Hello and welcome back to The Fallen. It feels like its been a year since I last did this and it has been an interesting time since I last updated: Winter Break was extended due to weather conditions, I've been having a crisis on what to do with The Shattered Familiar, and my Grandma is currently cooking chicken pot pie. Besides all that I've been good and I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Years. Now, I'll admit, since its been a while I think I grew a tad rusty with how I write the story and I'm not too happy with how the later parts of this chapter came out but I'm gonna let the reviews figure if I should do something about it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
-OtherwiseR00K
Harriet Bree liked to think she was the fastest on Remnant. Her semblance wasn't something anyone one hadn't seen before as speed wasn't uncommon for Huntsmen to have. What made her special though, was she was much faster than anyone she knew of. It admittedly went to her head.
Harriet jumped a barrier and continued sprinting after the target. She had obviously recognized him as the Wildcard, having seen a picture of them in that meeting with Captain Ironwood. He had expressly told them not to attack the Wildcard but with the Happy Huntresses tagging along, it was obvious Clover felt it was good to save face and send her.
Harriet wasn't stupid, she just didn't think things through all that much. She could still read Clover's look as he ordered her to chase after Wildcard. Harriet would let him escape but would make it seem like he gave her issues. She still had every intention of roughing him up though for nearly causing them to fall into that sink hole.
Harriet closed in on Wildcard, his hood having fallen down and giving her a good look at his hair. Stark white, almost like he was a Schnee. It was somewhat surprising but it didn't stop her from jumping up and close in for a kick to the back of his head.
Her eyes widened though as she saw his head shift just far enough for her kick to miss. Harriet flew past Wildcard and rolled to a stop several feet away from him. She stood up to her full height, which only came up to his chest, and put her hands on her waist with a cocky grin.
"Well, I wasn't expecting you to be able to dodge that." Harriet admitted. It had been a long time since someone had been able to avoid her when using her semblance. Once she got the hang of it though, and especially after the Specialist Program training course, no one had been capable of doing that.
It made her grin thinking this could actually be a good scuffle.
"So, wanna make this easy on yourself and put these cuffs on?" Harriet provoked, taking the aura dampening cuffs off her belt. A show, basically, considering she hadn't activated them.
Wildcard never answered and instead glanced toward an alleyway. Harriet narrowed her eyes as she figured out what he'd planned. She'd catch him long before he even made it to the mouth of the alley.
Wildcard moved and lightning crackled around Harriet's body. She took off to intercept him and unfolded her Fast Knuckles. She blitzed forward and sent a right hook directly toward the back of his head.
But she never hit him.
Harriet nearly stumbled when her fist never connected and she skidded to a stop. She quicly turned her head up and saw Wildcard had flipped up into the air and was now holding three straight daggers with red handles between his knuckles. Harriet quickly dodged the first thrown dagger and blitzed forward.
Wildcard landed and threw another of the blades at her which was swiftly dodged. Harriet quickly came forward and smacked her fist before shooting it forward. Right toward the guy's face. He threw one final blade, which utterly missed, and Harriet smirked as her knuckles were mere inches away from him.
Then she stopped.
Not in any way that someone normally stops though. Her momentum just stopped, with all that continued was the air of the punch which slightly ruffled the target's hair. Harriet's eyes widened as she tried to move, only finding that no matter how much she tried she just couldn't.
Harriet glared at the Wildcard who simply returned a stare. Dark pink eyes glared into apathetic gold eyes…wait no that wasn't completely right. Harriet squinted slightly and could just make out what looked like the beginnings of bags under his eyes. Before Harriet could think on this Wildcard turned on heel and bolted down the street and soon turned into an alleyway.
Wildcard was gone and Harriet was standing in the middle of the old roadway with her fist out like an idiot. So, to try and salvage what dignity this left her with, she attempted to move to no success.
Unfortunately for Harriet, these attempts were utterly fruitless. She was in that pose for several minutes before she could hear running from behind her, "Bree?"
Harriet's face flushed at the voice of her leader. It didn't help that he soon stood in front of her with a raised eyebrow, "Why are you posing in the middle of the road?"
"Sir, I can't move." Harriet explained, "I've been trying to move for the last few minutes. I'm still trying." Clover's frown deepened and he looked back behind her where more footfalls alerted Harriet to the rest of the team.
