Inside a dimly lit room, probably to try to add a touch of intimidation to its residents, Sasuke was waiting for the local authorities. Before him, Yang and Ruby accompanied him in this wait, each busy staring at him in their own way. The older sister stood with her arms crossed, almost on guard, watching his every move, no matter how small.
I must have made quite an impression on her. Not the good kind, of that he was sure, and he preferred it that way. She kind of reminds me of Naruto.
Such a thought reinforced the idea that it was great that she didn't develop any kind of positive interest in him, or Sasuke would live his worst nightmare: being romantically pursued by a female version of his friend/rival/enemy/spirit brother.
As for the younger sister, she reminded him of that Hyuga girl whose name he never cared to learn, the only one in his class at the Academy who didn't bother him and seemed to have an inexplicable crush on Dobe. The way she could barely look him in the eye without blushing and pretended to play with her fingers to hide her embarrassment at being around him... all of this, while familiar, was also quite new.
Normally, each and every girl is so... assertive that it is strange when one acts like this. Sasuke would at least admit that this kind of attitude was much more pleasant compared to the usual. Now, is having her show this kind of affection for me good or bad?
Just like Weiss, he was cogitating whether having this girl would be useful for him and whether it was worth making an effort to get her. Unlike Weiss, Sasuke doubted that Ruby had any kind of relevant identity in this world, or else she wouldn't have even entered this room for questioning. As for her eyes, the only thing that really caught his attention besides that shy attitude, it could very well just be a mutation; a coincidental variation, as nothing guaranteed that there were any Doujutsu-like bloodlines in this world.
That or she never had the emotional trigger necessary to awaken her ability, a theory that couldn't be ruled out. Eyes are not said to reflect the soul for nothing, Sasuke knew that very well, experiencing first hand what it was like to allow himself to be corrupted by hatred. I think it's worth testing.
While the quickest way to find that out would be to kill Yang, he wasn't crazy enough to do it inside a police district, much less for knowing what the pain of losing an older sibling was like.
At least, not anymore. Some time ago, Sasuke wouldn't have hesitated to behead this blonde and give her head to Ruby as a gift.
Worst of all, he would probably laugh during the whole thing.
My mental insanity aside, should I act a little out of character? It wouldn't be the first time that day, but Sasuke was willing to do it while he still had the chance. This may very well be the last time I'll ever see her, so I'd better take advantage of it.
After all, what did he have to lose? Certainly much less than he had to gain should those silver eyes prove useful.
On the other side of the table, the little rose also had her own thoughts about the current situation.
This is so weird! Ruby was almost having panic attacks, provided by nothing but this uncomfortable silence. Why isn't anyone saying anything?!
At this point, she was wishing that Huntress would show up again and start lecturing them, at least then she would be distracted from thinking about the hug given and then received; a memory that still burned vividly in her mind and made her want to run to hide!
"If you keep looking at me like that, I might end up getting the wrong idea," Sasuke made the girl jump out of her chair at the sound of his voice and that was a much bigger reaction than expected. She must have even less experience with boys than Weiss; a complete introvert.
Hard to say if this helped or hindered his goal, but it was still amusing to see.
"N-no!" Ruby tried to pull herself together and was clearly failing. That half-smile of his... he's teasing me again! She couldn't get carried away, or Yang would have another fit of rage! "You're the one who's interested in me and I'm not going to fall for that pretty face of yours, supercool eyes and stylish clothes!"
Another definition for the list about my eyes, this one somewhat unusual... Sasuke ignored the compliments, not being able to understand how someone could act that way after being exposed to his hostility, completely ignoring his personal space, and not having an ounce of second thoughts in her eyes. Just like Weiss, this one is different too.
For the better, he would say.
For the love of the gods, Ruby... Yang brought a hand to her face, almost losing what little control she had and trying again to ruin the face of the one who was clearly becoming her little sister's first crush... and failing. Calm down. She remembered the beating she had taken in that one-sided fight and where she was at the moment. Nothing good will come from another fight.
