Lilian
Teaching every member of my raid squads at once for several hours merely confirmed what I’d already suspected from teaching Taylor: I, for some reason, seemed to enjoy teaching. I had no idea why that was the case but the entire experience was strangely pleasant to me. Had anyone told me I’d enjoy teaching, I’d have called them insane but, apparently, I did.
Legacy was irrelevant to me and I’d never share all I knew so that was not the reason for my enjoyment. Similarly, I didn’t care about these people beyond the profits they’d bring me. When it came to most of them, I had to look up their names in the mind palace that’d come with Man of the New World whenever they asked a question or I had to give them advice during the practical parts.
So, if it was neither a desire to share what I knew nor an interest in these people themselves, what made me like teaching them?
I made myself focus as I noticed Taylor approaching me. “Can I talk to you?” Taylor asked me, having functioned as my assistant during this lesson because I couldn’t be bothered to correct the most minor mistakes and my knowledge of teaching seemed to agree that having her help these people improve would improve her skills, too.
“Go ahead.” I told her, still somewhat distracted by why I found teaching to be fun.
“During the fight against Leviathan, I suddenly got a lot more mana and the ability to control more than just insects, including myself.” She explained, making me blink in surprise for a moment.
I’d already suspected that the full magic she’d gotten from her trigger would’ve been more Khepri than Skitter but I hadn’t expected to have it confirmed so soon. “Did anything happen to you before that? For example, did Leviathan injure you or were you in mortal danger? A situation in which you were fighting Leviathan on your own might also qualify.”
“I was trying to stall Leviathan while the people in the shelter evacuated.” Taylor confirmed my guess, her eyes narrowing towards me. “You know what’s going on?”
“I’m fairly certain I do, yes, but that’s a conversation best held in my office.” The maids had strict orders to keep regular guild members away from it since I wanted them to bother Lisa or her assistants before getting it in their heads to bother me.
I really didn’t need nor want to have to deal with people learning about the Monarchs. That sounded like it’d be quite bothersome, after all. So I waited until we reached my office and I’d calmly taken my seat behind my desk, though Taylor seemed to have been too impatient to wait long enough to let me resume our conversation, “You recruited me because of whatever that was, didn’t you?”
“Partially, yes.” I didn’t bother trying to deny it. “I would probably have given it a shot, anyways, since I wanted to get the guild set up quickly but you were offered more generous terms because of it.”
She was definitely angry to some degree, though I couldn’t honestly say I really understood why. Sure, I’d hidden the weirdness of her magic from her but I’d never had an obligation to tell her about it in the first place and her own uncertainty about how to react was probably due to that.
“Now, are you interested in what’s going on or are you intending to blow up because I didn’t mention a problem I didn’t – and still don’t – have a way of fixing?” I interrupted her train of thought before she could decide how to react.
She took a deep breath to calm herself before nodding. With insects not being a thing in my Traveling Home, she was forever forced to endure not having the ability to just shove her emotions into them while here. “Tell me what’s going on with my magic.”
“Then, to put it in as simple a term as possible: You are possessed and the majority of your mana is constantly fighting it off. I suspect that what’s possessing you needed you to survive so it stopped trying to take control during your battle, thereby freeing up most if not all of the mana used to keep it at bay.” I hadn’t seen that scenario coming but, then again, there’s every chance the Monarch in Taylor’s body decided it’d rather not risk seeing whether or not Leviathan would leave it enough of a body to survive Taylor’s death.
Unlike Sung Jin-Woo’s situation with the Shadow Monarch, I sincerely doubted that this was anything but an attempt at a hostile takeover gone wrong. The Plague Monarch almost certainly didn’t care about Taylor in the least or else she’d have let Taylor have more mana from the start considering how dangerous raids usually were.
And the Shadow Monarch would’ve been able to take over when Jin-Woo ‘died’ against the group of Monarchs attacking him so, presumably, they just needed their host to be intact enough to do so, hence the Plague Monarch leaving Taylor weak enough against monsters that could kill her but wouldn’t completely ruin her body.
Leviathan would almost certainly have torn Taylor into a million pieces had it hit her and might’ve gone on to double tap her if it felt like it. Besides, the Monarch herself wouldn’t have beaten Leviathan, of that I was certain. It wouldn’t even have been close in all honesty.
