It had been a long time, so long that Neo couldn't even remember and preferred not to remember for a good reason...since the last time mere words were able to make her feel even more pain than being cut by the blade of a sword.
Something recurring as a child, where she used to be called mute, disabled, defective, or even a freak by the snobbish children of the other families her parents forced her to interact with while all they could think about was doing business.
After all, in that house, the family name was above the family itself.
It was at times like these that the loneliness she hated so much stopped being so bad.
Children could be cruel like that.
Except that, seeing the kind of happiness others had for merely being together, even if it was to torment her, inevitably made Trivia covet the same.
Which perhaps explained a bit more about the sadistic side that Neopolitan came to have, being a clear reflection of that unknown desire and resentment.
Still, eventually, being alone became just as painful, and even the imagination she so loved to use to try to escape that reality couldn't handle her loneliness.
At the same time, however, if not for that, her Aura and Semblance wouldn't have awakened in response to her desperation to finally create the light in her life that Neopolitan came to be...and cover up her loneliness.
Trivia knew this, she always had, but living in denial was easier.
Otherwise, the mere act of living would be hell.
In that sense, it could be said that this Semblance and Neopolitan not only changed her life but saved her as well.
But now, she was being forced to remember the worst side of it all by someone who probably always had everything she wanted most; be it power, freedom...or a mother's true love, just like she felt that day when he appeased people previously frightened by his anger and hatred while slaughtering Roman.
Not only that, he had those girls who were willing to fight and die for him, something Neo doubted Roman would do for her...that no one in this world would do.
So, yes.
Even now, Neo was living in an illusion and desperately clinging to it.
For if she didn't, all that would be left was the loneliness of this cursed reality, and she didn't want that.
Suddenly, such a conclusion provided by the words of this boy that could pierce her heart made her millennial achievement; one that could change the scales of this world and give her a much greater freedom, where not even Cinder could continue to threaten her life, lose its meaning along with all the confidence gained where Neo could feel her emotions overflowing through her eyes because of the weight of the truth.
Worst of all was seeing how pathetic she looked with her copies mirroring her reaction.
Really, no matter how hard she tried to use her Semblance to escape, deny or fight it, the fact was that Neo would always be Trivia.
The past couldn't be changed.
At the same time, however, the opposite should also be true.
Trivia would always be Neo.
So she wouldn't let herself fall apart with mere words!
Especially after all that these two sides of her had endured over the years, making her far stronger than either of them could remotely be alone.
Besides, while it was true that the past couldn't be changed, what about the future?
It would be her actions and choices that would shape her destiny, and for that to happen, she needed to keep fighting!
Shedding one last tear, Neo made her decision and clenched her teeth as she tried to cut the throat of this god responsible for the swirl of emotions that filled her heart with pain!
Sasuke simply stepped back enough to dodge this attack after making his decision as to what to do with this girl and her hatred.
Even though she acknowledged the painful truth, she is using anger to try to suppress everything else, he could recognize this reaction anywhere, being something he himself has done more times than he could say. Which means she's not too far from breaking.
Just the way he wanted it.
After all, this was also his revenge.
It didn't take long for the copies to follow the original in this suicide mission and advanced with everything they had on him but to no avail, where the result was still the same.
Curious, Sasuke couldn't help but ponder by having his eyes analyzing this Semblance as he handled each attack without the slightest effort. This doesn't feel or look like the cloning Jutsu I know.
Definitely the result of a purely Yin technique; powered by the soul and the trauma needed to awaken such power.
In some ways being similar to the Sharingan, except it didn't result in a physical mutation and defined another shared characteristic between them.
Considering the change in her appearance before, I suppose cloning is not exactly the point of this Semblance. Sasuke casually stepped to the side and grabbed the wrist of one of these clones before using her as a shield against another's attack but not disappearing even after taking damage. They are pretty solid too.
Almost as if the copies also had an Aura protecting them.
Which was good, making this girl even more useful...to a certain extent. After all, as he tested their resistance further, a single kick from him was enough to destroy the heads of two of these copies.
Considering that Sasuke got stronger and was still adjusting to this change, there was no way to tell for sure the limit of each copy.
