Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
Not sure about this chapter, but that seems to be the way this thing is going right now. I've spent more time lately hiding from it and reading other things rather than working on it.
I've had this one in the can for a couple of weeks. I have no idea when the next chapter will appear. This thing is fighting me hard.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 27
Morning, Ozpin's Office
"Do you think this does anything for the lives lost and the people that were wounded?!" Ironwood thundered. "I just spent several hours getting chewed on and arguing with the Vale Council over the attack without being able to reveal the truth behind why it happened in the first place, and now you want to say 'sorry, but we got full of ourselves and missed any chance of stopping it before it started'. That doesn't cut it!"
Attended by Ozpin, Goodwitch, Qrow, Ironwood, Winter, Ichigo and Yoruichi, the meeting in Ozpin's office had been an edgy one from the start. Ironwood had arrived in a bad mood after having to deal with the council over what they saw as his failure to provide the security he had promised them for the festival. It had stayed on a fairly even keel with everyone involved reporting on their involvement and what they had seen and partook in and putting forth any useful intel they had gathered. Also given was the early projections of casualties and damage. It all exploded however when Ichigo and Yoruichi explained what they saw as their errors and why they were made.
"I agree, it doesn't," Yoruichi said sombrely. "But what would you like me to do General? Get on my knees and cut open my belly in ritual suicide for you? Will that help you feel better? Will that do anything for the people that were harmed?"
"At this moment I'm wishing that the two of you had never become involved in this at all," he shot back.
"And if they hadn't we'd be in an a far worse situation right now," Ozpin said.
"If Cinder's plan had gone off the way she designed it you and the Kingdom of Atlas would have a lot more than just a black eye Jimmy," Qrow spoke up.
"I am well aware of that Qrow," he responded tightly.
"Do you think we aren't killing ourselves over this General?" Ichigo asked. "Especially given our past. Can you stand there and tell me that in the course of your military career that you haven't overlooked or missed something when you made plans for an operation? Can you tell me that your own arrogance or pride hasn't gotten in the way at some point and caused you to make a mistake and a fatal one at that?"
"No, he can't," Glynda answered for him, shooting him a glare. She knew him well enough to know the answer to that question and she wasn't going to give him a chance to deny it.
"I'm fairly certain that none of us in this room can say otherwise," Ozpin said gravely.
"Can't disagree with that," Qrow said, taking a drink from his flask. "And while I may have been late to the party, I don't recall hearing anyone else coming up with alternate solutions that would have made this whole thing come off any cleaner."
"I have certainly made my share of mistakes," Ironwood admitted. "But never anything that had the potential to put a strain on relations between kingdoms."
"You were the one that pushed to be in charge of security here," Qrow reminded him. "And here happens to be another kingdom. Because of that alone the potential was always there if anything happened."
"Like her illegally boarding my ship?" he said, pointing at Yoruichi. "Twice. Interrogating a prisoner under my custody and coming back a second time to snoop around."
"I won't say that I condone either intrusion," Ozpin said. "But perhaps if you hadn't brought Miss Polendina here for the tournament, or if you had been up front about her when you were questioned about her, Yoruichi wouldn't have felt a need to go snooping."
"That doesn't justify a citizen of Vale breaking into an Atlesian military vessel," he countered. "And it illustrates a pattern of arrogance that goes right along with their stated reason for their mistakes in failing to handle Adam Taurus and Cinder Fall and preventing this attack. They have just as much blood on their hands as they do."
"James!" Glynda admonished.
"Thank you for telling us the painfully obvious General," Yoruichi said flatly and with little emotion. "But I'm pretty sure we're already well aware of that and have owned up to it."
"Are you seeking forgiveness for it?" Winter asked. She felt as if she were speaking out of turn but she had been told that now that she was a part of this she had free reign to speak. She didn't know what to feel about this really. If not for Ichigo Weiss would be dead, but if not for the mistake they claimed to have made, she likely wouldn't have been hurt in the first place.
"No, we're not," Ichigo answered calmly. "The dead can't forgive and the wounded and the terrorized shouldn't be asked to. All we can do is admit our mistake, apologize for it and try to live with it."
"So just like that everything is fine because you're sorry and we we all move on," Ironwood growled.
