"I see," Blake ended up smiling, almost laughing at the unusual possibility taking form in her mind. Of course, there was also the fact that a Schnee, of all people, had given her a moral lesson, using no less than her father's words! No one is going to believe this. Not that she intended to tell anyone. "I'm Blake, by the way."
Weiss just blinked in return.
This was not the reaction she was expecting after all that.
After all, she had abused the opportunity to let her tongue run loose, almost putting out everything that she could and had been trapped inside her for some time; expressing her change and desire to keep changing, maybe even those around her like Sasuke had done to her in that brief encounter earlier.
That way, she was ready to fend off a fit of anger at any second and not receive a smile, to see that anger, possibly more than justified, leave the eyes of this girl, now known as Blake.
It seemed crazy, but who knows, maybe she wasn't really changing those around her too?
"Weiss," she eventually reciprocated with her name, though not without adding a personal touch of sarcasm, "but you already knew that."
Somehow, Weiss felt more uninhibited or perhaps could be described as less rigid in a... informal way?
Probably the result of realizing and beginning to free herself from the mental prison her father had created within her, and such a realization was rewarding on more levels than she could describe.
"Yes, I knew it." Blake rolled her eyes, beginning to notice the flaws in her little...epiphany of just now, where the first obstacle was clearly in the fact that she had to get along with this girl and that was already proving bad for her sanity. "So do me a favor and drop the sarcasm, this is starting to get annoying."
Accepting defeat was one thing, coming to terms with her disillusion was quite another and she didn't know if she should even try.
Weiss was about to say something about that, probably using sarcasm just to keep up the habit, when her primary goal decided to show itself again, resurfacing on the complete opposite side of the city with his negativity and everything!
Sasuke was on the walls!
What did this mean? Why would he go there, specifically? Also, this Aura, why show it again, even more so in this situation?! More and more endless questions were forming and Weiss was about to go after those answers when Blake said something that gained her attention.
"Again, it seems that guy just can't get enough of causing trouble!" Blake couldn't contain her frustration and complained out loud. With that, she would remember to change his description in her notes to something less attractive, because with this attitude he didn't deserve any of the gifts he had!
With such a vast Aura, which probably corresponded to his strength, he could do so much good to the world, so why do the opposite?! Somehow the thought of him trying to destroy Vale crossed her mind, and such a possibility frightened her, especially since he was so close to succeeding!
In this worst-case scenario, what would be needed to stop him? The solution that came to her mind involved a lot of bloodshed in order to prevent an ocean of the same from being created with the abundance of lives in the Vale.
"Wait, you know him too?!" Now that was something that managed to surprise Weiss to the point of making her lower her guard, and she wasn't the only one.
"What? You know Death?!" Blake snapped out of her morbid reveries and got carried away with this coincidence by answering without thinking, where the expression gained was enough to make her blush with embarrassment. "D-don't look at me like that! If you were a faunus, you would call him that too!"
"Right..." Weiss wouldn't opine on that, since she couldn't, although she understood where such a claim was coming from since this Aura crashing down on them was not friendly at all, plus she had seen for herself the resulting effect with those faunus in danger. "That aside, are you sure we are talking about the same person?"
"Black hair, heterochromatic eyes with unique patterns, and too handsome to be real?" Blake categorized reluctantly, leaving aside some of the warmer details of her encounter with him, such as the smell of tomatoes and blood, the rough and strong touch of his hands, the tone of his voice and breath as he whispered in her ear, as well as the heat radiating from him that made her warm in many ways at that moment to stir up unknown instincts within her... Just by thinking about it all, she felt her face heat up, and she wasn't the only one. Even though she had said almost nothing, it was enough to have this princess's pale skin reddening. Well, that confirms it. As well as making her wonder if Weiss also had a similar experience to hers at the hands of that guy and felt uncomfortable about it. I think it's better to consider the idea of him being a womanizer...
Although curious, she wouldn't question what Weiss went through at his hands, since she didn't want to talk about what happened earlier.
"Hmm, well... if you want to put it that way," Weiss looked away, not being able to disagree with the description used at all. Then she really understood what was said and her heart sank with an emotional wave that bothered her far more than the cold present in the air and seriously asked, "What is your relationship with Sasuke?"
Silence was the immediate answer, where they just continued to stare at each other amidst the surrounding disorder for a few seconds.
"You've got to be kidding," was all Blake could say to this clear display of jealousy, which strangely managed to make worse that uncomfortable feeling arising within her since the subject took this direction and then finally realizing that a name was used just now. "Sasuke? That's his name?"
Now that she thought about it, Blake had completely forgotten to ask his name when she had the chance!