"So what's with the form?" The voice of Marigold asked, "Don't tell me she's stuck?"
"Bree says she can't move. Likely something done by our runner." Clover says, moving to the side of Harriet's vision as Robyn appears.
"Did he do something?" Robyn asked.
"I don't know. I didn't see any flashes of aura or the usual telltale signs of a semblance being used." Harriet reports, her voice clipped due to the situation she was in. It was utterly embarrassing and annoying that she was stuck like this in front of her leader and half a team of people she didn't really know. It couldn't be worse.
Unfortunately for her it did get worse as a moment later she fell forward, face first into the snow.
After a moment to realize she could finally move, Harriet quickly scrambled back to her feet. Clover stared at her with an odd look for a moment before glancing behind her, which Harriet turned to see what he was looking at. Fiona was kneeled down, not that far from where Harriet was, and holding one of the blades Wildcard had thrown at her.
"Fiona? What did you just do?" Robyn asked.
"I-i uhhh," Fiona stumbled on her words, clearly not liking the gazes directed her way, "I was just picking the blade up."
Robyn glanced toward Harriet with a similar look to Clover and then down at the shadow cast by Harriet. Clover then walked up to Fiona, "That's all you did?" he asked.
"Yes, I just wanted to take a look, ya'know?"
"I understand." Clover said, "We are gonna need that though. Ironwood will want to know how it caused Harriet to freeze in place."
"Wait," May spoke up, "How are you sure it was that thing that froze her?"
Harriet walked up and grabbed it from Fiona, "Well why don't we test it on someone?" Harriet began to say, a smirk on her face. That smirk died, however, when the blade suddenly fragmented into blue motes of light that soon dissipated into the wind.
Everyone stared at Harriet's hand, where the blade once was. Said hand was clenching and unclenching as if not understanding what had just happened. May was the first to recover from this though and she shot a smirk at Harriet, "What was that about testing?"
-James Ironwood-
If someone was standing in his office it would look like James was looking at the report written up by Specialist Clover Ebi, though in reality he'd already read it three times and was actually lost in thought. Currently those thoughts were analyzing what he could do to keep the information about this sinkhole which had opened only a day prior covered up.
Earlier James had taken a look at the Atlas News Network earlier today and saw that the anchors were discussing why their camera drones were shot down by Atlas Military. They had gone even so far as to question just what the Atlas Military was hiding. James needed to figure out what to tell the media, and he needed to figure it out soon. Thankfully the media would be distracted for the next few days since the election was tomorrow and the late General Marcus Crassus' funeral was the day after. James grimaced slightly at the thought that he was thankful for a funeral but moved on.
No one had been killed by the sinkhole forming, and the reports of Grimm coming from the tunnels had been buried. The victims have been set up in Atlas Academy's guest dorm and the students have been warned not to go near the Mantel natives due to possible fights breaking out. James himself had tried to speak with the Mantelites but had been stonewalled and been forced to have the Happy Huntresses try and coax them into speaking with him. He could only hope they came around soon.
The Atlas personnel now down in what remained of the Crater and its surrounding area had caused a bit of an uproar from the people living in Mantel. The Council members that lived in Mantel had practically screamed at him for an explanation and he'd given it willingly. After explaining the gravity of the situation they came around to having the personnel from Atlas stay to keep people out and any Grimm spawns dead.
James hoped that this would be one of the first true steps to patching the relationship between Atlas and Mantel but only time would tell. Finally he put the report down and rubbed his eyes. He knew that whatever the Wildcard would do would shake up his kingdom but he'd be lying if he hadn't thought it'd have been more in line with Mistral's shake up.
James would give credit to the man for revealing the Grimm pool though. That was one of the first things James had reported to Ozpin in his report the day prior. He knew that the Mantel Chapter of the cult had been dug in for a long time but for a Grimm Pool to have formed beneath his feet was sobering. Now that James knew about it, he could put in some counter measures for it.
Speaking of countermeasures…
Buzz…Buzz…Buzz
The desk receiver began to ring and James quickly pressed on the answer button, "Yes, Miss Jamel?" James responded.
"Mister Scarlatina is here to see you sir." Jamel quickly explained.
"Thank you, send him in." James nodded to himself and cut the call. He stood up from his desk and adjusted his tie just as the door opened.