"Come down off your mountain James," Ozpin admonished, his voice turning hard. "No one in this room can claim any high ground in this, including you. Were mistakes made here?" he glanced at the two immortals. "Yes, perhaps there were, but in spite of that you need to understand just how exponentially worse this could be. You know exactly what Cinder and Salem's aims for this operation were."
"And if you weren't prepared for the possibility that something could go wrong Jimmy, maybe you shouldn't have run roughshod over top of Oz to be put in charge of security," Qrow jabbed.
"That's not helpful Qrow," Glynda sighed.
"Maybe not, but it's true," he said. "They've owned up to what they see as arrogance on their part. He hasn't. He screwed Oz and he needlessly made the people nervous because he doesn't understand subtle. They were worried about why we needed such a big show of force for protection."
"Well we certainly found out didn't we?" Ironwood retorted.
"And yet the kingdom's early warning system picked up the approaching attack before any of your ships did," Qrow shot back. "Shouldn't your patrols have caught it first and then steered your ships to meet it head on before it got here? Pretty sure that means that you fucked up too General so get over yourself already."
"Sir?" Winter questioned. She hadn't heard about this.
Some of the bluster seemed to go out of the General. "We are still looking into it but it would seem that the patrol routes were improperly set up which led to blind spots in our sensor coverage."
"Human beings are imperfect creatures and it in our nature to make mistakes," Ozpin said, seizing the deescalation of the moment. "And clearly mistakes were made, by multiple parties. That has been acknowledged and there is little to be done about it now except to learn from it and make sure such things don't happen again."
"We don't need to be fighting with each other when we have Salem and the Grimm to concern ourselves with," Glynda added. "It's a useless exercise."
"Indeed," Ozpin agreed. "Division and disharmony is what she wants and we cannot afford to fall victim to it. We still have much to discuss so perhaps a short break would be in order so that everyone can calm down and reset themselves?"
"And get back to acting like adults instead of squabbling children," Qrow remarked.
"That's rich coming from you of all people," Winter jabbed back.
He smirked. "Someone has to be the voice of reason Ice Queen."
She glared at him. "As I said."
Glynda flicked her riding crop menacingly. "Don't make me throw one... or both of you through a window."
As they often did when taking a break, Ichigo and Yoruichi made their way to the roof. In a reversal from the norm, he was sitting in front and she was behind him with her arms around him and her head resting against this back. Right at the moment, she didn't really want to take in the view.
The normally pristine grounds of the campus were badly damaged. Torn up turf and walkways, craters, downed trees, light poles and decorative columns. Vendors were being allowed onto the grounds in groups to see what they could salvage from the stalls they had put up for the festival. Atlas military personnel were combing the grounds for discarded weapons, ammunition, and explosives, and working to remove the crashed White Fang Bullheads and flying out the ones that were airworthy.
Maintenance staff were assessing the overall damage to the grounds and checking over the buildings, making lists of the work that was ahead for them. For the most part the buildings had been spared from any severe damage. There were numerous broken windows and some minor roof damage where Grimm had landed, and there were Grimm claw marks and bullet impacts scarring some of the walls. Most of the dorm rooms were fine except a few that would need some plaster and paint work to fill and cover holes from bullets that had gone through the windows.
Visiting students had been allowed to gather their belongings once the buildings had been deemed safe and Grimm free and were already making their way back to their home academies. Classes would be suspended for a couple of weeks so Beacon students were given leave to return home and were encouraged to do so. Those that couldn't or who were unable to make alternate arrangements off campus would be allowed to stay in their dorms if feasible.
"Well that went about as well as I expected it would," Ichigo said.
"I actually thought it would be worse," she responded. "Safe to say I think that we won't be welcome in the Kingdom of Atlas anytime soon."
"Who cares," he scoffed. "To cold and too many snobs. I can do without both."
"I don't think we're going to get much cooperation out of the General from this point on," she said. "Not without Ozpin twisting his arm anyway."
"I think that was going to happen anyway," he responded. "I don't think he was ever going to trust us entirely and we have stepped on his toes a few times and challenged him. Apparently he doesn't take that too well."
She grunted. "I noticed that. I think he'd like nothing more than to toss my ass in a jail cell and lose the key."
"That ass is mine so tough luck for him," he cracked. "If he hasn't figured out yet that he couldn't keep you even if he caught you then he hasn't been paying attention. As if I'd let him get away with it anyway."