Her comfort was in the fact that he didn't know hers either, but suddenly that didn't seem like a good thing and the abrupt change in this little princess' attitude didn't help.
"Ohh~" Weiss couldn't help but smile, stifling an almost victorious laugh provided by a sense of relief and the twitching of this girl's eyes. "You didn't even know his name!" She decided to turn away, a dangerous but worthwhile act given the reaction gained, and decide to go after Sasuke to try and sort out everything that was going on. "In that case, our conversation ends here, Blake."
Saving Vale was far more important.
"Stop right there, princess! This is not some kind of competition!" Blake had to restrain herself from piercing this spoiled brat with her sword, not believing that the conversation had taken this childish turn! "If you know more about this...Sasuke, start talking, so we can do something about all this!"
Then Sasuke could be stopped and Vale saved!
"Do what, exactly?" Weiss stopped in her steps, turning to face this girl with her sword in hand as she received an almost cold change of look, familiar even, having seen something of the kind more than once in the way certain faunus looked at her and raising implications not so pleasant. "I recommend you choose your next words carefully, or I will make you regret it."
Blake gritted her teeth, doubting if she was hearing this right? The usual cold expression of that family finally showed itself in the worst way in this princess to remind her of the reason for so much discord between the races!
A Schnee and a faunus, they would never come to a consensus, much less come to a mutual understanding!
"Do whatever it takes to help save the kingdom!" she almost shouted, irritation overriding her calm and with reason! "Or do you intend to close your eyes to what is happening around you just because you like that guy?!"
Narrowing her eyes as her grip on Myrtenaster tightened, Weiss did her best not to let this absurd allegation get the best of her. So what if she had some positive feelings for Sasuke? That didn't mean that she was blind to what was going on around her. Only... if she were the one to possess such Aura, Weiss was sure she would have done something similar long ago. With that in mind, there was also the fact that he remained unknown until then and that there was no known record of a similar situation having occurred before, showing that today's incident was an isolated case. However, she wouldn't deny that there was some truth in what was said; about her unexpected feelings for an almost unknown boy and in the way people almost ran through the streets, shrinking in fear from the negative influence present in the air.
Regardless, there was something she had noticed that could hardly be said about Blake if this girl wasn't ignoring the truth out of sheer stubbornness. At first, before Sasuke restrained himself, his Aura seemed more a result of frustration than anything else. Just then, when he reappeared on the walls, it became a clear display of hatred, almost pure. Now, however, it was clearly changing, but not to another kind of negative emotion and rather something positive; happy even.
Sasuke's Aura was slowly becoming lighter and more pleasant, leaving the cold aside to show familiar, comforting warmth.
All of this gave reason to the theory that Weiss had created in order to find him earlier.
Sasuke was trying to redeem himself by using his previously frightening Aura to comfort people and diminish all the accumulated negativity!
Knowing all this, Weiss had more than enough reason to exercise her usual arrogance as she looked at Blake in her stupor at finally realizing what was happening.
"You were saying?" she almost sneered, daring this girl to repeat that nonsense from before and receive only silence. "That's what I thought."
Otherwise, they really would have a problem.
"I..." Blake really didn't know what to say, but not for the provocation made and rather about the unusual change occurring in someone's Aura capable of making her see a purple skeleton hovering over himself. "Just now, is he...really doing what I think?"
She needed to hear this from someone else; a confirmation that she wasn't hallucinating.
"Hmph, is your skepticism that big? And here I was beginning to think you were smarter than this," Weiss couldn't help but let that almost hateful version of herself, which she was trying to change, show itself in its worst way, but not without reason. "Even more so after a faunus and a Schnee have saved lives together!" Closing her eyes, she let herself be carried away by the feeling present in Sasuke's Aura and smiled at the question that came to her mind, "So, can you still call him Death, now?"
Blake said nothing about all this and the truths spoken, too busy with the feeling of guilt and even regret that came along with the shame for what had gone on in her mind earlier.
Even though she knew and had been taught by her parents that violence was not the answer to everything, the first thing that came to her mind to stop Death...Sasuke, from destroying Vale, was by shedding his blood.
Adam would surely smile at her and that bothered her even more, especially when the target of her bad thoughts was gracing her and everyone in Vale with what could only be described as...love.
Suddenly, Sasuke was no longer someone who could be compared to a dark entity like Death. No, he was probably nothing more than an ordinary person who was blessed with vast power and easily influenced by his emotions.
Anyone in his place would possibly demonstrate something similar at least once during a moment of anger... perhaps on a less obscure scale, but the point remained.
Sasuke was not a monster and shouldn't be treated as one.