William Scarlatina or Will as he preferred was one of the top engineers of Atlas. Unfortunately he and his daughter had recently gone through a traumatic event. From what James knew Will's daughter was the one saved by Wildcard back in Vale almost a year ago now. Since then James had allowed Will to have leave to take care of his daughter and himself.
The Council had been mostly against the decision to let him have leave due to his importance with the Atlesian Knights but James had put his foot down. Making Will work after what had happened would just be salt on the wound.
"Hello, Will." James greeted, as he walked over to shake the shorter man's hand.
"Howdy, James." Will reciprocated the handshake. The two then separated their hands, "Sorry about my appearance. I…haven't exactly had the time to-"
James held up a hand, "Its alright. I understand and I'm not going to judge you after what happened."
A tension in Wills shoulders dissapeared at James' words, "Right, uhh, sorry."
"Will, do not apologize to me. I know how much Meg meant to you and I'm aware raising a child by yourself likely isn't easy."
"Thank you, James. I just…I miss her. So so much. I keep thinking that if I hadn't…said what I said then-" Will was once again cut off by James who had grabbed the smaller man's shoulder and forced him to look up at James.
"Don't think like that. We all make mistakes, but this was not your fault in any way. The people who did this to her and hurt your daughter are monsters. Plain and simple." James said sternly, he then let Will's shoulder go, "Don't blame yourself for what was completely out of your control."
There was silence between the two. James was starring at Will while Will was staring at the ground. A long shaky sigh came from Will's lips and he readjusted his glasses, "Yeah, I don't think it'll be that easy but…I'll try." Will said.
James nodded, "I do apologize for asking you to come in, though. Pietro simply isn't…well."
This time Will interrupted James, "I get it. Pietro is still working hard on that project of his and things of this nature is more of my specialty. Besides, I think it might be good for me to get out of the house. I just Velvet felt the same."
"How is your daughter?" James asked.
"Velvets…better, not great, but better. She still can't sleep by herself without waking up screaming, but even when she's with me I sometimes wake up to her crying in her sleep. It... tears at me that I can't do anything." Will admitted.
"Just being there helps her, Will." James added.
"I know. Her therapist said the same thing. Gods thinking about it I…don't know what I'd have done If I'd lost both of them. I'm so thankful to whoever saved Velvet." Will somewhat choked on his words at the end.
James was silent on that matter. He was tempted to ask about anything that Velvet had mentioned of her savior but decided against it due to various reasons. For one thing James doubted Velvet had even seen the fight between Wildcard and those cult members, she was found unconscious by Ozpin and Qrow. Another was he didn't want to question an obviously traumatized little girl.
"Well, we got off track." Will said, obviously trying to shift the conversation toward his work. James wholeheartedly agreed though.
"Yes, we did. What did you come up with for our problem?" James asked.
"Well, the first thing I did was use sonar to map what was beneath that liquid. It wasn't so far down so I began looking at using some Lightning Dust pillars, similar to the ones that run the power grid. The pillars will need to be placed into the liquid and then hooked up to a generator. Its not a full proof measure so I added a motion sensor that if passed will be zapped by 20,000 volts." Will adjusted his glasses again, "As I said, its more of a stop gap measure until I can come up with something better. I'd need Pietro's assistance with the final measures."
James nodded, "It'll do, Will. I just need it to work for now, I trust you and Pietro will amaze me as you typically do."
"Thank you. I'll go and talk to Pietro, I'm sure he'd like to take a crack at this." Will said.
"Alright. I'm gonna let you get started. We need these by the end of tomorrow, I'd rather not risk something rising up from that pool." James said, to which Will nodded in full agreement. Not another word was spoken and Will left to get started as quickly as possible.
James sat in his chair again. Thoughts of how the countermeasures will go were pushed aside in favor of what the Wildcard's next move would be. If the pattern held true he would show up in Vacuo at some point in the future. James hoped Theodore wouldn't have too much issue with him.
Now James directed his focus to the Election the next day. He was in charge of security and he wanted to be there for when his friend was elected General of Atlas.
-?-
The room was a wreck. Chairs were flipped, the TV had a hole in it along with the wall nearby, the cabinet had been torn from its foundation and was now laying on the other side of the kitchen. Only the bed was left alone with the covers neatly covering the entire mattress and the pillows laying at the head of the bed.