"My hero," she said, giving him a squeeze. She moved out from behind him and sat back down to his right.
"You going to be alright Kitten?" he asked, an obvious note of concern in his voice.
She sighed. "It'll take a bit, but yeah, I'll be okay. When I see this and the kids in the hospital I can't believe that I made a mistake like this. In all of the years that I led Second Squad and the Onmitsukido I never missed so badly or on something that should have been so obvious. Then again, I guess I'm not exactly the same person I was then either and this isn't the first mess either of us has made in the last four hundred years."
Take a few steps forward then take one big one back, it was a pattern they kept hoping to break. "You went to the hospital this morning, didn't you?" A slight nod was his answer. He put his arm around her. "I thought we were going to do that together?"
"I know and I'm sorry," she said, sighing again. "It's just... despite how exhausted I was I couldn't sleep for more than a couple of hours and I had to see them for myself. They don't know that I was there or that I used Kaido on any of them. Not that I needed to use very much. I talked to one of the doctors while I was there and she said they're all well ahead of schedule. The boost you gave Weiss and Ruby kick started their healing right away and apparently Ruby has been constantly pushing her Aura to her injuries while she's awake."
"Hmm, she hadn't really gotten the hang of moving her Aura around much before the attack," he said.
"The doctor asked her about that," she said. "I guess when Adam attacked her she was able to move all of her remaining Aura into the path of the attack in desperation and she's been able to move it around more easily ever since. Between that and the boost she just might get away without having a visible reminder of the burn, although the skin on the wound path might be a different colour tone for a while but the doctor thinks it will fade. As for Weiss, her wounds are closed and healing well. Fortunately neither of them were too deep. She's been trying to do the same with her Aura as Ruby, doesn't want her to get too far ahead of her apparently."
"What about Blake?" he asked. "I wasn't able to boost her Aura. Didn't even get to see her before I went after the Wyvern."
"Thank Jaune for that," she answered. "He had her Aura partially restored before they got to the infirmary and finished the job before she was moved to the hospital. Topped the rest of the group up once they got there without a lot of drain on his. Yang got her bell rung pretty good too but they might all get out in a day or two."
"So do you feel better after seeing them and using a little Kaido on them?" he asked.
"I won't be worrying about them as much now but I don't feel much better about the situation as a whole," she said. "That's going to take a little time."
"Speaking of time," he said. "It's time to go back to Ozpin's office."
"I hope there's less yelling this time," she quipped as she stood. "I could do without the headache topping the guilt."
If they had been less distracted and actively searching, they may have discovered that they were being quietly observed. A raven sat perched atop a building across the courtyard, it had been keeping an eye on them from a distance ever since the day before when it noticed them on the grounds before the attack began.
Just like her brother Qrow, Raven Branwen had been given the power to transform into a bird by Ozpin. Though, if she were to tell you about it she would claim that the power had been forced on her which was nothing close to the truth. Funny how she made such good use of it despite those claims, and the purposes for which she used it were the opposite of the original intent.
The infamous bandit clan of the Branwen tribe. Her and Qrow had been sent to Beacon to learn the Huntsman trade so that their skills could be used against those who hunted the tribe. Qrow remained on the path of a Huntsman, not wanting to live his life creating misery as a thief and murderer. She almost followed him, but in the end she stayed just long enough to mess up two people's lives, her husband's and her new born daughter's. Abandoning them to go back to the tribe while hiding behind her mantra of 'the strong live, the weak die'.
After all, it took a lot of strength to overcome those pesky villagers and farmers so that you could steal everything of value from them and then leave them to the non existent mercy of the Grimm. And it took a lot of strength to murder a terrified young woman who had inherited the powers of a Maiden and who had little aptitude for being able to use them. Such power was wasted on her and should reside with someone who was willing and able to use it.
It also took a great deal of strength to tell yourself so many lies, so many times, that you believed them all to be the absolute truth. But, back to the matter at hand.
It wasn't uncommon for her to come to Vale now and then, nor was it odd for her to check out the Vytal festival. What she hadn't counted on was ending up in the middle of an attack, or coming across two thorns in her side that she had been seeking to remove. She had never personally met the orange haired man with the big sword or the dark skinned woman with the purple hair, but she was well aware of their existence.