It was strange to realize that Yang chose to avoid a conflict, but she was sure she didn't want to go through all that again.
As for Ruby, she still had her finger pointed to emphasize her thoughtless statement, slowly going over each word spoken and warming up as she noticed the growing smile on the one in front of her.
He's winning! she realized, coming close to having a breakdown, but that couldn't happen, determined not to give in... even more! "W-what I mean is, if you're not a bad guy..." looking away, she played with her fingers again, ashamed of what she would say next, "we... you know, could be friends?
A request as innocent as it was unexpected, yet contrary to Sasuke's current goal.
"An interesting offer," he gave a hint of hope and the girl brightened, almost making him rethink his goal; almost. "However that I cannot accept."
Ruby felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown on her, and sat back down, undeniably discouraged. Yang, on the other hand, was more relieved than she should have been, but for a good reason. This kind of guy was no good. Given his good looks, he must have had more girls than one could imagine, not to mention how sinister and threatening he was, so it was great that he stayed away from her pure and innocent little sister.
While the sisters had opinions and feelings contrary to his response, Sasuke continued his experiment and left his seat, gaining attention from the two as he calmly approached his target.
With each step taken in that silent room, Ruby felt her heart beat faster and Yang's nervousness worsen, neither of them knowing what exactly he intended to do.
"I can't accept your offer, because..." Sasuke stopped beside a confused and anxious Ruby, leaning on the table as he leaned closer to her panic and growing anger at her overprotective sister. "A mere friendship with you would not satisfy me," he whispered to her with a half-smile, using his fingers to glide over her bewildered face and push away the strands of hair whose reddish hue was no match for her skin warmed by the beating of an erratic heart. Moving closer and closer to those trembling lips to the point where they could feel each other's breath, he decided to deliver the final blow, "I want to be so much more."
Ruby was about to faint, not even able to focus properly, much less understand how things had come to this point, only that there was something mesmerizing in those unique eyes that kept her from moving away and keeping waiting for her first kiss to happen.
Such a realization made her head float and feel lighter, just as if something inexplicable was happening to her.
As Sasuke was about to kiss her, determined to make this girl feel emotions on the edge of her skin at any cost within the possible measure, he caught a fluctuation in her Aura and a slight silver glow in her eyes, irrefutably confirming his theory.
What do you know, it actually worked. He hated to admit it, but he was really good at shaking a girl's heart when he really wanted to... in many ways. The problem now is...
The flaming watchdog who finally regained her senses and was about to attack with reignited fury.
"Get the fuck away from her!" Forget about any restraint or fear of getting another beating, because Yang didn't care about anything but blowing the head off this guy's shoulders! You think you can play with my sister?! You're dead!
Here we go again... This time, however, Sasuke would do nothing. Not only am I the "victim", but there' someone else to put this girl on her leash.
Said and done, Yang's fist stopped inches away from his face, being immobilized by the Huntress Semblance that had stopped them all earlier.
"I leave you all alone for a few minutes and this is what happens?" Glynda wanted to put each of them in a cell, where they would spend a night reflecting on this unacceptable behavior. Sometimes extreme measures are necessary to correct certain attitudes. It was a shame that wouldn't happen, knowing Ozpin as she did. "Young man, stop flirting with the girl and get back to your seat, there's someone here who wants to see you."
Ruby regained her senses as the boy who had almost kissed her pulled away and all she could do was put on her hood to hide her face, completely ignoring the woman's words and going over everything that just happened.
H-He doesn't want to be my friend... Her heart was pounding in her throat, out of control with the true meaning of it all. H-He wants to be... wants to be... my... boyfriend?! That was the first confession she had ever received! W-what should I say in response?!
He was really handsome and had super cool eyes, and he could use Crescent Rose as well as she could, but he was also kind of mean for teasing her!
No! I can't say yes! Ruby didn't even know his name! Exactly! I need to get to know him better first!
After that, she would give an answer and who knows... the moment just now was replaying in her mind and she had to cover her face with her hands, trying not to be all giggly like a little girl at Christmas, but failing to keep her feet still.