The cause of this mess was currently breathing heavily with his fist through the wall, "Fucking..Heretic," the man growled, "My brothers and sisters in Mantel. All gone, because of that bastard!" His other fist punched through the wall and he continued breathing heavily.
He was so distracted he didn't notice a floorboard behind him shift up. The board was pushed to the side by a red tentacle and soon the Seer floated out of its hiding spot, "Hmm, not exactly the sight I had expected." Salem's voice cut through the tense atmosphere of the room.
The man flinched and turned around, "M-my goddess, I-" he fell to his knees in reverence, "I apologize for my poor state."
"I understand. It cannot be easy losing so many. I know it pains me to acknowledge dear Tyrian's passing." Salem says, her voice a soft melody to the man.
"Y-you know?" The man felt stupid for asking that but was thankful that Salem didn't mind the stupid question.
"Of course I do. I'm connected to every Bishop on Remnant and once I felt her life snuff out, I knew that something had happened. Tyrian would have rather died than let her die, so I assume someone had to have gotten through him."
"It was the Heretic, my goddess." The man spoke, "I don't know how he did it, but there is now a sink hole where the crystal once was. Ironwood has already been dealing with it and I felt it was best not to interfere due to being…emotionally compromised."
Salem hummed in approval, "You are brave to admit such things, though your actions were the right ones. Anything that may interfere in that puppet's investigation would send ripples back to Ozma." The man nodded and a pensive expressive came onto his face. Salem had noticed this, "Speak your mind."
"What is to be done about the Heretic? I know measures have been put in place but each one has…failed. I'm worried for my brothers and sisters in Vacuo." The man admitted.
Salem was quiet for a moment and the man felt he may have overstepped but before he could say anything else Salem spoke, "Yes, he does continue to evade me. Though I have an idea as to why. The Grimm are my eyes and ears but I have not seen him once through them. I believe he has found a way to evade my Grimm's sight."
"H-how is that possible?"
"I do not know, but it is not your question to answer. Our interloper has likely left the Kingdom or is in the process of doing so. It is no longer your concern, but he will not make it to Vacuo for I plan to take matters into my own hands." Salem says, her voice becoming hard at the end.
"Then what would you have me do?" He asked, having utter faith that Salem would handle the Heretic.
"Stay the course, you have an election to win after all." Salem said before the Seer floated back down into its spot beneath the floor. The man watched as the Seer's tentacle pulled the board back into position. He stayed kneeling on the floor but his once distressed mind had been eased by his goddess.
"Of course, my goddess." He had no doubts he would succeed. The polls didn't lie of course.
-James Ironwood-
"Are the snipers in position?" James asked over the scroll. The Headmaster of Atlas Academy was standing behind the stage where the new General would give his speech and was coordinating with the security team.
"Yes, sir." A male voice reported, "S1, S2, S3, and S4 are all in position overlooking possible vantage points."
"Good. What about the building teams?"
"BT1 and BT2 are both in position in case something happens. BT3 is almost in position, their just setting up now, sir." He explained.
"Alright, how about the 130s and the Prototype Spider Droid?" James inquired.
"We have the 130s patrolling the perimeter and our Prototype is about three minutes away from the perimeter on the chance we'll need it."
"Good. I'll leave you to it, Specialist."
"Yes, sir." The Specialist replied.
James hung up the call and stuffed his scroll into his inner dress coat pocket. James was currently wearing his Atlas Captain Combat Uniform instead of the dress uniform he may have worn during this event. He was head of security and should dress for anticipation for combat even if it didn't happen.
James idly adjusted his tie before glancing at a monitor that displayed the coverage of the event from an ANN camera. The feed was muted but James could easily see the large stage behind the reporter and the large crowd gathered before it. The stage itself was set up at the base of the Academy at the end of a road that usually led to a garage but was blocked off for the event.
The road led from two other roads that merged at the front with two buildings on the side and at the end. It was a sniper's wet dream due to how open the stage was to one but it had been tradition to announce the new General of Atlas here since Atlas was founded. It also sent a message that Atlas would not bow down to anyone who threatened it but if James had his way they would've announced it from inside the Atlas Academy Main Hall.
No chance of snipers in there.
No chance of someone even getting in with one due to the metal detectors.
James sighed as he cut off those lines of thought. Being in charge of security wasn't new to the Headmaster, before he was a Captain or even a Headmaster he'd had to be in charge of security for events. But each one of those places was capable of being a secure location. This was not a secure location.