On at least three separate occasions they had disrupted raids that her clan had executed. One raiding party had been wiped out entirely while the survivors of the other two had described the two people who had just departed the roof. The loss of people and lack of supplies culled from the raids had made her change things up, making sure that she accompanied her people on every raid. However, she had never encountered them after that point, not knowing if she was a deterrent to them or if they had moved on.
When the attack began she saw an opportunity to attempt to remove those thorns. Initially she followed the man but when he unleashed an attack made up of hundreds of blue, crescent shaped shards of energy that swept dozens of Grimm and a few White Fang Bullheads from the sky, she was nearly taken out herself. It was the closest she had come in years to being killed and it took some considerable effort on her part to get clear. As it was she quite literally ended up with some singed tail feathers and she was not happy about it.
She flew in the other direction, heading the same way the purple haired woman had gone and very nearly got splattered as something blew past her at such a speed that she couldn't even see it. She took a bit of a tumble through the air before righting herself and flying up to the roof of Beacon Tower. She began having second thoughts after two such close calls so close together but she wasn't one to give up so easily and the opportunity to take care of a problem under the cover of all this chaos was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Whatever it was that had nearly plowed through her turned out to be her target and another woman who were squaring off some distance away near the cliff edge overlooking the Emerald Forest. She soared over to a tree that gave her a closer vantage point, but not so close that she wouldn't have time and space to bail out out if another close call came her way.
Her attention immediately went to the dark haired woman in a short red dress that was fighting with her target. Holding the powers of a Maiden herself, she recognized them in her but something didn't seem right. Her power felt... wrong, ragged. Incomplete. The power was passed on upon the death of the previous holder so there shouldn't be any way that there would be a partial transfer. Yet, unless she was missing something, it seemed that this woman was not fully in possession of that power. It was a mystery that had possible implications that she did not like.
The other disturbing thing that came to her attention as the fight went on, was that even with that partial power, she should have been able to handle the purple haired woman, yet that was far from the case. She was able to avoid every attack thrown at her with ease. Not, not just ease, it was like she didn't have to expend the least bit of effort and she wasn't being challenged in the least. For a moment she wondered if her target was in possession of Maiden powers herself, but she could neither see or feel any such indication.
More astonishing in light of that, was the number of different skills the woman had that made it seem like she must have multiple Semblances and that was not possible. Her ridiculous speed, her strength, and the ability to stand and walk on air seemingly without any discernible expenditure of power or effort. It was clear that she was just toying with her opponent.
Even when her foe ratcheted up her power, and then it still wasn't what she should have been able to utilize as a Maiden, it didn't matter and she pulled out yet another ability. Her entire upper body became sheathed in lightning and she seemed to have full control of it and could direct it however she wished. Just who, and or what, was she? How was it possible for her to have power like this? She had a bad feeling that she was only seeing the tip of the iceberg here.
As if that hadn't been disturbing enough to her, to know that someone like this opposed her and her tribe, it only got worse. She looked on in disbelief when the Wyvern emerged from the mountain... and then was confronted by something that emitted enough power upon its arrival to wipe out nearly all of the other flying Grimm in the area. Her beak literally fell open when whatever it was roared back at the Wyvern and actually caused the ancient monster to stop and look like it was going to run. She nearly fell off her branch when a beam of blood red energy completely annihilated it. There wasn't a trace left to show that it had ever been there.
Her blood ran cold when whatever it was suddenly landed next to the purple haired woman, cratering the ground around its feet. It was like something out of a nightmare. The pale skin, the clawed hands and feet, the skeletal mask and the long, sharp pointed horns. The freaking hole through its chest! Then she noticed the orange hair spilling out of the back of the mask and her heart nearly stopped. It wasn't possible, was it?
Her musings were cut short when the woman with the Maiden power freaked out and let loose with everything she had. A pulsation of power from the beast blew that attack away and blew her right out of the tree and it took considerable effort to get herself sorted out and back her branch. The Maiden, and a couple of kids who had shown up and seemed to be with her, had disappeared, probably bailing out over the cliff. Her thoughts from a few moments before were confirmed when the beast transformed and became the orange haired man she had seen earlier. Before she knew it the two of them disappeared with little more than the sound of a whisper.