Teenagers... Glynda crossed her arms, worried about the future in the hands of hormonal youngsters like these. Although. She focused on the boy who had become a trend and was among the most commented topics on the Internet. This young man lives up to his reputation. She would admit this much, even if she were a little younger, she would possibly be interested in him. What girl wouldn't?
Maybe an angry blonde who needed to be restrained, but there would always be exceptions.
It seems that this dreamy girl is also already mine if I so desire. Sasuke ignored the older woman's analytical gaze the same way she had ignored his own earlier, leaning back in his chair at having efficiently added a Doujutsu user from a foreign world to his small list of... Of what? He didn't quite have a term to define Weiss and Ruby. Allies? That almost sounded stupid. Puppets? This time it sounded worse than it really was. Definitely not fangirls. They were different from those simplistic and obsessed with having him at any cost. Love interests, then?
Complicated, such a definition sounded much more than it should be, but he would keep it as such for the time being.
As for Yang, the girl stared at him with blood in her eyes.
If looks could kill... an ironic thought, considering that Sasuke's could. It's not like I could blame her for hating me. If he had a younger sister and saw someone doing the same thing he had done to Ruby, that someone would be dead. Too bad, Yang. You don't have the power to kill me.
All that aside, a middle-aged man with gray hair entered the room carrying a tray of goodies and a hot cup in hand, gaining everyone's attention, especially his.
This man... Sasuke narrowed his eyes, finally finding someone with more than just pure spiritual energy. While it's not really Chakra, it comes close. It was off the traditional fifty percent vital/spiritual scale, but it was relevant nonetheless. Definitely not an ordinary person.
Weak, without a shadow of a doubt, but by the standard so far set, he was above even this blonde woman.
Ozpin checked the room and the young detainees, two of whose names were familiar to him; even nostalgic, soon stopping on the unregistered incognito who possessed peculiar eyes and was causing a stir on social media. Taking a seat at the table, he served the cookies, and only then did the happy girl with the hidden face reveal herself with a pair of eyes that represented a rarity; a silvery gleam of hope.
Cookies?! Snapped back to reality by the smell of her beloved sweet chocolaty, Ruby went on the attack and stopped her mouth full when she realized that the boy who liked her was watching her stuff herself gluttonously. What will he think if you act like a little kid?! Swallowing what she had in her mouth, she looked away and moved the plate to him, offering, "W-would you like a cookie?"
Sasuke hadn't expected such a generous gesture, even more so from the way she seemed to like these things.
"I don't like sweets," he said and for the second time saw the girl despondent over something trivial. She certainly has an easily affected emotional. Which could work for him. "However, since it was the beautiful rose before me that offered it, how could I refuse?"
Glynda sighed, needing to focus on restraining the red-eyed girl who just broke a piece of the table between her fingers.
Yang was very close to having a brain aneurysm, possessed that this guy wouldn't stop flirting with her little sister!
Even worse, she is really falling for this bastard! She had to do something about it! If not, Ruby is going to be just another one in the hands of a trash who likes to toy with other people's feelings, and... she stopped, noticing some kind of pattern in her definition/affirmation. He is doing the same thing I did before... countless times.
Karma, this could only be bloody Karma collecting its debt for everything Yang has ever done to all the boys who tried their luck with her!
Ozpin smiled, amused by this young man's brazen flirtation, the anger that had turned into some kind of existential crisis in Raven's daughter, and heartened by the slight glow manifesting in the greatest natural weapon against the Grimm.
Ruby almost choked on the compliment, again this being the first time anyone outside her family had done so, even more about her appearance! Shyly watching him take a single cookie and eat it, she felt her head float again at the fact that he made sure to smile at her!
H-He doesn't like it, but he's eating it because I offered it to him... Although it was somewhat disappointing that he dislikes sweets, it was such a lovely act to accept it just because it came from her! He's much nicer than I imagined.
Unconsciously, Ruby returned the smile she had received, genuinely glad that the first boy to have feelings for her was caring like that.
