaeological work take place there and they haven't found a lot, unless someone scooped them up. It actually seems like a little too much of this world's recorded history is missing when you think about it."
"Could have something to do with what Ozpin hasn't told us thus far," she said. She sat back and sighed. "Somehow it doesn't seem possible that it's already been almost four hundred and fifty years since we awoke...and sometimes it seems like twice that long."
"With the power we're capable of using it's scary to remember just how fucked up and out of control we were for a while back then," he said quietly, taking her hand in his. "We may have been killing Grimm by the thousands, but we left permanent scars behind on the world and we very nearly did a lot worse than that."
"But we didn't," she responded, giving his hand a squeeze. "We stopped and while we may have carved a lot of internal scars into ourselves, we survived and so has Remnant. We've been to the brink and we've gone over the edge, but we also climbed back up."
"If nothing else it gives us a unique perspective on things," Ichigo mused. "There isn't much we haven't seen or experienced."
The doors opened and Glynda and the students for the next class began to arrive. "Well lets see what we can learn from this experience," she smirked.
Glynda subtly acknowledged their presence. A couple of teams of first years they were only vaguely familiar with regarded them curiously. Team CRDL was openly scowling, Cardin in particular and in an almost challenging way, which abruptly ended when he realized that Yoruichi was giving him a predatory look that suggested he would get far worse of a beating than he did the last time if he wanted to go that route again.
The best response though was when Cinder and her shorthanded team arrived. Emerald looked nervous and almost on the verge of panic when she saw them. Mercury wore a cold look and looked like he was grinding his teeth in anger. Nice to know she'd made such and impression on the hot head. Cinder looked surprised at first then rather displeased before she schooled her expression back to one of aloof superiority.
"Class, as you can see we have guests today," Glynda began. "Professor's Shihoin and Kurosaki of the Advanced Combat and Techniques class will be observing your bouts today and will be offering me their opinions on your performance once class has ended. I expect you all to be on your best behaviour." She sent a glare at Team CRDL. "And I expect you to put forth your best effort. Let's begin."
When it came to best behaviour, Team CRDL did manage to get by with only getting yelled at twice for being idiots, and Mercury once for being too much of a smart ass. The two other first year teams did give it their best and judging by what they had seen in their preparations when studying the teams to see who they should invite to their class, these two teams had indeed improved. They were pretty much able to fight on par with CRDL, which pissed Cardin off and his reaction was one of the reasons he got in trouble with Glynda.
The bulk of their attention however was focused on Cinder's team. They may have thought they were being cool and smooth about things but it was obvious to their trained and experienced eyes that they were holding back...a lot...and they seemed to be unaware of how noticeable it was. Emerald and Mercury seemed to be remarkably skilled for their age, but it was obvious that they were having trouble holding back without it looking too awkward. They weren't used to having to pull their punches and draw out their bouts to make it look convincing for the skill level they were trying to portray.
Cinder proved to be a more convincing actress in that regard, but she just couldn't lose that arrogant strut as she fought. Against a serious opponent that proved to be an actual threat to her it might be a different story, but here that air of superiority was clinging to her like a bad smell. In the final bout of the class she was fighting Cardin, which in itself might make anyone smug and self satisfied as they put a beating on him, but she had been the same way with anyone else she had fought. As the bout was coming to its inevitable end, they quietly discussed how they wanted to handle this. It was time to give the arrogant infiltrator another tweak.
"If I may Professor Goodwitch?" Yoruichi asked after the bout ended.
"Go ahead," she answered tightly. Even if the fake team from Haven was the enemy, the way they had fought their bouts had offended her as both a teacher and a professional Huntress. It pissed her off and Team CRDL's inability to not be a bunch of jerks for any period of time hadn't helped either. Those idiots always managed to give her a headache. She had known beforehand that Ichigo and Yoruichi were going to do something to get Cinder's attention, and possibly her ire, but she didn't know exactly what. She would have to play it by ear. Being pissed off already might even help.
"Miss Fall," Yoruichi called, her tone serious, getting their target's attention and a wary look from her. Good. "According to your student files your weapon is a transformational one. The two swords can be combined to form a bow, is that correct?"
"Yes it is Professor," Cinder answered, trying to sound like a dutiful student.