Any further thoughts on this were shoved aside when a familiar voice shouted out, "James!"
The Head of Security turned his head to see Dolus heading toward him with a smile. The red head was wearing his Atlas Dress Uniform, "Good to see you, pal!"
"You as well, Dolus." James turned toward the stage in confusion, he'd thought the candidates were supposed to be back in the garage preparing, "I thought-"
"That was I was waiting?" Dolus said, when James nodded he continued, "Well, we both already know who's actually being elected so I thought I'd come out here to talk with you. Polls don't lie after all."
James nodded. It was no secret who had won the election as the polls were open for the public to see. Dolus Flae had been on top for the entirety of the race and that hadn't changed. Dolus could turn on a charm that the other Captains, even James, simply didn't have. It was no surprise Dolus had won.
"Is there anything specific you want to talk about?" James asked.
"Yes, I wanted your opinion on something I'd been thinking about." James gestured for him to continue, "Should I not attend the funeral?"
"Why shouldn't you? The next General has always attended their predecessor's funeral." James said, confused as he was sure Dolus knew this.
"I know that, James. I mean do you think it would be a distraction? My first day is tomorrow and on my second day I'm to attend the funeral of my predecessor. I feel like I could get more things done if I didn't go."
"Hmm, its best you attend. I know a lot of people didn't like General Crassus but its best we show a sense of unity." James admits. Dolus' face turned contemplative before a smile slipped back on his face.
"Your right, guess I'm just letting this get to me a little. I want to make sure the people of both Atlas and Mantel know they can trust me."
James placed a hand on his friends shoulder, "They will, Dolus. I truly believe that."
"Thank you, James." Dolus replied before the ringing of the intercom system went off. The two looked past the curtains and on the stage to see the announcer had finally walked on stage.
"Hello, people of Atlas and those of you from Mantel!" Cheers went out from her words. She continued on but James ignored it and instead pat Dolus on the back.
"I have to get back to work." James explained with Dolus giving a nod before turning back to the stage. James walked away and toward a doorway that led to a small security booth. He walked in and closed the door behind him and suddenly there was silence.
The booth was soundproof so the guards could do their jobs. Monitors lined the walls with security personnel scanning each camera set up in the perimeter. There were blind spots but those were covered by the snipers.
There was a feed for the ANN on a monitor in the corner so James walked over and sat down in the chair. He watched as the candidates all walked on stage with the announcer presenting them, her lips flapping around silently since the feed was muted.
James continued watching and soon the announcer turned and looked like she was saying a name. Then Dolus stepped forward and James smiled at his friends victory. Dolus would be a good general, certainly better than Crassus.
As he was thinking this his scroll went off in his pocket. James quickly took it from the inner pocket and answered, "What is it?" James was quick to the point.
"Sir, S3 isn't answering their comms." The Specialist said. James immediately stood up.
"Is it an issue with the comms?" James asked.
"No, we're able to get a signal. He's just not responding."
James turned his head to the ANN feed. Dolus was seemingly giving a speech, "Get a team up there and S1 sights on that rooftop, now."
"Yes, sir."
"Keep me on the line." James said before exiting the booth and walking toward the stage. The sudden noise from a room without was a little disorienting. Now James could hear Dolus as he gave his speech.
"-I know that prices on SDC goods have raised over the last few years-" James ignored the speech though and kept focus on Dolus specifically. James wanted to go up there and take Dolus backstage but knew it was best to let his Specialists handle this.
"Give me an update, Specialist." James demanded.
A second later he got a response, "BT3 has been sent to check. They were the closest to the perch-"
James didn't listen to what the Specialist was saying. Instead he watched as Dolus fell backward from where he was standing. Blood had burst out the back of his head with a blue flame following, destroying Douls' head and leaving him a headless corpse.
The sound of the sniper finally rang out and screams followed in its wake. James stared at his friends body. His brother in arms. The new General of Atlas. James turned his head up toward S3s position and noted the faint outline of someone. He could also just make out the voices on his comms.
"Put your hands up! Your under arrest!" A voice yelled, likely the leader of BT3.
James stared up at the building, his mind seemingly blank at what just happened. Until he felt the cold sheen of Mettle wash over his mind and make it all too clear. Someone had assassinated Dolus. The Assassin was on that building. Ironwood could make it up that building.