At the moment, as they left the roof and went back inside the building, her mind continued with the train of thought she had been riding since yesterday. If these were indeed the two that had attacked her raiding parties, a transgression that she didn't think she could let go unchallenged, then what was she going to do about them and how? She was strong and she was confident in her abilities, but how was she supposed to go up against what she had seen? It didn't seem like her skill and the full powers of a Maiden would be enough and that was disturbing.
She may have to find another way to get to them rather than trying to face them head on and if she couldn't she would be forced to swallow her pride and let their actions against the tribe go unpunished. That would be hard to do. She needed to observe them more and gain more information about them before she could decide on a course of action.
Later That Afternoon
The trip to the hospital to visit their students didn't quite go according to plan. After the meeting in Ozpin's office they went for lunch and took the time to collect their thoughts and calm themselves. They were hoping to check on everyone then ease their way into the apology and explanation that they felt they owed them all... and hope that they hadn't totally broken their relationship with them.
It wasn't too hard to figure out what must have gone down before they arrived, as they were met with the sight of an angry looking Taiyang Xiao Long, an exasperated and helpless looking Qrow, and eight shell shocked teenagers. They doubted that Qrow just blurted everything out, more likely they latched onto his mood, which hadn't been any better than theirs had been after the meeting. Or, an unfortunate slip of the tongue led to a relentless badgering and they forced the story out of him.
"Did you come here looking for forgiveness?" Taiyang asked darkly. Straight and direct, no point being subtle about it. Not even an introduction. He had a right to his anger however, his children had been hurt after all.
"Tai," Qrow sighed tiredly.
"No," Ichigo said simply. "We came to see how they were doing. To apologize and explain to them how we screwed up. They deserve no less and we promised to always be truthful with them."
"You expected us to hide from our mistakes?" Yoruichi asked, her tone flat and subdued. By the look on Taiyang's face that's pretty much exactly what he expected.
He sighed. "I'd be lying if I said otherwise."
"So... it's true then?" Ruby asked. It was clear in her tone that she was hoping it wasn't. The other's looked hopeful as well but a lot more wary.
"We don't know how much you were told," Ichigo began, looking to Qrow.
He sighed again. "Just the bare bones."
"Yeah," he continued with a sigh of his own. "If it wasn't for our screw ups you'd all be taking part in the tournament and everyone would be enjoying the Vytal Festival. None of you would have had to fight for your lives. None of you would have been hurt."
"Let's hear it," Yang said sternly. There was a slight tinge of red appearing in her eyes.
"Unintentional arrogance," Yoruichi began. Her tone was almost emotionless and the look in her eyes, it was like she was looking at them but not really seeing them. She looked small somehow. She wasn't very large in stature but the larger than life air about her that usually seemed to loom over them wasn't there.
"I know, it sounds like a cheap out but it's a very real thing. When you're powerful enough that nothing around you is a threat, you can fall victim to the notion that no matter what's going on you can handle it without a problem. You forget that just because something isn't a threat to you, that it is a threat to everyone else. You can miss important details that should be obvious to you."
"Like what?" Jaune asked.
"Like taking a deeper look at what would happen to Cinder's plan if we were proactive and struck first rather than waiting to see if there was more that we needed to know," Ichigo answered. "If we had looked closer we would have realized that we could end the White Fang's involvement just by killing or capturing Adam Taurus. Without him there was no one left in the Vale chapter's ranks who could have effectively taken over command and continued the plan. The Mountain Glenn incident cost them most if not all of their most experienced and effective leadership below Adam. With him gone there would likely be no one to inspire them enough or be able to force them to continue."
"Killing Cinder likely would have doomed Amber," Yoruichi continued. "But that doesn't mean that she couldn't have been captured and neutralized... subdued, sedated, and locked away in the same kind of medical stasis pod. I had one chance where I could have taken her down away from the campus and with minimal risk of collateral damage if anything went wrong. I didn't largely because we didn't know if she had a back up plan." She laughed bitterly. "I was so full of the idea that I could stop her when I needed to if the absolute need came that I couldn't see that there was no back up plan that would have been feasible. Cinder was the only one who could take the rest of Amber's power, the only one of her little group that would have had even the most remote chance of getting to her. Take her out, the plan dies."