Yoruichi continued. "A number of times during your bouts, and especially against Mr. Winchester, you had ample space and opportunity to use the bow to further take down your opponents Aura. You put yourself in a position to take advantage of having a ranged weapon and do damage while avoiding close combat yet you did not."
"When you have a chance to take down an opponent at range you should take it," Ichigo interjected, a very displeased scowl on his face. "Not only did you not use that advantage, you didn't even advance on your opponent to finish them with your blades. You let them get back up and engage you again. Were you being arrogant or just giving them a sporting chance?"
It was brief, but the look that crossed her face was one of intense anger and they could feel a spike in her Aura. Her whole body tensed and it took a moment for her to reign herself in.
"Answer the question please," Glynda ordered. She always expected immediate answers out of her students and they knew it. They had to be able to think on the fly and have answers and solutions, no matter what the situation was. It was an important skill and her usual manner and expectations would come in handy right now to put a little pressure their enemy.
Cinder managed to return to her usual demeanour, even tossing in a bit of a contrite and almost embarrassed look. "I'm afraid I can't use the bow transformation right now...there seems to be an issue with some part of the mechanism."
To her credit and their glee, Glynda jumped right on that. "Are you telling me Miss Fall that you brought a malfunctioning weapon into my classroom, endangering both yourself and your fellow students?"
"I...," Cinder was taken aback by the sudden admonishment.
"With your life depending on it you wouldn't go into the field with a broken weapon so why would you bring one to class?" Ichigo pressed. "Is this how they teach students at Haven or is this just negligence on your part?"
If looks could kill he would be so dead right now. Cinder hadn't liked being interrupted and she liked his admonishment even less. She wanted nothing more than to turn him into a human torch and watch the flesh burn from his bones until there was nothing left but a charred skeleton.
"There is no excuse for neglecting the maintenance of your weapon," Glynda scolded. "Your life and the lives of others very well may depend on it. You will have it repaired by the start of class tomorrow and you will demonstrate that it is in perfect working order. If you cannot repair it yourself I expect you to enlist the help of a member of the staff in the workshop to aid you. Is that clear Miss Fall?"
"Yes Professor," she responded, nearly choking on the words. "It will be repaired and ready for class tomorrow."
"See that it is and do not commit such a serious error again," Glynda admonished further, rubbing a little more salt in the wound. "I can hear your snickering Mr. Winchester and I would advise you to cease. As a matter of fact, you and your team can present your weapons for my inspection tomorrow as well so I suggest you make sure that they will all pass scrutiny. Class dismissed."
Once the students had departed for their next class they left their seats and joined Glynda down in the front row where she sat massaging her temples.
"I'm not sure who gives me the bigger headache," she admitted. "Her team or CRDL."
"I think her head is throbbing twice as much as yours right now after this," Yoruichi said. "Well done by the way, your reactions were perfect."
"Glad to be of assistance," Glynda returned. "There is something odd about her weapons, but I can't quite place what it is."
"You're probably sensing the Aura or spirit energy they're made from," Ichigo explained. "Those swords aren't manufactured or forged, they were constructed with her Maiden power or Semblance or a combination of both. I'm willing to bet that she can't transform it to a bow form like a normal mecha-shift weapon, that she has to form the bow as a separate item. Or she can't meld the swords into the bow form seamlessly enough or in a way that would fool someone like you, an experienced Huntress and combat instructor. Maybe she didn't think she would even need to bother."
"Plus, at this point I don't think she wants to take the chance of anyone seeing the bow," Yoruichi said. "She used it when fighting Ruby at the CCT and she wouldn't know what Ruby was able to observe and pass along when she was interviewed after the incident."
"And since she wasn't figuring on participating in classes she was counting on the fact that no one would even know what her weapon was until she fought in the tournament," Glynda surmised. "No one would get a good look at it until then and no one would question why she didn't use certain functions of it."
"In her arrogance she didn't figure on anything going sideways with her plan," Yoruichi said. "She should have played the role of student right to the hilt and brought along an actual weapon, attended classes, and acted like everyone else. Having a fourth member of her team who wasn't the sidekick of a notorious criminal and who hadn't been in a fight with any of the other students here would have helped too. Her plan would have been a lot more bulletproof then."
"If it hadn't been for the two of you sensing her power here we would likely be none the wiser," Glynda admitted with a frown. "We were lax and she was taking advantage of it. We should have been practising the same level of oversight and discipline with visiting students as we do with our own."