“So I should’ve been more than just a C-Rank?” Taylor questioned, visibly furious but, amusingly enough, not towards me.
I had this funny feeling her anger was more directed towards the organization that had barely cared that one of its members had caused her to trigger because of Taylor’s weakness. “S-Rank. Easily, even.” I confirmed, a small smile on my lips as I stoked the flames of her anger.
“You’re looking for a solution?” She asked, barely keeping her anger in check without the crutch that was shoving her emotions into her bugs.
I nodded in response. “I already have a potential solution in mind but it’ll take a while before I can even begin to really work on it.” Urahara could, probably, figure out a way to extract the Monarch’s soul rather than Taylor’s and then I’d just have to shove aforementioned soul into a gigai to give her a chance to either become my subordinate of her own free will or let me figure out a way to force that into being the case. “It’d also be incredibly risky so I’d prefer gathering strength before attempting it.”
“Let me know once you’ve figured it out.” Taylor demanded, already beginning to walk away.
I could’ve called after her but I was too amused to care about the rather rude exit. Taylor disliked me but she also very specifically didn’t and never had trusted me to do more than what I told her I would. The PRT, however, had long since been quite good at making itself seem trustworthy and Taylor was growing increasingly angry at it due to their flaws being revealed to her.
I was curious just where this would go in the future. I might even support some revenge attempts if I felt like they were interesting enough to witness.
Missy
It was kind of weird how fine Ruby’s dad was with her just going to weapon and dust shops late in Vale until so late in the evening that she’d have to run to catch the last bullhead back to Patch but I didn’t mind the chance to see Ruby ramble about weapons and what kind of dust to use for cool moves and I’d at least make sure she didn’t have to rush back.
Ruby really didn’t like my warping but neither did I and we both agreed that it’s fine as long as it’s just a quick way home.
“You should use lightning dust! Just imagine you slamming Aegis Sword down like KABOOM! and then there’s a blast of lightning! That’d look so cool!” Ruby told me, pointing at a lightning dust crystal.
“That does sound awesome.” I nodded along, grinning as I imagined using that move against monsters.
I was about to say more when a bunch of guys in suits wearing red sunglasses despite the fact that the sun had already gone down entered the store with red swords in hand. “Ruby, I think the store is getting robbed.” I pointed out before my friend could get distracted again.
She blinked in confusion for a moment before looking at the guys spreading around and taking the dust. “We have to stop them!” Ruby declared after realizing what’s going on.
I nodded in agreement. “That guy in the white suit is probably the boss. You want to take him or should I?” I was going to kick their butts either way so I’d be fine with whatever Ruby chose.
“Dibs!” Ruby called, laughing as she used her semblance to rush the guy.
Sighing theatrically despite the grin on my face, I reached out with my magic and then kicked forwards with my right leg, hitting one robber right in the stomach and repeating that a couple times until they were all lying on the floor in pain. I’d held back but not enough to make it not hurt, just enough to not pulp people that didn’t even have aura.
I’d have been fine with doing this, too, but I saw the dude with the weird cane weapon running away from Ruby after distracting her so I made it just a teensy bit harder by massively extending the rest of the ladder he was climbing on.
Another bit of magic made it really easy for me to at least get close enough to the fight to hear him curse. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”
Snorting, I watched as he barely managed to jump out of the way of Ruby’s attack, trying to shoot her with his cane only for my friend to dodge before he could even finish aiming.
Ruby didn’t take much time to knock him to the side, either. Apparently this guy had aura but that didn’t really help him when I prevented him from running away and Ruby could kick his ass.
It was kind of funny to watch, really. At least, it was until a really stern woman showed up and manipulated some rubble to bind the thief so he couldn’t run away before turning towards us with a glare.
Cinder
Torchwick was getting beaten up by a little girl. I’d have been generous and said two little girls but one of them just stood there and occasionally kicked his hired help when they tried to get up so, really, it was just the one. Just one little girl strong enough to beat up Roman when he had none of the advantages or escape routes he normally made sure he had in case of encountering a huntsman.
And I’d have stepped in to help but the girl turning a fraction of a street several times larger so Roman couldn’t run away might’ve made things problematic.
If I’d managed to get the Maiden powers I’d wanted, I wouldn’t have hesitated. It didn’t matter how strong that girl was if she relied on a semblance while I’d have had actual magic but I’d failed, been stopped by an interloper before I could get the power I craved.