Besides, even with my eyes, I can't tell which one is the original. Sasuke knew which one it was since the real one was all bloodied and beaten up from the fight with Winter, very different from her flawless-looking copies. In fact, if I hadn't seen the copies being made, I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart as fakes.
It could just be a theory, but Sasuke believed that there was much more behind this Semblance, as if they were some kind of solid constructs that interacted with the world itself.
A physical illusion that was trying to alter reality.
Such a theory made Sasuke more and more curious about what kind of life this girl had to awaken a Semblance like this.
Whatever the case, one thing he knew... she suffered and was still suffering even now.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of this deep analysis, Neo had her heart racing faster and faster as her resolve diminished to give way to the fear she hated so much.
It wasn't without reason.
As much as Neo considered herself skilled and extremely talented in hand-to-hand combat, enough to almost kill Winter Schnee regardless of the circumstances in her favor, Sasuke was a monster on a completely different level.
Obviously, she and the whole world knew how powerful he was, but only on a large scale.
Objectively speaking, no one had seen this guy fight directly before, as all those Grimm were destroyed from a distance using those giant Shuriken and some kind of black electricity.
The reason why she had some confidence to even try, even more so now with her evolved Semblance.
Unfortunately for Neo, just as expected from a god who was able to leave Roman and Cinder at death's door, as well as brutalizing a certain amount of Junior's goons, Sasuke could fight and in a way that made her look like a child trying her luck against an elite Huntress like Winter.
The skill he demonstrated in controlling the trajectory of each of those Shuriken existed even now, as he fought eight opponents of similar strength and defeated them one by one with nothing but one blow!
Meaning that, as much as Neo hated to admit it, Sasuke was leagues above her in just about everything, managing to move with grace and without wasting the slightest movement, almost as if he were conducting a dance, and she envied him for that...
Just as she feared him for his ability to easily dodge even attacks aimed at a blind spot, where his expression remained unchanged and only his eyes moved from one side to the other at abnormal speeds, suggesting that these strange eyes, different from hers, were that way for a good reason, probably providing him with some kind of dynamic vision.
If that's the way it is, I won't get anywhere like this! Neo didn't need much more to come to that frightening conclusion. In that case, she clenched her teeth when her third copy was gone with a single blow and made a dangerous decision but one that could change the course of this fight; her last resort! Let's see how you respond to this!
Stepping back with her copies to regroup, she made the characteristic pink light of her Semblance shine like a fragmented wave of crystals over each of them to change their appearances and only then get a reaction capable of changing Sasuke's indifferent look to show something else.
There was a good reason for that.
Because now, where once there had been five copies of Neo, there was Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Winter; the small group of girls who had managed to make their way into his heart and mark him forever.
Except that this time they were not there as allies who loved him.
If Sasuke could make her despair with the truth, then Neo could mess with his broken heart too!
Her revenge would begin now!
Sasuke could only stare solemnly at this little twist; a relatively predictable one that ironically didn't displease him as much as Neo wanted it to, when Ruby, dressed in her Akatsuki cloak in dress form, came jumping towards him with a giant smile on her happy little face to remind him of the sweeter side of this girl who had given life to most of his conflicts since arriving in Remnant.
The girl who, even if indirectly, almost made him succumb to madness and destroy this world.
Something that Sasuke didn't intend to tell her because he knew the kind of reaction Ruby would have.
The truth would destroy this innocent little heart, and despite everything, he didn't want that to happen. Quite the opposite, Sasuke wanted to protect such purity that was torn from him on that fateful night ten years ago.
Seeing his younger self in that dream alongside his mother; remembering the conversation they had, only served to reinforce that decision.
Besides, Sasuke didn't blame her for what happened; he couldn't.
The whole thing was merely the cumulative result of the kind of cursed life he had and his own negligence fueled by his endless stubbornness.
Again, something Neo had in common with him.
"Sasuke!" she threw herself into his arms to embrace him in the exact way Ruby would do as she buried her face in his exposed chest without caring about anything else in the world...for he had become her world. "I missed you!"