"Maybe," Ichigo said. "But if that had been the case all along over the years they would have made their plan accordingly. And it isn't like you would expect the heavies in a plot like this to be trying to pose as students anyway."
"I suppose," the veteran Huntress said with a sigh. "So what do you suppose she'll do next?"
"That depends on whether or not her anger and arrogance overpowers her common sense," Yoruichi said. "She may want some payback but she can't be overt about it. At this point I don't think she can afford to indulge herself since she's already hit so many unexpected potholes. I suspect that she and at least one of her team will be off campus tonight. She'll need to make sure that she can make her weapon transform in a way that looks natural and not mystical and she'll have to acquire a quiver and a supply of arrows, neither of which have I seen in their room or in any of their lockers."
"I won't ask how you know that," Glynda said. "And considering who we're talking about I suppose the how doesn't matter, just that we know."
"If any of them leave tonight we'll follow them," Ichigo added. "We'll let you know what happened when we give Amber her treatment tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised however if she gets Emerald to use her illusion Semblance to fool you when she demonstrates that it works."
"I hope to avoid that but I suppose it can't be helped if it comes down to it," Glynda said sourly. "I don't like the idea of not being able to trust my own eyes. I'll be checking the classroom video afterwards to see if it matches what I see."
"I'll be hanging around too in my cat form just in case," Yoruichi told her. "I'd like to see it for myself as well."
"C'mon," Ichigo prompted. "We've got to go get ready for our class. Have to get them tuned up so they can be observed tomorrow."
"Myself and Professor Ozpin are looking forward to seeing what they have learned and how they are progressing," Glynda said. Truly she was. Others may have been displeased at having students taken out of their class, especially students with the potential that Team RWBY and Team JNPR possessed, but she was all for any reasonable means to train and push these future Huntsmen and Huntresses to be the best that they could be.
"We'll try not to disappoint," Yoruichi said with a wink.
Wiping the remaining moisture off of the bathroom mirror with a towel to clear her view, Blake ran the brush through her hair a few more times before deeming herself presentable for the evening. As usual combat class had been a serious workout that left her with a few aches and pains and the relief of a nice hot shower had been very much welcomed. Too bad they didn't have one of those Mistrali style soaking tubs because she would really enjoy a nice, long, hot soak. There was a Mistralian bath house in Vale, a rather nice one at that from what she had heard, but rather impractical given the time it would take to get there and back even if there wasn't a travel restriction on students during the week. Besides, she wasn't sure how she felt about going to a public bath anyway.
As reinvigorated as she felt after the hot shower, she couldn't say that she minded getting those aches and pains. She had nothing against Professor Goodwitch's combat class, they had all learned a lot but most of it involved being critiqued and finding their own solutions through practice. In the new class Ichigo and Yoruichi were much more hands on and instructive. They would critique what you did then tell you why it was wrong or wouldn't work and then helped you correct it. They would explain things, give demonstrations, and coach their students through the execution of the movement until they were sure that you had the idea down.
During spars they would move among the one on one fights and comment on what was good and what wasn't, letting the combatants adjust on the fly without stopping them unless there was a real need to. They explained and coached on tactical points and how to spot weaknesses in your opponent. They weren't just teaching them how to physically execute their fights, but also how to think their fights on the fly, attempting to hone their instincts. It had only been a couple of weeks and they were just getting started but none of them could deny that they were already seeing tangible results.
They were encouraged to watch footage of their own fights and the fights of other students and dissect them, see where both they and the other combatants were strong or weak, to learn how to spot a trend or a repeated trait in someone's style or techniques. The increased in class training and out of class physical training was already starting to show its benefits. Most of them were in pretty decent shape already but the increased physical workload was starting to be felt and starting to show.
Speaking strictly for herself she seemed to have a little more energy and wasn't getting quite as winded during a spar and she was actually beginning to enjoy that exhilarated feeling one got in the aftermath of a hard workout as it took the place of the usual tired grousing about fatigue and sore muscles. She could see it in the others as well even if they didn't all see it or openly admit to it. Even Weiss seemed to be enjoying the exertion and had actually, mostly, stopped complaining about getting all sweaty. Even their Aura training was paying off. They had all noticed an increase in their Aura reserves and its strength and it was getting easier by the day to work with it.