I considered taking off with the bullhead but that’d have drawn attention. It was much simpler to get out and calmly walk away. No need to draw any attention whatsoever. Roman would almost certainly do enough of that on his own once he was caught. I found it hard to believe that the thief wouldn’t rat me out within the first ten minutes unless his pet assassin broke him out or he got away with bribing several officials.
If he did snitch, he’d better hope that he got to stay in jail because I’d make him regret it.
Ozpin
Had it just been Ruby Rose who’d confronted the criminals and even defeated their leader – Roman Torchwick, a man who had evaded capture or bribed his way out of captivity several times in the past – things would’ve been simple. I’d have offered her a place in Beacon and all the authorities would’ve looked at it and said ‘what a shining example of a huntress in training! Surely she has a bright future ahead of her!’ even if they really didn’t care.
After all, not only did young Ruby already begin her training in Signal, she had a legal identity. Her friend, Missy Biron, did not and that made things infinitely more complicated.
Arresting her was out of the question. If Lilian reacted badly to such a thing, things would get even more complicated because it meant a high likelihood of the slighted teenager being petty and refusing to look at the bigger picture and share their anti-Grimm wards.
The problem was that she lacked a legal identity. There were hermits out there who only occasionally made their way to cities and therefore didn’t have any legal documents and I was pushing hard that Missy and her sister were such hermits and that Lilian had simply been the first to change that while her twin would get to follow in her footsteps now but that still left several other potential charges an officer could stick to her because Missy had been involved in the fight against the thieves despite not even having the training Ruby had.
Thankfully, Lisa had apparently passed on my message as quickly as possible, a call from Lilian reaching me. “How much money do you need to make this all go away without consequences for Missy?”
“I’d have to pay all the fines at the very least.” I responded, resigned to this mess not ending anywhere near as quickly as I’d have liked.
“Do you think there’s another way to solve this?” Lilian questioned almost immediately afterwards.
Sighing, I shook my head. “Not unless you and her are fine with her going to Beacon.” If Missy were to agree to that, I could make it all go away very quickly. A huntress in training helping prevent a robbery, even with her causing quite a bit of property damage in the process, could be forgiven, after all.
“Then pay whatever you need to and I’ll reimburse you afterwards. I’ll even put up an anti-Grimm ward around Beacon for free.” Lilian sounded impatient while she ordered me as though I were her subordinate.
I could’ve corrected her but I was really too tired to bother arguing with a teenager when I’d do this anyways. It was easier to just accept her tone for now and correct her should it actually matter.
Now to spend far too long going through the paperwork for all this and paying fines before letting the young Ms. Rose know that I intended to offer her a spot in Beacon.
Lilian
“I told you your desire to save people would cause issues! I mean, it already did when Leviathan hurt both of us because you just had to go and flail at it like the mortals do but, this time, it got you in trouble with the law. Which is really funny when you consider that your intention was to stop a crime, not commit one.” Was I being too hard on Missy? Almost certainly but the first call I received in my Traveling Home after setting things up so that we could receive calls from both our world and Remnant here being about Missy facing charges in the middle of the night was not a pleasant experience.
Especially since said call had originally gone to Lisa, who had been even more unhappy about being woken up than I had been about my break from practice being disturbed.
“So I should’ve just let Ruby fight all those guys on her own?” Missy replied, clearly tired and annoyed. Between the raid earlier in the day, her ‘fight’ against Roman’s hired help and then her having to sit through the needlessly long process afterwards, I could even understand why she was tired.
I still nodded in response. “Legally speaking, yes.” I didn’t know all the laws of Vale but authorities generally had something against vigilantism, anyways. “You could’ve still twisted space to help her and no one would’ve called you out on it unless you or Ruby admitted that it wasn’t her that did it but kicking people through windows without them first threatening you causes issues.”
At some point I probably should just read through some books on the laws of the various countries on all the worlds where I actually cared enough to step in. Between my mind palace and my, by now, stupidly fast reading speed, it’d tell me all the neat ways to get out of committing certain crimes.
“Great, so let them point a weapon at me and my friend first and then kick their butts, got it.” Missy rolled her eyes at me. “Anything else or can I go to sleep now?”