Ironwood unholstered Due Process and aimed his black revolver behind him. He wasn't going to let them escape.
So...does my rust show? Now first things first, I wanted to show why Clover sent Harriet after Shirou and that was imply because the Happy Huntresses were present. They didn't know about Shirou and Ironwood didn't want them knowing about Shirou. I got some comments on Wattpad about that very thing and I'm sure someone said something on FFN but I cannot remember and don't really care to look right now. I want to portray the Atlas characters as flawed but not stupid and hopefully that entire scene was in the right direction.
Now onto some things I'd just like to touch upon; not a lot of people use Will Scarlatina, I'm not sure some people even realize he exists. Will is the pops of Velvet and is a human unlike Meg who was the Faunus in the equation, in lore they were split up for some reason so I'm keeping what happened vauge, but on that note we finally got some updates on Velvet! When I first introduced Velvet all the way back in chapter I had made hints toward a future purpose for the character and I would just like to say, that storyline has been mostly gutted. It ain't happenin'. Now the reason for that is because of some story issues that would have popped up if I continued on with it and it wouldn't have made sense given Shirou is welll...Shirou so there'll be references to it but not much else, sorry.
Now this is just an update for those who've read The Shattered Familiar...I'm taking it down and putting it in the catalog due to my mind yelling at me that it takes up space on my managed stories tab. So I've caved to my demons but don't worry, if you want to read it just onto Catalog of a Fanfiction Author, it''l be there waiting.
Now we get to Dolus Flae, yes, he was the mole! I'm sure most of you figured that out when I first introduced him or heavily suspected him, and this chapter gave ya'll your vindication. Now, James on the other hand does not know that. I'm sure we all know who the shooter is and I'm sure we all know what the fuck is about to happen. This, this next chapter is what I've been hyped to write since I began this story and compared the two characters. In one corner we have the iron willed James Ironwood! With his Semblance Mettle! And in the other, we have Shirou Emiya! With his disorder, the Mind of Steel! One shall stand, the other shall fall and one of them is gonna take a healthy dose of pants shitting terror at the similarities between them! Tune in next time on The Fallen Chapter XVI!
Now we got an Omake to get through. I just want to say I've decided that these Omakes are more of the path not walked when it comes to where this story could've gone. Make no mistake, these do not reflect the future. Just wanna put that out there.
-Omake-
Shirou stared up at the large castle in front of him. Beacon Academy, a place for future Huntsmen and Huntresses to learn. The Heroes of Remnant. The Beacons of hope in a dark world.
Why was someone like him here?
It was a though that plagued him ever since he got that offer from Ozpin, the schools headmaster. He hadn't even been here that long before he ran into a robbery which dominoed into Shirou winding up in an interrogation cell alongside a hyper girl named Ruby and the Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch.
Ozpin was certainly cunning at the very least. He'd trapped Shirou in a corner by displaying his lack of information and explaining that people who come into the Kingdoms without proper identification are detained. Of course Ozpin gave Shirou an out by accepting an invitation to Beacon.
Shirou had accepted, but that was mostly due to convenience.
Now that he was here though, he wondered if he shouldn't have taken his chances. It'd likely be easier, but Shirou didn't want easy right now. The easy path had led him to his Mind of Steel. A path that ended with those closest to him dead by his hands.
Ended with a bullet going through Taiga Fujimarus' head.
Shirou's thoughts were cut short when an explosion occured within the courtyard. Shirou instinctively reached for his handgun and grabbed the handle of Bakuya which had been sheathed on his hip. Though he stopped when he heard a voice yell out, "You utter dunce! Look what you did!"
The smoke cleared and Shirou could see two girls. One he recognized as Ruby but the other he didn't know.
"I'm sorry! You were the one waving that dust around!" Ruby yelled back, completely fine with the small explosion that had engulfed the two girls.
Shirou simply watched as the white haired girl yelled at Ruby again before a girl wearing a black bow walked up and spoke her piece. Weiss Schnee, the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Shirou tucked that information away for later, if he needed it.
Weiss ended up stomping away with Blake soon following. Ruby was left alone and Shirou watched as she collapsed on her back, seemingly lamenting the whole thing. Shirou decided he should leave as well and began making his way toward the auditorium.
He only hoped this entire thing wasn't a waste of time.
Thank you for reading.