So, all that was left for Blake was to accompany this annoying princess, as well as everyone around her, in the act of closing her eyes and allowing herself to immerse in this Aura capable of bringing up precious memories.
For Weiss, what was coming to her was almost unknown, because it was so old. Her mother had been absent for a long time, ever since her cursed father, the man who no longer deserved to be called such, revealed that he had married for the position and power of the Schnee family; that Jacques was using her mom in every way possible and breaking her with the truth to the point of beyond repair.
The loving and caring mother ceased to exist like a setting sun and remained missing on the horizon, turning the beloved home into nothing but a dark and cold prison.
Remembering all this and allowing herself to reflect on it instead of ignoring it as usual brought tears to her eyes for more than one reason.
Just as Weiss felt that she had abandoned her brother at the hands of Jacques, she never thought that way about her mother in believing that she was the one who had been abandoned first.
Her mother was broken and Weiss stopped helping without even trying! It couldn't go on like that! She would put every piece together, no matter how tiny, to restore that smiling woman in her memories as soon as possible and rescue her and her brother from the hands of that man, and that was a promise!
As for Blake, while she didn't have a bad relationship with her parents, there were undeniably disagreements when they chose to leave the White Fang command and remain in Menagerie. She could not and would not accept this, seeing such a decision as if they were giving up the fight.
A childish line of thinking resulted in her distancing herself from her real family to continue to stand with those seen as her brothers and sisters in the fight for what she believed to be right.
How foolish she was.
Because of certain repulsive actions by the Schnee family to create hatred and Adam to spread that disease by trying to reciprocate in the same coin, White Fang was heading in an increasingly dangerous direction even before her parents distanced themselves and could hardly be blamed for what happened next.
Blake had reached the point where she felt undeserving of the love and support received by those two for her selfish choice...
Truly, how foolish she could be?!
The tears that fell from her eyes were motivated by the realization that she should never have left them behind and stayed to help where her efforts would have made a real difference.
One day, she surely would; she would make them proud of her, in addition, to apologizing for her stubbornness and that was a promise!
This moment of shared emotional reflection held until Sasuke's Aura faded again, where those affected couldn't even remember the incoming attack, as if the whole thing was nothing but a memory; a nightmare they had all escaped from.
Weiss finished drying her tears to note that many were receiving notifications on their Scrolls, where she herself was without one, and focus on Blake, the only one who could give her an immediate answer.
The way this girl's eyes bulged in shock was disturbing, all the more so because she wasn't the only one around to act like that.
"What?" She hated being in the dark, even more so for such a silly reason! One more promise for the list: never forget your Scroll!
The little device might be a futility to many, but to a Huntress, it was an essential working tool!
"I-I think you'd better see for yourself," Blake said without taking her attention away from the Scroll, having the princess approach her for the first time without showing the expected caution and seeing her almost freak out for many reasons.
"By the gods!" Weiss swore, almost making the mistake of shouting the name of that hooded figure when those committing the recklessness of filming this video defined him as the source of the Aura that washed over Vale in a way that was not polite at all, yet enlightening as to the source of the positive emotions shown by confirming that he was really thinking about his mother just now. It's Sasuke! Someone filmed him while he was on the walls!
An absurd number of questions arose alongside this video, but that didn't come close to the amount of Grimm forming an ocean of darkness on the horizon on their way to destroy Vale!
Regardless of the imminent threat, everyone was so immersed in all of this that she preferred to keep watching before she snapped out of it and went after those answers herself.
Then, what happened next only served to increase her nervousness when Sasuke made a large metal star appear in his hands as if it were a magic trick.
"What is he planning to do with a Shuriken?" Blake muttered in confusion and noticed the look on her company's face that was almost taking the Scroll from her hands. "It's a weapon natural from Mistral."
"Oh." Weiss didn't know that and honestly didn't care, but at least she appreciated the information she received and would share something similar, "He's from Mistral, so I suppose it would be expected..." then something occurred to her and she froze, "Don't tell me he's going to..."
"Yes, I think he will," Blake decided to disregard where Sasuke was from and even the opportunity to return the ignorance from before to this princess, too busy sweating over what might happen next and what she should do.
Seeing so many Grimm gave her the certainty that this Kingdom would be destroyed before reinforcements arrived and she didn't want to be there when that happened. The front line should be holding the line at this very second, where the disappearance of Sasuke's Aura could very well mean his death or giving up the stupid idea of fighting it all. Unfortunately, that line of thought reminded her of things about herself that she wanted to change, like her tendency to avoid conflict, so ingrained in her being that it was reflected even in her Semblance.