“I’m removing the money I now owe Ozma for paying your fines from the amount you’d have gotten from the last raid. You have more than enough money from making your first two doors for the PRT, anyways.” The amount was a pittance to me, really, but that didn’t stop me from being annoyed. More about being bothered by having to talk to Ozma about it than anything else, in all honesty.
“Got it. Don’t care. I’m going to go to bed now.” Missy replied as I’d expected her to before quickly walking towards her bedroom.
“Good night to you too!” I called after her, being purposefully loud just to annoy her a bit for fun. In return, she flipped me off without even turning to look at me.
Smiling a little after that amusing end to our conversation, I returned to my office so I could finally make use of the new roll I’d gotten while waiting for Missy to come back home.
Divination: Eyes of the Future; 600 CP, 1000 CP left
Something that shouldn’t exist in this era. Your eyes are of a special kind, one that allows you to see the world in a way that not even other magi can. Not really true Mystic Eyes, they grant you several special abilities. One is the ability to use Clairvoyance, to see through items and barriers, even into distant locations, and even peer glimpses into the future. You are also able to see the flow of magical energy, which gives you an innate understanding of any magical phenomena that you come across. But it isn’t the end of your abilities. This unique insight is also paired with an overwhelming talent in Magecraft. An unorthodox genius like few others in the history of the Clock Tower. While most magi work on existing Foundations, this isn’t a necessity. It is completely possible to even create one on the fly. Obviously, keeping all of these Foundations in mind is too much of a hassle, so you are likely to just forget about them and need to recreate them from scratch unless you also have a pretty inhuman memory. Not that it should pose much of a problem to someone of your exceptional abilities.
Even had they just been the magic equivalent of the Six Eyes, I’d have bought them. The ability to see the future as well as through barriers made them better. The additional talent for magic and an understanding of magecraft foundations was just the final push I needed to not even bother to consider it any further and just buy it.
The moment I bought it, I felt a sharp pain in my eyes and forced them shut in response. When I opened them again, I was stunned speechless by how different everything looked.
In this home of mine, saturated by lots and lots of mana, it was as if I had just ceased to be colour blind. It was not as if I could see new shapes so much as it was as if there were a new colour layered on top everything I looked at and, with a simple desire to do so, I could now even peer through my walls or peer into them, inspecting each layer and its mana!
The knowledge of magecraft foundations, however, was less useful. I now knew how to create them as I pleased, be they doctrines such as that of thaumaturgy or the one of the church in the Nasuverse or more simple foundations individualised for every spell. The issue was that my mana lacked the ability to form them, the traits not yet present in it since I had yet to visit the Nasuverse.
I could, almost certainly, use that knowledge to try and force more order into Scholomance spells and potentially interact with Remnant’s magic and my sorceries but I lacked a key piece to truly make full use of that particular part of my new eyes.
Despite that, I was ecstatic by my purchase. Stretching space as I laughed, I witnessed each and every point at which I wasted mana and eliminating them was simple enough afterwards!
And I knew just how to test my new vision, too, but I had other tasks to do before that point. The Travelers had foreign mana in them disguised as their own in such a way that it had been hard even for my mana senses to distinguish them and I wanted to see if I couldn’t find a way to extract it now that I had not only High Probability but this. My employees being flight risks was not something I was willing to tolerate for any longer than necessary.
Not to mention the fact that I still had so much to optimize now that I could see mana! And I had an asauchi to imbue with my soul, too. With a bit of luck, my zanpakuto might even be able to tell me its name a lot sooner than Ichigo’s had been able to!
Kayangelus, I blame you for making a joke comparing (future) Lily to Gojo about twenty minutes before this roll. I swear the Grimoire saw that and decided ‘cool comparison but I think I should make it more accurate’.
Also, I had to edit that perk before I felt like it was fine to give to Lily. Specifically, I had to remove one paragraph:
This malleable nature, genius spark and special eyes combine in a final potent ability: your talent for hijacking other people’s spells and magical constructions. With a short observation, you can take over almost any kind of spell or ritual and repurpose it for your own goals. With the right tools and situation, even partly hijacking something like the spiritual core of a Servant could be possible.
I’d almost be fine with it if it weren’t so close to being an absolute ‘fuck you’ to any and all spellcasters. If there were a defined limit, I’d maybe have let her have it but, in the end, I decided she can figure out how to take over spells without just getting the ability handed to her.