She closed her eyes, leaned her head back against the wall and took a deep, shuddering breath. "Back in the Soul Society, I trained hard for years to take over leadership of my clan and the Second Squad. My teachers... my own father, pounded the knowledge and importance into my head of needing to be able to see all of the angles of any given situation quickly and to act decisively and without hesitation. See the situation for what it is and act with swiftness and finality to minimize any possible harm." She laughed bitterly. "If my father could see me now I'd be disowned for being so stupid."
Ichigo frowned at the level of her self denigration. "As much as she want's to own all of the guilt for this, she can't," he said. "I don't have that kind of training, mostly she's the brains and I'm the blunt object you beat the problem to death with. My role in analyzing something like this is to be that other voice that says 'what if?'... and I didn't do that. I was guilty of the same kind of thinking. Thinking that we could wait it out and see how things were going to go, then cutting the snake's head off just as it was about to strike. That didn't do any of you or any of the other's who were hurt or killed a damn bit of good."
"Blake tried to warn us about Adam after I humiliated him," Yoruichi said. "And when we were telling you all about what was going on, you all asked some very good questions and wondered why things were being done the way they were. That should have made us see that we hadn't looked closely enough but we were convinced that we had it covered. We were overconfident and feeling too secure in our strength. If we had done like I had been trained to do, we would have taken Adam and Cinder and her team out of the picture the moment we knew what the plan was and who was involved in it. That could have been done weeks ago."
"Unintentional arrogance is still arrogance and there is no excuse for us not to have seen it," Ichigo said. "It doesn't matter if your intent was as pure and honest as can be, you can still fall victim to that kind of thinking," Ichigo said. "You can still lose your perspective and become blind to certain details that should have been obvious to you. Because of this a lot of people were hurt and killed... the students that we have begun to see as family were hurt because of our shortcomings. It's something that we are going to have to live with for as long as we live... however long that will be."
He looked specifically at Ruby and Weiss, the anguish evident in his eyes. "Hindsight is the cold hard truth and it does nothing to fix or make up for what is already done. Our mistakes nearly cost you your lives. You should have never been in a position where you had to end up facing Adam. I should have found him as soon as he arrived and I didn't. I nearly arrived too late."
He placed his hand on Yoruichi's shoulder and they both bowed towards their students, causing them all to go wide eyed. "It's not enough, and it will never be enough, but all we can do is apologize. We do not seek your forgiveness because such a thing cannot be forgiven. We failed you, broke your trust, and unnecessarily put you all in danger. We apologize for our actions."
They were all flabbergasted and didn't know what to say. Finally it was Qrow that broke the silence. "You aren't the only ones who messed up remember?" he said. "Me, Ironwood, Ozpin, we all made mistakes that led us here. Hell, if it weren't for the two of you none of us would have even known there was an attack in the works at all and the end result would have been a hell of a lot worse than what it is."
"Maybe so," Ichigo said as he and Yoruichi straightened. "But this didn't need to happen. This wasn't a case of the inevitable 'no plan survives contact with the enemy'. This wasn't a plan gone wrong, it was the wrong plan, if you could even call it a plan to start with."
"For weeks we've been teaching them that thinking your way through a plan of action is just as important as the action you take," Yoruichi said. "Then we prove ourselves to be hypocrites and that hypocrisy landed half of them in the hospital."
"You also taught us to never discount a possibility just because it seemed unlikely," Weiss spoke up. "And that unforeseen things can happen. Let's say you did take out Adam. Even if it was unlikely that anyone else in the Vale branch of the White Fang could have taken over, it was still a possibility that someone could have and that there could have still been an attack even if it wasn't the same as Adam's plan."
"That doesn't absolve them from any blame," Taiyang said, causing all eyes in the room to focus on him. "But you're not wrong. I'm a Huntsman too, I know how this game works. Even if you do everything right, something can still go wrong. But all of you are victims of their mistake and it's going to be up to you all to decide how you feel about that and what you want to do about it. You need to take some time and decide for yourselves if you can still trust them enough to continue learning from them."
While the look on Taiyang's face made it obvious he would rather see them not continue in their class, it did seem like he was willing to let them all make that decision for themselves and not push them in a certain direction, at least for now. The students, well they all wore a variety of looks that showed the depth and range of their various thoughts and conflicting emotions and the entire situation was obviously a heavy weight upon them.