Only, who could blame her? While she knew Sasuke was strong with that immeasurable amount of Aura, never could he do anything against a horde of Grimm that size, even more so with a mere Shuriken, regardless of how big it was!
Then, as if he was there just to contradict her, Sasuke made her swallow her doubts and fear by proving how wrong she was.
Hell, even Weiss who was about to freak out had her eyes bugged out and with reason.
"Shadow Release!" the unmistakable voice for those who came to know him personally sounded loud, like a war cry or the name of an attack that no one could understand, as the Shuriken left his hand alongside black lightning that Dust couldn't create and make the impossible happen.
"No way..." Weiss had her icy blue eyes almost melting with the heat that surged through her body, brought on by the excitement of witnessing what could only be described as the power of a god!
The Grimm... an amount that would be impossible to imagine in one place had this record not been there to prove true, with even a Kaiju-Class monster present, were wiped out in a matter of seconds by a rain of lightning in the form of metal stars being individually controlled by wires through a single person!
Insanity couldn't even begin to describe what everyone just witnessed!
In moments, just after Sasuke had disappeared into a swirl of leaves as those on the walls were trying to reach him, Weiss came out of her stupor along with Blake to see the rich colors that made this Kingdom such a living place rise up in endless celebration in a way that seemed to make the whole city shake!
Vale was safe, and that was more than enough reason to celebrate!
Regardless of the commotion going on, Weiss was static; almost sickening with how fast her heart was beating and with reason.
For most of her life, she had looked up to her sister, Winter, as if she were the pinnacle of power. Along with her achievements in the army, that was the image held up as the goal of a lifetime... and none of that compared to what a boy her age had just accomplished!
No, he is not normal, Weiss refused to believe that, for what was done wasn't humanly possible. No matter how much Aura someone has, or the type of Semblance awakened, doing what he did is simply impossible!
Humanly speaking, she meant. After all, if this wasn't all some kind of extremely well-done and tasteless montage, her comparison to a divine entity was gaining evidence by the second, and this only served to increase her curiosity.
Weiss needed to see Sasuke again, no matter what!
By the side, Blake was still with the Scroll in hand, almost in shock to even remotely think about participating in the party going on.
I... shot this guy? She felt her heart sink with the memory of the bad part of her encounter with him, where she even screamed and called him a pervert. I literally could be dead right now...
The power displayed, the ease with which he controlled thousands of Shurikens with deadly precision and destroyed a threat capable of decimating an entire kingdom...
All of this made a previous line of thought return to her.
While he didn't use his power for the good, there was also the fact that he didn't use it for evil either.
With all this power, he could literally destroy all the kingdoms and possibly end the life of the planet!
So why didn't he do it? Try to take over the world? Or anything!
"Maybe because he isn't a monster..." Blake was sure of that now. "Just like he never acted like a hero before this and stayed hidden all this time, he's not a monster!"
"Don't tell me," Weiss finally managed to breathe normally and calm down a bit upon hearing this girl's almost incoherent mutterings. "I thought we'd already been through this."
"Not now, Weiss!" Blake didn't want to hear any more mean hints from this princess. "You're not seeing it all the same way I am!"
"How exactly?" Weiss crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation for a reason other than her. I should go, but I don't know where he is right now...
"I think he..." Blake hesitated a bit, unsure of what she would say, but did so anyway, "He doesn't want to exercise his power in any kind of way, regardless of whether it's good or bad, and be left alone, as he possibly has been until now."
His lack of common sense could hardly be reconciled with merely living outside the walls of a kingdom.
Somehow, Weiss couldn't find an argument to refute what was said, since a similar line of thought occurred to her regarding Sasuke.
"Regardless, I think it best to save those theories for when you see him again," she sighed and decided to leave it at that. Maybe he still wants to get into Beacon, so he'll probably contact me through my Scroll.
So Weiss had a new primary goal and should return to her room as soon as possible.
However, she couldn't take a step when she sensed what she really wanted to find, not far from there, and she wasn't the only one.
Exchanging a momentary glance, Weiss and Blake could almost understand what was going on in each other's minds.
Sasuke was nearby and they could meet him!
With that in mind, the two ignored all the festive celebrations going on, and ran towards the one responsible for all this happiness, always present in their constant thoughts.
The bit about Weiss and Blake's point of view ends for the moment, and Sasuke returns in the next chapter with his own thoughts about everything that has happened.
Oh, I have started posting this story on other sites recently, just to let you know.
I don't have much to say, as usual, so if you want to support me and read ahead take a look at my P t r & on (slash) Bertoti
That's all for now, review and I'll see you all in the next chapter by the end of the month.
Until then.