Be it appearance, demeanor, or even the voice, everything was perfectly matched, flawless, and Sasuke found himself smiling back as he had his hand caressing the face of this girl who, despite hating him, could put her feelings aside without showing fear or hostility to the point where she wasn't shaken even by the touch of his hand to continue interpreting someone who was her complete opposite.
Much more than that, it was the courage and determination she had to do this personally when she could have made use of her clones.
That wasn't a risk that everyone was willing to take.
"Very good, Neo," regardless of how low and desperate such an attempt was, he ended up praising such dedication, but that wasn't all. Time to break her a little more. Smiling as he came closer to this girl whose eyes widened in shock, he said in the form of a seductive whisper capable of sending shivers through her body, "I want you even more now."
For only then could Sasuke find out if it was possible to create peace by focusing someone else's hatred on him.
For Neo who was awestruck by this turn of events, however, this couldn't be real.
She preferred to believe she was hearing things, for only then would it make sense.
Yet there she was, in the arms of this cursed man and unable to move as she tried to process the madness of this situation.
In one moment, she was lowering herself by using the appearance of that stupid little girl, Ruby Rose, so she could create an opening and finally have a chance to at least make Sasuke bleed. On the other, just when he seemed to have let his guard down as he looked at her with some kind of tender look that she never received from anyone before, and somehow made her hate this all the more, Neo heard him say her name and it made her freeze in place as she was about to stab him in the back with a knife materialized with her Semblance.
Even her copies that were slowly approaching to help this onslaught, stopped in their tracks and were unable to move; almost disappearing.
Such was the extent of the shock and confusion that plagued Neo's mind, and with good reason.
After all, not only could she not understand how he found out her name, but his words, gentle touch, and look were not for Ruby Rose but for her...
Why on earth would he do that?!
It didn't make sense!
Neo was the enemy who was trying to kill him!
She almost killed Winter, one of his girlfriends!
Sasuke should hate her for that, just like she hated him for what happened with Roman!
They should be the same!
Neo focused on those different colored eyes that were inches from her to come to a more than obvious conclusion.
That's right, they were the same.
They were both monsters.
That alone explained the sudden change in his attitude, where that frightening hatred he had shining in his eyes when he looked at her, something that promised pain and death, had disappeared to be replaced by something else.
First, she believed it was because of the shock of seeing her Semblance; a reaction many had, especially when she took on other people's appearance. So having real, physical copies of herself, something certainly unique, was bound to surprise even a god like him.
However, that wasn't the case at all.
The change was present in the words he used to describe her loneliness, something that only someone who went through the same thing could understand.
Considering the number of women he had by his side and the lack of lust in his strange eyes, it proved that he was as lonely as she was.
That must be why Sasuke wanted her too.
After all, the mere fact that she was still alive was strange by itself, especially when she knew that Sasuke was more than capable of killing her whenever he wanted but so far had only touched her to caress her face instead of hurting her.
Because in the end, this was a lost battle and Neo knew that very well, she just preferred to ignore the truth, as she always did.
Worst of all in this situation was feeling her fear being replaced by a sense of relief and being taken over by conflict again.
What was Neo supposed to do then?
Keep fighting until his patience runs out and she was finally killed? Or submit to this god and become one of his women?
Technically speaking, that was one of her initial plans.
If she did this, not only would Neo live to see another day, but she could have numerous chances to get revenge later.
Aside from possibly having to warm his bed at night and put up with those other jealous girls, she had nothing to lose.
Quite the contrary.
Considering that Neo had practically nothing to begin with, joining Sasuke would have numerous benefits.
Merely being with someone that powerful meant that no one else in the world could lay a finger on her.
If she played her cards right, Neo would have all the freedom she ever wanted, and... she would no longer be alone.
In fact, she could even plead for Roman's life!
Sasuke was basically a god, so there was hardly anything he couldn't do!
Or so she wanted to believe, again losing herself in her fantasies until the truth reminded her of the reality she feared most.
"So you've calmed down?" Sasuke hadn't expected this to be that easy, where this girl who really was as small as Ruby had even returned to her original appearance while lost in thought. "If that's the case, I can begin to explain why I had to kill that man in white."
Wrong choice of words.