She could also say that she felt a certain amount of pride at having been accepted into the class. Judging by the small number of students who had been invited to test out for inclusion, the selection criteria had been a stiff one. Yoruichi's little demonstration against Cardin had been an eye opener but it also showed that the new teachers weren't going to tolerate any kind of stupid behaviour. They were highly skilled and powerful and wanted to bring out the best in their students. They could be blunt and direct, which was good and they didn't sugar coat or soft sell the dangers of the profession. They didn't make things easy but they also made their class fun to be in.
They certainly were a bit eccentric and Yoruichi in particular liked to tease while Ichigo had that big brother vibe going that let him get his point across while still having your back and giving you as much help as he thought you needed. Or a much needed wake up call. Any praise they gave you was earned and wasn't empty or hollow. If you did good they told you so and they told you why it was good. Another lesson of theirs that was beginning to take hold was the notion of never being satisfied with either your physical skills or your level of knowledge and part of that was evident in they way that they had been digging into the mysterious subject of their new teacher's historical doppelgangers.
At first she had been kind of indifferent about the subject but now she was just as curious as the rest of the group... she tried not to be too obvious about it otherwise she'd get an endless stream of curiosity and the cat puns from Yang. She had always had a feeling in the back of her mind that Ichigo and Yoruichi weren't exactly what they seemed to be, but she never got a sense that they were dangerous to her or her fellow students and their desire to teach them certainly seemed genuine. The more she got to know them and the more she thought about it, the more the feeling grew.
They were certainly more powerful than any Huntsman or Huntress she had ever seen or heard about and their physical skills were far beyond anything in her experience as well. Every show of power or skill they made seemed to come with the ease of long experience, a length of experience that didn't quite fit with how young they both looked. Plus, on a number of occasions they had spoken of things and related experiences that made it sound like they had to be far older than what they seemed to be. The scars they had seen on Ichigo's body as they watched him spar with Yoruichi had been another anomaly. If he had actually suffered wounds as severe as what those scars suggested, then how had he possibly been able to heal and not suffer life long debilitating side effects? Maybe there was something but they certainly hadn't seen the signs of him having any permanent side effects from any wounds.
They were an enigma. They couldn't possibly be immortals or aliens like Ruby and Nora were advocating...though if there was anyone she knew who might be an alien it would likely be Nora herself. Yet, those were the only explanations that made any kind of sense at all for having two people matching their descriptions and always being together over such a long period of history. Short of it all being bogus of course. The new stories that Weiss and Pyrrha had shown them the previous night hadn't brought any clarity either, only more questions and head scratching.
These new stories went even farther back and even linked into the Great Geographical Anomalies of Remnant, stating the belief that they hadn't been natural at all but possibly created by this seemingly timeless pair. The author of these latest accounts displayed a level of greater detail about these two that nearly all of the other accounts seemed to lack. He had names for the them, Sado and Shaolin, and it was too bad that none of the other authors had been able to supply names in their accounts as well. He even had names for the children the couple had produced. Twins, the boy's name being Yushiro and the girl's name being Masaki.
Masaki, in particular caught her interest. According to the author Masaki was a cat Faunus, yet he also claimed that neither of her parents were and that could not be possible. To produce a Faunus child at least one parent had to be a Faunus themselves. Either one of them was a Faunus and had been hiding their traits or one of them was not the actual biological parent of the child. The other point of interest to her was that Masaki was said to have black cat ears with several strands of purple hair within each of them...a trait that she herself was looking at right now in the bathroom mirror.
She had met other black cat Faunus during her time with the White Fang but the only other one she had known to have purple hair in their ears was her own mother. She didn't know if the trait was present in any of her grandparents because she had never met any of them or if she had she had been too young to remember them and she didn't recall any old family pictures that showed anything. Had these people in the book actually existed and if they had, were they her ancestors? She'd never given much thought to her own family history or the field of genealogy in general but now she found herself wondering about her origins.
She turned her head back and forth, inspecting the purple hairs in her cat ears. They looked like a colour match for Yoruichi's hair, and for that matter the two of them shared the same eye colour as well. She was actually surprised that none of her friends had picked up on either of those things as they were discussing the stories last night. She didn't think anyone had even really clued in that she had purple hair in her feline ears. Of course it wasn't like she had left them exposed for any great length of time either and it wasn't like yellow eyes were uncommon, especially among some types of Faunus.