Sasuke stopped his torturous tasting, taken aback by the beautiful blossoming of a girl who could be as beautiful as a rose under a silver sunrise on the first day of spring.
I... did I just let myself admire the beauty of yet another girl? Sasuke recovered quickly from this slip, the second in the same day, struggling not to let his irritation show. Who would have thought that this girl, despite all the naivety she had shown, could affect him? I better think of it as a fight, where she just had a lucky hit, because this won't happen again.
Usually, only girls admired him, never the other way around, and he didn't intend to keep going against that personal dogma.
"Ahem," clearing his throat to make these young lovebirds pay attention to him, Ozpin showed them the security camera footage. "So, what do you all have to say about this?"
There really is heavy surveillance in this world. Although he was upset about being filmed, Sasuke was more relieved that he was right about the restrictions placed on his actions. It certainly could have been much worse if I had gotten carried away and burned hundreds of people alive.
It's definitely a good thing he restrained himself, or all the military might of the world would be hunting him down right now... and the pile of bodies growing larger and larger.
"It's all his fault!" Yang wasted no time in pointing fingers, ignoring the frown her foolish little sister was giving her. "That bastard scared the hell out of everyone in the store!"
"Yang!" Ruby retorted, upset that her sister was acting like that. "That's not quite true! It was those evil women who started it all!"
Her voice rarely rose to that level, and this managed to silence Yang out of sheer shock.
And to think that she would even turn on her sister to defend me. While Sasuke didn't necessarily want to be the reason for justifying conflict between sisters, this girl kept surprising him and in a good way. It seems I made the right choice in trying to win her feelings.
"Hmm, that seems to be the case." Ozpin had already analyzed the images countless times, yet he was still trying to understand how someone was able to make all the people within five hundred square meters shrink in fear and countless faunus suffer panic attacks, in some more extreme cases going so far as to have a nervous breakdown. "So, young man, would you mind explaining what happened?"
Sudden attention fell on Sasuke, but he had already worked out his whole version of the story with Weiss' unconscious help.
"Well, I'm not from Vale. In fact, I came to this Kingdom only today, and had an unfortunate experience," he stood in the role of victim, having more than enough to prove his side.
If cameras can be used to incriminate, the opposite should also be true.
"That explains your lack of registration," Ozpin figured to be the case, as this type of occurrence was far more common than he would like to admit.
"Ohh, where are you from?!" Ruby wanted to know more about him, much more! Then she realized the rest of what was said and became concerned. "And... that unfortunate experience... it wasn't getting to know us, was it?"
Considering all that had happened, she couldn't blame him if it was.
"I am from a small village on the outskirts of Mistral." Sasuke wasn't stupid, he talked with that doctor during his treatment and learned a thing or two about this world, not to mention what little knowledge he gained from the books he read. Now, about this curious girl. He didn't forget the hit she managed to land on him with that smile from before, just this being the perfect opportunity for a little revenge. "As for meeting you, that was the only good part of my day."
If there was one thing Uchiha Sasuke was good at, it would be revenge.
"I-I see..." Ruby somehow managed to answer, but not without putting her mind in a state of chaos! Is this what they call love at first sight?!
Such a possibility made her float high above the ground, almost in the clouds!
I'm going to kill this guy! Even though Yang knew she wasn't strong enough, she still wanted to grind this guy up and give him to the Grimm to eat! He just won't stop, and Ruby doesn't help by falling for his flirting!
"Could we focus on what really matters?" Glynda was starting to have a hard time restraining this bloodthirsty golden lioness.
"Oh, but I'm focusing on what's most important here," he finished with a small wink, efficiently crumbling the girl and whatever barrier was still keeping her from falling for him. Until I determine the value of your eyes, you are mine.
Wawawaa! Ruby had to hide again, or she would really faint! Mean, he's really mean!
And the worst of it was that she didn't dislike any of this!
"Focus, please. This is serious." Ozpin never ceased to be amazed, no matter how long he lived. This young man, besides being a dangerous enigma, could be even worse than Qrow.