It took no more than a second for all the calm and reasoning that had finally appeared in Neo's eyes to disappear without a trace, soon to be replaced by the glint of tears and then hatred that burned even stronger than before.
In the next second, she was trying to cut his throat again and those remaining copies changed appearance once more, all taking the form of the man in white.
I should have known better. Sasuke saw a bit of himself in this girl for a good reason, so it was obvious that she would react in a similar way. I didn't listen to what Danzou had to say either, so why would she?
Especially when he didn't know what the relationship between these two was.
Only that Neo was someone deeply plagued by loneliness and that this man was extremely important to her...Possibly the only person she had in this world and not only did Sasuke take that away from her, but he dared to speak casually about it; trying to justify the unjustifiable.
There was no forgiveness for something like that.
Sasuke knew that better than anyone, where he still hadn't forgiven Itachi for the decision he made even though he knew all the truth behind the act.
Except, just as Itachi didn't want his forgiveness, Sasuke didn't want Neo's as well.
While killing that man and the woman in red was a mistake, he didn't regret that in specific but rather the situation as a whole; for letting his emotions get the better of him and making the same mistake as in the past.
After all, those two, either the woman in red or the man in white, were both trash, he could tell just by looking at them. In fact, Neo wasn't much better. Even though she appeared to be as young as Ruby, she probably killed a certain amount of people. However, so did Sasuke, having that in common with her to somewhat justify his current efforts, when killing her in a second would be a much easier way out.
Considering his decision to enter the darkness and accept the hatred of an entire world, the easy solution was no longer an option.
He needed to do this.
Keep enduring, just like a shinobi.
Easier said than done. He would have to continue with his original plan and subjugate Neo by force since his attempt at "seduction" had failed. Well, whatever.
That was just a reflection of something that tended to work even when he didn't want it to.
Unfortunately or fortunately, Sasuke didn't know which exactly, his curse or blessing, again, he didn't know which exactly, didn't have the expected effect because of his terrible choice of words.
If the reaction Neo was having meant that much, he had his answer, where this girl's Aura taken by hatred and despair seemed to have exploded out of her body and significantly exceeded its previous limit.
What the hell... Sasuke could only look on in confusion as the surrounding scenery was altered by a wave of crystals that grew with no sign of stopping. She is getting stronger.
Much stronger.
If before Neo's level of spiritual energy was equivalent to that of an Anbu, now she had just broken through that threshold and reached the level of a lesser Kage and that brought a smile to life on his face.
Her value and usefulness had only increased exponentially, especially with this Semblance that was proving to be so much more than his eyes could see.
Too bad the girl in front of him didn't see it the same way, given the madness present in her tear-filled eyes as she focused on him.
Neo felt as if something had broken inside her for good.
Earlier, when she woke up and saw Sasuke in that room with the doctor, who was supposed to be taking care of Roman, should have been enough evidence of what had happened, she just chose the same old way out and believed in her fantasies.
Especially when it had been some time since she last checked on Roman's well-being personally, being too busy with her preparations to enter Beacon and get her revenge when she should have been by his side the whole time to make sure nothing bad would happen.
There was a good chance that Sasuke had put an end to Roman in the meantime and that doctor was toying with her by lying in his update messages.
Roman was gone and... Neo was alone again.
There was nothing left for her in this world.
Only someone to hate...and destroy.
Here is the chapter, a very complicated one to write, but one that seems to be acceptable, I hope.
About what happened last time with my venting, I honestly expected to get some much harsher responses, but most were positive and the others were quite tame when compared to some I have received before.
I really appreciate that. Thanks, everyone.
And don't worry, I don't intend to get it off my chest often. Maybe once a year, who knows? (Just kidding...or am I?)
That aside, the next chapter is twice as big as this one and ends this part with Neo, so look forward to that.
And Baconaddict, bro, next chapter of Uchiha of Remnant when? Please don't make me wait two years! haha. But seriously, I'm looking forward to the next chapter, and thanks for still reading my fic even after all this time.
That's all, so review, and if you want to support me and read ahead, take a look at my P t r & on (slash) Bertoti
The next one comes out on the 15th.