If nothing else the whole thing was an interesting topic of discussion and their combat teachers seemed to have a peculiar air of amusement about them any time the subject was brought up in their presence, almost like they knew more than they were letting on and were content to let them all try and figure it out. Maybe there was something to it all or maybe they were all falling for some grand joke that they couldn't see. Still, she had been enjoying the numerous discussions that grew out of it all and the back and forth between Ruby and Nora about immortals and aliens was amusing, especially if they happened to sucker Weiss into the middle of what the heiress clearly thought were ridiculous notions.
It had served to have them all get to know each other a little better and had actually worked as a bit of a team building exercise too, even if they were bouncing ridiculous or impossible ideas off of each other. She'd even been doing a fair bit of research of her own, combing the net on her scroll for any references she could find, no matter how obscure they might be, both about the historical figures and increasingly so about Ichigo and Yoruichi themselves. She hadn't found out much about them just yet that she didn't either already know or could guess at but she was still looking.
She smirked at her image in the mirror. "Who knows, maybe they really are immortal...or aliens...and I'm being taught by my own ancestors." It was so ridiculous she couldn't help but giggle a little. Huntresses and Huntsmen could be a little eccentric and weird sometimes, it kind of came with the life and death dangers of the job. Who wouldn't get a little odd fighting creatures on a daily basis that were the stuff of nightmares? Ichigo and Yoruichi were probably just that.
Now if she could get some info on their relationship, it might rival anything that was in some of her favourite books. It was obvious that they were deeply in love with each other and she was willing to bet that there was a story there that she'd love to hear.
Midnight, Vale Industrial District
In a dimly lit warehouse that not so long ago was nearly filled with crates of stolen Dust, a lone figure dressed in her student combat gear disguise stood and repeatedly manipulated a pair of obsidian swords conjured from her power to look like they were transforming into a bow. Making them connect at the hilt was the easy part and she could hide the melding of the seam with the hand that would hold the bow. The harder part was making the appearance of the bowstring look natural and like it was coming out of the back side of the sword blades and the handles and essentially not forming in thin air.
It was possible, but it wasn't something that Cinder had practised and there shouldn't have been a need to. Leo had assured her that if visiting students didn't attend classes that there would be no direct intervention by Beacon staff, they would simply report it to the appropriate Headmaster who would then be responsible for the discipline of those students. But that wasn't what had happened. Instead two new teachers show up and make a big issue out of it, they get stuck with remedial homework as a punishment and they had to scramble to get Neo on campus. Luckily she had been able to get Leo to convince Ozpin to have Neo confined to the dorm and the same punishment so they could continue to keep her out of sight.
Having to attend classes herself was a pain but doable and if she wanted to keep the plan on track she had little choice. Her underlings had endangered that when they, and Mercury in particular, couldn't keep their disdain for the other students quiet. Of course they just had to be overheard by Professor Shihoin who didn't take kindly to her students being ridiculed and disrespected. That fool Emerald had risked using her Semblance to get them out of the mess and that had displeased her greatly.
Now this, the same two damn meddling pains in her ass had stuck their noses in again simply because she hadn't used both of the modes her weapon was supposed to be capable of. She was still seething with rage over it. It never should have happened because she was never supposed to be in that class or any other in the first place! Everything had started to go sideways when those two decided to step away from hunting Grimm full time and start teaching a bunch of snot nosed kids how to do it instead.
The fact that they arrived and started to do so after a semester had already gone by seemed very strange to her and seeing the records that Neo had obtained sent alarm bells ringing in her head. Huntsmen or Huntresses coming out of the field to teach at a training school wasn't odd in itself, but starting an entirely new course a semester into the year was, as was the fact that the two new teachers in question may well be the most powerful on Remnant and yet had such a low profile.
She couldn't help but wonder if they were here because of her, but if so why hadn't they come after her by now? If Ozpin was aware of her and why she was here she certainly couldn't see him just leaving her be and he hadn't given any indication to Leo that he thought they were anything more than just a team of misbehaving students. While Kurosaki and Shihoin had indeed been a pain in her ass, they also hadn't done anything that was outside of what any other teacher may have done given the same incidents. Other than those incidents there had been no other interactions with them at all.