A worrisome combination.
"Fine," Sasuke would yield to this man's reasonable request, "In short, I was attacked for rejecting a girl and ended up in the hospital." Since there was no more reason to continue this game, he would get right to the point. "After being healed, I went to that store to get new clothes and ended up surrounded... for the third time today, and my mood was really bad. As for the rest, you already know what happened."
He has been surrounded like that other times today?! Ruby could barely stand that one terrifying experience, let alone three! Not to mention that he was attacked for rejecting a confession!
She couldn't imagine what kind of person would do something so vindictive and selfish!
"Hmm..." Ozpin had some of that footage, as did many people on the Internet, of this boy's first appearance and the fight that escalated to the point where the police had to intervene, as well as his visit to the Vale Hospital Center. "Still, what differed for you to decide... to scare these women only in that last situation?"
Oh. Sasuke didn't miss this man's deliberate way of citing his ability to impose fear on those around him. He is as smart as he looks.
Irrelevant though, since he didn't intend to clarify any of this and focused on the next lie to be told when he noticed Ruby's look of empathetic concern, reminding him that the truth would be just as helpful in this case.
"I tried to convince them to leave me alone, but as it proved to be an unproductive effort, I considered leaving the store immediately and looking for another one. However," he returned Ruby's stare and smile as best he could, "she tried to help me and was verbally attacked as a result." Cooling his facial expression, his eyes made a demonstration of what this man really wanted to know, and was sure he made him understand. "That was the last straw for me."
H-He scared them off for me?! Ruby was taking hits deeper and deeper into her dreamy little heart!
Besides, she noticed that he seemed to smile only when he looked at her, and that was so cute!
"So it was to preserve the integrity of your helping hand?" Ozpin continued questioning as if nothing had happened, because surely no one else noticed what only he felt when staring into those eyes. Fear. A concept he had long forgotten. Instinctive fear. His fingers were trembling and he had to hold back the urge to smile. How interesting. A nonchalant nod was the response from this... whatever this boy was and Ozpin already had everything he needed... for the moment. "I assume that everything that happened after that was the result of the influence of fear and self-preservation?"
"Yes!" Ruby spoke before Yang could, certain that she could end everything in the best way and still cement a friendship with this dark prince, even if he wanted something more... Focus, Ruby Rose! It was no time to be daydreaming! "My sister attacked him to protect me, he fought back, and I did the same for Yang for nothing but impulse!"
"You can't be serious, this guy beat the crap out of us!" Yang couldn't believe that Ruby was actually being persuaded by this bastard! "You can't take his side!"
"Yang, stop!" Ruby huffed back, starting to get really mad at this insistence on antagonizing the prince who fell for her. "We are all to blame for what happened!"
"Exactly." Ozpin enjoyed young Rose's sense of justice and honesty, reminiscent and a lot of her mother back then, even more so helping to keep things from escalating in the wrong direction. "However, we can all agree that this situation was triggered primarily by the actions of the store attendants, correct?"
What is this man playing here? Sasuke tried not to think too much about the stars in Ruby's eyes as she looked at him, surely the result of all his flirting, and to focus on the situation as a whole. Regardless of the weight of their actions, they should still at the very least be warned and reprimanded... much more than that blonde woman had already done. Instead, he is treating everything as if we didn't destroy an entire store in that fight.
Even if the standard of things were different because it was a foreign world, he was still sure that such complacency wasn't normal.
Either this man was efficiently scared off just now, or he was really playing a game that Sasuke hated being a part of.
So I saw some comments about the story's progression and just wanted to say that I really don't give a damn about it. I've said before that this story would progress slowly, mainly because of my writing style, so don't expect Sasuke to out of blue destroy Remnant and return to his own world.
If I keep going like I am at the moment, I think 100 chapters might not be enough to cover everything I have in mind.
This is going to be a long journey, so bear with me.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you want to support me and read a few chapters ahead of the public release, check out my P t r & on (slash) Bertoti.
Also, don't forget to leave your opinion and I'll see you all again in two weeks.
Until then.