"He's right," Yoruichi said. "It will be a couple of weeks before classes can resume again and you need to take that time to rest and recover and decide what you all want to do. We'd be glad to continue teaching you, but if you feel that you can no longer trust our judgment... we'll understand."
At that, she left the room, somewhat stunning everyone, including Ichigo. He sighed and ran his hand over his face. "We have some loose ends to go and take care of, but we'll be around somewhere." He looked to the members of Team RWBY. "I hope you're able to get out of here soon and that all of you are able to take advantage of the time off."
With a glance to Qrow and Taiyang, he left to track down Yoruichi.
The Badlands
The Badlands were not a place that anyone should ever aspire to go and visit. The rough and inhospitable terrain was deadly enough, but add to it an unknown amount of Grimm, many of them big and old, and it was a place that extremely few ever returned from if they were foolish enough to enter it in the first place. Those that did come back weren't inclined to go back again.
To Ichigo and Yoruichi, it was a convenient place to find some of the oldest and most powerful Grimm and get rid of them before they decided to wander out and do damage. It was also a convenient place to let loose more of their power without worrying about the collateral damage. It was a good place for them to blow off some steam.
At the hospital, he had finally caught up to her on the roof and this was where she wanted to go. Anyone else would think it suicidal but he knew his kitten better than that. To him, it was a sign that she was moving from the 'disappointed in and angry at herself phase', to the 'venting the poison and moving on' phase.
Back in their old world, Yoruichi Shihoin was someone who didn't freely show her true emotions to the rest of the world. Those who knew her well would be able to tell, but everyone else would rarely ever have a clear picture of her true thoughts and feelings. Being born into one of the great noble families of the Seireitei and being in the line of succession to lead the clan meant learning all of the intricacies of clan politics, both external and internal.
That required being able to keep a tight reign on yourself, being in strict control of the thoughts and emotions you projected outwardly because in that world others would look for anything they could possibly use as leverage or even blackmail material. The politics and intrigue between clans was bad enough, but the internal machinations within the clan were just as bad if not worse. Clan Elders who thought they should have more say and who sought to control the Clan Head and rule by proxy through them. Varying branches of the clan arguing over the rights of succession, trying to bring their particular bloodline into prominence.
The same mindset came with the Shihoin Clan's hereditary responsibilities of running Squad Two and all of the subsections it was responsible for. It required a certain level of detachment and resolve to do the work they did and great attention to details that few of the other Captain's could have managed.
The Yoruichi that he came to know early on certainly showed a mischievous side, and it wasn't too hard to tell if she was angry. Although at the time he was dense enough to have to find out the hard way, but otherwise she still rarely gave away much of what was going on inside her head. If she was upset about something or rattled, you wouldn't know. After they awoke here on Remnant and broke and fell apart shortly thereafter, that changed.
That emotional armour of the noble clan leader had cracked and broken, showing parts of what was inside. Sometimes it held, but a lot of other times what she was thinking and feeling showed through easily. Things that didn't used to gnaw at her nerves now did and if things went sideways and she blamed herself like she did for the things they had done wrong that allowed the attack to take place, she would pound herself into the ground over it and it was a deep, dark, emotional hole.
The good thing was that it didn't usually take her long to start bouncing back as the intensity of her self denigration while fierce and harsh, tended to burn itself out fairly quickly. The first stage of the recovery was to acknowledge it, confront it and apologize for it if needed. That had been done. The second phase was to bleed the component of anger and self loathing from it by going out and doing some damage and the Grimm were a very convenient outlet for that.
She wasn't the only one who had changed, but in his case it had a lot to do with the fact that he had grown up and matured and was no longer prone to being so rash and unthinking in his actions. He had learned patience and how to seamlessly combine his intellect and reason with his instincts. Add in his ability to naturally decipher someone's fighting style and there was no one who could come close to matching him in a fight, except for Yoruichi, and that was even without using any of his power, just his hard trained skills. That ability to read people had even transformed beyond combat and into everyday interactions.
Even when something made him angry he was no longer prone to blindly launching himself into things. He kept his head and thankfully he'd become much more socially competent and no longer freaked out around women, thanks in great part to his mischievous kitten. Like her, he still had some damage, still had moments were he was not himself and doubted his direction, doubted if he was doing the right things. Together though, they managed to make it through things and this time would be no different, no matter how it all played out in the end.