She didn't like the uncertainty and she certainly didn't like the trouble they had caused and the kinks they had put into her plan, but the plan hadn't been irreparably harmed and was still in place. She had to reluctantly, very reluctantly admit that she should have taken even more care than she already had in crafting this plan. She shouldn't have counted on the Beacon staff being lackadaisical about visiting student's attendance and just gone ahead and went to the classes. The risk of Neo being noticed by those who had already encountered her before was part of the reason they had gone that route and she doubted that the girl would be able to maintain an illusion to disguise herself without let up for the entire school day. It was a risk she hadn't been willing to take so she hadn't really bothered to think of other ways around it.
She also supposed that it hadn't been the smartest idea to incinerate her old weapons with the Maiden's power just to put on a show to get Adam Taurus and the White Fang involved. She certainly wouldn't be in the predicament she was at the moment if she still had them. As always however hindsight was twenty twenty and you couldn't change the past. She would simply have to adapt and that's what she was attempting to do right now. It might be easier though if she could calm the simmering rage that had yet to leave her since combat class.
She could put the two swords together easily enough and that part of the 'transformation' she was sure would pass scrutiny. She had brought Mercury along to be her second set of eyes just to be safe. He was more likely to be blunt and tell her if he could detect anything or not. Emerald was too enamoured with her for her opinion on this to be trusted and Neo was as likely to lie about it just to see her fail as she was to give an honest observation. She had sent them off to break into a weapons store to secure quivers and arrows for her.
Mercury, even when on his best behaviour could still be irritating, but at least he was being helpful. She had already made the joining of the swords seamless but forming the bowstring properly was proving to be a bit more of a challenge. Her objective was to make it look like she was detaching the hidden string from the back side of the weapon and drawing it towards her. That was actually the easy part of that particular operation, the hard part was making it look like she wasn't actually forming it out of her power and making it look like a real bowstring being detached from its place of concealment. It also needed a short, thicker portion in the middle that could pass as a mechanical connection for the two halves of the string.
Timing it better with the connecting of the swords might be the key, or maybe making some slight modifications to the swords themselves. She couldn't go too far with that or else Goodwitch would likely notice. She had been at it for nearly two hours already yet she wasn't making good enough progress for her liking. She was still too angry and if she didn't do something about that she wasn't going to get anywhere.
Deciding to take a break she sent Mercury off to do another check around the building to make sure they didn't have any unwanted guests in the area. Sitting back on the edge of a crate she opened a bottle of water and took a sip before tilting her head back, closing her eyes, and taking a few deep breaths. She had to admit, even if it was only to herself, that her temper was probably one of her worst traits. Normally she was able to settle it back down easily enough and not let it be either a distraction or a hindrance. That desired trait seemed to be absent right now and had been ever since the night that horrible, dark, malevolent feeling had overtaken her and since she had seen that hideous vision. She still saw those terrifying black and yellow eyes from time to time and they never failed to fill her with fear and dread.
It was hard to keep those feelings to herself but she couldn't show any weakness in front of her underlings. All of her emotions had been frazzled and ragged since those incidents and it was hard to keep things properly contained. Those reactions were unwanted but the most unwanted of all was the feelings of fear, of being small and insignificant. Of being powerless and having bouts of self doubt and she loathed that most of all. She couldn't stand it. She had worked too hard for too long to not be that way, to escape from having been that way and becoming ruthless enough to never be that way again.
Whatever it was it hadn't occurred again and she was getting herself back together but evidently she wasn't as close to being back to normal as she wanted. But she would have to find a way. With the kinks they had run into already she had to be sharp and completely on her game to stay ahead of any further problems and keep things on track. They had to stay under the radar and avoid any unnecessary scrutiny and they especially needed to avoid any unnecessary run ins with Kurosaki and Shihoin.
She took a few more deep breaths and focused on clearing her mind, slowly unwinding the tension and anger. This was her game, she was in charge and everything would fall to her whims. She needed to make the bow transformation look perfect and she would do so and if she couldn't master it in time she would make damn sure that Emerald could cast a perfect illusion that would fool Goodwitch. She, and they would not fail because she would not allow it. She hadn't come this far just to get tripped up by a glitch or two. She was Cinder Fall and nothing was going to keep her from her goal.
Taking one last cleansing breath and letting it out, she reformed her swords and got back to work. What she didn't know was that she had a feline audience perched in the rafters that watched her every move.
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