While he stood in the sky observing, she, using nothing more than her hard trained skills and natural physical strength as a pure blood born Shinigami... no weapons, no Kido, no enhancements from her spirit energy... was tearing apart every Grimm that came to her. Older Grimm with their increased intelligence, while still attracted to negative emotions and noticeable power, were less inclined to rush right in like their younger and less experienced brethren. Still, they came, unable to hold out for long under the enticement of her negative emotions and the just detectable trace of power she was giving off.
He wasn't worried about her physically. Despite the old and powerful Grimm that roamed here, there was nothing that she wouldn't be able to handle, especially given the natural strength and durability of a Shinigami. Instead he focused his attention to the feel of her spirit energy, her body language, and her expressions to gauge her state of mind. Concentrating on the fight, both on offence and defence, gave the mind something else to do, other things to analyze and formulate. Wiping out these soulless abominations was always cathartic, always needed.
It took a while, but the self blame began to leave her, sorted out by more reasoned thinking. Yeah, she had messed up, but what was done was done. She had apologized to those that she could, those that knew there was a lot more going on in the world than what was publicly known. She couldn't undo the mistake, couldn't change it, but she could do her utmost to make sure it didn't happen again. While she may not entirely forgive herself for such a mistake, she would live with it and move on.
Mistakes made or not, she wasn't the one who concocted this whole scheme, wasn't one of the leaders of its various parts. That fell upon Salem, Cinder, and Adam. Well, one of the three was now permanently out of the picture and the other two didn't get anything close to what they had wanted out of the whole thing so at least that much could be counted as a success even if the execution was flawed.
Her resolve and determination began to return full force. Salem and her minions might lay low for a bit, licking their wounds and reassessing their position and making new plans. Well, that went for both sides of the conflict really. They also still had students to teach, if those students decided that they still wanted to take instruction from them. They were aware of just enough of the truth of things to now see themselves involved in the middle of it and they had a right to the rest of the information even if they chose to no longer participate in the advanced class. Hopefully they would because the knowledge and skills they could still gain might make all the difference for them.
Her spark and fire returned full force. No more wallowing, no more self recrimination. Burn it all away and rise back up out of the ashes and move forward and never stop. Her arms became sheathed in lightning and she tore into the ancient Grimm around her with renewed vigour and an almost feral grin. The old monsters began to realize that their might and their numbers were now a useless hope but none of them were able to escape the veritable streak of lightning that was reducing them all to ash.
Ichigo smirked, feeling his kitten now returning to something a little closer to her usual self. Not back to normal just quite yet, but making the upward climb. Upon killing the last of her playmates, an extremely large Deathstalker, she flashed out of sight and reappeared in front of him. They just stood looking at each other for a moment as she caught her breath. Finally she inclined her head and touched her forehead to his.
"Sorry Ichi," she apologized.
"You've already apologized," he said gently. "And you weren't the only one to mess up. I did too and I'm sorry that I didn't act the part of devil's advocate for you. Not much we can do about it now anyway so we need to move forward and be better."
"Do you think the kids will let us keep teaching them?" she asked, her tone a worried one.
He shrugged. "Can't say, but we know that they will definitely get together and discuss it first. They won't make a knee jerk decision."
She sighed as she straightened up. "Guess there isn't much we can do about it anyway, is there? We'll know soon enough." Her stomach chose that moment to let out a mighty growl.
He chuckled. "Worked up an appetite huh? Let's go home and get cleaned up then go see if Taiga's place is open. If not we can at least check and see that her and Lon made it through the attack okay."
She nodded. "I could use one of her big burgers right about now. Maybe two."
"I'll bet," he said. "What you had for breakfast and lunch together wouldn't make one meal and you did just spend a couple of hours killing Grimm."
"That long?" she asked. "I lost all track of time."
He tapped the air and a Garganta opened. "Time well spent I'd say."
"Yeah, it was." She slipped behind him and jumped up on his back, looping her arms over his shoulders. "All right, let's go."
"Why do I have to carry you?" he asked with a smirk.
"Why not?"
Why not indeed.
AN: ...I've got nothing.
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